Disclaimer: I don't own starocean, why do i have to keep repeating this?
Fayt made his way through the crowded market towards the west end of town. Maria was having problems with just getting past two guys. Fayt was about to reach the inn when he heard a scream. Turning around, he spotted Maria, still somewhere in the middle of the crowd. Two guys had grabbed onto her hands were smiling to each other. How typical. Fayt rushed over to Maria.
"Let go!"
Maria yelled, trying to yank her hand from the two.
"Why should we? Beautiful things should be held on to."
"That's right. Maybe we could go for a drink or two."
These two guys are officially creepy and typical perverts who do not know more creative lines.
"Maybe you should go by yourselves for that drink."
Fayt said from behind. The two turned around, and practically everyone else who was interested in these sorts of things.
"Eh? Who the hell are you?"
One of the guys asked.
"Fayt!"
Maria exclaimed. She thought she completely lost him.
"Fa-Fayt! You mean, Fayt Leingod?"
Excited murmurs were past throughout the crowds. People backed away from Fayt, as though he was a prince or something.
"Yeah, that's me, so what?"
Fayt scratched his head.
"H-ha! I'm not afraid of the Hero of the world! You look nothing more than a packet of peanuts!"
"Well, that depends on what sort of peanuts you're looking at. Let her go and leave us or face the consequences."
Fayt had a sadistic face on, eyes dancing with fire with a smile that grew more and more sinister with each passing second.
"Well, let's see how far your consequence can go!"
One of guys challenged, taking out a knife. Fayt, however, was unarmed. Still, it did not bother him, after all, he had been in worse situation than this. He raised his hand in the direction of the the man, focusing his strength into his palm, his hand glowed blue. Symbols appeared around around his arm as he gathered more energy.
Soon, symbols were all around his arm and the energy in his hand was about the size of his fist. Fayt released it gathered energy and it shot forward like a bolt of lightning, striking at the knife. The man dropped the knife like it was burning. Symbology was a strong force to reckon with and on this planet, not many know how to utilize this force. The two men turned and ran away.
Everyone around Fayt congratulated him on his brave deed. It wasn't that he wanted any of this popularity. All he wanted is to get to Maria and get out of this place. He managed to find Maria's hand among the crowd and pulled her out. He did not let go of her hand as he pushed through the crowd into the west part of town. Finally, they were at the west end and it was not as crowded as the central market.
"Well, at least we're out of the crowd."
Fayt said.
"My hand..."
Maria muttered. Her face was beet red.
"Wha-? Oh! Sorry!"
Fayt realized that he was still holding onto her hand, rather tightly at that too.
"Sorry."
"That's okay."
Maria held her hand close to her as though it needed a bandage.
"Does it hurt? Let me see."
Fayt walked up to Maria but she backed away.
"It's alright, there's no need for you to see it."
She said, rather quickly.
"Er, alright, but if it does hurt, just tell me, alright?"
"Sure."
"Okay, let's go get your stuff."
Fayt walked into the inn, while Maria still stood outside, clutching her hand. Her face was calm as usualy, though it had a deep red shade to her cheeks. She took a deep breath, and entered the inn. Behind her, two pairs of eyes were watching with great interest.
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After about five minutes argueing with the manager, paying a certain amount for cancelling fee, Fayt stormed off to find Maria's room. Maria had left for her room while he was trying to get the people at the inn to go easy on the penalty charges. He stormed up the stairs and found her room. He did not bother to knock, though he should, and stormed into the room.
Maria was shocked and she turned to see who entered. At that point, everything froze. In Maria's hand, was something that Fayt should never, ever see. Her undergarments. Maria was soon aware of that fact as well and her face turned as red as a boiled lobster. Fayt's face turned equally red, before he ran out of the door.
"SORRY!"
He closed the door behind him. That was close. White?
'What the hell am i think that for?'
He mentally slapped himself. That wasn't something he should be thinking about. The door opened slightly and Maria took a peek outside. Her face was still red from the recent event.
"Maria, i'm so sorry, i mean-"
"Forget about it. Can you help me with something?"
"Huh? Er.. sure."
Fayt straightened himself and walked into the room. Maria had finished packing and her luggage was sitting on the bed, but it wasn't closed.
"So what do you need help with?"
Fayt wondered.
"Closing the luggage."
She muttered. Sometimes, she speaks too softly.
"What sort of lock is it?"
"Type N.L 50. "
"Ah, the new one, huh? Right, let's see."
Fayt walked over to her luggage. It was a small silver bag with a lock that looked more like a calculator than a lock. Fayt inspected the lock carefully. He had not dealt with this new model before. This could get tricky. Fayt pressed the function button and the lock automatically went into a self lockdown. Now it was locked for good, unless Fayt could get it back to his place. He got up and sighed. This was very complicating.
"Is it alright?"
Maria asked.
"No, it's not. I managed to lock it, but i need to bring it back my place to get it open again."
"Oh... Sorry for the trouble."
"What? Oh it's nothing, really. Come on then, let's go."
Fayt led the way out of the room, carrying the luggage in one hand, with Maria trailing behind. The trip back to the house was less eventful and Fayt was glad to be back. Clair welcomed the two back and told them that her father was snoring on the couch.
"Can i use your bathroom?"
Maria asked.
"Sure, it's upstairs. Wait up."
Fayt ran up the stairs and fumbled through his dresser. He fished out a white sleeveless with black pants and passed it to Maria.
"Use this, it's the smallest i have."
"Thanks."
Maria took the clothing and went off into the bathroom. Fayt went back down and took another look at the lock.
"What is this?"
Clair asked, looking over his shoulder.
"It's a new lock created by the lokris company. They pride themselves in the best locks in the universe, then again, they fail often and no one can get them to open after that. I'm trying to fix it now."
"Is that hard?"
Clair asked, not too comfortable with electronics.
"Not really."
Fayt took out his tool fit and began to work on the lock as though it was surgery. Prying open the casing, Fayt was surprised to see how simple the lock looked like on the inside.
However, Fayt knew that even simple designs could spell disaster. With companies like Lokris, there was no telling what could happen. There was a case where someone attepted the same thing, opening the lock to fix the problem. That resulted in the entire luggage burning up in flames. Fayt just hoped the same thing would not happen to Maria's luggage.
"Ah! I have to go now."
Clair suddenly got up.
"What? What about your father?"
"Oh, can you keep an eye on him? He won't do much damage if he's sleeping and he can sleep for days."
Clair reassured Fayt, though it did not help one bit.
"Don't worry about it too much, i'll be back tomorrow to pick him."
With that, Clair left. Fayt pondered on what he should do when his attention was drawn back to the lock.
"No point worrying about now, now back to this lock."
As Fayt was sorting through the circuits, chips and wires, Maria came out of bathroom, her hair let down, the shirt looking loose and the pants proved to be too big and so she only had the shirt on. It covered up to her thighs but she just wished there was something she could slip into for her legs. It was closing into winter and the weather was getting colder and colder by the minute. She drapped the towel around her neck as she walked down the stairs to see Fayt working on her lock. Her face was slightly red, but still kept it's serious look.
"Is it working?"
She asked. Fayt jumped with surprise.
"Not yet, i'll have to take-"
He stopped in mid-sentence. He was looking at Maria's dressing and he must say, she certainly does have nice legs. He mentally slapped himself once again. Maria was aware of what he was looking at, crossing her legs.
"Your pants did not fit."
"Really? Sorry about that. Er, here, take this."
He passed her his coat, diverting his eyes away. His white coat had no sleeves and had a holder at the back for his sword. His mithril sword, however, was at the workshop at moment. He was stuck to using his laser weapon for the time being and the hilt fit nicely in his pocket. Maria slipped on the coat and it covered her nicely, well, more than a shirt anyway.
"Thanks."
"Er.. no problem."
Fayt sat back down and continued to fumble with the circuits. However, the picture of Maria in his shirt with her legs exposed was hard to get rid off. A sudden beep came and Fayt turned to see what it was. Maria took out her communicator and flipped it open.
"Maria here."
She spoke into the tiny built in microphone. Maria's communicator was not like Fayt's which looked like a calculator. Maria's communicator was slimmer and reminded Fayt of one of those old memory sticks that he read about in History of Technology class. A voice that could only belong to one irritating person in the entire galaxy spoke through the speakers. His face was easily recognizable and his hair was unmistakenable.
"Cap-... I mean Maria!"
"What is it, Lieber?"
Maria did not really feel like being bothered by him at this moment. For the past three months, Lieber seemed to be calling her every day. Though she did tell him off a couple of times, she eventually gave up.
"Nothing! I was just checking up on how you were."
"If it's nothing important, then i'm hanging up."
"What! No! Don't! Come on, Maria, i mean- OUCH!"
Fayt stopped working on the lock and peered over Maria's shoulder to look at the communicator. The small projector had projected an enlarged version of the screen, making sight not a problem. Lieber had been punched in the head and kicked off the screen by a boot. Steeg came into view.
"Hey Maria, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine, Steeg, what's this all about?"
"Well, i'm not too sure myself, i'll let Mirage do the talking. Oh, and Marietta says hi."
With that, Steeg got up and went off, most likely, make sure that Lieber does not disturb the conversation. Mirage sat down in front of the screen. She still looked the same as before though she does look a little tired.
"Hi Maria."
She smiled.
"Mirage, have you been sleeping well?"
Maria asked, worried over her old friend.
"Well, not for awhile. Many things have happened. Anyway, what's with that coat?"
"This? Oh, it's Fayt's. The shirt's his as well."
Maria's face redden a little. Mirage, however, smiled like something extremely interesting had just walked in.
"Oho? Really?"
She smirked. Maria had a bad feeling about this. Apparently, this conversation was on loud speaker as behind Mirage, Lieber was shouting something incoherent, sounding like he was cursing Fayt.
"Is Fayt there?"
"Yeah, i'm staying at his place for awhile."
More shouts from Lieber
"My, isn't that interesting."
Mirage sniggered.
"What was that?"
"Oh nothing. Can i speak to Fayt?"
"Sure."
Maria passed the communicator to Fayt.
"Hello Mirage."
"Hi there, Fayt, see that you're doing well."
"I'm alright."
"That's good. With Maria with you, there shouldn't be any problems. Anyway i want you to know that your mother is worried sick about for the past week. Apparently, you never answered her calls."
Fayt cursed his luck. His mother seemed to have connections all over the god damned galaxy.
"My communicator just broke. It can recieve but never send."
Fayt took out his communicator and showed that there was a hole on the back. Some wires were sticking out.
"My, isn't that bad. Anyway, right now the war is growing and Elicoor II may be involved."
"What happened to the fleet?"
"Well, it's not looking too good for us. Klaus system has already sent all remaining fleets they have to the combat zone, that's in the Genosis system, about two systems away from Elicoor II. The Vendeeni government is staying out of this, though i doubt they will keep quiet about this. I'm sure they'll use this to their advantage and aid the Yzaks."
"Alright. Can you patch me through the federation network, the hardboard network."
"You mean the 'netstream'? What do you want to do in there?"
Mirage looked puzzled. The 'netstream' was where all the communication was sent through. It was like the raw form of the system. Everything within there was all circuits and wires and passing messages. Only certain personals were granted access and Mirage was one of them.
"I've got a couple of friends who could help."
"Hmm... Alright, hold on."
Mirage punched in a couple of buttons.
"Alright, patching through... now."
The screen went blank.
"What is this?"
Maria asked.
"It's the 'netstream'."
"It's all black."
"That's because we're behind the looking glass, hold on."
Fayt brought the communicator upstairs to his computer and plugged it to his computer. He typed a couple of keys and the his monitor hummed to life. On the screen, rolled long lists of incoherent words. Soon, the screen switched from a blank one, to one with brilliant colours. It was like looking at rainbows mixing with one another. Like rainbowed coloured jelly wobbling away in the sun.
"Now we're in."
Fayt started to type at the computer furiously. Maria had never seen Fayt like this before. She thought she had read his profile and non of them ever stated that he was-
"Are you a hacker?"
She asked.
"Was. That was sometime ago. Anyway, i've a bunch of friends on the 'netstream' who could lend us a hand."
"You mean... you're going to help out in the war?"
Maria did not want to be bother by politics of war at the present though she secretly admitted that if Fayt was willing to go for it, she would too.
"Well, i can't just let this planet be harmed because of something another planet is doing."
He said without looking at her. Soon, a couple of screens popped up, with some additional noise.
"Fayt! Is that really you?"
"Oh my god! Fayt! I can't believe you're back!"
"Dammit! Where's the chip you still owe me?"
"Fayt! I heard you saved the Universe!"
"Awesome!"
"You're the hero of the Galaxy!"
"I want your autograph!"
A bunch of shouts all came through.
"Calm down guys. I need your help."
Fayt said.
"Shoot."
One of the screens said.
"You all know about the war, right?"
"Sure."
"I need your help in hacking into their systems. Jino, Loji, Nyiko, you guys have strong connections in your goverenments and i know it. You guys know what to do."
"This is big, man, war isn't a trival thing to play with."
"I'll try to talk to my dad about it."
"I'm on it!"
Different replies all came. Soon, one by one, the screens disappeared. Only five remained.
"Look, Fayt, i know that you saved our asses plenty of times, but this is big, bigger than anything!"
"Look, Elicoor II is about to be attacked if i don't do anything about it. Earth will be next."
"Elicoor II? What's so important about it?"
"Let's just say that i have a strong attachment to this planet."
"You're on it?"
"What else?"
"Damn, then say so already. I'm on it."
One screen disappeared. Four left.
"Look, Fayt, i highly respect you, but mind telling me how are we suppose to fight the Yzaks? I mean, even the Yzaks have their own hackers."
"That is why i'm asking you, Hyo, and Gyin, grab as many of us you can. We need to play defensive and offensive at the same time."
"That's the basket ball captain for you. Hey, i'm challenging you the next time you come back, so come back early, you hear me? And in one piece!"
Two more screens disappeared. Two left.
"Alright Fayt, let's cut to the point, what do want the two of us to do?"
"Fuin, Pyikon, you two must play the most important roles."
"And what may that be?"
"You two must grab as many guys as you can, hackers, fighters all sorts and meet me on Elicoor II."
"That's a tall order."
"Well, it isn't impossible, how long will you take?"
"A week, tops."
"I'm giving you two days."
"Gotcha."
The screen returned to the colourful rainbow spectrum. Fayt sighed and stretched out.
"All done. Now is for the King and Queen to know about the situation."
Fayt got up form the chair and yawned.
"Fayt, can you tell me about yourself?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, i realize i don't know much about you, though i thought i did. After seeing you do that, it makes me wonder whether you led another life?"
Fayt laughed. He unplugged Maria's communicator and tossed it back to her.
"My life? Well, then you'd be the first person to know besides those guys."
Fayt sat down on his bed. He bent down and pulled a mattress from under his bed. It already had a pillow and blanket. Propping it up, Fayt dusted it clean.
"Well, where should i start. I started to be a hacker when i was in grade school. Back then, i only learnt a couple of tricks from friends, how to hack into a game, how to cheat in exams. Anyway, soon, i ventured into the 'netstream'. I was the first non personal to ever enter."
"So why did you need Mirage to access you in?"
"I needed the admin site to access certain areas. Anyway, so i created a place where hackers could meet, i called the spectrum. As you saw, it was a spectrum area but acted like a chat zone for us hackers. No one can 'see' us or 'hear' us when we're in there. So i met those guys. Some were my friends, others were from other systems."
"So who did you get help from?"
"Oh, i got help from the Kolik system, the Hynd republic and the Frontier galactic government."
"Kolik? You mean the system with the jarganaught class battleships? Hynd republic, with the first known particale genosis cannon? And the Frontier galactic government, with the largest battleship building factories in the galaxy?"
"Right, those three."
"But, how? They never joined the Federation and they did keep strict limitations on helping them. But even though with their help, we may never defeat the Yzaks."
"Well, i got connections. Don't worry, about the war. Right now we need to warn the people. Tomorrow, we head off for Aquios."
Fayt lay back on the bed he just pulled out.
"Er.. Fayt, why are you lying on that one?"
Maria asked. Guest should sleep on the pull-out, shouldn't they?
"Huh? Nevermind about me, just sleep on my bed, it's alright. Tomorrow we must get up early."
Fayt closed his eyes and was prepared to fall asleep when he felt Maria next to his ear.
"Thank you."
She wispered. Fayt did not do anything, he already felt drowsy and soon fell asleep.
AN: Okay, a few things that i didn't add since i was too lazy. Those two creeps were actually working for Clair, it was all part of her plan, evil scheme or whatever you want to call it. The type N.L actually represents Type New Lock. I'm too lazy to actually think of anything else. At this point, i practically forgot the names of both the King and Queen and i'm too lazy to check, only in the last chapt will their names be revealed, lame, isn't it? Note that my description on the fighting with symbols are kinda poor, live with it, it's not going to change and it's only going to get worse.