In the endless void of space...the good ship Nirvana sailed, serene and unchallenged.
Within it's protective walls, in the crew quarters, a young woman slept fitfully on her bunk. Her room was well appointed, if a bit austere. Few things of value, either senimental or monetary were visible.
The only distinctive item easily seen, in fact, was a piece of jewelry, meant to be worn clipped around the eye.
It was in these surroundings she slept uneasily. Her short blue hair lay matted on her head, made unkempt by the pillow.
There was a pressure touching her mind as she slept, and a pulling sensation. She resisted at first, terrified. The pressure eased slightly...and she recieved a stange sense of...apology? And then she relaxed slightly...and was gone.
In her place, and body, someone else awoke...
There was a low groan as the young woman stirred slightly; shifting as if to make herself more comfortable. It was, after all, far, far too early to get up.
Or it would have been, as some thought processes began to trickle through a mind hazed by sleep.
This doesn't feel like my... this isn't my bed!
Even such a dedicated hater of mornings as this had certain triggers that were more efficient thatn any dose of caffeine. This was one of the many.
Her eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright, scanning the darkened room and taking in her surroundings...
Lights, or just sleep?
...or trying to - that irritating 'darkness' was getting in the way.
Dragging herself into a standing position with a groan, she extended a hand and moved towards - slightly unsteadily - along the side of the bed, feeling to try and find a wall... and hopefully a light switch.
A questing hand found an oblong panel near the door, which beeped once and pulsed green before flooding the room in a warm, bright light.
It was apparent that the person who lived here cared little for material possessions, with only a smattering of items available that held any interest.
There was a medium sized bed pushed against the wall, with a moderate bookcase imbedded in the wall behind it. The book case held a number of random, darkly coloured books, but nothing terribly eye-catching.
Beside the bed, a small table sat, with a single piece of oddly shaped jewelry sitting on it.
But, By far the most extraordinary point of note was the window.
On the wall beside the book case, there was a large opening...and through it were seen, not the skies of earth, but, a slowly moving starfield, and, if one focused on the surface of the window's 'Glass' the reflection of the brightly lit interior of the room could also be seen...
An arm went reflexively up to shield the young woman's eyes.
"I hate mornings..." she groaned shook her head to clear it a little, "Where in the..."
She trailed off, staring at her hand.
Ah...
The other hand went up and pulled some unkempt blue hair down in front of her eyes.
. . . this isn't funny.
She looked down, and her hands started to shake.
. . .
Then she looked up, and caught sight of her reflection in the... window?
"AAAAAAAHHH!"
The short shriek trailed off as she staggered backwards in shock, staring at her reflection all the while.
There was a few moments pause after the shriek, leaving Meia staring in shock at her reflection.
The silence seemed to stretch on forever, when suddenly, the door to the room snapped open, and a redheaded blur burst in.
"Meia? What's the matter?" The blur turned out to be a young girl, with an elaborate gold ornament holding her red hair in check, clad in a formfitting skinsuit underneath a pink, elaborate robe-like jacket edged with gold, and carrying a wrapped bento in one hand.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt? I was bringing some lunch to Mister Alien and I heard you scream...?" She paused, waiting for an answer, her wide blue eyes blinking at Meia in concern.
There was a start and a 'deer-caught-in-the-headlights' expression as 'Meia' whirled to look at the new arrival.
Oh. Beat. Shit!
"...Dita?"
She visibly composed herself and shook her head, still looking notably out of sorts. "I'm fine, I was just... surprised by something."
Dita blinked once at Meia, and looked around at the empty room, trying to take it in all at once.
"Wow! It surprised you, Meia? I didn't think anything could do that! What was it? Should I go get the commander to help? Or Gasco-san?"
With the last sentence, Dita made as though to leave, without waiting for a reply.
"Dita!" the name came out with a sharp tone to get the named girl's attention, then relaxed some. "I'm fine, Dita. Don't worry about it."
Dita froze, and turned, blinking as her name was called.
"Are you sure? I mean, I've never seen you suprised before...it must have been something really bad!" She said pensively.
"It wasn't the bad aliens, was it?"
"No, Dita, it wasn't. Don't worry about it. Go and have lunch."
Dita smiled uncertainly and nodded, apparently willing to take Meia at her word.
"Okay, if you say so..." She agreed, and then her eyes widened. "Lunch! I forgot!" In a swirl of hair and fabric, Dita dashed out of the room and down the hall, the door swishing shut behind her.
Rez breathed out the breath he/she had been unconsciously holding, and turned, catching a glimpse of the reflection in the window again.
There was a pause, a thought...
What. The. FUCK?!
...and then the sound of someone sitting heavily down on the side of the bed.
I will not panic...
She took several deep breaths, staring at her hands, then pulling a lock of surprisingly thick hair - and more importantly, blue - down in front of her eyes.
Then she looked down, noting that she was indeed, yes, still a 'she', and that she was wearing a pink nightdress.
A pink nightdress.
Not only does someone up there have a sick sense of humour... they feel the need to rub it in.
Her head sank into her hands, where it remained for several minutes.... the room silent except for the sound of someone taking very deep breaths.
After she'd managed to calm herself down entirely, she lifted her head and stared at the table.
I seem to be Meia... that was Dita... and this would be the Nirvana. I really don't think I want to explain this.
His/her DAMMIT! mind carefully ticked over possibilities.
I could be hallucinating or dreaming, which is possible. I could have somehow been dumped into Meia's body, which seems to be what's happened... or I could be Meia, and somehow been very, very mindfucked.
There was a grimace.
This doesn't feel like a dream at all... and assuming I'm dreaming won't help anyway. So I don't know.
I guess I'm playing Meia for a while... at least until I find out what the fuck is going on. SOMEBODY has to know... and if somebody did this to me, I'll find out soon enough.
First order of business... find out what's here.
So saying, she got up and began searching through the room to see what there was to be found...
The room was simple, and mostly bare. A search of the nighttable turned up an odd looking piece of jewelry, attached to a strange looking harness, and a simple gold ring, with a reddish jewel on one side, and small button on the other.
A search of the closet revealed a small amount of clothes, most of the utilitarian, or nondescript type, but all cut for a woman of Meia's general build, including a very familiar grey and black flight suit. The appropriate undergarments were found on investigating a set of drawers, inside the closet.
The only other item of note was the bookshelf behind the bed, which contained a few books, but nothing else...
OOC: If I'm not providing enough detail, examine it more closely, and you'll 'See' more detail. ^_^
The ring was carefully picked up and examined... very carefully. Having seen the series, it was simple enough to remember what the ring did, and roughly how it worked... it should, as came the recollection, have a safety catch on it, which was what was being looked for.
Putting it down (continuing to make damn sure the jewel was facing AWAY at all times...), she next picked gently picked up the piece of jewelery, and turned it over in her hands.
Curious...
Putting it down - almost reverently - next to the ring, attention turned to the bookcase, as a certain natural curiousity took over.
OOC: Curious as to... (A) I'd think the controls on the ring are fairly obvious, so I'm wondering if I can see what they'd be, and (B) What books are in that case, anyway? ^^
Upon closer examination of the ring, it was determined that the red gem was the emitter lens, and the button itself had a sliding lock, to prevent accidental discharge.
The jewelry itself was attached to an odd harness, obviously meant to be worn around the head, with a gleaming Red jewel set in it's face.
A cursory inspection of the bookcase revealed a number of books on combat, as well as books with no listed author, titled "The Art of War", and "The Book of Five Rings" also, off to the side was what seemed like an instruction manual, with a picture of a dread on the battered cover.
IC:
Curious...
Slowly, 'she' got up and moved over to the viewport, looking at the reflection mutely.
What... the... hell... is going on here?
Moving a hand up to trace the lines of her face, the line of thought continued...
Well, the what is obvious... but...
...and ground to a screeching halt. Ah well.
Shifting the focus of her gaze, she dropped her hands back down as she gazed out at the starfield.
OOC: I hate my ISP. Oh. And if we're using generic Vandread physics, there'll be stuff moving outside the window. Even if it's stars going whoosh. They do that. ^^; Anyway, what I'm looking for is: Is anything moving out there; if so, what; and what direction?
BTW, any of the books pertinent to dreads or the Vandread timeframe? Those would be handy.
Outside the window, stars streaked by, moving beams of long, streaking light crossing Meia's field of vision from right to left, with the occaisional burst of far off color visible in the distance.
OOC: Edited the book listings. ^_^
Right to left... well, assuming the ship is going forward, that would mean I'm on the port side...
Shuddering slightly, she examined the reflection slightly more carefully, before turning back to examine the books. Sitting down on the bed, she first picked up the thing that looked almost like an instruction manual - you have GOT to be kidding me - and began leafing through it.
Examination of the instruction manual reveal what was apparently a guide to the basic structure and maintenace of a Dread fighter.
Somewhat light on detail, the book nonetheless covered the most likely mechanical problems, and how to fix them.
Having noted the direction, and figuring from that that the window was on the port side of the ship, Rez picked up the dread book and began slowly leafing through it...
OOC: I'm sure I could think of something better to do. >< Accursed curiousity...
I'm actually speedreading the book, which tends to look to everyone else as though I'm slowly leafing through. ^^ I will pay very careful attention to anything that seems to be about the controls...
...but for now, I'm leafing through the book. ^^ And I'll lose track of time, depending how long the book is.
The manual, unfortuantely, while general enough to cover nearly everything one might need to know, was extremely light on specifics. Someone who read it would be able to pick up a general idea how to fly one...but wouldn't learn the things that only practice could teach.
As Meia picked up and leafed through the manual, the removal of the book exposed a small wooden box to view.
OOC: Sorry Rez...No easy answers. And, there's what you were nagging me about. ^_^
Rez blinked as the box appeared, and gently reached out and picked it up, turned it to examine it properly, and then moved a surprisingly steady hand towards the front to open it.
About halfway there the hand stopped, and with a soft sigh the box was instead replaced carefully behind the books.
That isn't mine, and I shouldn't be here.
And with that, 'she' picked the book up again and began going through it.
As Meia read through the book, she was struck by an odd sense of deja vu. Even though she'd never seen it before, the descriptions seemed oddly familiar.
OOC: Calm before the storm. ^_^
Rez continued reading, noting how strangely familiar this seemed - how everything seemed, really - but decided to think on that later, and continued reading.
After an indeterminate amount of time spent reading, Meia's room was filled by a muted buzz of an intercom system.
...what the?
She put the book aside for a moment, and went looking for the source of the sound.
The buzz sounded again, seemingly emanating from a panel near the door, beside the one she had used earlier to activate the lights....
Rez stepped quickly over and took a quick look at the various buttons on the panel - especially the ones nearest to the speaker.
Fortunately, there were only three buttons this time, an the use of each was fairly apparent, as they were labeled 'Recieve', 'Send' and 'Disconnect', along with a numerical keypad, lower down.
As Meia examined the intercom, it buzzed again, insistently.
Unsurprisingly, Rez stabbed the 'Receive' button.
As soon as Meia hit the button, a high pitched young girl's voice sounded from the panel.
"Meia? Where are you? The doctor wants to get your flight physical done. You said it'd be okay to wake you up an hour ago!"
...someone up there really has it in for me. That sounded like Paiwei... I think that removes any doubts.
A grimace. "Sorry. I'll be there soon."
Well, what else could be said?
Paiwei sounded vaguely smug, even though nothing she said could be construed that way.
"Right. We'll be waiting for you!" There was something else said, to faint to make out, followed by Paiwei saying "Ribbit!", and then the channel went dead, leaving Meia's quarters silent once again.
Rez tapped the 'disconnect' button once, to make sure the line was actually dead.
A physical? Shit... at least I'm not going to fail it...
A pause as another thought occured.
"Wait... I'm not wearing my glasses. I can actually see?"
There was a blink.
"I don't that was worth this. Ugh. Dammit, I even sound like her..."
Walking over to the wardrobe, 'she' began poking through it again.
"Well, Meia always seemed to wear her flightsuit everywhere... aaagh. I'm going to murder someone if I find out who's responsible for this..."
Fontunately, the flightsuit was on the first hanger, displayed more prominently than the other clothes, which we pushed toward the back.
Upon further examination, the closet contained three copies of the same flightsuit, no doubt intended as spares...
The closest flightsuit was pulled out of the closet and fixed with a baleful glare.
Someone is going to die for this...
There was a muttered swearword.
There was underwear in here somewhere, to... ah.
The articles in question received a baleful glare of their own.
This. Is. Going. To. Suck.
So saying, 'Meia' went to get dressed, muttering invectives...
OOC: Timeskip! Woo hoo!
IC:
An hour later, Meia sat on an examination table in a thin examination gown with a pulsemeter connected to her chest as Duero examined the readouts, and a young girl with two ponytails wearing a dark nurse's uniform stood nearby, looking miffed.
After a long moment, Duero turned away from the machine, and frowning marginally, turned to Meia.
"Your blood pressure is elevated, Meia." he said calmly, looking at her with the one eye not covered by his long brown hair. "Are you still having difficulty with the Van-Type simulators?"
Paiwei looked over at Meia curiously on hearing this.
A scowl crossed her face. "Stressful morning."
Duero nodded. "I see." He watched her silently for a moment, then nodded. "You need to relax. Your current stress level could endanger you in combat."
Paiwei looked over at Meia. "You haven't been in the jacuzzi in a while..."
An almost imperceptible nod at Duero's words, then an equally subtle twitch at Pai's.
"I've been busy."
Wrong answer. Dammit!
Paiwei nodded sharply, then grinned, in a faintly sneaky way.
"It's empty right now...Well, except for Jura. I'll go get it ready for you."
Duero watched Meia calmly, saying nothing.
'Meia' opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again, returning Duero's gaze impassively as her mind ran through possibilities.
"Alright."
As Paiwei rushed off to prepare things (Evidently she'd done this for Meia before), Duero nodded.
"It's for the best. It seems to work quite well on the female crew. Have you been having the...'other' trouble, lately as well?"
After Paiwei had left, a few seconds passed before the blue-haired one turned back to the doctor, ignoring his previous question.
"I'm not Meia."
Duero was apparently unflappable. He looked at Meia carefully.
"Hmm. Your exam results seem to indicate otherwise..." He noted.
'Meia' met the Doctor's gaze evenly.
"I'm someone else entirely. I remember my own life, I don't have any memories of being Meia. I'm not her... although I seem to be in her body for some reason. I could just be hallucinating, but this seems a little too... real."
Duero blinked. He peered at the young woman in front of him for a long moment and stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Can you offer any proof of this? It's not my habit to dismiss things out of hand, but the likelyhood of such an event is quite small..."
"Not really... either I'm hallucinating, I've been dropped into Meia's body, or I am Meia and something very strange is happening to my head. Take your pick."
There was a helpless shrug.
"About all I can offer in the way of proof is stuff that I don't know."
Duero frowned briefly.
"Hmm. Well, It should be possible to rule out the latter, If you are willing..."
"Explain?"
Duero inclined his head slightly.
"It is possible to scan your brain in detail to look for irregularities. If you are in fact Meia, but something is wrong, the scans should root out the cause..."
A nod. "That's probably a good idea."
Duero nodded, and wheeled out another machine.
"All right. This shouldn't take long to perform, and I can have the results prepared by tomorrow..." he informed her, setting up the scanner.
Lacking anything better to do, Rez/Meia/Whoever looked at the machine.
OOC: o_O
After a what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, Duero looked up from the machine, and withdrew a small, wafer-thin disk.
"This will need to be analyzed, but will pinpoint your problem, if it has a physical cause. You can check back with me tomorrow for the results." he told Meia calmly.
Blink-blink.
"So, between now and then, I should...?"
Duero shrugged. "Well, you have an appointment with the...Jacuzzi...soon. After that...." The placid doctor shrugged.
"I'm hardly an expert on what women do in their free time..."
". . . so this doesn't disturb you any, or worry you, or anything like that?"
Duero shrugged. "Should it? Women do things very differently that we do...I suppose I've gotten used to unexpected things happening."
'Meia' twitched.
"This isn't normal, even for women. I think."
Duero smiled slightly. "Perhaps. In any case, nothing would be accomplished by worrying about it. Just hope that nothing requires the scrambling of the Dreads until tomorrow-?"
Duero was interrupted by a click, and a quietly gleeful exclamation, almost too soft to be heard.
"Pai-check!"
"Hop-agh." Meia's head sunk into her hands.
Duero looked puzzled as Paiwei returned, walking past him to address Meia, grinning slightly, Pyoro in tow.
"It's all set up, Meia...Nobody's in there but Jura right now."
The tiny robot nodded. "Yes, she chased them all out..."
Meia took it in, but was stuck simply staring at the robot in horror-fascination-realization-what-have-you.
Well, I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore... ohhhh shit.
Paiwei blinkied at the uncharacterisic display from Meia. For his part, the little robot stared back...and, impossibly, sweatdropped.
"Um...Meia? Is there a problem?" he asked in his faint, synthesized voice.
"Err... no," came the response, with a weak laugh, "nothing at all. Yeah."
This time, Paiwei AND Pyoro sweatdropped, and Paiwei grabbed Meia's arm and tugged gently, uncharacterisically serious.
"Come on, Meia...The jacuzzi's waiting..."
Pyoro floated off to the side, his oddly googly eyes half lidded. "You need it...."
"Ahhh... OK..."
Meia let herself get dragged along...
Great. I guess I don't really have much of an option...
...and made a big point of trying to get an idea of where everything was along the way.
Fortuantely, Paiwei had decided to take the scenic route dragging Meia to the jacuzzi, and so she was able to discern the location of the hangar bay...
Before she was unceremoniously shoved into the change room for the steam room that the jacuzzi was located in and handed a towel.
"This sucks."
It did!
Firstly, though, 'Meia' surveyed the room...
OOC: ^^;
A casual glance around the room told Meia nothing was out of the ordinary.
There were a row of lockers lining one wall, and a few small benches. Off on the far wall, there was a single large door...
...this still sucks.
'Meia' got changed, trying very, very hard not to freak the hell out while doing so.
Mostly succeeding, too!
The lack of any more unpleasant surprises was at least helpful. Stowing the flightsuit and other stuff in the locker, 'Meia' stepped gingerly out the door, a towel wrapped around her-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH-self.
As Meia stepped out into the steam room, the sight of a well-endowed blonde woman, covered only with a towel, lying on a nearby salon chair greeted her eyes.
The blonde greeted Meia casually. "Hi, Leader...Here to reduce your breasts some more? You shouldn't spend so much time in the hot water..."
There was an unintelligible mutter as the confused and fuming blue-haired girl kept moving towards the water.
Oh, and Rez/Meia/Whoever certainly did not stare. At all. Nope.
Jura, apparently used to Meia's silent moments, simply smirked and waved casually, then continued to recline on the table, leaving Meia to her plunge in the steaming water....
...which 'she' did, wincing slightly at the first contact with the fairly hot water.
This is... weird... and I think I'm going to crack unless sanity starts coming back soon...
Her head rolled backwards slightly as she stared at the ceiling. After a moment, her eyes closed as her face settled into a twisted grimace.
I hate this. What the hell else is going to happen?
And what the **** is going on?
Her mind whirling with the implications and sour mutterings pertaining to her current situation...Meia slumped slightly, falling into a fitful sleep in the jacuzzi...
Meia slept.
And dreamed...
The dream was surreal, as dreams are. And this dream was made up of the thoughts and memories of Meia... and her new occupant.
Images of a university were entwined with images of a Dread.. those of friends unreachable compared with those of new friends known to her.. but still yet unknown.
Dreams of the life once lived combined with dreams of the life she lived now...
Memories swirled within the subconcious, and perhaps insanity loomed beyond.
But out of the blue came something else, something vast and cosmic...
Meia found herself split in two; on one side, Meia Gibson, but on the other, her current controller. Both figures were paralysed, and before them, a white glow appeared in the shape of a tall woman...
And from her, a voice came.
"I am sorry for bringing you here, but I desperately need your help..."
Rez felt surprisingly calm given the situation. At least, he would have been surprised had he not been so strangely calm, and...
...and so, he didn't reply, he just looked.
As Rez looked, the figure in front of him grew more defining features.
Long, long white hair became visible across the woman's back, and slowly, the light formed into a tall woman with perfectly smooth skin, long, flowing robes draped all over her, and strage, perfectly symmetrical marks on her face, giving her an appearance... somewhat like one of the Norns.
She spoke again, more clearly this time...
"I hope you havn't found your circumstances too disconcerting, but there is little I can do... at least, until Order is restored..
You are in an alternate dimension to your own, one very much like the worlds that human writers create and call 'manga'. You are here... to prevent further tampering with the fabric of this universe that has already been done."
". . . and my being here isn't tampering?"
"Yes, but you must understand, this universe works on a different level of physics to your own.
Suffice to say, your being here is the only way I can bring people to make sure a crucial event occurs the way it should... and to do so, you will have to move through time and space once again.
I apologize, but this is the only way I can bring you here.
To return you to your home, you must make sure that, in the final confrontation between Vash the Stampede and Knives Million, the result remains the same as it does within your manga. Namely, that Vash wins."
"You do realize I've never seen or read Trigun, right? How close does it have to be?"
"As long as Vash wins the confrontation without killing Knives, Order can be restored."
"Alright... now why would it turn out differently?"
"Because an opposing force to me, Chaos, seeks to unbind the universe, and to do so, he is willing to take a hand in causing it to go astray."
"Too many things to name in the time this dream gives me... but I can tell you that already he is working against you, attempting to subvert others to his side."
"What others?"
"The others that were brought here with you... they are scattered across the worlds, but all will eventually come together.."
"Who?"
"I do not know their names, but I know that they all share the same... 'forum', is what you call it? Spirit links do not give physical identity.."
"...you're kidding me. Who brought us here?"
"I did."
"But you said I was here to counter the fact that Chaos was subverting others."
"You are, for I cannot contact the residents of this plane in the same manner I contact you without disturbing balance.
While I can summon you into anothers body, this is only because the balance has already been disturbed in their world. I cannot talk to them; Chaos already has a slight hold over them. Only by summoning others, from other dimensions can I be able to send warriors to defend against his machinations.."
"So basically, if I help Vash beat Knives, or whoever he is, I get sent home."
"Yes. However, I would ask your help in another matter.
Chaos has, throughout various other worlds, been attempting to disrupt their balance as well. There is one world in particular where you must save ones life.. and you will find another I have sent here."
"Whose life, what world? And why are they in danger? Do you know what body the other person you sent is in?"
"They are in danger becuase Chaos is whispering in... in the ear of the one I sent to that world. While you may all be my salvation, if Chaos subverts even one of you completely, it could be my undoing... I do know that the other person is in the body of a man named Vicious.
Vicious is a tall man. He has scraggly white hair, and always presents himself well. He carries a katana, and, in this world, you may see him fly a white, boxy fighter."
"I think I recall something of him, not very much. How does his fighter compare to my Dread?"
"His fighter, while very dangerous for his time, cannot compare with your Dread."
"So... why should I be helping you over Chaos?"
"Because Chaos seeks to destory the very fabric of this universe. Once he has destroyed this one, he will doubtless move on to others.. and with the entire energy of all the lives that once lived in this universe, he will doubtless be succesful again and again, toppling the entire structure on which the multiverse stands..."
"Ah. That could be a problem."
"I don't suppose there's any way to know which of you would be telling me the truth?"
"If you wish, you can choose not to help me. In a year, after Chaos has conquered this world and started to move on to yours, I will contact you again."
"I'd be an idiot not to ask. So, how do I get to... whatever the hell this place is that you want me at? And how do I find Spiegal?"
The figure started to fade, and so did the surroundings, in the way that dreams do.
"Just.. act as you would.. it will come.."
And then the dream faded out, leaving Meia in the jaccuzi... done like a prune.
Figures. I wasn't done.
"Ugh."
Standing up, wincing slightly as 'she' did so, Meia grabbed the nearby towel and stepped out of the water.
That last unanswered question remained hanging, though.
Can the Nirvana survive without Meia?
Jura looked up, no longer lying on the table, but sitting up on it, with the towel draped over her lap, and otherwise unclothed.
"Finally." She commented, eyeing Meia. "I was beginning to wonder If I'd have to pull you out."
'Meia' turned her eyes towards Jura as the latter started spe-
Well, that was a nice view.
-then dragged her eyes back towards the door to the changeroom and kept walking.
"I had some thinking to do."
Jura nodded as Meia left, raising her eyebrows slightly. The slight drop in her gaze hadn't been lost on the curvy blonde pilot.
"And here I thought she'd give Dita some competition..." She mused. "Interesting..."
OOC: 4 hours have elapsed. Amuse yourself for a bit, explore or whatever. ^_^. I'll keep up for now.
Stepping into the changeroom - thankfully empty - 'Meia' quickly towelled herself off and got dressed in her flightsuit again.
--
Stepping out of the room, she attempted to orientate herself...
Well, the dread platforms are at the back... this should be the female portion of the ship... I think the bridge is at the front of this part...
So, let's try and find the bridge.
Unfortuantely, the halls were of the cookie cutter variety, all more or less alike, with nothing but doors to crew quarters, and doors to lifts, and ships functionaries (Such as the kitchen, or the jacuzzi) breaking the monotony.
There was nothing to do about it but explore the halls, looking for the way to the bridge, perhaps someone or something that knew...
...and since there really was nothing to do right now, Meia did just that - trying to keep a rough idea of where everything was along the way.
As she wandered the corridors of the Nirvana, Meia began to underatand a great deal about the layout of the ship, finding the gardens, the hangar bay, the Vanguard storage, and many other locations if interest...and only a single floor left unexplored, near the top of the female portion of the ship.
. . . talk about procrastinating.
A sigh.
Ah well.
And Meia went off towards where the bridge logically should have been all a-bloody-long.
The lift doors opened with a muted swish, depositing Meia in the operations center of the Nirvana. It wasn't noisy, but there was a muted hum of activity from both the people and the machines here.
The captain's chair was conspiciously empty, but BC was on the bridge, leaning over Ezra's station, discussing something with her...
Meia walked towards the pair, making no effort to quieten the sound of 'her' footsteps.
BC turned around to face Meia, and Ezra did the same. Each opened their mouths to greet her, and in an oddly synchronized move, they snapped their mouths shut, and BC blinked in surprise at the blue-haired girl.
Ezra was the first to recover. "H-Hello, Meia..." she managed, staring (Though one would be hard pressed to detect it, as her eyes seemed to be closed)
There was a blink, and then the surprise was shaken off for a moment and 'she' looked at BC.
"Ahh... can I speak to you alone for a moment?"
BC managed to shake of her surprise and nodded slightly.
"Of course." She began. She turned to Ezra. "Continue scanning, pl-"
BC stopped in mid-sentence as the muted sound of an alert klaxon began to pulse insistantly. She looked up at the viewscreen and swore.
On the screen, a large black hole filled up part of the viewscreen with a smallish harvest ship emerging.
BC slammed a button on Ezra's console.
"Dread teams, prepare to scramble!" she ordered. BC glanced back at Meia. "Sorry, but it'll have to wait..."
"No, it won't. You need to know this, now."
BC turned to face Meia, a hard look on her face, but then considered, and relented slightly.
"All right, but quickly." the commander said shortly. "What's the matter?"
Meia winced.
"I can't command the dreads right now - I don't even know if I can fly one."
BC looked at Meia sharply, then grabbed her arm and pulled her off to the side. She glared down at Meia, and seemed very aware of the klaxon.
"Explain. Quickly."
Meia let herself be dragged along, wincing again. This wasn't going to be pretty.
"I woke up this morning, and I... don't think I'm Meia. I know pretty much nothing of what I-she-whoever should, and... ask the doctor," 'her' voice gained a slightly panicked edge, "I don't know how to fly a dread, let alone command them!"
The commander's face twisted in disbelief.
"You're joking."
"I'm serious. Why the hell would I joke about something like this?"
BC's eyes narrowed, and apparently, she was conviced of Meia's sincerity, and relented.
"All right. I can put Jura or Barnette in command of your wing. But, I can't excuse you from duty, without medical confirmation that you're unfit. Will I get that from Duero?"
Shit!
"Not until tomorrow... I don't even know how to get a dread out of the hanger, though."
BC frowned she didn't like this...but there was no real help for it.
"I'm sorry. We need all the dreads we can throw at them...and yours is one of the most powerful. We need you to try, at the very least. I'll assign Hibiki or Dita to pair up with you to watch your back, if you need it...but there's no way out of it, I'm afraid."
Meia grimaced.
"I might need it. I'll try, I guess..."
'She' made as if to leave. "Go?"
BC nodded. "Go. I'll have your escort notified." she instructed.
With a quick nod, 'Meia' turned around and, breaking into a quick jog, set off towards her cabin.
I might, just might, need a couple of things from there...
Meia had no difficulty in finding her way back to the cabin in a suprisingly small amount of time.
Shortly, she found herself standing outside her quarters, facing the door.
Stepping forward, the door smoothly opening in front of her, 'Meia' stepped into the cabin and looked around.
Stepping over to the nighttable, where the ring lay, Meia picked it up and slid it onto her gloved finger, holding it up to get a better look at it.
An observer would see her eyes gradually get drawn back to the nighttable, where Meia's trademark piece of jewelery lay.
This isn't mine, but . . .
. . .
. . . it wouldn't be right to leave it here.
Almost reverently, 'she' lifted it up and clipped it in place on the side of her head, and caught sight of herself in the mirror.
There was a pause, then a slight growl, and the book on dreads was grabbed from where it lay discarded on the bed... then Meia stepped towards and through the door, which closed behind her with a final-sounding swish.
Flicking open the book, Meia checked the cockpit layout of the standard dread one more time trying to fix it in her mind, then snapped it closed and ran, her footsteps echoing as she hurried towards the hangar.
Heh. I'll probably need this just to start the damn thing...
Skidding around the corner, Meia sprinted into the hanger... and surprised at how much easier it was to run like this now.
I really, really should exercise a little more... if I ever get out of here...
Flicking a glance around the hanger, 'she' saw her Dread and ran towards the lift...
As the lift began to rise, Meia closed her eyes and attempted to catch her breath, leaning on the railing and breathing deeply.
Her eyes snapped open again as the lift came to a stop and she stepped off onto the gantry, moving quickly across to her cockpit and stepping in.
An array of familiar looking instruments greeted her. Not that they really meant that much, as Rez's mind ticked over, trying to correllate the stuff in front of him/her/whoever with the layout from the book. First amongst that being...
Where the hell is the switch to close the canopy?
Fortunately, the intruments were fairly simple, and the switches not involving piloting were labeled. After a moment of matching things up in her head, Meia had a fairl good idea of how the cockpit worked...
...and in turn, flicked that GODFORSAKENBLOODYCANOPYSWITCH! ><
Flipping open the book, Meia found the preflight checklist - that's pretty small, I guess technology is good for something - and started flicking through it, and in turn systems all over the fighter started powering up...
And, the moment the power turned on, a small holographic screen burst to life in front of her face. A young man, with dark, wild hair held back (Mostly) by a headband. He fixed his dark gaze on Meia.
"Finally! where the heck have you been? They won't give me clearance until you're ready!"
'Meia' growled slightly.
"I've been having a very, very bad day."
Hibiki didn't appear impressed.
"Yeah, yeah. Just hurry it up already, will ya?"
Meia bit back an annoyed retort and tapped the console on what 'she' thought would disconnect the transmission.
And it did. But only the sound. Hibiki remained in place, staring at her, and speaking occaisonally, though no sound came out.
Meanwhile, all around her, the systems activated, until a final screen came up, that said 'Ready. Begin catapult activation?'
The image on the screen mouthed 'Finally!' while rolling his eyes, and the image disappeared.
After making sure one last time that he/she/whatever had the control layout fixed firmly in mind, Meia took a deep breath punched the appropriate control to launch the dread.
Figuratively speaking, not literally, o-shiiiiiIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!
Meia's dread shot out of the Nirvana as though it were launched from a cannon, screaming out into empty space.
Less than ten seconds of travel from the ship, she entered the enemy's battle envelope. And then...They noticed her.
A small group of the attackers broke off and headed toward her dread...
'Meia' took another deep breath, leaned forward and put both hands on the two green orbs, and afforded a quick glance at the sensor display - trying to figure out where the merry HELL everyone else was.
The two orbs glowed briefly and Meia was afforded a better sence of control over the dread.
As she glanced at it, Meia's tactical display lit up with a swirling mass of ships, highlighting cubical ones with arms, coming in at a high rate of speed.
"Oh, shit."
Meia pushed the left orb forward and pulled the right orb back, which should... hopefully... accellerate the dread and send it into a climb. Maybe.
Glancing at the tactical display for a moment, 'she' swore under her breath again and passed her eyes over it, looking for Hibiki.
Meia felt a slight pulse, along with an oddly soothing warmth, echoing oddly through her hands and mind as the dread responded, abruptly turning right and accelerating rapidly.
As she saw her tactical display, she noted Hibiki....rapidly being left in her dust as she rocketed away at high speed...
With a wince, 'Meia' eased off the pressure on both orbs, moving them slightly towards the center, and slowed both the turn to the right and the accelleration.
With the pilot flicking a glance to the tactical display - notably the closest hostiles - the dread swung back around towards where it had just come from.
OOC: Space battle! Music for this scene is 'Original Prankster' by The Offspring! w00t! let the shooting begin!
IC:
As Meia's dread swung back toward the battle, the four cube drones that had been following her extented their arms and fanned out in a diamond pattern, and closed to within he weapons envelope, preparing to overwhelm her...
Leaning forward, Meia pressed both globes down and forward, curving the dread's flight path upwards. Squeezing the right globe slightly - where she hoped was the trigger - she tried to spray laser fire at the cube as her nose angled past it...
As Meia squeezed the orb, a brilliant burst of laser fire erupted from he dread, tearing through and blowing apart her target. Though, as she did, she felt a hard lurch, as though she'd struck something...or been hit.
As her dread stabilized her tactical flashed. the two flanking enemies were on an intercept course...and the one behind he didn't have weapons....
And suddenly on the corner of her screen, a spherical enemy, covered with spines sailed into her assault envelope...
Pressing the balls as far forward as they could go, Meia depressed held the left one steady and depressed the right one slightly.
OOC: IE, sending the dread into an arcing climb. In theory. o_o
As the dread began to climb, it shuddered violently under heavy impact, and Meia could see the forward sheilds flash as they were struck. and the tactical display flashed a warning of the dip in shield power.
However, the projectiles merely slowed the dread's momentum briefly, and it contiued its climb...but not before on of the cube-like enemies had caught up to it can attached itself to the fighter like a vise...
Keeping the two orbs fully foward, Meia spun the dread into a hard roll while continuing to climb...
...which had the expected effect of putting the dread into a spastic and very fast corkscrew, at least making it hard to follow... Not actually being 'Meia', the pilot of the dread was - unsurprisingly - starting to panic.
Looking quickly back over both shoulders to try and see if anyone was visible there, 'Meia' flicked another glance at the tactical display.
So, where the HELL is Hibiki?!
Hibiki, for his part, was nowhere to be seen. However, what Meia COULD see, was that, despite leaving two of the cube-like enemies behind, the third clung tenatiously to her dread, and the spined, spherical enemy had declined to follow, and instead was on and arc like intecept course, aimed for the dread's probable location...
Waiting until the sphere was off the starboard wing of the Dread, Meia pressed both the balls down, cutting off the roll and curving the dread upwards.
As Meia cut off the roll, there was a distinct grinding sound, and her system display flashed indicating a shield power drop, tracing the problem to a deformity on the hull.
As she began the sharp upward curve, two things happened at once. The spined enemy changed course to follow behind her, and her com screen burst to life.
Hibiki's image flared in front of her, silently moving it's mouth, yelling silently at her.
'Meia' blinked, then whipped her right hand towards the console and tabbed the same part she'd hit to mute Hibiki in the first place.
"FINALLY!" Hibiki roared. "Would you hold still?? I can't ride this thing with you jerking around like that!"
The tactical display flashed, showing two friendlies moving in at a high rate of speed, on a different intercept course. The map had them tagged as Hibiki ad Dita...but they were too close to be flying together.
As soon as they got to within visual range, the video feed switched to a realtime view. Sure enough, they were racing in toward her, Hibiki's Vanguard using Dita's Dread...as a surfboard?
As soon as Meia registered that, her comm flashed again, and Dita appeared, a cheerful grin on her her face.
"Don't worry, Meia! We're coming to save you!"
Keeping the Dread accellerating at full power and taking a quick glance over 'her' shoulder, Meia whipped her head back to the comm windows and nodded.
Oh, goodie.
Hibiki grinned fiercely. "Now!" he shouted, looking offscreen. Dita bobbed her head once.
"Right!" She fired her afterburner, and her speed tripled...and she suddenly swerved out from underneath the Vanguard...sending Hibiki rocketing toward Meia's dread, while Dita's dread veered off to harry and distract the spined sphere.
As Hibiki arced through the intercept course toward Meia's dread, he drew the Vanguard's vibro-blade...
And slammed into Meia's hull with startling impact, driving the blade through the enemy that clung tenatiously to her hull, and it blew apart in a brief flare, starting alarms as the stressed sheild collapsed.
Meia involuntarily squeezed the orbs as the flash erupted right outside her cockpit...and the entire dread seemed to pulse in response, and shift...
After a long moment, the odd sensation stopped, and though Meia's eyes were still filled with blotches of flashing, colored light, she could feel something warm and firm press into her chest, compressing it slightly...
Having seen the series, Rez was... well aware of what had just happened.
"This day just gets worse..."
And not really watching his/her/whatever's tongue, either.
"That's SOME gratitude you've got, lady. I just saved your butt, and not even a thank you?" Hibiki snapped.
'Meia' winced.
"Sorry. Thanks." A slight pause. "Now what?"
Hibiki was momentarily nonplussed by the ease that the thanks was offered up...but then he shook his head and blinked at the question. "What do you mean, now what? We go save the UFO girl from that thing and kick it's ass!" He said, as though explaining something very simple to an obsinate child.
"Sounds like a plan, except," a hint of urgency crept into 'her' voice, "you'll need to tell me how to fly this again."
Hibiki blinked and wore a stunned expression.
"You? Miss I don't need help from any man...? Wait. How the hell could you forget how to fly it?"
"When I said I was having a bad day, I wasn't kidding."
Hibiki rolled his eyes. "It's just like flying your dread." he replied, "but we both gotta do it."
He reached behind her and grabbed her hands and placed them on a set of orbs quite similar to the ones on her dread, then placed his own hands over hers.
"Don't push these ones though...Just concentrate." He warned.
'Meia' nodded - which Hibiki couldn't actually see, being in front - and concentrated, trying to feel the same connection with this as previously with the dread...
As Meia concentrated, she could 'feel' a connection, or at least part of one, waiting to be used...alongside another, already active.
She suddenly got a mental image of plugging herself into the partial connection...
...which she then attempted to do. Metaphorically speaking. Kinda. Ugh. This was weird, and confusing, and agg-dammit, CONCENTRATE.
Meia reached out to the connection...which, in turn, pulsed...and reached back.
She got a mental impression of hands intertwining...and suddenly, her awareness seemed to expand, so that she could nearly 'feel' Vandread Meia around her...and a limited feeling of exchange and awareness of her partner...
Meia's eyes widened as 'her' senses... expanded.
"This... is..."
Taking a deep breath, tried to orientate herself properly...
"Let's go?"
There was a distant throb...a rush of power...and Vandread Meia threw back it's head in a silent roar, then bowed it and raced for the enemy, wings spread...
"All right! Let's kick some ass!" Hibiki cheered.
Meia's face curled up slightly, and she grinned.
OOC: So, I'm paying attention, what do I see? ^^
The spined sphere was off to one side, firing spines at Dita's dread, who was dodging frantically as they closed the distance.
As Dita fought to stay intact, a dread Meia's mind instantly labelled 'Barnette' fired repeatedly at the enemy, trying to shake it loose from Dita.
Dita, meanwhile was dodging and weaving frenetically, her erratic flying bringing her ever closer to the giant black hole that the enemies has emerged from...
Shit. This won't be good!
Meia called up a comm-window to Dita's dread..
"Dita! Watch where you're flying, I think it's trying to herd you!"
Dita looked to the side and gasped. "Eek!"
An evasion manuever was begun, but aborted by another brace of spine-missiles.
Through the dread, Meia could feel Hibiki's sudden surge of anger, slightly before he spoke.
"Hey! Pick on someone your own size, you big bully!" The dark haired boy raged.
And the Vandread Meia accelerated dramatically....
Vandread Meia dove at the spined ball, rocketing forward at speeds nothing short of breathtaking and interposing itself between the spined enemy and Dita's dread.
The wings flapped once, tauntingly as Hibiki attemted to distract the enemy from Dita, who had taken several glancing shots, and it showed in the scours over her beat up looking fighter....
Meia called the comm window up again, not moving her eyes away from the spined ball...
"Dita, get back towards the Nirvana. We'll cover you."
Dita nodded sharply, her blue eyes wide. "Right!"
On the tactical display, Dita's dread veered off, heading back to the Nirvana. A little further away, the dread icon labeled 'Barnette' was looping around for another pass...
Vandread Meia continued to stare down the spined ball, waiting for it to make it's move...
After hesitating a moment, the spined ball began rotating slightly. Two groups of spines, on aimed in the general direction of Barnette, the other at Dita's retreating dread.
The spines straighted in preparation to be fired....
Meia's eyes narrowed, and her gut reaction was to try sending the Vandread hurtling at the ball at maximum speed...
OOC: Note, of course, that I don't know Hibiki's reaction, but if they match then that's what you get. XD
Apparently, Hibiki was of the same mind as Meia, and Vandread Meia spread it's wings, and raced away as stunning speeds.
The head of the 'dragon' began to glow a faint green, steadily increasing in hue and size as the Vandread made a large, looping arc and headed back for the spined sphere.
As it did, it's speed increased again. The green glow now encompassed the entire 'head' of the mecha.
Vandread Meia shot forward like a missle. Stars and surroundings blurred into insignificance as Hibiki leaned forward on his seat....And time seemed to dilate and compress all at once...
And they struck, with the force and impact of a blast of plasma fire. The spined ball blew apart...With a surprisingly small explosion.
As they passed through the area where the enemy had been...Meia noted a bluish flare, and time seemed to slow...
The stars outside their window slowed from smears of light back into dots.
Hibiki turned to her, almost comically slowly, his expresion caught between elated and confused.
And she was suddenly, intensely aware of a pulling sensation, pulling at her mentally, and physically.
Pain lanced through her as she resisted, nearly unconciously. She suddenly had a mental image of herself, and her connection to Vandread Meia.
Her connection was pulling in one direction, and a mysterious force was pulling in the other...
And it HURT!
"Shi-aaaah!"
'Meia's' hand went to her head, and instinctively she tried to release the connection, drawing herself back from it...
Space seened to shimmer and quake around Vandread Meia, as the blue light permeated the Dragon mecha, seemingly lighting it up from within, even as it twisted in place, throwing it's head back, as though in pain.
Barnette's dread raced to the aid of the distressed mecha, but before she could arrive...The Vanguard was forcibly expelled from the fusion, thrown end over end through space.
Meia's Dread promptly began glowing even brighter blue, as the ripples and quakes around the dread intensified, tearing a hole in the fabric of space itself, and yanking the Dread through.
Barnette saw the rip, and reacted with admirable speed...and still failed to veer off in time. The gravitational pull from the hole reached out and grabbed her dread, pulling it alond with Meia's....
And the hole closed, leaving one VERY disoriented young man in a mecha at the scene...