A/N: What a surprise, another Gaiden update!
This entry is long overdue and one I've collaborated with long-time beta LazerWulf. This was intended for The West Coasters but as you can see, that wasn't the case. My collab partner will explain why the long delay.
Enjoy!
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Marty Stonebagel
Co-Written by: Kanius and LazerWulf
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Tokyo/Narita International Airport/June 22, 2009/9:53 PM
After disembarking from his San Francisco flight, Martin Alexander Stonebagel walked through the terminal with a silver briefcase. Physically, he appeared about 5'10", with blue eyes, brown hair in a buzz cut that's receding just a bit for his young age. He wore a business suit complete with a bow tie and vest, and had a bit of an unassuming presence about him, built like an athlete who had let himself go a bit.
Marty heard his cell phone ring and stopped to answer it. Noting the name on the Caller ID, he answered without question.
"Hello? Yes, Mr. Bearer, I just arrived at Narita Airport," he paused to listen and nodded. "Yes, I have it with me. Our meeting will go as scheduled for tomorrow. Rest reassured you'll have it." He closed his cell and walked forward carrying the briefcase.
As a favor to a friend of the family, Marty was supposed to deliver a briefcase to CainCorp. The object inside the briefcase he was carrying was important enough to be studied, whatever it was. However, he had come to Tokyo for another reason.
xxxxx
Shibuya/Train Interior/June 23/8:37 AM
The next morning, after a good night's rest in his hotel, Marty was on a train headed to Shinjuku. After coming so far, he was eager to get to his real mission, but his errand would have to come first.
Boom!
Suddenly, an electrical blast tore through the roof of the train cart. The lights flickered before going off, and the train came to an abrupt stop. The passengers were thrown off balance, and Marty struggled to keep a tight grip on the briefcase.
Through the new opening in the top of the train car, five masked men with guns dropped down.
"Freeze! Don't any of you move!" One of the masked man threatened the passengers aboard. "This is a hold-up! Wallets, jewelry, cell phones, anything valuable goes in the bags!"
The passengers froze in their places as the other four masked men began moving among them with bags, taking anything they could find that they thought was worth any money. Soon, one of the goons was in front of Marty.
"Wallet and cell phone in the bag!" the goon ordered.
Marty hastily complied. After all, it wasn't like he couldn't get those things replaced.
"That's a nice briefcase," the goon remarked. "We'll be taking that, too."
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that. There's nothing in here that's of value to someone like you, anyway."
"We'll be the judge of that." The goon pointed his gun directly at Marty's head, but Marty, catching him off guard, swung the briefcase and knocked the gun away. Before he could do anything else, however, a small ball of green lightning flew past his head.
"Well, well, well…" a new voice sounded from the top of the train. "What do we have here?"
"Buzz!" the goon shouted in relief, looking up at his boss. "This guy's holding out on us!"
Upon making his grand entrance, the ring leader jumped into the train car. He appeared to be a moderately built man garbed in a navy blue hoodie, black jeans, and brown boots. His face was hidden in shadow underneath his hoodie, but green light appeared to emanate from what appeared to be two round eyes and a mouth that was jagged like a lightning bolt.
Oh great, Marty thought. A Meta. He held his briefcase even closer.
Buzz chuckled calmly and waltzed over to Marty. He paused to take another look at the briefcase Marty was clutching, a fiendish grin forming underneath the hooded man's features. He paused right close in front of Marty's face. He pushed Marty down and raised his hand, forging what looked like a ball of green electricity. Electrical bolts began surging through his body. "You have something I want."
Flabbergasted, Marty was taken aback by the electrical ball in the man's hand.
"The briefcase. Give me the briefcase."
Marty angrily retorted. "No!"
"BZZZT! Wrong answer!" He chuckled and made the electrical ball grow bigger. "Wanna try for the bonus round?"
"I'm not going to let you have this. You'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands."
"I can easily oblige," the hooded man chortled, discharging electrical bolts that shattered windows as glass shards hit the ground. "Rest in pieces," Buzz discharged an electrical blast at Marty.
Marty instinctively shielded himself with the briefcase. It came to no avail. Both he and the briefcase got electrocuted right away. Marty groaned and fell face first. He fell unconscious and let the briefcase slip from his fingers. Buzz walked over to pick up the briefcase.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
Suddenly, Buzz heard the sound of his own gang members' pained cries and saw a rope of some kind ensnaring them. He sighted the attacker that roped up his cohorts. An attractive red-haired girl garbed in a green and white Sailor Senshi uniform appeared standing with arms crossed and wearing a determined glare.
"Howdy," she greeted him.
"You..." Buzz stopped mid-sentence as he tried to attack but was taken out quickly by a large gust of wind.
xxxxx
Five minutes later, Marty was awakened by the sound of the girl's voice. Her gentle tone had a light Texan accent.
"Hey, are you ok, mister?" She asked.
When Marty finally came to, he cleared his vision and got a good look at the Sailor-suited girl sitting next to him and lifting him up effortlessly.
"I think so. But, those gang members and that Meta..." Marty groaned, rubbing his face as he noticed Buzz's gang members lying scattered all over the train car. He saw no sign of Buzz.
"I single-handedly mopped the floor with these punks. Their ringleader got away, though I got him pretty good."
"The briefcase!" Marty quickly remembered Buzz and him about to snatch up the briefcase.
"This?" The Sailor-garbed girl picked up the briefcase and handed it to Marty. "This is yours?"
"What?" Marty asked as he heard slight ringing in his ears. Otherwise, he felt no further pain or injuries. He picked himself up as the ringing in his ears continued to block out what the Sailor was saying. Then, once the ringing stopped, he was able to hear her.
"You're looking a little dazed, sir."
"I'll be fine as long as the briefcase is safe. Thank you."
"You're welcome," the Sailor nodded as she saw the other passengers were safe.
A little girl walked over hugging the Sailor.
"Thank you, Sailor Eris!" The girl expressed her gratitude to the Texan.
"My pleasure, darling," Eris hugged the child back. "Sir, promise you'll go get checked out."
Marty watched Eris dusting the child and panting her head. "Sure, I think I'll do just that." He sat down holding the briefcase close to him. She just saved my life, beat those thugs and is now comforting a child. Can't believe I was saved by one of the Sailor Senshi. He eyed Sailor Eris closely.
xxxxx
Shinjuku/CainCorp/9:23 AM
Despite the attack on the train, he made it in time for his meeting with head of CainCorp, Cain Bearer. He relayed his story about the incident to Cain while being examined by a CainCorp medical team. To their surprise, the medics could find nothing wrong with Marty.
"What do you mean, 'I'm fine'? That can't be," Marty was not fully convinced.
"I mean that all your test results came back normal. Surprisingly normal for a guy that just got electrocuted," the medic said, "but normal nonetheless."
"You're lucky to have made out of there alive, Marty," Cain added, watching the medics finishing with Marty. "But, thankfully you brought the briefcase. Such a marvelous piece of technology... can it really block the radiation given off by Rajita artifacts?"
"That's what they tell me."
"Fascinating. I'd love to get my hands on that technology."
"Sorry, Cain, but it's just a prototype. The boys in the lab didn't even want to let me take it, but it was the only way to get that canister of coolant from the Beale Rajita ship to you, short of a lead-lined box, and those are a bitch to carry around."
"Speaking of the briefcase, how is it?" Cain asked a group of technicians that were called in to scan the briefcase.
One of the technicians reported to his boss. "Mr. Bearer, while the case itself seems to be physically undamaged, all of its circuitry has been shorted out. Furthermore, the canister of coolant it was carrying seems to have been rendered inert."
"If the case is broken, then where did all that energy go?" Marty wondered. "What if it went into me? I could be contaminated! Guys, you have to check me again!"
"Rest assured, Mr. Stonebagel," Cain addressed the frantic man. "If your body had somehow absorbed that energy, the medics would've told you by now. No, I think the most likely circumstance is that when the case was zapped by that Meta, it went into overdrive and completely neutralized the coolant inside, shorting itself out in the process."
"I see," Marty replied. He glanced over at the open briefcase and the now-useless canister of coolant. "Admiral Bickens won't be pleased. He seemed really desperate to get that stuff analyzed."
"Yes, I met Admiral Bickens at a dinner party in San Francisco not too long ago," Cain conversed while checking the alien artifact. "He's a good man, but stern with his soldiers. He seemed very interested in my company's research on the Rajita. I'm not sure why he wanted that particular sample analyzed. We've analyzed coolant from Rajita fighters before, and it doesn't seem to be particularly mutagenic, at least, compared to most other Rajita artifacts. Although, in high enough concentration, anything that gives off that strange radiation can cause a mutation, though the particular effects have more to do with the individual and the circumstances of exposure than the source of the contamination. I can give you a report explaining this in detail that you can forward along to the Admiral."
"Thank you, I'll do so."
The CainCorp owner quickly switched gears. "About your encounter with that Sailor Senshi on the train," Cain said sternly, furrowing his brows. "What did she say to you?"
"She asked me if I was ok, checked on the other passengers, and comforted a little girl. She apparently took down a whole gang by herself, but the Meta who electrocuted me, nearly took the briefcase, and left me for dead, somehow got away."
"Figures she'd let one of her kind escape."
"Pardon?"
"These Metas are all the same," Cain accused with a straight face. "Even the ones who call themselves 'heroes'. They do battle in the streets and terrorize innocent civilians. I'll bet they're even in on it together. Without villains, we wouldn't need the heroes, and then where would they be? So they get these 'bad' Metahumans to stir up trouble, then they come swooping in to save the day, while they let the 'bad guy' escape so they can do it all over again the next day!" He clenched his fist and almost wanted to slam it on his desk.
"Sir," Grace whispered, calming her passionate boss from making a scene.
Marty felt himself grow skeptical, "So you're saying it's the heroes' fault my briefcase and the sample are both ruined."
"Precisely! And there's nothing normal people like us can do about them, for now, at least. Let me tell you about this project I'm working on, and you can tell me more about the shielding technology your company has created…"
xxxxx
Minato/Azabu-Juuban/Apartment Complex/6:14 PM
Sailor Eris climbed in through the skylight of the two-bedroom apartment she shared with her boyfriend Larry. She had spent most of the day trying to track down Buzz, to no avail. She and the other Kuipers had been trying to catch this guy for weeks, but every time they got close, there were injured civilians to take care of, like that guy on the train this morning.
I hope that guy's okay, she thought as she powered down and became Taylor West. Most of Buzz's victims had to be treated for electrical burns, but he didn't have a scratch on him!
Taylor checked the time on her cell phone. Larry would be home soon and it was her night to cook dinner. Before she could get started, though, she heard a knock at the door. Looking through the peephole, she was surprised to see the very same guy from this morning on the other side of the door. What's he doing here?!
"Who is it?" she called out tentatively.
"Hello? My name is Martin Stonebagel, and I'm looking for my cousin Lawrence. Also goes by Larry?"
This guy is Larry's cousin? Taylor felt her heart race. Calm down, girl. This is just some huge coincidence. There's no way he can know who you are.
"Just a second…" Taylor answered, steeling herself as she smiled and opened the door. "Hi, I'm Taylor, Larry's girlfriend. He's not here right now, but he should be home any…" Taylor cut herself off when she noticed the way Martin was looking at her. "I'm sorry, is there something wrong?"
"It's you… You're the girl from the train this morning! Sailor Eris!"
How the hell does he know I'm Sailor Eris?! I'm sure he can't have seen me transform! The alarmed Texan frantically thought. She tried to deny his accusation. "I think you must be mistaken. How can I be Sailor Eris? I'm just an exchange student from Texas."
"There's no mistake. You look and sound exactly the same as you did this morning, and it's not like you were wearing a mask. How do you not get recognized?"
"No, you gotta be mistaken," she once again denied. "We just met…"
"Stop lying! I know it's you!" Marty raised his tone toward Taylor, causing her to flinch. He went up to her with befuddlement etched on his face.
Guess there's no helping it! Taylor was left with no choice. Realizing there was no convincing him, she held her ground and instinctively took on a fighting stance. "You don't need to shout. Calm down."
"Me calm down? Because of you freaks, my briefcase was ruined!"
"That's a little harsh. I wasn't the one who attacked you..."
Marty grit his teeth and undid his bowtie. "No, but you let him get away. You guys were probably working together all along..."
"LET HIM...?" She stopped mid-sentence when Marty came closer. Despite his larger frame, Taylor was confident she could take him down relying on strength, and martial arts skills she's learned from Kobudo training. But, the apartment was too cluttered for her to move around. "Look, you need to back off, or I'll make you back off." She took out her Henshin Stick and transformed into Sailor Eris.
Upon witnessing her change into Sailor Eris, Marty's eyes widened and he went panic mode.
"So, you are Sailor Eris!" Marty yelled out, backing away until he hit a stool. "Just wait until I tell Cain Bearer about your identity! Won't he be surprised to know my cousin's girlfriend is one of the Sailor Senshi?!"
"I can't let you do that!" Eris retorted, waving her hand and expelled an air attack on him to subdue him. As she did this, she noticed her wind blast did nothing to Marty, not even stun him. What the hell?! That's supposed to knock him flat on his ass! I know my aim isn't off!
Eris threw another wind attack a few times and quickly ceased anymore when she saw Marty unfazed. "How are my attacks not doing anything to you?!"
"What attacks? I didn't feel a thing! I'll show you an attack!" Marty snapped as he picked up the stool and tossed it at Eris.
Eris dodged the incoming stool and summoned her magic lasso. "Let's see how you like being lassoed?!" She threw the lasso hoping to ensnare his hands. But to her shock, the lasso phased right through him. "You've gotta be kidding!"
Marty was even more shocked the lasso went through him. She yanked the magic lasso away and threw another wind attack. This time it was strong enough to shut the door behind Marty.
"At the very least I can't let you leave!" Eris cried out, still trying to figure out the logic of her powers seemingly not working on a normal man. Does he have something that's canceling out my attacks?! I don't see a barrier around him or anything…! She decided to call upon her falcon spirit, Zephyr. Hey, Zephyr! Maybe you can clue me in on what's going on?
She could barely hear her falcon spirit's voice speaking very faintly.
'Eris… my presence is weak being close to this human… I don't know why...'
Sailor Eris' connection with Zephyr and thoughts were abruptly cut off by Marty's loud wailing. She saw a lamp being thrown at her. She narrowly sidestepped the object as it shattered against the wall.
"YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY COUSIN!" Marty hollered, throwing a vase at her.
Eris caught the vase and put it down, but saw a wooden chair being tossed at her. Then came various apartment stuff being thrown at her. While she couldn't use her super speed to move around the cluttered space, she was able to evade most of the objects.
"Calm down! I'm not your enemy!" Eris openly pleaded. "I mean you no harm to you or your family!"
"SHUT UP, META!"
Another object, another vase, was tossed at her.
"Hey, this vase is expensive!" Eris' patience was wearing thin. She realized she wasn't thinking straight. Get it together, girl! Ugh, Miss Megumi didn't teach us how to deal with creeps throwing a ton of your own furniture at you! "Stop it, please!" Try as she might, she can't even get close to him as long as he's throwing a slew of apartment stuff at her.
"Get back!" Marty instinctively grabbed a metal teapot and hit her square in the head after she barely dodged a Playstation controller.
Dazed, Eris found herself at the mercy of Marty, who approached her. She readily prepared to defend herself with her bare hands. Knowing her powers won't work on him, she was forced to resort to physicality.
"You're asking for it now!" Eris hollered.
As Marty prepared to defend himself, she went for a right cross, but she still felt light-headed and stumbled around recovering from the teapot. She spun around and instinctively went for a punch, but she once again stumbled and left her back wide open for an attack. He realized he could easily knock her out from behind, take her to Cain, and be done with it, but he suddenly just paused and remembered Larry.
"I should, but can't…" Was all Marty could mutter as Eris turned around to face him. As she went to wrestle him down, he parried her hands and got leverage over her.
Just then, the front door opened and and a young man, only a year or so older than Marty himself, appeared. He stood about 5'6", had green eyes and a stylish undercut hairstyle which was, shockingly, also green. He still wore his work clothes, a pair of construction workers' coveralls with the name 'Larry' embroidered on one side of his chest and 'Kuwabara Construction' on the other.
Larry entered expecting his girlfriend to greet him. "Taylor?" Larry scanned the apartment until he sighted some stranger, from his view, putting his hands on his girlfriend. "HEY!" He quickly bumrushed the 'stranger' and interjected. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" He readily pulled out some playing cards, infusing them with kinetic energy without thinking, and threw them at the attacker.
However, as the cards got close to Marty, they lost their signature green glow and impacted without exploding, like regular playing cards would.
"What?!" Larry was taken aback as his cards fluttered to the floor. They didn't do jack to him! They should've stunned him at least!
"Larry!" Eris cried out. "My attacks haven't done anything to him!"
"In that case…!" Larry retrieved a bo staff from the closet and charged Marty. He charged kinetic energy through his bo and hit Marty square in the chest with it.
However, he noticed the bo lost its charge immediately on impact. The bo, though, was still a physical weapon and struck Marty hard, finally dealing a blow to him. Larry struck Marty a few times and smashed it across Marty's head, knocking him to the ground. At this point, Marty was on his back and Larry had the tip of his bo held against Marty's throat.
"Larry!" Eris cried out and rushed over to him.
"Did he hurt you?"
Eris showed him her head bump. "Well, he threw a bunch of our belongings and the living room's a mess. He did clonk me in the head with a teapot. I'm still kinda dazed from it, but I've taken worse shots from Miss Megumi, believe me."
"Yep, you're a tough cookie, aren't you?" Pivoting from Eris, Larry had his eyes glued on Marty and growled. "All right, who are you? Why did you break into our apartment? And why attack my girlfriend? You got ten seconds to answer!" He gritted and refrained from ramming the bo further into Marty's throat.
"...Larry? She called you Larry… it's really you," Marty replied to him, confusing Larry for a bit. "Is it? Lawrence William Stonebagel the Third?"
Eris turned to Larry and silently mouthed "The Third?" with a look of incredulity.
Larry was taken aback at the mention of his full name. Not even Sara and Hayata knew that much about him.
"How do you know that name?"
Marty raised his hands. "...I'm your cousin Marty." He smiled once he and Larry locked eyes. "Look, I didn't mean things to go south like this. Can we put the weapons away and talk like normal human beings?"
"I doubt any of us in this room could be considered a 'normal human being', including you," Larry sighed, "but alright."
xxxxx
Flashback/San Francisco, CA/Stonebagel Enterprises/August 17, 2006
18 year-old Marty Stonebagel sat behind the desk in what used to be his grandfather's office. It's barely been a week since the car crash that took the lives of Lawrence William Stonebagel, CEO of Stonebagel Enterprises, and his son Michael Stonebagel, Marty's father. He had just come from their funeral, and the reading of their wills, where it was revealed that he would be inheriting controlling interest of the company, to be held in trust until his 21st birthday.
There was a knock on the open door. Marty looked up to see his mother, Alice Stonebagel, standing in the doorway. "I figured I'd find you here…"
"Well, this will all be mine in 3 years, anyway, right?" Marty replied, melancholily. "After I inherit my shares, I can name myself CEO."
"Oh?" His mother raised an eyebrow. "And what do you know about running a company?"
"Well… nothing, yet." Marty sheepishly admitted. "But I'm starting college soon. If I give up baseball, and with all the AP courses I took in high school, I figure I can get at least a Bachelor's Degree in Business in just three years."
"Give up baseball?" Alice was taken aback. "But what about your dream to play in the Majors?"
"Dreams change. Someone has to run this company, and it might as well be me. It seems only right that the company stay in the family. After all, I was his only grandchild."
A shock of remembrance went through Alice's mind at Marty's words. "Oh… oh dear…" Alice muttered to herself. "I can't believe I… I mean, it's been so long since I even..."
"Mother? Is something wrong?"
"Marty, dear, I don't know how to tell you this, but you aren't your grandfather's only grandson. You have a cousin living somewhere in Japan."
"What? Why hasn't anyone ever told me this?"
"You have your grandfather to thank for that, I'm afraid. Lawrence always was a stubborn old fool."
"But… how?"
"Not many people know this, but before I married your father, I was actually engaged to his older brother, Lawrence Jr., though he went by J.R., or just Jay, for short. The marriage was agreed upon by our fathers in an attempt to merge their companies, but Jay fell in love on a trip to Japan, and backed out of the engagement, which was when your grandfather disowned him, and I married your father Michael instead."
"So Father's and your marriage was arranged?" Marty asked, incredulous.
"It's not quite how you're thinking. Michael, Jay, and I were all close friends throughout childhood, and I cared dearly for each of them, though it turns out your father had always been secretly in love with me. After we were engaged, even though it was an arranged marriage, he wooed me so romantically that I couldn't help but fall in love with him, too." Alice smiled sadly, remembering her now-departed husband.
"Mother…" was all Marty could reply, softly.
"Oh, but where was I?" Alice composed herself. "Ah, yes… your cousin. Despite your grandfather's wishes, your father and I stayed in touch with Jay, which was how we found out that Jay's wife, Mariko, had died giving birth to his son. Jay had named him Lawrence III, in an effort to try to get back into his father's good graces, but Lawrence still refused to acknowledge him, so Jay and little Larry stayed in Japan. That is, until a few years later, when Jay was killed in an unfortunate accident. I wanted to take Larry in, raise you two like brothers, but Lawrence stubbornly wouldn't allow it. He said that if Jay wasn't his son, then Larry couldn't be his grandson. I tried my best to convince him, but he wouldn't budge, and your father wouldn't dare oppose him in this, so Larry ended up in a Japanese orphanage, and that's the last I ever heard about him." A tear fell from her eye.
Marty got up and embraced his mother tightly. "I promise, Mother, we will find him."
xxxxx
"Mother and I hired several private investigators to try to find you. They managed to find the records of the orphanage you were placed in, but after it was shut down, it was like you disappeared off the face of the earth. That is, until your name showed up on the lease agreement to this apartment."
The three of them were seated around the kitchen table. Sailor Eris had powered down back into Taylor, but Larry still kept the bo staff within arms reach. Marty pulled a sheet of paper out of his briefcase and slid it across the table to Larry.
"What's this?" Larry asked.
"That is a document which, when signed, gives you 25.5% of the stock of Stonebagel Enterprises."
Larry's jaw hit the floor. "These must be worth millions! And you're just giving them to me?"
"178 million US Dollars, at current market value, to be precise. This is exactly half of the inheritance I received after our grandfather's passing, the half I believe rightfully belongs to you."
Larry didn't take long to decline the offer. "Thanks, but no thanks. I've lived my whole life without any recognition from that man. Why should that change now just because he's dead?"
Marty was baffled by his cousin's response. "I don't understand. You'd turn down money that you can use to live on for the rest of your life?"
"Yes, I don't need to be rich to live my life to its fullest."
Marty couldn't help but smile. Even though Larry declined his shares, Marty couldn't be mad. He was just happy to see his cousin was alive and well.
"If that's your decision, I can respect it, Larry."
"Thanks, Marty..."
"I hate to interrupt this family reunion," Taylor interjected, "but we still haven't figured out how Marty here saw through my secret identity."
"I've been thinking about that," Marty replied. "It probably had something to do with the canister of Rajita coolant I was carrying."
At the mention of the Rajita technology, Larry flipped out. "Dude, seriously? Anything having to do with the Rajita is bad news. During the invasion, my friends and I were captured and experimented on by them. That's how I ended up with my powers. And you were just walking around with this stuff?"
"We're well aware of the mutagenic properties of Rajita technology. The west coast of the United States was one of the hardest hit by the aliens, save for Tokyo itself, which was the epicenter of the invasion, and in the years since, there has been an influx of super-powered individuals, nearly all of them having definite links to some form of Rajita tech. And most of these Metahumans, as we call them, have been turning to crime."
"Ooh, 'Metahumans'!" Taylor cooed. "I like that name. It's catchy. But, yeah, my friends and I have been busy lately with all these freaks, like that Buzz guy, using their powers to satisfy their own greed."
Marty nodded. "Because of that, though, there's been a lot of research going on trying to understand this 'Rajita Effect'. The case I was carrying, in fact, was designed to neutralize the paranatural energies that Rajita technology gives off. When it got hit by Buzz's attack, I had thought that the case went into overdrive and completely neutralized the coolant, but now I'm thinking it transformed the energy and conducted it into my body, giving me the ability to neutralize your powers."
"Including the magic that protects my identity when I'm transformed!" Taylor added, with sudden realization.
"Wow…" Larry sighed. "That's heavy."
"I know, right?" Marty acknowledged. "Listen, Taylor… I'm sorry I attacked you, and accused you of working with Buzz. I was still a bit unsettled by the events on the train this morning."
"Hey, I get it," Taylor answered. "You've been through a lot today."
"Still, that's no excuse for letting my prejudices against the Metacriminals in America affect how I treated you, especially after you saved my life. Listening to Cain Bearer rant against the Sailor Senshi didn't help matters. He really has it out for you guys…"
"Look," Larry interrupted, "let's just all agree that it's water under the bridge. I've got a cousin I just met, and there's no way I'm gonna let him leave without staying for dinner."
Marty smiled. "I'd like that… Cuz."
xxxxx
LazerWulf's notes: *whew* Finally done. This little ficlet kicked my butt worse than the Paris Gaiden chapter.
Way back in 2011, while we were still in the midst of Dawn of Chaos, Kanius and I were already planning out The West Coasters when I came up with the character of Marty, who was Larry's cousin. Larry had originally been an old RPG character I had recycled for Invasion of the Rajita, and, as such, had the least amount of backstory. Of all my OCs, however, he's probably the one I feel the closest connection to, and as I expanded his origins, I decided he would be Lawrence William Stonebagel III, forgotten heir of Stonebagel Enterprises. (You can see a hint of this way back in Lance's chapter of Summer Diaries.)
Marty, then, would be the legitimate heir, on a quest to find his cousin and deliver what he believes is rightfully Larry's. He'd get attacked by a Meta and eventually become one himself. This was also about when I decided that Larry and Taylor would move in together, and started thinking about how the Sailor Senshi protected their identities (see the Vivian/Tristan/Duke chapter of SD). I figured that if it was magic that caused them not to be recognized, then someone who is immune to magic would be able to see right through it.
It took me about a year to finalize the outline of this story, though Kanius and I knew that we wouldn't get to it until we were ready to start TWC. This was always going to be a Gaiden chapter, but it was also supposed to be a prologue for TWC, and we had planned to post it before the first TWC chapter went up, but after the first draft of this, I realized that it needed some massive overhauling. In the first draft, Larry and Marty meet and have their conversation before Taylor walks in and Marty recognizes her and they all fight, but, even though that's how I outlined it, I realized that the scene just didn't flow right that way. Marty was also originally a lot more bigoted against Metas, which made his turnaround in attitude feel a lot more abrupt.
So this got pushed back into development hell. I'd work on it when I could, but then I'd hit a writer's block and not get back to it for weeks. At one point, back when TWC was going to have 6 chapters, the final chapter's prologue would be the origin of the team, and I thought this could be part of that extended flashback, but that chapter was cut and merged with chapter 5, so that idea had to be dropped. I still wanted to get it done at least before Apophis Rising, which would show Larry and Marty's second meeting, but, alas, I couldn't get it done in time.
And so now, here it is, in all its glory. Please do not blame Kanius for its delay, as the fault is entirely mine. Perhaps soon we can bring you the West Coaster's Team origin in a future Gaiden.