I LIIIIIIIVE! Yeah, so between working on an actual novel, a comic script, AND regular articles for my new job, I haven't exactly found the time for fanfics, and when I do have the time, I don't have the energy XD. But I'm back, and now back in the swing of things! See you all next chapter, and please rate, review, and all that good stuff but most of all, enjoy!
Ed seemed convinced today that he had X-ray vision, because every time they passes a reflective surface on their way to the hangar, he would stare intently at his own reflection. Kira gave in. "Ed, what are you doing?" She asked.
"There's a blender in my brain," Ed said as if it were the most fascinating thing about their time on this spaceship staffed by uber powerful alien super soldiers. "Just…wow."
"Yeah, riveting," Kira replied, rolling her eyes.
"You're taking this rather well, Kira," said Jack.
"Honestly, I just don't think it's quite sunk in yet." Kira ran a hand through her hair. "I mean…this is a lot to handle." Her breathing quickened as her thoughts spiraled. "I mean, I'm still wrapping my head around the idea that I might, might, be one of these guys!"
"Yeah, how would that work?" Ed asked, scratching his chin. "I mean, they're super tall, super strong, and even the women are built like really hot bodybuilders. That's pretty much the opposite of you." Ed chuckled, not noticing the anger radiating off of Kira like a Chernobyl of fuck you.
"Moving on," Kira said through gritted teeth.
"Actually, Ed has a point," Jack chimed in, also oblivious to Kira's fuming. "I have known you for about three years, Kira. You are not the type of woman who would hold back if she had any of the abilities displayed by the Terrans. If it wasn't for the fact that an ancient Terran facility accepted your DNA, these claims would have absolutely no ground to stand on."
"And yet, it did accept her DNA," said yet another Terran from around a corner, making Ed and Kira jump.
"Indeed, thus the mystery deepens," said Jack, unfazed by the newcomer (he heard him coming from down the hall a minute ago).
"Sorry 'bout that," said the Terran, tall as life with a mane of jet black hair. He looked down at Kira with a big jolly smile. "The name's Rictor. I'm the ship's combat specialist. You must be the new blood." Rictor held out a hand for Kira, who went to take it, and was promptly pulled into a very tight hug. "Welcome aboard, kiddo!"
"Thank you, now let me go!" Kira choked out as her face actually turned blue. Rictor released her, chuckling heartily. "Are you our pilot?" Kira asked.
"Nah," said Rictor. "That'd be Lucky, he's down in the hangar. C'mon, I'll show you the way." He draped his arm over Kira's shoulders and basically dragged her down the hall, with Ed and Jack close behind.
"I don't think I like Rictor," said Ed.
"He is a touch…forward," Jack replied with a cocked eyebrow. Kira, meanwhile, seethed with annoyance at the manhandling, but could only grumble as the man's grip was like being non-lethally sandwiched between two double decker buses. Not enough to hurt, but enough to ensure she wasn't going anywhere.
After five minutes of walking (during which Jack managed to explain to Rictor why his forward nature wasn't winning any popularity with Kira, prompting him to apologize and let her walk the rest of the way) the four came upon the hangar. The roof was at least three stories high, and the floor was covered in Terran engineers all going about their business. Although every single one looked up from their work, at least for a moment, to see Kira walk by. Kira wasn't normally the socially awkward type, but the eyes of hundreds of curious men and women made her want to retreat into her shirt just to be out of their line of sight. Rictor saw this and bellowed, "Back to work, ya schuttas!" The engineers returned to their work. "Sorry about them, it's been a while since we had anyone new around here."
"I hadn't noticed," kira replied, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, where's this "lucky" guy?"
"Behind you, ma'am," Kira, Ed and Jack turned around to find quite a different terran. Lucky was exactly the correct term for the man in front of Kira, seeing as he only really had one appendage besides his head: his right arm. His legs, left arm, and right eye had all been replaced by cybernetic prosthetic. Except for his legs, which were instead replaced by a bulky, wheelchair-like contraption which hovered slightly over the ground instead of having wheels. He looked up at Kira with a wry smile that danced along scarred lips. "Feel free to stare, I know I'm quite the specimen."
Kira's face dusted red in embarrassment for a second as she averted her gaze. "S-sorry," she said, taking his hand to shake it.
Lucky shrugged. "No worries, I know I'm handsome. It's a terrible burden, believe me." Lucky gave Kira a wink through his slightly unkempt dark blue hair, causing Kira's slight dust of red to grow in intensity. Kira centered her entire life on being all fusion busting all the time, but she was still a woman with a beating heart in her chest. And scars drove her crazy.
A quick cough to get herself back on track, and Kira turned on her heel to focus on the ships placed around the hangar. "S-so, which of these are we using?" she asked.
Lucky rolled right up next to her. "That's up to you, beautiful."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well since we're trying to be all sneaky sneak this time, we can't very well go blasting into the nearest city in one of our skybreakers. Well, we could, and I want to, but we probably shouldn't. I'm gonna drop you three off planet side where no one will notice, and then you'll get me one of your ships for me to use."
"Not a bad idea, Lucky," Kira said, regaining her composure and sharing Lucky's wry grin.
What's that, dear viewer? Why am I not mentioning Ed's reaction to a random man putting the moves on Kira and it actually working? I shall answer that question with a question: Do I need to tell you how he's seething in pure jealous rage while Jack keeps him pinned to where he is with a single hand on his shoulder? You already know that's exactly what he was doing. And Kira was loving it.
She smirked slightly, looking back at the steam coming out of Ed's ears as Lucky slid a bit closer to her side. "Really hot bodybuilders," eh? Well, see how you like it. She thought to herself.
Rictor grabbed Lucky by his one good ear and pulled back. "Down boy," he said, letting go. "Sorry about him, kiddo, he gets restless when he's stuck on the ship for too many centuries." Rictor looked back at Lucky. "Now, can we trust you to behave yourself?"
"'Course not," Lucky replied. The two broke out into laughter, and Rictor slapped Lucky on the back.
"Kira, this is the best pilot in our entire fleet. You're in good hands. I'll see ya around." With that, Rictor walked off.
Lucky turned his chair towards his ship. "C'mon, I imagine a lot of people are looking for you three."
Ed's eyes widened to the width of dinner plates. "Oh man, Eddy and Double D!" he shouted. Kira's face became similarly panicked.
"Eddy must have half the planet out looking for us!" she said. "Lucky, we need to get going, NOW!"
Lucky nodded, and led the two across the hangar to his personal ship: The Messenger. A sleek ship of shining chrome that glistened in the artificial light above. Shaped like a bullet, with two wings jutting out from the back, the ship just sorta hovered in place as they approached. "Explain," kira said, looking at Lucky while pointing at the ship.
"Well it can't very well be the fastest ship in the fleet if it has to waste time taking off and landing, now can it?" Lucky asked, mockingly incredulous. "Anyway, get in, I'll get you three home." Lucky pressed a button on the arm of his chair, opening a door in the side of the ship. From the bottom of the door frame, four steps levitated down individually, making a staircase for the four to get into the ship.
The stairs levitated up and folded back into place as Ed entered the ship behind everyone else, just barely managing to make it inside before the hole that was the doorway disappeared completely like liquid. "Not gonna miss this place," Ed grumbled under his breath as he looked for a seat. The seats, like the door, rose out of the floor like liquid, taking solid form for them. Lucky, meanwhile, hovered over to the front of the cockpit and lowered his chair to the floor, which proceeded to bond with the chair, mounting him in place. "Hang on tight, kids," he said, cracking his knuckles outward and laying his fingers on a holographic console that appeared before him with a low hum. At the same time, the cockpit's window opened up, revealing the hangar doors already open, with the storm of Jupiter awaiting them. "This may be a touch bumpy."
Kira tightened her grip on her seat more than she ever had with anything in her life. The ship moved supernaturally fast, zooming through the storm (which for those unaware, is at least 3 times the size of Earth) at unparalleled speeds. Lucky then pulled up, and within minutes, they had escaped the storm with nary a scratch on the paint job (assuming the ship HAD paint).
Lucky arched his head back with a smirk. "You three alright back there?" he asked. Ed declined to comment (mostly out of fear that opening his mouth would let out the vomit), Jack gave a barely composed thumbs up, and Kira, with a face so green one could mistake her for a member of the gangrene gang, just grunted. "Just get us home…" She then swallowed hard, forcing her lunch back to where it belonged. Lucky laughed heartily before igniting the afterburners once again. "Now keep hanging on, because if we're gonna get you guys back nice and quick, we're gonna have to top that speed." Lucky pressed another button on the holographic console, turning the console bright red. "We like to call this next trick: the folder" A beam shot out from the ship as it picked up speed. A portal, the same portal used by the ships back on Earth, silently exploded to life in the soundless vacuum of space. Through the other side, Kira could see Earth, as if it were already in front of her. And then it was.
The ship zoomed through the portal, coming out the other side, above the Earth. "Well, alright," said Lucky. "Only I call it the folder, but that's basically what it is: folding space and time like a piece of parchment and letting us safely travel through."
"As if I wasn't sick enough," Ed groaned, gripping his stomach.
"You'll get used to it eventually," said Lucky. "Now, I'm gonna put you three down somewhere secluded, where no one will see this eyesore of a ship as I slow down to drop you off." Lucky loved the messenger, truly, but its reflective, silver surface, when it wasn't zooming through space, was basically a neon sign labeled "shoot me, dumbass". Lucky pressed another set of buttons, beginning an active sweep of the planet for any area secluded enough no one would notice them, but close enough to civilization so Kira could walk there. He found a nice patch of forest near camp kidney, and set a course for the planet's surface.
Lucky stopped just above the tree line and opened the door for the three. "This'll have to do, I can't go any lower."
"This is fine, thanks," said Kira.
"No problem, new blood," Lucky replied with a thumbs up before grabbing a circular device from under the seat. "By the way, take this." He tossed Kira the device, and she caught it.
"What's this?" she asked, Ed and Jack waiting semi-patiently behind her.
"Just stick it on the ship you want me to use when no one's looking, it'll do the rest. Now get going." Kira looked out of the door to the forest floor, just barely visible through the trees. If she jumped to the sturdiest branch she could find, she could then climb down safely and-why was she already in the air? Kira looked up to find Ed had already picked her up bridal style, again, and leapt down with Jack to the forest below. Ed placed Kira back on her feet, and Kira dusted off her pants. "Uh, thanks, but I was about to jump," she said.
"No, you were thinking about jumping, which would've taken hours," Ed replied.
"I do not take that long, Ed!" Kira snapped back with an incredulous pout.
"Children," Jack chided firmly, calming the two down. "Now then, I've been in this area before. Camp Kidney is just a mile or two north, then from there we can get in contact with a patrol and be escorted back to Peach Creek."
"Yeah," Kira said, nodding. "C'mon, it's gonna be a day's hike at least."
"Great," Ed grumbled, following behind the two. A minute later, Ed probed a question on all three hero's minds. "Sooooo, who wants to explain to Eddy where we were and why we didn't call back? Anyone?"
"Don't look at me," said Kira. Jack said nothing.
Ed's grimace only grew. "They're gonna kill me…"