Hooray! I'm actually managing to update once a week!
Disclaimer: All the characters so far are MINE, as is the term 'spoon- bug', which will keep popping up occasionally since I like the way it sounds so much. *giggles* Spoon-bug! Spoon-bug! I own nothing else in this fic. If you want to sue someone, I'm not the person you want to drag into court, 'cause all you'll get is a bunch of useless junk sprinkled liberally with dust bunnies.
'spoon-bug!.' is thoughts until ff.n stops being so mean and eating up my boldface and italics and ellipses and stuff (argh.). Oh, and Silver's thoughts are really random- they're kind of the comic relief at times.
On with the chapter!
Project Athena: Chapter V- Alarm Clock
Before Lina had even finished swallowing, Pheniks stood up. Now that she was no longer in the shadows, Lina could see that she had black hair streaked with red and orange and was wearing a black trenchcoat so long that it brushed the floor, as well as a pair of very businesslike-looking combat boots. She also noted, to her (very) slight amusement, that the person that had scared her to within an inch of her life was about half a foot shorter that her. However, there was something about this person that seemed to scream "do not start with me- you WILL NOT win!"
'...so what now?...I've been scared out of my wits, dragged around in the middle of the night, threatened with a gun, been caused to puke all over the road, and been scared half to death AGAIN, for this...whatever it is, it had better be good...'
Pheniks swept out of the room, motioning for Lina to follow.
'...righty then...follow her...'
She tagged along into the main warehouse, to the cleared area with all the gizmos.
"Sit," Pheniks ordered, indicating another wooden chair in the center of the clutter. Lina sat. One of the lookalikes- either Wynn or the driver, stuck several somethings with wires attached to her. Lina didn't even question her.
'...what the hell is all this?...as long as it works, I guess I don't give a damn...'
Snippets of talk reached her ears, but they made no sense: "Got it yet, Lynx?"..."Ready, Sketch?"..."I'm picking up a signal right now..." and so forth.
'...what the hell are they talking about...ahh, who gives a shit?...'
Suddenly, lost all feeling and her vision went all funny as her surroundings dissolved into...
'...pink goo?...'
Lina tried to swear, but something was blocking her mouth and throat. Judging by the liquid condition of her surroundings and the fact that she hadn't drowned yet, she guessed it must be an oxygen supply. Through the slime she could fuzzily see things sticking out of her all over the place- wires? Tubes?
'what the...and I thought the last dream was bad...'
With what seemed like far too much effort, she sat up. The tough membrane covering the top of her pod didn't make the process any easier. With a gargantuan effort, she managed to haul the pipe from her throat and wipe the goo from her eyes. The view was astounding once she did- in a confusing, terrifying way.
'...what the fuck?...all those, those whatever-they-ares...with people in them...I don't like this at all...'
Her view in all directions was full of towers, towers studded with regular rows of pods just like hers- except their contents were all asleep. Pheniks' words echoed through her head: ".so that I can offer you the chance to wake up."
'...shit...Is this the real world?...I think I'll pass...I'll just put in that damn tube and lie back and go to sleep again...'
She looked around for the tube, but it had fallen back into the pod, and was now full of goop.
'...double shit...gyaghhh!...'
Some sort of robot was suddenly hovering in front of her, looking very threatening indeed. Abruptly, it grabbed her neck in a metal claw and did something that hurt like hell. A very large cable or tube fell away from the base of her skull, and the pain suddenly stopped, only to be replaced by the pain of all the other dozens of cables coming off of the rest of her body.
'...ah, hell...that hurts...agh...yowch...'
The last of the cables fell away, and a hole opened in the back of the pod, near where her head had so recently been. The pod goo drained fast, and Lina grabbed for the nearest handhold- the robot. She actually managed to grab on for a moment, but her hands were too weak to hold herself back. Her grip slid off of the thing, and with a howl of "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" she was flushed along with the last trickles of goo- like a dead goldfish- down into a cold, dark sewer pipe. ***
And another chapter!
Lyrrik: Wahoo and stuff. *waves little flag with the letter S on it*
Thanks. I guess 'S' stands for SandryLark?
Lyrrik: Nah. It stands for 'stupid, egotistical, irritating, bossy.
School Binder (with help from me): WHAP!
Yay! I don't have Lyrrik sitting on my head anymore! *pats school binder* Good girl! *feeds it a few post-it notes*
School Binder: Arf!
Lyrrik: *does triple somersault in air and lands on the scanner. Hard.* Oof. I'm okay.*falls onto desktop* Owwie.
Stop that, Lyrrik. You know that I know that you're not really injured. Plus, you brought it on yourself by sitting there in the first place.
Lyrrik: *stands up, acts businesslike*
OK, do your stuff.
Lyrrik: Hear ye, hear ye: last chapter's challenge was answered correctly by frankiethemouse. Thankyou, and congratulations! The 'forty-two' reference does indeed come from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by the late, great Douglass Adams. Many, many thanks to Kalista3 and da white rabbit for their reviews. Oh, and I should mention me and SandryLark's policy on flames, just in case (though nobody has sent any yet, for which we are grateful). Any flames that find their way into SandryLark's inbox will be printed out and stuffed into her ski boots to be used as toe warmers, which are really useful, but cost lots of money at ski lodges. So really, if you flame, please be aware that you're actually saving SandryLark some money. Thanks for listening. Oh, and I owe frankiethemouse a serenade! *clears throat* *sings to the tune of 'Happy Birthday'* Congratulations to youuu! Congratulations to youuu! Congratulations, frankiethemouse! Congratulations to youuuuuuuu!!!!!!
Very good job, Lyrrik! You can all take your fingers out of your ears again now.
Lyrrik: *sticks out tongue*
See you all next week, same bat-time, same bat-.erm.website? I don't know! Bye!
Lyrrik: Byeee!
Disclaimer: All the characters so far are MINE, as is the term 'spoon- bug', which will keep popping up occasionally since I like the way it sounds so much. *giggles* Spoon-bug! Spoon-bug! I own nothing else in this fic. If you want to sue someone, I'm not the person you want to drag into court, 'cause all you'll get is a bunch of useless junk sprinkled liberally with dust bunnies.
'spoon-bug!.' is thoughts until ff.n stops being so mean and eating up my boldface and italics and ellipses and stuff (argh.). Oh, and Silver's thoughts are really random- they're kind of the comic relief at times.
On with the chapter!
Project Athena: Chapter V- Alarm Clock
Before Lina had even finished swallowing, Pheniks stood up. Now that she was no longer in the shadows, Lina could see that she had black hair streaked with red and orange and was wearing a black trenchcoat so long that it brushed the floor, as well as a pair of very businesslike-looking combat boots. She also noted, to her (very) slight amusement, that the person that had scared her to within an inch of her life was about half a foot shorter that her. However, there was something about this person that seemed to scream "do not start with me- you WILL NOT win!"
'...so what now?...I've been scared out of my wits, dragged around in the middle of the night, threatened with a gun, been caused to puke all over the road, and been scared half to death AGAIN, for this...whatever it is, it had better be good...'
Pheniks swept out of the room, motioning for Lina to follow.
'...righty then...follow her...'
She tagged along into the main warehouse, to the cleared area with all the gizmos.
"Sit," Pheniks ordered, indicating another wooden chair in the center of the clutter. Lina sat. One of the lookalikes- either Wynn or the driver, stuck several somethings with wires attached to her. Lina didn't even question her.
'...what the hell is all this?...as long as it works, I guess I don't give a damn...'
Snippets of talk reached her ears, but they made no sense: "Got it yet, Lynx?"..."Ready, Sketch?"..."I'm picking up a signal right now..." and so forth.
'...what the hell are they talking about...ahh, who gives a shit?...'
Suddenly, lost all feeling and her vision went all funny as her surroundings dissolved into...
'...pink goo?...'
Lina tried to swear, but something was blocking her mouth and throat. Judging by the liquid condition of her surroundings and the fact that she hadn't drowned yet, she guessed it must be an oxygen supply. Through the slime she could fuzzily see things sticking out of her all over the place- wires? Tubes?
'what the...and I thought the last dream was bad...'
With what seemed like far too much effort, she sat up. The tough membrane covering the top of her pod didn't make the process any easier. With a gargantuan effort, she managed to haul the pipe from her throat and wipe the goo from her eyes. The view was astounding once she did- in a confusing, terrifying way.
'...what the fuck?...all those, those whatever-they-ares...with people in them...I don't like this at all...'
Her view in all directions was full of towers, towers studded with regular rows of pods just like hers- except their contents were all asleep. Pheniks' words echoed through her head: ".so that I can offer you the chance to wake up."
'...shit...Is this the real world?...I think I'll pass...I'll just put in that damn tube and lie back and go to sleep again...'
She looked around for the tube, but it had fallen back into the pod, and was now full of goop.
'...double shit...gyaghhh!...'
Some sort of robot was suddenly hovering in front of her, looking very threatening indeed. Abruptly, it grabbed her neck in a metal claw and did something that hurt like hell. A very large cable or tube fell away from the base of her skull, and the pain suddenly stopped, only to be replaced by the pain of all the other dozens of cables coming off of the rest of her body.
'...ah, hell...that hurts...agh...yowch...'
The last of the cables fell away, and a hole opened in the back of the pod, near where her head had so recently been. The pod goo drained fast, and Lina grabbed for the nearest handhold- the robot. She actually managed to grab on for a moment, but her hands were too weak to hold herself back. Her grip slid off of the thing, and with a howl of "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" she was flushed along with the last trickles of goo- like a dead goldfish- down into a cold, dark sewer pipe. ***
And another chapter!
Lyrrik: Wahoo and stuff. *waves little flag with the letter S on it*
Thanks. I guess 'S' stands for SandryLark?
Lyrrik: Nah. It stands for 'stupid, egotistical, irritating, bossy.
School Binder (with help from me): WHAP!
Yay! I don't have Lyrrik sitting on my head anymore! *pats school binder* Good girl! *feeds it a few post-it notes*
School Binder: Arf!
Lyrrik: *does triple somersault in air and lands on the scanner. Hard.* Oof. I'm okay.*falls onto desktop* Owwie.
Stop that, Lyrrik. You know that I know that you're not really injured. Plus, you brought it on yourself by sitting there in the first place.
Lyrrik: *stands up, acts businesslike*
OK, do your stuff.
Lyrrik: Hear ye, hear ye: last chapter's challenge was answered correctly by frankiethemouse. Thankyou, and congratulations! The 'forty-two' reference does indeed come from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by the late, great Douglass Adams. Many, many thanks to Kalista3 and da white rabbit for their reviews. Oh, and I should mention me and SandryLark's policy on flames, just in case (though nobody has sent any yet, for which we are grateful). Any flames that find their way into SandryLark's inbox will be printed out and stuffed into her ski boots to be used as toe warmers, which are really useful, but cost lots of money at ski lodges. So really, if you flame, please be aware that you're actually saving SandryLark some money. Thanks for listening. Oh, and I owe frankiethemouse a serenade! *clears throat* *sings to the tune of 'Happy Birthday'* Congratulations to youuu! Congratulations to youuu! Congratulations, frankiethemouse! Congratulations to youuuuuuuu!!!!!!
Very good job, Lyrrik! You can all take your fingers out of your ears again now.
Lyrrik: *sticks out tongue*
See you all next week, same bat-time, same bat-.erm.website? I don't know! Bye!
Lyrrik: Byeee!