DB Sommer wrote:
This is the first half of the chapter, including the previously posted
teaser. Still need to put the finishing touches on the second half before it
goes out to prereaders. There should be enough for it to merit being posted,
I think.
Sounds good to me.
Sorry about taking so long to get to you on this -- was going to
take care of it yesterday, but something happened.
Avenging
Chapter 7
Honey, I Shrunk Kasumi
Any and all C+C is appreciated. You can contact me at
sommer@3rdm.net
or viper02@nauticom.net
At Larry F's at:
http://lwf58.tripod.com/fan_fiction/d_b_sommer/index.html
Or R+C books at:
http://dbsommer.rcbooks.org
And also Angcobra is now storing all of my fics, at
http://s5.sexshare.com/~angcobra/dbsommer.html
Standard disclaimer:
I don't own any of the any of the Marvel characters, or the folks from Ranma
1/2 or any of the other various anime sources I refer to here.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Snipped teaser stuff, since I C&Ced it already. :p
"Wow, this place is something else." Kyosuke Kasuga whistled in awe, as his
eyes took in every piece of fantastic equipment that filled the
cathedral-sized chamber of the secret sub-level of the local branch of
Hydra's headquarters they had been ordered to go to.
That is a lot of sentence.
A lot of exposition, too... maybe break that into two sentences?
It was the first time the two had met. Hiroshi marked Kyosuke as slightly
older than him, somewhere around nineteen while he was a mere seventeen.
Where Kyosuke was only a touch on the geeky side, a bit undersized,
soft-spoken, and not in particularly good shape, Hiroshi fell under the
category of the classic 'nerd'. He was lucky if he weighed one hundred and
twenty pounds soaking wet, wore thick glasses, and, judging by the way his
hand kept going for his chest, had only recently managed to kick the habit
of perpetually wearing a pocket protector. Their new employers frowned on
such things in their agents. Pocket protectors simply weren't intimidating.
And besides, everyone knew all the nerds joined the Advanced Idea Mechanics.
Hydra agents were supposed to be better than that. They were strong. They
were dangerous. They could pick up chicks.
Some days.
If it was dark.
And said 'chicks' were drunk.
Even as Kyosuke sized Hiroshi up, the older youth did the same. He noted
that Kyosuke was dressed, not in the standard green suit with yellow stripes
that most of the field agents were given, but rather wore a red,
loose-fitting jumpsuit. Attached to the back of the neck of the uniform was
a helmet with a wide visor attached to the front which would effectively
conceal his identity from casual observation. Hiroshi wore a similar outfit,
save that it was green, and he had a simple black mask instead of a visor
attachment. Both uniforms marked them as part of the 'super agent' branch of
Hydra, which everyone just called the 'Super Villain Squad.'
I feel that this is the perfect setup for a one-liner, but whatever
that one-liner is, it escapes me. Dang.
At the moment, they were alone, the room having been emptied for their
upcoming meeting with the Imperial Hydra, the mysterious leader of the
mysterious organization. Hiroshi had heard from others that no one had even
seen the Imperial Hydra face-to-face for years, but he still held the group
in an iron grip. He supposed it was one of the advantages of being the boss
of your own terrorist organization, you could tele-commute whenever you felt
like it.
Repetition of mysterious is intentional?
tle-commute -- telecommute
"They had a list of code names. I chose Mentallo. I know it's not great, but
it was better than some of the other choices. You should have seen what some
of those idiots in the promotions section came up with. There were ones like
Headlok, Mind-Wave, Think Tank, and the absolute worst, Brain Guy. I think
Mentallo was the least bad of the choices. It's not too bad." Kyosuke
shrugged.
No quotation around the other names?
"The Fixer! Can you believe that? I sound like a cheap television repair
man. It is a totally inappropriate name for field operations. I mean, what's
someone going to do if I go charging in and shouting, 'You'd better give up,
or the Fixer's going to fix you'? Please, they'll think I'm there to neuter
their pets."
Actually, it's not that bad...
They could have called him something much worse.
Mr. Gizmo, for example. :p
Having a sympathetic ear, Hiroshi continued, "What really stinks is I had a
really good name picked out: Techno. I mean, it's great. It sounds much more
sophisticated than the 'Fixer.' You just get visions of me with my high-tech
equipment doing all sorts of unpleasant things with a wide array of advanced
weapons to the good guys."
Kyosuke: But... you can't actually
_do_ anything with that
equipment, can you?
Hiroshi: Well, no, actually...
"High level telepath. I can read minds, and attack people with mental
blasts. I have telekinesis as well, but I don't use it much. It gives me a
splitting headache whenever I use it."
Hiroshi: Man, high level telepathy must suck if you had to ask me
all the questions that you just did.
Kyosuke: I hate you...
"Yes, but it doesn't really help all that much. Besides, super-villains
can't chug aspirin in the middle of fight. Someone could beat me up while I
was trying to get the goddamn stupid childproof caps off. Usually I just
suffer when I use it and down half a bottle when I get back to base."
Why change from tylenol to asprin all of the sudden? :p
And you do know that over-use of asprin can lead to tinninitis
(ringing in the ears when exposed to asprin -- I have it), right?
"I know, I'm not," Hiroshi admitted. "It all goes back to my college days.
There was this girl there named Marie. She was the most beautiful and nicest
girl I had ever met. Once she crashed into me, smashing those oh so perfect
breasts into my face, I fell for her instantly. But I knew she couldn't feel
the same way about me."
I've seen this anime...
"Ah, no." Hiroshi was caught off-guard by the ferocity of the comment. "She
was, you know, popular. I was just this poor, geeky, skinny, mousy, little
nerd that perpetually went around with a pocket protector. What could she
see in someone like me, whose future probably consisted of getting a job in
the computer industry making a six figure salary, has a stable personality,
and would stay faithful to her and treat her like a queen since she's the
best thing that could possibly happen to a nerd like me and I knew it? No.
She could have had her pick of any of the popular guys who were handsome,
rich, suave, and could have her as a trophy wife while carrying on affairs
with their secretaries behind her back, since they're rich and handsome and
every good-looking golddigger is gunning for them, just waiting for the
moment when he gets tired of his wife and gets a divorce? Why would she
choose me when she could have all that?" Hiroshi's shoulder slumped in
defeat.
Hehe...
"No. I pretty much resigned myself to her remaining beyond my reach. So
instead I made a robot version of her. She's identical in every way, except
her hair color is pink and her breasts are just a touch bigger. Her
personality is a little different, but she's still sweet and caring and
actually likes to talk to me. We even spend quality time doing things
together."
Heh. In the anime, I thought that the robot had a smaller chest.
"It's because I need a lot of money, and quick. I ran out of it while
building Marie. She runs fine, except for the tiny problem with shielding
for her radioactive core."
Heh.
"She doesn't have any. She leaks radiation like a Russian nuclear power
plant. I can't spend more than five minutes with her, or I'd be glowing in
the dark."
Hehe...
Kyosuke's eyes widened. "How did you get a radioactive power core, on your
own, before you joined Hydra? Did you steal it from a government facility?"
Hiroshi: By removing the radioactive elements from common household
smoke-detectors.
http://www.findarticles.com/m1111/n1782_v297/21281407/p1/article.jhtml
"No. I got it by scraping off the glow-in-the-dark material on those watches
Greenpeace handed out while they were on campus protesting environmental
degradation."
"I sense a twisted bit of irony there."
Heh.
"No. I can do this. I have to do this." Kyosuke took a moment to compose
himself. "Anyway, I had just moved into the district. On the first day
there, I decided to go for a walk. I was just walking down this long flight
of steps when I caught this red hat that had been blowing on the wind. I
looked up, and it turned out it belonged to the most beautiful girl I had
ever seen; it was love at first sight. My heart belonged to her forever in
that moment. Her name was Madoka. I should have told her how I felt, but I
was too awestruck to speak, and I didn't want to scare her off with that
kind of wild talk. We had a brief discussion about the number of steps that
were there, and, after mentally tampering with her mind so she agreed that
the number I counted was correct, she left. I thought I would never see her
again."
KoR. Which I haven't seen. :p
"Yes. Isn't it always about them? Anyway, we did meet again. It was like
Fate, or maybe even Destiny. It turned out she not only attended the same
school as me, but was also in the same class. She had something of a
reputation of being a wild gang girl, but I didn't care. There was something
in those eyes I saw on those steps that day that told a different story than
the one that her trashy reputation had given her. Just one look in those
pools of brown, and I knew there was a good woman worth loving underneath a
rough exterior. It was true love that had touched my heart. I knew this was
the one woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."
Fate and Destiny: Uh... no, we were busy elsewhere.
;)
Sorry, couldn't resist.
"The woman I loved with all my heart was a lesbian!" Kyosuke continued on,
failing to note Hiroshi's speechless state. "That's why I joined Hydra. I
want them to boost my mental powers so I can control everyone on Earth. Then
I'm going to wipe out the immoral disease of lesbianism by removing it from
every mind on the planet."
Well, was sympathetic until that part.
Deciding, "..." was probably not accurately describing events, Hiroshi
managed to say, "That's got to be one of the most tragic stories I've ever
heard. My heart goes out to you." Actually, it was one of the most
pathetically stupid stories Hiroshi had ever heard and his heart was staying
right where it was, but he was damned if he would say that out loud. Kyosuke
was a telepath, and could probably wipe out Hiroshi's mind if he said what
he really thought of someone willing to change his whole life because he
mistakenly hit on a dyke. Hiroshi made a mental note to start wearing some
kind of psionic shielding, just in case Kyosuke decided he was a lesbian
trapped in a man's body or something and tried wiping his brain out.
This is giving me very decidedly odd NYJ flashbacks. Hiroshi and Bob
could be brothers.
Both youths looked at each other in surprise. Neither had met their supreme
commander before, but that was not the kind of response either had expected.
Most Hydra sub-commanders had a tendency to flog those members who did not
repeat the mantra correctly and enthusiastically.
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
In response to the interruption, the Imperial Hydra flicked a switch. The
gushing became a sporadic dance of pain as Mentallo found the metal floor
plate under his feet suddenly electrified. He continued hopping from one
foot to the next for several seconds until the power was turned off.
Weeeeeell...
Cartoon physics, I guess. :p
"You are correct," the Imperial Hydra agreed. "A.I.M. has no sense of
aesthetics. It all comes from having a loser with a giant head running their
organization. Now, as I was saying, I want it field tested. Since you're the
strongest telepath we have, actually you're the only one we have, Mentallo,
you will employ the device in the field. The Fixer will function as your
bodyguard, on the off-hand chance something goes wrong."
A loser with a giant head? I'm going to
_have_ to go back and read
the previous chapters.
Once again the current was turned off. As the pain subsided, Mentallo
decided to keep his mouth shut from now on. He'd just have his new,
technologically oriented friend redesign the thing so it didn't look quite
so ridiculous, and in the meantime he would mind blank everyone so they
didn't remember they had seen him in it.
Heh.
Again the Imperial Hydra spoke. "I warn you, there is a limit of twenty
square kilometers on the device, so don't get too excited over it. Still,
that should be enough to cover one ward of the Tokyo district. Your target
will be Nerima."
Oh, right.
_That_'ll work.
"Yeah. And speaking of feet, do you think you can whip me up a set of
insulated boots? I have this bad feeling I'm going to be putting them to
good use."
At least the fixer gets to do something, though he looks like a much
more non-combat villain than anything else.
With the last of the vegetables done frying, Kasumi quickly removed the
skillet from the stove. She placed them next to the other vegetables she had
cooked earlier. Dinner was almost ready. Just a little more mixing, and
adding a few spices, and everything would be finished, save the meat, which
needed to cook in the oven for another hour before it was ready. Akane would
be home by then, and the entire family and guests would dine together.
Now, wouldn't a good cook time it so that everything finished
cooking at once? :p
Unless the vegetables are meant to be served cold, in which case I'm
wrong.
But then, Ranma's presence was her father's attempted solution to that
little quandary, wasn't it? Of course, that problem could apply to any of
the Tendou girls, but Kasumi's thoughts turned inevitably to herself. Ranma
really wasn't acceptable marriage material. There was no bigger turn off
than a younger man, as far as she was concerned. Except it was sort of
difficult to think of Ranma in those terms, especially after seeing him
dressed in the tuxedo last night. He was a centimeter taller and a good bit
larger than her. The impressive physique he boasted was one she had seen on
very few men, older or otherwise, and helped to mask his true age. He just
didn't appear all that much younger than her, at least physically.
Kasumi: No... he's not the marriagable type. A torrid affair could
be fun, though.
While Kasumi pondered the matter, her eyes fell upon a medical textbook that
was laying on the shelves, lodged in-between several rarely used cookbooks.
So that was where she had left the book she had borrowed from Tofu several
weeks ago. She had searched for it for days, wondering where it had been
misplaced. Originally, she had been fearful it had been mistakenly thrown
out and she would have to pay to replace it, but then the matter of Ranma
came up and distracted her to the point that she had completely forgotten
about it.
in-betweeen -- between (?)
Sensing Kasumi would not be turned from her course of action, Akane finally
relented and informed her sister that Tofu was in back. As Kasumi left the
room, Akane got up and retrieved her jacket, schoolbooks, and cane. Exiting
the building, she knew that as good as her mood had been before, now it was
just as dark. A feeling made twice as bad since she had been so happy
before.
Cane?
I wonder just how much I'm missing here... :p
Looking away from the schematics, Tofu Ono finished connecting the last
circuit board with the final stabilizer. Satisfied the connection would
hold, he did a quick run through. The diagnostic system showed everything
was operational and functioning at one hundred percent efficiency.
Awww... poor unknown electronic device. We hardly knew ye.
It had taken two months and every spare moment he had, and this was what he
had to show for it: the reassembled genius of Henry Pym, his dear departed
American friend, and genius it was. The machine, at least in theory, could
irradiate a person with a form of energy, (which Henry had called 'Pym
Particles') which allowed them to access another dimension. The theory held
that, once irradiated, the person could then use the dimension to affect
their very body mass by shunting it to the dimension so they could shrink in
size, or to gain mass so they could become a true giant. It all depended on
what setting the machine was on when the beam struck them. According to the
notes that came with the device, Henry originally stumbled on the effects
when experimenting with it in gas form. During the initial accident, he had
several misadventures with the local ant population that had nearly killed
him. But fascination overcame apprehension, and he continued working on the
theories behind the shrinking until discovering exactly how the gas worked.
He then spent all of his time, money, and energy into converting the
accessibility of Pym Particles into machine form and permanently irradiating
his cells with it, thereby eliminating the need to walk around continuously
with a pack of gas canisters.
Wait... okay. The title gives it away. I should have seen it coming. >_<
There was a curious note in the papers. Henry mentioned that after his
adventures in the anthill, he considered creating a device to control ants
instead of perfecting the machine. However the need to be able to use Pym
Particles reliably had overridden this odd desire. Tofu had to admit it was
for the best. What could one do with an army of ants at his beck and call?
Raid picnics?
Pym Particles -- Pym particles (?)
Tofu turned around to ask Kasumi if she would keep score when he became
vaguely aware that she was no longer in the room. Laughing as he mumbled,
"Kasumi," he exited the room, hoping to find her and see if she wanted to
play some hoops. It suddenly occurred to him that he could substitute
Betty-chan's head for the basketball. Betty-chan was always ready to lend a
helping body part to the cause. She was a good personal assistant that way.
Heh...
The material gave way as easily as tearing a sheet of tissue paper. The lack
of resistance surprised her, and she fell onto her bare bottom with an
audible thump. Rubbing her sore derriere, she looked at the strip of
material in her hands. How very curious. She had been certain it would take
much more strength than she could muster to tear that much material.
Examining the strip of material in hand, Kasumi judged it to be barely
enough to cover her chest and bottom. Hoping it was more than just a fluke,
Kasumi went for a larger piece of cloth. This time it was a little harder
due to the amount of material she was tearing, but it too unexpectedly gave
way to her strength with only a minimum of resistance.
If she retains her mass, but not her density... wouldn't she fall
through the floor?
Extending from her back were not one, but two wings. They were clear and
insect-like, and had most definitely not been there before she had been
rendered small. There was a slight look of trepidation on her face as the
wing twitched, and now that she was paying attention to it, she could feel
the wing itself moving as thought it was another limb, a thin gossamer-like
one, but definitely an extension of herself. Despite the fact it was a body
part completely foreign to her sensibilities, it did not feel strange, at
least not in the way it should have. As impossible as it seemed, it felt
natural, as though it had always been a part of her. The fear drifted away
with that realization.
Ooooo... Okay, my original guess was correct.
Thoughts of seeking Tofu were forgotten as Kasumi exited the building by
flying out an open back window and into the wide open world beyond. Air
blasted past her face, and she took a moment to adjust to the changes that a
greater flight speed outdoors could give. Still, she was not afraid.
Everything looked smaller, but then it was supposed to when one was flying.
Being able to look down at the world below, living a life without the
boundaries that pressed in on her at every side, was a sort of freedom she
would bask in and never give up. She swore that as she did a cartwheel in
mid-air, never
Whoops. Looks like something got cut off here.
Kasumi had made it no more than several meters in her flight to freedom when
a sudden pressure, like a hundred tiny needles, slipped past her skill and
pierced her brain. It was like a headache brought on by eating ice cream too
fast, only several times worse. Still poised in mid-air, she fluttered in
pain, then started to head to the ground as she lost control. However, just
as quickly as the sensation came, it vanished, taking the majority of the
pain with it. Kasumi quickly righted herself and flew a far more
conservative course close to the ground. All that remained of the mysterious
wave of pain was a sort of scratchy feeling inside her head, similar to the
leftover remnants of a hangover several hours old, just a tiny bit of
queasiness that was surely drifting away.
skill -- skull (?) She could be psychic, I don't know. :p
Kasumi noted that the neighborhood seemed unnaturally quiet as she passed by
the windows of the houses of people she knew either personally or by name.
She gave in to the primitive desire of playing voyeur and spared casual
glances in the first and second story windows of those who did not keep
their drapes closed. Some part of her knew this was wrong, but the voice of
caution was drowned out by the newfound liberation flight had bestowed upon
her.
Hehehe...
Now that Kasumi looked around, it seemed everyone in sight was standing
still, wearing the same expression on their faces. Had they all been staring
at the same thing, perhaps it would have made sense, but they were looking
in a variety of directions. Nerima was a bit slow at times, but the idea
that everyone had been rendered comatose by the boredom was too much to
believe. It seemed the unexpected silence covering the neighborhood had
something to do with the inactivity of the residents in its confines.
Boredom... in Nerima...
The mind boggles, Mr. Sommer. The mind boggles.
Instinctively Kasumi flew low, next to the wall of a building, as she
approached the corner where the sound was fast approaching. It would provide
cover for her, even if she did not realize that was why she flew so close to
the ground. She paused only a moment before turning the corner and was
confronted with a most unexpected scene.
Kasumi: A cliffhanger! I never saw it coming!
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Seriously, though, I liked it quite a bit. I'll have to read the
earlier chapters, now. :p