Whoo hoo! Crimson has a Yasminkov! I expect he will be proposing to it any
day now. Really I love that gun, shotguns are the best weapon ever
invented, He doesn't even have to be pointing it in the right direction.
Just need to get the other variants now
Crimson noticed that something was wrong with Alice the moment she got back. He heard the door explode inwards and the distinctive sound of platform boots stomping on the floor. He got up from his seat in front of the TV and went to investigate.
Alice threw her equipment into a corner causing Kyou to chirp in alarm
"MEN SUCK!" She declared loudly to the corridor
"Does that include me?" The calm, yet concerned, voice of Crimson sounded from behind her. She turned round to face him.
"Umm Crimson, sorry I didn't notice you there."
"Obviously" Crimson looked over Alice's shoulder "I suppose you'll be needing that door fixed?"
"Umm yes please" Alice said guiltily, perhaps blowing the door open wasn't such a good idea? Crimson disappeared into his cupboard and came back with a variety of elaborate looking tools. Alice could only identify a few of them.
"Who's got you so wound up anyway?" Crimson asked as he lifted the door back into place "Was it Tatsu? Or some other guy that "sucked""
"It was Tatsu" Alice admitted
"What did he do?" Crimson ripped the cover panel off of the key card reader, forgetting that he could have just unscrewed it "I would have thought he'd be the last person to upset you."
"He was just acting like such a guy" Alice replied, a touch of anger entered her voice simply from remembering.
"Care to Elaborate? Guys act like guys all the time, and I don't see you getting mad at all of them" Crimson had now removed the card reader from the wall and placed it on the floor, he shined a flashlight into the now empty hole.
"Well you know" Alice said evasively "The whole "I'm a guy and I'm really tough so if I don't like you I'm going to beat you up" thing."
"So?" There were a few sparks as Crimson probed around with one of the tools that Alice had been unable to identify. There was a muffled bang and the tool left Crimsons hand at high velocity, embedding itself in the opposite well. "Could you get that for me please Alice?"
Alice complied, and after a minor struggle managed to pull the instrument from out of the wall. She handed it back to Crimson who accepted it with thanks. "What do you mean "so?"? He was acting like a total jerk to this other guy, for almost no reason."
"Almost no reason?" Crimson resumed his probing of the hole
"Well Chimpus, the other guy, did insult Tatsu's fighting skills."
Crimson nodded, though whether it was because of Alice's statement or something in the hole was anybody's guess. "Was there anything else."
"Umm well Chimpus did say I was pretty, but that doesn't have anything to do with it. Does it?" Alice was unsure of herself.
Crimson stood up and dusted his hands off. "It probably had everything to do with it. It's a basic reaction in guys, somebody tries to take something of yours, you fight them for it. Its written down somewhere in the primitive part of the brain."
"Tatsu thinks of me as his?" Alice questioned
"No no, not at all, he's smarter than that." Crimson gave a half laugh "Tatsu likes you, so he is protective of you, its not like he has a say in the matter, and I'm pretty sure that Chimpus pushed the fight."
"Well maybe. But how did you know there was a fight? For that matter how did you know Chimpus was pushing it?"
"It's the "primitive brain" thing again, Tatsu likes you, so does Chimpus. But Tatsu is your friend, so Chimpus is jealous of that. Friendship isn't something that you can take from somebody in a fight, but instincts don't really care about that. If I were you I would forgive Tatsu, His rational side will try and force him to act the right way." Crimson picked up something that Alice recognised as a hand held welding gun.
"Wow Crimson, I'm impressed, I never knew you could read people's actions like that. You should have been a psychiatrist."
"I thought about it, and being a tekker or a pilot, or an engineer or joining the army or being a mechanic." He flicked the welding gun to on.
"Why did you decide to be a hunter?"
"The pay looked good, and I get to do my own thing." Crimson lied, he didn't really want to tell Alice his actual reason for becoming a hunter, it was rather childish. "You should look away, the sparks are pretty bright." He cautioned. Alice did so and after a few moments the door was back in place, as good as new. Almost.
"Umm Crimson?" Alice asked "How are you going to connect the card reader back up?"
"Simple, I just connect the wires through the hole in the side of the door frame."
"You mean the side of the door frame that you just attached the door to?"
Crimson looked at the door and blinked "DAMMIT" He kicked the door and it fell inwards. "Alice?" Crimson said in a flat tone of voice.
"Yes?"
"Don't mention this to Tatsu. Ever."
"I wont" Alice promised, trying hard not to laugh.
After a while they managed to fix the door back into place, and with a little bit of cleaning and some spray paint they also got rid of the scorch marks on it. However after this repair job 3pm was rapidly approaching. So Crimson and Alice gathered their equipment and hurried down to the pit area.
It turned out that there was no need to rush, as a tournament official met them at the entrance to the arena referred to as "the pit"
"Your match won't start until 3:30, you are instructed to wait in the ready room and get to know your allies for this match." The official said in a slightly pretentious tone.
And so Alice and Crimson walked back down the corridor to the ready room. Crimson commented on how absurd this was.
"We need to take 30 minutes to get to know each other? Seems kind of pointless after we've been living in the same place for almost 2 weeks now." Alice agreed absently, she was thinking about what the official had said "your allies" surely it should have been ally, why use the plural? She doubted that such a pompous man would be using poor grammar. Although won't wasn't really a word. It really should be "willn't".
They opened the door to the ready room and were surprised by what they saw. Already in the room sat two other hunters. One of them was plainly dressed in non descript black clothes and a mask hiding his features. Oddly he was barefoot and seemed to carry no MAG or equipment. The other was a small girl dressed much more brightly, both her top and her skirt being a mix of white and bright blue. She seemed to be firmly attached to the older hunters arm. Upon Crimson's and Alice's entrance the girl jumped to her feet and crossed the room in approximately the same amount of time it would have taken the average speeding bullet. She crashed into Crimson, hugging him tightly and knocking him to the floor.
"Hiya Crimson its so good to see you again its been ages and ages since the last time do you remember the last time we met we were in that room with the sharks and we were surrounded by them and I passed out so I don't know what happened next and after I ran after Magus I didn't see you guys again so I didn't know if you were okay but now I know you're okay and we're going to be in this match together isn't that great oh hiya Alice." Mei stopped to breathe, a fact that Crimson was grateful for because it seemed impossible that Mei could talk for any longer without blacking out.
Magus lifted Mei to her feet and extended one hand to Crimson. Crimson accepted the hand that was offered and allowed Magus to help him back to his feet.
"Crimson, Alice" He said almost formally "It's been a while."
"Nice to see you too Mr Black, I didn't know you were here with Mei." Crimson responded.
"It's not like that." Crimson was certain that beneath the mask Magus was blushing
"Yeah we only sleep together you know." Mei said, she had re-attached herself to Magus' arm. Magus' cheeks were burning from the embarrassment he was experiencing.
"We just sleep, nothing else happens at all, really."
"Magus really is great to sleep with, he's so comfortable and he always knows exactly what to do to make sure I'm happy." Mei said completely unaware of what she had just implied.
Crimson was laughing so hard he was starting to choke from it and Alice was blushing a deep shade of red. Magus was standing there, hoping against hope that maybe the floor would open up and swallow him.
A few minutes later the four of them were sitting down discussing recent events and generally catching up. Crimson had his sniper on his knees and was checking each individual part.
"Wow that's a really big gun!" Mei said peering over at it "Can I have a look at it?"
"Sure" Crimson handed it to her."
Mei reached out with one hand and grabbed the sniper by the stock. The huge weight of the weapon caused her to overbalance and she ended up sprawled across the floor, the impact causing the weapon to fire a single shot which smashed through the front of a drinks dispenser.
"Umm it's a little bit heavy" She said sheepishly as a can rolled past her, she snagged the can with her left hand and stood up, pulling the ring pull off of it. The can opened with a fizz.
Mei didn't get to have her drink as Magus reached over her shoulder and took it from her. He walked over to the machine and put 3 meseta into the coin slot.
"Hey! my drink." Mei wailed
Magus swallowed a mouthful of it "One, you didn't pay for it and its wrong to steal and two, you're underage and aren't allowed caffeinated beverages.".
"I'll be 18 next month" Mei complained some more
"Then next month you can drink this." Magus said firmly
"You're mean, meany" Mei stuck her tongue out
Crimson leaned over to Alice "Aww don't they make such a cute couple?" he whispered
"I don't know" Alice whispered back "Magus is old enough to be her father."
"It's not like that." Magus was probably blushing some more "Really, we're just friends"
Crimson burst out laughing and Alice giggled at Magus' usage of the famous line. Magus failed to see what was so funny. The door to the ready room opened and two more figures stepped inside, A tall male android and a short woman. Both of them looked as if they meant business. The woman spoke first.
"I am Tyra Major of the Galactic Mobile Infantry, 16th Squadron. I hold the rank of sergeant and as such I demand respect from each of you miserable excuses for soldiers. Is that clear?"
"Actually we're hunters not soldiers." Crimson pointed out
Tyra stood right in front of Crimson , glaring down at him. "I SAID IS THAT CLEAR MAGGOT!"
Crimson stood up and looked calmly down at Tyra who stood a couple of inches shorter than him. "You make yourself perfectly clear sergeant Major"
"ARE YOU TAKING THE MICHAEL SOLDIER!"
Crimson sat back down and leaned back "Of course not, I have all the respect for you that you deserve sergeant Major."
"You're coming close to insubordination soldier one more word out of you and GET AWAY FROM THAT ANDROID" She yelled the last as she caught sight of Mei pestering the other newcomer.
"Hey you look kinda like my friend Mery do you know Mery? Probably not but he is very strange I hope you aren't like Mery because then we will be in really big trouble when the fight starts hey that's a really cool light what's it for do you move or speak or anything cos you haven't being doing much since you got here."
"Affirmative, I am capable of performing several functions the most frequently used is my ability to engage in combat, there should be no worries of my ability to assist when the fight starts." The androids tone was warm and conversational, had he and the sergeant switched personalities or something?
Mei was dragged away from the android by Tyra before the conversation could continue, Tyra and her android sat at the other side of the room, talking in low voices.
"Magus, don't you think that was really rude of her?" Mei asked
"Yes, but don't call me Magus, call me mister Black" Magus whispered back
"Why?"
"I don't want anyone else to know who I am, they would try to take me away."
Mei's eyes widened "They can't do that, it would be really unfair and mean."
"That's why I'm hiding from them Mei, so be quiet and don't let them know who I am, understand?"
Mei nodded and the small group of four returned to chatting idly. When was the match going to start?
Raven sat cross legged, staring at it. It blinked at him, he blinked back. It was fascinating, the way it pulsed and glowed with a strange vitality, the way there seemed to be an intelligence behind its roving eyes. I should probably get up and eat now Raven thought to himself. But he didn't move, if he just kept concentrating on it maybe he could unravel its mysteries.
-.- -.-
Well there was going to be a bit with Psilo's group, buuuut every time I start to write it I suddenly thought of something else that needed doing eg. Housework, looking for a job, playing dragon quarter. So It'll just be starting the next chapter off, and damn if the thing Raven has isn't mysterious. Anyways I'm off to go hack at things with my shiny new J-sword (I may have duplicated one a friend of mine got online, but hey, congrats to us for figuring out how to dupe things in single player )
Crimson noticed that something was wrong with Alice the moment she got back. He heard the door explode inwards and the distinctive sound of platform boots stomping on the floor. He got up from his seat in front of the TV and went to investigate.
Alice threw her equipment into a corner causing Kyou to chirp in alarm
"MEN SUCK!" She declared loudly to the corridor
"Does that include me?" The calm, yet concerned, voice of Crimson sounded from behind her. She turned round to face him.
"Umm Crimson, sorry I didn't notice you there."
"Obviously" Crimson looked over Alice's shoulder "I suppose you'll be needing that door fixed?"
"Umm yes please" Alice said guiltily, perhaps blowing the door open wasn't such a good idea? Crimson disappeared into his cupboard and came back with a variety of elaborate looking tools. Alice could only identify a few of them.
"Who's got you so wound up anyway?" Crimson asked as he lifted the door back into place "Was it Tatsu? Or some other guy that "sucked""
"It was Tatsu" Alice admitted
"What did he do?" Crimson ripped the cover panel off of the key card reader, forgetting that he could have just unscrewed it "I would have thought he'd be the last person to upset you."
"He was just acting like such a guy" Alice replied, a touch of anger entered her voice simply from remembering.
"Care to Elaborate? Guys act like guys all the time, and I don't see you getting mad at all of them" Crimson had now removed the card reader from the wall and placed it on the floor, he shined a flashlight into the now empty hole.
"Well you know" Alice said evasively "The whole "I'm a guy and I'm really tough so if I don't like you I'm going to beat you up" thing."
"So?" There were a few sparks as Crimson probed around with one of the tools that Alice had been unable to identify. There was a muffled bang and the tool left Crimsons hand at high velocity, embedding itself in the opposite well. "Could you get that for me please Alice?"
Alice complied, and after a minor struggle managed to pull the instrument from out of the wall. She handed it back to Crimson who accepted it with thanks. "What do you mean "so?"? He was acting like a total jerk to this other guy, for almost no reason."
"Almost no reason?" Crimson resumed his probing of the hole
"Well Chimpus, the other guy, did insult Tatsu's fighting skills."
Crimson nodded, though whether it was because of Alice's statement or something in the hole was anybody's guess. "Was there anything else."
"Umm well Chimpus did say I was pretty, but that doesn't have anything to do with it. Does it?" Alice was unsure of herself.
Crimson stood up and dusted his hands off. "It probably had everything to do with it. It's a basic reaction in guys, somebody tries to take something of yours, you fight them for it. Its written down somewhere in the primitive part of the brain."
"Tatsu thinks of me as his?" Alice questioned
"No no, not at all, he's smarter than that." Crimson gave a half laugh "Tatsu likes you, so he is protective of you, its not like he has a say in the matter, and I'm pretty sure that Chimpus pushed the fight."
"Well maybe. But how did you know there was a fight? For that matter how did you know Chimpus was pushing it?"
"It's the "primitive brain" thing again, Tatsu likes you, so does Chimpus. But Tatsu is your friend, so Chimpus is jealous of that. Friendship isn't something that you can take from somebody in a fight, but instincts don't really care about that. If I were you I would forgive Tatsu, His rational side will try and force him to act the right way." Crimson picked up something that Alice recognised as a hand held welding gun.
"Wow Crimson, I'm impressed, I never knew you could read people's actions like that. You should have been a psychiatrist."
"I thought about it, and being a tekker or a pilot, or an engineer or joining the army or being a mechanic." He flicked the welding gun to on.
"Why did you decide to be a hunter?"
"The pay looked good, and I get to do my own thing." Crimson lied, he didn't really want to tell Alice his actual reason for becoming a hunter, it was rather childish. "You should look away, the sparks are pretty bright." He cautioned. Alice did so and after a few moments the door was back in place, as good as new. Almost.
"Umm Crimson?" Alice asked "How are you going to connect the card reader back up?"
"Simple, I just connect the wires through the hole in the side of the door frame."
"You mean the side of the door frame that you just attached the door to?"
Crimson looked at the door and blinked "DAMMIT" He kicked the door and it fell inwards. "Alice?" Crimson said in a flat tone of voice.
"Yes?"
"Don't mention this to Tatsu. Ever."
"I wont" Alice promised, trying hard not to laugh.
After a while they managed to fix the door back into place, and with a little bit of cleaning and some spray paint they also got rid of the scorch marks on it. However after this repair job 3pm was rapidly approaching. So Crimson and Alice gathered their equipment and hurried down to the pit area.
It turned out that there was no need to rush, as a tournament official met them at the entrance to the arena referred to as "the pit"
"Your match won't start until 3:30, you are instructed to wait in the ready room and get to know your allies for this match." The official said in a slightly pretentious tone.
And so Alice and Crimson walked back down the corridor to the ready room. Crimson commented on how absurd this was.
"We need to take 30 minutes to get to know each other? Seems kind of pointless after we've been living in the same place for almost 2 weeks now." Alice agreed absently, she was thinking about what the official had said "your allies" surely it should have been ally, why use the plural? She doubted that such a pompous man would be using poor grammar. Although won't wasn't really a word. It really should be "willn't".
They opened the door to the ready room and were surprised by what they saw. Already in the room sat two other hunters. One of them was plainly dressed in non descript black clothes and a mask hiding his features. Oddly he was barefoot and seemed to carry no MAG or equipment. The other was a small girl dressed much more brightly, both her top and her skirt being a mix of white and bright blue. She seemed to be firmly attached to the older hunters arm. Upon Crimson's and Alice's entrance the girl jumped to her feet and crossed the room in approximately the same amount of time it would have taken the average speeding bullet. She crashed into Crimson, hugging him tightly and knocking him to the floor.
"Hiya Crimson its so good to see you again its been ages and ages since the last time do you remember the last time we met we were in that room with the sharks and we were surrounded by them and I passed out so I don't know what happened next and after I ran after Magus I didn't see you guys again so I didn't know if you were okay but now I know you're okay and we're going to be in this match together isn't that great oh hiya Alice." Mei stopped to breathe, a fact that Crimson was grateful for because it seemed impossible that Mei could talk for any longer without blacking out.
Magus lifted Mei to her feet and extended one hand to Crimson. Crimson accepted the hand that was offered and allowed Magus to help him back to his feet.
"Crimson, Alice" He said almost formally "It's been a while."
"Nice to see you too Mr Black, I didn't know you were here with Mei." Crimson responded.
"It's not like that." Crimson was certain that beneath the mask Magus was blushing
"Yeah we only sleep together you know." Mei said, she had re-attached herself to Magus' arm. Magus' cheeks were burning from the embarrassment he was experiencing.
"We just sleep, nothing else happens at all, really."
"Magus really is great to sleep with, he's so comfortable and he always knows exactly what to do to make sure I'm happy." Mei said completely unaware of what she had just implied.
Crimson was laughing so hard he was starting to choke from it and Alice was blushing a deep shade of red. Magus was standing there, hoping against hope that maybe the floor would open up and swallow him.
A few minutes later the four of them were sitting down discussing recent events and generally catching up. Crimson had his sniper on his knees and was checking each individual part.
"Wow that's a really big gun!" Mei said peering over at it "Can I have a look at it?"
"Sure" Crimson handed it to her."
Mei reached out with one hand and grabbed the sniper by the stock. The huge weight of the weapon caused her to overbalance and she ended up sprawled across the floor, the impact causing the weapon to fire a single shot which smashed through the front of a drinks dispenser.
"Umm it's a little bit heavy" She said sheepishly as a can rolled past her, she snagged the can with her left hand and stood up, pulling the ring pull off of it. The can opened with a fizz.
Mei didn't get to have her drink as Magus reached over her shoulder and took it from her. He walked over to the machine and put 3 meseta into the coin slot.
"Hey! my drink." Mei wailed
Magus swallowed a mouthful of it "One, you didn't pay for it and its wrong to steal and two, you're underage and aren't allowed caffeinated beverages.".
"I'll be 18 next month" Mei complained some more
"Then next month you can drink this." Magus said firmly
"You're mean, meany" Mei stuck her tongue out
Crimson leaned over to Alice "Aww don't they make such a cute couple?" he whispered
"I don't know" Alice whispered back "Magus is old enough to be her father."
"It's not like that." Magus was probably blushing some more "Really, we're just friends"
Crimson burst out laughing and Alice giggled at Magus' usage of the famous line. Magus failed to see what was so funny. The door to the ready room opened and two more figures stepped inside, A tall male android and a short woman. Both of them looked as if they meant business. The woman spoke first.
"I am Tyra Major of the Galactic Mobile Infantry, 16th Squadron. I hold the rank of sergeant and as such I demand respect from each of you miserable excuses for soldiers. Is that clear?"
"Actually we're hunters not soldiers." Crimson pointed out
Tyra stood right in front of Crimson , glaring down at him. "I SAID IS THAT CLEAR MAGGOT!"
Crimson stood up and looked calmly down at Tyra who stood a couple of inches shorter than him. "You make yourself perfectly clear sergeant Major"
"ARE YOU TAKING THE MICHAEL SOLDIER!"
Crimson sat back down and leaned back "Of course not, I have all the respect for you that you deserve sergeant Major."
"You're coming close to insubordination soldier one more word out of you and GET AWAY FROM THAT ANDROID" She yelled the last as she caught sight of Mei pestering the other newcomer.
"Hey you look kinda like my friend Mery do you know Mery? Probably not but he is very strange I hope you aren't like Mery because then we will be in really big trouble when the fight starts hey that's a really cool light what's it for do you move or speak or anything cos you haven't being doing much since you got here."
"Affirmative, I am capable of performing several functions the most frequently used is my ability to engage in combat, there should be no worries of my ability to assist when the fight starts." The androids tone was warm and conversational, had he and the sergeant switched personalities or something?
Mei was dragged away from the android by Tyra before the conversation could continue, Tyra and her android sat at the other side of the room, talking in low voices.
"Magus, don't you think that was really rude of her?" Mei asked
"Yes, but don't call me Magus, call me mister Black" Magus whispered back
"Why?"
"I don't want anyone else to know who I am, they would try to take me away."
Mei's eyes widened "They can't do that, it would be really unfair and mean."
"That's why I'm hiding from them Mei, so be quiet and don't let them know who I am, understand?"
Mei nodded and the small group of four returned to chatting idly. When was the match going to start?
Raven sat cross legged, staring at it. It blinked at him, he blinked back. It was fascinating, the way it pulsed and glowed with a strange vitality, the way there seemed to be an intelligence behind its roving eyes. I should probably get up and eat now Raven thought to himself. But he didn't move, if he just kept concentrating on it maybe he could unravel its mysteries.
-.- -.-
Well there was going to be a bit with Psilo's group, buuuut every time I start to write it I suddenly thought of something else that needed doing eg. Housework, looking for a job, playing dragon quarter. So It'll just be starting the next chapter off, and damn if the thing Raven has isn't mysterious. Anyways I'm off to go hack at things with my shiny new J-sword (I may have duplicated one a friend of mine got online, but hey, congrats to us for figuring out how to dupe things in single player )