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The little green dots seemed to meld together as Toshi stared
at them. The pixilated clouds moved at a mind numbingly slow
rate across the map in front of him. He swore under his breath and
turned away from the computer console to look outside the window
of the bunker. As was expected the snow was piling up and nearly
blocking the window.
Toshi sighed and walked down the narrow bunker towards the rest
of the team who were now crowded around Dr. Shinma. The women
huddled around the Doctor as he cut through the huge block of blue
ice with the laser cutter. Toshi really couldn't have cared less.
It was below zero, they were in the middle of nowhere and he could
have sworn that he was getting frostbite on his rear end. He didn't like
searching for old fossils and for that matter found Dr. Shinma to be
rather annoying. He really couldn't figure out why he came out here
in the first place.
"Toshi! Come over here and look at this!"Yoriko shouted happily.
Oh, yeah.
The prospect of being alone with five beautiful women seemed ideal
to Toshi when he had first signed onto the project. They were all devote
followers of Dr. Shinma, and he was just a shmuck in his third year of
college still trying to figure out what his major would be. He was a little
curious
at first as to why nobody else had tried to join, but then again he had not
noticed the text at the top: Antarctic Expedition.
Toshi walked over the blue block of ice and said,"Yeah?"
"Isn't it fantastic?!" Yoriko beamed.
"It's a block of ice," Toshi said bluntly.
"Yes! And it could be the key to unlocking the secrets of the Antarctic!"
Yoriko cried while thrusting her hand forward.
Toshi scratched his head and thought,'What secrets?'
Yoriko went back to looking intently at the block of ice while Toshi turned
around and walked to back to the end of the shelter. Toshi grabbed
a set of goggles, gloves and a fur coat from the wall and put them on. As
he turned the
knob on the door Toshi yelled,"I'm going to check the radio tower outside!"
They didn't so much as move to acknowledge him as he opened the door
to walk out into the blistering wind of snow. Toshi took a few steps away
from the shelter and produced a small metal can of whiskey from his heavy
fur coat.
He hadn't wanted any of the crew to see him drinking on the job, although
they
had seemed so engrossed in the hunk of ice that he doubted they would have
noticed if he had ran around naked. Just thinking of wearing anything less
than
twenty layers of clothing made Toshi shiver and wonder if it was worth it to
go out into
the deadly cool weather just to knock back some whiskey. He opened the top
of
the can and took a long chug. Yes.
It wasn't tell he finished drinking that he realized that a glowing blue
light was emanating
from behind him. Turning so as to face the shelter Toshi saw that the blue
light had fully
engulfed the entire compound. Toshi stood paralyzed as the building erupted
into a azure
explosion, sending hunks of rubble everywhere one of which smashed into his
skull, knocking
him out instantly.
---
Rosuto Tenshi stepped out of the helicopter onto the icy ground of the
former
site of the Big Fire Antarctic research center. He looked around at the pure
and
desolate land before him. It would probably have been quite a beautiful
sight if it
weren't for the hundreds of workers who were scrambling all over the place.
Looking over the area Rosuto saw one of his chief advisors and nodded his
head
slightly. The advisor saw the movement and rushed over to Rosuto.
"Damage?" Rosuto said quickly.
The advisor pulled out a calculator and said while rapidly punching in
numbers,"The entire
laboratory was destroyed, the laser cutter was ripped to shreds, Two Big
Fire model six
computers were blown apart, five hover bikes were crushed and six fur coats
were cremated.
The total cost of which amounts to Fifty million yen."
Rosuto raised an eyebrow and the advisor said,"Oh, and five people were
killed."
"Survivors?"Rosuto asked.
The advisor said,"One. He was knocked out by rubble and the medics are
treating him."
"Where?"
The advisor pointed to a helicopter that was about a hundred feet away from
them. Rosuto
walked briskly over to the helicopter with his advisor keeping step with
him. They could see
a man having his head bandaged by a nurse, and the instant Rosuto saw the
man one word
came into his head: Baka. The smile that crossed his face would have given
his advisor a
heart attack if he had seen it.
Toshi cried out in pain as the nurse rolled the gauze around his forehead.
What the Hell happened?
One second he was looking at some blue light and the next he was inside a
helicopter. His train
of thought stopped as he saw two men approaching him.
The first man looked rather nerdy with his huge glasses, the fur coat that
draped over his body
and the messed up hair. The fact that he was carrying a calculator didn't
make him look any
better. The second man on the other hand was different. There were several
wrinkles that seemed
to be etched symmetrically on his long serious face. The spiky gray hair and
bored expression made him
look like a truly strange old man. 'Wait a minute?', Toshi thought while
looking at the old man,'He's just
wearing a suit! How can he not be freezing his ass off?!'
That thought was cut prematurely as the old man raised an eyebrow at the
nurse who quickly left.
Looking at Toshi, the old man said,"I am Rosuto Tenshi, the President of Big
Fire."
Toshi blinked and said thoughtlessly,"Yeah, so?"
The weasly advisor almost lunged at him while shouting,"You insolent little
shit! How dare you-"
Rosuto put his arm in front of the advisor who stepped back and quietly
apologized. Looking
down at the youth before him Rosuto said,"Big Fire funded this expedition in
the hopes of finding
the remains of a foreign object. You found that object."
Toshi blinked and said,"I did?"
Rosuto nodded and continued,"You found this object after the rest of your
team was
killed in a snow storm. Your findings will lead to the development of a
synthesis of this
foreign object which can be used as a cheap, renewable and non-polluting
source
of energy."
"How do-what is-I don't know-"
"You will be hailed as a great hero and have many admirers for saving the
planet from
the terrible energy crisis it currently faces. And all you have to do is
sign..." Rosuto looked
over to the weasly man who handed him a piece of paper which in turn he
thrust upon
Toshi,"this."
Grabbing the document Toshi read through it as quickly as possible and
said,"I can't tell
anyone about the explosion?"
Rosuto nodded his head and Toshi said with a slight smile on his face,"What
explosion?"
End Prologue