The Bonds of Time
Chapter 10
Andrew Joshua Talon, with many thanks to Kanako Urashima
DISCLAIMER: Love Hina is not mine. I'm not making any profit off this fanwork, and the authors used own themselves. "The Love Hina Fan Boy War!" is the property of Kanako Himekazi-Urashima, which she gave me permission a while ago back to write a prequel to.
Therefore...
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Written by Digital Avatar. Please note, he is using traditional Australian spelling, as he IS Australian, so it is asked that you not take offense to this. I dunno, anyone here part of the *cough*psycho*cough* American Correct Spelling Society?
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Ruins of Sydney, Australia
Autumn, 2015
Eleven years.
Had it really been that long?
The dim pre-dawn light silhouetted a light-framed man seated on what had once been part of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The bridge had been torn apart along with everything else on the planet. Eleven years ago. The night the world went to hell.
As time slowly rolled by, the sky in the east gradually brightened until the sun crested the horizon and spilled its light across the landscape.
The golden rays flashed upon the face of Riam Kaikiaichi, who didn't even flinch against the blinding light. His eyesight remained perfect; extremes of light and dark had long since ceased to affect his vision. Other things had also ceased to affect him, things such as aging.
He had been born over thirty years ago, and yet hadn't physically aged a single day since he was twenty
He still looked normal enough from the outside. There was nothing unusual about his strong youthful face, nor his dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. Unremarkable green eyes gazed serenely out towards the ocean.
The roar of an engine and the squeal of car tires taking a sharp corner too fast sounded somewhere in the distance to his right.
Riam stood, and sighed as he turned towards the broken cityscape of Sydney. The devastation seen there had been echoed across Australia and, as near as he could tell, across the entire planet as well.
Yes, he thought, things had changed. Re-orienting on the sounds of vehicles racing through the city streets, he effortlessly floated into the air and sped towards his destination. Many things had changed.
On the streets of Sydney, two Holden Commodores were pursuing a white van, dodging around the debris and waste littering the road. One of the Commodores was black, while the other was coloured red. Both were in bad condition, dents and scratches liberally adorning the once smooth bodies of the two cars. Large trails of dust billowed up behind all three vehicles as they raced through the city, reminiscent of stagecoaches in an old western movie.
A sudden brisk gust of wind blew across the city, briefly stirring Riam's hair as he stood perched atop a broken skyscraper, looking down at the scene below. He didn't recognise the van, but the occupants of the pursuing cars were very familiar to him.
"Bogans…" Riam muttered distastefully. Before the Cataclysm, Bogans had been one of the lowest points of the easy-going Australian people. If one combined American rednecks and trailer-park trash, the resulting abomination would closely resemble a Bogan. After the catastrophe swept the globe the Bogans quickly secured their place in the new power structure, becoming the largest single threat to the peaceful associations of survivors. While other groups such as the street gangs and hard drug dealers were also powerful factions, the Bogans were by far the most numerous. No matter if it was before or after the Cataclysm occurred, nobody likes a Bogan.
The driver of the red Commodore grinned sadistically as the distance between the vehicle he was driving and the van he was pursuing decreased rapidly. His foot pushed down on the accelerator pedal, feeding the maximum amount of power to the Holden's V8 engine. Suddenly, the driver slammed on the brakes and spun the steering wheel, swerving and skidding to a stop. A massive chunk of concrete had come seemingly out of nowhere, dropping from the sky and smashing into the roadway directly in front of them. Billowing clouds of dust surrounded the car, and as it cleared slowly the occupants noticed a figure standing next to the concrete slab, arms crossed and smiling confidently. He was clad in a simple dark blue outfit, consisting of a sleeveless top and gi style trousers fastened with a drawstring at the waist. Riam Kaikiaichi looked back at them calmly.
The five Bogans stepped out of their car, frowning menacingly at the man who just stood there with a quiet smile on his face. Each of the Bogans was dressed in varying colours and styles, but all wore cheap jeans, flannelette shirts, and beanies.
Three of the group approached from Riam's front, while the other two stepped around behind him, loosely surrounding their opponent.
The five grabbed knives from their belts, and held the weapons threateningly oriented towards what they thought would be an easy target.
Riam didn't wait to exchange witty banter with his attackers and as soon as they came within range his foot flashed out with lightning speed. It connected with a Bogan's hand and sent one of the knives flying through a nearby shop window.
Kaikiaichi immediately dropped low and spun on his heel, performing a leg sweep that sent both Bogans behind him sprawling to the ground before they could react.
As Riam straightened up, the two armed Bogans in front of him lunged forward with their knives. Sidestepping one clumsy attack, the blue-clothed man caught the wrist of the other assaulter and effortlessly deflected the knife's course.
Without letting go of the wrist he held he launched a powerful side kick straight into the gut of the first Bogan he had disarmed. The powerful attack propelled the man to the opposite side of the street where his back impacted a wall with a crunching thud. At the same instant, Riam twisted the wrist in his grasp. Another knife clattered to the asphalt surface as its wielder was forced to drop the weapon, followed soon after by the audible snapping sound of a breaking wrist. Two of the Bogans were out of the fight, one badly smashed against a wall and the other with a broken joint.
The two Bogans Riam had knocked of their feet near the beginning of the engagement were stumbling up, while the other one still wielding a weapon was attacking again. Kaikiaichi easily stepped back from a horizontal knife slash, then immediately stepped back in and smashed a backhand fist into the Bogan's nose. A crunch was heard as the nose broke, and the aggressor cried out in agony as he joined his friends on the ground.
Turning to face his final two opponents, Riam noted the pair glancing at each other as if deciding whether to run or fight. They chose to fight, and both rushed forward at the same time. The one to the lone fighter's left attacked with a low stab, while the one on the right went for an upward slash.
Riam dodged to the right, avoiding the first assault, and ducked down under the second. In quick succession his left elbow smashed up into the skull of the Bogan on that side, while his right fist impacted the chest of his other opponent. The concussion caused by the elbow strike resulted in an instant KO, and a high roundhouse kick launched immediately after the strike connected delivered the same fate to the final Bogan.
Riam took a moment to plant a solid kick in the side of the red Commodore, the force of the impact crunching metal before sending the vehicle smashing into the face of a concrete building. A few seconds later, part of the building collapsed forwards, burying the car under a pile of rubble.
With a contented grin, Riam made a giant leap to the top of another building and headed to take care of the black Bogan-mobile.
The white van darted erratically around debris cluttering the streets, making the black car work hard to keep on its tail as the two vehicles weaved through the city.
The driver of the Commodore had his job further complicated when a giant iron support beam skidded across the road directly in front of the black Holden. Not so lucky as the first group of Bogans, the car didn't fully stop in time to avoid hitting the massive piece of metal. Four Bogans emerged shakily from their damaged vehicle to find Riam standing upon the large piece of iron. The Bogans were dressed in the same clothing style as the gang Kaikiaichi had eliminated moments ago but these four, however, had guns.
Although Riam was fast, and grew faster every day through training, he wasn't fast enough to dodge bullets. Yet.
Each of his opponents were armed with different models of semi-automatic pistols, and thankfully none of them possessed automatic weapons or shotguns. Those could be a real pain. Riam hopped down from the beam and started to walk towards the Bogans. They had only just begun to level their guns at the blue-clad man when he sprinted forward and flip-kicked one of his enemies in the hand. The Bogan's pistol flew up into the air, and Riam caught it smoothly as he completed his flip and landed lightly on the roof of the car. He recognized the weapon he was holding as a Glock handgun, and although he didn't know the exact model, he didn't much care. Kaikiaichi jumped again, launching himself into the air and flipping backwards as he aimed to land back behind the metal beam. As he fell, he took aim and squeezed the trigger twice. Two bullets left the gun, each sending a loud report echoing along the street as they left the barrel at supersonic speeds. One of the slugs struck its target in the centre of the chest, while the second embedded itself in the left shoulder of another Bogan. As Riam landed safely behind the bar, several bullets whizzed over his head, while a few more struck the other side of the large hunk of iron. Before leaping up to take care of the remainder, Riam quickly took stock of the enemy's situation. One was dead, one was wounded, and one had been disarmed. Only one of them remained a real threat. He never had liked guns, or killing, but the world of 2015 was a hard place. He did what was necessary to stay alive, and to protect the innocent.
Riam flipped out from hiding, making sure to emerge from a different portion of the metal beam than where he had taken cover. He pulled the trigger of his weapon three times as he flew over the bar. Two bullets found their way into the wounded Bogan, while another took care of the one he had disarmed previously.
Kaikiaichi landed on his feet, quickly sliding behind a still-standing light post for cover. Another few bullets clanged against metal, safely on the other side of the post. Riam carefully turned around without breaking cover, then leapt directly to the top of the pole. Instead of firing the pistol, he threw it down towards his opponent like a boomerang. It didn't fly very well, but it did strike the Bogan with enough force to KO him. Jumping back down to the ground, the anti-Bogan vigilante re-positioned the heavy iron support beam directly on top of the Commodore, crushing the car completely.
Now it was time to go check on the driver of the van. Riam headed back up to the skyscrapers to locate the white vehicle.
A few minutes later, Riam knelt on the edge of a building that had once been around twenty stories high. The ruined shell was less than ten stories in hight.
Kaikiaichi looked down and spotted the white van speeding rapidly along the streets, although the driver did seem to realise that he had lost his pursuers. Suddenly and without warning, the van swerved straight into a pile of rubble and was catapulted from the ground. Riam winced as the vehicle soared high into the air and arced over the road, before crashing down onto its roof at least fifty meters further on. The van continued to skid along the surface, sparks flying from the friction, until it finally slammed into a concrete wall and came to a halt.
Jumping down, Kaikiaichi dashed forwards to check on the driver. As he neared the relatively intact upside-down vehicle, the driver-side door opened and a tall messy-haired Asian man tumbled out, blood running down his face from a gash on his forehead. The driver chuckled as he stumbled to his feet.
Riam blinked. "Are you okay there, mate?" he asked the man.
"Yes, yes," the Asian assured him, "quite fine thank you!"
He spoke perfect English, although with an unmistakable Japanese accent. He was clothed in a white lab coat, underneath which were black trousers, a black shirt and a cream-coloured tie. A small pair of rectangular wire-framed glasses rested on his nose. Riam would guess the man's age at around forty years old, although he was terrible at such estimates.
A moment later, the van's rear side door slid aside, and a blonde-haired girl stepped out. She was wearing a bright yellow tank top underneath a short pair of denim overalls, and a backwards-facing red baseball cap. Her waist-length hair was fixed in twin ponytails, one to each side, with loose bangs framing the front of her face and baby-blue eyes. She looked to be in her late teens, and didn't seem any worse for wear after going through the crash.
"You're okay too I hope, Miss?" Riam asked the girl.
"No problem," she replied, "it's nothing new." The girl looked him over, leaning back against the remains of a red brick wall.
Kaikiaichi picked up a definite American accent in her speech.
Turning to the Japanese man, whose face seemed magically cleared of blood, Riam introduced himself. "I'm Riam Kaikiaichi, wandering traveller and self-appointed vigilante."
"My name is Noriyasu Seta," Seta introduced himself, "I'm an archaeologist. And this is…"
The blonde-haired teenager stepped forward boldly to introduce herself; "I'm Sarah MacDougal."
Riam nodded to each in turn. "So what brings you to Old Sydney?"
Seta pulled a pile of Australian Aboriginal artefacts seemingly from nowhere, and pointed to them. "I've been studying these, as well as Aboriginal rock paintings. Now, you'll notice these designs here, and here," he indicated separate areas on one of the artefacts, "are unmistakably linked to the Ancient Turtle Civilisation!"
Riam blinked. "Turtle Civilisation?" he began to ask, before realising he probably didn't want to know. "Never mind. You're still working on archaeology even after what happened to the planet?"
Sarah shrugged, "What else should we be doing?" she asked in return.
"Good point." Riam acknowledged. "So, where are you off to after this?"
"Well," Seta replied after effortlessly lifting the van up and setting it back down on its wheels, "we were looking for Sydney airport. I left my plane parked there when we arrived. My next plans were to visit the old United States of America."
"You can fly a plane?" Riam asked with interest.
"My daddy can do anything!" Sarah insisted happily.
"I can take you to the airport easily enough," Riam offered, "and then… I think I've stayed in Australia long enough. I want to see what's happened to the rest of the world. Can you take me with you?"
"Well sure," Seta agreed, "We'd love to have you along!"
Sarah offered him a small smile. "Guess it couldn't hurt."
A few minutes later, Riam climbed into the front passenger seat of the van, which seemed surprisingly undamaged. He clipped in his seatbelt as the tall archaeologist beside him started the engine and began to drive along the cluttered street at a moderate pace. Riam settled back into his seat, occasionally calling out the appropriate directions to Seta. It was quite a long journey negotiating the broken terrain to the airport, much of which Riam spent listening to Seta talking about some of his past archaeological expeditions. Kaikiaichi wasn't even sure whether or not to believe some of the stories. Seta was either embellishing his tales, or he was Indiana Jones incarnate.
Sarah remained quiet throughout the rough journey, until most of the day had passed and they eventually arrived outside the airport.
Aircraft wreckage was strewn all over the airfield, while several terminal buildings were fire blackened husks. The airport's main control tower had toppled from its once proud position, crashing through the building below it to lie broken along the ground.
Seta drove his van over the remains of a security gate, and out onto the field. He headed towards a group of hangars that looked mostly undamaged.
Pulling to a stop outside the hangars, Noriyasu and his two passengers disembarked.
"Now, I left my aeroplane in this hanger here" the Japanese archaeologist called out, grasping one of the hangar doors and heaving it aside.
Light filtered into the hanger, illuminating the aircraft parked within.
"…That's your plane?" Riam inquired sceptically.
A Royal Australian Airforce F-18 Fighter Jet was housed inside the hangar.
"Hmm," commented Seta while rubbing his chin, "it does look slightly different than mine."
"That's not your plane, dad." Sarah sighed with good-natured exasperation. "You put our aeroplane in the next hangar along, remember?"
"Did I?" Seta chuckled, scratching the back of his head, "well then, I guess this isn't my plane after all!"
Riam glanced across at Sarah inquisitively, silently asking "Is he always like that?"
She nodded, then shrugged.
Meanwhile, Seta had opened up the next hanger and walked in, prompting Riam and Sarah to follow.
Kaikiaichi glanced up at Seta's aeroplane, his eyes taking in the details.
The aircraft was a medium sized prop-driven cargo plane, with a hold large enough to easily accommodate the van along with a very sizeable supply of equipment, provisions, and other cargo. The exterior was painted white, printed with bold black registration numbers reading SETA-05. The cockpit windows were naturally positioned in the upper section at the front of the plane, while each side of the plane's nose featured three cabin windows located below the flight deck.
Leading Riam inside through a side passenger door, Sarah gave him a short tour.
The flight deck contained seats for a pilot and co-pilot, as well as positions for a flight engineer and a passenger. A short staircase located in a compartment directly behind the cockpit lead down to the plane's living quarters that boasted a well-appointed lounge area, galley, two twin-person bunkrooms, a shower, and a head. The cargo bay, accessible from both the living deck and flight deck, naturally occupied the majority of the aircraft. As Sarah took Riam into the cargo area through the door from the living quarters, Seta drove his van onto the plane through the open cargo ramp at the rear of the aircraft.
Kaikiaichi and MacDougal assisted him in securing the white vehicle for flight, before Seta returned outside to take care of refuelling the plane. Sarah followed her father outside to perform a visual inspection of the exterior.
Riam took a closer look around the cargo bay, noticing several crates and stacks of artefacts in various locations around the compartment. He mentally noted to ask Seta for permission to look through them sometime, as some of the artefacts looked very interesting.
Sarah soon reboarded the aircraft, heading up to begin going through a pre-flight checklist as Seta had taught her to do.
"Hey, Riam!" Noriyasu called from the cargo ramp, "Want to come on out and help me check that the runway is clear?"
Riam was quick to jump to his feet and hurried out to assist.
The Australian vigilante and the Japanese archaeologist walked parallel to each other on either side of the runway Seta planned to use. As they progressed along the strip of tarmac, they each grabbed nearby pieces of debris and removed the hazards from the take-off path. Riam glanced over at Seta, as the tall man grasped a large chunk of metal and hurled it far off the runway.
The Japanese man was obviously incredibly strong, as evidenced by the ease with which he had righted the van earlier. Still, Riam pondered as he grabbed an entire fuselage section and effortlessly tossed it around five hundred meters away, he himself had developed superhuman strength over a decade ago. From what Kaikiaichi had observed though, he was still many times stronger than the taller man.
He also knew that he wasn't the only one who had been affected by such changes. Over the years he had encountered others with special abilities, most of which involved controlling the elements to varying extents. Some of those possessing such power had been friends and allies, while others had been foes.
Riam sighed as he trudged along the runway, memories of the past flowing through his mind. The terror of the Cataclysm striking in the middle of the night, followed by the sickening realisation of the destruction's extent.
The rescue effort searching for survivors, and later establishing semi-civilised communities for protection and support.
Conflicts with aggressive factions, and the battles that had changed him into the hardened man he was today. He didn't like what he'd turned into, nor did he hate what he'd become. He resigned himself to the reality that it had happened, he couldn't change it, and he merely adapted to live with it. The discovery of his newfound abilities merely became part of his new stance on life.
Glancing up, the dark-haired Australian sighed and continued on with the task of clearing the path for take off.
Around twenty minutes later, both men returned to the hangar and boarded the aeroplane. Sarah gave her father the green light for checklist completion as she seated herself in the co-pilots position. Seta sat down at the pilot's controls, while Riam seated himself at the flight engineer's console.
The aircraft taxied out from the hangar and onto the runway. As they picked up speed for take-off, Seta spoke back over his shoulder to his new companion. "So, Riam, ever been to Colorado?"
The plane lifted off from the airstrip, leaving the ground and Australia behind them as they headed towards their destination against the backdrop of a dramatic sunset.
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Even if you don't like SI's, I ask that everyone in the LH section of FF.Net consider this, not a selfish work, but a work for all. Here, we are only interacting with the characters we love on a more personal basis, and trying to tell a good story. It is my (perhaps unrealistic) hope that this fanfiction could unite the various factions in the Love Hina fanfiction empire, into pure enjoyment of the entire genre. And who knows? Maybe we'll score a manga deal with Mr. Akamatsu. Hey, I can dream, can't I? :)
(goes off, humming the "Ghostbusters" theme, b/c he got the soundtrack today ^_^)
NEXT TIME: Kanako Urashima wanders into Chicago, wherein she meets the unveiler of her future... A boy who also carries the name Talon...
IMPORTANT NEWS!
Due to Lady Kanako's (the authoress) desire to make the story as clean as possible, I can no longer accept any further author characters into this series, aside from those already mentioned or have announced their involvement to me.
Instead, I'm inviting those who can't participate (or, don't want to participate) SI-style, to write about the LH goddesses and the OCs! Short passages about Shinobu and Kana's wandering, snitches of Talon and Mutsumi's doomed romance, Kebinu and Naru's empire building in Colorado, whatever happened to Keitaro-You think it within this Universe, you write it! With full credit to you!
This is the master list of OCs/Authors:
Kevin "Kebinu" Hanson
Lance Waymire
Tuxedo Jack
Eijentu
Silver Raye Adams
Kana Himekazi-Urashima
DigitalAvatar
Shiara
Mint Urashima
Benjamin Doyle Talon
Lucia Tanaka
For those of you who would like to write for any of the LH Charas or OCs, just send them to my e-mail, at ajtalon@hotmail.com