Faye's going to kill me if she finds out that I bought all this stuff, but it's worth it. Lysander looked over his purchases and grinned like a little boy who'd successfully gotten away with some of the contents of the cookie jar. Grenade Launcher, Plasma Rifle, Moonlight, fully optimized INTENSIFY... yes, it's just perfect. Now I just need to do some reconfiguring--
"Lysander? Are you done yet?" Faye's impatient voice came from the other side of the door. "I really have to go, how long can it take?!"
Shit! Alright... stay calm, stay calm. Lysander quietly folded up the laptop and snuck it in behind the toilet. I hope it doesn't get dirty here. "Alright Faye, I'm coming! Well, leaving actually, but you get my point." Faye almost knocked him aside in her rush to get into the bathroom. The orange-haired raven just sighed and closed the door quietly.
Man. She's been everywhere, I can hardly get a moment to myself now. Lysander went back to plotting out his dream AC in his head. Yes... Grenade Launcher... Plasma Rifle... MOONLIGHT... It's going to be perfect for the arena, which I really need to advance my standings in anyways. Although Lysander never thought that 60 was a bad rank, considering that there were over 300 ravens in the arena, he knew that he could do better, and constantly strove to reach the top. However, despite the recent acquisition of a KARASAWA, Some of the tougher arena opponents still impeded his progress. I wonder... Oh yeah, what am I thinking? He lives here now. But I'd better get that computer back first, I don't want her finding out about my recent activities.
As Faye came out of the bathroom, she gave Lysander a hug, then retreated down the hall, without any of her usual attitude. I swear, that woman is the most unpredictable person I know. Alright, time for operation PC recovery. Lysander snuck into the bathroom and grabbed the laptop, tucking it into the back of his shirt and heading back to his room.
Lalala... His chain of thoughts was harshly interrupted as he collided with Kenja, knocking them both to the ground. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Lysander scrambled to his feet and offered her his hand, which she took gladly, and he pulled her back up again.
"Sorry. I really need to watch were I'm going." Lysander grinned and rubbed the back of his head.
"It's alright, I've fallen harder before." Kenja rubbed him gently on the shoulder as she walked off towards her previous destination. The other raven smiled gently and continued on, being careful for any signs of Faye. Time to hide this thing under my mattress, and I'm set. After reaching his room, Lysander pulled the sheet off his mattress and carefully opened the slit in it, sliding the computer underneath it and pulling the flap shut. He then tucked the sheets back into the corners, and walked into the cafeteria to get something to eat.
As he held the toast underneath the spigot, a gout of green gel spouted onto his bread. Hmmm... I wonder what flavor this is. A quick check confirmed what he was about to eat. Mmmmmmm... Pickled bread. I wonder how good it'll go with regular bread. Maybe it'll actually be good for a change. Lysander took a bite of the mixture, and quickly revised his opinion. Nevermind. That's just as bad as always.
While he was eating the horrible mixture, Brad came into the room, and looked at his face. Understanding quickly dawned on him.
"Horrible goo today?"
"Yeah. Pickled Bread."
"Mmmmmm... sounds tasty." Brad mustered his best sarcastic tone.
"It is. The pickled part gives the bread a tangy flavor or whatever. But it's not good."
"Well, thanks for the warning. I'd like to try some anyways though." Brad put a small dab of the goo onto the end of his bread, and took an experimental bite. "Yeah. You're right. It's bad."
"Told you."
"Oh well. You only live once, how many other chances am I going to get to try pickled-bread flavored goo?"
"Next week? There are about seven other cans of it."
"Sounds fun."
"Not really, but you get used to it after a while." Lysander threw a small paper plate into the garbage, and left the room, leaving Brad to finish the rest of his plain toast.
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As soon as Lysander was a suitable distance from the cafeteria, Faye struck. Sneaking out from the hallway, the first thing that Lysander felt was a tackle which failed to take him down, then a pair of arms wrapping around his waist and a cheek pressing into his upper back.
"Faye?" He almost signed, but held it in at the last minute, deciding to keep his feelings to himself this time.
"Hey. How're you doing?"
"Err... Just fine. You saw me a few minutes ago."
"Yeah, but I was just checking on you. You never know what can happen."
"No, you don't, but the chances of 'something' happening to me within the space of five minutes is rather unlikely." By the way Faye sighed, Lysander could tell that he'd just annoyed her. "Well, I didn't mean it in a bad way. But it's not like I'd trip over a table and knock over a few stools with my body or something."
A series of crashes and a bellow of pain from the cafeteria seemed to vindicate his statement. "See? I told you that wouldn't happen to me."
Faye couldn't help but giggle. "Silly."
Lysander looked over his shoulder and frowned. "I'd better see if Brad is Ok. That shout didn't sound too happy."
"Ah, don't worry about him. He can take care of himself." Faye pressed her arm into Lysander's back, firmly guiding him away from the cafeteria. Lysander tried to resist, but decided that discretion was the better part of the valor and gave up. I hope he's ok, or that Kenja comes in. After a few more minutes of thought, Lysander's face darkened. I'm the master of my own fate. Why the hell am I letting her guide me like this? With an abrupt motion, he broke away from Faye, and ignoring her noise of protest, walked rapidly down the hall, headed for the cafeteria again.
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Brad laid on the floor in a oddly-shaped heap. His leg was bent at an angle, indicating a break. His face was milk-white, and his mouth opened and closed slowly and soundlessly, like that of a fish. Lysander blinked once at the sight of his friend disabled on the floor, then quickly sprung into action.
Like a wildcat leaping at his prey, he was at Brad's side in an instant, checking over the leg to find the location and magnitude of the break. In a moment, he had assessed the situation and reached a conclusion. Ouch. That had to hurt. Alright... there's only one way to deal with this.
About 5 minutes later, Kenja had arrived. Lysander found himself extremely grateful for the ship's paging system. They both knelt over Brad, Lysander near his legs and Kenja near his shoulders.
"Alright." Lysander began. "Brad, this is going to hurt like hell, but we need to do it, alright?" After he spoke, Lysander counted to three, then both he and Kenja picked Brad up, the other man swinging between them like a hammock in a gentle breeze. Brad's only reaction was to release a pained squeak. "Ok. Let's get him to the jeep."
Brad fainted.
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"I swear, those doctors take too long. And they're going to gouge the hell out of us when they're done with him."Lysander mumbled darkly, leaning against the wall.
"Come on Sander. Not all doctors are pieces of shit." Kenja replied, looking up at him from a chair.
"Yeah, well, I have some bad memories from doctors."
"Care to talk about it?"
"Not really. It's a personal matter." Lysander scratched his wrist briefly. Kenja looked at him strangely, but shrugged and returned to her reading.
A doctor came out. "Mr... Kiljorn?"
"Yeah? I'm right here." Lysander almost added "you scumbag" to the end of his sentence, but managed to avoid making a serious slip of tongue. "What do you want you-- er—doctor?"
"Well, your friend is fine." The doctor began. "However, he did have a serious break on his left--"
"Skip the medical jargon. Just gimme the bill." The orange haired raven cast an ominous glance at the doctor, and he started stammering and fiddling with his papers.
"Well...er...you see..."
"Just give me the bill. God damn, how hard can it be?"
"Err..." The doctor started to sweat.
"... Screw you. Give me those." Lysander snatched the doctor's papers right out of his hands and started leafing through them.
"Hey!" The doctor protested feebly. "You can't do that!"
Lysander almost snarled at him, but settled for a death glare instead. "Watch me." After the first few pages, he abruptly stopped. "What the fuck? What the hell are these things?" The raven turned the folder upside down, and a few pornographic pictures drifted slowly to the ground. Kenja, Lysander and the Doctor all froze for an instant.
The blue-haired beauty recovered first. With a mighty slap she sent the doctor reeling, while Lysander quickly gathered up the pictures, stuffing them in his pocket.
"Tsk tsk tsk. I always disliked doctors, but I must say, this is the first time I've ever seen a pervert-doctor. If you molested Brad, I'm going to sue you for so much, even filing for bankruptcy won't save you." Lysander's voice was rife with barely-concealed venom, and the doctor turned the color of paper. "Oh..." Lysander continued, enjoying making the medical man squirm. "Would it help if you knew that both myself, and that man you just treated were ravens?" The doctor turned even whiter, Kenja's furious glare not helping him regain his composure. Lysander looked away suddenly, appearing to no longer be interested. With a grunt, he handed Kenja a stack of papers while he turned through the rest of them. "There. Found the bill. Now to pay it, and request a change in physicians. Damn perverts... sheesh."
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"Are you sure it's a good idea to leave him there?"
"He'll be fine Kenja, unless they drugged him up, which is unlikely. Don't worry about Brad, he can take care of himself. I just hope they'll actually change the physician."
"You sure raked that guy over the plasma, what's your problem with Doctors anyways?"
"Well, I haven't liked them ever since I was fifteen. Like I said, it's a rather personal issue." Lysander glanced at his wrist again, and his hand moved to scratch it, but went back to the wheel of the Jeep instead, and he stepped on the accelerator harder, the engine of the vehicle roaring as it went even faster.
"If it's bothering you, please tell me about it."
"Well... I suppose I could tell you. But don't tell Faye about it alright? She'll pass me off as a freak or something if she knew. And it's probably better if Brad doesn't know about it either."
Kenja nodded once, but had to suppress the urge to sigh or roll her eyes.
"Alright. Let me tell you the saddest tale to ever visit the face of the earth." Lysander paused for a moment. "Well, not really. Forgive my sad attempt at humor there. Anyways... once upon a time, I got really mad... and I did something to myself that was widely seen as a suicide attempt, but it really wasn't. I'm not really too keen on giving out more details than that. That should tell you enough."
"Yeah. It does." Kenja looked at Lysander for a moment. "Does it have anything to do with your wrist?"
She didn't see the pained look cross his face. "Yeah. It does. How did you know?"
"Well, you scratched it twice when you mentioned something to that effect."
"Dammit. I can't help it. It feels itchy sometimes, and I start thinking the only way to scratch the itch is to cut it open again." He must have seen Kenja's alarmed glance, because he continued. "No, no no. I'm not going to actually do it. I just feel like it sometimes. Nothing to be worried about."
Kenja sighed. "Well, I should hope you won't."
Lysander's only reply was to step on the gas harder.
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This is interesting. I wonder what Kisaragi wants this time? Hopefully they're not going to ask me to test a new weapon, then PAY me with the weapon. Sheesh. Especially after they promised me all that money too. Damn spoilsports.
Lysander read the email quickly and quietly, his eyebrows moving higher and higher on his forehead as he got further down the letter.
Interesting. They want me to test a new AC. At least this time they had the dignity to say that they don't know what they'll be paying me with yet. Hopefully it'll be one of those prototype model cores I heard they're working on. The RAKAN looks especially tempting.
The raven looked around quietly, then took the mission. Looks like Endgame X will get a test run earlier than I expected.
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"The test will begin shortly. Your target will be the AC we deploy."
Lysander sighed and tightened his grip on Endgame X's controls. It's time to kick this thing's ass. He watched quietly as the AC peeked through a hatch on the bottom of the arena.
Interesting was the first thing that came to his mind. The machine was painted in a swirl of white and black. Its arms split into three different prongs, and a circular piece of metal connected them together. Heavy reverse joint legs, a antenna-like head, and a core that looked like a few blobs of metal stuck together rounded out the machine, and created a weird look that left Lysander wondering what the designers were trying to make when they thought it up.
"Begin now."
The first move Lysander made was to squeeze off a shot from his plasma rifle. The weapon scored a hit directly on the enemy AC, blasting a crater in the center of the chest. The enemy machine crouched down and fired up its boosters, speeding left on twin flames of blood red. Endgame X took a step back and aimed its plasma rifle at it again, waiting for the right moment to strike. It came a few seconds later, and the weapon scored another hit, gouging a hole in the flank of the black and white AC.
After it recovered from the plasma rifle hit, the enemy machine struck back. It pointed its arms straight at Endgame X. The prongs on the end started spinning rapidly, then released a shower of green fluid, spraying Endgame X in a fine green mist. Lysander shouted a curse and hit the overboost, sending his AC catapulting out the cloud of corrosive mist, which had eaten away a handful of his AP.
"That's a new one. I've never seen a weapon like that before." Lysander muttered to himself as the AC kept spraying more green liquid at him, and he was hard pressed to avoid the mist of droplets that kept eating away his AP one point at a time. Endgame X took a short booster-hop backwards, and switched over to its grenade launcher, the massive weapon unfolding over its shoulder as it took aim and fired. Although the enemy AC tried to dodge the attack at the last minute, it was struck in the side of the chest, another crater joining the one in the center. Suddenly, the green acid shower stopped, only to be replaced by a shower of rockets. Five of them hit Endgame X in various locations on its body, spraying it with burning napalm.
Lysander was too shocked to react. What the hell?!? Triple Napalm Rockets?!? In a sheer panic, he boosted his AC back, trying to get a bearing on his enemy. Just when he found it again, the black and white AC sent out another spray of rockets, all of them missing their intended target. This thing is full of annoying surprises. It's time to finish it off. Now.
Endgame X landed in a crouch a few meters away. Its back unfolded like a massive flower blossoming, and four petals of energy flared to life as it screamed towards its enemy. The other AC tried to turn around to face the incoming threat, but it didn't make it in time. The MOONLIGHT attached to Endgame X's left arm shined bright in the dully-lit arena, and sliced the enemy AC's core in half. It exploded in a kaleidoscope of soothing reds and yellows. Never mind the shrapnel that flew everywhere.
Lysander leaned back in his chair and heaved a sigh of relief. Victory is mine.
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"And that's how the mission went."
"Why would you do something like that Sander? It's almost 3 in the morning."
"Bored." Silence greeted Lysander's reply.
"So..." Faye began. "You did all that just because you were bored?"
"Yeah, basically."
Faye stared at him for a few seconds, then shook her head and sighed. "Sometimes I can't believe you Lysander."
"Feeling's mutual. But you know, there's something that I've been wondering about."
"What would that be?"
"There's been quite a bit of testing going on lately. You'd think that the corporations are preparing to go to war or something."
Faye didn't say anything, but she looked unusually thoughtful. "Maybe..." she began. "Maybe they are."
No comments here, other than to say that I fell behind the schedule I set for myself, which really ticked me off. Oh well, here you go, chapter 13. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing from here on out. Lysander gave me some ideas. Sorry for the delay (')