The First Book of Prophecy
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Bullet 1: Millie Thompson
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Disclaimer: Seems that I forgot this in the prologue! I don't own Trigun. So, please don't sue.
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NekoHitori: Hey, thanks! I'll take your advice about the humor thing; it makes lots of sense, and I'll certainly try my best to honor it. grin
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Summery: Rem and the crew proved to be alive and well after tricking Vash into thinking that they were dead, but why did they do it? Now, Vash is going to begin his journey on understanding just that....
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Vash the Stampede thought of himself as a simple man (even though just the opposite was true). He lived as a wandering vagabond, like many of the men of GunSmoke. He carried a gun like many of the men of GunSmoke (and knew how to fire it, to boot). And also like the men of GunSmoke, Vash drank. A lot. In fact, he was a self-declared alcoholic (his alcoholism was something that annoyed Knives to no end).
Vash had been out drinking the night before (naturally) so when he was awoken three hours before the first sun was due to rise, he was a bit irritated to say the least.
Twitching slightly, Vash was able to make to the hall of the (temporary) apartment he was staying in. Maybe it was just him, but the pounding on the door seemed to coincide with the pounding in his head.
When he opened the door at the end of the hall, he wasn't even able to grate out a waspish, "What?" before he was greeted with a jubilant, "Mr. Vash!" as well as a pair of arms thrown around his neck.
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"I'm really sorry for waking you up, Mr. Vash," Millie said.
After Millie had thrown herself at Vash, the gunman had been forced to shove his friend off, yelp apologies over one shoulder, and puke in the bathroom.
Once all the alcohol had worked its way out of his system, Vash had stumbled into the kitchen, to see Millie working on some unearthly concoction at the stove.
Mumbling apologies, Vash had slumped in a chair at the table in the kitchen. Millie had brushed off his apologies with her own, and had poured her potion into a glass and ordered him to drink it.
Vash had complied.
Incredibly, his headache and his feelings of nausea had cleared up almost immediately.
It was at that point, Vash was ready to fall flat on his face, and worship her.
Incidentally, Millie had told him he looked ridiculous.
And that is where we find our (barely) intrepid hero and (most definitely) brave heroine: they're sitting at the table with Millie apologizing for waking him up, and Vash is (of course) waving them off.
"It's alright Millie," Vash said resolutely. "I should've been getting up anyway." He gave her an admiring look, making her blush. "Also, whatever was in this thing, worked wonders for my poor head."
Millie shrugged. "It's really a very simple recipe, Mr. Vash. My big big brother taught me how to make it, because he'd go out with his friends to bars all the time. In the morning he'd have an awful headache." She hesitated and then said, "You really should cut back on your drinking, if you don't mind me saying so Mr. Vash. It isn't at all good for your liver."
"You're probably right," Vash admitted wryly. "If I don't cut back, my eyes will turn yellow, and I'll start raving." He sighed mournfully. "Ah, well. So, Millie, where's Meryl? I yearn to hear her gentle screeches, and to feel her loving blows to my unworthy head."
Millie ignored that, chalking it up to waking with a hangover as well as having no coffee. "That's what I came to talk to you, Mr. Vash. Meryl's been kidnapped!
That got Vash's attention.
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So, Millie told him the whole story.
As near as Vash could figure it out, a rich family -- the Rizus -- had sent a letter to Bernardelli requesting to buy an insurance package. But, the letter said, they would only buy it of agents Meryl and Millie came and presented their options.
The Chief had conceded. After all, rich families like the Rizus had strange, paranoid quirks; it probably came from having so much money. Besides, Bernardelli had been after the Rizus for years. If they wanted Meryl and Millie to help, then who was he to argue? They probably got famous by traveling with Vash; and the two had sold packages before, so he ordered them to move out.
But Meryl hadn't liked it. She hadn't liked it at all.
The agents had taken a bus to SilverSide, the-almost-city-town that was home to, and controlled by, the Rizus. Meryl, in her usual charming fashion, had ordered the bus driver to stop an ile outside the-almost-city-town.
Since Meryl was rather small, and slight, the bus driver hadn't taken her very seriously. Millie however, wasn't small and slight by any means, so, while she might not have understood what Meryl was doing, she nonetheless backed up her petite friend by showing the bus driver her stun gun.
He got the point immediately.
So, they were set down an ile from the-almost-city-town.
They proceeded to walk to SilverSide, Meryl talking the whole way, saying, "Millie, I don't like this. The whole things stinks, but I don't know why!"
"Maybe it's because you used to travel with Mr. Vash, Meryl. Maybe you've learned how to sense danger!"
"Very funny, Millie. And don't you mean we used to travel with Vash?"
And so it went. When they were but a few feet from the entrance, Meryl had whispered Vash's current location to Millie along with instructions to go there if anything went wrong. Millie had properly memorized it along with the prior conversation, knowing that Vash would be interested (the memorization was yet another trick she had picked up from being the youngest of ten children, and therefore constantly having shopping chores pushed on her -- with a lot of stuff to buy.).
Meryl had just rattled off Vash's location when they entered the city – and saw the bus they had been traveling on promptly stuffed full of bullet holes and grenades, courtesy of the snipers on top of the buildings.
Needless to say, the two had been surprised.
Instead, however, of running out into the unforgiving desert like chickens with their heads cut off, Meryl and Millie had proceeded to get out their guns -- and run straight into the center of the trap.
The snipers were surprised, and were slow to react. The girls took advantage of that, and managed to find cover in a conveniently placed, empty, old, and yet sturdy building, that also just happened to be empty.
Convenient, no?
Fortunately, years of traveling with Vash had taught Meryl and Millie to never trust convenience.
Upon entering the building, Millie had let loose a long range of stunners, which promptly put all the snipers on the ground level to sleep.
On the ground level.
With Millie providing her with cover fire, Meryl ran across the exposed floor, derringers in each hand, firing like crazy.
Meryl got all the snipers, which made the girls even more jumpy; they shot at anything that moved.
Incidentally, they killed six rats.
After a few minutes of no fighting, Meryl had snapped, and muttering darkly to herself, had stalked over to open the doors.
Only to discover they were locked.
Meryl's speech had degenerated steadily after that.
"It was pretty bad, Mr. Vash," Millie said. "We were trapped pretty well."
Vash nodded and urged her to on.
"Well, a few minutes after we found out that the doors were locked, a voice started coming out over some speakers in the corners. They were hidden really well, so we hadn't seen them before." Vash nodded. "It was a woman that was talking. She -- she said that we were pretty good to have come so far, but now the game was up."
"Then everything went dark! I heard Meryl scream, but when I tried to get to her, I couldn't move!"
Vash stiffened slightly. "You couldn't move?"
"Yes."
"Why?
"I -- I don't know Mr. Vash. It was like -- like someone had woven thick ropes together into a blanket and wrapped it all around me! I -- I could feel it pressing against me!" Millie shuddered. Vash patted her hand comfortingly.
"I was able to move my legs though," she said, brightening a little. "I managed to get to the trigger of my stun gun with my foot. I kicked it the other way and set it off. I guess that got whatever was holding me in place, because I was able to move again.
"I got to the fuse box since I'd already tried the switches, and they didn't work.
"Well, I did manage to get the lights turned on, but when they did, there wasn't anyone there. The place was a mess too."
Vash frowned. "Were there any notes?"
"I didn't see any, but I might have missed something. I was scared Mr. Vash." Her face fell. "I'm sorry."
"It's alright Millie. You've already proved your self dozens of times." Vash's mind however, was clicking away, not concentrating what he was saying to the woman.
So the Rizus haven't given up on me, he thought. They still want....
Vash stood and pulled on his red coat from where it was lying on the counter, over the worn leather of his body armor. Then, he walked out of the kitchen to the bedroom and began to pack.
When he came out, Millie was standing by the door. Pale faced, but ready to go.
Silently thanking the Goddesses for Millie and her incredible astuteness, Vash held a gloved finger to his lips and motioned for Millie to get down.
Millie dropped like a stone. Albeit, a slow, silent stone.
Drawing his .45, Vash pressed up against the wall by the window, Reaching out rather carefully and finding the minds of Millie's followers.
They had the apartment building completely surrounded. They were armed to the teeth; grenade launchers, machine guns -- powerful models too.
Are the Rizus a crime family, or a government black op? Vash thought crossly. Suddenly, he frowned as a new factor entered the equation.
The assassins were anything but watchful. Many were asleep; others were on the verge of it; and still others were drunk, or reading, or chatting up their companions.
In fact, there were very few actually watching the complex.
Those few however, were the real professionals; they took their jobs very seriously, and held nothing but contempt for the amateurs lying about.
But why so few experts? It wasn't like the Rizus couldn't hire them, they had money to burn. Those idiots out there were only good enough for mass destruction, and Vash could take care of them in less than five minutes.
Vash and the Rizus had tangled before; they knew that it would take a lot more than what they were throwing at him to take him down.
Unless....
Vash's thought process didn't go slowly like that of course. It all was instantaneous; several things clicking together all at once. And Vash's lightning fast thought process came up with an inalterable conclusion.
He took aim, and shot Millie straight between the eyes.
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Author's Notes: Ah, I'm an evil, evil, person aren't I?
Millie's deeeeaaaad...... Hee. grin
Anyway, there are a few things I want to say in... THE DESCRIPTION SECTION! blaring trumpets
Vash's Apartment (for this chapter)
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Vash's apartment begins in a building (gasp!). It's in the Third Level, and has a pale yellow door. When it's opened, you come to a hallway twelve feet long with a single rectangular window that starts a foot after the door frame and ends seven feet before the end, making approximately four feet long.
The window's height is hard to judge; going by Vash however, whom this author believes to be 7' 2'', it comes to par with the top of the tight part of his coat -- you know, the part that makes him look so scrawny? If you take a good look at that, then the window starts about 5 and half feet off the floor -- possibly as a child-safety precaution to ensure that they don't fall out of the window and splatter on the street since it would be too high for them (there are three inches of purchase on the window-sill).
After you come out of the hallway, you'll come into a small all-purpose area. It's basically shaped as a box, with seven feet being the base length of the walls ({it is most often used as a living room} which are ten feet high through-out the entire apartment). A brown door on the right wall leads directly to the bathroom; no hallway there, folks.
The kitchen's door-less entrance is on the wall right in front of you. Upon entering it, the stove raises four feet above the floor to your left; there are only 5 and half inches of white counter top between your elbow and the stove; just enough room to put your keys and coffee mug on. The stove top is black and a yard long, but gives way to more countertop – bending at the corner, I might add. The counter travels a good six feet along the wall before coming to the sink. After the sink however, there is six more feet of counter before stopping at the wall opposite the one where it all begins.
Above the counters are cupboards, which are filled with rudimentary items, such as cups and plates.
Eating utensils aren't provided; the occupiers have to buy them themselves.
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The Goddesses
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There are three Goddesses to the Plants' divine pantheon:
Sakwah is the Goddess of Time; she controls how Time flows, and for a chosen few, she will stretch out a second as long as it takes for people to make a decision. Often, this will occur for the warriors of the species.
Kerios is the Goddess of Mating; she chooses which Plant will fall in love with which Plant -- as well as who does not find a partner. It could be said that she controls the romantic aspect of the Plants lives.
Teria is the Goddess of Learning; she invented the Plant language and taught it to them and she makes sure that all Plants are born with the knowledge of their culture and their religion. With Knives and Vash, she was forced to go a step further and gave them all of the knowledge (that means she gave them the knowledge that their parents would normally teach to them, as well as the normal package) -- but as of yet, the twins don't have access to it.
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Well, there you go! Review!