Disclaimer: I don't own Nadesico or any of the characters appearing in the television anime series or manga. This fanfiction is meant purely to entertain. So please don't sue me, I'm not worth it. I openly admit that I don't own Nadesico, and I'm not trying to pass this off as a completely original story. Also, I don't own Golden Boy or Transformers, but I do use a few lines from both and a lot of mecha from Transformers, but I do own the characters Finn Saotome, Yumi Yoshino, Sanoske/Sakura Hashima, Mr. Noda, Mrs. Noda, and I think that's about it. If you want pictures of the mecha, don't hesitate to e-mail me at soundwave100@hotmail.com Thanks!
-by CdnShockwave
Act 3Into the Frey
"As you know, there are now well over 3000 chulips scattered across the surface of the Earth, and this number is growing all the time," the Admiral stated. "Our new orders are to help establish a chulip interception post at point 08, where most of them enter Earth space. We are to protect the construction sight and prevent any more chulips from reaching Earth in operational condition."
"So we're on guard duty then?" asked Akito.
"That's correct. I know this mission is not quite as grand as your attempt to rescue the Martian settlers, or your little jaunt to the moon, but I think you'll all agree that preventing any more chulips from arriving on Earth is important," the Admiral answered. "Once the interception station is completed, we will be conducting a chulip annihilation operation to prevent the enemy from gaining any more ground than they already have. I think that's a simple enough plan for you people to follow."
"We'll arrive at the construction site in a few hours. You're all dismissed until then," Yurika said.
"You're probably happy about this assignment," Akatsuki aimed his statement at Finn as he and the other pilots exited the bridge.
"Whys that?" Finn asked, already knowing what the cocky pilot's answer would be.
"You won't have to kill anyone, should we end up engaging the enemy. A few chulips, a few grasshoppers, maybe some light cruisers. Its just the kind of mission you like," Akatsuki said, a smug look on his face. Finn stopped and 'accidentally' stuck his foot out in front of Akatsuki's feet.
"Woah!" Akatsuki landed face first on the cold, metal floor. A slight thud reverberated throughout the halls.
"Sorry about that, friend," Finn grinned and continued on his way.
Later on, Finn was passing by Akito's door when he heard something like a shout.
"Yo, Tenkawa, you alright?" he called, knocking on the door. Akito appeared a few moments later.
"I've done it!" he cried happily.
"Eh, that's not the word on the street,"
"Wha?" Akito looked confused.
"Think about it," Finn replied. "So just what have you done that you're so excited about?"
"Oh, right! It's this! I've finally completed it!" Akito thrust a small, plastic model in front of Finn's face.
"What is it?" Finn asked, looking at the object in question.
"It's a 1/100 scale perfect grade Dragon Gekigengar model! I've been working on it for months! And I've finally completed it." Akito hugged the model. "It has all the weapons that they use in the show, plus the unused dragon flame cannon. Also, the shoulder, knee, and hip joints are all dicast metal, and there's a little battery powered voice chip in the back." Akito pressed a small button on the model's back.
"Dragon flame attack!" the little model said. "Hyper Passion Slash! Lets Gekiga in!"
"Fascinating," said Finn, trying to sound somewhat amused by the toy. "Hey, can I ask you something?"
"What's that?" Akito asked.
"Well, don't take this the wrong way. I mean, it's cool that you have a hobby. But…um…don't you think you're getting a little carried away here? I mean, it's just a cartoon."
"Guh…" Akito seemed to take offence to this remark. "You're just like the rest of them."
"Hey, I'm not saying you're an idiot or anything for liking it. I'm just curious to know what you find so fascinating about it. That's all. No sarcasm intended," Finn added quickly.
"Alright, I'll tell you what happened." Akito motioned for Finn to come inside. They sat down in front of the screen. An episode of Gekigengar was playing, but Akito had set it to mute. "See that picture over there?" Akito motioned to the picture of Gai he had sitting on the small table.
"Yeah, that's Yamada," Finn said. "I heard one of the UF officers shot him just after the Nadesico broke through the big barrier."
"Jiro Yamada was technically his name. But Gai Digoji was his true name. He said that the name Jiro Yamada belonged to his body, but Gai Digoji was the name that belonged to his soul. At first I thought he was just an anime-crazed nutcase, but he was more than that. Sure I thought this was silly at first, who wouldn't? I mean, we're talking about a cartoon that's intended for little kids. But you have to look deeper. You have to look beyond the corny writing and cheap animation. Beneath all the childish animation, the cheap voice acting, the drive to sell toys, there's a message," Akito explained.
"What just what is that message?"
"It may seem corny, but the basic message they send through Gekigengar is that the good guys always win. We're the good guys, so in the end we'll always come out on top, no matter what situation we find ourselves in," Akito said, a very serious expression on his face. Finn waited a few moments before deciding to burst Akito's little bubble.
"Ahh, but how do you know that?" Finn asked. "How do you know that we're the good guys? The Jovains probably think they're the good guys in this thing as well. They must have their reasons for fighting, they've got to. I don't think they'd wage war on the Earth just because they were bored. We may both think we're on the good side of all this, but if you think about it every side believes that they're cause is just. Just look at how things started out. We all knew for certain that we were the good guys in this because we thought we were fighting to save the human race from total destruction. We believed we were saving the human race and look what happened. I'm not saying the theme of Gekigengar is wrong. It's just that you have to look at something like this from every angle. Sometimes looks an be deceiving."
"So you're saying we're not the good guys in this. Is that what you're saying? That we're the monsters? That we're the ones killing innocent people?" Akito asked, sounding a tad angry. "How can you even think that? After what those monsters have done."
"Calm down there, friend," Finn said calmly. " All I'm saying is that neither side's cause is completely right. From my perspective, it seems like the Jovians are more to blame for this war. But think about this. What did we do to make them so angry at us? I don't know why, but they must be attacking us for some reason," Finn replied coolly. "But I think we're straying from the main point of this conversation." He said after a while of sitting in silence. "Is that the only reason you like Gekigengar?"
"No, it's not just that. Its also…" Akito trailed off.
"Its just…what?" Finn pressed.
"Its also a way for me to keep Gai alive. I can't just let his memory fade away into the background. I have to keep the part of Gai that loved the Earth and this show alive. Isn't that right Gai?" Akito asked his diecast metal Gekigengar toy.
'Cool. I broke his brain,' Finn thought. "Uh…dude, you're scaring me." He sweatdropped.
The following days were pretty much what everyone expected them to be. When they arrived at their destination, construction was already underway. The crew had little to do except wait for Jovians to come too close to the station, and so far they had only exchanged fire three times. So all in all, things were pretty quiet.
"Oh I'm so bored its true. Nothing to do 'cept sit here and think of you," Finn sang in the cafeteria. Around him was a sorry sight for the elite pilot force of the greatest battleship in the Earth's forces. Akito and Akatsuki were arguing about anime. They were being quiet for once, for they had many of these little 'chats' and most of them involved at least a raised voice or two, let alone a few chairs being thrown. But for once it actually looked like they were discussing something like normal human beings. Hikaru was drawing some manga while standing on her head, her face turning a slight shade of purple. "Are you sure it's a good idea to be like that for long periods of time?" he asked. Hikaru tipped over and fell on the floor. She quickly got up and dusted herself off.
"I'm fine…woah….I dizzy," she said and fell into a chair. Finn sweatdropped and looked in Izumi's direction. She was sitting very still and almost looked asleep. If it weren't for the fact that here eyes were open, Finn would have said she was off in some dream. She didn't seem phased by anything that was going on around them.
"So what has the Nadesico's strangest…I mean…most…um…unique pilot been up to lately?" he asked, directing the question in Izumi's direction. He got no response. "Ah, the strong silent type. I see. What do you think of this assignment so far?" Finn asked, desperate to start some kind of conversation instead of just sitting there listening to the florescent lights overhead buzz. "Hello?" Finn waved a hand in front of Izumi's face. "Hmm…how peculiar. It would appear that…she's on a crack high?" Finn asked himself and poked Izumi. Izumi finally responded and wrapped her arms around him, drawing him into a close embrace. "Um…excuse me…" However he was cut off as Izumi's lips came within millimeters of his. He could feel her soft breath, and became paralyzed. However, before Izumi could kiss him, Finn found his face getting to know Ryoko's elbow a little better, and was soon one with the floor. "Oh, what have we here. Jealous Ryoko?" Finn asked before the pain of leaving an imprint of himself on a thick stainless steel floor set in. "Owie," he squeaked.
"I hate to burst your bubble. But she's sleeping with her eyes open, she always does this, you moron," Ryoko said trying to sound angry. However, her cheeks showed were a slight shade of red. "So don't go thinking she was throwing herself at you. What woman would want to kiss you, of all people?"
'Here face says no but her heart says yes. What a wonderful, wonderful place to work! This is so educational!" Finn thought to himself. "Ooww," He groaned and pulled himself off the floor and wiped a small bit of blood from his face. Hikaru was giggling in the background.
"I hate to break up this moment of pilot bonding," Ruri said sarcastically. "But we have a small force of four chulips approaching. Pilots Suabru, Amano, and Saotome, please report to the hangar immediately. Ryoko, Hikaru, and Finn moved sluggishly due to their boredom, but eventually made it to the hangar.
"What's the situation?" Finn yawned.
"We have four chulips coming in from 30 degrees off the port side of the station. Your mission is to intercept and destroy," Yurika ordered. "Understood?"
"Yes," the pilots said dully and in unison. To some it sounded kind of creepy. The pilots made their way to their respective robots. Ryoko and Hikaru were going out in their zero-g frames, surprise surprise, and Finn chose to take both of his units out at once. He locked the MAF into the ACF and waited for launch orders.
"I hope we actually get a challenge here for once. All we've been doing for days is launch, shoot, return, launch, shoot, return," Finn yawned again under his helmet. "Launching now." Finn was catapulted out of the hangar and into the cold void of space, followed by Hiikaru and Ryoko. They flew to the maximum range of the Nadesico's energy feed and, to put it simply, waited.
"Saotome you take the two to the left. Hikaru, take the one on the right. The middle one is mine," Ryoko ordered.
"Yes Ma'am!" Finn replied, giving a mock salute. "They should be here any second." And right on time, the four chulips appeared. Finn brought his gattling cannon online and prepared to fire. However, before he could shoot, the chulips came to a halt. "What are they doing?"
"Do you have to ask?" Ryoko shot back as grasshoppers came streaming out of the open chulips. They all began evasive maneuvers, dodging the rain of missiles that came down on them. A few managed to hit, but bounced off their distortion fields. Finn was flipping around, in an almost dancing like fashion, firing his weapons. All around him grasshoppers exploded into brilliant balls of fire. Ryoko and Hikaru were holding their own.
"Should we call for backup?" Hikaru said, punching a grasshopper into many large pieces of space debris.
"We can handle this," Ryoko said, blowing a few enemies out of the sky. "We've already got one moron to look after, we don't need two more,"
"I could use my cannons. But I'd rather save those for an emergency," Finn said to himself.
"High bose particle readings emitting from chulip 2." Ruri's face appeared. The chulip opened its front wider and two massive mechanical monsters slowly slid out. "Confirmed as phase transition powered goliath units equipped with gravity blast cannons,"
"Ah, come back for seconds, eh?" Finn bugged out of combat with the grasshoppers and flew straight towards the goliath that had already passed through the chulip. It wasn't the same red and gray unit he had fought on the moon. This one was a deep navy blue and had shorter claws. They looked more like fingers. The second one, still emerging from the chulip, was shorter, but had massive arms that looked capable of smashing through even the toughest of armored plating.
"All units, retreat to point 885. The Nadesico's gravity blast cannon is charging," Ruri informed them, and they retreated temporarily from the battle so they would not be caught in the blast wave.
"What about the PT cannon? Can't we use that now that we have the Y-unit?" Ryoko asked.
"Negative. The situation does not require such a weapon" Ruri replied. "Such a large expenditure of energy could temporarily bring some of the Nadesico's systems offline. I also think it would be categorized as, what you people would call, overkill."
"That's correct. And we still don't know the full strengths and capabilities of the Y-unit or the PT cannon. Until more is known about it, it would be unwise to use it at this point in time," Inez explained. "The standard gravity blast cannon the Nadesico was originally equipped with will be more than sufficient to carry out this operation."
"Where did you come from?" Ruri asked her, seeing Inez appear on the bridge without anyone noticing.
"Anyway…" Finn interrupted. "Come on, let's light this candle!"
"Firing gravity blast," Ruri said as the brilliant beam of light shot through space. Most of the grasshoppers vaporized instantly, but the goliaths and the chulips sustained little damage. "Battle field clear. You may continue fighting. We will launch pilots Tenkawa, Maki, and Akatsuki to assist you,"
"Roger that," replied Finn, boosting his thrusters to full and charging the blue goliath. "Can you guys take the little one?"
"We'll hold it off until the cavalry gets here," Ryoko said, taking out her distortion-spear. Hikaru did the same and followed her towards the smaller goliath, which had now fully emerged from the chulip. The blue goliath fired off a gravity blast at Finn, who dodged out of the way and rushed down below, only to fly straight up and land an uppercut on his opponent's head. The goliath whirled around and caught Finn off guard. It slashed its claws across his frame's back. The slash did little structural damage, nothing more than a scratch, but the force of the impact caused some of the internal systems to malfunction. Finn's monitors became slightly grainy and he responded by trying to land a kick along his opponents back, but the goliath caught the flying foot unit with one hand and grabbed Finn's left arm unit with the other, and began to pull in an attempted to tear the ACF in two. Inside his cockpit Finn could hear the groans and screeches of stressed metal as his cockpit began to rip in half.
"Damn, they're getting smarter," hw grunted as he tried to get free of the goliath's grip. However, the hold his enemy had on his frame seemed to be too strong for him to simply rip free. Then, something occurred to him. Flipping switches and turning off safeguards, small compartments along the wings opened. Small missiles raised out of the openings. Finn unleashed a barrage of missiles directly into the goliath's chest unit. On its own, one missile did not do much damage. However, they just seemed to stream out of the ACF's wings at an unbelievable rate. The blasts blasted apart some components of the chest plate and shoulder joints. Just enough so that Finn could wrench free.
"Well done my slippery adversary," a male voice sounded in Finn's cockpit. "But it shall aid you not."
"Oh man, you guys gotta come up with some better lines than that!" Finn said, and the two robots locked hands, trying to force one another back. 'Good thing the pilot of that thing's not a girl. I won't have to hold back.' Blasting his thrusters, Finn managed to force his opponent back. 'Wait a sec, there's nothing to push him back against. This is pointless!' He ripped one of his hands away and grabbed onto the goliath's arm and began to spin around, taking it with him.
"What are you doing?!" the goliath pilot demanded, sounding a little dizzy.
"This!" Finn responded by hurling the goliath back towards the open chulip. "And this!" He fired his cannon. Bolts of hot plasma punched through the already weakened distortion field. From his cockpit, Finn saw his bolts literally ripping the goliath apart. However, the pilot was still audible over the radio. 'Come on come on. Where's the blasted cockpit in that thing?" Finn thought. The chest of his enemy was ripped to pieces, several holes already going straight through it. 'The head. That's where he is.' However, before Finn could target the head, the force of his plasma bolts had pushed the goliath back through one of the open chulips and disappeared. "Damnit," he said to himself. "Ryoko, how's it going on your end?" Looking over, he could see that Ryoko and Hikaru were holding there own. However, so far they had inflicted little structural damage on the enemy robot. There were a few bullet holes along the shoulders, and a few dents where the impact of missiles had been partially absorbed by its destortion field, allowing only some of the energy to reach the armour. The aestivalis units were flying around the goliath in a fashion that reminded Finn of the old movie King Kong.
"If you don't mind," Ryoko said irritated. "We could use a little help with this thing."
"Ahh, the great Ryoko Subaru asking for help," Finn joked. "You guys look like your doing just fine."
"Just shut up and get over here," Ryoko shot back. However, before Finn made it over to where his comrades were fighting, the red goliath managed to grab Ryoko's aesti out of the sky. She struggled, but couldn't wriggle free of the goliath's grasp.
"Oh no you don't," Finn smirked as he threw himself into the goliath, knocking it back a little. The shock from the impact caused the goliath to loosen its grip just enough for Ryoko to get free. "I'd love to stay and chat but… man, I'm starting to sound these damn Jovians. Ha ha ha, silly me." Before it could straighten itself out, Finn grabbed his enemy by the arm and threw it over his shoulder and into the open chulip. On its way through, he saw a something bounce off one of its arms and fly off towards another open chulip. Finn then fired bolts into the side of the chulip, causing its distortion field to buckle, then simply ripped it apart into space debris. However, just as the chulip exploded, Finn glanced over and saw that Ryoko was not with Hikaru at the attack point. He searched around, but couldn't find her anywhere. "Ryoko! Where are you?" he called out, unable to hide the concern in this voice.
"Over here you moron!" Ryoko called. A blip on Finn's scanner screens reviled her exact location. What Finn saw made his heart stop for a moment. Ryoko had her engines running at full power, trying to escape the immense pull of an open chulip. However, she was loosing ground at a steady rate.
"I'm coming!" Finn shouted.
"No, you'll get sucked in too. Stay back," Ryoko shouted back. Finn ignored her warning. However, halfway, Hikaru's Aesti appeared in front of him.
"Don't. You'll get pulled in with her. We can't lose two of you," Hikaru said, even though her words tore away at her inside. "I'm sorry Finn, but…"
"Amano, get out of my way," Finn said, becoming angry. "Now."
"I…I'm sorry sir. As much as I want to help Ryoko, I can't let you destroy yourself trying to save her,"
"I said get out of my way!" Finn shoved Hikaru aside flew towards Ryoko.
"Wait!" Hikaru tried to pull him back, but he shoved her away.
"Give me your hand!" he said, holding an outstretched hand to Ryoko.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Ryoko demanded.
"Just give me your hand!" Finn shouted back. Ryoko still refused his help. "Just do it damnit!" Grabbing Ryoko's aesti's hand, Finn cranked up his engines and tried to drag Ryoko and himself out of the range of the chulip's pull. "Come on baby come on, don't let me down now," Finn said to his machine and through his IFS, redirected every spare microspark of energy to his engine output.
"Its me that's stopping you from getting away. Let me go!" Ryoko tried to pull herself free of his grasp. "I said just let me go!"
"Are you nuts?! I can't do that!" Finn said, tightening his grip on her arm.
"My engines are on full, so are yours. You can get away. Do it!" Ryoko continued to struggle.
"Saotome, we're coming!" Finn heard Akito's voice.
"Stay back!" Finn ordered. "If you're just going to float there try destroying the chulip!"
"Roger!" Akito replied and he, Hikaru, and Akatsuki opened fire. However, their bullets bounced harmlessly off the chulip's distortion field.
"Come on." Finn forced his engines even harder. Caution alarms turned into melt down alarms, but he kept forcing the engines even harder. The lower half of Ryoko's aesti was now inside the chulip.
"Pilot Subaru's aestevalis had partially entered the chulip and is continuing to be pulled further in," reported Ruri. The bridge crew held their breath and watched Finn's desperate struggle to haul Ryoko out of the chulip.
"Warning. Core temperature at 350% above acceptable operation output. Shut down engines or melt down immanent." Finn's computer told him. "Warning. Core…"
"Shut up!" Finn said and closed the window. Finn pulled and managed to gain a few meters.
"Emergency override activated. Engine shut down progress," the computer said. Everything but except the life support system died. Finn's cockpit went black. The crew watched in horror as the two robots plunged into the chulip.
"Arm the gravity blast cannon! Destroy that chulip!" Yurika ordered.
"Negative. Destroying the chulip at this point in time would be useless. It would either destroy pilots Subaru and Saotome or cause the subspace inside to collapse. This would bring the probability of them surviving to 0%." Ruri warned. The chulip closed its opening and continued on its way.
"Ruri. Recall the remaining aestivalis." Yurika choked. "Return to guard point 09.
"It looks like there will be two more funerals," Prospector said grimly, pushing up his glasses.
"No. We're not giving up on them," Yurika managed to say. "Not yet."
Alive
"Ooowwww," groaned Finn. "Wha…what happened?" He slowly opened his eyes, but his vision was blurry. After a few minutes, his vision gradually came back into focus, and he managed to more or less see his surroundings. He was laying on what seemed to be like some kind of table. The room was brightly lit and appeared to be part of, Finn assumed, some kind of medical facility. There were a few others in the room, all of them men. Most appeared to be asleep, but two were talking quietly in a corner. The door slid open and a short, slightly stocky man walked in.
"Ah, I see you're awake 395." he said in Finn's direction.
"Me?" Finn asked bewildered.
"Yes. How are you feeling?" the man, who Finn assumed to be a doctor, asked.
"I'm fine, I guess. Everything's a little blurry but…who are you? What is this place?" Finn tried to piece everything together. 'I remember trying to pull Ryoko out of the chulip…then my systems died and we got pulled in. But what happened after that? Why does it feel like I've been through this before?'
"That's good. You should be fine. When we found you, you were in a state of exhaustion. Some miners working in the area brought you in," the doctor replied. "Good thing too. A few more hours and your air would have given out."
"Where am I? What is this place?" Finn asked himself, looking around the room.
"Is your memory really that bad? If it will make you feel better, you're in the 2nd District medical centre of the moon Dustron."
"Dustron?" Finn asked puzzled.
"Yes. It's commonly known as Dusty. I suppose I don't have to tell you this is part of the Jovian Realm," he chuckled. Finn began to connect the dots.
'This must be a Jovian settlement,' Finn concluded.
"Tell me, do you have a name?" the doctor asked, taking a clipboard from under his arm.
"A name?" Finn tried to sound confused. "My name…"
"Oh dear, this could be worse than I thought," the doctor said, jotting something down.
"No no. It'll come to me. I'm still a little light headed. That's all." Finn searched his memory for a believable name. 'Who knows, they may have spies on Earth that could check out my real name.' "Its…Jiro. Jiro Amada." 'Hey, it worked once before.'
"Well then Jiro. I am Doctor Aoyama, but you can just call me Doc A, everyone else does. Do you recall anything that happened? What were you doing outside?"
"I…I don't remember," Finn replied, this time he was actually being truthful.
"Well, the seismic sensors detected some kind of impact not far from where you were found. Probably a small chunk of rock, it happens all the time. I suspect you might have been hit by a part of the shockwave, which would explain why you're a little battered," explained Doc A. "You were wearing the most peculiar space suit."
"My suit?" Finn asked. "Oh yeah. The suit. It was…a gift from my…um…grandfather. He had is custom made for me. Do you still have it?"
"Yes, its being kept in a storage locker, 28A. All you need to do is press your thumb against the pad there to open the locker. Why do you ask?" inquired the doctor.
"I need it for…it was the last thing my grandfather gave to me before he passed away. It was a great deal of sentimental value. I wouldn't want to lose it," replied Finn. Then, something hit him. 'Ryoko!' He thought. 'Did she get out somehow?'
"I see. Well, you can have it once we've released you from the hospital. We'd like to keep you overnight just to make sure you're alright," Doc A went on to say.
"Tell me doc, was anyone else found other than me? A girl…green hair…?" Finn asked.
"A girl eh? Hmm, I'm not sure. If there was, she would have been admitted to the women's ward of the building. Hang on, I'll find out." The doctor walked over to a phone attached to the wall, picked it put, and began making his inquiries. After a few minutes, he returned. "Yes, there was a girl found with you."
"Can I go see her?" asked Finn.
"Oh, I'm afraid not. She just woke up a few minutes ago. She seems to be in a similar state as yourself. Temporary memory loss, that sort of thing," Doc A replied.
"Could I at least go and see her? Just to make sure she's the girl I'm thinking of," Finn persisted, trying to persuade the doctor.
"I would have thought a young man of your age would have known by now…" Doc A began.
"Known what?" Finn looked puzzled.
"That in hospitals, like all government buildings, men and women are kept separate," the doctor finished. "It wouldn't be proper for a lady to see you dressed as you are."
"What's wrong with this?" Finn looked at what he was wearing, a white t-shirt and gray sweatpants. He concluded that they had been given to him upon his arrival.
"That is hardly proper attire to meet a lady in," the doctor replied. "But don't worry, you can see her once she wakes up and has been looked over. In the meantime, you should get some rest. Maybe then you'll remember a bit more. There's a spare bed in the corner over there by Sanoske," Finn froze.
"Come again?" he asked. 'Maybe I just heard him wrong.'
"Sanoske. He's the man over there." Doc A indicated to the far side of the room where two men were talking. And sure enough, there was Sanoske, just how Finn remembered him.
'Oh shit,' Thought Finn. "Alright. Thanks doc," he said as the doctor left the room. Finn slowly walked over to the bed Doc A had indicated.
"So, what are you in for?" the man Finn recognized as Sanoske asked.
'It's the same guy, or girl, or whatever. Crossdresser. But what is he/she/it doing here? It's a good thing he couldn't see my face during the battle, but if he hears my voice…this is not good.' Finn thought. "I…um…" However, before he could say anything, the man beside Sanoske spoke.
"Didn't you hear the doc, Sano? They found him by a crash site. Some asteroid hit or something," he said.
"What's your name then?" asked Sanoske.
"Jiro. Jiro Amada." answered Finn in a deeper than normal voice, attempting to disguise himself a little. "Yeah, the doc said they found me outside. Don't remember much right now I'm afraid, but it'll come back to me. What about you?"
"Sano here?" The man said before Sanoske could answer. "He's the greatest pilot of the third division! He went one on one with one of the Earth's new humanoid robots and won! Kicked that tin can's ass."
"Really?" Finn tried to sound impressed, even though he knew the statement was exaggerated. "If you won, what are you in here for?"
"I had to leap before the robot exploded, I also sustained a few hits from enemy fire. Nothing serious, just a few bruises and a cracked rib." Sanoske explained. "What division are you from?"
"I…I…uh…" Finn tried to think of some kind of response.
"He's probably too tired to remember that. You heard him trying to get his name right," Sanoske's friend joked. "I'm Jack, by the way."
"Nice to meet ya. It's nice to see that the author isn't going to use Japanese names only in the fic. It's a kind of refreshing. Now if you guys will excuse me, I need to get some rest," Finn said, and closed the curtain that was strung between the beds. 'That's got to be him…or her…whatever. She must still be in disguise. But why? Unless…' Finn remembered what the doctor had said about being 'proper' in the presence of women. 'women aren't allowed to be soldiers.' He concluded. 'Explains a lot.' Finn yawned and was soon asleep.
A shuffling noise woke Finn some time later. The room was dark and, Finn assumed, that it must be very late. Silently he slipped out of bed, his bare feet made little noise on the tiled floor, and carefully pulled the curtain back just far enough so he could peer out. He saw someone carefully making their way to the door of the room. It was too dark to see who it was, but Finn had a pretty good idea who it was. 'Sanoske,' he concluded. 'What is he up to? I wonder,' He heard Jack mumble something in his sleep, and then continued his light snoring. Sanoske looked back near the beds. Finn ducked behind the curtain so he wouldn't be seen, but his foot hit something at the side of the bed and made a clanking noise. 'Dag nab it,' Finn mentally kicked himself for being so careless. He could hear no more noise coming from the front of the room. Finn made a snoringlike noise and rustled the sheets on his bed. After a few moments, the sound of Sanoske creeping towards the door and Finn returned to his position peeking out of the curtain. The door was slowly slid open and a soft light poured into the room. Sanoske slowly exited the room, and closed the door behind him. Finn came out from his hiding spot and made his way to the door. Once there, he waited a few moments to make sure that Sanoske would not be close enough to hear the door opening. He slid open the door and quickly slipped out of the room just in time to see Sanoske round a corner. Finn followed stealthily down the hall after him. The corridor was dark, the only light coming from small nightlightlike lights along the edges of the floor. Finn stayed just far back enough so he could easily conceal himself if Sanoske looked back. This little game went on for a few minutes, Finn running from doorway to door way as he carefully followed his target, until he finally saw him head into a room to which the door had been propped open by a stopper. He removed the stopper and entered the room, Finn moved quickly as the door squeaked and almost closed. It would have closed had it not been for Finn, who had made it to the door just before it closed and held it open. 'This is going to be tricky,' he thought. The door squeaked when as it had closed, so Finn reasoned that it would squeak when it was opened. When the sound of Sanoske's footsteps stopped, Finn quickly opened the door just enough for him to slip into the room. There was a wall in this thin room that ran along the back of this small opening and continued to the right of Finn, where there was a corner. Around which, Finn was certain he would find Sanoske. As Finn predicted, Sanoske could be heard making his way back to the door to investigate the noise. Fortunatly for Finn, the small hallway in this room was narrow enough for him to place both hands on one side and his feet on the other and managed to climb up the sides until his back was against the ceiling. Just a few feet below him, Finn could see Sanoske looking around and check the door to see if it was secure. He then locked the door and made his way around the corner once again. Finn let himself fall in a controlled way to the floor and peeked around the corner. The room was dark, but a slight click could be heard and the room was illuminated by two florecent lights on the ceiling. The room, Finn guessed was some kind of storage that doubled as a janitor's office. There were shelves everywhere with bottles, buckets, and many other maintenance related items. In the far right-hand corner of the room, there was a small mirror hanging from the wall. Sanoske stood in front of the mirror and proceeded to remove his hospital issued sweatshirt. 'Yep, he's a woman,' Finn thought when he saw her bound chest.
"Playing a guy is no easy task," he heard Sanoske mumble as she adjusted and readjusted her bindings. "These things are killing me," she said as and finally put her sweatshirt back on, content with her bindings. She then loosened her hair, which, Finn noticed for the first time, was always kept in a ponytail. Her hair was long and light brown in colour. Taking a brush out of her pocket she proceeded to brush her hair. All the while being watched by Finn. She was not bad looking. She was about Ryoko's height, but her face reminded him more of Erina, that cold narrow nose and sour expression. "That Amada guy, he seems familiar somehow. I'm sure I've never seen him before, but his voice. There's something about his voice. Where have I heard it before?"
Meanwhile, Finn tried to piece together what was going on.
'Ok, he's a she. I know what much. It's obvious that the Jovians don't allow women in their military. So she must be a girl that wanted to fight but couldn't join. She then dressed as a guy to get in. But why is the big question in this. Why would she want to fight?' Finn thought and went back to observing Sanoske. 'Wait a sec…just what is her real name anyway?' He pondered the thought. She took out a small locket from around her neck and opened it. Finn was too far away to see whose picture it contained, but guessed that it held the answers to a few questions.
"Don't worry, dear Sanoske," she said, holding the locket against her face. "Once I destroy the Earth's phase transition ship, your name will live forever in history! And then I will join you in the afterlife,"
'Alert! Alert! Nutbar sighted!' Finn thought.
"I must go now, my love," she was talking to the picture again. "If they discover me, all my plans will be for not." She threw her sweatshirt back on and began to put her hair back in its ponytail.
'That was educational.' Finn searched for his little notebook. 'Damnit. I must have left it in the ACF. Uh oh, time to go.' He opened the door and slipped out. However, he forgot that the door's hinges needed oil and it squeaked as it opened and closed.
"Alright, who's there?" Sanoske demanded, rounding the corner just in time to see the door close. Outside, Finn searched the hallway for something, anything that he could use to hide himself. However, the hallway was empty other than a few garbage cans and the occasional bench.
'Have to risk it.' Finn thought and slipped into the room directly across the hall. Fortunately the door opened and closed silently. Outside he could hear the faint shuffling of Sanoske's slippers against the tile floor. The shuffling came closer. 'Man, what stinks in here?' Finn asked himself as he noticed the putrid smell of the room. 'Who cares, just move!' And he dove behind a large box-like structure. The door opened, and Finn could see the dim light spilling into the room.
"Hmm," he heared Sanoske mutter. Soon after he heard the door close and heaved a sigh of relief.
'Man, I think I'm gonna hurl.' Finn put a hand over his mouth and fumbled for a light. He found a small cord hanging from the ceiling and pulled it. A few florescent lights overhead came to life. Finn turned green. Around him were carts filled with soiled sheets and dirty bedpans. Finn grabbed a nearby garbage can and proceeded to vomit multiple times. 'Can't…breath! Must not take in air!' his mind screamed, and he fumbled for the door handle. However, just as he was about to pull it open, he remembered that Sanoske might still be out there. After a few sickening minutes, Finn peeked outside, and saw that the coast was clear and silently slipped out. Before he headed back to his room, he glanced at a sign on the door. It read 'sanitation room'. Finn vomited once more into a garbage can and stumbled back down the hall to his shared room. He slid the door open a crack, the lights were on, and someone was talking.
"I'm telling you, this Jiro guy isn't what he seems. There's something more to him. Why would he just leave in the middle of the night? It doesn't make sense," he heard Sanoske say.
'Busted,' Finn thought and sat on the floor, trying to think of a plan. A light bulb appeared over his head, and he pilled the switch. 'I've got it!' And he stood up and strode casually into the room. "Hey guys. What's up?" he said trying to sound as though his disappearance was no big deal.
"Where have you been?" Jack asked, shielding his eyes from the light.
"Just out for a walk. Woke up an hour or two ago and couldn't get back to sleep." Finn replied.
"What direction did you go in?" Sanoske asked suspiciously.
"To the right and down that hall," Finn lied. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason." Sanoske said.
"Guys, if you don't mind, I'd like to get some sleep," Jack complained. Some other men in the room also voiced some displeasure. Sanoske turned off the lights and they all returned to their beds. However, Sanoske spent the remainder of the night watching Finn's bed out of the corner of her eye.
'There's something going on here. And I intend to find out,' she thought.
Reunion
"Don't you think this is a little extreme?" Finn looked himself over in the suit he was wearing, given to him by a male nurse. "I'm just going to see if she's alright."
"The doc was right. You are out of it," the nurse replied. "You know the rules. Men must be in proper attire if they are to meet a lady."
"Oh…right. I guess I'm still a little forgetful after everything," Finn lied, when in actual fact he hadn't a clue as to what all the fuss was about. 'Either these guys are overly polite or they have broom sticks up their tail pipes when it comes to women,"
"I'd hurry up if I were you. You don't want to keep a lady waiting, it's not proper," the nurse said with a certain degree of urgency in his voice.
"Uh…right." Finn replied and followed the nurse out the door. They went down a few corridors, turned a few corners, and eventually they came to a part of the hospital that Finn guessed to be some type of neutral area, where men and women were allowed to meet. There was a large room with chairs, couches, and a few tables. It looked somewhat like a hotel lobby to Finn. The nurse stopped at the entrance because, Finn guessed, he was not properly dressed.
"You're friend is waiting in conference room 2," the nurse gestured to one of the rooms that ran along the side of the lobby.
"Thanks," Finn said and walked into the room. There was no one else there, which made him feel a little uneasy. The grandeur of the room added to his anxiety. However, the possibility of someone listening in on their conversation worried him even more than just being alone in this atmosphere. Opening the door, Finn walked into the small conference room. There was a table with office chairs set around it. Standing at the end of the table was a girl that looked like Ryoko. She was dressed in an elegant navy blue dress with white gloves. However, her hair was not the usual dyed green. It was, instead, black. She heard Finn enter the room and turned around.
"I…" Finn as at a loss for words. It was obviously Ryoko standing there in front of him, but it was strange seeing her looking this good, not that she wasn't bad looking in her uniform. But this was a state he'd never seen her in before. "You're looking lovely, as usual," he said with an uncontrollable smile. Ryoko eyed him suspiciously, as though she was wasn't quite sure it was Finn standing there. "Although, I much preferred you with green hair," Ryoko's face softened a little.
"Good, it is you. I wasn't quite sure there for a sec. Never seen you with your hair like that," Finn had to change his hair style in order to look 'proper'. The smell of the gel was giving him a slight headache. Finn walked over to her and took her into his arms.
"Shh. They might have bugged the room," he whispered in her ear when he felt Ryoko tense and get ready to beat the crap out of him.
"And here I thought you were going to make a move," Ryoko said in a mock-disappointed tone of voice that surprised Finn.
He checked the room for any hidden microphones or cameras. He checked under the table and found a small object that looked like a metal vitamin pill with a tiny red light on the top. Finn motioned for Ryoko to remain quiet as he pulled the device part into two pieces. The red light turned off and he continued to look around, this time checking the lights overhead and behind a small end table at the rear of the room.
"That should do it," he said in a hushed voice. "But keep your voice down, there might still be more bugs in here that I didn't find. But try to avoid mentioning anything that they might link to the you know what."
"Alright," Ryoko replied.
"What have you been able to find out?" asked Finn, taking a seat.
"It's pretty obvious that this is a Jovian colony." Ryoko answered, taking a seat for herself.
"Yeah. Its called Dustron, or Dusty by the locals. This must be a moon the Jovians discovered when they came out here. Apparently it's a mining colony and the building we're in is the medical centre of the 2nd district, whatever that means," Finn explained.
"We must have crashed here when we were pulled in and somehow managed to stumble out onto the surface. They told me that we were picked up by a mining team. Did they tell you the same thing?" Finn nodded.
"What story have you used?"
"I haven't explained anything in detail. Just that you and I were out for a walk." Ryoko. "And the name is Reiko Tokai."
"Very original," Finn smirked.
"What about you?"
"Jiro Amada." He answered.
"You've been watching Gundam 8th MS Team again, haven't you?" Ryoko remarked.
'Dang, how did she know that?' he thought. "Anyway, we have to make sure that our stories match. We don't want them getting suspicious. They already think I'm nuts down in the men's wing because I didn't know how to 'properly' meet a lady." Finn loosened his tie, which was beginning to choke him.
"I don't think we should be dating. That might not be wise considering how they view men meeting women. But then again, friends might also trigger some suspicion." Ryoko said, trying to come up with a believable story that would be acceptable to Jovian society.
"We could try engaged?" Finn said off the top of his head.
"Why did I have a feeling you'd say something like that?" Ryoko turned a slight shade of red.
"Because, then it would be a believable reason for us to be together. I don't think we should be separated if we want to get out of here," Finn answered.
"Sir? Is everything alright in there?" someone asked, knocking on the door. Finn got up.
"Yes, everything is fine." He opened the door a little ways so the butler-like man could see for himself.
"Very good, sir. I apologize for interrupting you," he said, bowed, and walked off.
"These guys are hilarious," Finn laughed as he sat back down. "So what do you think?"
"That sounds like a plan to me," Ryoko answered.
"And we were outside for a quiet walk. They told me they detected an impact not far from where we were found, which was probably our frames. They think it was some sort of meteor hit. And we were knocked down by the shockwave," Finn continued. "I think that's the way we should play this."
"Just one problem," Ryoko said.
"What's that?"
"How are we going to get out of here? Its one thing to pass off as somebody else for a day or two, but what if we're stuck here for a while, it might not hold," Ryoko said, sounding somewhat doubtful of Finn's plan. Finn touched his communicator, which was the only thing he owned that was still with him. "You mean…"
"Uh huh. All we have to do is get you a suit, get my suit, go back to wherever this little baby points us and we're set," Finn said smiling.
"I'm not usually pessimistic, but don't you ever think of the things that could go wrong with your plans. Sure we can make it to our frames, but then what? We're orbiting Jupiter for crying out loud! It would take us months to even reach Mars," Ryoko pointed out.
"I forgot that," Finn's head tilted to one side. "Speaking of suits, do you still have yours?"
"No. They said it was 'inappropriate' for me to be wearing that thing. So we'll have to get something I can use to get to my aesti," Ryoko replied.
"Excuse me sir, but they are launching now. I thought you might like to see," the butler said, gently knocking in the door.
"We'd better check this out," Finn said, getting up and opening the door. He bowed a little as Ryoko walked passed him and into the lobby.
"No need to overdo it," she hissed.
"But it wouldn't be proper," Finn joked. They were led to a television screen on the far side of the room. The butler turned it on and stood back, giving Finn and Ryoko a good view of the screen.
"This is Peter Mansbridge Jr with JNN. Today the Superior Male Forces will be launching another wave of robot interceptors into Earth space. This is a strategically important move for the SMF because it will help relieve the pilots of our Dimojin robots," a tall, bald man explained. "They will be launching from warp gate points alpha, omega, and zeta located in near SMF Headquarters orbiting Europa. The interceptors will appear on Earth on the North American, African, and Asian continents, emerging from the other side of gates. The gates will remain open for two weeks, until all the interceptors have deployed." A light bulb light up over Finn's head.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" he whispered to Ryoko.
"Uh huh," she answered smiling.
"Very educational,"
Who Wants to be a Jovian?
"Are you sure you're alright? You still haven't told me much about you. Where you live, your id number," Doc A asked nervously.
"No need to worry. Never better!" Finn said. "We'll make it home no problem.
"At least let met arrange for a car to take you and Miss Tokai home." The doctor insisted. This had been going on for a few days now. It was now a week since Finn and Ryoko crashed on Dusty. They had spent most of that time just laying around in their rooms being bored, but did manage to talk to one another fairly regularly. Finn figured it would be better to disappear into Jovian society than to stay in the hospital, especially with Sanoske around. They didn't want to take the chance. Since they had no spare clothes with them, the hospital had given them each something they could wear on the way home. Finn was wearing a collared blue shirt and beige pants, while Ryoko wore a faded yellow sundress. It wasn't as formal as when they first met in that little room, but the hospital staff insisted they wear something better than sweatpants and t-shirts on the way home.
"Thanks but no thanks, doc," Finn replied. "I think the walk home will do us good. Haven't had time to stretch my legs for a while."
"I can see there's no reasoning with you," Doc A laughed. "Have a safe trip home."
"Thanks." Finn shook the doctor's hand and they started on their way.
"Sir! You're heading for the parking lot. The city is that way," Doc A called after them.
"Uh…right!" Finn laughed nervously and changed direction, heading the way Doc A was pointing. "I knew that," Doc A sweatdropped.
"I'll never understand some people," he said to himself and walked back inside the building.
Finn and Ryoko left the hospital grounds and found themselves on the city streets. Finn was carrying their pilot suits in a small shopping bag. Ryoko's skintight suit fit easily into the small bag, but Finn's metal suit took up most of the space. But it was remarkably compact if you knew how to fold it properly.
Even though this was a space colony, the structure was so big that it felt like they were outside. A simulated sun and clouds were overhead, making it feel remarkably like any city on Earth. A few cars drove by but for the most part, the streets were filled with pedestrians and cyclists. If they didn't know any better, they would have said they were on vacation somewhere on Earth. However, they didn't have time to enjoy the view.
"Remember the plan," Ryoko said, nudging Finn in the rubs when she noticed he was taking a little too much interest in what was going on around them.
"Right." Finn concentrated on the task at hand. "Where do you want to start looking? Keep in mind that women here are supposed to be 'proper' ladies, not battle hardened warrior bit…" Finn was cut off as Ryoko exercised her knuckles into Finn's stomach. "Respected officers," Finn managed to squeak.
"I thought I'd try my hand at waitressing," Ryoko said. "There must be SOME jobs for women."
"Well, you could try…." Finn's face was the guest of honour at Ryoko's knuckle party.
"Don't even think that," She hissed.
"Very educational," Finn shrank down and lay sprawled out on the sidewalk for a few minutes before catching up with Ryoko. "Man, lighten up a little." He quickly jotted notes down in his notebook, which had been with his suit in the locker.
"I'm afraid I'm not in the mood for jokes right now. Being stranded millions of kilometers from home in unfamiliar enemy territory does dampen one's sense of humour," Ryoko replied, all the time not slowing her step or even glancing at Finn beside her. "So where are you going to check out?" she asked after a few minutes of walking in silence towards the main metropolitan dome of the colony.
"I thought I'd try and find a garage or something, see if I can get a job as a mechanic or something," answered Finn.
"Oooh, impressive. So there is something in there." she laughed as she ruffled his usual animestyle hair.
"Hey!" Finn protested, but soon gave in.
After a few hours of aimless wandering around the downtown core of the colony, Finn stopped outside a store.
"Hey, why'd you stop?" Ryoko asked, a few steps ahead of him.
"Look at this." Finn motioned to the store's nameplate.
"A bookstore? What's so special about that?" Ryoko said tapping her foot.
"Just come on," Finn grasped her wrist and dragged her into the store. Inside, it was fairly spacious, which two levels and shelves upon shelves of books. Finn picked one up and glanced through it. 'I wonder how they made paper out here?' he asked himself. 'Very educational.' He casually looked through the store, however, there was a particular target in mind.
"Just what are you looking for anyway?" Ryoko asked, eyeing the clerk at the cash register, who was looking at her strangely. "Um…dear?" She held onto his arm. This seemed to satisfy the clerk and he went back to whatever he was doing.
"Ancient history…Earth history…here we go," Finn said, finally settling on a section. He looked at Ryoko, who looked at him as if to say 'just what the hell are you thinking, you idiot?'. "Studying," he said and picked up a book called 'The Great Purge'. " 'In the year 2094 of modern humanity's history, mankind had spread from his home planet, the Earth, and now inhabited several lunar colonies. However, this was a time of great political unrest. There were many factions of the lunar settlements that wished to rule themselves, rather than remain under the control of the oppressive government of the United Earth Armed Forces…' " he read. "Most definitely educational. 'There were two lunar political parties formed. The Moderates wished for a negotiated peace to the political uneasiness. The Separatists wished for the immediate withdraw of all UF personnel and influence, and were willing to resort to violent tactics. However, there were few violent eruptions. The UF wished to maintain control of the moon and infiltrated both the Moderates and the Separatists and aggravated what aggression lay between them. During the confusion, UF soldiers were deployed in and marshal law was declared. The Separatist and Moderate leaders were rounded up, along with most serious supporters for both groups, and were held in holding camps while the government authorities decided what to do with them. The leaders were executed at once, although UF said publicly that they had either killed themselves, or were killed trying to escape. This was the decided fate for most of the other supporters of the independence movement. However, a small group of Separatists that slipped through the purge planned an escape for the remaining prisoners. They set off explosives in several parts of the detention centre, and during the confusion, most of the prisoners were escaped. Knowing they could never again be seen publicly without being arrested, they fled the moon and started colonies on Mars.
For many years they lived without any trouble from the UF. Many of the survivors, as they were now called, believed they were safe from the Earth government's tyranny. This, sadly, was not to be the case. In the year 2102, the UF struck again. This time they used nuclear warheads launched from satellites they had orbiting Mars, their target: the Martian colonies. Most of the colonies were devastated. However, there was a small band of survivors, made up of many people from several colonies and managed to escape Mars. This time they fled to the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter…'"
"Explains a lot," Ryoko said under her breath.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" the clerk asked from the register.
"No, we're fine, thanks," Finn replied. "Come on, let's go." He replaced the book and they left the store.
"No wonder they have a grudge against the UF," Finn remarked, after having made sure nobody else was within earshot.
"Yeah, but they left out one thing. How did they get such advanced weaponry? I mean, even if they had been working around the clock there's no way they could come up with that stuff so quickly," Ryoko replied.
"Yes. 'tis a profound mystery indeed," answered Finn. "Hey, look over there." He led/dragged Ryoko down the street.
"Will you cut that out? I can walk." She twisted free of his grasp.
"Sorry," he apologized. "But, just take a look at this." In front of them was a large building. There was a sign that said "2nd District Shuttle Repair". "What do you think?"
"Its worth a shot," Ryoko said examining the front of the building. "You do know how a PT engine works, right?"
"Kind of. I understand the science behind it, but if you told me to build one…oh, I see what you're getting at." Finn stood there scratching his chin. "I got it. This is a civilian shuttle repair shop. I don't think they would use such advanced technology in civilian shuttles. And if they do, well the worst they can do is throw me out and I'm no worse off. I'll check it out. You should wander around a little and see if you can find something."
"Alright. I think I saw a ramen shop a few blocks back," Ryoko said.
"They might as well go with the anime tradition of ramen shops," the author said.
"Meet me back here in an hour, k?" Ryoko said, ignoring the author.
"Ok," Finn answered and he walked into the garage.
Upon entering, he saw pretty much what he expected to see. From the front, the building looked deceivingly small. It was, in fact, like walking into a hangar at an airport. There were three shuttles inside, all of them in different stages of being repaired. There was one that looked like it had been run through a trash compactor. Its wings were laying on the floor, there was an enormous hole in the middle, and the nose looked like it had flown straight into a wall. The shuttle next to it had most of it's siding stripped and there were various workers fiddling with wiring. 'Must be some kind of electrical problem.' Finally he laid eyes on the last shuttle, which looked to be on good shape with exception to the large scrapes and gouges along its underside, and there was a man wielding a welding torch by a part of the landing gear. 'So we have crushed, stripped, and crashed. At the left side of the hangar there was a small section of what could be considered as offices. But Finn guessed it to be more of a storage room as he walked over, carefully stepping over all the various shuttle parts and tools scattered about the dirty floor. When he reached the offices, he found that there was a large man sitting at a desk. He was big, wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, which had been stained black from motor oils and engine lubricant. He was talking on the phone. Finn knocked on the wall and the man looked up. He motioned for Finn to wait a second while he finished.
"Are you a client?" the man asked when he got off the phone.
"What? No, no I'm not a client," Finn answered.
"Then what do you want?" The man seemed to be in a bit of a fowl mood.
"I'm actually looking for employment," answered Finn.
"You?" The man laughed. "You look more like someone who's ready for a golf game than fixing busted ships."
"I thought it best to make myself presentable," Finn lied.
"Got any experience?"
"Yes. I've worked mainly with conventional and nuclear powered ships, mainly overhauling engines and fixing wiring and system controls. I haven't worked with any phase transition powered ships though," Finn mentally kicked himself. 'Damnit! I don't know if they call those kinds of ships 'phase transition' powered.'
"That's alright, kid. Only the military uses phase transition cores. Let's see whatcha got." He got up from his desk and led Finn to the really crushed looking shuttle. "If you can any of these engine's ignitions to spark in half and hour. I'll hire you. If not, tough. I got no room for slackers here. Right men?!"
"Yes sir!" they all called back.
"Well, get going, kid." The man walked back to his desk. "By the way, call me Sam." he called back from the office door. Finn ran his hand along the battered hull of the ship.
"Alright baby. Lets see if we can get you humming again." Finn removed the finer coat and shirt and set to work. "Ok, wiring's shot, the fuel injector's are snapped, and ignition is blown. And I see a few loose parts elsewhere. Easy."
"Alright kid. Time's up," Sam shouted, standing at the front of the ship. "Get that ignition fixed?"
"Yes sir." Finn called from the cockpit, from which the roof had been removed.
"Really? I'm surprised, kid. But let's just take a look." Sam started to walk towards the rear of the ship to inspect Finn's work.
"Actually sir. Just stay right there. This ship is locked down to the floor right?"
"Yeah…" Sam started.
"Then just stay there." He fiddled with some controls. There was a crack and an enormous roar filled the hangar. The engine he had fixed, which was one of three, came to life. Had the ship not have been restrained, it would have blasted clear through the hangar doors. "How's that?" He called, although it was so load he couldn't hear his own words, so he shut it down. "How's that?" he called again when the noise had subsided.
"I uh…when can you start?"
"Tomorrow," Finn replied, jumping down from the cockpit.
"Good. Pay's 20 cubes an hour. Be here tomorrow morning,"
"Sure thing." Finn shook the man's oil stained hands and left the hangar. 'What is a cube?' he thought. Outside it was beginning to get dark. 'I guess they're starting to shut down for the night to conserve power.' He waited there for a few minutes, and then caught sight of Ryoko walking down the street.
"What happened to you?" she asked, noticing Finn looking very grungy and wearing his undershirt, with his outer shirt under his arm.
"I had to do some stuff," Finn replied with a smirk.
"How'd it go?"
"I start tomorrow,"
"Great. I also start tomorrow at the ramen shop," she replied. "I have to be a…waitress." Ryoko didn't seem happy about this.
'I guess that's because she's used to giant robots blowing up, not fetching noodles,' Finn thought.
"The only reason I took the job was they were offering a room to stay in," she added quickly, noticing Finn's amused expression.
"Perfect. Now all we have to do is find out where to buy a space suit, and how much," Finn said as they walked down the street. "Wait a sec…we can both stay there…right? I mean, you know how these people are when it comes to…"
"Don't worry. I told them we were Mr and…" Ryoko struggled. "Mrs Amada." She looked at Finn's face, which had a really wide smile on it and was also a little red. "And don't think that I'm letting you sleep with me. There's one futon, you get the floor."
"Yes ma'am," Finn said, still smiling.
"And stop grinning like that!" Ryoko said, trying to sound irritated.
"Whatever you say." Finn tried to stop smiling like an idiot but couldn't help it. They walked in silence for a few minutes and before long were at the ramen shop. It had a sign in the window that read "Dusty's Noodles". "How original," Finn remarked. When they walked through the door, Finn saw a small, 9 table restaurant, with a tiny kitchen in the back. It was fairly slow inside, there were a few people all eating hot noodles. Ryoko led Finn around back to the kitchen where a elderly man and woman were busy doing this and that. Whatever it is that chefs do when it's not busy.
"Mr. Noda." Ryoko said, clearing her throat. "I'd like you to meet my h-husband. Jiro."
"Nice to meet you, lad," Mr. Noda said, shaking Finn's hand. "Yuji Noda's the name. And this is my wife Yu."
"Please to meet you Mr. Amada," Yu said, giving a little bow.
"Please, just call me Jiro." Finn gave an awkward bow back.
"Order up. Miso steak ramen. Easy on the spinach," said a young girl from the counter. She looked to be about sixteen and had long red hair tied back in a ponytail. "Hey, who are these two?"
"This young lady will be helping out here starting tomorrow," Mr. Noda answered. "Reiko Amada. And this is her husband, Jiro. They will be staying upstairs. Mr. and Mrs. Amada, this is my daughter, Junko."
"Hi. Ok Pop, time to get to work," Junko said, sliding the order across the counter.
"Alright. Dear, why don't you show these two upstairs?" Mr. Noda began his work, dipping uncooked noodles into a pot of boiling water.
"Right this way." Yu led them up a narrow staircase and down an equally narrow hallway.
'I'm sensing a recurring pattern here.' Finn thought. Finally she led them into a very small room with a futon laid out on the floor. There was a set of shelves going up one wall and a small desk in the corner. Finn saw the small patch of bare floor that he would probably end up on and made some kind of 'eugh' sound.
"Something wrong, Jiro?" Yu asked. "I know it's not much, but it's the best we can offer."
"No no. Just had something stuck in my throat, that's all. This will do very well, thank you." Finn tried to cover his slip.
"That's good. I'll leave you two alone now to get used to your new home. Do you have any bags?" Yu asked.
"Bags?" they both asked in unison.
"Yes, you know. Your stuff. Clothes. Things like that." Yu answered.
"Oh bags. No we don't. We…just moved here and they lost our bags at the spaceport." Finn stumbled through his excuse.
"Oh, that's terrible. Do they know you're staying here, if they find your things?"
"They have my cell number," Finn replied. 'Oh please let them have cell phones here,' he thought.
"Ok then. But in the meantime, you can borrow some of your things. My husband and I have a closet just jammed with things we don't usually wear today. I'll go get you a few things." Yu closed the door, and the sound of her footsteps down the hall could be heard.
"Whew," Finn heaved a sigh of relief.
"Cell phone? Wasn't that a bit risky?" Ryoko asked, knowing quite well what the answer to that question was.
"Yeah, I know. But it worked, so there's no problem," Finn said, taking a seat in the chair that sat by the desk. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "Do you really think this'll work? We have less than two weeks to earn enough 'cubes' to buy a spacesuit. After that…" he trailed off.
"We're stuck here." Ryoko finished. "I don't know about you, but I have no intention of being a Jovian for the rest of my life and stuck on some rock millions of kilometers away from home."
"Same here. I suppose the only thing we can do is try." Finn said. "Well, I'm heading out." He grabbed the bag containing his suit.
"Why are you going there?" Ryoko asked.
"I want to make sure they're still there. I have an idea. If I'm not back in an hour…avenge my death." Finn laughed and left the room. He bumped into Yu, who was carrying a mountain of old clothes, in the hall.
"Just going out to finalize my new job," Finn told her and slipped past.
"Oh, before you go." She balanced the load on one arm and dug into her pocket and retrieved a key. "It's a key for the backdoor, in case you're ever out past closing."
"Alright. Thanks." Finn took the key and continued on his way. He walked out the back door and began his trek by retracing his steps back to the hospital. When he got there it was very dark out, and the only light by which he could see was from the occasional streetlight. The hospital was situated on the far east wall of the colony's dome. Or at least, that's what Finn's watch compass told him. He walked along the wall until he found a heavy door, which led to a small hallway that went around the entire colony. Finn walked down the dimly lit hallway until he stumbled upon a small room, that looked he guessed to be part of the airlock facility. Sure enough, there were a series of doors, each having a small circular window, through which Finn could see outside. "Perfect." He glanced around, making sure no one else was in sight, and then put on his suit. It felt comfortable and familiar. "No time for that," he said, clicking on his helmet. Time to get to work." And with that, he pulled open the first heavy door and began to move through the airlock. There were three doors in total. Each one had to be closed before the one in front of it could be opened.
Ryoko was awoken from an uneasy sleep by the sound of footsteps coming down the hall and the door to he room opening. She silently bolted out of bed and pressed herself flat against the wall adjacent to the door and waited for him to make a move. When the intruder took a step in she grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. She then used her free arm to get him into some kind of a choke hold. It was very difficult for either Ryoko or the intruder to tell exactly what was going on due to the darkness.
"What's that for?" the intruder whispered.
"Finn?" Ryoko asked.
"Who did you think it was?" Finn asked as she released him from her kung-fu grip.
"Where the hell have you been? You said you'd be back in an hour, tops. That was four hours ago," Ryoko said in the loudest of whispers.
"I was…delayed," Finn said, sitting down on the floor. Ryoko sat opposite of him.
"Spill it," she said. Finn began his explanation. "You mean to tell me that you were hiding the frames?"
"Exactly. I wanted to make sure they weren't found. I brought my frame online and did a seismic scan, looking for a large pit of lunar dust. I found some about a hundred meters away from our crash site. But as I was carrying your frame to it a, from what I could gather, Jovian scout group flew overhead. So I had to hide behind a mound of boulders for three hours while they were looking around our crash site. Fortunately for us it was too dark to see the tracks I made," Finn explained.
"So that's it," Ryoko said to herself, feeling what she took to be relief.
"I buried your frame in the dust, then I went back to the crash sight to cover up the tracks. It was also a bit of a walk coming back here. And you, I might add, have one heck of a chokehold," he said, massaging his shoulder.
"Uh…sorry," Ryoko mumbled.
"Ah, a word of apology. Much appreciated." Finn couldn't even see it coming. He was soon laying dazed on the floor. "Why are the cute ones always so violent?"
"What was that?" Ryoko asked. She received no answer. "Finn? You ok?" 'Uh oh.' She thought. "Hey Finn, you alright?" She fumbled for the lamp sitting on the desk. When she clicked it on she saw Finn laying there with a goofy smile on his face, snoring slightly. Ryoko smiled. "Idiot," She climbed back under the covers and was soon asleep as well.
'One Week'
"New information has just come to JNN via Jovian Central Command." All eyes turned to the TV sitting on the counter in the ramen shop. "The UF's phase transition powered ship has finally been identified. Spies within the UF say that the ship, known to us as Wolf, is actually called the Nadesico." Ryoko, who was busy rushing orders from table to table, froze. "It has also come to light that two of the Nadesico's pilots were pulled into a leapgate three weeks ago. However, the gate was destroyed soon after and it was impossible to track where they ended up. However, JNN would like to assure everyone that it is impossible for these two Earth savages to still be alive, due to Earth's failure to successfully leap life forms yet. A search is being conducted in all areas for the two robots that were pulled into the gate. More on this story as it develops. Now, back to you…what was your name again?"
"Its Nabashin!" a white guy with a funky afro appeared on camera.
"Not you numb nuts!" the reporter screamed. The TV then went to commercial.
"Reiko, you alright?" Yu asked, placing two bowls of noodles on the counter.
"What? Oh yeah…I'm fine," said Ryoko, snapping back into reality.
"Good. If you're done daydreaming we do have costumers to feed." Yu smiled, but her tone of voice indicated that it was more of a warning than a friendly joke.
"Yes ma'am." Ryoko grabbed the two steaming hot bows. She nearly dropped them due to the heat, but caught herself just in time.
"Something wrong, dear?" Mr. Noda asked from the back.
"I don't think I'll ever understand that girl. I could swear that before she came here she never even cooked a meal for herself, let alone served others. You'd think she came from one of the iroids (asteroids composed of iron) and been living off instant dinners all her life," Yu replied. "You think that's where they came from?"
"Don't know. Most folks are moving out to the iroids looking for mining work, not moving into the big colonies to be mechanics like our boy Jiro," he chuckled. "Come to think about it, they showed up not long after they said those two Earth robots got pulled into a gate. You think its those two?"
"Jiro? A soldier?" Yu laughed. "The only weapon that boy's ever touched is a welding torch. Speaking of which. Hello Jiro." She waved as Finn came in through the back door. His hands were black with engine grease and the rest of him looked as though he'd been a human chimneysweep all day.
"Domo," Finn replied with his usual smile. "Need any help?"
"No. That's alright. The dinner rush has already come and gone. And even if we did need your help I wouldn't let you touch anything looking like that. What happened to you?" Yu asked.
"I kind of…caused an engine to overload while I was mending the exhaust shaft," Finn answered.
"Oh, that's all," Yu didn't sound impressed. Probably because during Finn's short time as a mechanic he had been roasted, blown up, blasted, and sizzled in every kind of engine misfire you could think of. Fortunately these accidents were, for the most part, no fault of Finn's. "You're a walking disaster,"
"Jiro the Stampede, the humanoid typhoon," Junko said, looking up from her Trigun manga.
"Hey, its not my fault these people don't know how to take care of a space shuttle properly," Finn defended himself.
"Anyway, you'd better wash up. Just please, take a different bar of soap. You gave me quite a scare last time when I found a black, greasy blob where I usually find my soap. Ugh, even thinking about that is enough to make my skin crawl." Yu shuddered.
"I'll keep that in mind." Finn said as he disappeared up the stairs.
"And don't touch anything like that!" Yu called after him.
"K." Finn called back.
Business at Dusty's Noodles continued as usual.
'I wonder what possessed Mr. Noda to call this place 'Dusty's Noodles'?' Ryoko thought. 'It might make sense if his name was Dusty…but…' She did a mental shrug. It was well past eleven o'clock at night and they were closing up the store.
"Ok, I'm off now," Ryoko said, glancing at the clock.
"Alright dear," Yu said, putting away the last of the dishes. "Oh wait a sec. Reiko?" She said just as Ryoko was beginning to climb the stairs. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you about."
"What's that?" Ryoko asked, standing on the first step.
"Well, I know it's none of my business but…frankly. I'm worried about you and Jiro." Yu said, she sounded a little uncomfortable.
"Why's that?" Ryoko asked, genuinely puzzled.
"Well, it's like this. I don't usually get to sleep until one or two in the morning. And well, you two have been here for over a week now and I haven't heard…you know," Yu said in an uneasy voice.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Ryoko asked.
"Are you and Jiro getting along alright?"
"Yeah. We're doing great," Ryoko answered.
"I'm just concerned that maybe there's something wrong. There's no sign of any…oh…how should I put this? Physical intimacy?" Yu said.
"I…" Ryoko put all the pieces together. "Oh no. Nothing's wrong." She turned very red.
"I know this isn't proper. I'm just trying to look out for you, dear." Yu closed the cupboards up. "Are you sure everything's ok?"
"Yeah yeah. Everything's fine." Ryoko quickly disappeared up the stairs. Her face was as red as could be.
"She's a virgin," Mr. Noda snickered from behind the counter.
"You…you heard all that?" Yu asked startled.
"Sure did," He said.
"You dirty old man, you." Yu tried to sound mad but ended up laughing.
"Finn…Jiro?" Ryoko knocked on the door, making sure she wouldn't walk in on him changing. "I'm coming in."
"K," Came a reply through the door. Ryoko stepped into the dimly lit room. Finn was seated at the desk scribbling away in his little notebook. "Very educational," he said to himself.
"What is?" Ryoko asked.
"Huh?" Finn looked up. "Oh, nothing."
"Come on. I always see you writing in that notebook. I want to see what it's all about." Ryoko snuck a few steps closer while Finn finished whatever he was writing. "Mine!" She grabbed it out of Finn's hands.
"Hey!" Finn stood up and tried to swipe it back. "What are you doing?"
"Just looking." She held Finn off with one hand and held the book open with the other. " 'Living with Ryoko has been…a very educating experience.'" She read. "Ooo, writing something about me. How sweet."
"Come on. Give it back." Finn tried to dodge past Ryoko's kung-fu-like barricade.
" 'She doesn't enjoy working in the shop. I know she'd much rather be at the controls of her aesti. I don't think she enjoys not being in control of what she's supposed to be doing. On the battlefield she's always cool and collected, knowing exactly what to do. She thinks more about the safety of others before considering her own. But now that she's out of her element…I don't know what to expect from her.' You wrote this?" she asked.
"Those notes are…everything. They're priceless," Finn ducked under Ryoko's arm and grabbed at the notebook. His reach wasn't long enough and he ended up grasping her wrist. "Nothing can replace that kind of knowledge,"
"Want to play rough eh?" Ryoko grinned and swiftly kicked his legs out from under him. However, he was still holding onto her wrist and pulled her down to the floor with him. Finn landed on the floor with his back to the wall. Ryoko lay on top of him.
"Hot. Ooh baby, that's hot." Finn winced. Ryoko's face turned a distinct shade of red.
"Knock it off," she said, pulling herself up and sitting in Finn's lap. "Let's see what else you've got in here," she continued to flip through the pages.
"Hohoho mama that's hot,"
"I said knock it off," Ryoko warned.
"No…hot! Very hot! Radiator…on back…hot…" Finn managed to say.
"What? Oh shit!" Ryoko jumped off Finn and hauled him away from the wall. His back was smoking and the back of his shirt had four black lines burnt into them. "How bad is it? Let me see." She touched the back of his shirt.
"No, nononono. I'm fine. Its…ok." Finn shuffled a few steps away from her.
"I'm going to get some ice from downstairs. Take your shirt off." Ryoko headed for the door.
"What? No, its not that bad," Finn protested.
"Strip," she commanded and disappeared out the door. Finn reluctantly removed the undershirt he was wearing and touched the burn.
"Yow." He winced. "That's gonna leave a mark." He sat facing the door. "Here goes."
"Ok, you'd better have your shirt off. Hey, I can hear you two giggling in there!" Ryoko said as she passed by Mr. Noda and Yu's room. "Sorry about that I…oh my g…" she dropped the bag of ice and backed up against the doorway. "What…what the hell?" At first she tried to look away. But gradually she let herself see Finn's naked chest and back. However, it wasn't that she was interested in. Finn had his back to her. "That…how did you…?" she stammered.
"How did I get this?" Finn said turning around to face her and revealing the other half of the jagged scar that had once been carved into his body. He picked up the ice and tried to hold it against the burn.
"Here, let me get that for you." Ryoko took the ice from him and sat him down in the chair. She pressed the ice gently against the long red marks that had been seared into his skin. "What happened?"
"I don't know," Finn replied in a low voice.
"You can tell me. You know me enough by now that…" Ryoko started.
"No, I don't know. I don't know how I got this. I've had it my entire life and I have no idea how this happened." He held his closed fists against his knees with his head lowered. "It hurts."
"Sorry. Am I pressing the ice too hard?" She asked.
"No. The mark, it hurts. It aches constantly. It's like…being slashed by a red hot knife." Finn's body shook for a moment and his voice trembled. Ryoko removed the ice and sat on the desk beside him. She could see drops of water on his closed fists. It took a moment for it to click in that those were Finn's tears.
"Didn't your parents…" She began.
"Why would I ask someone who's dead?" he cut her off. "Why would a lab rat have parents?" He added quietly. Ryoko looked at him, his body slumped in the chair. She couldn't see his face but could guess what it looked like. They passed some time in silence.
'What do I do?' she thought. 'I've pulled people from exploding ships, seen limbs blown off before. So why…why does this…?' She placed her hand over his. He took it and gave a gentle squeeze.
"Why does this hurt so much?" they both asked each other.
"Ryoko, I…" Finn stood up and took bother her hands. She stood up off the table. Both they're eyes shimmered with tears. One out of pain, the other out of concern. They're faces were remarkably close. Ryoko closed her eyes.
"I…" she whispered, but was cut off by a rumbling noise. The whole house shook slightly, just enough to cause the two of them to loose their footing. Ryoko fell onto Finn, who fell onto the floor. 'Damn.' She thought.
"What the?" Finn said, somewhat dazed. The rumbling subsided after a few minutes.
"You two alright in there?" Mr. Noda's voice came through the door. Ryoko jumped off Finn and let him in. They had obviously been sitting there a long time, for Mr. Noda was dressed in his house coat and looking very sleepy.
"What's the matter?" She asked as Finn scrambled into his shirt.
"Damn blasting. They do this every now and then. Looking for iron nearby. Sometimes stuff falls over, but you two seem alright. G'night kids." Mr. Noda closed the door and walked back to his room.
"I suppose that totally killed the mood." Finn said to himself, seeming back to his old self.
"Yeah," Ryoko said sounding overly disappointed. "Don't you want to kiss me?" She struck a very sexy pose.
"I…" Finn tried not to stare.
"Come on, I'm joking with ya." Ryoko got into bed. Finn took his usual position on the floor. "Aren't you coming?" She held half of the futon open. Finn was awestruck. "And you can stop thinking that."
"Yes ma'am." Finn said slipping under the warm blankets. "Finally, I won't freeze my ass off." When his back connected with the soft fabric of the futon, his eyes went as wide as dinner plates, but he bit his lip.
"We wouldn't want that to happen, would we?" Ryoko said seductively.
"Damnit," he laughed. "Stop toying with me!" Finn put his arm around Ryoko and they fell asleep soon after. And yes they still had their clothes on.
"What?" the author asks the reader, who is disappointed about the lack of sex in this fic. "I'm trying to go for a bit of verisimilitude here, give me a break."
Uh
oh
"How much is this one?" Finn asked, holding the sleeve of a spacesuit.
"That one is [] 5000, sir." The 'tailor' replied.
"Man. Got anything…" he trailed off and looked at Ryoko.
"Affordable?" Ryoko finished for him.
"Well, we do have this suit over here," the tailor led them over to a dingy corner of the shop. "It is slightly used, but we have repaired the bullet holes and got most of the blood out."
"Blood?" Finn asked.
"Bullet holes?" Ryoko asked.
"Yes, this one was used by a member of the Black Fang," the tailor said, cleaning the visor with his handkerchief.
"Not to be confused with a band of certain colony rebels from Gundam Wing, right?" the author asked.
"That's right," answered the tailor.
"How much?" Finn looked at the author.
"Hey, don't look at me." He faded from view.
"It's [] 2500," the tailor replied.
"Do you rent suits? We only need one for a little while," Finn said after a brief silence.
"You must not be from around here," The tailor hung the suit back up on its hook.
"That's right," Ryoko said in a 'what-about-it?' tone of voice.
"We just got here a few days ago," Finn added before someone lost a tooth.
"Well, on Dusty it is prohibited by law for citizens to use spacesuits for personal use, for obvious safety reasons. Only miners and those who have work outside the colony are permitted to have them," the tailor explained.
'Then what's the point of selling them?' Finn thought.
"Most of our customers are miners,"
"Tell me, would a shuttle repair shop have any, if they needed to do some testing in space to make sure everything was in working order?"
"I don't see why they wouldn't. It's very likely. But I don't know for certain. Is this suit related to your work at all, sir?" asked the tailor.
"Yeah…but I think I might be able to borrow one. Thanks." They left the shop.
"You think the garage will have one?" Ryoko asked.
"They might. I'll check back tonight and see. Right now, we need some provisions." Finn said, punching his open hand.
"What do you prefer, instant noodles through a straw, or 'Nutrical vitamin supplement drink'? Ryoko asked when they got to the grocery store. Fortunately for them it was a Saturday, so Finn didn't have to work at the garage, and Ryoko didn't start until later at the ramen shop.
"Dunno. What does it say about taste?" he asked, looking at the package. " 'Simulated natural colours and flavours. Note: Nutrical is not liable for any unmentioned side effects.' 'Side effects'? What do you mean 'side effects?'"
"Instant noodles through a straw it is then. But if we're…" Ryoko lowered her voice. "But if we're going through a you-know-what, why would we need this stuff?"
"Because we know where we'll show up, but only in a general way. We could come out at the bottom of the ocean or something. And if we're bashed around like we did last time, I think it would be a good idea to have some emergency food and water in case we're stuck anywhere," Finn explained, making sure no one was within earshot.
"Makes sense." Ryoko put a few more bottles of water in their cart. "Oh, you're so smart, Jiro! I, being only a mere female, would never have thought of something so brilliant," she raised her voice so that everyone in the store could hear.
"Not taking the whole Jovian woman thing very well eh?" Finn looked around, a few people glanced their way.
"If I don't destroy something soon…" The sound of Ryoko's teeth grinding was audible. "Reiko the waitress will be serving severed heads soon."
"Just wait a few more days. We're almost ready." Finn sweatdropped. 'Very educational,' he thought. "Today's lesson: butch female pilots must have a weekly prescription of destruction. Deprivation of this fifth food group can result in…' he looked at Ryoko. 'That."
"Hey, I just thought of something. If civilians aren't supposed to have spacesuits…the why didn't they ask us any questions when we first got here?" Ryoko asked at the checkout counter.
"Beats me," Finn shrugged. "Loose security I guess."
"I'm just going to drop by the garage and see if they have anything we can use." Finn left Ryoko at the shop. He arrived at the garage just as the artificial sun was setting.
"Jiro?" Sam looked said from behind a mountain of paperwork that had built up on his desk. "You didn't have to come in today."
"I know. I just wanted to ask you something." Finn walked up to the desk and leaned against the wall.
"Shoot." Sam tossed some papers on the floor.
"What do we do in the event that there's some reason for one of us to go outside to…I don't know, something like check out a crashed shuttle or something?" He asked.
"Outside? Haven't had to go out there for years, not since there was a leap gate accident and a transport full of officers crashed," Sam explained. "Why do you ask?"
"Just something that's been on my mind. That's all," Finn answered.
"Well, in the event that we need to go outside we have a few spacesuits laying around somewhere around here. But like I said, we've only had to go outside once. And now that the war's on, it's been pretty quiet out here. Most of the action is happening around Europa." San leaned back in his chair.
'I think we can arrange something here.' Finn grinned as he thought this. "Alright. Thanks." Finn walked towards the exit. 'The wheels are in motion.' As he left the building he collided with another person. "Oh, sorry. Are you ok?"
"Yes, I'm fine," the woman he collided with said.
"That's good. Well, see ya." Finn began to go on his way, glancing back at the woman as he left.
"Oh, I feel faint." The woman held herself up against the wall of the garage. "The blow was more intense than I thought.
"Are you alright?" Finn caught her, falling chest. 'Oh my gosh! She's not wearing a bra! And my earlier estimate of 33 inches was wrong, she's a 34 ½!' his mind screamed. Her body shook slightly. Finn interpreted this as some indication she was hurt. But instead of sobs, it sounded more like… 'laughter?' He thought.
"Your compassion will be your downfall," the woman said in an oh-too familiar voice, grabbing Finn.
"Aww crap." Finn tried to back away but Sanoske was holding onto his right arm.
"Don't worry. I'm not here to kill you. Actually, it's quite the opposite. And by the way, the name is Sakura." She let go of Finn and removed the hood she was wearing.
'Yep, same chick.' Finn thought the moment he saw her face. "What do you want from me then?"
"You know, you're the first guy to ever beat me." She seemed to ignore the question.
"What the?"
"I suppose it won't hurt to tell you. I mean, look at you. You're just a lowly shuttle mechanic. No one would believe you're story," Sakura grinned.
"What do you mean?" Finn asked. 'Aw man, I feel naked without my gun.'
"I'm going to let you in on a little secret," Sakura said.
"And what would that be?"
"You see, I find men to be…boring. Especially soldiers who pilot dimojins. They think they're so big. So tough. But what have they got?" She turned and faced the street. "Shoot down a few target drones and maybe engage the enemy a few times and that's it. They think they're king of the world. Why don't they see it? There's so much more to being a warrior than blowing stuff up. It takes cunning, skill, and honour above all else. You know what I'm talking about. You're the best the Earth has to offer. No doubt you know what it's like."
"I wouldn't know," Finn replied.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, seemingly in a dreamlike state.
"Being a 'warrior', honour. That's all shit. This is just a game played to win. If you're strong and lucky, maybe you'll come out of it alive. But if you get caught up in all this honour bullshit, it's only a matter of time before there's a stray missile with your name on it. Unfortunate as it may be, that's the way it is," Finn said coldly. "I don't fight for honour, I fight to stay alive and because, to be blunt, it's what I'm paid to do."
"But on the battlefield, you wouldn't kill me because I was a woman. If that is true, then your own words defeat you," Sakura came back.
"That's just a personal preference," Finn replied. "I don't like killing either way, really, but some part of my brain doesn't want to see women killed." They stood in silence for a long time.
"I made a promise when I joined the armed forces," she turned to face him, her eyes shimmering. "I promised that if I was ever defeated, then I would give myself to that man. That man would be my other half." She wrapped her arms around Finn. "So come claim your prize. You've proven yourself to be more than just two hands at the controls."
"Take your tentacles off me!" Finn protested and shoved her off. "What the hell is the matter with you?! Quite living in some daydream where some prince is going to come carry you off. We're enemies. If I wasn't 'weakened by compassion' as you put it, you'd be dead by now. Its as clear-cut as that."
"So what you're saying is, I have to prove myself to you," Sakura regained her composure. "Very well then. You've proven yourself to me. Next time we meet, I shall prove myself to you!"
"Haven't you been listening to what I've been saying?" Finn asked.
"Yes, very clearly. We shall meet again on the battlefield. And then I shall prove myself to you." Sakura turned away and began to walk into the night.
"Oooooh crap," Finn said to himself. "But still," he added, taking out his notebook. "Very educational." Then he remembered the time. "Oh shit!" He sprinted home as fast as he could.
"Hello Jiro. Have a nice walk?" Yu greeted him as he walked in the back.
"What? Oh, yes. Very educational." Finn bolted up the stairs and began furiously scribbling in his notebook. After what seemed like a few minutes, Ryoko came into the room.
"What happened?" Ryoko asked.
"We're leaving," Finn said putting down his notebook. "Now."
"What? Why now?" Ryoko asked. "What's going on? What happened to you?"
"We're in trouble," Finn began stuffing their supplies into a duffle bag they had bought.
"Damnit. Tell me what's going on! What happened? Yu said you burst through the door and flew up the stairs." Ryoko slapped him across the face, hard. Finn took a stumbled back a few steps and shook his head. "Now will you tell me what's going on?" She sat down on the futon, and motioned for Finn to join her.
"Alright, I'll tell you what happened." He sat down beside her and began his tale.
"So this chick is after you then?" Ryoko asked.
"I don't really know. She said something about we'd face each other in battle or something. That she'd 'prove' herself to me." Finn held his head in his hands. "Great, that's all we needed, some cross-dressing nutbar chick who hates all men 'cept for me. Why me? What I don't understand is why wouldn't she make some move to capture us."
"Duh, moron. Don't you know what she's thinking? She's planning on killing you, and probably herself while she's at it," Ryoko answered.
"Great. Couldn't she get me a card or something?" Finn said sarcastically.
"Come on, its not so bad." Ryoko playfully smacked him in the head. "We're outta here in what, a matter of hours."
"I don't know. I just have a bad feeling about all this now." Finn raised his head. "Hey," he said after a few minutes of silence. "Shouldn't you be downstairs?"
"What do you mean?" Ryoko asked.
"It's only a few minutes passed…" Finn looked at his watch. "Midnight?"
"Yeah, I got off late. You've been up here for over two hours."
"But all I did was…"
"Scribble in your notebook, right? Just a wild guess."
Finn looked at his notebook and flipped through the pages he'd written in the last few hours. He kept flipping page after page.
"I…it only seemed like a few minutes." He was baffled. "When you're studying, time moves faster. Very educational" He wrote down quickly. "Woops. Sorry." Seeing Ryoko's sweatdrop.
"Jiro? Reiko? Are you still up?" Yu's voice came softly through the door.
"Yep. We're still up. Something wrong?" Finn asked opening the door.
"Nothing's wrong. We'd just like to ask something from you two," Yu began.
"We'd like to take your picture if that's ok with you," Mr. Noda finished.
"Our picture?" they both asked in unison.
"Come out here." Mr. Noda motioned for them to come into the narrow hallway. "See these pictures here? All of them are young people who've worked here before. Before it was always one young man or woman who came. You're the first couple we've had here."
"Ooookaay," Finn said slowly. "Where would you like to take it?"
"Oh, not right now," Yu laughed. "We thought tomorrow morning just outside."
"We've got something better planned for tonight." Mr. Noda produced a rather large bottle of sake from a bag.
Lets All Get Drunk And Play Ping Pong!
"Oow." Finn groaned, holding his head. "I feel like they're accountants cranking adding machines in my head." The author provides a look inside Finn's cranial chamber. Two accountants sit there adding away.
"You ever wonder what's outside those walls, Bill?" the one on the left asked.
"Say now, that's dangerous thinking there, Paul. You'd best stick to your work," the one on the right replied.
Finn slowly opened his eyes, but the light pouring unhindered through the window made his head pound even more. The strange pressure on his chest didn't help the situation. He felt around the edge of the futon for nothing in particular, but stopped when he came across a peculiar round object.
"Hey, what's this?" He gave it a squeeze. It was soft to the touch yet firm.
"Cut it out," Something stirred beside him and a mass of black hair emerged out from under the covers on top of him. "Ahh, my head." Ryoko fell back onto his chest holding her hands to her head. Finn began to put the pieces together.
'Up late. Sake. More sake. A lot more sake. I sense a recurring pattern here. What happened after that? Now I wake up with Ryoko laying on top of me.' The rusty gears in Finn's head began to turn. 'OH HOW VERY EDUCATIONAL!'
Ryoko rolled off of him, apparently still in some state of sleep. He very carefully peeled back the duvet a little. Nothing but the bare skin of her back. He pulled the duvet down a little further. Still nothing. Ryoko's entire naked back was exposed. "No…clothes…on?" Quickly he checked himself. Fortunately for his sanity his Nergal standard issue boxer shorts were still where they were supposed to be. 'But still, this could get dangerous.' A little evil Finn appeared on Finn's left shoulder.
"Take advantage of the situation. Ryoko's laying naked and groggy right next to you," it said.
"No, you mustn't. You should wake her and tell her what you think happened," A good Finn appeared on his right shoulder.
"Don't listen to that goodie goodie." Evil Finn shoved Good Finn out of the way. "Go for it, man!"
"No, you have to listen to the voice of good conscience," Good Finn shoved evil Finn away. Evil Finn whacked it on the head with his pitchfork.
"There, now what he's out of the way. You'll love it. Come on." There was the sound of a gun firing and evil Finn fell over.
"The bullet of justice caps evil's ass. Remember that." Good Finn said, blowing the wisp of smoke from the gun's barrel. Just then, a tiny police car drove across Finn's face. Another Finn got out.
"Good Finn, you are under arrest for the murder of Evil Finn." Officer Finn said, handcuffing Good Finn.
"Oh well. See ya. La de de da da…" They got into the car and drove off. Finn blinked.
'I hope drinking was all that I did,' He blinked.
For a long time Finn simply lay there trying not to pay attention to the jackhammer-like pounding of his head. He didn't think of anything in particular, such as what had actually transpired the previous night and their current state of undress.
"Finn?" came a somewhat shaky voice from Ryoko, who still lay on her side with her back turned to him.
"Hmm?" Finn turned his head to look at her.
"What…what happened?" she said, her voice sounding very…
'Scared?' thought Finn. That's what her voice sounded like. "You don't remember anything either?" he answered rhetorically. There was a sudden throb in his head that felt like someone hammering a nail into his skull.
"Yeah." She rolled over onto her other side so she was facing Finn, making sure she was covered up. For a long time they lay there staring into each other's eyes. For the first time ever, Ryoko looked frightened. Finn slid his hand under the sheets and took hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. Slowly their faces began to draw towards each other. Ryoko closed her eyes. Finn couldn't stop himself. He was just drawn to her lips by some unknown force stronger than any gravity blast. He could feel her breath on his face.
"Beepbideep Beepbideep," the small clock mounted on the wall buzzed. Finn tried to ignore it, but the irritated sound of that buzzer coupled with the ever-increasing pounding between his temples overtook him. Ryoko sensed him pull away and opened her eyes.
"I was thinking," Ryoko said after a few minutes of silence passed between them. "You think…we should just stay here?"
"I thought you hated being a waitress?" Finn grinned.
"I'd find other employment," Ryoko informed him. "Just, do you think it would just be better to wait it out here?"
"As much as I'd like to stay here and enjoy the peace and quiet," Finn sighed. "We can't."
"Why not?" Ryoko asked, already knowing the answer.
"Because we don't belong here. As much as I hate this to be the case, we can't stay here," Finn said regretfully. "We just don't belong here."
"I guess we're better suited for the battlefield than for waiting tables and degreasing engines," Ryoko said sadly.
"Yeah," Finn sighed again. "You ok?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." However, Ryoko's voice gave away the little part of her that was scared to death of something she didn't know.
'What am I so afraid of?' she asked herself. 'One minute I feel like running away, the next I'm ready to kiss him?' "I'm going for shower," She announced, trying to sound her usual, confident self. She slipped into the old housecoat Yu had lent to her. Perhaps after a shower she would feel somewhat cleansed of the mysterious and unknown events that had transpired the previous evening. Finn threw on some clothes and wandered into a tiny room that served as the upstairs kitchen.
"Maybe I can still catch some of whatever Yu made for breakfast," he yawned. Sometimes Yu made too much for herself and Mr. Noda and offered whatever was left to Finn or Ryoko, who ever got to it first.
Sliding the door open he saw Mr. Noda with a cup of tea in his hands reading the paper. "Morning," Finn yawned again, not realizing just how tired he was. It came out something more like 'mrngin'.
"Ah, nice to see you finally up," Mr. Noda said, glancing up from his paper. "Though, is a bit late to say good morning to you though."
"Hmm?" Finn asked.
"Its half past noon." Mr. Noda motioned to the clock on the microwave. "Granted you and Reiko were up fairly late," he laughed to himself.
"Gah." Finn held his head.
"Don't drink too often, eh lad?" Mr. Noda poured a cup of tea and slid it across the small table. "I'd offer you something stronger, but we're out,"
"Not very." Finn slumped down in a chair and held the cup. From what Finn had been able to pick up about Jovian culture, coffee was perfectly acceptable. However, since the author finds it disgusting he's going to replace it with tea. And there's nothing you can do about it! Hahaha, dance puppets! Dance! * ahem * Moving on.
The warmth felt good on his hands. 'I guess I don't drink that much.' He thought, when in actual fact the sake he had the previous evening was the first drink he'd ever had. Having been raised to be a lab rat, the scientists forbade him from touching even the smallest drop of alcohol. 'Oh yeah, now I remember. Possibility of unstable chemical interactions.' Finn's brain was slowly but surely recalibrating itself. "That's good," he said, taking a sip of hot tea. "Any…" He stopped when Mr. Noda slid a bowl of oatmeal. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it." Mr. Noda turned back to his paper. " 'Sources from agents inside the Earth UF report that the two robot pilots what were pulled into leapgates at point 2957 are presumed dead. A small ceremony was held for them yesterday. The names of the two pilots are unknown to us at this time. However, since our forces have been unable to recover any bodies or robots belonging to the two pilots, it is still a mystery whether or not they are actually, in fact, dead.' What do you think of that?"
"Wha? Oh, right." Finn's mind was busy on other matters.
"Just between you and me, I think this whole war's a silly waste of time. Both sides are deadlocked. And since Earth is fighting on home turf, it gives them a bit of an edge," Mr. Noda said quietly. Finn guessed that living under the Jovian government was similar to living in Russia during the communist rule. Secret police and hidden listening devices everywhere.
"Makes sense to me. You have to wonder about those pilots though. For all we know they could have hidden themselves in Jovian society!" Finn tried to laugh as best he could.
"Yeah. Its like they show up on a colony and its like 'hmm, oh well. Might as well get used to it' and just go from there," Mr. Noda laughed. "Ah, you're too funny, Jiro. But personally, I think they may have just been shifted."
"Shifted?" Finn asked puzzled. "Sorry, I don't read the paper that much," he added quickly noticing Mr. Noda's face that had one of those 'you don't know what it means?' kind of looks on it.
"Well, you see back in the days when they started to experiment with leaping there were quite a number of soldiers who entered the leap gates and never came back. They had lines in the pods so if anything went wrong they could just yank him out. But with a few the lines were severed. Not in the way that it was cut or anything like that, but just as though the end of the line had never existed," Mr. Noda explained.
"Did they ever find the missing soldiers?" asked Finn, taking another sip of tea.
"Nope. When they first started leaping the main problem was that the pod would come out the other end crushed like a piece of tin foil. It was once they began to fiddle with the DNA that shifting started."
"Oh ok. I get it now. Kind like they got lost somewhere in between chuli…I mean gates." Finn added.
"Exactly." Mr. Noda went back to his paper, ending their conversation. Finn dug into the bowl of oatmeal in front of him.
'Good thing they kept weekends the same,' Finn thought. When he finished his breakfast and downed the last of his tea, Finn returned to their room. Ryoko had just finished dressing. "There's some breakfast in the kitchen if you want," Finn said, taking his towel off the hook on the door.
"K," Ryoko replied. Finn gave a reassuring smile.
"About last night…"
"Don't worry about it," she said.
Finn emerged from the steamy bathroom a little while later and dressed in the only clothes he had and considered his, the blue shirt and beige pants they had given him at the hospital. Ryoko had somehow read his mind and was wearing her yellow sundress. When he went downstairs they were all waiting for him. Finn stood beside Ryoko with his arm around her. The camera Mr. Noda was using was very old, 'an antique', Yu had said once. It was something their ancestors from the Moon brought with them. Mr. Noda took three pictures of them with his old instant camera. He handed one to Finn, one to Ryoko. And tucked the last one in an envelope to be taken to be blown up and cheaply framed like the other pictures hanging in the upstairs hall.
3, 2, 1, Let's Jam
The day progressed as weekends usually did, even though this was only their second weekend since landing here. Finn and Ryoko wandered aimlessly around town all afternoon, and in the evening Ryoko waited tables downstairs. Finn had slipped out the back door soon after her shift began. It wasn't until a little after the dinner rush around 10 o'clock that he returned.
"Have an interesting day?" Yu asked when Finn walked in the back door.
"What makes you say that?" Finn asked, puzzled.
"That grin on your face. There's no mistaking it. You've got something planned," Yu replied.
"Oh. Yeah, you could say its something like that." Finn heard Mr. Noda laugh at something. "Stop that!"
"Whatever you say." Mr. Noda went back to whatever he was doing. Finn went upstairs.
"Gugh, I smell like a bowl of noodles," Ryoko complained as she entered their room.
"Nah, its more like old miso than noodles," Finn laughed. Ryoko mock punched him in the face. "Everything's ready," he added quietly.
"What do you mean?" Ryoko asked in a whisper. "What exactly did you do?" Finn had not actually told Ryoko anything in great detail. All she knew was that they were leaving and soon.
"Meet me at the airlock by the hospital at 9:00. Have my suit with you. And wear something that's comfortable in a spacesuit," he whispered in her ear.
"What do you think you're doing?" they heard Yu say from downstairs. They pulled away from each other and pressed their ears against the door. "What makes you think you can just barge in here and…" She was cutoff by someone who's voice Finn and Ryoko could only hear faintly through the door.
"We have reason to believe Earth spies have infiltrated security. Orders have been given to bring those known as Jiro Amada and Reiko Urashima/Amada into our custody for questioning," came the reply.
"Those two? What have they done?" Mr. Noda demanded.
"That is none of your concern. All you need to know is that they do not exist in our records. From the rent application you submitted to us, neither or their names or history came up," the man who was obviously some kind of security officer answered. They heard the sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Oooh crap," Finn sighed as he got up quickly. "Lock the door," he said as he picked up the bag he had packing and withdrew two items from it. "We need to get out of here," he said, loading one of the guns he had grabbed from the bag, and tossing one to Ryoko.
"Where did you get these?" Ryoko asked, tucking it into the waist of her the jeans she was wearing.
"My frame. Come on," he said as he threw the pack over his shoulder. He slid open the window and slipped out. "Come on." He said from the fire escape. Ryoko crawled through the opening and out into the night just as someone was beginning to work the door handle.
"Jiro Amada. We request that you come with us voluntarily. If you do we can guarantee your safety!" a voice boomed through the door. Finn pulled the window back down silently from outside and motioned for Ryoko to be very quiet. He jumped down from the second floor platform of the fire escape, Ryoko followed.
"Only two guys outside. Just act as though everything's normal." Finn whispered, taking Ryoko's hand and gingerly walking into plain view of the two, armed soldiers standing at the entrance to the shop. They took a brief glance in their direction but didn't do anything. Once they had reached the end of the street and turned a corner they began to run.
"I was really hoping it wouldn't come down to this," Finn said, rounding a corner and cutting down an alley.
"How the hell did they find us? How'd they even know we were here?" Ryoko asked.
"Mr. Noda mentioned something about having to submit some papers for having us live there. That's why I wanted us to get out of here tomorrow. I was hoping that they wouldn't have gone through the papers this quickly. Shit!" He came to a halt, and since he was still grasping Ryoko's arm, she had no choice but to stop as well.
"What?" She asked. Finn looked around.
"Here." He pulled her and squeezed into a small space between the wall of a building and a dumpster. Ryoko followed him.
"Just what the fuck are you doing?" she hissed.
"Shh." He put his hand over Ryoko's mouth. "Just hold on a sec." The sound of a car approaching became faintly audible. From their hiding place they could see a searchlight, coming from a window of the car, scanning the alley.
"Gee, you think they're onto us?" Ryoko whispered sarcastically.
"Come on, come on. Keep going," Finn's heart stopped momentarily when the car came to a stop right in front of the dumpster. They both fell silent and motionless.
"Alright. I see you there," came a voice from in front of them. Neither of them moved. "Come on buddy. Nap times over."
"Ugh." Something stirred from inside the dumpster.
"Alright. You know the drill," The officer said to whatever climbed out and was standing before him. "Have you been drinking any alcoholic beverages this evening?"
"Nothing. She wouldn't even give me a cookie," said a raspy voice between coughs.
"Have you been using any drugs?" the officer asked.
"Nothing. Then this lady came and took all of my blood," the garbage dweller answered.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me." Something fell onto the ground, not far from where Finn and Ryoko were hiding. "What's this?" He bent over and for a split second, Finn could see the fat officer picking up a small slip of paper. "Blood drive?"
"They had a quota. They wouldn't even give me a cookie," the not-so-crazy person answered.
"I'm still going to have to ask you to come with me." The sound of feet shuffling on the cold pavement and the car's doors slamming shut could be heard. They watched as the car went down the alley and pulled onto the street. When the taillights disappeared around the corner, Finn started breathing again.
"Alright, lets keep going," he said after a few minutes had passed. They both got up and began their marathon.
"This isn't the way to the airlock," Ryoko said as when they stopped outside the back of another building. "It looks like the back of the garage."
"Exactly." Finn fumbled with the back door's handle.
"I take it you don't have a key." Ryoko looked at him.
"No. I thought I'd left this door open when I was here earlier. Come on you." Finn continued to struggle with the uncooperative lock.
"Stand aside." Ryoko said. Finn stood back and watched as Ryoko brought the door down with one swift kick.
"I take it discretion doesn't appeal to you," Finn sweatdropped.
"Go with what works. Come on." Ryoko pulled him into the building. Fortunately Sam had left a few lights on. "So where's this suit of yours?" Ryoko asked, having figured out Finn's clever, though obvious plan.
"It should be in this locker." Finn walked down a line of lockers, finally stopping at one. Ryoko picked up a crowbar and pried the door open. "What the…" The locker was empty.
"Oh great." Ryoko looked around.
"Let me see something." Finn took the crowbar and opened locker after locker as though they were cans of tuna fish. "Empty, everyone of them." He began searching the entire establishment, in cabinets, on top of lockers, under benches. No stone was left unturned. However, the tree of his search bore no fruit. "But…it was here. I remember this scratch in the door," Finn said, returning to the first locker. "Aww shit. What are we going to do now? Everything depended on that suit being here." He sat down on the bench and thought.
"You have your suit, right?" Ryoko asked after a few minutes.
"Yeah," Finn said, looking up at her. "Right here." He tapped the pack on his back.
"Then you get out of here. I'll distract them long enough for you to get out," Ryoko said in one of those self-sacrificing tones of voice.
"Not an option." Finn stood up.
"But that way at least one of us would…"
"Nuh uh," Finn interrupted.
"But…" Finn put his hand over Ryoko's mouth.
"Look, if I thought deserting you was an option I'd have been gone long ago. But that's something I am not, and never will be prepared to do," Finn said her sternly.
"But we can't let both of us to be caught," Ryoko protested. "The Nadisco needs us. And getting one of us back is better than nothing,"
"I can't. I can't leave you. Don't you get it? I'm not doing this because it would make the Nadesico more powerful. I'm not doing this so for a medal. And I'm not doing this because it will protect the Earth. I'm doing this because I… because I…" Finn struggled. All of a sudden the main doors of the garage squealed as they began to open. Finn grabbed Ryoko and hid behind a pile of junk not far from the backdoor.
"Alright men. Search the premises. Look for anything incriminating," They heard a voice a call out. The sound of feet moving through the garage became audible.
"If that don't take the chrome plated cookie," Finn whispered. The sounds of footsteps were coming closer. "I got it. Get ready to bolt in a sec." He picked up a screwdriver off the floor right where they were sitting. Fortunately for them the police had not found the light switch. "3…2…1…" Finn counted down and threw the screwdriver as hard as he could towards the opposite end of the building. "Now!" he said just as the flying tool landed with a loud crash. They slipped out the backdoor.
"Wait a sec." Ryoko paused as she carefully closed the door.
"What? Come on, we need to get going." Finn said a few steps ahead.
"Give me a hand here." She began to push at a heavy piece of scrap metal placed on wooden skis. "If we block the door, they won't know we came out this way, and then they won't search back here." Finn began to push the piece of scrap with all his might. It budged a few centimeters.
"Come on," Finn groaned. "Keep going," he said, referring to the scrap and pushing. Ryoko pushed beside him.
"Aaaaand there," she said as they slid the scrap in front of the door. "Where to next?"
"This way." Finn grabbed her wrist and took off in the general direction of the airlock. There were police cars everywhere. They were on the streets, in parking lots, down alleys. Not to mention officers stopping everyone in sight asking them for identification papers. "Ok, it's just past that building there. Then there's a tunnel that circles along between the inner wall and the outside We just need to get to that door over there," Finn said, crouching behind a bush just outside the hospital.
"There's too many soldiers. And we can't pull that 'we're just ordinary people' stunt again. What we need is…" Ryoko began.
"A distraction. I forgot." Finn dug into the backpack and retrieved what looked like a cell phone. "My original plan was to blow up a drone shuttle leaving the colony and use that to slip away with a spare suit. But this'll do nicely." He punched in a series of numbers on the phone-like device. "Aaaaaand…now." He pressed the final button. A bright flash of light could be seen in the distance, followed a few seconds later by the loud shockwave of the explosion. From their seats between a bush and the outside of the hospital, they saw all policemen stop and stare at the fireball the erupted from docked, unmanned shuttle. "Lets go."
"I'd ask where you got the bombs but I think I have an idea." They moved quickly and in the confusion were able get to the inner wall of the colony without being stopped. From that point on it was clear sailing. Or so they hoped.
"I hope you have some sort of plan." Ryoko was breathing heavily after all their running.
"Yeah, I hope so to." Finn heaved, standing beside a vending machine.
"I'm just going to grab a bag of chips," came a voice from around the corner. There were four tunnels running around the edge of the colony. There was a water service tunnel just inside the inner wall, an electric cable tunnel next, a fuel pipeline tunnel after that, and finally the air sealant tunnel designed as a second wall in case of punctures in the outer wall. They were currently in a small room between the fuel pipeline tunnel and the air sealant. "What the, who are you?" The man raised his rifle.
"I…." Finn stammered.
"I was just out for a walk with my husband here and we thought we'd take a little break back here," Ryoko said, grabbing Finn's hand.
"You know this area is off limits to civilians," the soldier said.
"Then why was the door open?" Finn asked.
"Well, its not supposed to be. Come on, I'll escort you out." The soldier led the way.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Ryoko asked.
"Yeah, lets push him down the steps," Finn whispered back.
"No, idiot. What he's wearing." She pointed Finn to the suit the soldier was wearing.
"Hey, why are you wearing a spacesuit?" Finn asked offhandedly.
"We're on a state of alert. Two Earth spies slipped through security. We're supposed to make sure they don't make a run for it," the soldier answered.
"That's just what I wanted to hear," Finn grinned.
"What do you mean by gah…" The soldier fell backwards as Ryoko removed her fist from his face.
"I was just going to try hitting him on the back of the head with my gun. But hey, go with what works," Finn said, kneeling on the floor and making the bulky suit off the man. "Here, I know its not your colour, but put it on."
"What's the idea?" Ryoko asked when she noticed Finn had pulled his suit out and was getting into it.
"Put your helmet on so they can't see your face. And pick up his gun," Finn said, clicking his helmet into place. "Try and sound like a man and just follow my lead." Finn moved back to the vending machines and looked around the corner. Sure enough, there was the one inept soldier, standing in front of the door holding his gun.
"Soldier!" Finn said in a deep voice, coming around the corner into plain view. The soldier jumped and aimed his gun at Finn, who motioned for Ryoko to follow.
"Name and rank, please," the inept soldier demanded.
"Colonel Rhikto, Jovain Secret Police," Finn answered.
"Sir!" The inept soldier lowered his gun, stood up straight, and saluted Finn, who was trying not to laugh. "Orders sir!"
"Hello soldier. Who's this?" a man in uniform came up to them.
"Name and rank please," the soldier asked the newcomer.
"Since you're only a private I'll let that one go," the man said.
"What do you mean?" The soldier asked.
"You don't demand rank of a superior officer. I am Colonel Rhikto of Dustron security," Colonel Rhikto said.
'Aawwww shiiiiit,' Finn thought.
"Now who is this person here?" The Colonel directed his question at Finn.
"I….er…." The gears in Finn's head were working overtime.
"Sir, he claims he is Colonel Rhikto, Secret Police." The soldier informed them.
"Impersonating an officer is a serious offence. Remove your helmet and tell me your name!" The Colonel demanded.
'Here goes.' Finn thought. "Well sir, we just wanted." Finn looked around, making sure there was no one else in sight, and delivered a quick punch to the Colonel's face. "To say goodnight." The Colonel dropped to the floor.
"Nighty night." Ryoko said as she bashed the butt her gun on the gawking soldier's head. "Is that all you could think of?"
"Says the woman who'd rather blow things up than touch a bowl of ramen," Finn came back. All of a sudden, Finn flew back a few steps and fell with smoke rising from his body.
"Finn!" Ryoko cried.
"Thought one hit on the head would get me eh?" the soldier said, getting up. "Us troops aren't like those weak officers. Hands up." He aimed his gun at Ryoko, who just stood there, staring at Finn's body. "I said hands up." Ryoko, realizing there'd be no point in resisting, dropped her gun and put her hands behind her head. "Come on, this way. I'll send a janitor to clean up this mess." The guard fell silent as someone grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. "What the hell?"
"Oowww. That felt like a donkey kick," Finn said, holding his gun against the guard's head. "You're lucky I like to use 22s. Would you like to know why?
"Why's that?" the guard asked, his voice trembling.
"Because," Finn said irritated. "The bullets are small and they don't come out the other end like a 45. You see, a 45 will blow a barn door out the back of your head, and there's a lot of dry cleaning involved. But a 22 will just…rattle around like Pac-man. You know, until you die. Now drop your weapon and get the hell out of my sight," he commanded. The guard did something that surprised them. There was a horrendous crack as the guard twisted his arm out of Finn's grasp, and breaking it in the process. With his free hand he opened fire on Finn, who was pushed down to the ground due to the shear force of the bullets. The guard stopped when Finn stopped moving.
"Get a move on," he said, motioning to the door with the barrel of his gun. His left arm hung grotesquely at his side. Ryoko, who had been in a kind of shock after seeing Finn rise from the dead once, had forgotten to pick up her gun. "Move it!" Ryoko complied, but stopped when the only noise behind here was a loud crack followed by a thud.
"But…wha….how?" Ryoko stammered seeing Finn sitting up holding the smoking gun.
"What? You don't think they'd have made me a suit of armour like this one without making it bulletproof," Finn laughed from behind his mask.
"You…I oughta…" Ryoko came toward him, her hand balled into a fist.
"Wowwowwow. Hold on a sec. You can beat the shit out of me later. Right now, we have to move," Finn grabbed her hand and began to hit commands into the air lock's computer. Behind them, the soldier groaned.
"Don't worry," Ryoko said holding her weapon. "I'll take care of him, you work on the door,"
"Wait," Finn pushed Ryoko's gun down. "Just let him be,"
"Do you know what you're doing?"
"I don't like killing very much, and seeing a man's blood only adds to my discomfort. He's down, let's just leave it at that,"
"And what about the lock?"
"Not really. But it worked the last time," Finn replied. "Ok, that should do it. Get in." Finn pulled her into the first air lock.
"Depressurizing room," the computer said. Ryoko could feel the suit press against her body as the room depressurized. "Proceed to next section please." They moved into the next chamber, where a heavy door opened into the outside.
"Good, it's still dark out." Finn said, stepping outside. He turned on a light attached to his helmet. "This way, follow the tracks."
"I'm surprised," Ryoko snickered.
"At what?" Finn asked.
"That you had a plan." Ryoko answered with a laugh. She stopped when he didn't respond. "That was planned…wasn't it?"
"Um…."
"What the hell were you thinking then?" Ryoko demanded.
"Well, my original plan was to have you put on this suit, go to my frame and pilot it manually out of here." Finn began.
"And what about you?"
"I hadn't thought that far ahead. But I think I was going to stay behind,"
"You…why would you think that I'd…" Ryoko began, put stopped when Finn pushed her against the dark outer wall of the colony.
"Shh," Finn motioned for her to look up. She did, and saw a few grasshoppers flying overhead. "Stay within the colony's shadow. If there's no light on us they won't see us," he said, clicking off the light on his helmet. They proceeded this way for quite some time. All the while grasshoppers floated overhead, just waiting for something to happen. Then suddenly, Finn stopped. "They're right over there," he whispered, pointing to what appeared to be the moon's bare surface.
"I don't see anything," Ryoko said, trying to find any sign that their frames were anywhere to be seen.
"Exactly. You wait here." Finn then darted out into the open. The five or six grasshoppers overhead all turned their sights on Finn. "Nu uh. Not going to get me." Finn sprinted as best he could in the low gravity. "Damn. I forgot there's no simulated gravity out here!" He was knocked high into the air (figure of speechwise). Drawing his gun as he began to fall back down, he fired at his metallic nemesis. "Oh crap. I forgot these things have distortion fields. Time for plan B." From Ryoko's vantage point it looked as though Finn were about to dive head first into solid rock. But he didn't. Ryoko's mouth hung open as Finn just seemed to disappear into the moon's surface. A few seconds later the ACF rose from the ground, sending out a great cloud of lunar dust. The massive robot simply swatted the grasshoppers out of the sky, hurling them off into space. It then knelt in front of Ryoko and a hatch opened in its chest plate. She didn't need instructions on what to do next and climbed into the cramped cockpit.
"Hey, watch where you're grabbing there," Ryoko cried when she felt her rear end hit something.
"Its not my fault. I can't see anything!" Finn shot back. "I know it's cramped, but take that thing off." Ryoko got out of the suit and shoved it into a storage compartment above the seat.
"Where's my seat?" she asked, looking around the cockpit, which was obviously designed for one person. Unlike the aestivalis cockpit, there weren't any spaces beside the pilot's seat where passengers could sit. Finn looked at her. "You mean…" She pointed at his lap."
"Afraid so," he said. "Come on." Ryoko mock-reluctantly sat down in Finn's lap.
"You could at least take off that ridiculous helmet. You look like something out of that old Transformers show," she said. "Hey! Watch where you put your hands!" She cried as Finn fumbled with the restraints.
"Hey, its not my fault!" Finn defended himself. "Just click these two parts together." He handed her the two shoulder and waist restraints. She clicked them into place. Finn plugged his hands into two open slots in front of them.
"Don't you need me to move so you can see?" she asked after they had taken off.
"No need. Its all in here," He tapped the faceplate of his helmet. "Heads-up display. That main monitor's just incase something goes wrong."
"Hey, what's that noise?" She asked.
"Transforming. We're invisible to sensors now…I hope." Finn replied.
"Just out of curiosity." Ryoko said as she watched the surface of dusty grow distant. "Why didn't you finish him off?
"I never liked violence that much, and the sight of blood makes me kind of faint," Finn replied.
"But you'll kill on the battlefield,"
"Hey, if I had it my way I wouldn't have to kill there either. Just because I will kill doesn't mean I have to like it," Finn replied.
"Um…just out of curiosity, where's my aesti?" Finn flipped a side monitor to the rear camera and made it swing forward. There was Ryoko's frame, painted black and strapped to the bottom of the ACF. "My…my paint job…"
"Small price to pay. I considered blowing it up but…" Finn flipped the monitor back to front view.
"You knew I'd turn you into a fresh canned Finn surprise," Ryoko finished.
"Bingo."
"Just where are we headed anyway?"
"Questions questions questions." Finn shook his head. "Here." A small window popped up, showing a still image of a moon surrounded by chulips. "It's about a day's flight."
"Lets get moving then. Crank up those after burners!"
"You asked for it." Finn grinned behind his mask as he punched up the throttle. He felt Ryoko's weight press against him as she was forced back by the sudden acceleration.
"Damnit!" Ryoko tried to sound mad. "You…you bastard." she laughed.
Reentry
"Destination approaching," a voice beeped inside the cramped cockpit. "Begin prebattle checklists. Weapon systems on automatic. Targeting systems recalibrating."
"Wha?" Ryoko was drawn out of her little nap. She didn't know just how long she had been asleep, or even exactly what was going on for that matter.
"Allrighty. Time to get to work." Finn tried not to sound like he was just rolling out of bed, but couldn't stifle his yawn.
"How far is it?" Ryoko asked.
"About ten thousand kilometers along this axis." Finn popped a window up on the main monitor. It showed a ball, which was labeled Europa, surrounded by dozens of interconnected chulip openings.
"This must be where they deploy ships to send to Earth," Ryoko concluded, staring at all the open chulips.
"Must be." Finn studied the pictures from behind his mask. "Problem is which one is our ride home? They said they'd be launching from what…alpha, omega, and zeta. But which ones are those?"
"You mean you didn't find that out?!"
"I was very busy!" Finn defended himself. "I see grasshoppers going into six of them. The rest seem to be on standby or something," he added quickly. A little red light began blinking at the bottom of his screens. "What the…?"
"What's that mean?" Ryoko studied the scanner screen that came up.
"Busted," Finn said in a worried tone.
"What do you mean 'busted'?" Ryoko demanded.
"I mean, shit. They know where we are." Finn brought the transformed ACF to a halt.
"How? I thought you said this thing was invisible to scanners." Ryoko watched as a series of red blips appeared on screen and came to a stop just in front of them.
"I think I have an idea." Finn ran a surface scan to search for impurities on his hull. "I was afraid of this."
"What's that mean?" Ryoko demanded. "Damnit! Tell me what's going on!" Finn closed all the windows on the main monitor. From the outside ten dimojin robots were floating in a V formation right in front of them, a small squadron of grasshoppers behind them and more coming to join the party.
"Surface impurity scan complete," Finn read. "Detected foreign object 4.35cm from starboard exhaust vent." The ACF shook slightly as Finn activated a charge that ran through its hull. The small transmitter at the rear of the ship blew off like a popcorn seed in a microwave. "I've really got to hand it to you. You really know how to piss me off," Finn answered the little yellow light blinking in the corner of his screens.
"And I've got to hand it to you. I didn't think you'd make it this far." Sano/Sakura's face appeared in a small window.
"I take it you were the one who arranged that little shindig on Dusty then. Man, can't you come up with something more original? You're acting like a villain from that stupid Gekigengar cartoon or something!" Finn hit his retro thrusters and the ACF shot back several hundred meters.
"That's no use. We've already got a laser lock on you." Sano seemed to ignore Finn's ranting.
"Well ain't that just prime. What do you want?" Finn demanded impatiently. "I'm kind of in a hurry. And just who is it am I talking to? Sakura or Sanoske?"
"It's Sanoske now," Sano cleared his throat. "You and your passenger are under arrest. Surrender your craft and we will not harm you," he said, opening the communications link to Sanoske's fellow pilots. "You have my word as an officer of the Jovian Superior Male Elite squadron of the second fleet."
"Standard give up and surrender? Sorry, I don't really feel like going to jail today. I'm getting bored. What do you want?" Finn demanded again impatiently.
"To fight you, of course. To have a duel on the field of battle," Sano said dramatically.
"Uh huh," Finn transformed the ACF. "Under what terms?"
"If I win I get to do whatever I want with you. And I mean anything. If I lose, my men have been instructed to stand back and let you do what you wish, as long as it does not pose a threat to our command centre or leap gate facilities," Sano said. The dimojin was different from the one Finn faced on the moon. It was bigger, not by much, but it looked as though it could pose a bit of a threat.
"One condition. If I lose, my passenger gets safe passage to Earth," Finn said, referring of course to Ryoko.
"Then it's agreed." The dimojin stuck out one of its massive hands. "May the best man win." Finn grabbed the hand and shook it.
"Thanks." Finn grinned as he spun the dimojin around and threw him over his shoulders. He then cranked up the engines and made a run for the chulips. "Hold on tight. Catch a tiger by the toe…" He told Ryoko, who had her hands pushing against the roof of the cockpit to keep herself from being thrown around. "Damn. I can't maneuver with your aesti." He ejected the black aestivalis and sent it hurling into one of the chulips. "Mo." He settled on which one he would make a run for. Just then the ACF shook violently as it was struck by a gravity blast, which was partially absorbed by the distortion field.
"Oh no you don't. I'm not letting you get away that easily!" Sano grabbed the ACF by the leg. Finn countered with a swift kick to the side of his opponent's head and when he was released and continued towards the chulip. However, during his momentary distraction, the nine other dimojins had placed themselves between the two combatants and the chulips.
"Oh give me a break. You're really pissing me off." Finn brought his gattling cannon to his shoulder and brought it online and fired without hesitation. A torrent of blue blasts burst from the multi-barreled cannon. His target evaded the first wave but was caught off guard when Finn followed spraying plasma blasts at it. The dimojin leapt and reappeared right behind him.
"Gotcha!" Sano shouted triumphantly as she pinned the ACF against herself. Finn struggled. "We've upgraded since our last tangle. Reinforced shoulder locking mechanism." Finn had a light bulb. He brought the massive engine on the back of the gattling cannon online and cranked it up. The sudden force didn't perturb the Jovian machine. "It's no use. Give up now."
"Oooooh no its not," Finn grunted and forced the engine even harder. He was now flying with the dimojin stuck to his back. "Just a little further." The sudden heat from the engines began to kick in. The dimojin's chest plate began to turn soft.
"You slippery little." Sano hit some controls on her end. The cavity in her robot opened and unleashed a pointblank gravity blast right into Finn's back. The force of the blast sent Finn spiraling off towards the moon.
The ACF shuddered violently. Finn cried out as the kickback from the control's shocked him.
"Ooh ok. Now I'm really pissed." Finn lowered the ACF's hand guards (think those things that appear on the end of the aestivalis hands when they punch something) and flew right at Sano. Finn placed his feet on Sano's chest place and gave it a hard kick. Sano's machine shuddered. Finn took that opportunity to then tear the left arm clean off the dimojin. He then gave the dimojin another kick, this time in the face and pushed free. "K, I've beaten you. Now stand down so I can get the fuck out of here."
"Not yet," Sano's face once again appeared in Finn's cockpit. "Not until you destroy me."
"But…hey! You know I won't kill you!" Finn yelled.
"Exactly!" Sano laughed and retracted the dimojin's fingers. In their place, a long edged blade extended out. Sano thrust towards Finn and slashed. Finn blocked with his armoured knuckles. Sano slashed repeatedly, and Finn countered, most of the time. The force of Sano's slashes and the speed at which they came at him were proving to be a problem. Finn had taken hits on the shoulders and chest. With each blow the frame shook and groaned under the pressure.
"You ok?" Finn remembered Ryoko sitting in his lap.
"Yeah, just hurry this up," Ryoko replied. "Look out to your left."
"Wha? Whoa shit!" Finn evaded just in time. He had another light bulb. He switched the monitor to rear view. "Ryoko, I need you to be the eyes in the back of my head."
"What?!" Ryoko asked.
"I need to know where the chulips are as I'm fighting so I don't stray too far away. I need you to tell me which direction they're in as I fight so I can double back." Finn said, delivering a quick punch to Sano's stomach plate, causing a large dent in the machine's armour.
"Ok, got it." Ryoko kept one hand on the manual controls. "Try and lure him back to point 054."
"Got it. Yowch!" the ACF shuddered as another gravity blast from Sano was absorbed by his hull, sending pieces of the frame's back flying off into space.
"I thought she had something for you!" Ryoko braced herself as the frame shook again.
"Damnit. Its not my fault she's nuts!" Finn cried evading another attack.
"She's open. Go for the left leg." Ryoko said.
"Roger that." Finn fired at the leg, blowing it clean off. "Look Sakura…Sanoske. Whatever. Give it up already!"
"You won't beat me!" she screamed at him.
"Oh man, give me a break. She doesn't know whether to kill your or kiss you," Ryoko said.
"Wha? Waoh!" There was a loud screech of metal grinding against metal. "Damn, she's punctured the upper chest."
"Your left arm is inoperable," Ryoko informed him.
"This is getting us nowhere." Finn said, breathing heavily. "I have an idea. Take manual control of this frame." A digital control stick appeared out of the control console. "You do know how to fly a standard fighter right?"
"Don't insult my intelligence," Ryoko shot back.
"Take us as close as you can to those other dimojins without them getting suspicious," Finn said. He plugged his hands into the IFS control plugs again. There was a gentle shake as the MAF detached from the back. Finn grit his teeth from behind his mask. The sudden appearance of a second frame seemed to confuse Sano.
"You're supposed to fight alone," Sano said, sounding very irritated.
"Consider it a tag team. And it's not technically cheating, I'm the only one actually fighting you," Finn replied as he fired low powered bursts from the ACF's cannons.
"Her distortion field has shattered," Ryoko said.
"Perfect." Finn removed one of the blades from the transformed MAF's wrist and held it its hand. "Have to do this right." Sano made a futile swing with her blade, but Finn dodged easily. In one quick, clean slice, he severed the dimojin's head (which contains the cockpit). "Its over."
"I'm not dead yet! So its not over!" Sano screamed. Finn picked up the floating dimojin head with the MAF's hands.
"Its over." He booted it away towards the planet. "Let us pass!" He shouted at the nine remaining dimojins. "Oh for booting up cold. Ryoko, close your eyes." The MAF fired a small grenade-like object into the cluster of robots. It exploded with a violently bright flash of light. "Move us into the chulip third from the right." He ordered quickly. Ryoko moved the damaged frame under the confused dimojin robots.
"Almost there." Ryoko said to herself. However, a few hundred meters before they made contact with the chulip's jump field, the frame shuddered once more. "Damn, the engines are down!"
"All of them?!" Finn asked, trying to weave past missiles the grasshoppers were firing at the MAF.
"We're drifting off course. Wow!" Ryoko could feel Finn's body shake from the jolt of energy sparking the computer system. Finally the MAF frame had caught up with them. "Grab my hand!" She could see the MAF's outstretched hand and fumbled with the controls and managed to grasp it.
"Alright, take us out of here." Ryoko locked her commands into the computer.
"Can't. We're too heavy for me to carry us off. MAF's built for speed, not towing." Finn said. With his spare hand he took one of the massive cannons off his legs.
"You mean we're stuck here?" Ryoko asked.
"Not quite. Hold on," A yellow light began to grow at the tip of the cannon. "We're just going to sit here."
"We're going to do what?!"
"Just trust me," Finn said. The dimojins had regained their senses and were beginning to fly closer to them. Both frames shook as grasshopper missiles bounced off the MAF's distortion field, and the ACF's battered hull. "Come on. 50…55…63…that's enough." He pulled the trigger and fired a wide wave blast. With engines no to counter the massive force of the blast, Finn and Ryoko were sent flying into a chulip.
"Sir! They have entered leap gate Tango. Should we pursue?" One of the dimojin pilots asked.
"Damnit! Get me a new robot. I'm going after him! Even if I have to leap across this whole solar system to do it!" Sano screamed. "What the hell?" She watched, at a safe distance, from her spot floating high above Europa as the blastwave caught up with the group of dimojins. They vaporized, along with the grasshoppers, in a brilliant wave of yellow light. However, the blasewave did not stop there. From a distance it looked like a yellow pinprick hit that icy moon. The moon seemed to just dissolve in a cloud of steam as the intense head ripped right through the miles of ice that covered its surface.
"Um….Finn?" Ryoko asked as they floated through subspace within the chulip.
"Yes, Ryoko?" Finn said triumphantly.
"Where the fuck are we?" she asked.
…To be continued in Act 4
End of Act 3
