OH MY GAWD! I got .hackLegend of the Twilight volume 3 a few nights ago! :falls over at Zefie and Aura: The end was just so sad and yet so beautiful! And seeing all the characters in the real world was too much for me. I cried. I really did. The end of the .hack series was not really the end. I read it twenty times even though it is over 300 pages long! I love it!
Onto bigger and better things. The reason Sophia got pillows thrown at her was because (here's the giveaway in her name) she was a Roman Saint, Santa Sofia! Sofia Christian! Christianity was one of the religions that Sofia was a saint in, so that's why. The people who won this were...well, none! You didn't even try...:runs away to brood:
Celeste's full name is Celeste Maria. 'Celeste' actually means 'Heavenly', so it's Heavenly Maria. Both her parents are religious, so there's my logical reasoning. (Note: Mika is obsessed with name origins) I hope that makes sense! Winners: none, but honorable mention goes to ceestar for making a very good guess! :hands ceestar a Celeste plushie:
The Cyborg Children and Emma are copyrighted to Mika, Rose, Sadie, and Beta Boy Joe. Stealing them will result in listening to Britney Speared Federline for a week. Please, people, we worked forever on their stories. Don't steal!
The Cyborg Children
Chapter Four: Auntie Jet
"You could have picked a nice day to do this," Sophia grumped into a small microphone. "Come out in the freezing rain and hail then tell me how much this means."
"I'm sorry!" Liana wailed at the other end. "The weatherman said that it would be a nice day!"
Sophia was in Hong Kong at the current moment, tracking down a strong signal. The streets, although well frozen, were thronged with people. Liana was giving directions through a small ear piece in Sophia's ear, and all Sophia could do was keep her fury to herself for having to go into a packed city.
"You've had that man behind you following for a while now," Liana said. Sophia was wearing contact lenses, which instead of helping her vision to perfection in 160-degrees, gave her 360 vision.
"Yeah," Sophia replied. "Shall I?"
"Don't see why not," Florence remarked. "Ask him why he's stalking you."
Sophia turned around to face a man in a black trenchcoat with a wide, black umbrella. He looked like the perfect spy: dark hair, ethnicity the same as the surrounding, and so on.
"Sir?" Sophia asked kindly. "I've seen you following me for quite a while. What seems to be the matter? Have I dropped something?" Her confused little girl act was going over quite well.
"No, miss. I think we are headed for the same destination." He said.
"You've got our man," Florence said, "Kevin Chen, age 34. Loyal agent for over ten years. Sick man, if you ask me."
"Oh," Sophia sighed. "Then maybe we could walk together?" This guy was eating out of Sophia's hand. Apparently, Mister Chen was not a very bright person.
"Maybe you could tell me your name? Then we could host a better conversation," He returned.
"Tell him your name is Florence...Link." Florence shot into her speaker.
"WHAT?" Julia blared.
"Shhh!" Six voices hissed.
"I'm Florence Link," Sophia said gently. "Now, what's your name?"
"Says here that you're Sophia Christina Britain." Mr. Chen said. Sophia frowned.
"And how exactly do you know my name?" Sophia demanded. All she wanted to do was to throw this guy over her shoulder onto the slick ground. "Mister Kevin Chen?"
He came full on to attack her, but Sophia had already anticipated its arrival. Quickly, she grabbed his outstretched hands and using his momentum, lifted him upward. It took all her strength to stop the momentum, but she did, and when she did, he slammed onto the icy ground with a sickening CRUNCH of body meeting concrete.
"Don't mess with me," Sophia said, "Where is Black Ghost?"
"I am your signal," Kevin replied.
"He's not lying. Come back to the dock," Angelina said through her connection. "We're waiting."
The captured cyborgs had witnessed Sophia give a Black Ghost employee a full on slammer. GB and Amanda were proud of their daughter.
"He was a false lead, though." Albert said. "None of them realized it until it was too late to turn around. No matter, though. I'm sure he's got loads of others waiting to be hunted down."
0022 burst into the room. Several pairs of eyes turned to look at him as he entered, wondering what news he brought this time.
"Good news!" He shouted. "They're hopelessly lost!"
"That's nice," Jet spat.
"I get to go out on the next one!" Julia promptly declared as Sophia returned.
"The next one is in Germany," Florence whispered. "I'm going out on that one."
Emma was sprawled out on the couch, sound asleep. Sophia brushed the hair out of Emma's face, but Emma seemed to jerk away.
"We won't be there for another day of so going by sea," Ivan said. "You can work it out in that time."
"Why can't we fly?" Julia asked.
"Does it look very safe?" Ivan asked.
"No..." Julia said. "But it looks fun!"
Sophia laughed and took the lenses out. Next, she removed her speaker and then out came the earpiece. The others had made sure to keep her in contact, so Angelina had rigged a small tracking device in a pen to keep track of Sophia in the packed streets.
Julia had decided a day ago to try and style her hair the way her father did. She slipped out to the bathroom, where all the hair gel was stashed. Locking the door with a small click, she opened a closet and pulled out five tubes of the liquid. Her face had the same face as her father, all but her sharp green eyes.
"Well, I'm doing this for you, daddy!" Julia whispered, squeezing hair gel onto her hands. She teased a few of the front locks into a spike, which held for thirty seconds. "This may take quite a while,"
Two hours later, Julia emerged from the bathroom with her hair sticking out just like her father's did. She laughed because of the lack of hair around her face. It was nice to not worry about your hair falling in something.
"002?" Ivan asked, shocked. Julia turned around to face Ivan. Their startled eyes met, and Ivan laughed in spite of himself. "Julia, how long did it take you to do that to your hair?"
"Ivan! Don't tell anyone!" Julia squeaked. "My hair took me two hours and seven tubes of gel. All I'm worried about now is how I'm going to sleep tonight."
Ivan laughed at Julia's creativity. She wasn't all guts. She had her brains stored away for safekeeping, for the time she needed them.
Julia slid down the hallway into the living room, where Emma was still conked out on the couch. The child was an enigma. Sophia was sitting quietly, knitting something or other.
"Hello, Uncle Jet." Sophia said, without looking up. Julia was ready to keel over on top of Emma with laughter. "Wait a second..." Sophia looked up. Julia turned around just in time to avoid her little button nose and green eyes.
Sophia noticed something quite different about her uncle. He was a lot less angular than he looked in this lighting. She looked at his shadow. Nothing seemed different, but everything was different at the same time. Sophia wanted to scream in frustration. It was crazy to think a person could look the same and different, as here she was proving it an oxymoron.
"And if she was to move it, she wouldn't. If she was to steal, she would steal. The world was her playtoy, her ragdoll. Whenever she wanted diamonds, she got herself diamonds. And when she wanted something done right, she did it by herself, 0022." 0023 said, toying with a champagne glass. She looked at 0022 and crushed the glass in her palm, trying to let out some anger.
"I can see where you're headed, you airhead. Dreaming is not going to help us right now to get them. You need to get your head out of the clouds right now." 0022 replied, holding the largest fragment to his eye. "If I recall correctly, you used to be quite the thief. That's why you were hired."
"Shut up, 0022!" 0023 screamed, tears welling in her eyes. "That's my part of my life that no one will ever steal!"
"You aren't supposed to have emotion. You're a killing machine now. A heartless killing machine." 0022 said.
"Florence, is that you singing?" Liana asked. Florence turned crimson.
"Yes," Florence softly answered. "Sorry to bug you."
"Non, non! Keep singing! You have a lovely voice, silly!" Celeste shouted, smiling broadly from the loving room. "So do you, Julia! Come out of hiding!"
By this time, everyone had discovered that Julia had simply re-done her hairstyle. Sure, Julia had been upset, but she'd managed to stay in good humor about it.
Florence's voice was enough to make you give up living and listen to her sing for the rest of eternity. If she were to play piano at the same time, you would think that she'd descended from the heavens.
"Oh, come on. I still am practicing for another recital," Florence mumbled.
"How many of these do you do?" Julia asked.
"One recital per month, switching between vocal and piano," Florence replied. "And I hardly get the chance to do extracurricular activities because of music. My friends are pretty great, sticking beside me while I'm shoving my schedule together. I walk into walls almost every night,"
"That would explain that odd lump of the back of your head, yes." Emma said, pushing herself upright. "Sophie, how long was that?"
"A few days, you silly little bandit." Sophia replied, hitting the unaware Emma with a pillow on the head.
Or she would have hit Emma, had it not been for a periwinkle forcefield that surrounded the little girl. Emma sat beneath the glowing periwinkle, hands held up and spread apart.
"We need to get moving," Emma said. "0022 and 0023 are going to come back and try and get me again."
"Emma, why do they want you so badly?" Liana asked.
Emma's tiny frame swirled. First, her little arms grew longer. They were slender, and then came her tiny legs growing long and elegant. Next was her face and hair. The short hair grew about an inch, and curled less.
"Um." Was all that Sophia could manage. Emma smiled.
"Don't worry. It's just a reconstruction of my body. Now, after 0022 and 0023 are gone, I can tell you why I'm wanted over the world." Emma said. "I'm still just a little girl inside. Black Ghost isn't that advanced quite yet."
"Emma...Emma...nooooo!" Amanda wailed. Having your only child missing and one of your nieces turned metallic was a hard blow to stand up against. What she needed was someone to save her, someone to wake her up from this dream.
Chang was beginning to go mental. Every few seconds, he would start to ramble of the indigents to some dish.
No one was very happy. It was bust or break.
"I NEED A HEROOOO!" Celeste sang, hitting the last note. A tiny floating silver disk imploded as she did so.
"And that takes care of our spy problem," Julia proclaimed. "Those little things are weird. Maybe I should get some so I can tell when my dad's going to sneak up on me!"
Emma and Ivan were destroying the real trouble in the control room. Once the tiny disks were eliminated, the girls ran to watch. It was impressive to watch Emma somersault, sit up and knock a good blow in someone's knees. Ivan was waiting for her to ask for energy again.
(Ivan! This time you need to help more!) Emma's voice rang.
(What? Just go whenever you feel like,) The teenager replied.
(No! I mean that we have to work back to back! Trust me, you'll know what to do!) Emma cried, jumping to avoid a bullet. Ivan ran to her, linked his arms with hers and waited for something to happen.
Something happened, oh yeah. Ivan found himself with fire at his fingertips and Emma with teleportation. Slowly, Emma grabbed his hand and interlocked his fingers with her own. A glowing white sphere shot up around the two cyborgs as 0022 and 0023 fired openly.
(Are you ready?) Emma asked mentally. Ivan gave her a confused, but positive, look. (I know what your weakness is. Don't worry. We, together, have no weakness.)
The sphere blazed the color of fire. Then both came to realize that it was fire. Emma screamed, and water came like a tidal wave into the room. Plants grew from 0023's bodysuit. Emma lit her up like a Christmas tree, but 0022 had seen his opportunity and fired at Emma.
Ivan understood what was going on. Holding up his hands, the sphere sprung up once again to protect them. Emma blew ice from her fingers and was out, ready to go at the two older cyborgs.
(Emma, no!) Ivan called. It was useless. Emma was on the death trail, and there was no stopping her or getting in her way.
0022 and 0023 had tranquilizer darts ready to go. Sadly for them, Emma had her periwinkle forcefield up around her once more. 0023 leapt on top of it and tried to smash through. Emma looked up, winked, and turned the world to ice.
"Sir," A female's voice said, "They need backup."
"001, you are smarter than that. Act off instinct, my dear. Retrieve your little sister. Don't trust those fools to do it." Black Ghost sneered. The female nodded and vanished at a speed of mach 2.
"I love power!" She shouted, breaking through a wall.
"Emma! Emma! Talk to me!" Ivan ordered. Emma was curled into a ball, whiter than the white world she had created. Slowly, she shook her head.
"No more of this 'little kid' bull crud!" Julia hollered. She pounded the door down and walked inside. "You need help, Ivan. C'mon, Emma. Let's get out of here and send Sophia and the others in."
Emma returned to her normal size and slowly stood up. Julia lifted the small girl into her arms, where Emma sighed into the American's shoulder. Emma wrapped her arms and legs around Julia and they were off.
"You can go back to sleep if you feel like it," Julia said, opening the door to her room "Feel free to use any of my stuff. I'll go get your bear. No worries, your cousins are taking care of 0022 and 0023."
"It isn't 0022 and 0023 I'm worried about, Julia." Emma said in a tiny voice. "It's 001."
"What about 001? Isn't that Ivan?" Julia asked, sitting on the bed with Emma.
"No, it's 001 of the Megas Project. She's a really nice person, but chose the wrong way at the fork in the road." Emma explained. "And my teddy's already here."
With a tiny pop, the teddy dropped into Emma's arms. Julia smiled and left the room, ready to show why she was getting ready for second degree black belt.
"The world is white, the world is mine, the world is snow!" Celeste exclaimed. Liana threw her gun aside and picked up a handful of snow.
"Hey 0023, do you know what's cold and wet and white all over?" Liana demanded.
"I don't know. Tell me," 0023 commanded.
"You asked for it!" Liana shouted, hurtling a gigantic snowball at 0023's face. "Snowshoes: $120. Jacket: $200. Seeing 0023 get hit with a snowball in the face: PRICELESS!" ((copyright Visa.))
"Good call, Liana!" Angelina shouted, dusting snow off a computer.
"0022, why does Scrooge love reindeer?" Julia asked.
"This isn't time for jokes!" 0023 shrieked.
"Wrong!" Rene exclaimed, jumping 0022. "It's because every buck is dear to him!"
All the snow suddenly was swept away and replaced by the ordinary décor. Julia frowned and started to complain about how evil it was and how unfair it was about having only a few minutes, and fighting during those.
Emma was in here when this started, and now she isn't. Is there some sort of link between her and this snow? It hasn't stopped raining yet, even though she's woken up. What I really don't get is how her and Ivan can work together. Am I missing something here? Florence thought.
Ivan punched 0023, and something very abnormal occurred. She dissolved into thin air, along with 0022. Angelina looked around for any trace, but there was none.
That was how 001's work was done. Alone and well. It was a shame she had to kill 000, but it had to be done in order to eliminate any trace of a flaw.
Later, Emma tottered up to have dinner with her "family". Every so often, a flame would shoot from her arm or her hands would turn to gold. Snow had taken over for rain outside the Dolphin.
"Emma, are you in control of your power?" Ivan asked. Emma looked up from her food and gave him a look that couldn't be anything short of depression.
"I probably worked too hard earlier. Don't worry about me, please. And 001, come out here. Please, they won't hurt you. They're really nice people. Don't kill them." Emma said. Ivan's attention snapped to meet her. "No, Ivan, not you. Her. The 001 of the Megas Project."
Slowly, a twenty-something year old girl emerged from the kitchen. At first, only her layered black hair with red streaks and violet eyes were visible. Then her chest became visible, with its lime green tank top. Her lower half was last, with a miniskirt with various shades of green (ending in black) and black sneakers. She chewed a piece of green bubble gum and held a shiny black gun.
"000. It's nice to see you again," She said. She blew a bubble and popped it.
"001, the pleasure is all mine." Emma replied. "To whom do I owe this?"
"Thank those two fools in the Cyborg Project. Really, let's dance!" 001 said, flipping her hair back with her right hand. With the other hand, she fired at Emma.
"No way! This is my family!" Emma shouted. The periwinkle forcefield shot up around the table to protect everyone. 001 smirked at the little girl and fired more. Emma fought to hold it up longer.
"Are you giving up that easily, 0021?" 001 asked. Emma left the periwinkle forcefield up around her family and ran at a speed of mach 3 through the wall. 001 followed her at the same speed.
"I didn't know she could do that! Gilmore, did you?" Ivan demanded.
"What. The. Hell. IVAN WHISKEY, WHAT IS GOING ON? I'VE KNOWN YOU AS LONG AS I'VE BEEN ALIVE! WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW WITH EMMA? WHAT DO YOU KNOW?" Julia roared, coming quite close to knocking Ivan out cold.
"Tell me what is going on with Emma or you will die on the spot you're sitting in, Ivan." Sophia said, deep blue eyes blazing with fury.
"I'll tell you." Ivan replied.
"What's wrong with her?" Sophia asked.
"Black Ghost kidnapped her and turned her into a cyborg." Ivan told her.
"Oh my God...Emma...how could I?" Sophia wailed, crying into Angelina's shoulder.
"Come with me, 000, and I won't kill you and your friends!" 001 said, still in acceleration mode.
"NEVER!" Emma yelled. 001 tried to knock her off course, but it didn't work. "We can keep going until we get to Mars and I won't accept!"
001 tried once again. Of course, when there isn't any gravity, it doesn't work very well.
001 fired openly at Emma. Emma was running out of energy at a very fast rate, and only dodged half the bullets. She took the others in her arms and chest. 001 muttered something about loving herself and hating her job and caught Emma.
"Listen to me, Emma-chan. There isn't much time. Put up a damned forcefield and we'll go back to your ship," 001 said to Emma. Emma's eyes grew wide as she did as she was told.
"Why?" She asked.
"I'm not that inhumane. Just don't tell anyone I did this or I'm dead. The other 001...the one you live with...he'll know." 001 explained.
They flew through Earth's atmosphere with Emma bawling uncontrollably. 001 hugged the little girl one last time as they landed near the Dolphin.
"001! I won't forget this!" Emma whispered, for that was all she could muster.
Ivan climbed out of the Dolphin to see Emma dropping out of the white sky. She smiled at him and tried to stand on her own.
"Sophia! Come help me!" Ivan called down into the Dolphin. Sophia jumped to the top of the ladder with no hesitation. Upon seeing Emma, she bent down and hugged her cousin.
"Sophie!" Emma whispered. Sophia felt something warm and wet on her shirt.
It was blood.
Sophia was too upset to even cry. She was sitting on a bed in the infirmary, clinging to her cousin's hand. Emma's face was a deathly pale as she lay on the bed. After Emma had returned, all didn't go very well. Sophia had been told Emma had taken four bullets and probably wouldn't be able to see past the next day.
"Emma, why?" Sophia quietly scolded. Her dark blue eyes had turned from enraged to depressed.
Emma opened one eye, but only a sliver. "Reverse."
I'm really pleased with how this chapter turned out. I had a lot of problems on my computer today, and half this chapter got deleted! It was really hard to get it working again. Yesterday I saw The Incredibles, so that's how the forcefields came about.
Originally, I wasn't going to do this to Emma. But sometimes, I just feel the need to throw in a lot of drama. I have to have equally balanced humor and angst or I just turn everything into deep, deep drama. You wouldn't like that, would you?
Does anyone have the lyrics to "Holdin' out for a Hero"? I need them really badly and they would be appreciated! I will dedicate the chapter it is used in to you, and if I have multiples, everyone get credit! Either tell me the URL in your review or send them to me at.
This story will be ten to fifteen chapters, so keep with me for the wild ride! Love always and peace out!