She raced around the corner on her hunter green bicycle; the tires making a dark skid mark and the brakes squealing, sending up a volley of early morning rainwater as she managed to turn around completely. She sighed heavily, blowing a strand of smooth blonde hair from her eyes. The bus was late that morning.
She had stopped off at her friend's house that morning to pick up her bike. Since her friend had gone on the way to school long before her unless she was late, Phinny, as most called her, had picked up her bike by herself. She eventually pulled up to the school and leapt lightly off of the bicycle seat even while it was still moving. She unwrapped her bike lock, securing it to the fence and spinning the numbers. Putting her hands in her pockets, she ran a finger through her hair and hung her hand from her jeans, thumb in one pocket.
She skipped through tracks on her MP3 player as she headed towards her locker, twisted the dial and wrenched the door open. She threw her backpack into her locker, but not before she had gotten out her tennis racket. It was block G first that morning, which meant she had to go to the gymnasium with the other girls to do a tennis lesson. Phinny cast a hideously fake enthusiastic smile at no-one, sardonically imitating the perfect bleach-blondie girls in pink terrycloth that abounded at her school.
She had a black t-shirt on that bore the white silhouette of a dolphin. She empathised with the creature. Phinny was fairly small, lightweight, graceful, loved to swim and had a very good sense of hearing. She loved to write poetry and learn languages. She had a great appreciation for beauty in the smaller things in life and saw things differently than most people did.
"Phinface!" Shouted a familiar voice from down the hallway. She twisted her head just in time to see a girl running up to her.
"Hey Kels," Phinny replied. Her friend stood tall with auburn hair at shoulder length, a binder with a horse printed on it in one arm. She was in a different class than her, and had left the class on a bathroom break.
"I had better get going back to class or the teacher will be upset. Suffice to say it's gonna be a long day," Kels rolled her eyes as she said so.
"Bye, Phinhead!" She added, and she padded off down the hallway.
Phinny wasn't her real name. It was just a nickname she had earned the year before at a different school by way of her art and proficiency at swimming. She still went by it most of the time, used to being called the name by her friends and equals. She sighed, blew a piece of hair out of her eyes and walked down the hall in a miserable mood. She wouldn't be let into the gym now, because she was so late. Not even with the note her mother had written her.
She walked down the staircases, in no hurry now. She had to walk across the campus again, to the West building, where her gym class was sure to be making an exemplary pink-terryclothed performance at tennis. She swung the tennis racket on her shoulder and it bounced there as she walked, fancying it a sword. Adjusting the duffel bag in her grip, she blew at that stubborn piece of hair again; It always got out of place. Looking to the sky as she often did, she felt the first few drops of rain splash her face. Endless grey with blue patches, as usual on a day like then.
"Nnn?" She absently muttered as a spot in the sky grew apparent to her vision. The sky had been a normal blue-pocked slate grey, but now it had a glowing spot growing in it. Rather, it wasn't growing in the sky, it was streaking through it, punching through clouds, directly overhead.
She stopped dead in her tracks, dumbly watching the light cast itself in a humming beam all around her. Phinny's blue eyes opened wide and she grasped at the ground, seemingly relinquishing her from its hold. Struck dumb with shock and fear, she gripped the tennis racket and clung to it like life, her knuckles whitening.
All of a sudden, the world exploded open in front of her. Dazed and very confused, Phinny stood dishevelled, her thin form holding her tennis racket tight as if it were a weapon. Her mind cleared and allowed her to recognise objects and scenery, her brain displaying a forest with a dark purple sky and a thunderous metallic, hydraulic noise assaulted her ears. It was emanating from deep within the forest, fast approaching.
She backed up, away from the noise, but the fear and confusion inside her was bubbling up and beginning to paralyze her limbs, like thick molasses rolling into a mould. Eventually, she couldn't even back up anymore, and she just clutched the tennis racket so tightly that it made her tendons seize with the dull, but piercing pain of being overworked. She couldn't move; She couldn't even blink. She stood like a stone statue in a strange world, watching the spot in the trees just ahead that she predicted whatever was making that noise would come out.
The noise grew louder, its hydraulic echoing booming across the forest. Eventually, the trees shivered and then fell down in front of her. They lay flat, crushed by seemingly nothing, fifty metres from where she stood, mutely holding the tennis racket still. There was an indentation in the flattened trees that looked like it was a massive footprint. That's impossible! Nothing stepped there to make it, and nothing's been that big in over sixty-five million years! This is insane! Phinny's mind tried desperately to make sense of it all.
She examined the spot of air just above the footprint. The air bent, like a twisted fun-house mirror gone hideously wrong. Her jaw dropped. She knew this kind of thing. She'd seen it before in movies. It was an invisibility cloak that worked by somehow bending rays of light. It only made an object fully invisible if it remained stationary. Any movement would betray that something was there. Phinny caught herself breathing in short, ragged gasps. Just what the hell was going on?
The curved light shimmered and then disappeared, revealing something red and black like paint washing over. It was hard and looked to her like metal. She finally could control her head and she looked up, following the leg up that joined the body of the massive mechanical suit. Somehow, she knew the pilot was situated in the chest cavity of the massive thing, the chest cavity with doors that closed forward into a point, with bars across it so that the pilot could see out of it as well as his visualization screens contained within the cockpit.
"Well, well, what have we got here, Chesta?" Asked an eerily echoing voice that came from the cockpit of the suit. Apparently, the voice was speaking to the other mecha suit, which appeared closely behind the first. The other one was similar, but some of the parts were a little different and the colour was blue, not red. She swallowed heavily at the sight of the behemoths, whipping her upper body round.
Her schoolyard had disappeared. There was no East or West building. There was no campus. There was only a wall of strange, tall, spidery trees and a rippling purple sky. She tensed her muscles and brandished the racket. This was too strange.
"I believe we've found another human. What should we do with her, my Lord?" Asked the other voice, with a tone of great respect. The first voice was silent for a moment, weighing his options.
"Well, we could kill her now," He suggested. Phinny growled in a low voice so that the ... thing inside the mecha suit didn't hear her.
"How dare you think you can simply decide my fate right in front of me? Go ahead, step on me with that fantastic tin can of yours, go ahead!" She barked back, and spread her arms in an open gesture.
"I'm ready to die!" She shouted again. This bluff had better work, She thought worriedly. I hope I know what I'm doing.
The two voices were absolutely silent, presumably in stunned shock.
"... Or, my Lord, we could bring her back to Zaibach for some fun. She seems rather spirited..." The one that was presumably named Chesta finally spoke up.
"What?" Came the snapping reply.
"Sir, not that kind of fun, sir! I mean, Lord, we could take her back and make her a soldier. It would be fun to watch her fail." He finished.
"Hmmm." Contemplated the other voice. She was dead silent.
"Very well, Chesta. We'll take her back with us. 'Com the base, tell them we've got a guest, will you?" The one inside the red suit said.
"Yes sir, my Lord, sir." Chesta's reply was instant. Both of the suits were unnaturally quiet. The girl could feel their eyes upon her.
There was a mechanical whine and the expellation of pressure from hydraulic valves, and the cockpit cage door of the red mecha opened slowly. A slim boy emerged, about her age, seventeen or so. He was dressed in a uniform type regalia. At the joints, a black leather catsuit was visible, and red armour adorned him. He had a diadem of sorts about his forehead, which had a purple jewel that rested simply in the centre of it. His hair was silver, his skin pale, and it led her to believe the boy was probably an albino.
"Where are you from?" He asked her slowly, as if he thought she didn't comprehend his language.
"I... don't know. I was at my school, and then... I was here." She replied rapidly. He blinked.
"Oh good. So you do understand us." He replied simply, and looked slightly confused. It was hard to read the boy's emotions, as he kept his face as expressionless as possible. But, a slight flicker of recognition and confusion passed over his face.
"You wear odd clothes. You must be from further East... Asturia, perhaps. Or maybe you're from that backwater province..." He suggested and trailed off, half to himself.
"My Lord, do you think she is fit enough to be a soldier? She is a girl." Chesta announced, having dropped down behind him.
"Don't dare question me, Chesta. Of course she is fit enough... Look at her. She's thin, yet her build seems to be strong. She could take some punishment. She looks like she is fast, or at least could be. She's tall... And she's also... Well, let's take her back. Have you 'Commed the base yet?" He asked. Chesta replied that he had.
Chesta saluted, bowed, and then he turned on his heel and went back to his mecha suit. The tall, slim boy turned back to this curiosity of a girl.
"What is your name?" He asked her.
"My name is..." She hesitated.
"Gabrielle..." She finally let drop. "Sir!" She hastily added. He blinked.
"Good. You learn quickly..."
"Gab-ri-elle," He sounded out. He spoke with a seemingly Japanese accent, even though he was clearly Caucasian.
"Gabrielle. I like that. Well, you're going to be a soldier, and I'll be teaching you how to fight and fly." He explained, a lazy, sly tone in his voice. He reminded her very much of a cat. She didn't comprehend him.
His decision had seemed hasty at best. He seemed rash, prideful. Gabrielle was more than unsure of herself, but what choice had she? Stay here in this queer forest and perhaps get eaten by whatever manner of creatures dwelt here? Looking at the strange things they piloted, who knew what manner of living things abounded here.
"Chesta! Shall we go?" He snapped up to the pilot who was watching from the open doors of the mech.
"Yessir," He replied, and flipped agilely into the cockpit.
The boy turned to her again. He studied her hard.
"Are you sure I don't know you? Killed some of your relatives or something? You seem so oddly familiar," He said, breaking the silence.
"You seem familiar as well. But I don't think I've met you before, sir." She quietly responded. He changed the topic. Obviously he didn't like talking about things he didn't understand. Another sign of vanity and pride.
"You'll be flying in my guymelef back to the Fortress." He said, and she nodded, cowing along.
She stepped up to the thing. It was designed very well. It had smooth edges for aerodynamic capabilities and also looked intimidating. She looked all the way up, then back at the leg of the thing. This is all so strange, yet so familiar. Like I've been here before.
She didn't have time to think about it further.
"Go up." The boy said, gesturing to the thing. She looked at the massive height. She loved heights, when she was inside something, like a plane. It was the climbing onto something with the risk of falling off that made her shiver. The metal was well polished and looked slick. "Go," He said gruffly. She took a deep breath and gripped the metal, pulling herself up onto the leg joint, advancing steadily.
The problem came when she got to the thing's hip mechanism. She looked down. "Nnnn..." She groaned as she looked down. The ground had never looked harder. She swallowed. "Climb further, you're almost there!" He shouted from below. The fact that he had to shout for her to hear him frightened her further. Her muscles froze. She was locked in place. He watched her not move for a moment, then advanced towards the giant mechanical suit
He climbed up easily, with no hassle at all. He was right above her, sitting on the metal rim that jutted out from the leg joint.
"Get a move on, then!" He snapped at her viciously. His tone made her shudder.
She shrank away from him, shy at his snapping tone, and she slipped on the slick red metal. She yelped. Her hands scrabbled to get a better grip, but she couldn't and then gravity realized she was hanging there in the air unattended and made her drop, making her hit the ground all fifteen feet below.
Dilandau slid down the mech and picked her up off the ground. He held her with one arm and ascended the Alseides again. Opening the cockpit doors, he looked for a place to put her. The cockpit was fairly compact and was only designed to carry one person, the steering, navigational systems and other things like that. He looked at the chair. There was a spot next to it, and it looked just big enough that if he folded her up like a sleeping child he could fit her in beside him.
He did just that and then sat in the pilot seat. He 'Commed Chesta and then initiated the launch, and flew up into the air, spiralling and changing directory for Zaibach Empire's Floating Fortress.
Gabrielle awoke a while later in a bed somewhere. She didn't open her eyes for a moment, and prayed that she'd be at home in the morning. It had all been a strange dream, and there'd be the photograph of a spotted dolphin right next to her head on the wall when she opened her eyes. There was sunlight shining on her face; She could feel it. Yet, something was wrong about it. It just didn't seem quite right to her. She opened her silvery blue eyes and almost began to panic. She had hoped that it had all been just a strange dream, but it wasn't. It was quite real.
She was in a room that was a little dark, and one window. The window was fairly large, she noted, and she looked out. All she could see was sky. She sat up, but found that she was almost nude. Her ribs and top chest were tightly bandaged, and she was in her underpants, her left leg bandaged as well. What happened?
She pulled the covers up to her chin and tried to fold her legs up to her chin also, but cried out in pain when they touched her chest. She fell back upon the bed, tears stinging her eyes. It hurt to breathe. There was a knock at the the door.
"Miss, is everything all right?" Asked a feminine voice. Gabrielle couldn't even reply. The doorknob turned, and a slim woman of medium height entered the room.
"You have two cracked ribs, miss. Your ankle was badly sprained. With our treatments, your bone should heal quite rapidly and be better in a matter of hours. Until then, you should rest." She said and smiled.
"Do you want something to eat?" She asked. Gabrielle was famished.
"I'm hungry, but I don't know if I can sit up." She said.
"Well, just wait a little while. You should be able to sit up soon." The nurse assured her.
Gabrielle sighed and looked up at the wall. Why wasn't she surprised and shocked anymore that she was in a different world? Was it just the sleep and her adaptable personality or was it more? Why wasn't she weirded out completely? And why did that boy look so familiar? These and a million other questions flicked through her head.