Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread I own only my characters. Jack is from dmv128's series. This is like an alternate universe from that story.
A few hours later
Kagen has the storage room organized and what he wants is already tied down to the Hover-cart.
"Whew that dust is really hard to get rid of."
He had found a cleaner droid completely buried in dust, and now he starts to fix it. He gets it working and is about to program it when Camina whispers in his ear,
"Nice work, Kagen." Kagen jumps a few inches and says,
"When did you become so sneaky?" She angrily replies,
"I thought you were coming to my room."
"I really was going to go to your room. But I need to finish this now."
He programs the cleaning droid and it floats off to do its job. He then turns to the hover-cart and programs it to go to his room and he jumps on it as it speeds toward his room.
He gets there and starts to put the stuff in place, first the desk against the wall near the plug in the wall, and then the lamp on it, the paper goes in the drawer, the wastebasket next to the desk, and the rolly-chair under the desk. Then the gun cabinet goes across from the desk. The guns go in the gun cabinet, the mattress goes on the bed, the printer goes next to the terminal with some paper stacked near it. The bookshelf goes near the bed along the wall. The cup of pencils and erasers goes on the desk, and last but not least an automatic pencil sharpener goes on the desk.
"There! all finished."
"Are you?"
Kagen turns to see Meia in the doorway. Kagen sits down in the rolly-chair and asks,
"What do you want Meia?"
"I don't know what I want. That is the problem." Kagen looks through her act and sees that she is in emotional turmoil.
"Hmm, I've never seen you like this."
"What do you mean?"
"I see through that act you put up right now more than ever before. All you have to do is don't hesitate. All you want will come to you."
Meia starts to ask him again what she tried to ask last time, but when she looks at him again he is asleep. She smiles as she rolls him over to the bed and pushes him out of the chair on to the bed and covers him chuckling to herself. She turns out the lights and stands in the doorway and says,
"Sleep well…" Then she turns and shuts the door behind her as she walks out.
About 12 hours later
Kagen wakes up to Camina trying to open his door. He realizes that something is different from when he last remembered.
"I know that I fell asleep in the chair. Why am I in bed?" He quickly looks to make sure he still has his pants on.
"That nap was exactly what I needed." He says as he jumps out of bed and puts his shoes on.
He goes over to the autoshaver and puts his face in it. After he withdraws his face he says,
"Door open." Camina almost falls as the door opens suddenly.
"You could've warned me you were going to open the door."
"Well, Mina you should've been more patient."
"I made this for you." She says as she hands him a boxed lunch.
Kagen thinks 'I hope this is good' he takes the first bite and thinks 'Ugh, this stuff is worse than those pills.' Kagen keeps his facial expressions under control as he manages to choke the rest of it down. Kagen thinks 'I had better keep her happy'. He says,
"Not bad, it could use some work though."
"Thanks, I made it all by myself."
Kagen mutters, "I could tell."
"What was that? I didn't hear you."
"I said I couldn't tell."
Camina leaves satisfied.
Kagen looks at the books on the bookcase and sees a recipe book.
"Hmm, why did I pick that up? Oh well, I might as well use it."
He grabs the book and goes through it as he walks to the kitchen.
At the kitchen
Kagen starts to walk into the kitchen but Barnette stops him.
"Where do you think you are going?"
"Into the Kitchen."
"And why?"
"To cook. What else? As a matter of fact, I challenge you to make a dish better than me."
Barnette ponders it for a few minutes, and then says, "Why not? I was bored anyway."
Kagen finds the recipe and shows it to Barnette. "Can you make this?"
"Fettuccine Alfredo? That is so basic."
"Well I am a beginner."
"True. I can make it. We will have the tasting contest at lunch."
"Ok. Then we had better get started."
Lunchtime
Hibiki walks in and notices that Kagen and Barnette are both already in the cafeteria sitting at a table. Hibiki says,
"What is going on here?"
"A taste test. Between me and Barnette." Kagen says to Hibiki.
"Mmm sounds good."
"You are our first taste tester. We will not tell you who made which one until you pass judgment on them both."
"Ok. What is this dish called?"
Barnette says, "Fettuccine Alfredo."
They set the 2 plates in front of him and wait.
Hibiki thinks 'Which should I eat first? Left or right?' Hibiki eats the right one first. Then he thinks, 'Not what I expected it to taste like.' He starts on the left one and at first he thinks, 'These taste the same!' Then as he gets another bite the taste from the first bite kicks in.
He says, "Wow this one definitely tastes better than the first one. Who made it?"
Kagen just looks at Barnette as she was the one who put the plates down. Barnette says,
"He made it."
Hibiki says, "Huh?"
"Kagen made a better Fettuccine Alfredo than I did." Barnette then runs to the sickbay to talk to Jack. Kagen shrugs and starts to eat his food.
In the sickbay
"Jack?"
"Yes? What do you want?"
"I… I didn't come here to be questioned by some man."
Barnette walks over to Jack and slaps him hard across the face, and then she walks out and goes to talk to Jura.
The alarms blare loudly as she goes to find Jura.
"I guess I'll find her faster this way."
She then runs to the Dread platform and scans her order in. Then something happens no one expects. The enemy fleet starts to run away. Kagen then runs to his Vanguard. He says as he remembers,
"Damn I almost forgot! I'm not supposed to fight. I might as well run a diagnostic while I am here."
He hops into the cockpit and starts the system check. His Vanguard's cockpit closes and automatically launches for some unknown reason.
Belvedere says, "Kagen's Vanguard has launched!"
Duero opens a comm. window to Kagen and says,
"Are you insane? I told you no fighting. Get back to the Nirvana!"
"I would if I could."
"What?"
"I can't do anything. It launched itself and now it is on autopilot."
The enemy goes into an asteroid field and then the Vanguard stops in the middle of the asteroid field.
"I finally have control again."
Then as he starts to move back to the Nirvana a sea urchin type Harvester fires about 5 of its needles into him.
"I can't move."
Meanwhile the Nirvana gets back to where they can use the forward sensors to see Kagen
Belvedere shouts,
"5 no, 10 no, ma'am the enemies numbers are increasing at a enormous rate."
Kagen looks at his sensors and sees his enemies coming for him thinking that he can't move. Kagen opens a comm. to the Nirvana and says,
"I want everyone to stay where you are. They underestimate me and are falling into my trap. I don't want to accidentally ensnare you in my trap as well."
B.C. is about to say something but the Captain stops her and says,
"Let's see what this young man has up his sleeve, B.C."
Back in the cockpit
"Good they stopped."
"But the enemies haven't."
Soon the whole enemy fleet is in position to be destroyed.
"I was waiting for that."
"Activating the Kamikaze Cannon."
His Vanguard starts to glow brighter and brighter until you can't quite look at it.
"Fire the Kamikaze Cannon!"
Suddenly his Vanguard releases all that energy in a very destructive spherical shockwave that obliterates everything including the Nirvana's shields.
He quickly sends the pickup signal before his Vanguard puts him in Cryo-sleep.
Gascoigne receives the signal and immediately reports it to the Captain.
"Gascoigne here I am getting a request for pick up from Kagen's Vanguard. Do you want me to retrieve him? And any usable salvage if there is any?"
The Captain quickly says,
"Yes, by all means do so."
Later outside the sickbay
Meia and Mina almost run into each other before they realize that the other person is there. Meia and Mina both say,
"What are you doing here?"
Then Barnette walks out of the sickbay and goes to the lounge. She gets there and sits down. She says, "Where could Jack have gone to? Well, today is my birthday. Maybe he is preparing a party."
Meanwhile Jack is in Kagen's room looking through the gun cabinet (with his express permission (Kagen would kill him otherwise)). He finds the gun he wants and sticks it in his backpack along with a few boxes of ammo. He then goes to his room and puts it all in a pretty box.
"Kagen was right! His gun collection far outmatches Barnette's collection. That is lucky for me." He leaves his room with the box and asks Dita as she passes by where he could find Barnette, Dita says,
"I saw her heading to the lounge a few minutes ago."
"Thanks Dita."
Jack then goes to the lounge.
Inside the lounge
Jack sneaks into the lounge with the box, which is really heavy by the way. He sets it down loudly. Barnette flinches and turns to see Jack and she says,
"I told you to stop that."
"Well I guess you just are getting grumpier as you get older. I brought you something." He then steps to the right so she can see the box.
Barnette attacks the box and finds the gun inside.
"Oh, I've been trying to find one of these ever since I lost the other one in that stupid Mission. Where did you get this?"
"I…uh…I found it in a storeroom."
"And you got ammo for it too. I love you!" She then kisses him passionately for about 3 minutes.
Back in the sickbay
Duero is explaining how Kagen should be dead from exhaustion.
"Well, that blast he sent out took a lot out of him and his heart muscles would've ran out of energy if he didn't have the high level of proteins that appeared just today. You wouldn't know what he ate today would you?"
Camina says,
"I gave him some of my cooking this morning."
Duero says,
"It wouldn't have lasted that long. It would have to be something more recent. Ok, here is how you two can help me. Go and find out what he ate for lunch."
Camina says,
"I'll just ask Hibiki, he was eating with him today." Hibiki walks in as she says that.
"What about me?"
Duero asks, "Did you eat the same food as Kagen did?"
"Yeah, he made it. It was delicious."
"Would you mind if I run some tests on you?"
"No I don't mind, if it will help Kagen get better."
Duero performs the tests and says,
"It is as I thought the food boosted the amount of energy in your body."
"Huh?"
"The food was super-efficient. Therefore he survived because his own cooking provided him the energy to live."
The power of good food will always triumph! There is at least one more chapter before I take a break from this. That chapter has already been written and has a lot of surprises in it. I just ran out of enthusiasm. I really want to keep writing but everytime I pick up my pad... well... I loose my drive to write. I also need to catch up with the world. I pretty much haven't left my dorm room unless I had to. I also need to get a job, because my money reserves are getting low so I might not be writing as much. I depends on the job really. If I have to sit there and be a clerk then I would probably have plenty of time on my hands to write in my Halo 2 Aluminum Journal. PLEASE REVIEW! I'm begging you PLEASE REVIEW! One reason why I've lost the drive to writeis no one reviews my work. Damn you ROMs! I do thank the 2 people who do review.
