New chapter out! In this chapter: Anna vs. Morpheus! Leon hatches! And...Hide's weapon is revealed!
And as always, read and review please :)
~8~
The loud noises roared on from the large computer, Hide had to cover his ears with his hands in an attempt to stop hearing the machine roar noisily.
"These noises are so distracting, let's quiet it down then shall we?" Morpheus waved a hand in the air and then there was silence.
Hide cautiously removed his hands from his ears. There was no sound at all, as if some sort of silencer had not only worked on the computer but everything else in the room.
"It's another illusion," said Reborn, his voice echoed in the room.
"We need to stop that computer right?" asked Anna, she held up one of her tazers along with a stun gun.
"It'll take more than a little shock, Anna," the infant stated.
"Oh please, these things can go up to 50,000 volts, thanks to my modifications," she said, "Boss survived only because I put it on low, and he's lucky."
"How is getting shocked to near-death lucky in anyway!" Hide argued.
"You survived didn't you?" he didn't reply to this.
"Either way, you still need to get past me," Morpheus called from across the room.
"Don't worry Boss, I'll take care of this," said Anna.
Hide then noticed that Anna's clothes were all torn and ragged, and she was covered in dirt and blood.
"A-are you sure about that Anna?" he asked worriedly.
"Yes, why?" she asked.
"You look like you're covered in blood!"
"It's just a few broken ribs and scratches on my hands," she said dismissively.
"Broken ribs!"
"Don't worry about it," she said and kept her eyes on Morpheus, "Besides, I have a bone to pick with this guy."
"Then I guess it's decided," Morpheus said happily and snapped its fingers again, it was then facing face-to-face with Anna.
"When-?" she began, slightly shocked.
"I was always here," it said, "And I was always there, one of the advantages to being a God Box is that the affinity is already built in."
"Affinity?" Hide questioned.
"Each Box-type has its own affinity," Reborn explained, "The Sun's is Activation, Rain's is Tranquility, Storm's is Destruction, and Mist's is-"
"Creation!" the Box interrupted joyously, "As such, I can create anything I want! Even your own worst nightmare!"
"An illusion," the infant hitman said coldly.
"Like what happened to me?" Hide asked.
"That would be the effects of my blanket," said Morpheus, "it's a bit unconventional in a fight, but you'd be surprised how many people fall for an illusion that easily."
"I'll take myself out of it, like I did with Boss," said Anna, Hide could tell that she was a little bit proud of this.
"If you can," it grinned and snapped its fingers again.
The whole room suddenly became dark and gravity seemed to not be a problem anymore. A light appeared besides Hide and then another, and another, soon all around them were glowing lights that all seemed to slowly move around them. Next to Hide, there was a large orange sphere that had a thin, clear ring around it, Hide didn't try to touch it though because he felt that if he did the sphere would just suddenly get farther away.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"The universe," Morpheus spoke.
"An illusion," said Reborn.
"Get away," said Anna she swiped her tazer at Morpheus, who swiftly dodged it, and then she fired her stun gun at it.
Morpheus dodged this as well and was now floating enjoyably in the air, "I thought this would be suitable," it grinned.
"I'm gonna kill you," she said coldly and starting to attack, though this failed since gravity seemed to have lifted itself off of everyone so now she was just sort of swimming awkwardly in the air.
"Don't laugh!" she yelled at Hide.
"I wasn't!" he said, Reborn was floating calmly in the air with a Leon-ball in his hand, "Is Leon alright?"
"Oh yes, he'll break out of his cocoon any moment now," the infant replied confidently.
Great, just great... Hide grimaced to himself, Reborn's practically useless without Leon, Anna's super injured right now, and this weirdo with the funny hair is having the time of his life sending us to our doom.
"You should stop being so negative, Hide," his tutor said, "Only positive things come out of positive attitudes."
"That sounds like something a counselor would say," he said miserably.
"Oh come now Grandhart," Morpheus said in a pretentious British accent, it was obvious the God Box was using it just to annoy the hell out of Anna, "I know for a fact that you can put on a better fight."
"Ok, I seriously think you have me mixed up with someone," she said, "I just want to get this clear, my name is 'Anna Grandhart' not 'Daniel Grandhart' or anything like that. We share the same surname and nothing else."
"You have a 32.876% DNA match with him, and that's high enough for me," it said with a calm expression.
"Okay, so he's related to me, so what?" Anna rolled her eyes, "What does that prove?"
"Can anyone tell me who you guys are talking about?" asked Hide, they all stared at him for few seconds as if he had just appeared out of thin air.
"Daniel Grandhart," the Mist Box explained cheerfully after a moment of silence, "A professor that invented us and this base."
"A man I don't know," Anna frowned, Morpheus did the same.
"Liars aren't good," it waved a finger in the air.
"You said Daniel Grandhart, right?" asked Reborn thoughtfully, "Hm...What year do you think it is?"
"Year?" it questioned, "Why, it's 20XX of course, silly infant."
"I see..."
20XX? Isn't that, uh...35 years ago? Hide thought to himself, I wonder...how long have they been down here for...?
"Their sense of time is off," Reborn shrugged and said, "Anna, you are probably getting mixed up with that scientist since you look so much like him."
"Look like him? Did you know him Mr. Reborn?" she asked with sarcasm, but when Reborn didn't answer she asked seriously, "Did you know him?"
"Reborn?" Hide looked at his tutor with an astonished look on his face.
"O-ho?" Morpheus raised a curious eyebrow and smiled, "You know, if I try I probably do remember a small infant in a black suit with a green...thing. Well do I know you? Mr. Reborn?"
"You shouldn't have memories, Morpheus," said Reborn.
"I have Construction on my side, I'm able to remember a lot of things," it said and then asked, "But I do believe that I just might remember you, Mr. Reborn, of course that only proves that this lying girl is Daniel Grandhart and this tiny boy is Sawada Tsunayoshi."
"Tsunayoshi?" Hide's eyes widened, "Why does it know my grandfather?"
~8~
"Y-You want me to do what, sir!" the scientist, Daniel Grandhart, fell to the ground and looked at his Boss with a horror-stricken face.
"You know what I said," said Tsuna in an almost dead voice, his face was almost completely hollow as he stared at a large, round metallic chamber that was nailed to the ground and reached the ceiling, pipes led out from the chamber and pumped freezing cold air from vents that were attached to it. A tiny window was at the face of the tube but was fogged up so nobody could actually see inside it.
"I-I can't do that sir!" Daniel shook his head hurriedly, "For one thing it's like fifty types of wrong! And the subject's body will be totally un-salvageable if something goes wrong! I won't be able to do the procedure again if something goes wrong-"
"So you can do it?"
"Yes! But-"
"Good, then I will finance you and you will do it," Tsuna nodded confidently to himself, "Start tomorrow, no, tonight you'll be staying here until you get the job done."
"In Japan!" Daniel's mouth fell open and he said, "Listen sir, I don't know what exactly Mr. Verde told you, but it would take months and months to get that thing activated and then there's the transportation of equipment, and just think about the condition this, this…body will have!" Daniel yelled and waved a hand toward the large metal chamber, "I can't just take the stasis chamber on a plane and hope to hell that everything will be fine!"
"Who do you think we are?" the Vongola Boss asked in a strangely deadly tone, "The Vongola can make anything happen. And you have the whole thing written out on this blue print here."
Daniel grimaced as his Boss held out a large blue piece of paper with tiny white pencil scribbles all over it. It was a blue-print; ever since he had created the God Boxes, Verde stopped letting Daniel do the upgrade-Box-Weapons training exercises and instead gave him a bunch of blue print material and told him that any extra creativity that he had could go into those instead of coming to life. Of course, Daniel had tons and tons of blue-prints at his work area in the lab and he always showed them to Verde once he was done with them but he had absolutely no idea they would ever reach the Vongola Boss again.
The scientist gulped nervously after the Boss had said this; Tsuna regained his normal, calm composure and looked back at the metal chamber, he touched it lightly with his hand.
"She saved Donny from that explosion, and she's a very capable as an assistant," he was now much more calm, "She knows everyone in the Vongola and she was a Class A Sky Flame user, that makes her compatible enough."
"It's wrong!" someone yelled, Daniel wondered who had said this but then realized that it was him and quickly covered his mouth.
"What?" Tsuna asked without turning around, this only frightened Daniel out of his wits.
He gulped and slowly took his hand off his mouth and said slowly and nervously, "I-It's wrong sir...um, I know that it's, theoretically speaking, the perfect security system for the Vongola, and she is, theoretically again, the perfect subject for this project, but this is almost like the God Boxes all over again sir, only a whole lot worse!"
"I owe her my son's life," Daniel stared at his Boss's face for what seemed like hours but was actually seconds before finally he giving in and saying, "Fine, I'll do it. This will be the biggest mistake of my life though. It's like creating a cyborg but worse, I'm literally turning a human into a computer."
~8~
"How long are you gonna get everyone mixed up?" said Anna as she swung a fist at Morpheus, she almost hit the God Box but it decided to turn the gravity back on and so Anna fell flat on her face.
"Anna!" Hide yelped.
"I'm alright," she said as she got back up, "I only tripped a little that's all, don't worry Boss. I'll electrocute this Box-thingy to death."
"Electrocute, eh?" it grinned, another stun gun appeared in Anna's hand and she shot it at Morpheus, but instead of missing again she got out a tazer and charged towards the direction Morpheus dodged to.
She swung the tazer at it and low kicked it, the Mist Box stumbled to the ground and narrowly dodged Anna's tazers. It was a very strange sight though, what that they were fighting in space, or what looked like space. What also made it a strange sight was that Morpheus looked like it was as light as a feather and practically floated on the air, Anna on the other hand fought like a rock but in the sense that if the rock hit you it would hurt a lot.
Anna tossed the stun gun that was still in her hand behind her and took out another tazer from who knew where. She now had two tazers in both hands and held them up and put them together so that the sparks touched, then she slowly pulled them apart and the sparks of electricity looked as if they were still touching. The electricity crackled in her hands.
"Amazing isn't it?" said Reborn to Hide, "Anna has an amazing talent for making things and also an amazing talent for anything involved with electricity. When she was younger, she used to be called the Demon Child of Electricity."
"Take this!" she yelled and charged at him with the line of electricity in the air. And she hit it right on the chest. It smiled at Anna cheerfully and calmly, her eyes widened and she stared up at him.
"You...this is 50,000 volts..." she spoke.
"It's going to take more than a little shock to get to me," it said calmly and grabbed the tazer and shocked her with it.
"Anna!" Hide screamed, the girl fell to the ground and didn't move, "Anna!"
"This is bad," Reborn muttered.
"You think!" the boy yelled, "Reborn, this is getting ridiculous! Do something!"
"I can't Hide," said Reborn, "Not only is it against the rules to interfere, but I'm also completely useless without Leon."
"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?" he paled as Morpheus took a step closer.
"What's this now? You can't fight, can you?" it said with a cheery face, "Oh, this is going to be fun."
Hide's was stricken with horror and he turned to Reborn and pleaded with the child, "Reborn this is horrible! What am I going to do? What are we going to do?"
"I'm not going to do anything," he said, "Figure it out yourself."
"How..." the boy gaped at the him like a fish out of water, "You-You've always helped me haven't you? I have no clue what to do! How could you Reborn!"
Reborn then jumped up, kicked Hide harshly on the chin, and said, "Don't give me that pathetic excuse."
He grabbed Hide's shirt collar and pulled the boy down to his face until their noses were almost touching, "Listen up because I'm only going to say this once, there is no such thing as 'not knowing what to do', as long as you know what you want then you'll know what to do."
He let go of the shocked boy and dusted his hands off; the Leon-ball on his back started to glow strangely.
Hide was so surprised by this he could only stammer, "What...I want...?"
"Yes, so the question you should be asking is: 'What do I want?'" said Reborn.
"What he wants?" Morpheus laughed at this, "He probably 'wants' to run away!"
"I...want..." the boy began slowly and thoughtfully, he looked at Anna's unconscious body, which was now slowly disappearing in the illusion, and he looked at his hands which were covered with white plaster-dust from the explosions earlier. Leon was beginning glowing brighter than a Christmas tree in the middle of the night but no one paid it any attention.
"Eh? What was that?" the Mist Box lifted a hand to its ear almost mockingly; Leon was shaking violently in its cocoon, "I couldn't quite hear you."
"...want to..." his muttered something, Reborn smirked at this; Leon was glowing brighter and brighter.
"You're going to have to speak up louder kid," Morpheus laughed; Reborn took notice of the chameleon's shaking and moved the ball to his hand in preparation of what would happen next.
"I want to protect my friends!" Hide cried out; Leon exploded, but not like the in-a-million-pieces explosion but more like a scatter-out kind of explosion.
The illusion soon disappeared as well and they were all back in the freezing, cold room with tiny little green threads that were now stuck all over the room (including the people inside the room) and were attached like a web to the Leon-ball in the center of the room.
"Wha-what happened to Leon just now?" Hide yelped when he saw the chameleon.
"Looks like Leon's 'wings' have finally come out," Reborn said as he watched the event happen in a completely calm manner.
"Wings? What's that supposed to mean?" Morpheus questioned as it swept some of the green threads off itself, "These do not look like wings!"
"Leon is a shape-shifting chameleon," he explained, "Whenever he goes into a cocoon-like state, it's a sign that my student will face a trial soon. This part is during the final stage, and after this a new weapon will emerge from Leon."
"A-A weapon!" Hide looked from Leon back to his tutor over and over again.
"A weapon?" Morpheus had a much calmer reaction to this as it rubbed its chin and said, "As fun as it would be if you got a weapon and watch you miserably fumble around with it, I don't really have the patience to let that happen now. Not when the upload is complete. So..." it bent down and picked up a pipe that was lying on the ground, "here!"
The pipe was thrown with a flick of the wrist and was sent through the air like a javelin, it pierced Leon and split the glowing ball of shape-shifting chameleon in half. Leon fell to the ground like two halves a pancake.
"Leon!" Hide yelped.
"Don't worry," said Reborn, Leon turned into liquid and formed himself together while flowing his way towards his master, "Leon's a shape-shifting chameleon, it'll take more to than a slice to hurt him. More importantly, it seems like something is still up there."
Hide looked up and saw that indeed something was still up there, he couldn't exactly see what it was since there was too much light illuminating it. He shielded his eyes a little and squinted to try and get a better picture.
"What are they...?" he said to himself; whatever it was, it was falling rapidly towards him and soon he got a pretty good picture of it, "Those...those are..." his amazement soon became horror as he realized what it was, "Those are-"
It fell on his face, he yanked them off his face and yelled, "COWBOY BOOTS!"
~8~
Haha, so Boots won the poll by 1 vote! If you're interested in the results, here:
Boots-8
Bo-7
Gloves-3
Nothing-1
But just to amuse you guys, I sort of planned out what kind of ridiculous form the weapons would be without Dying Will powering them. Bo was going to be like a regular stick or a tooth pick, Gloves were going to be cooking mitts (instead of the woolen mittsTsunahad), and the Boots are cowboy boots (the dorkiest kind of boots). As you can tell, I had a lot of fun planning these outlol.
**I still have more to say! And if you want to hear it, go over to my forum called:Just another Forum and looked under the topic headed:On the subject of future fictions...where Nehszriah also comments on his story,Vongola Undicesimo!
KHR belongs toAmano Akira