A/N: I think the best paragraph I have ever written is contained in this chapter; it's the interaction between Sophia and Fayt. There's Albel vs. technology in this chapter and the song is to the tune of: Limp Bizkit "Break Stuff" Also, if anyone can tell me where some of the foreshadowing in this chapter lies, you get a reward! You can find out when you win. If anyone can win… lol

Disclaimer: I (sadly) do not own Star Ocean or any of the characters, places, or anything else related to it! Neither do I own any of the song tunes! And I don't own anything to do with any alcohol at all!

Chapter 4: Technology for Albel

Albel was having an extraordinary morning. He had slept all through the night without any nightmares… "What? … No… Nightmares? Why now?" Albel rolled over and noticed the ice tunnel leading from his room. It had melted a little bit at the doorway, and the automatic door was sliding forward, knocking on the ice then retreating into its alcove, it repeated this action every second or so. "Grrr… That damn door! And that ice… I'm settling this right now…" Albel dragged himself out of bed and buckled on his Crimson Scourge, a habit for as long as he could remember, equipping your sword first thing in the morning was always a good thing. Albel swallowed his pride for a bit and lowered himself to crawling into the tunnel. "Grrr, if anyone sees me doing this… Crawling like a worm…" Once Albel reached the middle of the tunnel, he drew his katana and drove it straight down into the ice. The resulting cracking sound left his ears ringing for a few seconds and he briefly wondered if he was deaf, yet his hearing returned rather quickly. But more importantly the remainder of the block of ice had large cracks throughout its length. As his hearing began to return he could vaguely hear pounding footsteps, ignoring the pointless sound and mustering all of his strength, Albel twisted the sword sideways. The ice and steel groaned, creaked and protested as one until the entire block shattered and collapsed, with Albel still in the tunnel.

0o0o0o0

Cliff was first to react to the sound of the ear shattering cracking sound that was heard through the entire length of the ship, fearing severe damage, he raced in that direction as fast as only a Klausian can and upon getting closer met Mirage, Roger, Peppita and Adray. They were stepping out of the lounge, and also heading for the disturbing echo.

"Did you guys hear that?" Cliff practically yelled as he sped past them, Mirage fell into step with Cliffs lightning pace.

"It didn't sound like any damage to the ship, it sounded more like… Ice, or glass…" Mirages musings were cut short when from around the next corner there was yet another horrific shattering sound, not cracking this time, but definitely smashing. The astonished Cliff and Mirage rounded the corner, followed shortly by the rest of the group, and were rendered speechless. The hallway was almost full of pieces of ice. Big, small, tiny, huge and every other size you could name.

"Anyone… Got a snowboard?" Asked Roger, his sense of humour having failed to leave him. Yet no one could reply before the tip of the ice rubble began to move a little, suddenly it erupted, and there stood Albel 'The Wicked' Nox. He was panting and shaking but nevertheless smirked at the stunned onlookers before turning to his door. The automatic door opened and Albel stoically rode the ensuing mini landslide through his door, he pressed the manual close button, which crushed the ice and sealed the door.

"Well, it seems something very… Interesting… Is afoot here…" Wondered Adray out loud while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I think we won't find anymore answers here." Adray turned and calmly walked away, scratching his chin all the while. Mirage and Cliff looked at each other before deciding to discuss this further and heading in the opposite direction. Peppita looked at Roger and a grin spread over her face. Roger grinned back.

"Lets make snowmen!" The pair yelled at each other. They proceeded to dive into the ice, and after discovering it wasn't snowman material, they quickly began an ice ball fight. They were heedless of the damage large chunks of ice could do to ones body; yet Rogers helmet and Peppitas agility allowed them to sustain minimal damage. The only way they were leaving this much fun was hypothermia or unconsciousness…

0o0o0o0

Another extraordinary thing happened to Albel as he happened to look down at the ice around his feet. He spotted a small white stick-like object, amongst the ice. Because this ship was impeccably clean, it really stuck out. He picked it up and it was about half the length of his hand, it had a string wrapped around itself, along its length was several button things. "What is this weird object? … It's made out of that 'plastic' material they're always talking about…" Albel unwrapped the string and inspected the ends. It had circular discs with tiny grills over them. "Uh… Lets just push the buttons…" Albel looked closely the leftmost button, it had a small triangle symbol on it and the triangle extended towards the right. "I wonder if it's pointing in that direction for some reason? … Who cares?" Albel pushed the button and the tiny discs on the end of the string began to vibrate and a squeaky noise came from them. He put them up to his ear to hear the sound better and was surprised to find the sound was a lot more like music up close. A sudden thump against the steel wall of his room bought him back to focusing on the present. Yet, before he could react a shrill scream was heard.

"Ahhhhh! You BASTARD!" It was a high-pitched childlike voice.

"Seems like the little worms have picked up some of the blonde apes best vocabulary… Little maggots…" Albel ignored the ensuing screams and obvious sounds of fighting and returned to studying his newfound plastic stick. He pressed another button and a holographic screen popped up above the stick "Whoa! What's this?" Albel poked at the hologram and things changed and moved around. "Hmmm… Maybe I can get this stick thing to make good music…" He lay back on the bed and started fiddling with his new stick.

0o0o0o0

Sophia was heading to the kitchen when she heard the sound of her ice exploding. "Oh. That would have been… Albel…" The mere thought of his name sent shivers down her spine. She hurried around the corner and crashed right into Fayt. "Uh. Sorry…" She almost whispered in apology and looked down. "I feel so guilty for almost killing him, and… Sleeping with… Albel… I bet he knows, he must hate me…" Sophia chanced a glimpse upward and saw Fayts look become equally pained. "He probably feels bad for yelling at me though…"

"That's… Okay." Replied Fayt in a voice as calm as he could muster. He looked away to avoid Sophia's gaze. "I can't believe I yelled at her like that… Not to mention Maria and Nel, she must know by now… I bet she thinks I'm a real bastard…" As he tried to go around her, she accidentally tried the same thing and they ended up in each other's face. Fayt had an involuntary glimpse into her eyes, they glowed slightly and Fayt felt a wave of sadness wash over him. He supposed it was the guilt written on her face that triggered it. "She probably feels bad for almost killing me with that ice…" Sophia turned away and practically hugged the wall. It made her look decidedly pathetic and lonely. Despite his feelings, Fayt carried on, unable to look at her.

0o0o0o0

Cliff and Mirage had found Maria and had gone to the Captain's room to discuss matters. "Uh, Maria… I know we were busy at the beach yesterday, but seriously… Clean your room… There are clothes everywhere…" Mirage said as they entered. Cliff looked around and just laughed.

"Yes, Mother…" Maria said with a lot more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "I'm blaming it on Cliff. It was his Jack Daniels…" Maria shot Cliff a venomous glare.

"Now now… You should be thankful; the good old JD's is a rare beverage these days… I told you it wasn't cheap… There is a reason." Cliff replied with a grin on his face as he waded through the clothing and towels that littered the ground. Something odd caught his eye, Klausians have sharpened senses, and this thing stood out like a beacon to Cliff. He picked it up by the smallest possible corner and waved it at Maria. "Since when do you wear boxer shorts?"

Maria went bright red and threw the nearest thing at hand towards Cliff as she yelled, "Shut up! Its none of your business!" Maria's eyes dimly glowed, but faded back to normal rapidly.

Cliff caught the expensive vase in his other hand with ease. "Actually, there are a lot of towels in here too…" Cliff mused out loud as he put the vase down and rubbed his chin, grinning all the while.

"Cliff, we really don't want to know who, if anyone, Maria has been sleeping with…" Mirage said in a calm, yet forced voice. Cliff looked at her and she returned a cold humourless smile.

"Well, I certainly want to kn-" Cliff attempted to say. But never got any further before he had to catch a rather large book and Mirage cut him off.

"Well, I certainly don't want to know Cliff." There was definitely no kindness in her voice this time. If looks could kill, Cliff would be so dead. Mirage then turned to Maria and resumed her usual countenance in the blink of an eye, "Anyway, what we came to talk about was the activity of the past few days."

"Sca-ree…" Cliff muttered under his breath before adding, "Yeah, it's been rather hectic with the crew… I mean, seriously, how many people were in here the other night? Kidding! Kidding!" Cliff protested fiercely and waved both hands at them as both woman turned towards him, certain death written on their faces. Maria's eyes glowed again and Cliff could have sworn the book in her hand looked vaguely like a laser gun. He blinked and realized he must have been imagining things. "Very sca-ree…"

"What Cliff was trying to say was it's been so quiet outside of our group… We haven't intercepted any reports of anyone looking for us, no disturbances outside the ship or anything… Well, the view from Fayts room practically doesn't exist anymore, but aside from that…" Mirage let her sentence trail off.

Cliff struggled internally to refrain from asking if the destruction Fayt had been suspected of causing had anything to do with the boxer shorts. Instead he managed to get out, "Yea… The whole silence is so… So…" Cliff struggled for the right word before saying, "Federationyish… Ya know?" He looked at the girls with a questioning look.

"Federationyish? What? Lay off the drink Cliff…" Maria said in a worried tone with an even more worried look on her face. She put the book down and sat on the bed.

"Aw, shut up, you know what I mean…" Cliff replied lamely. As him and Mirage settled down into comfortable positions to begin a serious conversation, well, as serious as any conversation could be that involved Cliff…

0o0o0o0

Albel was sitting on his bed shaking his head up and down vigorously and mouthing words at an invisible audience. This wasn't like him normally, and he would never let a soul live if they saw this, but he had found something new and wonderful. The plastic stick now had the ends of its string stuck in his ears and was loudly screaming at him. After messing around enough, Albel had managed to find some music that suited him. He'd never heard anything like it, but it was damn good. He found he was mentally yelling the words at himself,

"It's like this every day,

When I'm last to wake up!

Everybody's fucked,

Coz, everybody sucks!

I don't have to know why,

I don't have to justify,

Slicing someone's head off!

I don't want contact,

Don't you dare interact,

You'll forfeit your life's contract!

Your only chance is to run away, motherfucker,

It's like this every day!"

There was no way Albel was going to lose this wonderful object. He had finally found technology he agreed with. Although he did wonder where it came from…

A/N: I did say the word "Federationyish" would appear again… lol, I told some people. Like it so far? Any comments? Review then please. The first person to spot the foreshadowing gets a reward remember… And there will be more of Albel's favourite music in later chapters… Ideas are appreciated too.