Partner or Lover Chapter 13: A Room within the Room
"Ahh, nothing Zero. Forget it," Erts said. Zero frowned and glared at Erts. He had a feeling that the blonde- haired boy was keeping something from him. Feeling someone gazing at him, he turned his head over to Kizna and saw her heated gaze on him. He felt the blood rush to his face and neck when he saw her eyes fill with desire. He gulped and quickly put on the clean shirt, throwing the wet one over to the side for the time being.
Taking a seat on the the bed across from where Kizna and Erts were sitting, Zero asked, "So, what do you guys want to do for the time being?…" Before the other two could give their answer, Zero's eyes widened and he turned his head towards Kizna, looking at her intently. "Are you allowed to be in here?"
Kizna blinked, not expecting that kind of question from Zero. "Uh… I think so?" she finally managed to say, a questioning look on her face. "Well, if I'm not supposed to be here, what others don't know, won't hurt them… right?" She turned and looked at Erts. He just shrugged his shoulders.
"I wouldn't know… Rome never came to my sleeping quarters…" Erts said, grinning sheepishly. "And many people didn't come near me because of… well, you know," he trailed off, a lone look taking over his eyes.
"Hey, don't worry about it. We're here," Zero said cheerfully as he slapped a hand on Erts' back. Erts grimaced and gave a guarded smile.
--
Erts' head shot up as he heard a loud shrieking noise go off above his head. He had a startled expression on his face and then turned towards Zero because he could feel a slight excitement radiating from the chocolate haired boy. Erts shook his head.
"What is that noise?" Kizna asked as her ears folded down on top of her head to reduce the noise. Since her cat- like ears were more sensitive than a regular human's ear, she had to be more careful.
Erts stood up and straightened his clothes and walked towards the door. "It's for alerting the goddess pilots that there's an attack on G.O.A. The victim are back," Erts said with a hint of sadness in his voice, but neither Kizna nor Zero caught it.
"Ooh, do you think I can watch?" Zero asked.
Erts raised an eyebrow. "Sure you can… but from inside G.O.A." Erts gave a small chuckle, smiled, and then walked out the door. The loud noise became faster once Kizna and Zero were out into the hallway, hot on Erts' trail towards the "Ingrid hanger".
Erts broke into a run as he yelled over his shoulder, "this is an emergency. You two better find somewhere safe to stay for the time being." Zero and Kizna took a glance at each other and fell back, watching Erts' retreating body turn the corner, now completely out of sight.
The two of them soon heard a voice overhead telling them that this was an emergency and they should find a safe place. Zero ignored the voice and ran over to the window; watching with child like eyes as the Ingrids took off into space, ready to fight off the approaching victim.
Kizna came over by his side silently and watched along side him, taking a new interest in the abilities of an Ingrid.
--
Teela felt the Zeta skin stick and conform to her body as she slid back into her Ingrid once again. Closing her eyes, she went through the routine of activating her Ingrid and felt the same reassuring presence behind her that she could always rely on.
"Let's go," Teela whispered as she silently commanded her Ingrid to take off and confront the on coming victim.
She saw the other four pilots flying her way so she turned around and flew over to where she thought the victim were. At first she saw a speck far off in the distance, then it took on the form of the victim, and she saw a few more. Soon, a couple more came into view, and then she found herself and the rest of the pilots trying to take on hundreds of victim at the same time.
"Well then, let's get this party started!" Rioroute exclaimed as he fired up his Ingrid and shot head on towards the oncoming victim.
"Rioroute! Wait!" Gareas yelled as he fired his Ingrid and chased after his friend.
"What a moron… the two of them," Yuu exclaimed quietly, watching from afar. He decided it would be better to help them than to watch them get killed. So with a silent "swoosh", his power- boosted swords shot out from the arms of his Ingrid and he flew in after the two.
Teela, watching as the scene unfolded, contacted Dr. Kuro.
"What is it?" she heard Dr. Kuro's rough voice saturating the inside of her Ingrid.
"We need more back up. Send the pro-ings out here at once."
"Five minutes at most," Dr. Kuro replied as he rushed out of his office to inform Azuma.
Teela waited patiently, keeping an eye out for the soon-to-be arriving pro-ings and the three Ingrids who were completely surrounded by victim. Teela heard a big bang and automatically turned her head towards the noise. She caught sight of Gareas, a couple of yards away from the swarming victim, a big gun in his hand. He was firing shot after shot, blasting away at the victim.
Erts felt himself grimace as he saw a whole bunch of victim shot into smithereens, their remains spread all over the place. His eyes widened as soon as he saw one of the victim get blown up by Gareas' gun; it's body splattered all over Rioroute's Ingrid. Erts felt himself turning away in disgust.
The pro-ings were ready to be dispatched. All they needed were the pilots. Azuma, once he got word that the pro-ings needed to be sent out, raced around G.O.A., telling all the senior officers to get into their pro-ings and help the Ingrids.
Azuma finally found candidates eighty-five and eighty-six's room and knocked on the door. The metal door rattled under the teacher's strong grip. Yamagi rushed to the door and yanked it open, a part of him was afraid that the door might fall down if he waited too long to answer. He stood face to face with a stern looking Azuma and the purple haired boy took a step back and blinked, trying to figure out why his teacher was standing in front of his room.
"You two, get your repairers and go to your pro-ings. I expect you to be outside in two minutes at most. Now GO!" Azuma yelled. A hint of worry was etched on his face but luckily, Roose nor Yamagi could catch sight of it because Azuma immediately turned away and walked over to the next room, candidates eighty- seven, eighty- eight, and eighty- nine's quarters.
Roose pulled Yamagi back into the room, not wanting to get in trouble with Azuma again, and quickly got dressed in the proper attire. Once Yamagi was ready, both boys raced over to their repairer's room and banged on the door until the girls opened the door.
Panting, Roose explained they they needed to go right now and get the pro-ing ready for battle. The girls got ready and the four of them ran over to the pro-ing hanger, not wasting another minute, knowing that with every minute that goes by, they are putting G.O.A. at more risk.
Azuma knocked on an identical metal door and Hiead immediately opened it. Azuma repeated his orders and saw another head pop out from behind a wall. "Candidate eighty- seven, make sure Enna is ready to go."
"Uh, sir," Clay whispered out.
Azuma glared at the spectacled boy and barked, "Out with it!"
"Zero is not here. He never got back here. I assume he is out in the halls somewhere, watching the battle."
Azuma grumbled something under his breath, and then composed himself. "Very well then. When you get your repairers, tell his repairer to be ready. I shall go find Enna and give him a piece of my mind."
Clay's eyes widened as he ducked back into the room. He did not want to think of what Azuma will do to Zero when he found him. He got ready silently and the silver haired boy and himself went over to their repairer's quarters. Clay knocked on the door and took a step back. Ikhny was the one to open the door and was startled to see Hiead and Clay standing in front of the room.
"Hurry up and get ready. We have a battle to fight with the victim," Hiead said promptly as he gazed past Ikhny over to the back wall. He had his cold face back on and not even the slightest emotion was seen on his face. Ikhny nodded and immediately closed the door. A moment later, both girls emerged from the room, dressed and ready to go.
Clay looked around and then asked, "Where is Kizna?"
"She never got back. I don't know where she is. She usually comes back to the room if something like this happens…" Saki said, trailing off.
"Well then, Zero and Kizna must be off somewhere watching the battle…" Clay concluded. "Lucky them…" he whispered under his breath as they headed off to their pro-ings.
--
Clay gulped down his fear as he felt himself shooting off into space. "This is it," he told himself over and over again, trying not to loose his nerve. "Ohh, I can't do this," he whispered out loud.
Saki overheard his moaning and said, "Don't worry, you'll be fine. Just think of this as an exercise from the simulator."
Clay groaned. "I can't. I know this is the real thing and nothing else will make me change my mind," he sighed.
"Well, there's no turning back, so might as well take it like a man," said Saki, giving her partner a small smile.
"Are you implying something?" Clay asked as he glared at his repairer. Saki just smiled innocently at him.
Azuma entered the room with an air of authority around him. All the repairers were situated in a big room with hundreds of consoles lining the four walls of the spacious room. This way, Azuma could monitor all the pro-ings at once without running from room to room.
"Okay people. Pro-ings, ready for battle. Go for it!" Azuma commanded, watching as hundreds of pro-ings flew over to the swarming mass of victim to aid the five Ingrids.
--
Zero silently watched as the three Ingrids tried to take on a ton of victim. "They need help," he muttered under his breath. "I think I'll try to help them Kizna," he said, finally making up his mind.
"What do you plan to do?" Kizna asked, turning to look him in the eye.
"Uh," Zero started. His attention was soon diverted as he saw a flash of light from the corner of his eye. "What's that?" Zero asked, as he pointed at the approaching pro-ings.
Kizna's eyes widened. "They're pro-ings, Zero. I think we might have missed something," she stated, watching the pro-ings fly into action. "Azuma must have come to our rooms to ask for our help in the battle. Come on Zero," Kizna commanded as she pulled on his arm and prepared to drag him away.
The two teenagers headed off to the pro-ing hanger. On their way, Kizna stopped by the main room where all the repairers and Azuma were. She pressed the keypad and waited for it to open.
"Zero, the door's not opening," Kizna said with a frown. 'They must have locked it to make sure no one else would come in…' "Come on, I'll go over to the battle room."
Once suited up and ready to go, Zero maneuvered the pro-ing over to the exit door and waited for Kizna to go over to battle room. Once he got the "okay" from Kizna, Zero pushed a button the sidewall allowing the thick metal door of G.O.A. open and Zero took off into space, chasing after the rest of the pro-ings.
--
Back in the main room where the rest of the repairers were, Azuma glanced out into space through the big glass window that was located on the sidewall, above the repairers' monitors. Azuma caught a glance of an object approaching the window in the main room, and he frowned. As the object flew by, Azuma thought, 'I really hope that's Zero inside that pro-ing. That damn boy, wandering off whenever he wants to…'
--
Teela finally caught sight of the help that was sent and with Erts' help, she distributed out the help equally. Erts looked on with saddened eyes as the oncoming victim were slaughtered mercilessly. Even though the victim put up a battle, injuring quite a few pro-ings, they could not hold up against the overwhelming amount of pro-ings.
"Erts! What are you doing just standing there? Help out!" Gareas yelled as he flew over to Luhma- Klein.
"Hey Erts!"
The golden haired boy looked around with a startled look on his face. "Zero?"
"Yup!" the brown haired boy exclaimed as he flew over to Erts' side. Erts could feel the excitement radiating off of Zero. "Don't worry, we'll get these blasted insects," Zero exclaimed as he flew past Erts, into the battlefield.
Sighing, Erts followed with a heavy heart.
"It doesn't look like Erts' heart is into this battle," Kizna stated as she saw Erts through Zero's 'eyes'.
"I'll talk to him later. But for now, we got some victim butt to kick," Zero said as he got his power blade out in one hand, his other hand taking hold of his rifle. Letting out a loud battle cry- Kizna ended up covering her ears- Zero charged through, slashing away at anything in his way.
--
Hiead walked through the halls of G.O.A. with a certain destination in mind. Letting out a breath, he entered the recreation room and his eyes settled on a brown haired girl sitting in a far corner. She kept her eyes focused outside the window, looking lost in thought. Walking up to her, Hiead knelt down beside her and laid a heavy hand on her shoulder.
Startled, Ikhny turned around, her eyes wide. "OH! Hiead! How's your arm?"
Hiead's arm was injured because of a Victim attack that took place the day before. He looked at her for a second, then his arm, and then moved it. "It's perfectly fine now," he said, giving a slight nod. "Come on, I want to show you something," he said as he dragged her off the floor.
She stood up and threw him a questioning look. Gently taking her hand, he led her off to one side of the recreation room and ran his hand along the wall until it hit something hard. A hollow sound was the reply he got and he grinned in response. He slid his hand down the wall until his hand was in the grass and he spread the green tendrils apart. Spotting a button submerged into the ground, Hiead pressed his thumb against the button, further pushing it into the ground. Then he stood up and stuck his hand through the wall.
Ikhny's eyes widened. 'That's just not possible… people can't move through walls…' She gave him a look of disbelief and he just chuckled.
"No one knows of this. Well, perhaps the people who made G.O.A., but I don't think any of the students know about this. Now follow me," Hiead said as he offered her his other hand. He saw a look of fear pass through her eyes and he said, "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. I can assure you that."
Nodding, Ikhny tentatively took his hand and felt herself pulled through the wall. Closing her eyes, she passed through the wall. When she opened her eyes once again, she saw an extravagantly decorated room with a comfortable couch that could seat four people, a couple of doors on the other sides of the room, and a computer off in the far corner. A bathroom was off to the side, as well as a small cabinet, that contained food, and other necessities.
Blinking, the brown haired girl took in everything, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. "Wow," was all she could muster up to describe the place.
Hiead laughed a rare laugh and sat down on the couch, patting the seat next to him. Turning around, Ikhny looked for the door again. "Uh, Hiead, how would we get out?"
"The exit is painted in the same colors as the room is. Look carefully, you'll see it," he replied. There was a tiny window in the corner of the wall where the two teenagers entered, that let a person see out into the rest of the recreation room, but others could not see in.
Ikhny came over and took a seat beside the silver haired boy. They sat down in silence for a few minutes, not having anything to say. Ikhny let her mind wander back to the first time Hiead confessed that he liked her more than a friend. She blushed.
Hiead glanced over at the girl sitting next to him and seeing her blush, he frowned. Cupping her chin with his hand, he turned her face towards him and asked her what she was thinking about. She muttered 'nothing' under her breath, but felt the heat rise up to her face once more, covering her face in a cherry hue. Hiead got a little twinkle in his eye, but kept his cold expression on his face. Running his other hand through his silver locks, he pulled her face up once more so that he could look her in the eye.
Leaning down, he could feel her breath upon his lips. Grinning, Hiead swooped down and placed a kiss onto her lips. His hand moved from her chin down to her waist as he pulled her a little closer to him. She was sitting quite a distance from him and it was getting hard on his back to keep leaning over the couch.
He pushed his lips against hers, loving the feeling of her soft, rose colored lips against his. Pulling away slightly, he took his free hand and pulled her glasses up so they rested on top of her head, then went back to kissing her. Ikhny let out a soft moan as Hiead ran his hands down her back and wrapped her arms around his neck.
All of a sudden, the two teenagers heard a bang and a yelp saturating the recreation room. Hiead pulled away from Ikhny abruptly, his eyes narrowing in wonder and suspicion. Ikhny pulled her glasses off her head and placed them back in their proper place, then looked around the place wondering if anyone else found them in this room together. Satisfied that no one was in the room, Ikhny let out the breath that she had been unknowingly holding, and looked back towards Hiead. "Do you know what that sound was?" she asked him.
Hiead shook his head, stood up and went over to the window, and peered out. He caught a glimpse of a brown haired boy and a pair of cat ears. Shaking his head, he walked back over to the couch and said, "It's Enna and Towryk."
Ikhny jumped out of her seat and walked over to the window. Glancing out, she saw Kizna yelling at Zero, and Zero cowering in fear. She giggled and watched them and their antics. Hiead heard her giggle. Frowning, he walked over and looked at the other two teens, glaring at the back of Zero's head.
'Ha! Wimp! Scared of your own repairer!' Hiead thought smugly, as he looked on and watched Zero get yelled at.
Zero was shrinking back from a very annoyed Kizna. She huffed and turned her back on him. "Kizna," Zero whined. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to worry you like that. It's not like I wanted to do that either!" Zero said, trying to make her turn around and face him. "Hey, at least you should be happy that I didn't end up like those other guys in the hospital wing, who are stuck there for months because they got their arm bitten off or something," Zero stated, with a smug look on his face. Then he gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of loosing his arm or leg.
Kizna turned around and glared at the chocolate haired boy. "It's not funny Zero! I was really worried about you. How could you just rush out there thoughtlessly???" Kizna yelled. She glared at him once more, and then sat down on the ground. "You almost got killed," she whispered.
Zero sighed and sat down beside her. "Well, I did see that Victim coming and I did dodge it, so what's the problem?" Kizna rolled her eyes and decided that it was no use talking to him about her worries about him.
"Don't worry, I'm fine!" Zero whispered into her ear as he let his lips trail down to her cheek. Kizna let her eyes close shut, but as she did so, she muttered, "I have a keen feeling that someone's watching us… I don't know from where, or who, but I have a feeling…"
"Then let them," Zero whispered back as his lips trailed down her neck. Kizna snuggled closer to Zero and enjoyed the feeling of his lips on her neck, lips, cheek… She wrapped her arms around his neck and captured his lips into a fiery kiss.
Ikhny's eyes widened when she saw Zero kissing Kizna. She gulped and turned away. When she turned around, she saw Hiead still staring out the window. Shaking her head, and thinking, 'Boy's will be boys…' she grabbed the back of Hiead's shirt and yanked him away from the window. "You shouldn't stare like that," she whispered. Hiead rolled his eyes.
Grinning, he kissed her once more before walking back to the couch and settling on it.
A/n: I know this too is a short chapter, but I hope I've satisfied you for this week. I have had no time at all these two weeks to write anything at all… I've been way to busy… I don't think I can even call this a summer… Well, I can promise you that the next chapter will definitely be longer than this one… and it will be coming out on July 23. Please R&R and let me know how this is!
One question… is he called Dr. Crow, or Dr. Kuro? Is he the same guy?