Oh shit, it's an SI fic. Run for your lives. Scary scary. ^_^;;
Disclaimers and such follow the chapter. Oh, please view using a fixed-width
font such a courier for maximum enjoyment. Thank you.
=============================================
Once upon a time, there was a man who hated his life, who longed to have a
different life entirely.
The man's longing was so great that, one day, his life simply ended, and he
began a new life, in a new place, far from what he had left behind.
The details of how that happened are irrelevant, and the ramifications of
the whole thing are enough to give physicists, philosophers, and other
highly learned people with p's and h's in close proximity headaches for
decades, so we're not going to dwell on all that. After all, whoever heard
of spending several paragraphs at length trying to explain a flimsy plot
device?
No, that'd be boring reading. We're just going to skip all that and get to
the good stuff.
=============================================
"Son of a BITCH!"
In dim corridors lit by flickering overhead panels, a figure stormed
angrily, pausing here and there to kick a wall panel or dodge a hanging bit
of machinery, some of which was sparking and smoking rather ominously.
"I just HAD to have this stupid piece of shit," the individual grumbled,
slamming a fist into a dangling ceiling panel. "A real bargain, they said.
Just needs a bit of work, they said. Pretty good condition, they said. JESUS
FUCKING *CHRIST*!" Stopping suddenly and making a sharp turn down another
corridor as the entire ceiling of the passage in front of him caved in, he
growled, "That's the LAST time I buy an interdimensional all-terrain armored
mobile fortress *used*."
In the endless night between worlds, a giant purple lemon tumbled serenely
through the ether, heedless of the ranting and raving of its sole
occupant...
==============================================================
| |
| PPPPPPP LL OOOO RRRRRRR TTTTTTTT !! |
| PP PP LL OO OO RR RR TT !!!! |
| PP PP LL OO OO RR RR TT !!!! |
| PP PP LL OO OO RR RR TT !!!! |
| PPPPPPP LL OO OO RRRRRRR TT !!!! |
| PP LL OO OO RR RR TT !! |
| PP LL OO OO RR RR TT |
| PP LLLLLLLL OOOO RR RR TT !! |
| |
==============================================================
by The Eternal Lost Lurker
Disclaimer: The only thing here I own is me, and I'm not even entirely sure
about that one. The people who own everything else, well...I'd be horribly
embarassed over this whole thing if I were them, and I just hope they don't
come after my ass.
==============================================================
Chapter One: When Life Hands You Lemons... SQUEEZE!
==============================================================
-----------------------------------------
CURRENT POSITION - THE BETWEEN
DESTINATION - WORLD 040501
TRANSIT TIME - 00:44:27
-----------------------------------------
The burgundy rocker-recliner didn't exactly mesh well with the general decor
of the main control room.
Not that the guy sitting in it gave a damn about that. Somewhere in his late
teens, with sharp blue eyes, shoulder-length lavender-grey hair, lightly
tanned skin, and loose, casual attire, he might well be called handsome by
some. Had, in fact, been called that more than once in recent memory.
The words coming out of his mouth, however, were anything but handsome as he
thumbed through a thick, hardbound volume. Choice curses in several
languages were grumbled, muttered, spoken aloud, and even shouted as he
flipped pages in a frustrated manner before giving a roar of frustration and
tossing the book across the room. Beside the chair, piled haphazardly in
several meter-high stacks, were over two dozen books similar to the one he'd
just flung aside. The tome landed on the deck with a solid *thump*, the worn
silver leaf of the title, "T-9r User's Manual, Table of Contents", glinting
under the control room lights.
The young man leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily, reaching for a
bottle of aspirin and a soda from a small table and tossing back two pills
before closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. Not for the
first time, he thought back on the events of three weeks ago with a mix of
regret, remorse, self-loathing, disgust, and disappointment.
He'd been wandering around the surface of a world which seemed to be
populated mostly by small, oddly colored plant-things which could move
around like animals. After about a day of travel, he'd woken to find himself
in the middle of a commotion: several hundred of the little plant-creatures
were running to and fro, screaming and shouting and flailing as something
else moved among their ranks, something which was carefully concealing
itself as it snatched the helpless creatures up in its jaws, tore their
frail bodies apart mercilessly, and devoured whatever of them didn't fall to
the ground before it could close its mouth.
He had bolted to his feet, looking around for the quickest route to get
clear of the bizarre stampede. Several red and blue plant-things ran across
his foot, and he took a step back, nearly stumbling...
...and something made a cracking, squishing, squelching sound under his
heel.
Everything had gone quiet then, suddenly, as he turned and looked
down...only to find the bizarre, sharp-clawed and sharp-fanged predator, now
in quite plain sight, lying dead on the ground, blood and brains oozing from
its crushed head from where he'd accidentally stomped on it in his haste to
flee the scene.
The plant-things had sent up a great cheer, and somehow herded him off to a
clearing where thousands of their kind were gathered. Some sort of
celebration had commenced, then, and though he couldn't quite understand
their way of communicating, he'd gotten the impression he was being lauded
as a great hero. An old, wrinkled, slightly brown, and rather hefty
plant-thing had made a great speech, then, and several dozen of the
creatures had rushed in, presenting him with a large sack full of what
looked like sparkling sand. There had been more cheering, and after hanging
around for a bit to see what else was going to happen, he took his bag of
sand, waved a cheerful farewell to the plant-creatures, and went on his
merry way.
Several hours later, he'd found a city, and discovered--much to his
surprise--that the "sand" the alien creatures had given him was in fact the
dust of an incredibly rare and precious mineral which was worth quite a
bit--in fact, it was worth even more in this form, due to its numerous
industrial uses.
He'd had a good ten kilos of the mineral dust. By the end of the day, he'd
gone from being broke to being quite independently wealthy.
Blessed with a newfound wealth and cursed with an urge to divest himself of
said wealth, he'd wandered around the spaceport district of the city,
looking for something special to sink his vast amounts of loot into.
It wasn't long until he saw...*it*.
*It* wasn't hard to spot at all. It towered over just about everything else
around it, even with the spires of skymalls and public shuttle parking
plazas and spacedock control towers littering the skyline. It was also quite
easily the most distinctive thing to be seen within a hundred kilometers.
He wasn't sure what it was about the thing, but he just knew he had to see
it up close and, if possible, he had to have it for himself.
And so, he'd hurried down the bustling streets, up escalators and down
slidewalks, through underpasses and overpasses, avoiding the congested
aroundpasses whenever possible, always keeping sight of his goal...
And not soon enough, he was there.
=============================================
"Allo allo allo! Welcome to Easy Z'zZrl'zub's A-to-Z-to-Z'zZ Used
Transportation Depot! If we don't got it, you don't need it, and we don't
care how bad your credit is as long as you've got cash! What can I screw you
for--I mean do for you?"
The purple-haired youth hesitated uncertainly for a moment, glancing around
what he quickly realized to be the interstellar equivalent of a used car
lot. His attention, however, quickly returned to the object of his fixation,
the thing which had dragged him halfway across the city, calling out to him.
It was enormous, easily larger than your average skyscraper, and roughly
spherical in shape. Thick plates of gleaming off-white metal made up its
hull, which was pocked and dotted with odd ports, protrusions of machinery,
and things he couldn't really recognize offhand. A few larger machines
protruded from the bulk of the behemoth, most of which looked like some sort
of weaponry. A wide hangar bay sat at the base and front of it, with a
symbol that looked oddly like a footprint painted on it. The entire thing
was balanced atop an enormous tread assembly, though how anything that
freaking huge could be driven around like a tank...well, it was anyone's
guess.
The most distinctive feature, however, was the eye.
At the top of the bizarre vehicle sat a smaller, hinged grey sphere, which
was partially open to reveal the dull white and cold grey iris of a massive
eyeball. It glared dully across the horizon, its gaze somehow malevolent
through the slitted opening of the shell around it.
The thing wasn't in the best shape. Anyone could see that. There were
obvious signs all across the hull that it had taken quite a beating
somewhere along the line. One of the outer protrusions showed signs of
having been amputated, leaving behind a jutting stump with bits of metal and
cables trailing out of it. Dents in the armor plating, thick black lines of
carbon scoring, unnatural bulges and warps in the hull...whoever the
previous owners had been, they hadn't been very gentle with it.
Still, it was a damn impressive sight, and he couldn't help but stare
longingly up at it...
The slimy salesman--and he was truly slimy, for he was some sort of
amphibian, possibly a salamander, and his skin was bathed in his own natural
oils--grinned a rather unsavory grin as he noticed the attention his
customer was giving the hulking beast in the corner of the lot. Still, being
a good salesman, he had to play the game... "Something in an economy-class,
perhaps? Intra-atmosphere shuttle? Sublight cruiser? A yacht, maybe? We have
a nice selection of pre-owned starships over--"
"Tell me about that."
The amphibian grinned. *This must be my lucky day.* "That? Oh, you mean the
T-9r?"
"T-9r?" the purple-haired man repeated, cocking his head as he glanced from
the salesman to the massive spheroid and back.
"Yes, yes! That, my good sir, is a genuine T-9r Interdimensional All-Terrain
Armored Mobile Fortress. *THE* choice for the aspiring conqueror, renegade
army, fugitive warlord in hiding, or just a retired person looking to get
away from it all. It has all the standard features: transdimensional portal
generator, hyperdimensional warp drive, fully automated internal security
system, triple-thick triadamantium hull plating, anti-lock brakes,
super-traction treads, tunneling drill, cruise control, matter/antimatter
and fusion reactors, adjustable viewer angle, power airlocks, full surround
stereo system with CD, MP3, DVD-A, FM, AM, XM, Q3, XYZ, and 8-track,
Seistronic 9.0 speaker system with amplifier, subwoofer, superwoofer, and
extended bass, wide-beam plasma cannon, tinted windows, and cupholders!"
The youth blinked at that sales pitch, then gazed up at the mobile fortress
for a long moment. "Looks a little banged up."
"Minor repairs, minor repairs!" the salesman assured him. "Looks worse than
it really is. It's in great shape, I assure you! Runs like a dream!"
The purple-haired man stood thinking for quite some time. At length, he
asked, "How much?"
The amphibian quoted him a figure.
"Hmm." Seeming to struggle with himself for a minute, the youth reached into
his pocket. "You take Asstercard?"
"Of course we do, sir! You can't go anywhere without Asstercard." The
salesman slid the proffered card through a portable reader, and his eyes
widened. "Why, yes sir...I can guarantee you'll leave this lot TO-DAY with
that fine vehicle!"
The young man smiled. "It's a deal."
=============================================
And true to the salamander's word, by the end of the day, the T-9r fortress
was rightfully his, signed, sealed, and delivered. The salesman had arranged
for some crews to come along and do minor repairs and body work to the
titanic craft--at the customer's expense, of course--and seized by a sudden
urge, the young man had asked to have it repainted while they were at it.
In the end, his account was vastly depleted of funds, though he still had
more money than he'd ever had before in his life, and he was set to explore
the universe and all its dimensions in his very own, state of the art, shiny
purple T-9r mobile fortress.
By the time he realized how badly he'd been swindled, he was several
dimensions away from Easy Z'zZrl'zub's A-to-Z-to-Z'zZ Used Transportation
Depot, and the coordinate storage banks on the navigational system had
already short-circuited.
He'd spent the last few weeks hopping from dimension to dimension, planet to
planet, trying to find either the crook who'd sold him this hulking purple
lemon, or someone who could help him fix the thing up enough that he could
get rid of it and get most of his money back. The world with the dinosaurs
had been kinda fun, and he felt rather poorly for the folks whose city he'd
accidentally destroyed before he could open another portal out, and the
ocean world left him feeling grateful the outer hull was rustproof, but when
all was said and done, he hadn't found anyone or anything that was remotely
useful to him.
And so here he was now, on course to another world, hoping to luck out
before something ELSE broke arou--
-----------------------------------------
WARNING, WARNING, WARNING
MASSIVE ETHEREAL PROBABILITY SURGE
CURRENT POWER AND ENGINE EFFICIENCY
INSUFFICIENT TO NAVIGATE ANOMALY
BEGINNING EMERGENCY DIMENSIONAL RE-ENTRY
RE-ENTRY STABILIZERS CHECK: FAIL
INERTIAL DAMPENERS CHECK: FAIL
PLEASE FASTEN ALL MANUAL RESTRAINTS
-----------------------------------------
--well, FUCK.
=============================================
Picture a small, quiet suburban town. A place with such a small population,
everyone seems to know everyone else. The scenery is pretty, all the kids
know each other because they all go to the same school, and life is
typically rather serene and peaceful.
Now, let's take that image of our idyllic suburb, and make a few changes.
First, let's stick it on an island, isolated from the rest of the world by
some kilometers of ocean, but not so far away from the country it belongs to
as to be out of ferry range. Next, let's add some more uptown touches to the
scene; a shopping district with tall, dense buildings, urban apartment
complexes, a public transit system.
And just to be completely bizarre, let's stick a big hill in the middle of
the island, atop which stands a bizarre statue which resembles an
anthropomorphized hunchback hippopotamus, with a touch of arse and crazy old
man mixed into its absurd facial features.
Got all that? Good.
=============================================
Darkness. A velvet-lined table. A row of cards.
A card is tapped and flipped over.
"A disruption..."
A card is tapped and flipped over.
"Irreversible change in the flow of time."
A card is tapped and flipped over.
"This is a beginning..."
Something exploded.
=============================================
"What do you think onii-chan will be like?"
"I don't know. We don't really know much about him, do we? But I'll bet he's
cool. He just has to be cool."
Two girls walked down a wide path toward a prominent estate on the island.
Both wore the same cream-colored school uniform, and carried small shopping
bags. They talked excitedly, making plans for what was sure to be the
biggest event to ever hit the sleepy little community of Promised Island in
years.
A peal of thunder ripped through the sky, startling the two girls. "That's
funny," the dark-haired of the two said, brushing one of her long braids
over her shoulder absently, "I don't see any clouds..."
"Weird," the other girl replied.
Up and down the street, lights began to flicker, and the sky rapidly
darkened. With a loud ripping sound, a hole suddenly opened overhead,
leaking swirling bluish-white mists and purple streaks of lightning into the
disturbed air.
"What the heck is THAT?" the second girl cried, her long brown-blonde
ponytails whipping about as she turned to stare up at the strange phenomenon
in the sky.
"I...I have no idea," the other girl replied, gaping in astonishment.
All around, people began leaning out of windows and walking out onto the
street to stare at the sky in amazement, wonder, and fear. Unsettled
murmurings rose in volume as more of the island's denizens showed up to
witness the bizarre occurrence.
The sparking, swirling darkness in the sky began to bulge, the mists
churning as though straining to hold something back. "I think something's
trying to come out!" the dark-haired girl said.
A strong wind kicked up, blowing dust and debris all over and stirring hair
and clothes as all the lights in the city went dark. Ripples of static
surged around the hole in the sky, a steady rumble of thunder accompanying
the light show. The swollen bulge of dark mists at the center of the
phenomenon pushed outward, nearly doubling in size...
With a sound that was somewhere between a growling stomach, a massive fart,
and a raw beef roast being torn in half, the pregnant cloud exploded, and a
huge...purple...*SOMETHING* shot out of the sky like a cannonball, right
over the hill in the middle of the island, plowing through the hideous
statue as though it weren't even there.
=============================================
"Heh...omoshiroi..."
=============================================
"Ahhh...! What's this? Is it an attack?"
=============================================
"SUGOI! It's some kinda UFO! I gotta check it out!"
=============================================
"Whoa, this is big! I've got to check for lots of clues to figure this out!"
=============================================
*thump*
"Woof?"
=============================================
"Th' hell...?"
=============================================
"Waah...! Scary! ...ite..."
=============================================
"Oh...! Hmm, I wonder if aliens like curry porridge..."
=============================================
"Kusu..."
=============================================
"Huh? What's going on? Ahh, it's big!"
=============================================
Panicked citizens scrambled to clear out of the path of the enormous object
as it hurtled down the broad avenue that ran through the center of the
island, massive treads squealing and creaking ominously, dangerously close
to toppling over and becoming a deadly bowling ball.
"It's headed straight for Welcome House!" the dark-haired girl cried in
alarm, grabbing the arm of the other schoolgirl and dragging her along in a
panicked flight after the bizarre object.
"H-hey! Matte, Karen-chan...!" the older of the two protested, barely
managing to keep up with the other girl's pace to avoid having her arm
wrenched out of its socket. Much of the crowd was developing the same idea
as the two teenagers; once the danger of being run over passed, curiosity
got the better of the citizens of Promised Island, and the flow of traffic
reversed, changing course to follow the purple sphere down the road to
wherever it was headed.
=============================================
Several young girls spilled out of a large estate tucked away from the main
center of the island, drawn by the commotion. Even with the enormous dust
cloud roiling on the path leading to the place which was marked by its
entrance arch as "Welcome House", the massive vehicle was easily visible,
towering above every other structure on the island. The dark grey-purple
iris of the bizarre eyeball perched atop the thing gleamed in the sun, which
had become visible again almost the minute the abnormal storm had given
birth to the enigmatic purple monstrosity. As pandemonium reigned both
around Welcome House and in the streets around and behind the rolling thing,
there was a sudden loud, grating whine, audible over even the rumbling of
the treads and the screaming of the townspeople.
Hatches popped open in the lower hull of the spheroid, and two huge, bulky
chunks of machinery snapped out. Blackened pipes jutted from these devices,
pointing in roughly the direction of the Welcome House.
"It's gonna fire!" "It's attacking!" "Oh, the humanity!"
Rather than some sort of attack, however, the pipes began spewing forth
flaming exhaust, filling the air with smoke and the stench of burning rocket
fuel. Gradually, the wild charge of the purple titan slowed, and with a
final, roaring whoosh of reverse thrust, it ground to a complete halt, mere
centimeters from the "Welcome House" archway.
For several minutes, nothing happened. The girls who had been inside Welcome
House gathered together in the yard, watching the vehicle carefully. A
number of other girls, including the two schoolgirls who had followed the
thing from the center of town, joined them, and the reactions of the girls
to this odd disruption in their lives was varied. A wave of humanity crashed
through the boundaries of the property, heedless of privacy or trespassing
concerns, eager to find out just what was going on.
At length, there was a loud clanking sound, and a large, somewhat dented
hatchway near the base of the vehicle began to open, the door rising upward
and inward, a narrow metal ramp sliding out and down as an aperture large
enough to discharge a city bus formed in the purple behemoth.
Everyone waited with bated breath, anticipating the kinds of unspeakable
alien horrors which might swarm down upon them in grim fascination.
Something emerged. Someone screamed reflexively.
A boy, human, perhaps seventeen years of age or so, walked calmly down the
ramp. His clothes weren't much to write home about; a well-worn indigo denim
jacket, faded black jeans, brown workboots, and a black muscle shirt. He was
tanned, but not too dark; sharp, cool blue eyes peered out from under long,
lavender-grey bangs.
He looked out at the waiting crowd for a long moment, eyes sweeping over
them, taking in every face, every detail of their dress and body language. A
minute passed, then two. A soft wind began to blow.
"Sorry about the statue," the boy said, scratching the back of his head and
laughing nervously.
The people of Promised Island facefaulted en masse.
=============================================
In the middle of the sea about a kilometer off Promised Island, a boat
carrying an annoyingly jabbering ugly brown-haired boy, a morose-looking,
stringy-haired nerd with glasses, and a girl wearing a bear-eared hood
capsized from the backlash of the sudden "storm" over the island. All three
of them drowned with very little fanfare; nobody so much as noticed as the
misfortunate ferry slowly sank beneath the waves. Sadly, nobody would ever
really miss any of them.
=============================================
"Could...this be..."
"...onii-..."
"...chan?"
Three of the girls--the dark-haired girl with braids, the brown-haired girl
with ponytails, and a long-haired girl in a pink kimono--stood blinking at
the youth who had descended from the enormous vehicle. The kimono-clad girl
held a naginata, but it was currently hanging toward the ground, all
semblance of readiness forgotten in the face of the bizarre situation.
A sandy-haired girl wearing a Union Jack shirt and casual slacks popped up
beside the trio a moment later, digital camera out and snapping photos. "UFO
sighting checkie!" she proclaimed. "Yotsuba has to check the alien boy and
the spaceship!"
A casually-dressed girl with short brown hair and sport glasses perched on
her forehead skated lazily up to the quartet. "Wow, this is pretty weird,
don'tcha think?" She squawked and flailed around as a similar-looking girl
in coveralls with goggles on her head ran past, toward the strange craft and
its apparent owner. "O-oi, Rinrin!" the skater called.
Nearby, a younger girl, wearing a similar school uniform to the two older
girls in the group and a white headband in her brown hair, knelt beside a
large golden retriever and a girl with long, braided black hair and round
glasses who was currently lying on the ground, unconscious. "Minna,
Marie-chan fainted again!" she cried.
A girl of roughly the same age, with violet hair in an oddly curled style
and wearing a black hair ribbon, rushed up to them, carrying a glass of
water. "Hime brought water for Marie-chan...what's going on, Kaho-chan?" she
asked.
The girl identified as Kaho shrugged helplessly. "I don't know!" she cried.
"Waaaaai, it's big and strange! Can Hina go inside? Maybe there's lots of
fun things for Hina to play with!" a cute young blonde girl gushed as she
ran past them.
Just behind her was a girl of roughly the same age, if maybe a year older,
with long sky-blue hair, in a frilly dress and carrying a parasol. She got
as far as the quartet nearest the craft before ducking behind the girl with
the naginata. "Kusu," she murmured plaintively.
Meanwhile, Rinrin--the girl who had charged toward the vehicle earlier--had
approached the lavender-haired boy, and was badgering him with questions.
"Is it yours? Did you build it? Where'd it come from? Where'd you come from?
It's so cool! What is it? What does it do? How does it move? Can it fly? Can
it float? How fast is it? Tell me everything about it, I wanna know
everything!"
The boy seemed flustered, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead as he
stared at the overly energetic girl. "Um...ano...that is...errr...ah....slow
down, slow down...! Aheheheh..."
The girl suddenly froze in mid-ramble, cocking her head curiously and
putting the tip of an index finger to her chin. "Ne...aniki? Are
you...aniki?"
The young man blinked. "Huh? Aniki? What makes you think--"
"Ani-kun."
A flat, almost toneless voice called from the darkness of the enormous
craft, echoing hollowly, carrying across the front lawn of Welcome House.
The purple-haired boy turned and glanced up the ramp, blinking. "Huh? Who's
in there?"
"Ani-kun," the voice repeated. A blue flame flickered into existence in
midair above the ramp, floating up into the open bay.
Frowning, the youth turned and walked back into the vehicle. The girls edged
a bit closer out of curiosity, the one with the camera snapping pictures the
whole time. Further back, the bespectacled girl began to stir, the other two
helping her sit up as she asked what was going on.
=============================================
His brow furrowed as he looked around the darkened bay. The lights here in
the hangar deck didn't exactly work very well, but he was sure it wasn't
supposed to be THIS dark...
"Ani-kun."
Suddenly, one by one, thirteen candles began to burn around the darkened
bay, flames flickering, not really providing any illumination whatsoever.
"Who's there?" the boy asked.
An overhead light suddenly flashed, revealing a figure shrouded in black
robes, wearing a tall, pointed hat and a frightening, chiseled-wood Noh
mask. The youth began to panic as the darkness returned. *What the hell is
going on here?* he wondered.
A steadier, more subtle illumination, tinged a disturbing shade of red, grew
from the center of the ring of candles, then, and the masked figure
reappeared. A hand shrouded in darkness reached up to remove the mask...
"Yo, ani-kun," the girl greeted with a smirk. She was no older than any of
the ones he'd seen outside, and had long, maroon hair--or was that a trick
of the light?--and sharp eyes.
"Why do you keep calling me that? I'm not your brother...I don't even have a
family," the purple-haired youth commented. "And just who the hell are you
anyway?"
"Chikage," she replied. "And I call you ani-kun because you will be ani-kun
from now on. The stars say as much."
"....uh, okay. I don't quite follow you there, uh, Chikage, but..."
Chikage waved a hand, and a deck of tarot cards appeared floating in midair.
Five of them flashed out of the deck, spreading themselves in a row, turning
slowly and serenly in midair as the rest of the deck disappeared somewhere
within the girl's voluminous cloak. "Today is propechied to be an important
celestial day," she spoke in a monotone. "Thirteen children born of a common
father were to meet for the first time, unaware up to this point that they
had any siblings at all. Twelve girls, one boy."
The purple-haired boy blinked. "You mean all those girls--? And you?
Sisters?"
"Hai," Chikage nodded. "We have waited for this day, for ani-kun to arrive
and be with us." One of the floating cards suddenly shot forward, striking
the young man in the forehead. He snatched it instinctively and looked at
it: DEATH. "Not usually literal when it appears, but today, destiny changed,
and a life was taken by the stars."
A moment passed, and the purple-haired youth's eyes widened slowly. "...your
brother."
A short nod. "I foresaw it in the crystal. Even as you arrived by a twist of
cosmic chance, ani-kun's boat sank, and he drowned."
"I..." He was truly at a loss for words, a thick lump forming in his throat.
"Gods, I'm sorry, Chikage."
The maroon-haired girl shrugged, and the DEATH card vanished from the boy's
grasp. "It's inconsequential. A human life means nothing to Fate. The
universe has a different course in store for the twelve of us--and for you
as well...ani-kun."
His eyes widened. "Now wait just a damn minute..."
"You have no choice," Chikage replied, eyes flashing as she glided towards
him, reaching out to caress his chin with her fingertips. "Your destiny is
with them..." She leaned closer, gazing directly into his sharp blue eyes,
and added in a soft whisper, "...and with me." With that, she kissed him.
=============================================
The scene outside the enormous craft was much the same as it had been
earlier; the only difference now was that the majority of the citizens of
Promised Island had already lost interest in the bizarre vehicle and gone
back to their own affairs, leaving the residents of Welcome House along to
deal with things.
The purple-haired boy swallowed nervously as he walked down the ramp again,
stopping at the edge and looking at the small crowd of girls who, for better
or worse, he'd just been drafted as older brother to.
*Hmm,* he thought to himself, *well, they're all cute...VERY cute. This
could work out fine after all...*
The girls were all staring at him curiously, expectantly. Chikage had,
unsurprisingly, vanished. He coughed and bowed formally. "They call me
Lurker," he said.
The girl with the goggles on her head leaned toward him, blinking. "Aniki?"
she asked.
Somewhat nervously, Lurker nodded. "Apparently, yes."
A lengthy pause as a ripple of murmurs passed through the girls...
...and then Lurker found himself mobbed with hugs.
=============================================
Elsewhere in Japan, the recently-arrived fortress had begun to attract
unwanted attention...
"Nani kore? ...oishii ka?"
=============================================
Thirteen people gathered in the dining room of Welcome House, drinking tea
as introductions were made.
"Rinrin," the short-haired girl in the coveralls said.
Beside her, the almost-identical girl with the sport glasses waved lazily.
"Mamoru," she introduced herself.
"Hina! Hina thinks onii-tama is cool!" the youngest girl piped up, bouncing
in her seat and beaming.
One of the older girls, the one with brown-blonde hair and ponytails,
laughed softly. "Her name's Hinako, but she likes Hina. And I'm Sakuya, onii
-sama," she added.
Beside her, the girl with braids in her long dark hair smiled. "Karen."
"Marie," the girl with glasses and her dark hair tied back in a single braid
said timidly, giving Lurker a small wave.
"Shirayuki!" the violet-haired girl said, her curls bobbing as she
half-bowed in her seat.
"Aria," the young blue-haired girl said softly, her voice lilting curiously.
Her gloved hands were folded primly in front of her.
"Kaho!" the brown-haired girl with the headband chimed in, waving
enthusiastically.
"Yotsuba!" the sandy-haired girl in the Union Jack shirt said, moving
suddenly to stand beside the seated lavender-haired boy, peering intently at
him through a spyglass. "Ani-chama checkie!"
"Call me Haruka, anigimi-sama," the girl in the kimono said, the very
picture of formal tranquility as she sipped her tea.
"And you already met me, ani-kun," Chikage said from where she leaned beside
the kitchen door.
Lurker smiled somewhat nervously, scratching the back of his head as he
looked around. "Pleased to meet you all," he replied.
Rinrin laid into him almost immediately. "So tell me everything about it,
aniki!" she bubbled.
"Eh? About what?"
"About THAT!" the short-haired girl replied, gesticulating toward the
entrance. "Your spaceship, or tank, or whatever it is...it's cool!"
"I wouldn't call it cool," Lurker groused. "Not by a longshot."
"What do you mean, aniki? Of COURSE it's cool!" Rinrin protested.
"Anou...anigimi-sama, we *are* a bit curious as to exactly what
that...*thing* is," Haruka commented.
The lavender-haired boy sighed. "It's a T9r mobile fortress," he explained.
"I picked it up a few weeks ago on a world a long way from here."
"Wai! Onii-tama is a spaceman!" Hinako gushed.
"You've...been to other planets?" Sakuya asked, blinking.
"Yeah, other planets, other dimensions...I just kinda wander around
aimlessly, letting the universe take me wherever it wants to take me,"
Lurker replied. "Anyway, I call that piece of sh--" he coughed. "--junk the
Lurkerdrome. I named it that after the salesman told me the previous owner
called it the Technodrome."
"Lurkerdrome is a good name for it," Mamoru nodded. "I like it."
"It's a perfect name for a cool mecha!" Rinrin agreed.
Lurker snorted. "I already said there's nothing cool about it," he grumbled.
"The stupid salesman sold me the biggest lemon in the galaxy."
"Wai! Can onii-tama make lemonade for Hina? Hina likes lemonade!"
Everyone stared at the youngest sister for a minute, several sweatdrops
appearing. "Err, yeah," Lurker coughed. "Anyway, practically the day after I
bought it and got it all fixed up and repainted, things started falling
apart. Half the stuff in that monster is shot to he--ck, and sometimes I'm
amazed I haven't ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere in a dead ship."
Rinrin frowned. "Is that so..." She then brightened, beaming hugely at the
purple-haired boy. "No problem!" she cried enthusiastically, winking. "I'll
fix it up good as new, just watch!"
Lurker blinked. "You? Fix...? You think you can?"
"Un! Just wait...with Rinrin on the job, aniki's Lurkerdrome'll be better
than ever!" She leaped up to plant one foot in her chair and one on the
table, one hand raised in a victory salute.
"Hmm. Well, it's worth a shot," Lurker replied with a shrug.
"Will onii-tama take Hina to space when onii-tama's ship is fixed?" Hinako
asked.
"Kaho wants to go too!"
"It does sound kinda fun."
"Are you sure it'll be safe?"
"Going on a space tour with ani-chama is checkie!"
"As long as anigimi-sama is here, nothing can go wrong."
Lurker couldn't help but smile at the antics of his "sisters", even as he
silently prayed to whatever gods were watching to see him through this mess
with as few mishaps as possible.
=============================================
*"--reports confirm there have been no casualties on the island, and
although a major landmark was destroyed, very little property damage was
reported otherwise. The government is debating whether or not the dispatch
of the Self-Defense Force to the area would be prudent at this time. Turning
to other news..."*
"Chikushou," Lurker grumbled. "Why is it I can't go anywhere these days
without attracting military attention?"
"Beats me," Rinrin shrugged. The other girls seated around the table wisely
decided not to comment.
It was well into the evening, and all the excitement had taken its toll on
the sisters; the older girls had put Hinako and Aria to bed an hour ago, and
Kaho had excused herself and gone up to bed herself. Chikage had vanished
early in the evening and hadn't been seen since; Mamoru and Marie had also
wandered off to sleep, the golden retriever--Michael, Lurker had
learned--following its mistress to her bedroom; the others were still up and
about. The purple-haired boy had carried the two dozen volumes of the
Lurkerdrome's user manual into the house, and the books had become the
source of much debate and discussion as the evening progressed.
"Hime can't understand even one little bit of this!" Shirayuki protested,
tossing one of the thick volumes back onto the table with a dull thump.
"Onii-sama must be really smart to be able to make sense of this," Sakuya
commented.
Lurker scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. "Actually, I
don't understand any of it either. If the stupid thing broke down in the
Between, I'd be screwed."
"'Between'?" Karen asked.
Running his fingers absently through his bangs, Lurker replied, "It's the
space between worlds," he replied. "Not like outer space, mind you. Not
exactly. It's..." he sighed. "Okay, the Lurkerdrome can move from one
dimension to another. The people who originally built it were from some
place called Dimension X. Anyway, outer space is the space between
planets...the Between is the space between dimensions. It's not a vacuum
like space, and it's not cold, but it's not warm either. It's full of storms
and mist and energy and..." He shrugged. "I don't really understand that
much about it myself, but it's just something you have to see to believe."
"So is that where you were before you arrived here, anigimi-sama? In
the...'Between'?" Haruka asked.
Lurker nodded. "The landing was a lot rougher than I planned...I hit some
kind of stupid storm in there, and the systems on the 'Drome that are
supposed to handle that kind of thing all broke down at once. I don't
usually come shooting out of the Between like that," he laughed nervously.
"Anou...I'm gonna be in a lot of trouble about the statue, huh?"
Yotsuba giggled. "That thing? It was really ugly! Knocking it down was
checkie, ani-chama!"
Rinrin glanced up from the volume she was reading. "Well, according to this,
there should be a replacement parts bay inside the Lurkerdrome somewhere. If
it's stocked right, I should be able to fix at least enough of the systems
to keep that from happening again."
"Arigatou, Rinrin-chan," Lurker said, smiling at the young inventor. "As
long as I can get it someplace where I can sell it off and be rid of it,
it'll be fine."
Rinrin frowned. "Nani!? Why, aniki?"
"Because that blasted thing has been nothing but trouble since I bought it,"
Lurker sighed. "I thought it'd be cool to have something like that, you
know, but..." He sighed. "I can't begin to do maintenance on it myself, I
don't have a crew, I don't think I can afford to hire one on, I'm not sure I
want to, and I never know when I'll wake up to find the whole thing has
fallen apart around me while I slept."
"Well, I'll be taking care of that," Rinrin replied. "As for the rest..."
Suddenly, she beamed, flashing a victory sign. "We'll be your crew, aniki!"
"Eh?" the others chorused.
"Think about it!" Rinrin said. "What's the best way to spend time with
aniki?"
"Hmmm...Yotsuba could check ani-chama all the time," the young detective
mused as she snapped a digital picture of her brother.
"I don't know...we have school, and..."
"It'll be a fun adventure!" Rinrin insisted.
"Hime could cook for nii-sama all the time."
"Well, anigimi-sama will need a bodyguard if he leaves this world," Haruka
mused.
They all pondered this silently for a few minutes.
"We'll just have to see what happens," Lurker said with a sigh. "I really
wouldn't want to put you girls in any danger...even if Rinrin can get the
Lurkerdrome working right, I don't know how reliable it is. We may not be
able to get back to this world again."
"That'll be okay," Shirayuki said with a smile. "Wherever nii-sama goes is
where Hime goes."
"Un! With ani-chama, anywhere at all is checkie!"
The lavender-haired boy smiled. *Maybe...maybe this is fate after all...*
=============================================
Okay. Disclaim-o-rama. This is the preliminary list; by no means is this
comprehensive of everything that may wind up being used. This is just the
ass-cover for the stuff I already have in here, or plan to use in the
immediate future.
"Lurker" is property of Studio ELL (www.lurkerdrome.com), with character
design blatantly ripped from "Dragonball" by Toriyama Akira. Don't use me,
people. Well, if you're cute and female, I don't mind...n.n
The Lurkerdrome is based on (ie, blatantly ripped off from) the Technodrome
from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", which is property of Mirage Studios,
Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman, New Line Studios, and a lot of other people.
Characters and locations from "Sister Princess" property of Tenhiro Naoto,
Kimino Sakurako, and Mediaworks, among others.
Characters and locations from "Love Hina" property of Akamatsu Ken,
Kodansha, TV Tokyo.
Characters from "Di Gi Charat" property of Gamers, as well as others.
All copyrighted characters, locations, situations, and properties used
without permission.
As far as author's notes go...umm...shit, man, it's an SI, and I'm not even
taking it that seriously. So...yeah.
C&C welcome, though. ^_^
-------------------------------------------
Studio ELL: Back in Crack!
http://www.lurkerdrome.com
The Eternal Lost Lurker
lurker@lurkerdrome.com
http://www.livejournal.com/users/lurkerdrome
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