Salutations friends! I'm ready to post another chapter and continue on with my story, but before that, I must do my rants like I always do. I would like to say that I am now in my high school's marching band! I was excited when I heard the good news, but I found out that I'm 7th trombone out of 10. For all you non-band people, lets just say that means I suck. I don't suck at the instrument itself; I had an old rickety trombone at the time of try-outs. Now, I have a brand new one! It's really clean in the inside, that mean's I can play a lot faster (6/8).
Also, I am doing A LOT better in school now that I stopped being so concerned about any new updates in FF.net; I used to come to this site every day, seeing if there was any new good stories. Now, I have realized that writing stories for pleasure isn't as important as studying for major tests.
Breakaway_republic, that email I planned to send you might take a while, please wait until next week.
Disclaimer: I don't own Outlaw Star, the idea, the characters, and everything else related to the manga/anime. I, on the other hand, have full rights to the Hellraiser crew, the idea and concept of using 'Light' and 'Darkness' as I do in my work, Light Melfina, Thomas, James, the XGP15A-I, the sword 'Sin Harvester' and all it's abilities, the sword "Sin Curer' and all it's abilities, and the 'Crimson' (working on title) Ctarls and their actions.
(The chapter takes place during the same time as chapter 5)
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Act II: Revelations of the Darkness
Written by Ansem Revived
Chapter 6: For All the Worry
Harry…a questionable person. Deep down in him, I can sense warmth.
Light…
For one who can wield the Sin Curer in its evil form, he should have been able to tap even deeper into the depths of darkness.
Even though he retains goodness still, he isn't the true wielder. The true wielder is balanced between darkness and light.
But Harry isn't balanced; there is more darkness than light. There is an overwhelming amount of hatred and anger in him, and all of it is shifted towards…
Gene Starwind….
…
That's understandable. His light is love. His love belongs to…
M-Melfina?!
How?! Why?! Of all people! How dare he?!?! I-I…
…stop it, control yourself. I can't stop his free will…yet.
For now though, I'll sit back and let everything go on.
Melfina will reveal everything to everyone soon…
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Gene Starwind laid on the couch, reading his monthly weapon catalog, his expressions in awe as he browsed through the magazine.
"Wow, Smith & Wesson are coming out with past models," he said as he read the article. He turned the page, revealing a picture of a chrome long-barreled revolver lying atop a wooden desk that had various types of ammo spread about. "I haven't seen that type of gun in a while, what are they doing, coming out remaking the best weapons?"
He flipped the page, now he was in the sniper rifle section; surprisingly, there was only one featured weapon.
"All right! They're selling the PSG-1 again!" Indeed it was true, from its foot-long steel-finish scope to leather-bound handle to its head, it was a fearsome, yet beautiful masterpiece. The only thing that prevented the bounty hunter from ripping the form off the back cover, copying down the purchase code of the gun, and mailing it was the price tag that was tied around the trigger.
He threw the magazine over the couch. "57,000 wong?!?! To hell with it then." Gene closed his eyes and threw his arms underneath his head, "Maybe with everyone gone, I can get a little shuteye…"
He started to think about Melfina, her absence lately was unusual, even though he knew exactly where she was. In the beginning, he used to go up to the roof and call out to her, asking Melfina if she wants to come in…
She never even turned her head…always looking at the sky.
He even had the nerve to walk in front of her face to see if she was ok. She seemed oblivious to his calling. After a few seconds, Gene started to snap his fingers in front of her face. She didn't even respond to that as he expected. After he left, Gene cursed himself for her actions. Deep inside, he started to believe that it was his fault for his actions.
There was a faint tapping behind him, footsteps. "Melfina? Melfina!" Gene shot straight up and dashed to her, his actions caused her to step back.
"Oh God Melfina! I was so worried!" He wrapped his arms around her and practically lifted Mel off her feet as he hugged tightly. "What happened to you? Why were acting strange? Are you ok?"
"Ugh…Gene…Stop it! I didn't know you cared so much," she struggled to say as she tried to get down.
"Well of course I care! I wouldn't have busted my ass so hard just to keep you alive if I didn't care!" He put his crossed his arms as he looked at her.
Melfina merely smiled at him. She always felt safe around him, a security that she would always keep as along as she could. Even though she was scared to get into an actual relationship with the Outlaw, Melfina loved him nonetheless. If she could, Melfina would make sure there wouldn't be any harm to him anymore.
"So…" said Gene as he sat back down on the couch, he patted the cushion beside of him, "what happened up there?"
She sat down beside him. She was reluctant to speak; Melfina crossed her ankles and stared down into her lap.
"What's the matter?" asked Gene.
"…Nothing…forget about it…" Melfina turned her head away from Gene, still looking down. "I was just thinking about something, that's all…"
Not fully satisfied with the answer, Gene gently placed his right hand underneath her chin. Speaking calmly, he asked, "Please be reasonable, Mel. You know I'm here to help you out if you have a problem or something. You can even ask the rest for help or advice when you need it. So tell me what's wrong so I can help you out."
As Gene gently turn her head to look into her eyes, she shoved her his hand away, "Please, Gene. I just want to be left alone for once, okay? I'm sorry that I've frightened you in any way, but like I said Gene, I was just thinking."
Surprised by her mood swing, Gene paused for a moment before he responded. "Well…I can do that. I'll do just that. If you'll excuse me." He got up and went to the stairs. He placed his foot on the first step and turned his head to look back at her. Silently to himself, he said, "She's changing on me." He proceeded up the stairs to his room, leaving Melfina alone.
I hope he's okay. She watched him close his door. As she stared at the room, her eyes fell towards the clock on the wall above his room.
"3:30 better start making dinner." She got up and walked into the kitchen and opened up the freezer. She pulled out some frozen fish and placed them in the sink to defrost, she then added three more fish for Aisha. Leaving the fish, Melfina opened up the dishwasher and pulled out one pot, filled it with water, and set it on the stove to boil. Afterwards, she took out a cutting board out of the cabinet and withdrew a cutting knife.
It is time…
"WHO SAID THAT?!?!" Knife in hand (afraid to use it though), Melfina turned around in fear; her heart was recovering from the sudden jump. Gene called down to her.
"Are you ok?"
Shhh…it's okay…. I'll take it from here.
Immediately then, Melfina's throat started to itch, slowly, it sunk down her vocal cords, causing her chest to get heavy. She fell upon the floor, holding her chest, breathing heavily. The nerves in her mouth started getting numb; saliva saturated it, dripping to the floor. At that moment, he jaws started to quiver painfully, causing Melfina to shed tears. She collapsed onto her back, mouth wide open.
"I'm fine, Gene!"
She lost conciseness after that, after hearing what she said…
Her mouth spoke by itself…
Something was trying to control her, straining to get to the surface.
Clawing its way to her mind, Melfina shut down, whole body numb and empty…
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Gene stood in his doorway, ignoring the noise downstairs.
She really is changing…Mel's not the same anymore.
He entered his room and shut the door behind him. He sat down on his bed and put his face in his hands.
Hell, everyone's changing. Suzuka has an actual personality, Aisha is more determined to leave, and Jim…
He raked his hair, "Jim…"
He started to talk to himself, "The boy's how old? 12? 13? He stills call me 'Aniki'." He laughed, "He has nice motives, but he needs to grow up. I'm not saying that I don't like to be called his big brother; I just don't like the fact that he is using a word that Iris taught him when he was 5. Also, he's too dependent on me. I don't know why, but I feel like a fag."
Gene stopped there; he blinked as if he came back to reality. "W-what just happened? Where did I get that idea from?" His mouth was running, he wasn't thinking at all, it just came out.
"Jesus, I hope I didn't mean that." He decided to change the subject to something else. "Why do everybody thinks I'm lazy? I mean really, everyday I hear the word 'lazy-ass' at least once. They have no respect at all. I let them stay here for free and what do they do? They just complain.
"'Gene, get your lazy-ass up!' 'You need to get some money, Gene' and my personal favorite, 'you're such a perv, Gene!'" He laughed, "Stupid ass bitches, they're lucky they have a roof over their heads. I outta throw them out and get rid off the mess once and for all. They believe they can just boss me around and have their way! They might as well go out and…" He paused, trying to figure out why he said that. It seemed he was slipping for some reason; he couldn't catch his words anymore. After much thought of this, Gene started to bang his head.
"Should I be taking this seriously," he asked himself. He laughed aloud again, "Everybody does it. I've done it myself before, too."
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As the magnetic rail was connected into the Hellraiser's own fighter track, workers scurried about trying to get everything in order; her crew saw this a weird way to get pampered in mechanical terms. The four stared from the docking lobby's window as Cecilia's fighter was removed, it's new coat of polish shown the true inner colors of the red and gray quad-wings. From its tinted-glass hull that laid on the top of the isosceles-shaped gray to its wings and triple jets and laser rifles, the glosses made it look brand new.
"You see guys, you just need to take of your own property and people will respect it," said Cecilia.
"Verek en! So what if yours is polished? Really, it's brand new because you hardly even practice with it!" Shouted Ryota through his blindfold, slightly blushing for thought that he was attracting attention with it.
"Yeah, shut up! You practically suck in space! If it wasn't for me, Ryota, and Bill, we'd be dead…or pirates or something." Said Mirak, he unzipped his leather coat and twisted his knife belt, the throwing daggers he had concealed in both his belt and jacket. "Also, we couldn't have made it without this beauty." With that said, a grin appeared on his face as he pulled out his most prized weapon out of it's sheath on his left hip. The Bowie knife glistened dangerously in the light. The blade itself was 1 ¼ feet long and the handle was 5 inches; Mirak sharpened the ridges on it just to show off the fact that he didn't need any new weapons.
"You show off too much, you know that?" Said Cecilia. "Anyway, what'd you think, Bill?"
"I ain't in this, " said Bill as he examined his ID card.
Two more fighters were removed from the ship, but were in dreadful condition, oil stains, cracks, burn marks, and a hint of rust on one of them.
"Hey Ryota, how did you rust your ship? Come and look for your self."
Ryota muttered "Ovvriwa" to himself before he said "Where exactly?"
"On the left upper-wing, "said Cecilia, "He probably tried to clean it, didn't you Ryota?" She turned her attention to Mirak, "Now you have two examples to look up to." She laughed.
"As a matter of fact, I did. I felt lazy and tried to do it, I guess I left it wet, didn't I?"
There was a knock on the steel door. The door opened to reveal a solider wearing a red uniform, same design as the Space Forces. He walked in. "Greetings. The Space Force Weapon Training Facility welcomes you; gentlemen and lady, would you follow me please so we can register you?"
Bill and Mirak followed the man out the room while Cecilia watched them go, Bill shouted back to her.
"Hurry up and get Ryota!"
She turned to look at the Ctarl sitting there, hand outstretched waiting for someone to grab on and lead him. Cecilia grimaced at him.
He's pitiful…I wish he was normal.
The Saurian took hold of Ryota's hand. He lifted himself up. "Thanks Cecilia. Sorry for telling you to shut up back then, you really are a good pilot, you're so responsible too." She led Ryota out the room into the corridor.
She blushed, which only resulted in her head changing its pink color to a deep shade of mahogany, "You don't have to say that, Ryota. Let's change the subject. Turn left."
The two went down the left corridor; the lights were now increasing in numbers. "Hey Ryota? You were speaking in Adok-Ctarl right? I'm sorry I have to ask that, it's hard enough trying to learn perfect Hybra-Sligrish."
He grinned, "It's okay. And yes, I was speaking in Adok-Ctarl. I was wondering, could you speak something to me in Hybra-Sligrish?"
"Uia kaque ayi nax fuscxal"
Ryota started to chuckle as they walked into the registry room, "What does that mean?"
"'To get better', I really hope you can get better so you don't need those damned blindfolds." She tightened her grip on his hand.
"Heh…thanks for caring. I hear a lot of voices, are we there yet?"
"Yeah we're here. You can take off your blindfold now." Cecilia walked towards the desk where Mirak and Bill stood talking to the receptionist, leaving Ryota as he undid the knots behind his head. His soft, light-blue eyes were revealed as he pushed the blindfold into his pocket, he rubbed out the blurriness. Another man, light haired and lean guard, approached them.
"Will you please show me your cards so we can proceed?" He held out his hand.
"We don't have them with us, you see? Our friend, the black-haired one, has them." Said Ryota. Bill came running behind the guard.
"Sir! Sir! Here." He handed the cards to him. The guard then started to examine the cards and the people, holding up the cards to their faces to see if they match. He put three in his pocket but kept out Mirak's.
"Where's this guy?" He held the card out face up to the three.
"Here I am! Sorry it took me so long, I had to check to see something about the ship" Mirak, casually walking, hands in coat, stepped in with the group.
"I guess that you're all here. So…lets continue." He turned around and the crew followed behind. He led them towards the back of the room, the people now that surrounded them all were wearing white coats, presumably scientists, and soldiers with different colors on that the ones already encountered, wearing green and gold. Towards the right side of the room, an unused escalator sat.
"We're now entering the restricted zone, once we reach the bottom, you have to pass through a metal detector. It would be wise to let me hold all your metallic items till then."
Ryota and Cecilia predicted something like this would happen, so they left all weapons and casual metallic needs back on the ship while Bill had to remove his watch. Mirak though, was only wearing his coat filled with knives, black jeans, belt, and cheap boots. But what laid on his chest made him slouch over a bit in worry.
Nah, don't think about it and no one will notice.
Cecilia looked back at the captain and sensed his fear of embarrassment. She took a step back to stand beside him and whispered silently to Mirak, "Don't be afraid, I'll see what I can do." She called out to the guard.
"Sir, is there any other way that my friend could get around the detector without him removing his coat? You see, he has a really bad scar that he considers a deformity and would not like to expose it."
Mirak smiled at his friend. He would thank her later for doing that when everything settled down.
"Sorry lady, but rules are rules. Can't be broken. And plus, I've seen lots of nasty scars, even got some myself. If you ever want to compare yours to mine, I'll be working down here."
Mirak simply turned his head away from the others in a mysterious disgust. "Yeah…sure," he cackled.
Some things are needed to be alone.
"Please hand me all metal-alloy objects in your possessions now," said the guard when they reached the base. He turned around and held his arm out. The guard stared at Mirak impatiently as Bill handed over the timepiece. Mirak could almost hear the guard's thoughts shouting at him.
He has no idea…I can just leave and go back to the ship.
Ryota eyed him suspiciously when a minute passed. Once he saw his white human friend turn around to try to attempt to climb the descending escalator, the Ctarl figured out the dilemma just as Cecilia. He grabbed Mirak's arm and pulled gently.
"Stop this."
Mirak sighed and gave up without saying a word. Shrugging off the hand, Mirak removed his coat. Bill turned his head to avoid the sight. Scars on his back was lengthy and stitched horribly, skin was pulled back over a wound and then stapled in place. The scars covered almost all his back. Oddly though, the biggest scars went right past the spinal cord. The guard didn't ask questions about that.
Mirak handed the coat to the guard, exposing his front. He had scars on his chest also, but not as much just more sickening. There was a wide, orange burn right in the center of his chest while a bullet hole stitched over lay on his left breast. Again, the guard didn't answer.
After passing through the metal detector and receiving their valuables (Mirak practically snatched his coat away), they proceeded down another slightly crowded hallway. The lights were more fluorescent and seemed to cause a rainbow of colors of the metallic walls.
"Hello! You four wouldn't happen to be the crew of the carrier ship with the ID number: 00S7D-95002?" said a singsong voice behind them.
They all flinched and turned around to see the addresser.
"Uh yeah…? Just call it the Hellraiser." Bill answered for the crew.
The voice belonged to a woman. The lady, a scientist from what the Hellraisers could tell from her white lab coat, wore pigtails in her pink hair. Her face, freckled, reflected her child-like actions towards them.
"My name is Aki Yoshimia, Ms. Yoshimia to you. I welcome you to the Space Force Weapons Training Facility! Right now, you're in the restricted area; this particular area that we're standing on now is where we actually test the weapons that we create." Her oriental eyes squinted as she grinned at the four and said, "Commander Duuz informed little old me to use you as subjects, or rather as variables, in math terms," she giggled, "I just love math, especially algebra and calculations, do you like math? With out math, none of this could've been created!" The scientist stopped talking and noticed how she was confusing her guests, there was a little hint of fear sensed also.
"Oh…I'm sorry… Just follow me into the target practice arena." Her face was red with shame. She called for another scientist, an, old Caucasian male, and told him to activate the turrets.
"Turrets! As in gun turrets?!" Screamed Cecilia in shock, she threw her hands to her mouth.
"Yeah," said Ms. Yoshimia, "What type of ammunition you want, lasers or bullets?" Bill looked his fellow crewmates with concern, he knew all of their abilities, feared them in some ways but that was overruled by his friends' personalities. He knew they could overcome anything, even if they had to stare death in the face.
Mirak made a request to the scientist, "Ms. Yoshimia, would it be okay if I didn't receive any weapons? I know that they might be beneficial to us destroying the Outlaw Star, but I want to do this with my own strengths," he pulled his Bowie out, sowing it to her, "I believe this," he then unfolded the left side of his jacket revealing twenty-leather hilted throwing daggers, "and these are all I need, I haven't used any other weapons since I first learned how to sling a dagger." He smirked snidely at Ms. Yoshimia, "I'm want to show you what I can do. How many of these turrets do you have?"
Addled, Ms. Yoshimia said, "I don't know. Umm…I think ten or twelve at least."
"Would it effect the profits or anything else that are connected to the ship if they were destroyed?" Asked Mirak.
"Nothing really, they can easily be replaced. Why are you asking me this?" Surprised in realization, her voiced changed to high-pitched. "Your not going to try to destroy them, are you? You'll get killed! Are you crazy?"
"No. Don't worry, I'll show you what I can do, so don't worry your little head." He walked past her and proceeded to the electric door labeled, 'Target Practice'. "Fill them with real ammunition."
The arena was nightmarish. It looked almost like a large interrogation room with several fluorescent lights that pierced through the darkness. Circular, the walls were lined with measurements and the steel floor, all in units of meters and feet. In specific areas, metal squares laid labeled with fractions with the denominator of 10, the numerator never exceeding it. Mirak stood in the center, braced for impact, flexing his arms with his jacket lightly flowing with his movements, eyes glancing around for the slightest movement, the slightest image of danger.
"I'm ready! Turn on the turrets!"
The ceiling intercom clicked on, Ms. Yoshimia voice poured out of it, confused yet frightened. "Are you sure you want to do this? If you get injured in any way, even die, it won't be the Space Forces fault since you doing this out of your own free will. You know it isn't too late to get out of this."
Mirak laughed silently to himself, "Hey! You seem worried about me, how about when this is over with, I take you out on a date somewhere on New Venus?"
There was the sound of shuffling and a yelp from a female, and then some laughing.
"BEGIN TEST!" He could tell she was trying to hold her composure.
A buzzing sound started behind Mirak. Pulling out two daggers from his coat with his right hand, he slowly turned around to face his challenge. The metal square marked '1/10' split in half, the two new rectangles sunk into the floor. Now the buzzing sound was louder. That's when the turret showed itself, an oval shaped object wielding two gatteling guns; a chain of M-60 bullets were connected to the back of the object to some unknown source inside the floor. The buzzing now ceased, a whizzing sound started when the two guns started to spin.
"Now it's time!" Shouted Mirak as ran towards the turret, his arms thrown behind him, left hand tightened.
The turret exploded bullets, almost 7 a second. Mirak jumped in the air, another of his special abilities. Bullets flying right under his feet, Mirak located the weakness of the turret, a small green exposed wire on the topside of the turret.
"Got it."
He soared over the machine; he braced himself to bounce of the approaching wall before him. He kicked off the wall and readied his daggers to deliver the killing blow, fire narrowly missing him. Now right above the turret, Mirak slung the daggers with dangerous force, they whistled in the air as they landed in the intended target, electricity emitted from the split wire and the turret sunk slowly back into the floor.
Mirak landed elegantly, standing on one foot and arms outstretched. "That was easy. One down, nine to go."
Two more turrets emerged, now a lot faster with their reaction time.
"Watch this!" Mirak drew out his Bowie, holding it in front of his face with pinky extended. He threw his left hand behind him as a fist. The guns started spinning.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? MOVE YOUR ASS!" Shouted Ms. Yoshimia, he could hear the others trying to calm her down.
"Don't worry. You might like what you see," replied Mirak.
RATATATATATATATATAT!!!!
The guns were blazing, bullets spewing from the many barrels. But what happened to the bullets was extraordinary.
He was blocking them! His arm was a blur as the bullets came in contact with the blade. His speed was the only good abnormality he had, also a mysterious trait he had. He started to strafe to the right, still deflecting them; the guns still followed him. He kept strafing until he and the turrets stood in a perfect line. And just as he wanted it to be, the one behind the turret ravished the other turret in front of him; the one being destroyed ceased fire due to the malfunctioning. Mirak to this time to withdraw a single dagger with his free hand and braced himself again. He could swear he heard a gasp from the intercom.
"You can tell me what you think later," said Mirak.
2/10, the turret in front of him now obliterated, had bullets whipping past it's ruins from 3/10. Mirak returned to blocking bullets, now aiming for a different target. As the gun fired, the chain of bullets was being absorbed into the turret's back. His plan was formulated in his mind; he had to outsmart the heat-seeking turret. With eye-tearing speed, he made a mad dash to the part of the wall behind the turret, bullets following him closely. He put the Bowie between his teeth and hiked up the wall. As expected, the turret was still following him.
He then back-flipped with his feet together, landing on his knee and hand. He threw the dagger into the chain. Once the all the bullets that laid before the dagger were shot, the hilt stopped the chain from going on. Sensing this, the turret shut itself down and sunk into the floor.
"Three down, seven to go!" Exclaimed Mirak as he removed his Bowie out his mouth.
Three turrets rose and blasted ammunition, he blocked the bullets with agility. First, he was going to have the turret in the middle, 5/10, be shot down by the other turrets, 4/10 and 6/10, by leaping over it closely. Next, he would use the line trick again. Then, after that, he'll slash the last one to show off.
Dashing towards the center turret, Mirak still blocked the bullets. When he was close enough, dove over the turret with such speed, he almost thought he was going to get shot. But instead, the other turrets destroyed the center turret. Smoking and sizzling, it slowly sunk into the floor as the other destroyed ones. Returning to blocking bullets, Mirak started to strafe towards 4/10. Once again in a straight line, another turret was destroyed. Now, he was going to destroy 6/10. After the destroyed turret went back into its square hole, Mirak darted to the remaining turret. Bowie out, Mirak blocked the bullets, approaching the final gun. In an instant, when he got close enough, Mirak dove over the turret, doing a front-flip. As he turned upside-down, he quickly delivered the coup-de-grace on the green wire, slicing it in half. He landed on his feet passionately.
Once the turret went back into the floor, Mirak turned around to just see the last four squares open up.
"Now to end this…" He sheathed his Bowie knife and drew out four daggers. He did an about-face and dashed to the wall, trying to make it before the guns started to spin. Hiking up the wall, he readied his daggers and back-flipped. Upside-down, he aimed for the green wire on all the remaining now-spinning turrets. He let them fly.
Mirak landed on his right foot and held the stance; he closed his eyes. The sizzling from the five turrets gave off a blue glow as they sunk into the floor. Once the glow faded, Mirak set his other foot down. He laughed out loud.
"Now…what weapon can do all that?"
Expecting to hear some type of victory cheer from one of his companions, Mirak straightened himself out. Silence
"Hello? I'm finished with the stupid test now! I'm not hurt!" His shouts echoed off the walls.
"Guys?"
Bill's voice, quivering, quietly spoke. There were sounds of paper ruffling. "Mirak, you need to come and see this. It seems that the Outlaw Star has emerged out of hiding."
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Well…that was so cool! My first action scene! I hope it's all right, tell me what you think.
Anyway, the different languages I used are original, I figured out how to alter the English Alphabet to make different languages, cool isn't it? I also know that the Melfina part was crappy, so I might fix it later.
By the way, where are all my friends? Did they leave FF.net? I want to see some good and readable fics; the only one so far is 'Dreams of Lethe' by metal-mako-dragon. Thanks for reviewing and putting me on your Author Alert.
****This is the ch6 remake, the first one sucked.***
Ansem Revived