Something poked his bare shoulder, and he awoke with a massive jolt of adrenaline, and his first reaction was to cover Gabrielle, clutching her close. He opened his eyes. The forest was light, and ... Standing around him were Chesta, Migel, Dalet, and Guimel . He could tell by the stupid expressions on their faces that they were trying not to laugh at him.
"Still keeping her warm, eh, Dilandau-sama?" Migel said, and he controlled his laughter with enormous effort. "Shut up, all of you." Dilandau growled menacingly. "It's not what it looks like." He tried to explain, still in a low tone. "Oh, come off it, my Lord." Dalet sighed. "We all know you've grown soft for her." Guimel said. "Oh, yeah? Well, you've grown hard for her!" He retorted, with an insane, darkly menacing grin that sent chills up all of their spines. "Please, be quiet, lest you wake her." Chesta said softly, before Dilandau could reply with another stinging comeback that would have offended Guimel's manhood.
They were all silenced. All of them were mildly surprised that Gabrielle was still asleep, her head and shoulders still cradled in Dilandau's arms. "Fine," He whispered, "But if anyone- anyone -squeals to anybody that I feel for her like that, the little squealing piglet's head will be rolling across the floor within three seconds of my gained knowledge. What was said here does not leave this spot. Clear?" He hissed at them. They all nodded vigorously. "Yessir." They echoed. None of them doubted the truth in that statement.
After a moment or two, Gabrielle sat up slowly. "Nnn..." She muttered. Her eyes flickered open, and she focused. "Ngah!" She exlaimed, and she jumped backwards. "W-what are you all doing here!? How? What? Huh?"
"We were sent here," Chesta explained quietly. "To look for you." "Oh." She said. "Who sent you?" She asked, curious at who had assumed command when Dilandau had been absent.
"I did, O My exquisite, sublime Flower of the West," Gatti said, stepping out of the bushes. If Dilandau had been an animal, his hackles would have risen. Obviously Gatti hadn't heard or seen anything. Gabrielle blinked. "Oh, um... Thank you... Ah..." She was lost for words. So was Dilandau.
"I gave the order to find you, you who inspires poetry. As second in command, I felt it was my duty." Gatti said. Dilandau's blood was practically boiling. One more word like that, and I'll- "So, Gabrielle, once we get back to the Fortress today... Just a shot in the dark, but I was wondering if you'd like to join me for dinner. Privately, sometime?" He said haltingly. Dilandau shook with bottled anger. "Y-you!" He cried. Gatti quaked. "W-wh-wha-what, s-sir?" He quivered under Dilandau's basilisk-like glare.
Dilandau restrained himself from kicking and punching Gatti to a bloody pulp. He was so infuriated he could barely talk. "You... Fly back. Now." He said, barely managing to spit the words out. "B-but-" Gatti started. " Your audacity sickens me! Do not dare contradict me!" Dilandau screamed at him. "Get out of my sight, you... You... I don't know what you are! Go! Back! Now!" He barked.
"Y-yes, sir. Right away, sir. Immediately, sir." Gatti stammered. He was paralyzed with fear. He couldn't move. Dilandau's eyes flashed. "Go!" He roared. Gatti made a shaky salute and ran to his mech faster than a fleeing antelope.
Dilandau turned, looking avidly for something to punch. He came across a tall rotting log, and he punched it, ripping a hole into the bark. The log was not hollow, but he made a considerable hole deep into it. He cracked his knuckles. "Anybody else up for a shot?" He snarled. A resounding "No sir!" Made a flock of birds fly away, frightened at the sudden volume. Gabrielle shrank away from his direction cautiously. He saw this, and walked up to her. She withdrew from him.
"Hey," He said, calm now. "I wouldn't ever even consider for the most fleeting of measurements of time in doing anything like that to you. Never." He said. "Um. Okay," She said very quietly, still a little shaken by his display of rage. "I didn't hit him, did I?" He said, and she had to agree. He hadn't.
"Oh, my God, I do believe our commander just... smiled." Guimel said in fake amazement. "Shut up, Sheep Boy." Migel said. Guimel went into defense. "Stop mocking my hair! I like it this way!" He said, and Migel laughed. "Poofy!" He said, and he laughed insanely, as if it were the most hilarious thing the universe had seen, did see, and will ever see. Guimel crossed his arms. Gabrielle laughed at them both. It was a warm sound that made Dilandau feel as if his insides were made of velvet.
Guimel and Migel started firing insults back and forth at one another, and Gabrielle laughed to the point that she thought she was going to have to go to the bathroom. "I laugh like a chicken!" She said, inbetween bouts of it. She had long since stopped her belly laugh and had proceeded to laugh the way her family had for generations. Silently. Sometimes when she inhaled, it made a high pitched noise that she thought sounded like a chicken squawking. She found this even more funny. Combined with her laughing silently, she couldn't stop, and she ran out of breath. Still her body shook with laughter, and then her vision went dark. Damn, it's really dark... She thought in the second she was out, and then she heard her name being called.
She opened her eyes to see Dilandau shaking her shoulders. She started to laugh again. "Okay... Ow, my stomach hurts..." She said, finally able to breathe. "You passed out! Are you okay? Do you feel alright? Do you think you can still fly?" A worried voice asked her. "Yes, of course I can!" She exclaimed. "My mother's side relatives do that. I'm sorry. Sometimes we laugh silently so much that we can't breathe, and then we pass out. It's really quite hilarious, actually." She explained, a bit embarassed. She stood, and she walked to her mech, brushing the forest dirt off her uniform.
She got in the mech, and it activated. She was flying with them all, high in the sky, tracking the position of Zaibach. Good God, I need to get changed, She thought. She didn't realize she'd said it out loud. Somebody's voice came on the radio, and very much in a joking way, said, "Hey, can I watch?" She was embarassed for a second, and then thought, So like a guy.
A resounding crash echoed through her auditory sensors, and one of the Dragonslayers was spiralling uncontrollably to the ground. "Computer, who is that falling?" She asked. Dragonslayer Gatti. The Libreia replied. "I should have guessed." She said to herself.
"Dilandau, did you hit Gatti just now?" She asked into the radio. "I... Um... Gatti?" Was the only reply she got. She rolled her eyes. She stooped into a dive to catch Gatti as he fell, tumbling towards the ground, his primary flight engine punched clean through. She spread the Libreia's dragon wings to brake as she caught him. The Libreia was working hard to regain a bit of altitude.
"I think I love you," Said an enthralled Gatti as she pulled him up, back into the sky. 'What was that!?" Came an destraught, defensive voice. The Oreides was plummeting, aimed straight for Gatti. She covered him with the body of her mech, still trying to raise him. The Oreides, pried her off as gently as he could, not even scratching the paint job on the Libreia. "Dilandau!" She shouted. "You'll kill him! Stop!" She called. The Oreides' guns still powered up. "Dilandau, he's one of your own! Stop!" She yelled. The spinning turbines of the gun that were glowing with charged power slowed in their rotations, and the glowing faded. Dilandau let the mechanized arm drop. He didn't say a word, but released him roughly, letting the blue mech drop out of the sky. She prepared for another dive.
"No, Gabrielle. Let him drop." Dilandau said over the radio. "He'll die!" She said worriedly. "No, he won't. He can deploy from the suit before it hits the ground. I'll send someone back to get him later. He deserves to have his mech wrecked." He said haughtily. "Dilandau, that's not fair. What did he do?" She said defensively. "Please, Gabrielle, it's... I... Well, I... And, um... He... He reasoned, halting and nervous at saying it.
"It's because Lord Dilandau feels for you. A lot... In fact, he may not even know it yet, but he might-." Guimel said to her. "You want to join him, Sheep Boy!?" Dilandau roared back at him, the gun recalibrating for Guimel's mecha. "No, sir! Not at all, sir!" Guimel replied. "Then shut your mouth and do not attempt to say what is in my head." Dilandau growled back. He headed back in the direction of the base.
Gabrielle suddenly got a burst of energy, and she had a yearning to cimb higher in the mecha. She flipped it upside down for a moment, barrel-rolled a few times, and then flipped through her CD's. She put on one she had burned at home, and put up the volume, putting the radio's channel on standby.
"You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel!" She sang, as she weaved inbetween the plain arrow formation of the blue mechas. She doubled back and circled precisely around each mecha individually at high speed, and then dropped straight down for several hundred feet, and shot back up. The song ended.
"Hey, what's a 'Discovery Channel?'" Asked a voice. "Gah! You weren't supposed to hear the song!" She said. "Well, I intercepted your computer's sound emissions. It's the same sound quality. I like your choice in music. That song's funny. Play another one!" He demanded. "Damn, who is this, Migel or Dilandau? Your voices sound similar on the radio." She said. There was laughter. "It's me." He said. She smiled. "Who's 'me'?" She asked. "Guess." He said. "I hate guessing games. You're acting immature, so I'd have to say Migel." She said with a smile. "I'm hurt. You're wrong." He said, and he laughed. "Anyways, you didn't explain. What's a Discovery Channel?" He asked. She tried her best to explain.
"Um, okay... Put on another song." He demanded. She turned up the CD player. "Okay." She said, and the computer alerted her that he had begun to intercept her signal. "Computer, why didn't you tell me this when he did it the first time?" She asked. Sensors did not indicate any interception of signals from outside parties. The Libreia responded. "Oh. Okay then." She said, and continued her crazy flight pattern, like a flitting sparrow, circling and diving. She put on another song, and before very long, they were at the base.
She stepped into the docking bay, all her energy spent. Her thoughts returned to her family and friends that were gone forever. She was walking to her quarters down the long hallway. She started to hum a tune, 'Beautiful Things.' She punched in the combination on the lock, and she stepped in the room. She lay down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She looked at the desk next to her, and noticed there was a corner of a piece of paper peeking over the edge of the desk that she could see. She pulled it off and opened it. There were actually two pieces, and she read the first one.
Registered Pilot No. 68372
It has come to our attention that you have recently broken curfew rules. It has also come to our attention that you did not know that these rules were in effect. We would like to caution you against breaking curfew hours. As further breakage of this rule will not result in 'correctionals,' however, for your personal safety, we do ask that you do not break curfew rules again.
Curfew times are between 0200h - 0800h. Thank you.
She made a mental note of the times the curfew ended and began. She folded the sheet up and placed it back on the desk. She flipped open the next. It was only a blank piece of paper. She placed it back on the desk, and she looked around the room. She carefully disrobed down to her underclothes, and then changed those for some clean ones. She put those on and slipped into the bed. She was tired. She set the alarm for three hours later.
"Still keeping her warm, eh, Dilandau-sama?" Migel said, and he controlled his laughter with enormous effort. "Shut up, all of you." Dilandau growled menacingly. "It's not what it looks like." He tried to explain, still in a low tone. "Oh, come off it, my Lord." Dalet sighed. "We all know you've grown soft for her." Guimel said. "Oh, yeah? Well, you've grown hard for her!" He retorted, with an insane, darkly menacing grin that sent chills up all of their spines. "Please, be quiet, lest you wake her." Chesta said softly, before Dilandau could reply with another stinging comeback that would have offended Guimel's manhood.
They were all silenced. All of them were mildly surprised that Gabrielle was still asleep, her head and shoulders still cradled in Dilandau's arms. "Fine," He whispered, "But if anyone- anyone -squeals to anybody that I feel for her like that, the little squealing piglet's head will be rolling across the floor within three seconds of my gained knowledge. What was said here does not leave this spot. Clear?" He hissed at them. They all nodded vigorously. "Yessir." They echoed. None of them doubted the truth in that statement.
After a moment or two, Gabrielle sat up slowly. "Nnn..." She muttered. Her eyes flickered open, and she focused. "Ngah!" She exlaimed, and she jumped backwards. "W-what are you all doing here!? How? What? Huh?"
"We were sent here," Chesta explained quietly. "To look for you." "Oh." She said. "Who sent you?" She asked, curious at who had assumed command when Dilandau had been absent.
"I did, O My exquisite, sublime Flower of the West," Gatti said, stepping out of the bushes. If Dilandau had been an animal, his hackles would have risen. Obviously Gatti hadn't heard or seen anything. Gabrielle blinked. "Oh, um... Thank you... Ah..." She was lost for words. So was Dilandau.
"I gave the order to find you, you who inspires poetry. As second in command, I felt it was my duty." Gatti said. Dilandau's blood was practically boiling. One more word like that, and I'll- "So, Gabrielle, once we get back to the Fortress today... Just a shot in the dark, but I was wondering if you'd like to join me for dinner. Privately, sometime?" He said haltingly. Dilandau shook with bottled anger. "Y-you!" He cried. Gatti quaked. "W-wh-wha-what, s-sir?" He quivered under Dilandau's basilisk-like glare.
Dilandau restrained himself from kicking and punching Gatti to a bloody pulp. He was so infuriated he could barely talk. "You... Fly back. Now." He said, barely managing to spit the words out. "B-but-" Gatti started. " Your audacity sickens me! Do not dare contradict me!" Dilandau screamed at him. "Get out of my sight, you... You... I don't know what you are! Go! Back! Now!" He barked.
"Y-yes, sir. Right away, sir. Immediately, sir." Gatti stammered. He was paralyzed with fear. He couldn't move. Dilandau's eyes flashed. "Go!" He roared. Gatti made a shaky salute and ran to his mech faster than a fleeing antelope.
Dilandau turned, looking avidly for something to punch. He came across a tall rotting log, and he punched it, ripping a hole into the bark. The log was not hollow, but he made a considerable hole deep into it. He cracked his knuckles. "Anybody else up for a shot?" He snarled. A resounding "No sir!" Made a flock of birds fly away, frightened at the sudden volume. Gabrielle shrank away from his direction cautiously. He saw this, and walked up to her. She withdrew from him.
"Hey," He said, calm now. "I wouldn't ever even consider for the most fleeting of measurements of time in doing anything like that to you. Never." He said. "Um. Okay," She said very quietly, still a little shaken by his display of rage. "I didn't hit him, did I?" He said, and she had to agree. He hadn't.
"Oh, my God, I do believe our commander just... smiled." Guimel said in fake amazement. "Shut up, Sheep Boy." Migel said. Guimel went into defense. "Stop mocking my hair! I like it this way!" He said, and Migel laughed. "Poofy!" He said, and he laughed insanely, as if it were the most hilarious thing the universe had seen, did see, and will ever see. Guimel crossed his arms. Gabrielle laughed at them both. It was a warm sound that made Dilandau feel as if his insides were made of velvet.
Guimel and Migel started firing insults back and forth at one another, and Gabrielle laughed to the point that she thought she was going to have to go to the bathroom. "I laugh like a chicken!" She said, inbetween bouts of it. She had long since stopped her belly laugh and had proceeded to laugh the way her family had for generations. Silently. Sometimes when she inhaled, it made a high pitched noise that she thought sounded like a chicken squawking. She found this even more funny. Combined with her laughing silently, she couldn't stop, and she ran out of breath. Still her body shook with laughter, and then her vision went dark. Damn, it's really dark... She thought in the second she was out, and then she heard her name being called.
She opened her eyes to see Dilandau shaking her shoulders. She started to laugh again. "Okay... Ow, my stomach hurts..." She said, finally able to breathe. "You passed out! Are you okay? Do you feel alright? Do you think you can still fly?" A worried voice asked her. "Yes, of course I can!" She exclaimed. "My mother's side relatives do that. I'm sorry. Sometimes we laugh silently so much that we can't breathe, and then we pass out. It's really quite hilarious, actually." She explained, a bit embarassed. She stood, and she walked to her mech, brushing the forest dirt off her uniform.
She got in the mech, and it activated. She was flying with them all, high in the sky, tracking the position of Zaibach. Good God, I need to get changed, She thought. She didn't realize she'd said it out loud. Somebody's voice came on the radio, and very much in a joking way, said, "Hey, can I watch?" She was embarassed for a second, and then thought, So like a guy.
A resounding crash echoed through her auditory sensors, and one of the Dragonslayers was spiralling uncontrollably to the ground. "Computer, who is that falling?" She asked. Dragonslayer Gatti. The Libreia replied. "I should have guessed." She said to herself.
"Dilandau, did you hit Gatti just now?" She asked into the radio. "I... Um... Gatti?" Was the only reply she got. She rolled her eyes. She stooped into a dive to catch Gatti as he fell, tumbling towards the ground, his primary flight engine punched clean through. She spread the Libreia's dragon wings to brake as she caught him. The Libreia was working hard to regain a bit of altitude.
"I think I love you," Said an enthralled Gatti as she pulled him up, back into the sky. 'What was that!?" Came an destraught, defensive voice. The Oreides was plummeting, aimed straight for Gatti. She covered him with the body of her mech, still trying to raise him. The Oreides, pried her off as gently as he could, not even scratching the paint job on the Libreia. "Dilandau!" She shouted. "You'll kill him! Stop!" She called. The Oreides' guns still powered up. "Dilandau, he's one of your own! Stop!" She yelled. The spinning turbines of the gun that were glowing with charged power slowed in their rotations, and the glowing faded. Dilandau let the mechanized arm drop. He didn't say a word, but released him roughly, letting the blue mech drop out of the sky. She prepared for another dive.
"No, Gabrielle. Let him drop." Dilandau said over the radio. "He'll die!" She said worriedly. "No, he won't. He can deploy from the suit before it hits the ground. I'll send someone back to get him later. He deserves to have his mech wrecked." He said haughtily. "Dilandau, that's not fair. What did he do?" She said defensively. "Please, Gabrielle, it's... I... Well, I... And, um... He... He reasoned, halting and nervous at saying it.
"It's because Lord Dilandau feels for you. A lot... In fact, he may not even know it yet, but he might-." Guimel said to her. "You want to join him, Sheep Boy!?" Dilandau roared back at him, the gun recalibrating for Guimel's mecha. "No, sir! Not at all, sir!" Guimel replied. "Then shut your mouth and do not attempt to say what is in my head." Dilandau growled back. He headed back in the direction of the base.
Gabrielle suddenly got a burst of energy, and she had a yearning to cimb higher in the mecha. She flipped it upside down for a moment, barrel-rolled a few times, and then flipped through her CD's. She put on one she had burned at home, and put up the volume, putting the radio's channel on standby.
"You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel!" She sang, as she weaved inbetween the plain arrow formation of the blue mechas. She doubled back and circled precisely around each mecha individually at high speed, and then dropped straight down for several hundred feet, and shot back up. The song ended.
"Hey, what's a 'Discovery Channel?'" Asked a voice. "Gah! You weren't supposed to hear the song!" She said. "Well, I intercepted your computer's sound emissions. It's the same sound quality. I like your choice in music. That song's funny. Play another one!" He demanded. "Damn, who is this, Migel or Dilandau? Your voices sound similar on the radio." She said. There was laughter. "It's me." He said. She smiled. "Who's 'me'?" She asked. "Guess." He said. "I hate guessing games. You're acting immature, so I'd have to say Migel." She said with a smile. "I'm hurt. You're wrong." He said, and he laughed. "Anyways, you didn't explain. What's a Discovery Channel?" He asked. She tried her best to explain.
"Um, okay... Put on another song." He demanded. She turned up the CD player. "Okay." She said, and the computer alerted her that he had begun to intercept her signal. "Computer, why didn't you tell me this when he did it the first time?" She asked. Sensors did not indicate any interception of signals from outside parties. The Libreia responded. "Oh. Okay then." She said, and continued her crazy flight pattern, like a flitting sparrow, circling and diving. She put on another song, and before very long, they were at the base.
She stepped into the docking bay, all her energy spent. Her thoughts returned to her family and friends that were gone forever. She was walking to her quarters down the long hallway. She started to hum a tune, 'Beautiful Things.' She punched in the combination on the lock, and she stepped in the room. She lay down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She looked at the desk next to her, and noticed there was a corner of a piece of paper peeking over the edge of the desk that she could see. She pulled it off and opened it. There were actually two pieces, and she read the first one.
Registered Pilot No. 68372
It has come to our attention that you have recently broken curfew rules. It has also come to our attention that you did not know that these rules were in effect. We would like to caution you against breaking curfew hours. As further breakage of this rule will not result in 'correctionals,' however, for your personal safety, we do ask that you do not break curfew rules again.
Curfew times are between 0200h - 0800h. Thank you.
She made a mental note of the times the curfew ended and began. She folded the sheet up and placed it back on the desk. She flipped open the next. It was only a blank piece of paper. She placed it back on the desk, and she looked around the room. She carefully disrobed down to her underclothes, and then changed those for some clean ones. She put those on and slipped into the bed. She was tired. She set the alarm for three hours later.