Hiya again. Mechalink, posting for Working Title Fiction. My e-mail has
been acting up, so now I'm going to post the next three chapters of Tuxedo
America, written by Kate Malloy, Zack Hibiki, and Steven Hykes, respectively.
But I've got even better news: Tuxedo America is now open for signups! Yes, that
means that if you like this story, you too can have the opportunity to write for
it! How do you take advantage of this wonderful opportunity, you ask? Simple!
Just go to WTF at http://wtfiction.sandwich.net/, click on the Tuxedo America
link, and click on the name of the Admin, the amazing and talented Phoebe, and
you're set!
Or you could just send an e-mail to Phoebe at keh36@student.canterbury.ac.nz,
telling her you want to sign up for Tuxedo America. But be sure to visit WTF
anyway! There's a sci-fi space opera story, Dogfighter Gospel, and a fantasy
story, Master Quest, and even a sublime dual-world fantasy, Dream Tides. And
even a silly parody of the dating game using characters from all over the Impro
universe. Stories for all tastes! And don't forget http://www.improfanfic.com,
home of even more yummy impro goodness!
And remember, the readers can be writers at Impro, where each chapter's written
by a different person, and anyone who wants to can write. So come and sign up!
Plus, we have an omake/fanart section as well, which just got its first
submission, the title art for this stoty. And we're always accepting
submissions!
Well, this's is a long enough intro, so I'll let you all get to the reading.
Oh. If you want to e-mail the author of this chapter, Kate Malloy, send your
mail to kamalloy@home.com. I'm just the messenger. ^_^
Posting for Phoebe (keh36@student.canterbury.ac.nz)
and Working Title Fiction (http://wtfiction.sandwich.net/),
Official WTF liason,
Mechalink
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| Tuxedo America |
| Chapter 2: All in a Day's Work |
| |
| Started by ColdFury |
| This party by Kate Malloy |
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Mamoru was deep in thought as he rode his motorbike back to the dorms.
Youma. Here. What on earth were they doing in California? Should he
call Usagi?
He shook his head. No. Not yet. He didn't want to disturb her. She
deserved a normal life for a while. If things got more serious, then
he'd contact her. Hopefully this was nothing more than a few isolated
incidents. It wasn't entirely impossible that some of the youma
survived after their leaders had been destroyed, and it was very easy to
believe that they'd keep on with their normal routine of randomly
attacking innocent people in an attempt to drain their energy. That was
just what youma *did*, after all. Surely he and the Senshi would have
already heard if there was something more than this going on in the
world.
Besides, it appeared that this town was used to dealing with this. The
man and the woman who had helped him out back there - who were they?
Where did they get their powers from? They weren't Senshi, obviously.
If anything, they reminded him of the heroes from those sentai shows he
used to watch on TV occasionally. He smiled. Who was he to doubt the
existence of a real-life sentai team?
Still, this whole incident had disturbed him. Though he still didn't
want to let Usagi know about it, perhaps it would be a good idea to tell
the others. Setsuna would probably be the best bet. With her work as a
research assistant, she had access to a good amount of high-class
computer systems. She'd be able to look into this for him. He'd e-mail
her as soon as he got back in.
*****
As he reached the door of his dorm suite, he heard voices coming from
inside. For a moment he considered calling campus security, but quickly
realized that his suitemates had probably moved in at last. He opened
the door-
-and walked right into the middle of an argument. Two young men stood
on opposite sides of the living room, both staring angrily at each
other.
"I can't believe this!" shouted the one on the left. He had curly blond
hair and pale blue eyes, and was nearly a head shorter than his
opponent. "Out of all the people on this campus, I got stuck rooming
with you!"
The young man on the right simply grinned. "Tough luck, dear cousin,"
he answered, absent-mindedly flipping his reddish-brown ponytail back
over his shoulder. "Ah, and it appears that our third occupant has
arrived." He turned and smiled at Mamoru, green eyes sparkling. "I'm
Ryan Jordan. A pleasure to meet you." He extended a hand.
"I'm Chi... er, Mamoru Chiba," Mamoru replied, shaking Ryan's hand.
"And sulking over in the corner there," Ryan continued, indicating the
other young man, "is my cousin, Josh. Do be polite and come over here
and introduce yourself."
Josh just waved sullenly. "Hi."
"You're cousins? You don't look very much alike." Mamoru observed.
"We both take after our fathers," Ryan answered smoothly. "So you're
from Japan?"
"Hai," Mamoru answered without even thinking.
Ryan laughed. "Indeed. I've been contemplating studying Japanese for a
while now. Could I possibly get your help if I do?"
"Ah...sure, I guess," Mamoru stammered, taken rather off-guard by the
sudden change in subject.
"Excellent." Ryan smiled again. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to
finish unpacking. It wasn't my fault that we didn't arrive in time for
the first day of classes." He headed to the bedroom on the left and
shut the door.
"Jerk," Josh muttered as he walked over to Mamoru. "Heya. Josh
Reynolds."
"Mamoru."
Josh sighed. "And here I thought I was going to get away from Mister I-
Know-Everything-Better-Than-You for a while."
Mamoru was dying to ask exactly what the situation was between the two
of them, but decided that it really wasn't any of his business. Yet.
"At any rate, we won't be seeing him too often," Josh continued. "He's
computer science, so he'll probably be either locked in his room coding
all the time or stuck in the labs doing the same thing. Me, I'm pre-
med, so I guess I'll be in the bio labs all the time. How about you?"
"I'm pre-med as well."
"Oh, cool! You have introductory bio lab tomorrow afternoon?"
Mamoru nodded.
"So do I! Great, maybe we can be lab partners, then?"
"Sure."
"Fantastic! I suppose we probably have lecture together, but
considering that there's 500 people in that hall, I wouldn't worry about
looking for each other." He grinned.
Mamoru blinked. "Five hundred? Again?"
"Maybe not quite that many. But definitely up there. Anyway, I gotta
finish getting all my stuff set up too. Seeya tomorrow!" He headed to
the bedroom on the left and closed the door.
"This is going to be an interesting semester," Mamoru said quietly to
himself as he went to get settled in for the night.
It wasn't until much later that he realized that he'd forgotten all
about e-mailing Setsuna.
*****
Bloutite stood in HER office once more, waiting for her to acknowledge
the fact that he had arrived.
"WHEN DID YOU GET IN HERE?"
"Just a few minutes ago, Mistress."
"CALL ME 'YOUR HIGHNESS,' YOU IDIOT."
Bloutite refrained from reminding HER of the last time SHE had demanded
a title change.
"NOW, NIMROD, EXPLAIN TO ME EXACTLY WHY YOU FAILED TO TAKE OUT THIS
'TUXEDO MASK.'"
Bloutite suppressed a sigh. It was going to be a *very* long night...
*****
*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*
Mamoru wearily lifted one arm and whacked the off button of his alarm
clock. Mentally, he went over the day's schedule. Bio lecture this
morning, bio lab this afternoon, calculus and chem and ethics
assignments to work on...
"Welcome to college life," he muttered as he headed off to see about
getting some breakfast.
He noted that the door to Ryan's room was open. He glanced in as he
passed by to see Ryan in front of his computer, already frantically
typing.
"Either he's very dedicated, or he really needs some friends," Mamoru
thought as he went to the refrigerator of the small kitchenette and
rummaged around in it, looking for the milk.
*****
Forty-five minutes later, Mamoru was on campus and heading for his bio
lecture.
"Hey, Mamoru!"
He turned to see Keith and Kelly waving at him.
"How's it going?" Kelly asked as he walked over to where they were
standing.
"Fairly well. I'm on my way to biology right now," he stated.
"Ah, good luck," Keith said. "Shouldn't be too bad. It's next semester
that things start getting rough."
"I'll keep that in mind," Mamoru noted. "Lecture Hall Five is that way,
right?" He pointed behind a few other buildings.
"Yeah," Kelly said. "I'd walk you up there if I weren't on my way to
class myself."
"No, that's all right," Mamoru replied. "I have to learn my way around
here sooner or later, right?"
"Well, stop by and visit us at the coffee shop later, okay?" Kelly said
enthusiastically.
"Sure," Mamoru answered. "See you then."
"Seeya!" Kelly waved.
"Nice talking to you again," Keith said with a smile.
Mamoru watched them leave, then continued on his way to class.
*****
Keith and Kelly waited until Mamoru was out of sight before resuming
their conversation.
"Honestly, those monsters are getting some nerve! Don't they know class
is back in session?" Kelly exclaimed.
Keith chuckled. "Well, 'Solaris,' it just means that we're going to
have to be more careful from now on."
"Right, 'Nightshadow.'"
"I hate that name," Keith muttered.
"Hey, I didn't pick it out. Anyway, what did you think of that guy in
the tuxedo?"
"It definitely seemed like that wasn't the first time he'd seen
something like that. I'd say we're looking at a pro here."
"But where did he come from?"
"Dunno. I'll be keeping an eye out for him though. I wouldn't mind
having his help again."
Kelly nodded. "What about Mamoru? I told you that I felt some vibes
coming from him. You don't think that he could be...?"
"Nah, that would just be silly."
"Yeah, you're right."
*****
Meanwhile, another group of students was discussing their recent
assignments.
"I can't believe Twignacron and V-8 lost!" exclaimed a youma with a body
made of traffic cones. "I thought they were at the top of the class!"
Another youma that resembled a blue tiger with spikes sighed. "And now
the professors are going to work us even harder!"
"This bites," remarked a third, who was mostly reptilian in appearance.
"California's probably the worst place to get into the evil business.
You can't cross the street without running into some sorta superhero. I
shoulda gone to Black Moon-Rutgers instead."
"Yeah, or MIT," the traffic cone youma stated. "Or even Baltimore
County."
The other two youma just stared.
"What?"
"You're weird, Coneria."
*****
Mamoru arrived at biology lab five minutes late. It had taken him
forever to find where the actual lab was.
Apologizing to the TA as he entered, he scanned the room. Josh was
sitting at one of the tables in the back, and started waving as soon as
he saw Mamoru enter.
Mamoru slid into the seat next to Josh. "Have I missed anything?" he
asked.
"Nah." Josh handed him a syllabus. "She's just been going over this.
Nothing big. We aren't even going to do any real work today."
"How do you know so much about this?" Mamoru asked.
"I've heard a lot from my brothers. Both of them went here. One was an
chem major, and the other was physics."
"Ah, I see."
"You have any siblings back in Japan?"
"No, I'm an only child," Mamoru said hesitantly. He didn't really like
thinking about his parents, who had died in a car crash when he was six.
Josh must have noticed the sadness in Mamoru's voice, for he didn't say
anything further.
Mamoru sighed. He really hadn't meant to make Josh feel bad.
As the lab went on, he was only half-listening. He was grateful for
when the TA stopped talking, told them all to be on time for the next
meeting, and then let them go.
"Hey, Josh..." Mamoru began uncertainly. "You want to get off campus
for a little while?"
"Nah, got too much work to do. This English assignment's going to take
forever. I guess I'll see you back at the dorms?"
"Sure. Good luck."
"Thanks."
*****
Mamoru sat in the library, an open chemistry book in front of him.
Somehow he'd managed to forget most of the things he'd learned in high
school. Of course, having to read complicated chemical procedures in a
language other than his native tongue definitely complicated things.
He gazed out the window over the campus. It was a nice view from up
here. But something seemed wrong.
His eyes narrowed as he noticed some sort of disturbance by one of the
academic buildings. A large, blue...something was attacking students!
Quickly, he gathered up his books and ran for the elevator. He hoped
he could make it over there in time. But where exactly was he going to
change to Tuxedo Mask?
*****
"There's a monster on campus!" Kelly said to Keith. "I can feel it!"
"They're getting bolder," Keith answered in a worried tone. "There's no
time to waste! Let's go!"
*****
Author's Notes: Hey, she's not a newbie! What's she doing writing for
this? ^_~
Surprise! I voted for this one in 3i and had every intention of writing
for it, mainly because a) Mamoru is darned cool and deserves a bit more
attention of his own and b) that University of Black Moon - Berkley line
had me cracking up. If nothing else, it very nicely explains one of my
college professors who had gotten his degree from there. ^_^;
Poor Mamoru. Not only is his girlfriend half the world away, and he has
classes *and* youma to take care of, now he's got a pair of bickering
roommates to deal with as well. I'm not exactly sure where Josh and
Ryan came from. They just kinda showed up and wanted to get in the
story. ^_^
Oh, yeah, and I worked a reference to my old college in. Yay UMBC! ;P
Anyhow, very large apologies for the delay. Lots of stuff happened to
me to keep me from writing, and I beg everybody's forgiveness.
Especially Phoebe, who is a very very tolerant person. If she went and
put this up, that is. Then again, if she didn't, how would you be
reading this? ^_~
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Parts 3 and 4 still coming! Remember... you can sign up to write this story,
it's what Impro's all abaout!
WTF: It's what?
http://wtfiction.sandwich.net/