Author's Note: New characters appearing in this chapter. And a possible appearance by a previously introduced character…
Disclaimer: Angelglory does not own Outlaw Star. Angelglory does own the new characters appearing in this fic.
On with the show...
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMemories possess great power. They can bring one much joy, or much sorrow. Every memory is different. While some stay in the open, others are suppressed and hidden and some exist in one's mind without that person ever knowing of it. Never let go of your memories, good or bad.
Chapter 11: Speaking With A Past MemoryThe room was dimly lit as light only came through from the next room over. A large window hung astern on the wall. A dark red liquid was spilled on the floor, only partially revealed by the light. The trail of red seeped off of a man on the cold floor, he was dead. Just by reading his horrified expression, it was obvious that how he died was painful beyond all immediate comprehension.
"That was… impressive, to say the least." A voice commented from the other side of the window.
"He could've done better… Much better." A second voice replied, unimpressed by the scene.
"He's not old enough to be doing this fully yet. He has no idea what he's really doing." A third voice said, sounding more sympathetic than the other two.
"Julia, you're too soft-hearted to him. He'll become useless if you keep up that sympathetic attitude." The first voice scolded.
Back inside the room, backed into the corner and next to the door, sat a terrified child that was covered in blood. His teal colored eyes were blurred with tears and the blood that was splattered all over his body. He held himself to the corner as tightly as he could.
"We'll ship him out tonight…no more delays." The second voice said sternly.
"Fine, get your men ready." The first voice ordered. "And get that body cleaned up."
The people that voices belonged to left the window side and went about their business elsewhere. Julia, the owner of the third voice, crouched down to the door leading to the slaughter and whispered to the child, "Please, find her."
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHLocke's eyes sprang open, laden with tears, and he wept aloud. He pulled his knees and arms close to his small body, which was lying comfortably against Aisha's sleeping form. Locke's outcry awoke the slumbering Ctarl Ctarl.
"Nya? Locke, you ok?" She asked sleepily. Locke only replied with his crying. "Was it that nightmare again?"
"…ahh…" Locke's voice was more strained than usual.
"Well, you remember what I told you, right?" Aisha questioned as she sat up.
Locke sniffled then nodded.
"Now that's a good boy, Locke." The tired Ctarl Ctarl remarked, messing up the small boy's hair.
Locke crawled off of the bed as Aisha resumed her sleep. The mute child left the room and quietly made his way to the front door. Wrapping his silent hands around the doorknob, after unlocking the door, he opened up the way out into the brisk night. Gene watched Locke leave, with his hand resting on his gun in case something happened.
"Another nightmare…hmm." He thought as he closed his eyes again.
Everyone had become accustomed to Locke's nightmares during the last few days. They started the night before they returned to Heiphon. The depressed boy walked into the cold, cloudless night and approached the railing that lined the water. He stared down at his distorted image in the waves. Usually glaring down at himself would make him feel calmer. This time was different, as an unfamiliar silhouette appeared behind him. He turned to run from the unknown figure after seeing it but a swift pair of hands ran across his mouth, halting him.
"Wait…I mean you no harm." The person claimed, the grip around Locke's mouth was gentle and seemed harmless.
Locke stopped trying to run and carefully turned to face the mystery being. It was a woman, clad in a dark red rode that hid most of her features from sight. Long, straight brown hair fell from her hood and lined the bottom half of her pale face untouched by the shadows.
"It's nice to see you again, Locke." The woman said finally, moving her hands from his mouth down to his shoulders.
The boy shifted in uncertainty. How did this woman know him? He couldn't very well ask her, being mute and all. "…ahh…"
"You can't speak, I know. Don't push yourself. I know you don't remember me. My name is Qil." The adult spoke. "My sister and I have been keeping an eye on you since you came to Heiphon."
"…ahh…" What was this, Qil, person talking about?
"Listen to me carefully, Locke. Tomorrow, you'll meet someone with the same eye color as you. Please, do not trust him." Qil said with a worried tone of voice.
Qil took her hands off of Locke's shoulders and backed away. "I'll be seeing you soon…if you decided correctly." She said back to him as she turned and walked off into the night.
Locke stood dumb-founded for a moment, but shook it off and went back inside Starwind and Hawking. Despite what had just happened, he felt calm now. Sleep would come easier for the rest of the night.
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The sun had risen past 7:30 and everyone was surprisingly awake. The night before, Aisha had tricked everyone into letting her make breakfast. This meant either they'd end up having Melfina make a back-up meal or going out for food. Gene decided Mel deserved a break so the crew, minus Suzuka, went out for breakfast. Aisha wasn't exactly complaining, even though she wanted to make some Geggi Dubo Stew for everyone again, she couldn't pass up those eggs she could smell a mile away.
"Come on, hurry up, that food is calling me!" Aisha shouted joyfully, as she jogged ahead everyone.
Jim sighed in embarrassment. "She could at least wait to till we got the restaurant before acting crazy." He commented.
"Animals will be animals, I guess." Gene replied with a joking smirk.
"I heard that!" Aisha yelled back from a distance away.
Gene just laughed and continued to walk along with his comrades. Jim quieted down as well, pulling out his computer and typing as he walked. He was enchanted by the data about Locke they had hi-jacked from Bastion last week. Locke was anything but a normal human, yet he still acted like he was normal. Although after looking through all of the data, Locke's origins were still unknown. Jim was determined to find something useful.
Suddenly, an explosion ripped apart a very close-by building. Immediately after, a person came rocketing from the flames and crashed hard into the building across from the ruined one. Two other people emerged from the wreckage afterwards, covered in long cloaks. The man how crashed through first slowly stood up rubble and dust spill off of his body. He was actually more of a kid, teenager really.
"Hey hey, not bad. You're starting to make me want to fight." The man said, shaking his head to get some rubble off of his long spiky blonde hair.
"Enough talk. Fight." One of the cloaked men said, while the other picked up a nearby metal pole.
The blonde guy burst into laughter. "Wow, you actually wanna fight me? Jeez, you're both stupider than I gave you credit for." He taunted.
The armed man growled and quickly swung the pole down at the blonde kid. The teen outstretched his right hand and caught the weapon with his gloved hand. The pole actually bent from the impact, yet the kid was unfazed. "Tsk tsk." He joked.
Pulling the pole from the man's grasp, the blonde smashed the other cloaked man across the face, breaking his jaw and possibly his neck. The youth followed up the attack by throwing the weapon into the air, the still-standing cloaked man was caught off guard and watched the pole spin up into the sky. The teen suddenly went into a punching frenzy and began beating the living daylights out of his attacker. Head, chest, stomach, mouth, skull, ribs, jaw, stomach.
"And one for the road!" The youth shouted, as the pole came back down and landed in his hand again.
He then smashed the weapon into the man's side. The punches where more than enough and the pole was just an overkill. The cloaked man snapped to his side and couldn't seem to move as he fell to the ground, gasping for air.
"Next time, make it worth my while. You're lucky you didn't get any of your pathetic blood on my vest!" The blonde yelled and the two cowering men before him.
The teen turned around and walked past Gene and the others, dusting off his gloves. They just watched in astonishment.
"Woah! That was unbelievable!" Jim finally said.
The blonde turned back around and looked over to Jim. "Hey thanks, kid. Glad to see I've got fans." He said.
"That was pretty good. What's your name?" Gene asked, snapping out of his daze as well.
"Name's Adam. I won the Strongest Man In The Universe Tournament two months back." He said proudly.
Gene looked shocked and impressed at the same time. But before he could say anything, a joyful yell leapt from a certain Ctarl Ctarl's mouth. "Adam! It's you!" Aisha yelled.
The joy-filled Ctarl Ctarl came running over and tackled the blonde to the ground. "So, how've you been?"
"Hey there, Aisha, I've been doing alright. I won the tournament, just like I said I would." Adam replied with a smile.
Gene and the others just stood there, a common look of confusion on all of their faces. "Uh, you two know each other?" Gene asked.
Aisha jumped up, pulling her blonde haired companion with her. "Well, sure we do. I met him while we made that pit stop on Sigma VI a few months back." She answered, ruffling Adam's hair up.
Adam smiled and nodded with acknowledgement. He didn't look like that kind of person who'd befriend someone like Aisha. He looked about eighteen, a year younger than the proud Ctarl Ctarl. His blonde hair spiked to the right, also coming down along his face. His eyes were a teal color, like Locke's, and made his gaze enchanting. A light blue collar lined his neck, pinned together with a necklace chain. He wore a vest, with the same blue color as his collar, over a plain white t-shirt. Thin gloves covered his hands with the same color as the sky. Although, his pants were the only mismatched color and were a darker shade of the dominant light blue. To bottom it off were white sneakers with a shade of gray in them.
"Aisha here trained me for the tournament. The strength is all mine though." The blonde teen commented.
"How did you get so strong? Are you a cyborg?" Jim asked curiously.
Adam chuckled lightly and waved his hand lazily. "Nah, I'm human. I just found a way to pass the limits and a whole lot more. Maybe…I'm as strong as you, Aisha." He said, tauntingly.
"Hey, that's not funny! AND it's not true! I'm much stronger than you still. You're got quite a long way to go if you wanna over-power me." Aisha boasted proudly.
"Then maybe we could have a spar or two?" Adam asked jokingly.
"Before you kid's go off and have your fun, can we get something to eat? I'm starving." Gene complained.
Jim agreed, although not on the same level as Gene. "Let's just go back to Starwind and Hawking. Guess we're having breakfast in after all, seeing as how the restaurant we were going to is totaled now." He remarked.
"Would you like to join us, Adam?" Melfina asked politely.
Adam looked to the bio-android and smiled. "Well, sure. I still gotta have my one meal for the day. So why not?" the energetic blonde replied.
Everyone turned around and head back the way the came. They had no idea that from an unseen shadow lay an angel in wait. Angelglory scoffed at the stupid outlaws. Tch, what bunch of fools. I should just kill them all now and get in done with.
He looked at Aisha with great hatred. I'll get my hands on you, and when I do, I'll rip you apart. You'll beg for death. You'll beg for that one thing I can never have…because of her. Because of…Thera.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Kyen walked into a completely black room, where Jim was held captive before. He smiled devilishly towards the corner where he had spoken to Thera's former pet. He spoke to it again.
"You're sentence is over. You may leave," he said sharply.
From the corner, a man emerged from the shadows. White spiked hair and sunglasses sat atop his head. "Thank you. Thank you so much." The man said.
The white haired man walked out from the dark room, but was then immediately stopped by a crushing grip on his right shoulder. Kyen dug his fingers into the man's shoulder. "That's as far as you go, Stev."
"Wait, you said I was free!" Stev yelped.
Kyen's grip intensified. "You are free from this life. Go now, be free into the arms of hell." He announced.
"No! Let me go! I did what you wanted me to! I told you where Starwind was! Please let me go!" Stev pleaded, falling to his knees under the pain.
"You served you purpose, and that gave you your well-earned death." Kyen said, ripping his hand from Stev's shoulder and pulling his jugular vein out with it.
Stev fell face first to the ground, he spasmed and squirmed then, shortly after, died.
Kyen looked down at his bloodied hand and started laughing madly.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
It was around the afternoon time back at Starwind and Hawking. Jim was working on his computer with Gene sitting lazily next to him. The red-haired outlaw studied Adam carefully, something didn't seem quite right about him. There was a light tug on Gene's left arm. Locke was standing there with a worried look on his face. He handed his computer to Gene.
"What's this? You don't trust Adam? Well, I can agree with you on that one, Locke." Gene commented.
"Gene…" Jim began, turning in his chair to look at his partner. "Don't be so rude. He's Aisha's friend." He said.
"You really so sure about that?" Gene asked, looking down at his younger partner.
"If he knows her then, he knows her." Jim replied simply, turning back to his computer and closing it.
Jim took his computer into his hands and left the room without saying another word. Gene watched his partner leave, curiously. "Hmm, I wonder what his problem is?" he asked himself aloud.
"He's probably just tired." Locke commented.
Gene stretched his arms out. "Speaking of tired, I'm gonna grab some shut-eye." He said, walking up the stairs to his cot/bed.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Jim walked into his room and slumped onto his bed. After a moment or two of staring at the ceiling, he sat back up and opened his computer again. He brought up Locke's data again and began reading it for a fifth time that day.
How can there be no data about where Locke comes from? Who his parents are? Anything! All there is observational data. It might help if it made any sense. Damn…
As the boy continued his work, he was oblivious to his surroundings. Everything was slowing down, betraying time itself and the room grew darker by the second. Finally, everything was gone and all there was was darkness and Jim.
"Jim…Oh Jimmy!" a very familiar voice called out.
Jim looked up and finally noticed where he was. Nowhere. Just then, HE appeared, Angst.
"Well well, long time no see, Jim." It said.
Jim quickly stood up and backed away. "You…Why are you here? What do you want from me?" he asked angrily.
"Ya know, I let you not killing Locke slide. But now, I've got another thing I want you to do." The phantom said, grinning like a devil.
The real Jim clenched his fists and glared at his other self. "Why the heck should I listen to what you have to say?" he yelled.
"You have no choice!" Angst's eyes flared and he charged at Jim, punching him across the face. The fake Jim started kicking Jim in the ribs fiercely, not giving the real Jim any time to breathe. "Come on, Jim, fight back! You're pathetic!"
The words, "Damn it, (cough) get the hell (cough cough) off of me! (cough)" barely escaped Jim's lips before Angst booted him in the face.
The fake drove the heel of his boot into Jim's face. "Only if you do what I ask." It muttered.
Jim growled and sneered in pain. "Ugh…fine!"
Angst removed his boot from his real self's face. "Good…Now listen. I want you to-" it began before another voice echoed in.
"Jim? Are you okay?" That voice sounded familiar. It sounded like…Melfina. "Oh my goodness! Jim! Jim, wake up!" she shouted, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Angst snarled and cracked his knuckles. "Bitch…Why'd she have to show up?" he mumbled to himself before vanishing.
The darkness became light and the room returned from it's hiding place. Jim's eyes blurred as Melfina came into focus. "Jim, are you alright?" she asked, tears falling from her eyes.
What? Why is Melfina crying? Jim thought, but his thoughts were suddenly replaced with an extreme pain. He shakily moved his hand to his face. Looking at his hand afterwards, he saw blood covering it.
What! How did this…? Was this…Angst?
TO BE CONTINUED…
Hello, this is Locke Hart here. Anyway, Adam invites Aisha and me to show us something. I wonder what it could be? Aisha seems pretty excited about it. I just hope what that woman told me isn't right. If she is right, then this might be big trouble. Wish me luck…Next time on Outlaw Star: Omega Project…Chapter 12: Midnight Snatch. I hope you'll be ready!
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What's happening to Jim? Is Adam really trustworthy? If Kyen just killed Stev, then how was he on Heiphon? How exactly does Qil know Locke? More questions and answers to come next chapter! R 'n' R, please. Thanks!