Chapter 7: Suspicions

Mina was not having a good day. Her latest orders from The Lab had thoroughly ruined her morning. She had just received an assignment to create some sort of spying devices. Her previous innovations, microscopic recorders were already declared invalid for the Lab's uses. Simply put, she didn't like spying on others and she didn't like losing sleep in the process. That was the last straw. She immediately went to the Chief of The Lab to turn in her resignation. The Chief was the highest authority at the lab. In terms of physical looks, she was a middle-aged redheaded Human with a monocle. Her office looked more like a command deck. Despite her pleading for Mina to reconsider, Mina held steadfast to her resignation.

"Please, Minako, you are one of my best people," Chief pleaded. "Are you sure you won't reconsider?"

"My apologies, ma'am," Mina replied, "but I refuse to go on with these types of dealings. I have nothing against you, but I'm sure that there are others who are much more suited to this type of assignment."

"Very well, then," Chief relented, signing the resignation form. "I'm sorry to lose you." After shaking hands, Mina said her goodbyes to her co-workers and walked to the exit.

"I wonder if I get this week's pay," she pondered.

"That was an odd quest," Galactica thought to herself as she collected her Meseta from the Guild counter.

"What are you doing here?" T-65 asked, just walking in. "Shouldn't you be at that job of yours?"

"Not yet," she said, coming out of her thought. "Today is my last day of training. Tomorrow is my first day actually teaching."

"So, how's Ragol today?" T-65 asked. "I'm ready to test out my new Rifle."

"Actually, my experience was rather strange. I was supposed to find a scientist. During my search, I encountered nothing but Rag Rappies. There were so many of them. Almost all of them attacked me."

"Don't tell me you got overrun by a bunch of chickens," T-65 snickered.

"It's not as easy as you think, especially when they attack from all sides!" she raised her voice. "Anyway, it turns out that the doctor was disguised as one of them. I would have shot him, but he was the only Rappy that didn't attack me when I stood right in front of it."

"Did he have some kinda death wish or somethin'?" T-65 asked, somewhat amused.

"He said that he was studying and playing with them," Galactica said dryly. "I suppose that they really are the friendliest creatures…sometimes."

"Looks like you had a lot of fun today," he said sarcastically. "I'll see ya later."

"All right, bye," she waved as she walked off. As she approached the edge of the deck to call a taxi, a young lady came up to her.

"I just had to tell someone!" she said excitedly. "I happened to see Great Sword Zoke a few days ago! He was so cool! But his Android wasn't with him. I heard that she's always with him. Zoke was around the transporter with a Ranger.

"Zoke, hmm?" Galactica said. "Maybe he's investigating the explosion."

"If anyone, he'll find out what happened," she said, walking away.

"I still have a little bit until my final training test," Galactica thought. "I wonder what Anne is doing."

"What do you think Galactica's up to?" Anne asked Miguel. "I am SO bored." They were at a bar. Chronos didn't like to be bothered while he was meditating, so they decided to go out.

"She's probably at that teaching job," Miguel responded, sipping his soda. "Say, how about a game of air hockey?"

"Sure," she shrugged. "I'm tired of that dirty old pool table." They then walked over to the hockey table and put in their Meseta. Just as the machine activated, they were pushed aside by a gray RAcast and a green HUmar with a green Mohawk.

"Move over!" the HUmar yelled. "Finders keepers."

"Losers weepers!" the hammer-headed RAcast chanted along.

"You can't just move in on our game!" Anne yelled at the Ranger.

"Especially after we already paid!" yelled Miguel, looking down at the HUmar.

"Too bad," the RAcast said getting ready to play the game.

"Do something about it," said the HUmar, getting the puck.

"I'm warning you," Anne said in a low voice.

"We're so scared," the RAcast mocked. "Like a little girl's going to actually do something."

"Yeah," agreed the HUmar. "Only thing you're good for is pretending that there's actually something under that body suit. If there was, I'd be on ya like white on snow."

"Ooooh boy! Bad move, pal," Miguel said, as his single eye glowed brighter.

"What?" the RAcast asked mockingly. "Did we make you mad?"

"Well," Miguel replied, slowly backing up, "not me so much as her." The people walking around outside the bar were startled as the gray RAcast went flying through the window, now unconscious. By the time he had landed a very shrill scream could be heard coming out of the bar. It had come from the HUmar, now in a fetal position, holding tightly onto his crotch with tears streaming down his face.

"Let's go," Anne said pulling Miguel out of the bar.

"Well, at least we didn't get banned this time," Miguel said as they caught a taxi home.

Meanwhile, T-65 had taken a quest from a travel agency. The agent told him to find survivors from a crashed pleasure boat called Gran Squall. Apparently the boat had left Pioneer 2 a little before the explosion. All communications were lost. T-65 was just one the hunters sent down to search for its whereabouts. For some reason, the client said not to talk about the Gran Squall. Client confidentiality was commonplace in the guild, so his request had more substance to it. So far, T-65 hadn't found anything but the usual wildlife. Then, he ran into a blue and white armored RAmar with what appeared to be an odd-looking bazooka. He was a blond with heavy body armor and a chiseled face. He was just as tall as T-65.

The RAmar, noticing T-65 then asked, "Are you looking for the pleasure boat too? Do you really believe the story about the pleasure boat?"

"Well, yeah," T-65 answered. "That's what the travel agent said."

The Ranger burst into laughter. "Hey are you serious? You're interesting. Ha, ha!"

"I don't see what's so funny," T-65 said smugly.

"Oh, sorry," the RAmar said, stifling himself. "Forgive my rudeness. Want to come with me? I'll give you some good information."

"Okay," T-65 said, glad to get some assistance.

"Come on!" he said, leading the way. The gate they walked through lead to a beige HUmar with a green flattop haircut and a Saber.

"Are you working on the quest offered by the travel agency?" the HUmar asked.

"Yep," T-65 answered.

"I'm doing that, too," said the HUmar. "But I can't find any traces at all. Let me know if you find anything." T-65 and the RAmar continued onward. As they walked down a path, the RAmar spoke up.

"Don't you think that this quest is strange?" he asked. "A pleasure boat departed before the council made first contact? No way! I really doubt that the ship hit the ground."

"Well, there isn't any wreckage around here to prove otherwise," T-65 thought to himself, "except for some of these pods." Before they got to the next gate, they came upon a familiar RAmar. It was the silver helmeted RAmar that had let the Mags go with Elenor.

"You searching for the Gran Squall?" he asked. "Will you share your info with me?"

T-65 only shrugged saying, "Well, you see the thing is…"

"You know nothing, am I right?" he asked. "You have no information to share. How about you?" he said looking at the blond RAmar.

"No thanks," he said, looking down.

"You want to monopolize the money, right?" the silver RAmar said, not surprised. "Same as the man in black."

"What man in black?" T-65 thought as he and the blue RAmar continued down the path, approaching another gate. Still thinking to himself, T-65 walked straight into the unopened gate.

"Huh? What's wrong with this thing?" he said, banging on the gate. They noticed some electrical discharge coming from it.

"Won't open?" the RAmar asked. "Is the mechanism broke? Let me take care of it." He went up to the gate and knelt down to what would be the hinge if it were a door. After a few seconds, the gate unlocked and opened.

"How did you…?" T-65 asked, surprised that it had been fixed so fast.

"I have the knack," the RAmar said, smirking. When they entered the room, some minor opposition appeared: a pair of Boomas and a trio of wolves. One was the bluish Barbarous Wolf. T-65 would finally be able to see what the RAmar's weapon could do.

"It's about time I got some action," T-65 said, taking aim and shooting a Booma. "I was starting to get bored."

"Time to take you down!" the RAmar said firing his weapon. It was very different from any other weapon that T-65 had seen. It shot a slow, small fireball. Its target, the other Booma, fell to the ground covered in flames.

"That's a nice gun you got there!" T-65 said killing the other Booma. T-65 was still doing most of the shooting. Apparently, the RAmar's weapon took a few seconds to recharge after each shot. After the wolves had been slain, more animals came: a Monest, two Rag Rappies, four Barbarous Wolves, and two Gigoboomas. This fight would take more effort from the Rangers.

By this time, Anne and Miguel had gotten back to the apartment. The first thing they noticed when they entered was music that was different from Chronos's usual meditation preference.

"You hear that?" Anne said to Miguel.

"You mean the absence of the usual depressing atmosphere?" Miguel joked. "This music is more upbeat yet…"

"Kind of quieter?" Anne suggested.

"Yeah," Miguel agreed, walking through the living room towards Chronos's room. "Hey, his door's open." They peaked inside. Chronos was sitting, Indian-style, on his tatami mat with his eyes closed like he always did. What was different was the presence of the lady just to the side of him, also meditating.

"Isn't that Mina?" Anne whispered. Miguel nodded in agreement. "What's she doing here?"

"I don't know," Miguel whispered, "but we'd better back off. You know how Forces get when you interrupt their meditation." The two Androids then softly closed the door and went to another room. Neither Force was aware of the presence of the Androids, but they did sense each other. During the entire time, Mina held a frown on her face, still upset about that morning.

"You must let go," Chronos spoke softly, sensing her anger. "They no longer have any power over you. Such a pretty face should not remain so angry."

"Thank you," Mina responded, placing her hand on his. "I can still see the light."

After clearing another room full of beasts, T-65 was thoroughly envious of his teammate's weapon. It could kill almost anything in one fiery shot. But, he was still anxious to end this mission. And he hadn't been told anything yet.

"Hey, hold up a sec," T-65 said before they went through the next gate. "What about that info you said you had?"

"The information?" the RAmar said surprised. "Oh, yes. Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure," T-65 shrugged casually.

"Do you swear?" he asked.

"I won't tell anyone," T-65 assured him. "So what do you know?"

"The true meaning of this quest is not what it appears to be," he said cryptically. "The Gran Squall crashed on Ragol. That's true. But it's not a pleasure boat. The Gran Squall's a secret military ship. I don't know what its purpose was. Anyway, it crashed on Ragol. I confirmed it with my source who's working on another quest with me. My source says there must be a survivor. My true quest is camouflaged by the travel agency's quest."

"Well, that helps," T-65 said, a little dumbfounded. "It shouldn't be too hard to find a survivor…if they're still alive." They then moved on to the next gate to find a teleporter. They used it to get to the second area of the Forest, near Central Dome. As always, it was cloudy and drizzling.

"Any idea who we're looking for?" T-65 asked, still uncomfortable with this part of the Forest.

"I'm looking for a little lady," the RAmar said, scanning the immediate area. "I heard that a chip is implanted in her body."

"Why does she have a chip in her?" T-65 asked, somewhat appalled.

"I really don't understand why they had to put a chip in her body…But if we're close enough, we can detect her with this machine," he said, pointing to an attachment on his right wristband.

"Let's get this over with," the Android said, moving through the next gate. As always, resistances showed up: four Goboomas and two Savage Wolves. A Gobooma immediately burst into flames from the RAmar's gun. But the RAcast wasn't about to let his partner take all of the kills. T-65 quickly downed a wolf. The other wolf had snuck behind the Rangers. The Goboomas did not advance quickly enough to reach them. After killing another Gobooma with a single shot, the RAmar assisted T-65 with the remaining Gobooma with a Technique called Foie. It was a basic fireball attack. It was faster than his gun, but not as powerful. It did bring down the Gobooma faster, however.

"Gaah!" the RAmar shouted as the remaining wolf pounced on him from behind.

"I got ya!" T-65 said, shooting it off with careful aim. "I guess they like attacking from behind. You okay?"

"I'm okay," he said, finishing off the wolf with another Foie. "Don't relax yet, though." Sure enough, a Hildebear crashed in front of them. It did not fall from the fiery shot of the RAmar.

"Take this!" the RAcast said firing charged shots. The beast only flinched.

"It won't take much more," the RAmar warned, taking another shot. This last shot finally took it down with a thump.

The Ranger made a quick stop at a healing rig, pointed out by T-65. "Okay, we're ready to go," the Ranger said, feeling good as new.

"Man, this is one long quest," T-65 thought to himself. They then entered the next gate.

"Why is the last day always the longest?" Galactica asked herself, taking her final training test. She was doing the very last part of the examination: a simulation of grading assignments. During her training, Galactica found out that the Nei School also acted as a daycare and an orphanage for Newmans.

"How are things coming along?" said the Newman instructor. Galactica was the only person who had applied there in at almost a year. The trip from the planet Coral, where nearly everyone was from, to their current position in the Andromeda system had taken two years. Most applicants had appeared in the first year.

"I'm on the last section," she said, not looking away from the computer screen. "It should only take a few minutes."

"Don't rush yourself," he said. "There's no reason for hurry. You're the first tester I've had in a while. Don't forget to consider the bonus points."

"Damn!" Galactica cursed to herself. Fortunately, it wouldn't take much more time to compute bonus points. "What's the point of bonuses? They should know the material. Everything else is irrelevant." In about 15 minutes, she completed the test.

"Let's just run this through," the instructor said, letting the computer grade the test.

"Excuse me, sir," Galactica asked, " but what is the point of me grading an assignment when a computer can do the same thing more efficiently.

"…Um…good question," he admitted. "I guess it's just a tradition. Kind of like giving a Force a Cane even, though, just about anything else is better."

"Are you a hunter?"

"No…but it's one of those jobs that's just the 'in' thing to do. Everybody talks about them."

"Indeed," agreed Galactica. The computer signaled that it had finished grading the test.

"Let's see…" he said looking at the results. "According to this, you are fully qualified. Welcome to the Nei School for Newmans, Miss Chikara.

"Please," she said, shaking his hand, "call me Galactica."

The two Rangers had just cleared an area of several waves of animals. The only place left to go was to Central Dome. They walked to a teleporter that would take them to a path leading to Central Dome.

"It shows that her signal is coming from this direction," the RAmar said pointing to the platform leading to the Central Dome. As they approached the teleporter, they could see three Monests landing on the platform. "But there seems to be a big party waiting for us. I'm glad that I joined up with you."

"Same here, pal," T-65 said as they entered the teleporter. Mothmants immediately attacked them. "Let's see how you like this." T-65 released an Ice Trap to stop the flying menaces and started shooting them down with his Rifle. The shields on their left wrists protected them from most of the razor sharp stingers. The RAmar shot the Monests with his gun and the Mothmants with Foie. He was surprised when all of them suddenly froze.

"I see," he said, now understanding. "You used a trap, didn't you?"

"Yep," T-65 said as he released a fire trap. "And there's another one waiting."

"Watch this!" the RAmar said as he glowed with more fiery power. Suddenly a large fireball started to orbit him and burn everything around him.

"Nice one," T-65 complimented as he began shooting the Monests. Almost all of the Mothmants died from Gifoie. When the rest broke free of the ice, they flew straight for the Rangers. Then T-65's trap exploded and wiped out the rest of the Mothmants and knocked over all of the Monests. The Rangers didn't give them a chance to release any more bugs. As soon as the nests were destroyed a legion of other animals appeared to attack. There were all three varieties of Boomas. There was also a pair of Savage Wolves and another pair of Barbarous Wolves.

"You're going down!" the RAmar yelled, firing at the Barbarous Wolves. The death of one of them demoralized the rest. T-65 decided to use a Confuse Trap. He backed away a few feet and shot it. The approaching Boomas forgot about him and began attacking each other. T-65 could then concentrate on the more powerful enemies. He slowed them down long enough for the RAmar to take each down with a single shot.

"Oh no you don't!" T-65 yelled as he shot the Savage Wolf that leaped from behind the RAmar. The RAmar, in turn, used Foie on it, finishing it off. T-65 then turned around to finish off the Boomas who had shaken off the confusion. Each went down with two shots from his Rifle. After all of the animals had been wiped out, the next gate unlocked.

"She should be right up ahead," the RAmar said, running through the gate. As they went around a bend, two Savage Wolves leaped from behind them. They were quickly destroyed by the Rangers combined firepower. Then, two Hildebears showed up. They were unable to leap towards the Rangers because of the roof ledge on the side of Central Dome. So they walked. This gave the Rangers an opportunity to shoot from a distance. After taking Rifle shots and two of the RAmar's shots, one Hildebear crashed to the ground dead. The other beat its chest and let out an ape-like shriek. Then it blew a flame similar to Foie at the Rangers. They dodged behind a wall.

"I didn't know they could do that," T-65 said to himself. T-65 then leaned around the wall and managed to pick off the Hildebear with a few shots before it got within striking range. "I think I see someone!" A few yards ahead, was a person lying on the floor. Unfortunately, lying next to her were two Barbarous Wolves, eyeing the Rangers.

"That must be her!" the RAmar said, running up to her. He immediately killed one Barbarous Wolf, allowing T-65 quickly put down the other one.

"Looks like that was the last of them," said T-65 looking for any more resistance. "Did we get here in time?" The girl was actually a FOnewearl and was as short as Mina, if not shorter. In her hand was some sort of Rod. She had platform shoes, with purple socks. Her entire outfit consisted of black, purple, and pink including her jester-like hat. She had red eyeliner and blue hair. She didn't look very well, with various cuts and bruises all over her body.

"She's badly injured," the RAmar said, looking her over and checking her pulse. "It's a miracle she's still alive…Hey, you! Thanks for the help. Can you go ahead and report it to the travel agency? I'll go with her later. Don't worry. I'll contact my other client about this girl before we return."

"You sure you don't want me to hang around?"

"Trust me," he said seriously. "You fought alongside me. I never betray my party. But I'm forgetful. Ha, ha, ha!"

"Okay, see ya!" T-65 said as he returned to Pioneer 2 through a Telepipe. "Wait a sec. Didn't we just pass by the front door of Central Dome? Where was everybody? What the heck happened during the explosion?" As he passed the teleporter room, a military guard stared at him.

"You shouldn't talk about your job, even when it's complete," he said sternly. "Got that? Never forget that."

"What's up his ass?" T-65 thought. After running by the shop to sell a few newly found wares, he returned to the Hunters Guild. He walked up to the mustached client and said, "Mission complete."

"Excellent!" the client said approvingly. "We didn't expect there to be any survivors. Let me confirm this…Only Bernie and you know about the survivor?

"…Uh…who?" T-65 said confused.

"Huh?" the client said, now also confused. "Oh, Bernie is the Ranger who brought her here for you. It's his nickname. He's always been a mysterious man…I'll take care of the girl. Don't worry. The Guild will pay you your reward."

"Welcome back!" said the Guild girl. "The Hunters' Guild will enrich your life. Your reward is 1000 Meseta. Have a nice day."

"Time for me to go home," T-65 thought to him self. "That's enough excitement for one day."

Notes: Decided to make this chapter ever so longer with promotionals and clarification. Hopefully, it makes this story more…interesting. Well anyway, it looks like Mina's done with the Lab. I guess Galactica will be bringing in the weekly check from now on. And it also looks like T-65 has someone to aspire; that was a pretty big gun/bazooka/whatever.

On the next episode of PSO: Sidestory: Mina takes a quest from a very familiar person. But there seems to be a lot of secrecy involved. What's going on? And it's also Galactica's first day of teaching. It's a class of 17 Newmans with the head teacher having a peculiar disorder. Get ready for school because we're graduating to 8th grade in "Research." School is now in session…Only Toonami! (If I actually owned Toonami…or Phantasy Star Online…and many other things.)