Ran out of witty things to say. Chapter 17!
Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, The broccoli must die!
#17: Enough is Enough
"Wait! Barnette! Don't leave! I… damn it." Jack said, as Barnette dashed off. "Man, women are so weird." He added with a sigh. He sat for a few minutes, contemplating what to do. He decided he was going to go see her. I'm a man damn it! I'm the one who needs to take action. He walked out of the environmental area, and into the mess hall, which was basically empty. The morning crew was starting to get everything going for the breakfast rush. He poured himself a cup of coffee, then another, and walked off again, toward the females living quarters. He reached the hallway to the girl's rooms, and realized that he didn't know which room was Barnette's. He remembered he still had the ships map in his data-pad, and after a few minutes of comparing, located the room. He knocked gently, the sound louder than he would have liked, due to his metal gauntlets.
"Go away!" She called out, sound muffled by the door.
"No, I think I'll stay, I need to talk to you. Can I come in?" He called back.
"No!" it was evident she was still sobbing by the way she was choking on the word as she said them.
"Ok, I'm coming in." He sighed, and grabbed the recessed grove and pulled. The door was locked, but that wasn't going to let that stop him. A small flash of purple light, the lock released, and the door slid open. He walked in, and the door slid shut behind him, sealing him into the darkness.
"Leave me alone." She said, sitting on her bed, back to him.
"Barnette, I'm not leaving until you let me talk to you." He said, trying not to sound threatening, but comforting. "Here, take this." He handed her the spare cup of coffee. "Thought your throat might be a little dry the way you were snoring last night." He ducked, expecting the coffee to come flying at his head. To his surprise, she just glared at him. "What?"
"Why can't you just be serious for once? I think your really going tell me if you think it's my fault that you keep getting hurt, and you just feed me a smart ass remark!" She said the last part a bit louder, and more angrily.
"What? I was being serious! I wouldn't have it any other way! Is this all you're upset about?" He said. She nodded, because, at the moment, that was all she was upset about.
"I wanted you honest opinion, not just another smart ass remark." She said, sipping her coffee.
"Well, I was being serious. Since I've been with you, I've been happier than I've ever been! If it weren't for you, I'd still be a tool of the military! You distracted me so the other's take me out, you were the reason I came back, and you killed the General!" He explained. She just shook her head.
"I got you stabbed, shot, exploded, and beaten." She said, ticking them off on her fingers.
"Oh, yeah, but that doesn't matter." He said, waving his hand dismissively. She wasn't going to except that, even though she wanted to.
"How can you say that? I've done damage to you myself to!"
"Well, I gave you plenty of reason to, besides there's no permanent damage, except what you're doing to yourself now."
"What do you mean?" She was struggling not to burst into tears again.
"You're making a big deal out of nothing. You're tearing yourself apart inside. If anything that has happened hurts me at all, it is that." She starred at him in disbelief. "My god! That is the corniest I think I've ever said! I don't know how I could top that one." Barnette just continued staring at him. "What? I love you, and I stand by it, and there's nothing you can do about that! Hey, I just topped it!" He said, and was relived when a small smile spread across her face.
"But what if you keep getting hurt because of me?" She asked timidly.
"Well, then, I guess I'll just have to keep getting better." He said, without any resentment in his voice.
"Thanks…" she leaned in and gave him a small kiss. 'I needed that."
"I know, you're all bitchy when you're emotional. I couldn't stand it much longer." He returned the kiss, and took off, glad that she took the joke, instead of being offended as she usually was. He settled himself at a table in the mess hall, put his head in his arms, and went back to sleep his mind at ease.
"Can you go over it again? I just can't get it to work!" Dita cried, as he fist slamming into the crate in front of her, leaving no visible damage.
"What? This is my first day, and I can do it just fine!" John said slamming his fist into the crate, which shattered into splinters.
"Hey, shut up and leave her alone!" Hibiki yelled. He had become very defensive when he found something he didn't like said to her. He was still adjusting to being a couple, going from one extreme to another. Before he had avoided being around Dita as often as he could, and couldn't care less about how she felt, but now, he was around her all the time, and got very defensive when she was insulted. This conflict was harbored as Jack was teaching the others how to use their powers. John had been added to the class, as Jack had made John the new red controller, being his Best, and first friend, had been the first on the list to get it. Today he was showing them how to focus their energies into their fists, effectively augmenting their strength, or putting explosive force into their knuckles. Right now, they were practicing the explosive force technique. John flexed his gloved fingers menacingly at Hibiki, as if challenging him to do something.
"Stop it!" Meia said, smacking John in the back of his head.
"Aww… but Meia, I wasn't going to hurt him to bad, just something to keep him occupied for a while." He whined, and Meia smacked him again.
"Ok, what part are you having trouble with?" Jack said, a bit to friendly for Hibiki's liking.
"What are you doing?" He yelled.
"Trying to help Dita." He said bluntly, with an annoyed wave of his hand, which knocked Hibiki on his ass. He decided to shut up, and let Jack help her out.
"I just can't get the energy to stay long enough to shatter the box!" she said exasperatedly.
"You have to focus all your attention into it at first, concentrate all you energy into it, and then strike!" He struck the box in front of him, and it explodes in a burst of purple light, nothing was left. "That is what you can do with just a smidgen of effort when you become adept with your powers." He walked behind Dita, and grabbed onto her to help guide her actions. Hibiki jumped up at this, but was knocked back to the ground, and held there, though it hadn't appeared that jack had moved. Jack curled her hand into a fist, and she screwed up her eyes. Blue energy crackled across her knuckles, and she slammed the fist down into the crate. It shattered, but not as fully as anyone else's did. "There you go, that's a start, now grab another crate and keep trying." He walked to the front of the room, his finger twitched, and Hibiki could stand up again. He ran over and embraced Dita, and then got to work. Dita was still unable to break the crate, but kept at it.
"You know, if I could do that, I'd use your head instead of a crate." Jack turned around, and saw Barnette leaning in the doorway.
"Yeah? Well if you could do that, you wouldn't be able to smash and orange, much less my head." He said, casting a smile at the beautiful girl. She wiped it off with a smack across the face. "So fiery, I love it!" They laughed. "So, what color you want? Yellow, orange, or green?"
What do you mean?" She asked, confused.
"Well, there are three more Paexis out there, and I'd figure you could I'd let you have the power of one."
"Oh." She though for a minute. "Who else is going to get one?"
"Vinn, he's been with me for almost as long as John, and I was going to see if Parfait wanted the other, cause it would probably be helpful for working with the Paexises. And I thought you might like the other, since I love you so much." He gave her a stupid grin.
"Oh, then can I have the green one than?"
"No problem. Finally you have something that matched with your wardrobe." She smacked him a few more times, then left.
"Why do you let her hit you like that?" Jura asked, missing the box, and slamming her fist into the floor. "Ow!"
"Because I love her, and it makes her happy." He stated. "Now pay attention to what you're doing!"
A half-hour later, he finished the lesson.
"Ok, so if you do that, it will augment your strength, so you can lift more, or other stuff like that. You're all progressing faster than I did, so I'm guessing that after a few more days of work, you will probably be able to manifest harmless energy. I have to say I'm astounded, but you are in contact with the Paexis you're allied with, so that could have something to do with it. Tomorrow, I'll show you how to make things burst into flames." They all filed off, and with a wave of his hand, all the shards of wood in the room floated up. He separated the piles with another wave, and snapped his fingers once. All three piles burst into different colored flames, red, blue, and purple. He walked out of the room, to go meet Barnette for lunch.
"With the red Paexis installed, we have more power, and more offensive capabilities! Plus there are strange synergetic effects from having the Paexises together in one place. I don't know much, but the shields are much more resilient than they were, plus a fourth, fifth, and sixth layer has been added!" Parfait reported gleefully from the main engineering room. She had finished installing the red Paexis an hour ago, and had been studying the effects on he system since them. Jacks head appeared on the screen.
"It might be safe to say that the red Paexis will offer up the most offensive capabilities, so the weapons from will be the strongest. The blue offers up the defensive portion, hence the first three shield layers. The purple, being a mix of blue and red, has a mix of both offence and defense." Jack did know more about the Paexis than anyone else on the ship, so his input was nice to have.
"Yes, very good, we will keep trying to find the information containing the location of earth. And continue doing what us pirates do, and, I figure Earth is getting pretty tired of us beating anything they throw at us, so they're likely to throw their remaining capitol ships at us, so be ready to fight." The captain had made that announcement over the intercom, and the 'Nirvana's' engines flared, and it flew off toward where they had defeated the Purple fleet.
The end to chapter 17.