A Dirty Pair fic
Hrm. I'm not terribly familiar with the DP characterizations, but I'll see
what other help or commentary I can come up with.
Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot
Chapter 1
Nice Chapter title.
As Yuri grabbed a bar placed in the wall at the corner and used it to
change her mid-flight direction, Kei at last came into view.
Yuri's eyes narrowed. "Please tell me you weren't stupid enough to grab
both the positive and negative poles at the same time."
:j
Just as Kei finished putting on her top, she felt the light caress of
fingers gently play across the small of her back. The cold touch surprised
her, and she let off a yelp as she turned in anger on Yuri. "What're you
doing?"
"Hold still, Kei," Yuri admonished as she spun Kei back around and examined
her back more closely. "It looks like you took a nasty cut. I didn't notice
it before because your other outfit covered you rear end better."
Darn! I was hoping for a little cuddling, at least. :P
Kei felt the small, partially healed line right above her bottom. "Oh,
that. Riggers nicked me with a vibro-blade. Nothing major though. I nicked
him worse." She had lopped his head right off with the Gashmaster-2000.
There was nothing like a molecularly sharpened blade to slice through one's
everyday psychotic cyborg's titanium neck.
All in a day's work. ^_^
Before Kei gained too much of a head start, Yuri quickly exited the room
and caught up to her partner. "Look, I was kidding about the big butt. You
don't look any bigger." Not by much, anyway.
Don't ya just love qualifiers? :)
Kei grabbed a handhold and stopped her flight. She turned and gave a sad
look towards Yuri. "You don't remember what yesterday was, do you?"
The question caught Yuri off-guard. "I thought it was the day we completed
our assignment by preventing General Golgotha from stealing over a dozen
interplanetary nuclear missiles and using them to threaten star systems."
True, one had accidentally gone off and sort of blown up one of the major
cities of Nansite-4 which made most of the continent uninhabitable for the
next thousand years, but it wasn't their fault: the 3WA Central Computer
said so.
"It was my birthday." There was an edge of bitterness in Kei's voice.
"So?" Yuri shrugged. "You've had plenty of birthda..." The words died on
her lips as the point Kei was trying to make finally hit home. "Oh geez. I
forgot."
"Yep. The big 'three oh'." Kei became even more despondent. "The years ARE
starting to take their toll on me Yuri. For the first time in my life, I
feel old. I still ache a little from the mission. The only guy that really
worked me over was that poster boy for genetic enhancements, Shezwan. Oh
yeah, I was shot out of a battle suit too, but that hardly counts. I mean,
there was a time I could have taken someone emptying a whole magazine of
high velocity rounds into my impact armor and not felt it a couple of hours
later. Now I get a rooftop blown out from under me and my knees hurt until
the next day from taking a twenty foot fall.
"It gets worse. Did you know that on my last drinking binge I woke up with
a hangover that lasted more than a couple of hours? And I didn't even have
more than a pair of six packs at the most. And maybe two or three mixed
drinks as well, but that's not the point. I never used to get hangovers.
And then there's the men. Not one guy hit on me this entire mission. Not
even that sleazy-looking Lieutenant with the planetside police. There was a
time when I had to beat them off with a baton, and I don't mean like that
gang of guys on the Alatiar mission that were hopped up on that sexual
enhancer drug. But anymore now, I hardly get hit on at all. And when the
guys do occasionally flirt with me, they just aren't that good looking.
Most of them are downright ugly. I'm not getting any younger, Yuri, and one
of these days I do intend to settle down. Really. But what sort of guy am I
going to be able to snag if I ain't got it anymore?"
Age creeps up on everybody, even the occasional anime character. WAAH!!! Lisa
Hayes is an old lady, now! WAAHHH!!! Rick Hunter's in a wheelchair, Roy
Fokker's in an Iron Lung! WAAAHHHH!! Oh, wait... That takes place in the
future, doesn't it? WAI! :P
Finished with her confession, Kei seemed to deflate like a blow up doll as
her shoulder slumped forward. She felt completely spent after
uncharacteristically speaking so openly about her fears. But now, with
everything having been laid out in the open, she waited to hear what sound
advice and words of consolation Yuri would have to give her. She watched
closely as Yuri open her mouth and said...
"Oh god! That means I'm going to be thirty in a couple of months too. I'm
going to be almost as washed up as you. WAHHH!"
Smile twitching, Kei grabbed a floating lug wrench and moved towards her
partner.
Heh.
The ship emerged from hyperspace, and Yuri was delighted to see that they
had indeed dropped out right at the point they were supposed to. From where
they materialized, Yuri could see the space station hanging in space
directly in front of them. Things were finally looking up for a change.
Too easy. Something must be wrong. :) Cue happy music with the occasional
minor motive...
The space station itself was unremarkable in appearance. A standard deep
space DX-11000 station, constructed and owned by Yurenex-Solvar
Corporation, who controlled approximately twenty percent of the space
station manufacturing industry. Its basic appearance was that of a giant,
gunmetal gray top, constantly spinning in deep space as though it were a
giant wheel. Having a ten kilometer diameter and fifteen kilometer height,
it was a self-sustaining facility that could contain and provide for
hundreds of people without difficulty. According to the reports Yuri had
glanced over, the station had suffered no problems and served admirably
since it was christened five years ago; it was unremarkable in every way.
Yuri activated their communications equipment. "This is the Lovely Angel,
requesting clearance for a landing in one of your docking bays, over." She
transmitted their ship's registration to the station.
After nearly thirty seconds, Kei said, "Shouldn't they have sent some sort
of reply by now?"
"Maybe our communications system went down." Yuri ran a diagnostics scan on
their system. "No, it says everything's okay. Unless the diagnostic program
is malfunctioning too."
"Maybe their communications are down?" Kei offered.
"That's a fully functional space station, Kei. It might be a bit out of the
way, but it has a full crew of over a hundred, plus over three hundred
residents, plus whatever guests are there on layovers. I sincerely doubt
that they don't have a single working communication system somewhere on
their entire station."
"Okay, smart-ass. So why aren't they responding?" Kei said through
half-lidded eyes.
Yuri shifted uncomfortably. "I, uh, don't know. But in any case, once we
get closer, they'll send out some ships to escort us in." To prove her
point, Yuri activated the ship's engines and began to slowly draw closer to
the station. They pulled within fifty kilometers and still there were no
attempts at communication, nor did anything come out to greet them.
This feels like Aliens... EEK! Yuri! A face-hugger is NOT a way to lose
pounds!!
"Okay, something really weird is going on," Yuri muttered under her breath.
She turned to her partner. "What do you think we should do?"
Kei considered that for all of two seconds. "Grab some big guns out of the
armory, get on board that ship, find out what's going on, and shoot anyone
that tries to shoot us."
"Sounds like a plan." A typical Kei plan, which Yuri couldn't argue with at
the moment. She guided the ship closer towards the station.
Cautiously cutting across the kilometers that separated the Lovely Angel
from the station, Yuri and Kei divided their attention between the
instruments and a visual inspection of the station itself. As their
instruments indicated, there did not seem to be any outward sign of what
could be causing the problems: no holes in the station or debris from
fighter craft or such, yet there was an ominous inactivity about the
spinning wheel of metal floating in space.
"It looks like they still have main power." Kei pointed at the many
exterior station lights that cut through the darkness of deep space.
"I see, but it still feels..." Yuri trailed off.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. It feels like a lot of places we've visited
after we leave them," Kei agreed.
Hehehe.
The pair traveled in silence as they drew closer to the exterior hatches
leading to one of the numerous docking bays that lined the middle of the
station. They matched speed with the rotation of the station, and waited
for any sort of response. If anyone was either on the main bridge of the
station or within the docking bay, they would be aware of the Lovely
Angel's presence and open the bay doors to allow them entry. A forcefield
would automatically come on line to prevent the station from losing
atmosphere, while at the same time still allowing the spaceship to pass
through it and land. Despite the precautions, the interior of the bays were
reinforced to withstand atmospheric decompression and protect the rest of
the station's atmosphere leaving it intact. Landing shouldn't cause any
problems.
After waiting outside for a full minute, still nothing happened.
"We could shoot our way in," Kei offered.
Yuri shook her head. "Only as a last resort. I want to see if the other
docking bays are the same way."
Kei let out a long drawn out , "Okay. But I'm telling you it's just a waste
of time. They're all going to be like that."
Two bays later, Kei continued grumbling at Yuri's, "What was that about a
big waste of time?"
In approaching the bay, they saw that the thick metal doors leading to it
were already open to outer space. That was unusual, in that the bay doors
were only supposed to be opened for craft that were actually in the process
of landing, since, regardless of a forcefield, most people felt uneasy
being next to the vacuum of space with only a dull haze of blue separating
them from instant death. Many people insisted on wearing spacesuits no
matter how little time was spent in the bay.
A quick drift in front of the opening showed that its force field was still
up and that atmosphere would still be in the bay. "Odd," Yuri mumbled.
Kei activated a close up on her sensor array. "It looks like the exterior
locks were disengaged and manually opened from the outside."
"Well, that saves us the trouble of doing the same." Yuri stated. It was
yet another sign that something was wrong, since the exterior opening ports
could easily be overridden by anyone inside the bay.
Yuri eased the ship into the station. Inside, there appeared to be nothing
out of sorts. It appeared to be a typical landing bay. A number of ships
were berthed on the floor of the area: several smaller private vehicles, an
expensive looking yacht, and a couple of cargo haulers, one about twice as
big as the other. Fuel lines, tools, docking clamps, and an assortment of
standard equipment that one would expect to find in a bay were there. There
was nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing it was devoid of was
people.
With practiced ease the Lovely Angel touched down on the deck and landed
without incident. Before exiting their craft, the duo did a sensor sweep of
the bay. The monitors reported no anomalies of any kind. A visual
inspection proved the same.
Both of the agents walked slowly down their landing ramp and exited the
craft. Kei opted to carry a heavy laser rifle while Yuri was satisfied with
her side-arm to provide protection. The duo held both of their weapons at
the ready.
"No signs of fighting," Kei said as she continued looking for any signs of
trouble.
"No bodies either."
Of course not! They're all incubating at the station hub!
A feeling deep in Yuri's gut
Told you not to use that face-hugger!
told her that they would
discover no clues in the docking bay. Instincts said that the answer to the
mystery lay somewhere within the main part of the station itself.
Cautiously, she took the lead and headed to the doors exiting the bay,
waving her hand at Kei, indicating she should follow.
As Kei stepped over a set of fuel tubes, she said to Yuri. "Well, at least
there's one good thing about all of this."
"What's that?"
"No one can blame us for this one. Whatever's going on here happened BEFORE
we arrived."
Thank goodness for small miracles.
Yuri nodded her head in agreement. Not that that little detail would
prevent others from accusing them anyway.
Hmmm.
xxxxxxxxxx
"What the hell is going on here?!" Kei's shout cut through the palpable
silence of the station that was more a tomb than functioning deep space
habitat. The first fifteen minutes of their search yielded them no one that
could help them. No people. No announcements or warnings. No robots
wandering around. All of the signs indicated there wasn't a single person
left on board the station. Admittedly, the pair were searching slowly,
having only just now made their way to the shopping district located along
the center of the station, but still they should have heard something or
found some sign of what had happened.
What their search had uncovered were occasional signs of people leaving in
a hurry: several overturned (cold) meals at a restaurant, a tool box that
appeared to have been dropped with no one picking up the mess, a sidewalk
painter's wares left out in the open. There was even someone named Youshi
Okasa who had left her purse laying in the middle of one of the sidewalks.
All of the money and credit cards were still in it, meaning that there
hadn't even been time for a thief to make a quick buck.
"Maybe there was some sort of mass evacuation," Yuri offered.
Kei looked at her incredulously. "Without leaving a repeating SOS signal or
at least a distress buoy? And you saw all those ships in the docking bay.
No way. Maybe some people left in a rush, but not all of them."
Kei raised a good point; how unusual. "All right. Let's split up and cover
more ground that way. I want to get to the bottom of this quickly.
Whatever's going on here couldn't have happened all that long ago or we
would have heard something about it already."
"Aren't you worried about not having enough firepower in case you run into
trouble?" Kei held her rifle affectionately before her, then pointed at
Yuri's pistol at smirked.
Yuri smiled back. "Unlike you, I don't need to fire fifty shots to hit one
target." She waved the pistol around, then turned serious. "If you run into
any trouble, any at all, call me over the communicator, and I'll come
running."
"Same goes for you."
Over ten years of being partners allowed each to know what the other would
do automatically. Having complete confidence in each other's abilities,
neither bothered to look back as they separated and began their individual
searches.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Hello. Are there any kidnappers, aliens, or just plain unpleasant people
in here?" Kei called as she peeked around the corner of one of the long
corridors leading from the residential section to the engineering facility.
For over half an hour she had searched the station and still had uncovered
nothing. Judging by the lack of communication from Yuri, she was suffering
from just as much luck. Kei was beginning to wonder if this was all some
sort of elaborate trap designed to capture or kill them. There were a
handful of powerful people they had crossed that were still macabre enough,
rich enough, and alive that might have done it somehow. That seemed to be
the only thing that made any sense at that point.
It was as Kei was halfway down the corridor that she discovered the first
signs of what might have happened.
Suggest: It was when Kei was...
She touched her earring comlink. "Yuri, I think I got something here."
There was only a moment's pause for the reply. "What is it?"
"Scorch marks in the metal of a hallway wall here. Maybe from an
incinerator. Pretty recent too. Also have several impact points near it.
Got to be from some kind of solid projectile firearm." Kei placed a hand
next to one of the holes and measured it with her fingers. "We're looking
at about a five centimeter hole. Big piece of artillery made those."
"Sounds like something up your alley," Yuri remarked.
"Yeah. What it doesn't sound like is something that would be standard issue
for defense forces on a station this size." Kei looked more closely at the
placement of the holes. "Also something weird. Not many of the holes are
below two meters. There aren't too many people that would try to headshot
something using a cannon that big. Especially not at close range."
"Which means?" Yuri asked.
"I don't know, other than whatever they were shooting at was tall. No sign
of blood or pieces of metal from a battle suit or anything. I guess they
didn't hit whatever they were aiming at. Be advised though, we might have a
problem on our hands."
"Got it. Want to regroup?"
"Nah," Kei said. "Just because they have a big gun is no cause for alarm.
:j
Let's keep searching separately. Just scream in terror if you run into
trouble." Kei returned to her search, more cautious now from the evidence
of the firefight. The search took longer due to her wariness, but Kei
figured it was still moving along a lot more quickly than if she was dead.
[LARGE snip]
Yuri was nearly to the bridge when she stumbled across another scene of
carnage. Yet more bodies lining the corridors of the station, though this
time there was a multitude of them. And there was another significant
difference besides the number of corpses: these ones had been armed.
Suggest: of corpses: these had been armed. (dropping the 'ones')
Judging by the damaged state the section of corridor was in, the group had
the opportunity to fire a lot before being destroyed by their opposition.
[snip]
However, by far its most notable feature was its...hat, for lack of a
better term. It was a wide thing, perhaps two meters across and several
centimeters thick, a blunt, rounded edge all around and apparently made of
the same material as the rest of the skin. It made the giant creature look
like some sort of demented, walking mushroom. The weirdest thing of all
about the headpiece was a tiny, repulsive emblem that looked like a white
face embedded in the brim of it. The emblem stood out, calling attention to
it by the snowy color alone. Of all the things that should not have been a
part of the creature, that belonged least of all.
Well, this is obviously a cross with Iria. I've always liked Iria. So is Bob
still around? :)
[snip]
Yuri went for the first aid kit onboard the Lovely Angel, pulling out the
very long hypodermic that was going to pump her full of first rate pain
killers and blood coagulants. As she mentally prepared herself to have the
barbed 'needle' (which she now thought of in terms of a spear, given that
it was currently buried in her appendage) pulled from her leg. She made
certain that a hypospray that would seal the wound after the object was
extracted from its bloody sheath was working correctly. It wouldn't do to
remove it only to bleed to death on the deck of her ship, not when there
were so many more spectacular ways for someone as daring and beautiful as
her to cancel her final ticket.
That's a nice line. ^_^
[snip]
Yuri was about to say something else when she noticed something strange.
Kei was wearing a short string of beads from her hair. It was tied to the
back, out of sight until Kei turned her head and Yuri caught a glimpse of
the dangling object. There was something familiar about the design. Not so
much of it being familiar on Kei, but that Yuri had seen it from somewhere
before. "What's up with the beads? You hate wearing those things."
Ah, Kei was one of the brats that tried to steal Iria's speeder. Hrm...
[snip]
She wore a partial suit of white armor with a black form-fitting fabric
underneath. The armor only heavily covered her upper arms, lower torso and
legs, while the rest was mostly composed of open areas of the black
material that would afford the woman the ability to move quick and freely.
It was an even mix of protection and high mobility. A simple pair of
light-filtered goggles rested on top of her head, ready to drop down over
her eyes if necessary. There were a couple of belts of large pouches, extra
ammunition, and holsters strapped around her torso and waist. Her primary
weapon seemed to be a Boreset Long Rifle that was slung across her back. It
was a dated and uncommon weapon, though very reliable under the most
grueling of conditions. The only drawbacks were its bulk and difficulty to
maintain. Still, that such an obviously experienced woman had that kind of
weapon with her, and given its readily apparent signs of frequent use, Yuri
instinctively knew the newcomer knew how to handle the weapon.
It was as the woman fully boarded the ship that Yuri was able to see
several;
stray punctuation
strings of beads that were worn in her hair along the back, ones
that were identical to the single strip that Kei now wore. Seeing an entire
set of them together triggered Yuri's memory as to where she had seen them
before and what significance they had; they were an indication of an outer
rim bounty hunter.
While Yuri was assessing the newcomer, Kei did the same, though her
attention was focused on the changes that might have happened across the
years. The woman looked much the same, save older and perhaps a few pounds
heavier, not that she had been overweight to begin with. It was indeed her,
of that there could be no mistake. Kei's attempt at a detached assessment
in order to keep control of herself was futile. Within seconds after seeing
the woman for the first time in over a decade, Kei's eyes began to tear,
and she felt herself overcome with a wave of emotion that was more powerful
than anything she had ever felt, surpassing even graduation day at the
training academy.
The woman gave the redhead a warm smile, and the last reserves tumbled
away. Unable to restrain herself any longer, Kei leaped forward and
embraced the smaller woman in a bear-like hug, as though afraid she would
try to run off at any moment. Instantly Kei felt the embrace returned with
just as much firmness and passion. That acceptance was all it took. The
emotional dam gave way, and Kei wept openly, regretting her foolishness in
ignoring for years the woman who had raised her with never a word of
complaint.
Words poured from Kei's mouth as fiercely as the tears, "Oh, Iria. I've
missed you so much!"
Heh. Neat.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yep, It's a Dirty Pair/Iria: Zeiram, the Animation crossover. Hey, once I
remembered the redhaired, spunky, good with weapons, orphan sidekick of
Iria's that just happened to be named Kei, the crossover potential seemed
painfully obvious. Just needed a halfway decent story, desire, and time to
write it. The technology differential, especially in the transport systems
between the two series, will have to be addressed, but I think I got that
figured out. Zeiram's a bit dated, and I'm not sure how many people are
still familiar with it, but I found it to be an excellent action-oriented
series that will hopefully mix quite easily with the more popular Dirty
Pair, though I haven't seen very many fics devoted to them of late. Hard to
believe, given the good story potential there.
Yeah, I feel that way about a few series or stand-alone animations. You never
know what will ultimately catch on, though.
Nice start, DB. Look forward to more. I can tell there's going to be one hell
of a lot of firefights. :)
Sorry about the general lack of commentary.
Ja ne!
Dave
*******************************************
D.F. Roeder
FanFiction - http://www.flash.net/~dfroeder/index.html
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