FLCL Fan Fiction ❯ Emotions and Monsters ❯ Mission Statement ( Chapter 5 )

I walked into my bedroom and threw my guitar down on my bunk, then leaned back against the door and breathed a shuddering breath. After staring at the floor for a few minutes, trying to regain my breath, I eventually stripped down to my boxers and a tee shirt, then sat on my bed, leaning against the wall with my guitar lying across my lap.

"You've grown up, Takkun."

In reality, I should have been surprised. I knew, however, that Haruko rarely did what she was told; I hadn't really been expecting her to wait until tomorrow night to talk to me.

"What's so important that you couldn't wait to talk to me until tomorrow night?" I demanded.

Above me, I could hear the top bunk creak as she leaned over the edge to look at me. "Did you find Atomsk?" I asked when she didn't answer.

Haruko growled, a low, grating sound. "I found him. It took me five months, but I found him." Her voice dropped to a lower octave. "And what do I get when I catch him? Nothing! All that work, and his power just disappeared! Right between my fingers! And what does he do? He says he's sorry. He's sorry!" She snarled the last word, and the bed shuddered as she vaulted out of it and started pacing.

I leaned my guitar up against the wall and laid down on my bed, then cranked my head over to the side to watch her walk. "So? What does this have to do with me? Why come back here?"

The pink-haired woman stopped her pacing, giving me a look that said that she was a cat and I was the mouse. "You were the last one to touch the power, Takkun," she hissed. She took a moment to compose herself, then threw a big smile at me. "I'm just here to see if you still have it."

With my head turned so that I was looking back up at the bottom of the top bunk, I sighed. "I can tell you right now that I don't," I answered. "It's been four years since he and I were one, and I haven't done anything remotely like that since."

Haruko walked over to the bunk bed and pulled her guitar off of the top bed, then walked over to the window. "Think about this, Takkun," she said as she threw the window open, "how could a kid like you expect to fight all those robots without some special something?"

A light breeze ruffled the curtains after the alien woman jumped through the window.

Haruko thinks that I have Atomsk's powers? I snorted, and closed my eyes. She always was crazy. Oh, well. I had better things to occupy me. The last thing I thought about before sleep claimed me was of kissing Eri.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt better than I could remember feeling. It was early in the morning, so Grandpa was busy getting the bakery ready for business and Eri hadn't come down for breakfast yet.

I poured a bowl full of cereal, then sat down to eat. As I was putting my dirty dishes in the sink and then walking over to the bakery part of our home, Eri came down the stairs and went into the kitchen, waving at me as she walked through the doorway.

By the time Eri had finished eating, grandpa and I had enough bread baking to go through the day's business. We opened the store, with Eri working the counter, Grandpa and the hired help, Jordan, were back in the store's kitchen, and I was working as a stock boy.

The store opened at ten o'clock, and we closed at four-thirty. After we finished locking up the store part of the building and sent Jordan home, Eri came up with the idea of packing up a picnic for me and her. We put the picnic basket in the cargo trunk of my Moped, strapped my guitar to Eri's back, and took off for the ocean.

We threw a blanket out on the sand of the beach and sat down. Between the two of us, we made short work of the sandwiches and salad that we brought. After eating, we sat back against a log and watched the waves.

I had just finished playing my version of the R.E.M. song "It's The End of The World As We Know It" on my guitar when we could hear an alarm begin to blare in the distance.

"What's that?" Eri asked, standing up and turning to look. I let my head hang down; without looking, I knew that clouds of steam and smoke were erupting from the base of the Medical Meccanica building. I slipped my guitar strap across my body and started to hurriedly pack up the blanket and garbage into the picnic basket.

I didn't say anything until I had packed the picnic basket into the cargo carrier. "I need you to ride in front," I told Eri. "I'll drive from behind you until we get there. Once we arrive, you take over the driving."

The dark haired young woman nodded and climbed onto the Moped. I climbed on behind her, placing my hands over hers on the handlebars, and the bike took off. We pushed the envelope with the speed and, as a result, a trip that should have taken twenty minutes only took four.

Unlike usual, the attacking robot wasn't a hand, or human shaped creation. This time, a mass of metal in a shape reminiscent of a Tyrannosaurus Rex was tearing into a tall building on the edge of Medical Meccanica's property.

Leaning against Eri, I could feel her tense up when we saw the robot. It was easily a hundred feet tall, complete with metal fangs and claws. I couldn't see any signs Haruko fighting it, which prompted me to wonder exactly where she was.

I put my lips near Eri's ear. "Get ready!" She nodded, and I started to apply pressure to the breaks. As soon as the Moped skidded to a halt, I was vaulting off of it and heading for the robotic monster at a dead run. I pulled my guitar free as I ran and, utilizing a technique I had learned from Haruko when she had used the guitar, pulled the ripcord.

The guitar buzzed to life in my hands, and I took hold of it as if it were a gun. With my finger on the trigger, I jacked the pump then unloaded an explosive round at the dinosaur. The brilliant yellow bolt of energy rocketed towards one of it's knee joints. I didn't stop running, but still watched the bolt as it hit. To my disappointment, the knee joint simply absorbed the energy.

Recognizing me as a threat, the dinobot lashed out with it's tail. I dropped to the street and rolled, hugging my guitar protectively as the giant metal tail swished overhead.

I came back up on my feet hearing a scream behind me. Looking back, I saw my Moped and Eri as they were launched into the air by the robot's powerful blow. The Moped was flinging bits and pieces of metal as it flew; Eri's long hair fanned out behind her head as she soared upward, twirling gracefully.

What happened next occurred so fast I could hardly describe it. When I saw Eri in danger, I dropped my guitar and, instinctively, jumped. I didn't realize what I had done until I held Eri in my arms while still a good hundred and fifty feet off of the ground. I panicked for a moment then, still instinctively, tried to jump again. Somehow, my feet found something solid to push against in thin air, and I launched us towards a tall building two blocks away.

I set Eri down on the rooftop and turned back to the fight. The dinobot was now tearing into another city block, but I didn't care. Because it had put Eri into danger, I was so angry that I literally saw everything through a red-tinged tunnel. Focused on my rage, I ran to the edge of the roof and launched myself into the air again, my movement not stopping until I was in the sky over the robot's back.

Looking down, I could see a red, circular symbol on the spine of the dinobot. Contorting my body so that my head pointed towards the robot's back, I pushed with my feet again, propelling myself downwards. I twisted myself around as I flew, pointing my feet towards the symbol and willing myself to fall faster. It seemed, as I fell, that my legs were wreathed in flames, as if from friction from moving through the air so fast.

I hit the symbol feet first and dead on with enough momentum that my body tore clear through the torso of the dinobot. As soon as my feet touched the road, I jumped again to throw myself clear of the explosion I knew would follow and left a crater in the middle of the street.

The explosion wasn't disappointing. Gouts of flame with pieces of robot and building debris following them created a deadly rain; cars shattered and chunks of asphalt somersaulted through the air in all directions when the bulk of the dinobot's chassis fell.

I drug myself to my feet and shakily wobbled my way over to my guitar. When I picked it up, I could see that once again it hadn't been scratched or damaged; my Moped, on the other hand, was totaled. Pieces of it were mingled in with the pieces of rubble that were strewn over the street.

Suddenly tired, confused, and in a little pain, I began limping towards the building where I had left Eri. It took me nearly ten minutes to drag myself down the two blocks to the building's entrance.

The dark haired girl was just coming out the front doors when I arrived. She immediately threw her arms around me, burying her face in my neck. Feeling her breath against my neck tickled enough to almost make me laugh, even with how drained I felt.

Kanchi touched down next to us, as light as a feather.

"Where were you at?" I demanded. He just looked at me with his monitor blank.

Behind me, I could hear footsteps. "It looks like you do have it, Takkun."

I let go of Eri and whirled to face Haruko. My eyes narrowed. "You set this up, didn't you," I accused.

Haruko gave me a blank look. "Of course," she said. "Your head isn't really the only one that works; I just had to look for some others, then bring in the troops to help me figure it out."

After thinking for a moment, I spoke again. "You've been behind all the robots, haven't you? I thought it was a virus, but I was obviously wrong." My right hand gripped my guitar even tighter, my knuckles turning white with strain.

The pink haired woman gave me a smug smile. "That's obvious, isn't it, Takkun? Every robot I fought with you appeared because of me, when you think about it. How else could they get here?"

Her gaze shifted to my guitar, and her stance widened. The grin she had on her face disappeared. "So, Takkun, are you going to hit me? Or stand there?"

Eri tugged on my sleeve, and I took a deep breath. I relaxed my grip on the guitar, bringing the strap up and over my shoulder. "I," I began, taking Eri's hand, "am going home. Leave me alone for awhile, Haruko."