THIS TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE PROLOGUE AND MISSION 1
Woman,
You know you,
Woman,
You gotta be,
Woman,
I've got to feeling alone,
When you're talking to me, see right through me,
I've got the feeling of love
Wolfmother - Woman
>ON!
One on one with one. That was what Luca was imagining the situation to be, because Aerin was there somewhere but not in the flesh. That was probably the first question that'd go through his mind. He'd asked her to meet at Karl's Threepenny Bullets - Sargasso's best (and only) weapons shop and firing range. He had bought ammunition for the mission ahead.
"So what's your game anyway?" Karl asked after counting and tilling the money he'd been given.
"Odd jobs." Luca replied as he held his shopping box under one arm, containing all the ammo he'd bought. Karl nodded knowingly and shrugged.
A bell at the top of the door jingled as it was nudged while someone walked in- The young girl Luca had seen at Lina's, though she carried herself somewhat differently- the way she walked was more familiar to Luca, someone he'd known for a while, often intimately, although the recent intamacy had been of a very different type.
"Welcome ma'am." Karl looked past Luca and at the new arrival. "Need a hand or are you just lookin' around?" Karl had white hair, was in his thirties, blue eyes and a round face. A large bore rifle was resting on the shelf behind him in a glass frame, while various other firearms were on the shelves - firing pins removed and unloaded, ready for inspection.
"Do you have an ODM Raygun I could try out?" she asked the man as she walked toward the counter, winking at Luca as she did so. "You have a range here, right?" Despite her looks- indeed she seemed to be just a teenager- she spoke and carried herself with the authority of someone much older, her teal eyes clear and focused.
"Of course we do, ma'am." Karl replied happily before he searched his computer catalogue. "As for the Raygun, well-" He pressed Enter and smiled. "We do have a couple in stock. They're not cheap though - fun to shoot and good on the mantelpiece though."
Luca looked at the Raygun's picture on the computer and raised an eyebrow. It did look good. He only had an ODM 10mm pistol with the excessively large hand rail sawed off. It still fired properly though, and it was a decent backup weapon. Karl then pointed over to a section of the shop where the pistols were in boxes, ready to be bought.
Oddly enough there were quite a few Origin guns here - even though Ellen had seen an embattled Ori-Mart here in Sargasso.
The girl put her hands together in a pleased manner, a grin on her face. "Excellent. I need something more authority than these old Zen Arms covert Ops I'm dripping out the ears with." she motioned to the small, dark pistol holstered at her belt- an old Nepleslian design- as if it were nothing more than dead weight at her hip. Karl chuckled in agreement as he looked at the old weapon on her hip.
She chuckled along with Karl, holding out a hand. "I'm Ellen by the way, Ellen Katsuragi. Bring out two, I'm in a giving mood today, and think I might buy one for the looker over there- She motioned to Luca with a shoulder, again winking at the Mercenary. You are disgusting A voice in the woman's head muttered, It was the voice of the body's true owner, who wished that she was elsewhere at the moment, rather than watching helplessly as an older woman hit on some scruffy man using her body!
"Someone likes you!" Karl hooted at Luca, who was inspecting the weapons in question. He grabbed the two boxes containing the stylised pistols, and plonked them down on the counter, along with the ammo he'd been keeping in his shopping bag.
Ellen opened one of the boxes, and examined the finely crafted firearm closely, looking impressed with the quality. "Hand made, these" she muttered, motioning for Luca to come over and pick up the other one. "Shall you show us to the range?" she asked of Karl, dropping a few DA on the counter to cover whatever range fees and ammo they might use.
"Since you asked so nicely, certainly ma'am." He locked his till and moved behind the counter. The sound of the doors locking could be heard too. "Security - since I'm not going to be at the counter." He explained. Luca, meanwhile, held up one of the firearms and pulled the slide back to inspect the chamber and action. He gave the empty weapon a twirl before holding it in his hands and continuing to the range.
The range itself was a place slightly below ground, and the floor was mostly drainage grills that lead to a larger cistern beneath the city, thanks to Sargasso's monsoon weather periodically flooding his shop out. The walls were made of concrete, and a track system could be seen overhead for the paper targets.
As Karl was heading over to the controls to set things up, Luca looked down at Ellen, or Aerin, or whomever she appeared to be today, and asked one simple question beneath his voice: "First of all - why." Why be thrust back into the very spotlight that almost burnt him into a crisp, that gave him the scars and made him stupid enough to buy into his own hype?
Ellen, or rather Aerin, as Luca had obviously figured out by now, remained quiet for a moment, inspecting the gun, and carefully loading fifteen cartridges in to the magazine, which she then carefully slid into the handle to the gun, a click, followed by the sound of the charging handle being pulled, signalling that it had been successfully loaded. Aerin looked back up at Luca, and he could see some abnormal look in her eyes- one of worry, but also determination.
"The people of this universe need hope, Luca. I can't bring it, the Nepleslian government can't bring it, and Yamatai sure as hell can't bring it. They needed someone on their level, someone that they can relate to, and understand." Aerin took a stance, and aimed downrange as the paper targets arrived at their designated location. She fired several shots, the explosions of gunpowder resounding in the concrete chamber, the smell of burnt powder filling the air around them.
"You were that person, Luca, but you lost your way. Too many things happened too quickly, and everyone thought that you could do it all by yourself- they were just a side-show, background dancers, the extras you see in a movie. What they didn't realize was you needed support." Again, Aerin fired several rounds at the paper target, and then stopped as Luca began speaking.
"Damn right too many things happened too quickly Aerin." Luca scowled, he hadn't even put a magazine into the pistol. "I got caught in my own fucking hype." He then looked down into the stylised, hand made pistol. "I wanted to be alone - and I didn't want those crazy enough to follow me to get hurt too."
"But that's not what you needed." Aerin pointed out. She dropped the magazine, and pulled back the charging handle to inspect the gun a bit more, before looking back to Luca. "Everyone's realised that you need them as much as they need you. Before, everyone was watching you, burning bright in the sky by yourself. But one light goes out if left alone. That's why I brought you back. that's why I had to knock sense back into you. that's why I needed you to realize that you needed us."
"I'm not the god everyone makes me out to be, stop shilling me." Luca hissed back, picking up the pistol. "All I am is a mere, mortal man who just got pushed over the edge, and sooner or later I'm going to go out for good." He still hadn't put a magazine into it.
Aerin reached up, and flicked Luca on the forehead, right between the eyes, looking annoyed at him. "I know that. And now your old crew realises it too. That's why they've come back, and that's what's drawn people to you. We aren't here because of you, no, rather, we're here, for you. Those that were here before didn't understand their part back then, but now they do."
"Those that have come have had their part figured out for them, which makes it easier for them to help. It's not just Luca anymore- The Phoenix is a family. And that family is the hope this universe needs."
There were two magazines on the bench for Luca's pistol. All nine inches and two point four pounds of it were in his left hand - empty and unused. The fingers on his right hand drummed across the table as he contemplated the magazines. He put his left hand down on his booth and sighed. "Hope's a double edged sword, though. I almost cut myself with it." He pointed to his orange right eye with his right hand, currently unaware of why it was happening, nor the pain in his sides. "I need to tell people to take it in moderation."
"Which is why we're here, today, now. Not on some crazy world covered in war fighting aliens or horrors from deep space with the power to destroy worlds. You've already started it; the road to recovery, while keeping that hope rekindled." Aerin placed her chosen firearm down on the table and leaned in closer to Luca.
"One step at a time is all we're asking. We don't need you to save the whole Universe just yet- Just save this town tomorrow, perhaps the day after we might be able to save just a single person. It doesn't have to be big, but it's still Hope. That is what I was thinking of when I brought you back from despair. The kind of hope a megacorporation, or a military, or a government can't even hope to bring."
Aerin looked into Luca's eyes, though the face, the eyes, the hair, everything about the person looking into him was different than he recognised. "Is that too much to ask for? With as much support as you have now?"
Luca knew who was speaking but the body in front of him wasn't the person he knew. He blinked at her for a moment as he got caught up in a moral dilemma over body ownership. He decided to go with the hands off approach for Ellen's sake and took a step back, hoping she wouldn't kiss him. He then picked up a magazine and looked at the paper target hanging there in space.
Snap. Cla-CLINK. Time slowed down as he counted each casing that flew through the air - able to read the 'KZ 10x25' at the base of each piece of brass. He stopped at fourteen and dropped the magazine out of the weapon - with one bullet left in the chamber and threw the other magazine inside within the space of a second. He continued firing until the weapon was finally empty.
He wasn't shooting the centre of the target, but he'd made a simplified picture using those thirty rounds of a bird with its wings open and talons out. "We shall see." He grinned before his expression relaxed. "One more question. Why are you sharing a body with a teenager?"
Aerin grimaced. "Ah, yes, well. It's not entirely voluntary. You see, I put my original body in storage and swapped to this one as a 'cover' while I was looking for you in the underground. Someone figured me out, and decided to try and 'erase' me, having acquired Ellen's actual ST backup, which was thought lost on Tami when the Mishhu invaded. A clone of you tried, but failed to eradicate me, and now I'm sharing a body." Aerin shrugged, having summarized it as best as she could for now.
It was obvious, though, she was hiding something. It had been more than a week since she had found Luca, and from the sounds of it, a while since she'd really needed Ellen's body.
"What happened." Luca requested bluntly as he started some deduction. "I know you, you wouldn't have come here incognito just for my sake. Someone's after you."
"You've actually been demolishing some of their subsidiaries," Aerin mentioned. "There is one, called Rina. A curious case, apparently NMX tried to clone me, but couldn't quite get it right. They did, however, successfully clone you- well, your body anyway- but that's not the problem." Aerin, in Ellen Katsuragi's body, looked off to one side, a bit ashamed, but now shaking with anger, as well.
"They took it. It's gone. My body, that is. I can't go to Yamatai, they'd put me in Jail. Nepleslia doesn't have the right technology, they can't help. All my equipment at the storage facility was destroyed, so I can't make a new one." she looked back up into Luca's eyes. "I'm stuck." Then, her head shook back and forth as if she were shaking off a sudden drowsiness, and her body language changed entirely. Her voice changed, just slightly as well- it was Ellen again. "And as much as I'm grateful she saved me- it'd be nice to have the two of us seperate again, you know?"
Luca smirked. "And you're hoping I can do that, right?" He then chuckled. "Oh don't worry, I'll help you both out since its the right thing to do. Just one word of warning though, in return." He held up a single finger to Ellen. "Stay. Away from Vita, both of you."
Ellen was tacken aback. "Don't look at me- it was Aerin that did all that. I was just an unwilling passenger at the time." She looked at the firearm on the table, and picked it up, her grip and stance suddenly visibly much more awkward than Aerin's had been, as she pointed the thing lazily downrange. "I could probably take her, anyway, she's like twelve isn't she?" the girl fired the pistol, and stumbled backward a bit, surprised by the recoil, grinning sheepishly at the result.
"You don't know the half of it, kid. Aerin does." He then chuckled as he watched Ellen recover from the kick of the weapon. "You can't even hold a pistol right!" He then showed her how to hold the weapon properly. "Both hands firmly, not cup-and-saucer, but with both hands wrapped around each other for maximum stability so you can aim down the sights. Try now - your body can take the recoil."
Ellen did as instructed- again, the recoil was more than she had really wanted, but the improved stance did indeed make a difference. "Ah- allright. I'll try to keep that in mind." she face went a bit red as she realized as she had interrupted, and she profusely apologized to Luca - inadvertently waving the pistol around for a moment- before catching herself and stopping, reverting back to Aerin after a few moments. She straightened up again, and muttered a final 'sorry' putting the pistol back down.
"But yes, stay away from Vita, Aerin." Luca pushed again.
"I'll do so. Hopefully she'll gain enough of her own self to realize she has no tangible reason to bear a grudge against me." Aerin responded, scratching the back of her head. "But I'll try and be careful about it until that happens." She picked up the pistol and its two magazines, and motioned toward the door that lead back into the shop. "How about we finish up and get out of here? I'm sure you have more preparations to do."
Luca nodded and then motioned to Karl, holding up the pistol without his finger on the trigger, and the two magazines in his off hand. "I'll take it and two spare mags, please!"
>OFF!
-
When you’re on a holiday
You can’t find the words to say
All the things that come to you
And I wanna feel it too
Weezer - Island in the Sun
>ON!
The town was quiet. It was mid-day in Sargasso, the sun was crawling around up there in the cloudless sky like it owned the place - an observation based on fact. Rain wasn't a problem so near the coast, but that wouldn't come to the surface just based off of the way the paint was peeling from buildings, and the way the dust zephered itself into devils on the relatively unpopulated streets.
Nobody really wanted to be outside in a town this hot, except for a single teenage girl sitting on the curb under the shadow of an awning, blowing small smoke rings into the hazy air and watching the wind off the ocean catch them before they could fully form.
One of the Sargasso kids was picking at the debris on the beach for anything cool that'd washed up. One time he found a dead body and he always came back in search of something simlar - he got 50 bucks that day! He looked to be at least ten or twelve years old. One thing he particularly liked looking for was spent brass from ammo - he knew he could give it to that guy who rans the gun shop and get pocket money in return. There was not much else to occupy his day, and daytime TV was a drag. There wasn't even a place to learn properly in this wreck of a town.
Vitalia was watching him, and had been watching him for several minutes. She noticed that whenever the wandering child found a brass casing in a place he hadn't seen before, his face lit up like it was the best thing to happen all day. He'd wipe it with the bottom of his shirt and put it in his pocket, jangling with the other bits of junk he'd collected.
And then he noticed the cigarette smoking girl. He hadn't seen her before, and he guessed she must've been the new girl that Trev's big brother kept talking about. Little Mickey was beginning to see why Trev's big bro wouldn't shut up about her, and stood for a minute to look at her, oogling her like she'd come down from a different plane of existence altogether.
After a few moments in a staring contest, Vitalia said, "What's up, kiddo? Who are you then?"
"I'm Trev, Nate's lil' bro!" He exclaimed full of pride. "An-an' this is lil' beach cos' I find stuff on it." He nodded and smiled.
Vitalia smiled and settled her head on her arm, leaning forward onto a knee. "Do you mind if I sit here then?"
"Ummmm..." He said aloud, looking up and looking for a reason not to. Well, she wasn't looking for things too, so that meant more for him. "Nah." He shrugged and something fell out of his pocket. It was a spent casing for a KZ 10x25 bullet. He gasped and searched for it fastidiously, lifting it out of the sand and blowing on it before pocketing it, this time keeping his hand in his pocket.
"Thanks," Vita responded, stubbing the butt of the cigarette out on the curb and flicking it into a nearby gutter. Then, she settled forward on her knees again and looked back out at the ocean. Vitalia wasn't sitting out here to talk. It was just that, with the heat from the sun and the breeze off of the ocean, it made things a little less complicated in the immediate sense. It made dealing with all the people, and all of her dad's trouble, more bearable somehow.
She'd come here pretty often, actually, over the last couple of weeks with Nathan. This was the first time she'd seen Trev. But she could see the resemblance. Eventually, she asked, "How's your mom?"
The kid was digging through a bit of flotsam when he got the question. He poked his head up like a prarie dog and blinked to chew on the question before answering: "Aw she's alright, Dr. Shakes says her new leg's getting better." She had lost her leg, and the replacement was only good for so long - so Dr. Shakes had replaced it and in doing so, wasn't living up to his namesake - in Trev's eyes at least.
"Tell her I said, Hi."
Vita stood up, brushing her butt off and checking that the street hadn't left a mark on her cargo pants. Afterwards she shoved her hands in her pockets and paced out towards the edge, where the dark, damp sand met the light, chunky, garbage-littered sand which existed on the fringe of this particular mark of humanity.
She hooked the toe of one boot on the heel of the other, and started worming her way out of her shoes.
"So how's your brother doing?" Vitalia asked, prompted by sudden curiousity that curled her lip up into another quiet smile. "Does he say anything about me?"
"He's doing fine, and, ummm..." He mumbled again - it seemed to be a tic for little Trev. "He said your dad looks kinda funny, and that you're pretty even-even though you got no... no... uh, tits, he said." Lil' Trev didn't exactly understand the pointiness and the implications of the previous statement. He didn't even know what a 'tits' was.
Vitalia stumbled a little bit as she slipped out of her left boot, looking back, mortified and bootless, one stocking foot in the sand - definately not the intention. "He... said that?"
"Ummm, yeah why?" He asked innocently.
Vita blushed and said, "No reason." She stooped down, hopped on one leg, and pulled her sock off. Then, switching legs, she started in at her other boot. No tits? Really? She was going to have to do something about this. What, exactly, she wasn't really sure, but...
"D'you wanna dig with me?" He asked sweetly, looking up at her.
Setting both her bare feet in the sand and picking up her boots together, Vita shook her head, "Nah, I just wanted to walk. What'cha got there, anyway?"
He held up a bullet casing from a .45 Long, and it probably came from Vita's Father's revolver. "I ain't seen this one before, cool isn't it?"
Vitalia stopped in front of the kid, crouching down to look up instead. "I can do magic. Want to see a magic trick?" Lil' Trev stood there with his hand out and bullet casing still in hand, and about to make his characteristic 'Umm...'
"I can eat bullets," Vita explained, closing her arms over her knees again, smiling and trying to banish the reoccuring, horrible, horrible thought of what she was going to do to Nathan. Perhaps she'd insult his car, or hide his stupid card collection. Or call him gay. "Want to watch?" He nodded.
Vita took the bullet casing and gently flattened it together between her thumb and index finger. This alone would've been incredibly difficult for anyone else. Then, she popped it in her mouth, and swallowed, tilting her chin up so Trev could see, then sticking out her tongue and opening her mouth as proof.
"Waaooooow!" He beamed. Vita beamed back, shutting her mouth into a grin. "Does it hurt?" He asked.
"It doesn't hurt me," Vita explained, "But don't try it. It takes a whole lot of practice and you have to be able to do magic. There's a lot you have to go through. I learned from my dad."
A gear turned in Trev's brain. "Ummmm...! Your dad looks like Phoenix Man on the TV." He then snapped his fingers as gears continued turning. "Is your dad a cosplayer?"
Vita put a finger to her lips, tapping them. "No, he's real! But you have to be really quiet about it, hu? He's just trying to be normal for a little while."
"R-really? I thought he was always the hero." He seemed to frown a little, and seemed a bit lost. "The TV said so."
Vita took some time to consider this. It took her a moment or two of listening to the ocean, and the quiet of this nowhereville to find something to say, but when she did she said, "Sometimes, even heroes need to have a breather. It doesn't mean they're no longer heroes."
"Really?" He asked. "And... and..." He stammered as he searched for the guts and the words to ask this next request.
"Can I have your dad's autograph?"
Vita mussed his hair. "Sure, I'll ask him when I get home, OK? But you gotta be real quiet about it. Dad's going through a lot of stuff right now. Like your mom, you know? She doesn't like you talking about her leg." He nodded along and crossed his heart with his finger.
"Okay!" he answered - as far as he was concerned he was addressing royalty.
"Go on home, now," Vita said, "And I promise I'll get him to sign something for you."
"Oh, and tell your brother he's a dick," she added, brightly. "And he's so fucking wrong about my tits because I wear sports bras and guys don't understand that crap anyway so he should stop judging people."
"Okay!" He answered just as brightly.
>OFF!
Woman,
You know you,
Woman,
You gotta be,
Woman,
I've got to feeling alone,
When you're talking to me, see right through me,
I've got the feeling of love
Wolfmother - Woman
>ON!
One on one with one. That was what Luca was imagining the situation to be, because Aerin was there somewhere but not in the flesh. That was probably the first question that'd go through his mind. He'd asked her to meet at Karl's Threepenny Bullets - Sargasso's best (and only) weapons shop and firing range. He had bought ammunition for the mission ahead.
"So what's your game anyway?" Karl asked after counting and tilling the money he'd been given.
"Odd jobs." Luca replied as he held his shopping box under one arm, containing all the ammo he'd bought. Karl nodded knowingly and shrugged.
A bell at the top of the door jingled as it was nudged while someone walked in- The young girl Luca had seen at Lina's, though she carried herself somewhat differently- the way she walked was more familiar to Luca, someone he'd known for a while, often intimately, although the recent intamacy had been of a very different type.
"Welcome ma'am." Karl looked past Luca and at the new arrival. "Need a hand or are you just lookin' around?" Karl had white hair, was in his thirties, blue eyes and a round face. A large bore rifle was resting on the shelf behind him in a glass frame, while various other firearms were on the shelves - firing pins removed and unloaded, ready for inspection.
"Do you have an ODM Raygun I could try out?" she asked the man as she walked toward the counter, winking at Luca as she did so. "You have a range here, right?" Despite her looks- indeed she seemed to be just a teenager- she spoke and carried herself with the authority of someone much older, her teal eyes clear and focused.
"Of course we do, ma'am." Karl replied happily before he searched his computer catalogue. "As for the Raygun, well-" He pressed Enter and smiled. "We do have a couple in stock. They're not cheap though - fun to shoot and good on the mantelpiece though."
Luca looked at the Raygun's picture on the computer and raised an eyebrow. It did look good. He only had an ODM 10mm pistol with the excessively large hand rail sawed off. It still fired properly though, and it was a decent backup weapon. Karl then pointed over to a section of the shop where the pistols were in boxes, ready to be bought.
Oddly enough there were quite a few Origin guns here - even though Ellen had seen an embattled Ori-Mart here in Sargasso.
The girl put her hands together in a pleased manner, a grin on her face. "Excellent. I need something more authority than these old Zen Arms covert Ops I'm dripping out the ears with." she motioned to the small, dark pistol holstered at her belt- an old Nepleslian design- as if it were nothing more than dead weight at her hip. Karl chuckled in agreement as he looked at the old weapon on her hip.
She chuckled along with Karl, holding out a hand. "I'm Ellen by the way, Ellen Katsuragi. Bring out two, I'm in a giving mood today, and think I might buy one for the looker over there- She motioned to Luca with a shoulder, again winking at the Mercenary. You are disgusting A voice in the woman's head muttered, It was the voice of the body's true owner, who wished that she was elsewhere at the moment, rather than watching helplessly as an older woman hit on some scruffy man using her body!
"Someone likes you!" Karl hooted at Luca, who was inspecting the weapons in question. He grabbed the two boxes containing the stylised pistols, and plonked them down on the counter, along with the ammo he'd been keeping in his shopping bag.
Ellen opened one of the boxes, and examined the finely crafted firearm closely, looking impressed with the quality. "Hand made, these" she muttered, motioning for Luca to come over and pick up the other one. "Shall you show us to the range?" she asked of Karl, dropping a few DA on the counter to cover whatever range fees and ammo they might use.
"Since you asked so nicely, certainly ma'am." He locked his till and moved behind the counter. The sound of the doors locking could be heard too. "Security - since I'm not going to be at the counter." He explained. Luca, meanwhile, held up one of the firearms and pulled the slide back to inspect the chamber and action. He gave the empty weapon a twirl before holding it in his hands and continuing to the range.
The range itself was a place slightly below ground, and the floor was mostly drainage grills that lead to a larger cistern beneath the city, thanks to Sargasso's monsoon weather periodically flooding his shop out. The walls were made of concrete, and a track system could be seen overhead for the paper targets.
As Karl was heading over to the controls to set things up, Luca looked down at Ellen, or Aerin, or whomever she appeared to be today, and asked one simple question beneath his voice: "First of all - why." Why be thrust back into the very spotlight that almost burnt him into a crisp, that gave him the scars and made him stupid enough to buy into his own hype?
Ellen, or rather Aerin, as Luca had obviously figured out by now, remained quiet for a moment, inspecting the gun, and carefully loading fifteen cartridges in to the magazine, which she then carefully slid into the handle to the gun, a click, followed by the sound of the charging handle being pulled, signalling that it had been successfully loaded. Aerin looked back up at Luca, and he could see some abnormal look in her eyes- one of worry, but also determination.
"The people of this universe need hope, Luca. I can't bring it, the Nepleslian government can't bring it, and Yamatai sure as hell can't bring it. They needed someone on their level, someone that they can relate to, and understand." Aerin took a stance, and aimed downrange as the paper targets arrived at their designated location. She fired several shots, the explosions of gunpowder resounding in the concrete chamber, the smell of burnt powder filling the air around them.
"You were that person, Luca, but you lost your way. Too many things happened too quickly, and everyone thought that you could do it all by yourself- they were just a side-show, background dancers, the extras you see in a movie. What they didn't realize was you needed support." Again, Aerin fired several rounds at the paper target, and then stopped as Luca began speaking.
"Damn right too many things happened too quickly Aerin." Luca scowled, he hadn't even put a magazine into the pistol. "I got caught in my own fucking hype." He then looked down into the stylised, hand made pistol. "I wanted to be alone - and I didn't want those crazy enough to follow me to get hurt too."
"But that's not what you needed." Aerin pointed out. She dropped the magazine, and pulled back the charging handle to inspect the gun a bit more, before looking back to Luca. "Everyone's realised that you need them as much as they need you. Before, everyone was watching you, burning bright in the sky by yourself. But one light goes out if left alone. That's why I brought you back. that's why I had to knock sense back into you. that's why I needed you to realize that you needed us."
"I'm not the god everyone makes me out to be, stop shilling me." Luca hissed back, picking up the pistol. "All I am is a mere, mortal man who just got pushed over the edge, and sooner or later I'm going to go out for good." He still hadn't put a magazine into it.
Aerin reached up, and flicked Luca on the forehead, right between the eyes, looking annoyed at him. "I know that. And now your old crew realises it too. That's why they've come back, and that's what's drawn people to you. We aren't here because of you, no, rather, we're here, for you. Those that were here before didn't understand their part back then, but now they do."
"Those that have come have had their part figured out for them, which makes it easier for them to help. It's not just Luca anymore- The Phoenix is a family. And that family is the hope this universe needs."
There were two magazines on the bench for Luca's pistol. All nine inches and two point four pounds of it were in his left hand - empty and unused. The fingers on his right hand drummed across the table as he contemplated the magazines. He put his left hand down on his booth and sighed. "Hope's a double edged sword, though. I almost cut myself with it." He pointed to his orange right eye with his right hand, currently unaware of why it was happening, nor the pain in his sides. "I need to tell people to take it in moderation."
"Which is why we're here, today, now. Not on some crazy world covered in war fighting aliens or horrors from deep space with the power to destroy worlds. You've already started it; the road to recovery, while keeping that hope rekindled." Aerin placed her chosen firearm down on the table and leaned in closer to Luca.
"One step at a time is all we're asking. We don't need you to save the whole Universe just yet- Just save this town tomorrow, perhaps the day after we might be able to save just a single person. It doesn't have to be big, but it's still Hope. That is what I was thinking of when I brought you back from despair. The kind of hope a megacorporation, or a military, or a government can't even hope to bring."
Aerin looked into Luca's eyes, though the face, the eyes, the hair, everything about the person looking into him was different than he recognised. "Is that too much to ask for? With as much support as you have now?"
Luca knew who was speaking but the body in front of him wasn't the person he knew. He blinked at her for a moment as he got caught up in a moral dilemma over body ownership. He decided to go with the hands off approach for Ellen's sake and took a step back, hoping she wouldn't kiss him. He then picked up a magazine and looked at the paper target hanging there in space.
Snap. Cla-CLINK. Time slowed down as he counted each casing that flew through the air - able to read the 'KZ 10x25' at the base of each piece of brass. He stopped at fourteen and dropped the magazine out of the weapon - with one bullet left in the chamber and threw the other magazine inside within the space of a second. He continued firing until the weapon was finally empty.
He wasn't shooting the centre of the target, but he'd made a simplified picture using those thirty rounds of a bird with its wings open and talons out. "We shall see." He grinned before his expression relaxed. "One more question. Why are you sharing a body with a teenager?"
Aerin grimaced. "Ah, yes, well. It's not entirely voluntary. You see, I put my original body in storage and swapped to this one as a 'cover' while I was looking for you in the underground. Someone figured me out, and decided to try and 'erase' me, having acquired Ellen's actual ST backup, which was thought lost on Tami when the Mishhu invaded. A clone of you tried, but failed to eradicate me, and now I'm sharing a body." Aerin shrugged, having summarized it as best as she could for now.
It was obvious, though, she was hiding something. It had been more than a week since she had found Luca, and from the sounds of it, a while since she'd really needed Ellen's body.
"What happened." Luca requested bluntly as he started some deduction. "I know you, you wouldn't have come here incognito just for my sake. Someone's after you."
"You've actually been demolishing some of their subsidiaries," Aerin mentioned. "There is one, called Rina. A curious case, apparently NMX tried to clone me, but couldn't quite get it right. They did, however, successfully clone you- well, your body anyway- but that's not the problem." Aerin, in Ellen Katsuragi's body, looked off to one side, a bit ashamed, but now shaking with anger, as well.
"They took it. It's gone. My body, that is. I can't go to Yamatai, they'd put me in Jail. Nepleslia doesn't have the right technology, they can't help. All my equipment at the storage facility was destroyed, so I can't make a new one." she looked back up into Luca's eyes. "I'm stuck." Then, her head shook back and forth as if she were shaking off a sudden drowsiness, and her body language changed entirely. Her voice changed, just slightly as well- it was Ellen again. "And as much as I'm grateful she saved me- it'd be nice to have the two of us seperate again, you know?"
Luca smirked. "And you're hoping I can do that, right?" He then chuckled. "Oh don't worry, I'll help you both out since its the right thing to do. Just one word of warning though, in return." He held up a single finger to Ellen. "Stay. Away from Vita, both of you."
Ellen was tacken aback. "Don't look at me- it was Aerin that did all that. I was just an unwilling passenger at the time." She looked at the firearm on the table, and picked it up, her grip and stance suddenly visibly much more awkward than Aerin's had been, as she pointed the thing lazily downrange. "I could probably take her, anyway, she's like twelve isn't she?" the girl fired the pistol, and stumbled backward a bit, surprised by the recoil, grinning sheepishly at the result.
"You don't know the half of it, kid. Aerin does." He then chuckled as he watched Ellen recover from the kick of the weapon. "You can't even hold a pistol right!" He then showed her how to hold the weapon properly. "Both hands firmly, not cup-and-saucer, but with both hands wrapped around each other for maximum stability so you can aim down the sights. Try now - your body can take the recoil."
Ellen did as instructed- again, the recoil was more than she had really wanted, but the improved stance did indeed make a difference. "Ah- allright. I'll try to keep that in mind." she face went a bit red as she realized as she had interrupted, and she profusely apologized to Luca - inadvertently waving the pistol around for a moment- before catching herself and stopping, reverting back to Aerin after a few moments. She straightened up again, and muttered a final 'sorry' putting the pistol back down.
"But yes, stay away from Vita, Aerin." Luca pushed again.
"I'll do so. Hopefully she'll gain enough of her own self to realize she has no tangible reason to bear a grudge against me." Aerin responded, scratching the back of her head. "But I'll try and be careful about it until that happens." She picked up the pistol and its two magazines, and motioned toward the door that lead back into the shop. "How about we finish up and get out of here? I'm sure you have more preparations to do."
Luca nodded and then motioned to Karl, holding up the pistol without his finger on the trigger, and the two magazines in his off hand. "I'll take it and two spare mags, please!"
>OFF!
-
When you’re on a holiday
You can’t find the words to say
All the things that come to you
And I wanna feel it too
Weezer - Island in the Sun
>ON!
The town was quiet. It was mid-day in Sargasso, the sun was crawling around up there in the cloudless sky like it owned the place - an observation based on fact. Rain wasn't a problem so near the coast, but that wouldn't come to the surface just based off of the way the paint was peeling from buildings, and the way the dust zephered itself into devils on the relatively unpopulated streets.
Nobody really wanted to be outside in a town this hot, except for a single teenage girl sitting on the curb under the shadow of an awning, blowing small smoke rings into the hazy air and watching the wind off the ocean catch them before they could fully form.
One of the Sargasso kids was picking at the debris on the beach for anything cool that'd washed up. One time he found a dead body and he always came back in search of something simlar - he got 50 bucks that day! He looked to be at least ten or twelve years old. One thing he particularly liked looking for was spent brass from ammo - he knew he could give it to that guy who rans the gun shop and get pocket money in return. There was not much else to occupy his day, and daytime TV was a drag. There wasn't even a place to learn properly in this wreck of a town.
Vitalia was watching him, and had been watching him for several minutes. She noticed that whenever the wandering child found a brass casing in a place he hadn't seen before, his face lit up like it was the best thing to happen all day. He'd wipe it with the bottom of his shirt and put it in his pocket, jangling with the other bits of junk he'd collected.
And then he noticed the cigarette smoking girl. He hadn't seen her before, and he guessed she must've been the new girl that Trev's big brother kept talking about. Little Mickey was beginning to see why Trev's big bro wouldn't shut up about her, and stood for a minute to look at her, oogling her like she'd come down from a different plane of existence altogether.
After a few moments in a staring contest, Vitalia said, "What's up, kiddo? Who are you then?"
"I'm Trev, Nate's lil' bro!" He exclaimed full of pride. "An-an' this is lil' beach cos' I find stuff on it." He nodded and smiled.
Vitalia smiled and settled her head on her arm, leaning forward onto a knee. "Do you mind if I sit here then?"
"Ummmm..." He said aloud, looking up and looking for a reason not to. Well, she wasn't looking for things too, so that meant more for him. "Nah." He shrugged and something fell out of his pocket. It was a spent casing for a KZ 10x25 bullet. He gasped and searched for it fastidiously, lifting it out of the sand and blowing on it before pocketing it, this time keeping his hand in his pocket.
"Thanks," Vita responded, stubbing the butt of the cigarette out on the curb and flicking it into a nearby gutter. Then, she settled forward on her knees again and looked back out at the ocean. Vitalia wasn't sitting out here to talk. It was just that, with the heat from the sun and the breeze off of the ocean, it made things a little less complicated in the immediate sense. It made dealing with all the people, and all of her dad's trouble, more bearable somehow.
She'd come here pretty often, actually, over the last couple of weeks with Nathan. This was the first time she'd seen Trev. But she could see the resemblance. Eventually, she asked, "How's your mom?"
The kid was digging through a bit of flotsam when he got the question. He poked his head up like a prarie dog and blinked to chew on the question before answering: "Aw she's alright, Dr. Shakes says her new leg's getting better." She had lost her leg, and the replacement was only good for so long - so Dr. Shakes had replaced it and in doing so, wasn't living up to his namesake - in Trev's eyes at least.
"Tell her I said, Hi."
Vita stood up, brushing her butt off and checking that the street hadn't left a mark on her cargo pants. Afterwards she shoved her hands in her pockets and paced out towards the edge, where the dark, damp sand met the light, chunky, garbage-littered sand which existed on the fringe of this particular mark of humanity.
She hooked the toe of one boot on the heel of the other, and started worming her way out of her shoes.
"So how's your brother doing?" Vitalia asked, prompted by sudden curiousity that curled her lip up into another quiet smile. "Does he say anything about me?"
"He's doing fine, and, ummm..." He mumbled again - it seemed to be a tic for little Trev. "He said your dad looks kinda funny, and that you're pretty even-even though you got no... no... uh, tits, he said." Lil' Trev didn't exactly understand the pointiness and the implications of the previous statement. He didn't even know what a 'tits' was.
Vitalia stumbled a little bit as she slipped out of her left boot, looking back, mortified and bootless, one stocking foot in the sand - definately not the intention. "He... said that?"
"Ummm, yeah why?" He asked innocently.
Vita blushed and said, "No reason." She stooped down, hopped on one leg, and pulled her sock off. Then, switching legs, she started in at her other boot. No tits? Really? She was going to have to do something about this. What, exactly, she wasn't really sure, but...
"D'you wanna dig with me?" He asked sweetly, looking up at her.
Setting both her bare feet in the sand and picking up her boots together, Vita shook her head, "Nah, I just wanted to walk. What'cha got there, anyway?"
He held up a bullet casing from a .45 Long, and it probably came from Vita's Father's revolver. "I ain't seen this one before, cool isn't it?"
Vitalia stopped in front of the kid, crouching down to look up instead. "I can do magic. Want to see a magic trick?" Lil' Trev stood there with his hand out and bullet casing still in hand, and about to make his characteristic 'Umm...'
"I can eat bullets," Vita explained, closing her arms over her knees again, smiling and trying to banish the reoccuring, horrible, horrible thought of what she was going to do to Nathan. Perhaps she'd insult his car, or hide his stupid card collection. Or call him gay. "Want to watch?" He nodded.
Vita took the bullet casing and gently flattened it together between her thumb and index finger. This alone would've been incredibly difficult for anyone else. Then, she popped it in her mouth, and swallowed, tilting her chin up so Trev could see, then sticking out her tongue and opening her mouth as proof.
"Waaooooow!" He beamed. Vita beamed back, shutting her mouth into a grin. "Does it hurt?" He asked.
"It doesn't hurt me," Vita explained, "But don't try it. It takes a whole lot of practice and you have to be able to do magic. There's a lot you have to go through. I learned from my dad."
A gear turned in Trev's brain. "Ummmm...! Your dad looks like Phoenix Man on the TV." He then snapped his fingers as gears continued turning. "Is your dad a cosplayer?"
Vita put a finger to her lips, tapping them. "No, he's real! But you have to be really quiet about it, hu? He's just trying to be normal for a little while."
"R-really? I thought he was always the hero." He seemed to frown a little, and seemed a bit lost. "The TV said so."
Vita took some time to consider this. It took her a moment or two of listening to the ocean, and the quiet of this nowhereville to find something to say, but when she did she said, "Sometimes, even heroes need to have a breather. It doesn't mean they're no longer heroes."
"Really?" He asked. "And... and..." He stammered as he searched for the guts and the words to ask this next request.
"Can I have your dad's autograph?"
Vita mussed his hair. "Sure, I'll ask him when I get home, OK? But you gotta be real quiet about it. Dad's going through a lot of stuff right now. Like your mom, you know? She doesn't like you talking about her leg." He nodded along and crossed his heart with his finger.
"Okay!" he answered - as far as he was concerned he was addressing royalty.
"Go on home, now," Vita said, "And I promise I'll get him to sign something for you."
"Oh, and tell your brother he's a dick," she added, brightly. "And he's so fucking wrong about my tits because I wear sports bras and guys don't understand that crap anyway so he should stop judging people."
"Okay!" He answered just as brightly.
>OFF!
