I am late again. Oh well. Here's an update. I shall try to not be late for the rest of the story, although I have to admit that this one is being difficult to write. Oh well. I like the challenge. Anyway, enjoy!
"Okay, I made it lighter so now you shouldn't be a turtle."
"Oh shut up. I did not look like a turtle."
"Did too."
"You have no proof."
"Oh don't I?" Yuki grinned mischievously as he helped Gingka get the now-slimmer metal contraption onto his back.
"... Wait, did you take pictures?!" Gingka looked slightly panicked. Yuki merely laughed and stepped away, towards the controls and 'anti-fire contraptions' as Gingka had named them after forgetting the term 'fire extinguisher' momentarily.
"No, you idiot." Yuki laughed. "Now stand still and don't point yourself towards any walls."
"What about the ceiling?" Gingka asked, looking up.
"That shouldn't be a problem. I'll be turning up the thrust slowly to lift you off the ground and I can shut it off before you hit the ceiling if needed. But if you lean forwards, then gravity will not be pulling against the thrust of the jetpacks and you'll go careening into something so for the sake of not making an enormous mess, stay upright."
Gingka saluted before grabbing onto the straps of the jetpacks and holding on as Yuki began the process to ignite the jetpacks that would hopefully lift Gingka into the air without incident.
"Alright, here we go. Starting the video." Yuki said as he went and turned on the camera. "Jetpack testing, attempt number one. Ready, Gingka?"
"As ready as I can be when I haven't the slightest clue whether or not this will work." Gingka chuckled. "Fire away."
"Very funny." Yuki chuckled. "Ignition in three, two, one."
With a rather noisy roar, the metal contraption on Gingka's back was shooting flames. Before Yuki even knew what had happened, Gingka let out a rather high-pitched shriek. Yuki froze and blinked in confusion as a bit of flames separated from the main part and ran off. The jetpacks began flying around in every direction, lighting several things on fire and smashing through a few things before Yuki had the time to react and slam his hands on the emergency shutoff switch.
"Gingka?" Yuki called, looking around but seeing no sign of the redhead. He glanced at the camera, which had been knocked over and was sparking. He extinguished the flames around the laboratory before exiting the room, wondering how and where Gingka had run off to so quickly, especially considering that he had apparently removed the jetpacks before making a quick exit.
"Gingka? Where'd you go? Are you alright?" Yuki called.
"GAHH STUPID PIRANHAS!"
"... Oh no…" Yuki muttered, sprinting towards the nearby river as fast as his legs could carry him. "Gingka!"
"AIEEEEEEE!" A blurred streak of red and blue rushed past Yuki, who sweatdropped and went back to the observatory, where he found Gingka sitting in the kitchen sink with a large blanket wrapped around him and the water running as cold as it could possibly be.
"Are you alright?" Yuki asked, trying to sound concerned rather than amused.
".. Next time… We need to make sure my butt doesn't get burned off." Gingka growled, glaring at Yuki, who had to bite his lip hard to keep himself from laughing at the redhead.
"Well, you're alright now, right?" Yuki said.
"You try getting lit on fire and then nearly bitten by piranhas!" Gingka said, half-pouting at the look of restrained amusement on Yuki's face.
"I'll go get some anti-burn stuff for you to put on that." Yuki chuckled, walking out. "You keep cooling off."
Gingka groaned in annoyance and pain and huddled deeper underneath the blanket.
"Here. This'll help it not sting." Yuki said, returning a few minutes later with a small tube of cream. "And I'll get to working on some fireproof something or other for future tests."
"You should have thought of that the first time." Gingka growled, snatching the cream and storming off, the blanket still wrapped tightly around him.
"Sorry." Yuki chuckled sheepishly, returning to the lab.
Three hours later, Yuki went back into the main area of the observatory, only to find Gingka laying on his stomach on the couch, his face buried in his arms.
"... Are you alright Gingka?" Yuki asked.
Gingka lifted his head slightly and glared angrily at Yuki.
"I'll take that as a no."
"Next time you can burn your butt instead." Gingka grumbled as he reburied his face in his arms.
"That bad, huh?"
"Yes…" Gingka groaned. Yuki chuckled sheepishly and patted his friend's shoulder.
"You'll live."
"Well I'm not going to be helping you again anytime soon." Gingka grumbled. "I plan on staying right here until this burn stops stinging."
"That'll be a couple of days probably. Depends on how bad the burn is." Yuki said.
"Fantastic." Gingka said in the most sarcastic tone he could muster. "Any idea on piranha bites?"
"Wait, they actually bit you?!"
"One or two of them did." Gingka grumbled.
"You should have gone straight for the bathtub or sink first, rather than the Amazon." Yuki said.
"Well it seemed like the most available idea at the time." Gingka grumbled in a muffled tone, his face still buried in his arms.
"I can see that. Also the more dangerous."
"Hey, it put the fire out before the piranhas came." Gingka grumbled.
"I did have a hose and a fire extinguisher." Yuki said.
"Well my first instinct wasn't to remember that."
"Clearly."
"Just shut up and go do something sciencey."
Yuki chuckled. "Would the injured idiot like something to eat?"
Gingka lifted his head again and sent Yuki a death glare that even Ryuga would have likely been scared of. The brunette yelped at this and was out of the room in an instant. Gingka merely smirked and once more buried his face in his arms.
"Brilliant, Yuki." Yuki grumbled as he sat down in the computer room and spun in his chair for a few moments before blinking and turning to the screen as he heard a notification coming through the speakers.
"Dynamis?" The brunette blinked and quickly answered.
"Ahh, Yuki. I am glad you were available." Dynamis said.
"Yeah. Found anything?" Yuki said. "You don't normally call."
"I did. But if you could go get Gingka so I do not have to explain this more than once, please?"
"Gingka's, uh… A bit preoccupied at the moment." Yuki said.
"Did he eat himself into a food coma again? Dynamis asked.
"No- Wait, again?" Yuki blinked.
"Nevermind. If he is at all able to come, then please get him."
"He's a bit mad at me at the moment…" Yuki admitted sheepishly. "I think I'll let him cool off-both figuratively and literally- before I try to talk to him."
Dynamis raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"
"Weeeeeeeeelllllll….." Yuki trailed off awkwardly.
"Is he alright?" Dynamis sounded slightly concerned.
"... We did our first test on the jetpacks today and I, uh… May or may not have forgotten that Gingka himself needed something to keep him from being lit on fire?"
Dynamis merely stared in surprise at Yuki for a few moments, his serene features filled with confusion.
"You… Lit Gingka on fire…?"
"And then he went and jumped into the Amazon and got bit by piranhas…" Yuki hung his head. "He's not too happy with me right now."
"I can imagine." Dynamis said. "Still, this is urgent."
"He'll be down for at least two days. Perhaps I can handle it. I can at least relay the message to him." Yuki said.
Dynamis nodded. "Please do."
"Fire away then."
"Are you sure this plan is going to work, Argo?"
"It has to. The Legendary Bladers haven't been seen in four years. Who knows where they are?"
"That's what I'm concerned about. They could be anywhere. How can you guarantee that they're not all together?"
"I cannot, but they cannot know about our little operation here. We're in too remote of a location."
"How can you be so sure? They have an annoying level of expertise at finding things, which was good when it came to Nemesis, but will be bad for us."
"Relax, Ian. They will not find out until it is too late. That is why this is called a secret base."
"But how can you be absolutely sure?!"
"Oh please. We have been here for a while already. Those idiots are probably off somewhere training, completely oblivious to our threat against them."
"If they find out we cannot keep them from destroying all of this."
"Hence why we cannot let them find out until it is too late for them to do anything about it. We will find their locations and pick them off one by one."
"There have been many people looking for them for years. What makes you so sure that we can do any better?"
"Oh, we will find them. As soon as we get the resources we will find them."
"How? They could be anywhere."
"I know. But we will find them."
"Gahh! Yuki! That hurts!"
"Relax! I was just trying to make sure you were warm enough, sheesh!"
"I'm fine! Now get that blanket off of me!"
"Okay, okay. Sheesh. You could cool off a bit."
"You could not light people on fire."
"Gingka, it was an accident. And you weren't seriously hurt."
Gingka merely growled. "It still stings really bad…"
"I know. But you refused the painkillers I have too so I can't really help you there."
Gingka groaned and buried his face in the couch. "Why couldn't you have just thought to give me something to prevent this…?" he said in a muffled tone.
"Look, I said I'm sorry. Now are you going to make this less pleasant by being a big baby about it or are you gonna chill out and just relax?"
"Hard to relax when you are stuck laying on your stomach. Not the most comfortable position to be in for a long period of time."
"Well, it's better than anything else apparently so quit whining." Yuki said.
Gingka grumbled something under his breath before falling silent.
"Dynamis said he found something." Yuki said, changing the subject.
"What is it?" Gingka asked, once more raising his head and looking at Yuki.
"Apparently he spotted an ad in response to the Garcias' one in the paper." Yuki said.
"And?"
"It was asking for more details. None of the others posted it, but Dynamis said we should see if there's a response."
"... As if we get any newspapers out here."
"Yeah. But still, it is something we have to be sorta aware of at least."
Gingka looked thoughtful, bringing his hands up and resting his chin in them. "Who could have placed that?" he wondered aloud.
"Possibly someone who also noticed the rather unusual ad." Yuki said. "The Garcias only left a phone number to call for information, but apparently somebody wants a bit more than that."
"Apparently. I wonder if this sort of ad is appearing in any other newspapers. We should probably make sure. If they're recruiting from around the world then we need to know. If they're building an army then we need to move more quickly than we thought we did."
"Look at you sounding all serious about things again." Yuki chuckled.
"This is becoming more serious than before." Gingka said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "They're planning something big. And knowing them, it's not good. The bigger what they're planning is, the less good it is for us or anyone else."
"Okay, so do you have any plans on how to stop them?" Yuki asked.
"We'd have to know what they're doing. But this time, with what me and Ryuga found, just smashing in won't work. They'll be able to take us out easier than before. We probably can't count on them overestimating us, but we will not lose to them."
"So we take them down from the inside." Yuki said.
Gingka looked at Yuki and raised an eyebrow. "How would we manage that? We can't just sneak in without getting found out. Their security is too tight."
Yuki grinned. "What if we respond to their ad?"
Gingka looked intrigued. "Do you have a plan for that?"
"Well, they're looking for strength. The ad is more specifically talking about bladers, but if we see a response in that paper, then it means that they are watching for that sort of stuff. We can perhaps put out our own ad, something that would catch only their eye. Or we could simply call them and offer them something they cannot resist."
"Such as?"
"A weapon that they could not get their hands on otherwise." Yuki said. "But something convincing."
"I'm all ears." Gingka said.
"What if we gave them something that they would at least think could defeat us?"