Major thanks to Lizzy-san, who beta-ed this fic. Argh, you guys won't
believe how much she's helped me with this.
Neko-chan: ...!! I can't believe you reviewed my fic! Oo;; Anyways, FF.net irritates me too. But not as much as LJ. I wrote that Anzu had brown hair? Well, that's what I tried to write... ^^;; But I kind of messed up. Just pretend that I haven't mentioned Mai before this.
Chibizoo: Converted? Oo;;
Liz: Err... Actually, Yuugi is the only human present where he is... ^^;;;;;
~~
Chapter 3: Malfunction
~~
"Hello? Hello?" Yuugi paused, frowned. "Honda? I'm trying to... I think we're starting to communicate... You won't believe it; they communicate almost completely by emotions and... are you still there?" He shifted slightly, starting to get agitated when there was still no answer.
'Who was on the next shift? Bakura-san? Otogi-san?' Though he couldn't place faces with the two names, he had talked to both a few times on previous "missions". He'd met Otogi once, and could connect him with ebony hair and dice. Yuugi remembered dice earrings, actually, but his memory of such things wasn't the greatest. After his first meeting with Jou, he'd been left with only the vague impression of blue eyes. 'How quickly that had changed,' Yuugi thought wryly. As for Bakura, well, they'd never met. Perhaps he'd caught a glimpse of him in the hallways somewhere... Brows furrowed, he removed the mouthpiece from his collar and stared at it, shook it several times. It seemed intact. Further inspection of his earpiece yielded the same results. "Strange..."
'Yuugi? The others want to ask you some questions now,' Seto announced, sounding a bit resentful at having to be the envoy.
"Er, alright." Then, realizing that he'd spoken aloud, Yuugi repeated the words in his thoughts.
Earlier, Yuugi had been happy to find that these not-quite-aliens also slept in beds and sat on chairs. He was soon given his own room, in which he was currently trying to make his communication devices function.
With a sigh, Yuugi replaced the ear and mouth pieces, and followed Seto out, staring all the while at those gigantic black wings.
~~
"This is ridiculous, Jou," Honda announced for the fifth time that night. "Completely ridiculous." The other boy simply shrugged. He repeated, enunciating slowly. "Ri-di-cu-lous. Does that register in that thick head of yours? It's against company policy and I deem it a complete waste or resources to..."
"Hey, c'mon! Yuugi might be hurt or something..."
"Or maybe we're just blowing things way out of proportion. I mean, come on! Guns??"
"We had to bring them. We wanna be prepared, don't we?"
"For what? The massacre of an entire species?"
"Er... no... We'll just break in, is all. Quietly."
"Oh, I see," Honda nodded in mock-sagacity. "We'll just break in. Then we'll miraculously manage to find Yuugi. And get back out. Without a bunch of genetically advanced aliens at our tails. All quietly, of course."
"Exactly." Seeing that Honda wasn't going to let that slide, Jou added, "or we could just let him die. I'm not planning on doing that. Are you?"
~~
Being on this planet for only a few decades as a species has its downsides.
For example, the knowledge that sentries were supposed to be numerous and heavily-armed had yet to dawn upon the "aliens."
~~
The sentry with cat eyes was the first to spot the intruders. She nudged her partner in silent warning before slinking forwards. The other sentry, one with a rhinoceros horn on his forehead, soon followed, hands inching to an "on guard" position.
She attacked first, all claws, teeth, and hissing, demonstrating her other catty attributes. With a startled yelp, Jou, who had been in the lead, ducked to the side, receiving only a scratch on his arm for his efforts. She turned, not even out of breath, blond hair swinging, violet eyes gleaming. Momentarily taken aback by how human she looked, Jou didn't register her leaping at him until she was right before him, breath hot on his face, teeth aiming for his throat.
Honda caught her in the gut with his handy-dandy, multipurpose gun. The rhino-guy elbowed Honda just below his shoulder and began attacking with fists. Honda ducked, almost reflexively reaching for his gun, and only then noticed its absence.
"Musta dropped it while using it as a bludgeon," he muttered to himself, leaping out of the way of another assault. Risking a quick glance around and a (most likely fatal) lapse in concentration, Honda still couldn't find it, eyes instead traveling to where Jou grappled with Catwoman.
So, then it was back to incessant ducking and dodging, all defense and absolutely no way to do anything offensively. The rhino-guy seemed to be enjoying this, swinging his arms back and forth with a leer on his face.
"Shit."
~~
"And this is why they're a threat," Jou mumbled to himself, mostly to keep himself focused. Blood trickled down his cheek, a reminder of the dangers of losing concentration.
Honda was in trouble. Or, at least, he thought so.
Jou swore. Now, if this had been Yuugi in question, Jou would've known instantly, without doubt. The two had that kind of bond. But Honda... Jou hadn't known Honda all that long, having only been introduced when Yuugi and Honda became coworkers. Perhaps Jou was wrong in thinking that Honda was in trouble, but better safe than sorry, right?
Jou removed the gun from its position, nestled against his hip, and threw it backwards in an easy arc, all without looking, a skill he'd mastered with Yuugi. If it had been Yuugi, Jou knew that the gun would've gone directly towards his small friend, not that Yuugi liked guns. With Honda, all Jou could do was hope.
Then, Catwoman was upon him once more, though all of Jou's reasoning and actions had taken place within the time span of a few seconds.
Honda caught the gun with no little surprise, grateful for the assistance. Bang. The sentries cleared out quickly, fleeing from the thing that could shoot projectiles at high speeds. The teens stared after them, then collapsed down onto the grassy floor, left to bask for a while in their brief lull of victory.
~~
Don't tell them that you're supposed to study them, Yuugi reminded himself, careful not to let the others hear that thought. Instead, he used a story, prepared ahead of time by his superiors, Yuugi himself being about as guileless as these aliens seemed to be, about himself getting lost, which was true. Somewhat. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to cover up all the questions he was supposed to ask, but he did his best, and the others didn't seem to notice. Taking mental note of the answers he received, he also did his best to answer questions without mentioning technology of any sort.
It was pretty hard, and even harder to see those trusting faces and know that, while he wasn't lying, he wasn't telling the whole truth either. It reminded him of refusing to give a hurt dog or cat enough food, only enough to tantalize them. In the long run, it actually did more harm than good.
A man rushed in, barely pausing to nod respectfully towards the Winged Ones. Yuugi noted that he had no inhuman appendages-in fact, if Yuugi didn't know better, he would've thought the newcomer human.
That thought scared Yuugi.
The thought that some of these aliens were virtually indistinguishable from humans made him wrinkle his forehead a little. It was a bit scary, but, perhaps, it was also a good thing. Maybe the aliens and humans could mingle, become one race-the bacteria that had gradually evolved into this species had been from Earth, after all.
Then again, humans had trouble accepting different ethnicities as one species. How on Earth (excusing the pun) would they accept people with feathers or tails?
Yuugi's whimsical daydream was rudely interrupted by its source, the man who'd just rushed in. Breathing heavily, as if he had just run a great distance, he uttered, 'We're under attack!'
Neko-chan: ...!! I can't believe you reviewed my fic! Oo;; Anyways, FF.net irritates me too. But not as much as LJ. I wrote that Anzu had brown hair? Well, that's what I tried to write... ^^;; But I kind of messed up. Just pretend that I haven't mentioned Mai before this.
Chibizoo: Converted? Oo;;
Liz: Err... Actually, Yuugi is the only human present where he is... ^^;;;;;
~~
Chapter 3: Malfunction
~~
"Hello? Hello?" Yuugi paused, frowned. "Honda? I'm trying to... I think we're starting to communicate... You won't believe it; they communicate almost completely by emotions and... are you still there?" He shifted slightly, starting to get agitated when there was still no answer.
'Who was on the next shift? Bakura-san? Otogi-san?' Though he couldn't place faces with the two names, he had talked to both a few times on previous "missions". He'd met Otogi once, and could connect him with ebony hair and dice. Yuugi remembered dice earrings, actually, but his memory of such things wasn't the greatest. After his first meeting with Jou, he'd been left with only the vague impression of blue eyes. 'How quickly that had changed,' Yuugi thought wryly. As for Bakura, well, they'd never met. Perhaps he'd caught a glimpse of him in the hallways somewhere... Brows furrowed, he removed the mouthpiece from his collar and stared at it, shook it several times. It seemed intact. Further inspection of his earpiece yielded the same results. "Strange..."
'Yuugi? The others want to ask you some questions now,' Seto announced, sounding a bit resentful at having to be the envoy.
"Er, alright." Then, realizing that he'd spoken aloud, Yuugi repeated the words in his thoughts.
Earlier, Yuugi had been happy to find that these not-quite-aliens also slept in beds and sat on chairs. He was soon given his own room, in which he was currently trying to make his communication devices function.
With a sigh, Yuugi replaced the ear and mouth pieces, and followed Seto out, staring all the while at those gigantic black wings.
~~
"This is ridiculous, Jou," Honda announced for the fifth time that night. "Completely ridiculous." The other boy simply shrugged. He repeated, enunciating slowly. "Ri-di-cu-lous. Does that register in that thick head of yours? It's against company policy and I deem it a complete waste or resources to..."
"Hey, c'mon! Yuugi might be hurt or something..."
"Or maybe we're just blowing things way out of proportion. I mean, come on! Guns??"
"We had to bring them. We wanna be prepared, don't we?"
"For what? The massacre of an entire species?"
"Er... no... We'll just break in, is all. Quietly."
"Oh, I see," Honda nodded in mock-sagacity. "We'll just break in. Then we'll miraculously manage to find Yuugi. And get back out. Without a bunch of genetically advanced aliens at our tails. All quietly, of course."
"Exactly." Seeing that Honda wasn't going to let that slide, Jou added, "or we could just let him die. I'm not planning on doing that. Are you?"
~~
Being on this planet for only a few decades as a species has its downsides.
For example, the knowledge that sentries were supposed to be numerous and heavily-armed had yet to dawn upon the "aliens."
~~
The sentry with cat eyes was the first to spot the intruders. She nudged her partner in silent warning before slinking forwards. The other sentry, one with a rhinoceros horn on his forehead, soon followed, hands inching to an "on guard" position.
She attacked first, all claws, teeth, and hissing, demonstrating her other catty attributes. With a startled yelp, Jou, who had been in the lead, ducked to the side, receiving only a scratch on his arm for his efforts. She turned, not even out of breath, blond hair swinging, violet eyes gleaming. Momentarily taken aback by how human she looked, Jou didn't register her leaping at him until she was right before him, breath hot on his face, teeth aiming for his throat.
Honda caught her in the gut with his handy-dandy, multipurpose gun. The rhino-guy elbowed Honda just below his shoulder and began attacking with fists. Honda ducked, almost reflexively reaching for his gun, and only then noticed its absence.
"Musta dropped it while using it as a bludgeon," he muttered to himself, leaping out of the way of another assault. Risking a quick glance around and a (most likely fatal) lapse in concentration, Honda still couldn't find it, eyes instead traveling to where Jou grappled with Catwoman.
So, then it was back to incessant ducking and dodging, all defense and absolutely no way to do anything offensively. The rhino-guy seemed to be enjoying this, swinging his arms back and forth with a leer on his face.
"Shit."
~~
"And this is why they're a threat," Jou mumbled to himself, mostly to keep himself focused. Blood trickled down his cheek, a reminder of the dangers of losing concentration.
Honda was in trouble. Or, at least, he thought so.
Jou swore. Now, if this had been Yuugi in question, Jou would've known instantly, without doubt. The two had that kind of bond. But Honda... Jou hadn't known Honda all that long, having only been introduced when Yuugi and Honda became coworkers. Perhaps Jou was wrong in thinking that Honda was in trouble, but better safe than sorry, right?
Jou removed the gun from its position, nestled against his hip, and threw it backwards in an easy arc, all without looking, a skill he'd mastered with Yuugi. If it had been Yuugi, Jou knew that the gun would've gone directly towards his small friend, not that Yuugi liked guns. With Honda, all Jou could do was hope.
Then, Catwoman was upon him once more, though all of Jou's reasoning and actions had taken place within the time span of a few seconds.
Honda caught the gun with no little surprise, grateful for the assistance. Bang. The sentries cleared out quickly, fleeing from the thing that could shoot projectiles at high speeds. The teens stared after them, then collapsed down onto the grassy floor, left to bask for a while in their brief lull of victory.
~~
Don't tell them that you're supposed to study them, Yuugi reminded himself, careful not to let the others hear that thought. Instead, he used a story, prepared ahead of time by his superiors, Yuugi himself being about as guileless as these aliens seemed to be, about himself getting lost, which was true. Somewhat. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to cover up all the questions he was supposed to ask, but he did his best, and the others didn't seem to notice. Taking mental note of the answers he received, he also did his best to answer questions without mentioning technology of any sort.
It was pretty hard, and even harder to see those trusting faces and know that, while he wasn't lying, he wasn't telling the whole truth either. It reminded him of refusing to give a hurt dog or cat enough food, only enough to tantalize them. In the long run, it actually did more harm than good.
A man rushed in, barely pausing to nod respectfully towards the Winged Ones. Yuugi noted that he had no inhuman appendages-in fact, if Yuugi didn't know better, he would've thought the newcomer human.
That thought scared Yuugi.
The thought that some of these aliens were virtually indistinguishable from humans made him wrinkle his forehead a little. It was a bit scary, but, perhaps, it was also a good thing. Maybe the aliens and humans could mingle, become one race-the bacteria that had gradually evolved into this species had been from Earth, after all.
Then again, humans had trouble accepting different ethnicities as one species. How on Earth (excusing the pun) would they accept people with feathers or tails?
Yuugi's whimsical daydream was rudely interrupted by its source, the man who'd just rushed in. Breathing heavily, as if he had just run a great distance, he uttered, 'We're under attack!'