"Love?" I asked incredulously, leaning back in my seat. The confusion I felt was manifesting itself on my face, I knew. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"If you can listen, I will tell you," Jordan Randal-Atomsk-quietly answered. "And to tell you that, I will have to tell you the history of Raharu and I."

I nodded my acceptance of his condition, and he took a deep breath. "When I met Raharu Haruha, she had just entered the Space Patrol; I was a sergeant assigned to train her unit when she started. As I spent more time around her, I began to get more and more interested in her. In her wit, her intelligence, her sunny personality. After she graduated training, we started to get closer.

"My species," he continued, "has a much greater ability to utilize N.O. than any other. That was a closely guarded secret until this episode. I started to use that ability to get gifts for my newfound love. When Raharu realized how I was doing it, she became obsessed with gaining that ability for herself. I left the Patrol and, though I loved her more than life itself, I ran."

He stopped and took a deep breath, but didn't go on. "You were going to tell me what love had to do with it," I reminded him.

Atomsk nodded. "The first place I ran to was my home planet. I was welcomed, albeit somewhat cautiously. My people avoid strong emotional connections, and my obvious distress made them uneasy. The first place I went was to the High Council. The councilors were amazed at the amount of power I exhibited, and asked me to remain confined to the quarters that I was assigned. I waited there for weeks, until I was called back. They revealed to me an ancient text, one that wasn't made available except for extreme cases. It told of why those emotional attachments were forbidden; what it said is that the stronger the emotion, the more our N.O. could accomplish. The strongest accomplishments came from love.

"Raharu showed up at the planet a mere month after I had arrived. I knew immediately that I had to leave, and went into hiding. I constantly moved from planet to planet, space station to space station. I fell in with a group of pirates, but my emotions still got the better of me. I kept constant track of where Raharu was, and was constantly sending her little gifts, hoping that her love for me would overcome her desire for power. My reputation grew to what you have heard about me, but nothing I did could change her.

"The incident here, four years ago, made me realize the truth. As I came to see her as she truly is, my love for her disappeared. I fell back to the old ways of my ancestors. When I left, I had only enough power left to damage the Medical Meccanica and escape. Raharu found me a couple of months after that, puttering around nearly powerless. She went crazy, and tore up the space station we were on. I knew right away where she would go, and so I came here, to see if there was anything I could do," he finished, taking another deep breath and releasing it as a sigh.

"So, you're saying that love brings all this out?" I asked cautiously. "How can it do that for me? Plenty of people love others here, and none of them can do what I've done. I've never even heard of anyone flying, or using 'super strength' ever."

Atomsk looked up at me with eyes that showed a deep sadness. "I'm afraid that's something else that's my fault," he ruefully told me. "When I was in your body, I somehow altered your DNA at the most basic level. Completely by accident," he added hurriedly when I frowned. "I'm still not sure how I did it, but it imparted some of my basic powers to you. It seems that your species has the potential for personal flight, and the greater strength, but those parts of your genetic code have been locked out, so to speak."

"I'm still not sure that love's the reason," I stated confidently. "I don't love Haruko, not like you did. And I'm not sure that I love her in any other way right now."

"I didn't say you had to love Raharu," Atomsk reminded me, spitting me with a look that made me feel as though he was looking into my soul. "But there is someone you love, someone that you would do anything to protect and shelter."

"I don't understand," I told him plaintively.

Atomsk shook his head. "That knowledge is something you'll have to come to on your own," he said. "If I told you the answer, you'd deny it. And then it would take you far too much time to arrive at the obvious truth."

My mind was flying in circles, I was so confused. "Too much time?" I asked weakly, not sure if I wanted to hear the answer. "What do you mean by that?"

"Someone has to stop Raharu," Atomsk answered, giving me another on of his "looks." "If this continues, it will simply make life miserable for everybody, and still never get what she wants. Because of your species unique DNA, and how the power has manifested in you, it will be up to you to defeat her. It's part of what's different between you and me. Physically, we're the same. But where I could utilize N.O. to move or create objects, you can utilize it for flight, and strength. Beyond what my capabilities were. You can be stronger and faster than I could ever be under any situation."

"Randal!" The angry shout startled both Atomsk and I out of our conversation. "Get back out into the store! I don't pay you to sit around the storeroom all day with my lazy grandson." Shigekuni, my grandfather, withdrew his head from the doorway to the storeroom we were in. "Young people," I could hear him grumble as he walked away. "Always talking about fooly coolying or something like that when there's work to be done. I come out of retirement to run this place, and the hired help wont even help."

Atomsk stood up and patted me on the shoulder. "I would appreciate it if you would keep my real name a secret," he told me. "It would only cause problems if Raharu knew I was here. But you, I do believe, have a lot of thinking to do right now."

With my mind somewhat overloaded, I wandered back into the house and up to my room. For some reason, Eri wasn't in there, and I wasn't sure where she was. I grabbed a jacket off of the back of a chair, and my guitar from next to the door. I was heading out the front door when behind me I heard Eri's footsteps in the stairway. I didn't stop walking.

Completely lost in thought, I wandered the streets of Mabase. He didn't say I had to love Haruko, I thought. But someone I want to protect? Shelter? What's that all about? I found myself sitting near the town bridge, staring at the water rushing past me.

"So, you're saying that love brings all this out?" I could hear the question resonating through my mind. Unbidden images began to float past my mind's eye, images of my recent battles. I could see Eri's hair fanned out like a cape as she soared through the air, downtown's buildings in the background; the red haze burned out my peripheral vision, and I could feel my legs flex against the pavement beneath me.

That image began to fade, and a new one came to the fore. I saw a giant robotic fist, attached to an equally large body, that held Eri in it's grasp. Her long, dark hair cascaded down across the robot's fingers, and I could see her mouth moving as she desperately tried to suck air down into her lungs. Almost imperceptibly, the fist tightened it's grip, and Eri's face began to turn an intense shade of red and blue. My line of sight tracked up the robot's arm to it's shoulder, where Haruko was leaning against the robot's head with a smirk on her face. Once again, my vision went red, filtering out everything I was seeing with the exception of Haruko. I crouched to leap into the air and attack her.

"But there is someone you love, someone that you would do anything to protect and shelter," Atomsk had said earlier.

"I don't understand," had been my reply.

Now I did.

Prior to this thinking episode, I had thought I had just been attracted to Eri. She was my closest friend, but not someone I had been interested in dating until recently. Whenever I needed support, she was there for me, with a good attitude and the listening skills I needed.

Now I knew why. Why Atomsk's powers were manifesting.

I loved her. The dark haired, intelligent, gentle, and possessive girl that lived in my house. I loved Eri Ninamori.