S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction ❯ Alter Ego ❯ Alter Ego Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Shellbullet 
New POV. Let me know what you think.
Anime/Manga: S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Post-apocalyptic / Action | Type: Self Insertion | Uploaded On: 08.07.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.6K | Visits: 185 | Status: Completed
New POV. Let me know what you think.
Anime/Manga: S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Post-apocalyptic / Action | Type: Self Insertion | Uploaded On: 08.07.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.6K | Visits: 185 | Status: Completed
Alter Ego Chapter 6
I decided to change the POV experimentally; please tell me what you think or if you have any suggestions.
I do not own s-CRY-ed or any of the characters other than Rob and Megumi.
****************
We come back to the story about two weeks after the last chapter...
‘It took almost a week to fully recover from my experience during the skill assessment test and I’ve hardly had a moment’s rest since then.’ Rob thought to himself as he worked out, ‘The operation that Megumi told me about is starting soon.’
The operation is unofficially being called, “The Great Native Alter Hunt” and everyone in HOLD has been gearing up for this operation almost obsessively.
‘I’m kinda happy I joined HOLY when I did. I’d hate to face them like this.’
Officially the purpose of the operation is to locate and capture any and all native alter users we encounter that resist us in an effort to try and bring order to the Lost Ground and try to put a dent in the amount of alter related crimes. But in actuality, the real reason for the operation is to crush any resistance in the Lost Ground to clear the way for the city expansion project. Rob isn’t fooled though. He’s just keeping his distaste to himself mainly because if he takes part in this operation he has a chance to find the alter from his nightmares and finally get revenge and kill him.
In preparation for the upcoming operation the commander has ordered all capable troops to active duty and has had them training and preparing around the clock. For the past week he has been training in combat simulations, training with troops to teach him leadership skills, and going to endless tactical meetings; He is currently finishing his final set on the weight machine before heading to the lounge to get some food and a little rest after working out. Before something else comes up.
Although the commander is in charge of the whole operation he has entrusted most of the tactical aspects of the operation to a guy named Rufus. He is a alter user in charge of the tactical division of HOLY and he is supposedly some kind of military genius. Rob smiles slightly to himself, ‘I seem to have gotten on his nerves a little in the last few days. I usually fall asleep in his tactical meetings, I guess he doesn’t like that too much. Go figure.’
Through the constant flow of rumors among the staff, almost everyone knows that after Kazuma got captured, he has been causing HOLY a lot of trouble lately. He has put three lower class HOLY officers out of commission permanently and has put another officer named Asuka Tachibana in the hospital with serious injuries. He has apparently gotten the command staff in a real panic since one alter user has never caused this much of an uproar and still been able to evade capture. Almost everyone has an opinion about the whole incident. They range from a grudging respect to total outrage that someone like Kazuma was able to make complete fools out of the supposed “elite” HOLY members. Rob, however, has been hugely amused by the whole thing. He has enjoyed the fact that these arrogant pricks have been taken down a few notches and been forcibly shown that they aren’t as invincible like they thought.
Rob walks out of the exercise room just as a tone echoes through the hallway over the intercom system and an announcement begins: “ATTENTION: ALL HOLY OFFICERS AND COMMAND STAFF! PLEASE REPORT TO TACTICAL ROOM NUMBER 3 FOR VITAL STRATEGIC BRIEFING AT 0100 HOURS.”
Rob casually looks at his watch and sees that it is almost 12:30. “CRAP! I gotta change!” and he runs as fast as he can to his room to change into uniform before going to the meeting.
A very short time later, after a frantic run to his room and a quick change into his HOLY uniform, Rob dashes into the tactical room right before the meeting starts. The tactical room is a large circular room with rows of seats surrounding a computer equipped central area where the speaker stands. It is pretty crowded since everyone is already there. Rob manages to find a seat just as the lights darken and the commander and Rufus walk into the lighted central area and begin the meeting.
The commander walks into the center area while Rufus waits off to the side. The commander immediately begins talking once everyone has settled down. “The purpose of this meeting is to lay out our strategy for the largest military intervention into the Lost Ground that HOLD has ever conceived. While I am officially in charge of the operation, all tactical aspects of the operation will be under the supervision of Rufus until further notice. He will report directly to me and only me.” Rufus smiles ever so slightly from where he is standing. “I will now allow him to fill you in on the battle plans.” With that the commander steps aside and motions for Rufus to step forward. He salutes and takes the commander’s place in the center of the tactical room.
“Thank you sir.” With that Rufus presses a button on a small remote control he’s holding and an enormous holographic map of the entire Lost Ground, showing all of the different sectors and territories, flashes into existence above him.
“The current battle plan is based on the “blitzkreig” tactic utilized by the Germans during World War II. The key for this strategy to work is speed and precision.” Several people lean in and take interest, especially Cougar who seems a little less distracted than usual, as Rufus explains his battle plan.
“There will be a total of twenty HOLD platoons that will expand out from the city in a fan-like pattern like so.”
He pushes a button on his remote and several arrows slowly begin to spread out from the city. “The goal for each platoon is to swiftly enter an area and rapidly suppress any and all resistance in that area. If you encounter alter users you are to capture them alive if possible, especially if they are wanted. Normal human resistance is to be suppressed as quickly as possible and you are to then move on to the next territory.”
With another touch of the remote each territory changes color from red to blue as the arrows enter it and then the arrows move on to the next. “Your platoon is to remain in a territory only long enough to provide cover for support staff and troops to come in behind you and solidify their hold in several fully armed garrisons spread throughout the territory. You are then to move on to the next territory and repeat the process.”
He presses the remote one more time and stops the display behind him. It then changes from a map to a logistics screen. “Each platoon will be commanded by two HOLY officers with a full platoon of HOLD soldiers. Each of you will be sent a dossier telling you what squad you are assigned to and who you will be teamed up with.”
Rob frowns a little at the thought of having to team up with someone. ‘Damn! Whenever I’ve worked with someone in the past they always been almost totally inept and caused more problems than they were worth. I can only hope that they’ll at least team me up with someone who is at least an upper B class officer who doesn’t act like a complete ass all the time.’
“There is little room for error and due to the large amount of manpower involved in this operation, reinforcements and replacements to the advance strike units will be kept to a bare minimum to keep with the time table so be careful with the people under your command.”
Rufus turns off the hologram projection so all attention is on him. “The estimated timetable for the whole operation is approximately two months and it will begin tomorrow at 0800 hours. All command personnel are to be at their designated posts at least one hour before the beginning of the operation for final personnel and equipment checks. I suggest you all prepare early and get a lot of rest tonight. I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you.” And with that he steps aside and the commander takes his place in the center of the room.
“Thank you Rufus. Excellent job as usual.” Zigmarl stands in the center of the room and begins to address the assembled officers. “As you know I expect nothing but the best from all of you. You and all your platoon members will be notified of their assignment by tomorrow at the latest. You will be given your mission dossiers as you leave. I wish all of you the best of luck. You are now dismissed.” He salutes all of us and leaves.
As he leaves Rob picks up his dossier and heads to the lounge to read it. He grabs a good seat and begin to go through the list of personnel and materials under his command.
“Hmmmm. Let’s see here...” he mutters to himself, “Two mobile command vehicles, five armored escort jeeps, a full platoon of soldiers. Wow, they’re really going all out for this. Now lets see who I’ll be teamed up with.”
He flips a couple more pages and find what he’s looking for: the profile on his soon to be partner. Her name is Janette and she is a girl in her mid to late teens, probably about eighteen or so, with blonde hair. ‘She’s pretty cute too. Whoever decided on the skirt length on the uniform is my hero.’ It gives a very basic background on her alter and past accomplishments which make her look like a fairly competent officer. She has been a member of HOLY for about two years and has gained the rank of “A” class. Her alter is called Iris.
‘Hm, I guess I’ll find out more in the field.’ Rob closes the dossier, lays back on the chair, and closes his eyes to do a little thinking.
‘It’s possible that I might run into that fire alter user during this operation.’ he smiles slightly at the thought, ‘Then I can finally kill him and get it over with. With any luck, after this mission me and Megumi will be able to leave HOLY.’
Unseen by Rob, Megumi has just walked into the lounge, spotted him, and has started to walk towards him.
“Hey Rob!”
“Huh?” He opens one eye to see who called his name and sees Megumi walking towards him. He smiles and waves as she comes over.
“What’s up Megumi?”
“Hey, did you get your assignment yet?”
“Yeah, it’s right here.” He holds up the dossier for her to see. “Just got out of the mission briefing too.”
“So what do you think of the whole thing?”
“Well, it’s really well planned and it’s also quite possible that I’ll run into that alter user we’ve been looking for during this operation. If I do and I kill him we can leave here and find a new place to live. But on a whole, I’m not sure.”
“Well what about all the alter users and regular people you’re going to be arresting? You always hated that aspect of HOLD. What are you going to do with the ones who are just trying to defend themselves?”
Rob frowns and looks at the floor for a few seconds before replying. “I really don’t have a choice in this situation. The best I can do is give them the opportunity to run away or surrender. If they don’t I have to arrest them. That was something I expected when I signed up for this.”
He looks up at Megumi from the floor with a slight glint in his eye, “But it doesn’t mean I like doing it. I still have no true loyalty to HOLY. They’re only a means to an end to me. As soon as I get what I want, we’re out of here.”
She gives him a small smile and says, “At least you still remember why you’ve chosen to do this.”
“Heh, yeah I guess you’re right. Thanks for the reality check, Megumi.”
“Hey no problem, someone has to keep you on track. Anyway, who did you get teamed up with for the operation?”
“Oh yeah. They paired me with another “A” class alter user. Her name’s Janette. Here, take a look.” I hand her my mission folder
Megumi suddenly gets a odd look on her face. “Oh really? And, um, what do you think about her?,” she says in what sounds like a slightly annoyed tone.
“Uhm...” Rob begins nervously picking at one of the seams on his pants
‘I know that’s a loaded question, she’s getting jealous. She’s got a hair trigger right now and I have to try to word my answer just right so she won’t kill me on the spot.’
“Well, I’m not too thrilled about having to work with someone at all. But her profile leads me to believe that she at least knows what she’s doing. And who knows, I might actually get to have some fun.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
‘Damn it.’ Rob quickly dives out of the way as the dossier comes flying toward his head and it narrowly misses him as various papers scatter around him. He pops his head back up with his eyes wide open and yells, “What are you doing?!!” Just in time to see Megumi walking away very quickly and angrily.
Rob stares after her for a couple seconds, nervously waiting to see if anything else will come sailing his way, before sighing in relief. It’s then he slowly looks around and realizes that everyone within earshot in the lounge is staring at him. “WHAT?!” He says loudly and goes to gather up the scattered papers and quickly walks out of the lounge to go lock himself in his room to keep Megumi from murdering him while he sleeps and get himself ready for tomorrow.
-----------------------------------------------
EARL Y THE NEXT MORNING
-----------------------------------------------
Rob is in the middle of an unusually great dream when all of a sudden he’s all wet and feels like he’s drowning. Rob jolts awake, sputtering and gasping for breath and trying to figure out what’s going on. Through his sleep clouded, half-open eyes he sees Megumi standing next to his bed with a sadistic smile on her face and an empty glass in her hand.
“Wake up idiot. You’re gonna be late if you don’t hurry.”
Rob quickly looks at his bedside clock and sees that it says 6:25! “DAMN IT!!”
In a flurry of frenzied movement and colorful language Rob leaps out of bed, throws on his uniform, and grabs his bags. All while Megumi stands to the side and watches in amazement at his frantic preparations.
“Damn! I’ve only got like twenty minutes to get to the ready room! I just gotta hope I have all my stuff with me. I’ll see you after the mission is over, Megumi.”
Rob rushes toward the door and just as he reaches it he hears Megumi say “Hey, stupid.”
Rob turns around just in time to see Megumi toss him his sheathed combat knife, which he deftly catches in mid-air. He looks at Megumi and she is smiling at him. “You forgot that. It’s kinda important,” Suddenly her look becomes very serious, “Just make sure you come back in one piece or I’ll be pissed.”
Rob looks at her in silence for a second before breaking into a big smile, “Hey, Don’t worry about it. I’ll be back in no time. You’ll see.” And with that he rushes out the door to get to the ready room.
------------------------------------
After a dead run through the maze-like corridors of HOLD Rob finally arrives at the assigned troop ready room. The whole room is alive with both support and military personnel giving and carrying out orders. People are rushing back and forth loading up supplies, performing last-minute maintenance checks on the vehicles, and testing various communication systems and weapons.
He is there for only a few seconds before one of the soldiers comes up to him. His rank badge marks him as one of the squad leaders.
“First Lieutenant Rando Aoki reporting Sir!” He gives Rob a sharp salute.
A slightly bewildered Rob returns the salute. “At ease Lieutenant. Um, can you tell me how preparations are going right now?”
“Yes Sir. The supplies are currently about seventy-five percent loaded, maintenance checks on the command vehicles and the armored jeeps are almost finished, and the testing of the communication and weapons systems are almost complete as well. I estimate we’ll be completely finished at least a half an hour ahead of schedule.”
Rob stares in amazement at the soldier and says, “Uh... well done Lieutenant. Keep up the good work. Is there anything that I can help out with?”
“No Sir. My men and the support staff have everything under control. But thank you for offering your assistance Sir.”
“Oh, one more thing Lieutenant. Have you seen the other HOLY officer assigned to this unit?”
“Yes Sir. The last time I saw her she was near the command vehicle over there.” He points to the vehicle near the far end of the ready room.
Rob salutes the soldier, “Thank you very much Lieutenant. You’re dismissed.” The soldier salutes back and hurries off to finish the last minute preparations.
Rob decides to go and try to find this Janette girl so he walks in the direction that Leieutenant Aoki pointed out. As he gets closer to the command vehicle at the other side of the room he begins to hear a slight noise. It has a regular rhythm and sounds like there is something hitting the side of the vehicle. He walks around the side of the vehicle to see what is going on but before he can, a green ball comes flying at his face! Out of sheer reflex he snatches it out of the air, spins around, and sends it flying back to where it came from.
A girl with long blonde hair and green eyes deftly catches it about two inches from her head.
“What did you do that for?!” Rob yells at her.
She smiles good naturedly, “To see if you’re as good as I’ve heard. You passed the test if you were wondering. Plus, that was pretty cool.”
Rob looks at her in disbelief. “I take it that you’re Janette, right?”
“Well, yeah. And you’re my partner, the new guy Rob, right? I mean, the HOLY uniform is a dead giveaway.”
“Uh, yeah. What were you doing?”
“Well, I got bored. Everyone seemed to have everything under control so I just went over here to kill some time until it’s time to leave. Then you came along and I threw my ball at you.”
Rob is about to reply when the lieutenant who spoke to him earlier jogs up to them and salutes both of them.
“Excuse me, Sirs! All final preparations are complete. We are ready to leave at your order.”
Janette smiles cheerily and salutes back, “Thanks Lieutenant! We’ll be with you in a minute.”
With that the Lieutenant Aoki returns her salute and heads toward one of the command vehicles.
Janette turns to Rob, still smiling, and holds her hand out towards him, “Here’s to a productive and hopefully fun partnership.”
Rob stares at her and her outstretched hand for a second. Finally, he grins and accepts her handshake.
TO BE CONTINUED......
END CHAPTER 6
Thanks to Kat Rhye Lee Dezaraye, Kaikunoyukoyuni, and Allison for their suggestions and grammar and spelling corrections.
I decided to change the POV experimentally; please tell me what you think or if you have any suggestions.
I do not own s-CRY-ed or any of the characters other than Rob and Megumi.
****************
We come back to the story about two weeks after the last chapter...
‘It took almost a week to fully recover from my experience during the skill assessment test and I’ve hardly had a moment’s rest since then.’ Rob thought to himself as he worked out, ‘The operation that Megumi told me about is starting soon.’
The operation is unofficially being called, “The Great Native Alter Hunt” and everyone in HOLD has been gearing up for this operation almost obsessively.
‘I’m kinda happy I joined HOLY when I did. I’d hate to face them like this.’
Officially the purpose of the operation is to locate and capture any and all native alter users we encounter that resist us in an effort to try and bring order to the Lost Ground and try to put a dent in the amount of alter related crimes. But in actuality, the real reason for the operation is to crush any resistance in the Lost Ground to clear the way for the city expansion project. Rob isn’t fooled though. He’s just keeping his distaste to himself mainly because if he takes part in this operation he has a chance to find the alter from his nightmares and finally get revenge and kill him.
In preparation for the upcoming operation the commander has ordered all capable troops to active duty and has had them training and preparing around the clock. For the past week he has been training in combat simulations, training with troops to teach him leadership skills, and going to endless tactical meetings; He is currently finishing his final set on the weight machine before heading to the lounge to get some food and a little rest after working out. Before something else comes up.
Although the commander is in charge of the whole operation he has entrusted most of the tactical aspects of the operation to a guy named Rufus. He is a alter user in charge of the tactical division of HOLY and he is supposedly some kind of military genius. Rob smiles slightly to himself, ‘I seem to have gotten on his nerves a little in the last few days. I usually fall asleep in his tactical meetings, I guess he doesn’t like that too much. Go figure.’
Through the constant flow of rumors among the staff, almost everyone knows that after Kazuma got captured, he has been causing HOLY a lot of trouble lately. He has put three lower class HOLY officers out of commission permanently and has put another officer named Asuka Tachibana in the hospital with serious injuries. He has apparently gotten the command staff in a real panic since one alter user has never caused this much of an uproar and still been able to evade capture. Almost everyone has an opinion about the whole incident. They range from a grudging respect to total outrage that someone like Kazuma was able to make complete fools out of the supposed “elite” HOLY members. Rob, however, has been hugely amused by the whole thing. He has enjoyed the fact that these arrogant pricks have been taken down a few notches and been forcibly shown that they aren’t as invincible like they thought.
Rob walks out of the exercise room just as a tone echoes through the hallway over the intercom system and an announcement begins: “ATTENTION: ALL HOLY OFFICERS AND COMMAND STAFF! PLEASE REPORT TO TACTICAL ROOM NUMBER 3 FOR VITAL STRATEGIC BRIEFING AT 0100 HOURS.”
Rob casually looks at his watch and sees that it is almost 12:30. “CRAP! I gotta change!” and he runs as fast as he can to his room to change into uniform before going to the meeting.
A very short time later, after a frantic run to his room and a quick change into his HOLY uniform, Rob dashes into the tactical room right before the meeting starts. The tactical room is a large circular room with rows of seats surrounding a computer equipped central area where the speaker stands. It is pretty crowded since everyone is already there. Rob manages to find a seat just as the lights darken and the commander and Rufus walk into the lighted central area and begin the meeting.
The commander walks into the center area while Rufus waits off to the side. The commander immediately begins talking once everyone has settled down. “The purpose of this meeting is to lay out our strategy for the largest military intervention into the Lost Ground that HOLD has ever conceived. While I am officially in charge of the operation, all tactical aspects of the operation will be under the supervision of Rufus until further notice. He will report directly to me and only me.” Rufus smiles ever so slightly from where he is standing. “I will now allow him to fill you in on the battle plans.” With that the commander steps aside and motions for Rufus to step forward. He salutes and takes the commander’s place in the center of the tactical room.
“Thank you sir.” With that Rufus presses a button on a small remote control he’s holding and an enormous holographic map of the entire Lost Ground, showing all of the different sectors and territories, flashes into existence above him.
“The current battle plan is based on the “blitzkreig” tactic utilized by the Germans during World War II. The key for this strategy to work is speed and precision.” Several people lean in and take interest, especially Cougar who seems a little less distracted than usual, as Rufus explains his battle plan.
“There will be a total of twenty HOLD platoons that will expand out from the city in a fan-like pattern like so.”
He pushes a button on his remote and several arrows slowly begin to spread out from the city. “The goal for each platoon is to swiftly enter an area and rapidly suppress any and all resistance in that area. If you encounter alter users you are to capture them alive if possible, especially if they are wanted. Normal human resistance is to be suppressed as quickly as possible and you are to then move on to the next territory.”
With another touch of the remote each territory changes color from red to blue as the arrows enter it and then the arrows move on to the next. “Your platoon is to remain in a territory only long enough to provide cover for support staff and troops to come in behind you and solidify their hold in several fully armed garrisons spread throughout the territory. You are then to move on to the next territory and repeat the process.”
He presses the remote one more time and stops the display behind him. It then changes from a map to a logistics screen. “Each platoon will be commanded by two HOLY officers with a full platoon of HOLD soldiers. Each of you will be sent a dossier telling you what squad you are assigned to and who you will be teamed up with.”
Rob frowns a little at the thought of having to team up with someone. ‘Damn! Whenever I’ve worked with someone in the past they always been almost totally inept and caused more problems than they were worth. I can only hope that they’ll at least team me up with someone who is at least an upper B class officer who doesn’t act like a complete ass all the time.’
“There is little room for error and due to the large amount of manpower involved in this operation, reinforcements and replacements to the advance strike units will be kept to a bare minimum to keep with the time table so be careful with the people under your command.”
Rufus turns off the hologram projection so all attention is on him. “The estimated timetable for the whole operation is approximately two months and it will begin tomorrow at 0800 hours. All command personnel are to be at their designated posts at least one hour before the beginning of the operation for final personnel and equipment checks. I suggest you all prepare early and get a lot of rest tonight. I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you.” And with that he steps aside and the commander takes his place in the center of the room.
“Thank you Rufus. Excellent job as usual.” Zigmarl stands in the center of the room and begins to address the assembled officers. “As you know I expect nothing but the best from all of you. You and all your platoon members will be notified of their assignment by tomorrow at the latest. You will be given your mission dossiers as you leave. I wish all of you the best of luck. You are now dismissed.” He salutes all of us and leaves.
As he leaves Rob picks up his dossier and heads to the lounge to read it. He grabs a good seat and begin to go through the list of personnel and materials under his command.
“Hmmmm. Let’s see here...” he mutters to himself, “Two mobile command vehicles, five armored escort jeeps, a full platoon of soldiers. Wow, they’re really going all out for this. Now lets see who I’ll be teamed up with.”
He flips a couple more pages and find what he’s looking for: the profile on his soon to be partner. Her name is Janette and she is a girl in her mid to late teens, probably about eighteen or so, with blonde hair. ‘She’s pretty cute too. Whoever decided on the skirt length on the uniform is my hero.’ It gives a very basic background on her alter and past accomplishments which make her look like a fairly competent officer. She has been a member of HOLY for about two years and has gained the rank of “A” class. Her alter is called Iris.
‘Hm, I guess I’ll find out more in the field.’ Rob closes the dossier, lays back on the chair, and closes his eyes to do a little thinking.
‘It’s possible that I might run into that fire alter user during this operation.’ he smiles slightly at the thought, ‘Then I can finally kill him and get it over with. With any luck, after this mission me and Megumi will be able to leave HOLY.’
Unseen by Rob, Megumi has just walked into the lounge, spotted him, and has started to walk towards him.
“Hey Rob!”
“Huh?” He opens one eye to see who called his name and sees Megumi walking towards him. He smiles and waves as she comes over.
“What’s up Megumi?”
“Hey, did you get your assignment yet?”
“Yeah, it’s right here.” He holds up the dossier for her to see. “Just got out of the mission briefing too.”
“So what do you think of the whole thing?”
“Well, it’s really well planned and it’s also quite possible that I’ll run into that alter user we’ve been looking for during this operation. If I do and I kill him we can leave here and find a new place to live. But on a whole, I’m not sure.”
“Well what about all the alter users and regular people you’re going to be arresting? You always hated that aspect of HOLD. What are you going to do with the ones who are just trying to defend themselves?”
Rob frowns and looks at the floor for a few seconds before replying. “I really don’t have a choice in this situation. The best I can do is give them the opportunity to run away or surrender. If they don’t I have to arrest them. That was something I expected when I signed up for this.”
He looks up at Megumi from the floor with a slight glint in his eye, “But it doesn’t mean I like doing it. I still have no true loyalty to HOLY. They’re only a means to an end to me. As soon as I get what I want, we’re out of here.”
She gives him a small smile and says, “At least you still remember why you’ve chosen to do this.”
“Heh, yeah I guess you’re right. Thanks for the reality check, Megumi.”
“Hey no problem, someone has to keep you on track. Anyway, who did you get teamed up with for the operation?”
“Oh yeah. They paired me with another “A” class alter user. Her name’s Janette. Here, take a look.” I hand her my mission folder
Megumi suddenly gets a odd look on her face. “Oh really? And, um, what do you think about her?,” she says in what sounds like a slightly annoyed tone.
“Uhm...” Rob begins nervously picking at one of the seams on his pants
‘I know that’s a loaded question, she’s getting jealous. She’s got a hair trigger right now and I have to try to word my answer just right so she won’t kill me on the spot.’
“Well, I’m not too thrilled about having to work with someone at all. But her profile leads me to believe that she at least knows what she’s doing. And who knows, I might actually get to have some fun.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
‘Damn it.’ Rob quickly dives out of the way as the dossier comes flying toward his head and it narrowly misses him as various papers scatter around him. He pops his head back up with his eyes wide open and yells, “What are you doing?!!” Just in time to see Megumi walking away very quickly and angrily.
Rob stares after her for a couple seconds, nervously waiting to see if anything else will come sailing his way, before sighing in relief. It’s then he slowly looks around and realizes that everyone within earshot in the lounge is staring at him. “WHAT?!” He says loudly and goes to gather up the scattered papers and quickly walks out of the lounge to go lock himself in his room to keep Megumi from murdering him while he sleeps and get himself ready for tomorrow.
-----------------------------------------------
EARL Y THE NEXT MORNING
-----------------------------------------------
Rob is in the middle of an unusually great dream when all of a sudden he’s all wet and feels like he’s drowning. Rob jolts awake, sputtering and gasping for breath and trying to figure out what’s going on. Through his sleep clouded, half-open eyes he sees Megumi standing next to his bed with a sadistic smile on her face and an empty glass in her hand.
“Wake up idiot. You’re gonna be late if you don’t hurry.”
Rob quickly looks at his bedside clock and sees that it says 6:25! “DAMN IT!!”
In a flurry of frenzied movement and colorful language Rob leaps out of bed, throws on his uniform, and grabs his bags. All while Megumi stands to the side and watches in amazement at his frantic preparations.
“Damn! I’ve only got like twenty minutes to get to the ready room! I just gotta hope I have all my stuff with me. I’ll see you after the mission is over, Megumi.”
Rob rushes toward the door and just as he reaches it he hears Megumi say “Hey, stupid.”
Rob turns around just in time to see Megumi toss him his sheathed combat knife, which he deftly catches in mid-air. He looks at Megumi and she is smiling at him. “You forgot that. It’s kinda important,” Suddenly her look becomes very serious, “Just make sure you come back in one piece or I’ll be pissed.”
Rob looks at her in silence for a second before breaking into a big smile, “Hey, Don’t worry about it. I’ll be back in no time. You’ll see.” And with that he rushes out the door to get to the ready room.
------------------------------------
After a dead run through the maze-like corridors of HOLD Rob finally arrives at the assigned troop ready room. The whole room is alive with both support and military personnel giving and carrying out orders. People are rushing back and forth loading up supplies, performing last-minute maintenance checks on the vehicles, and testing various communication systems and weapons.
He is there for only a few seconds before one of the soldiers comes up to him. His rank badge marks him as one of the squad leaders.
“First Lieutenant Rando Aoki reporting Sir!” He gives Rob a sharp salute.
A slightly bewildered Rob returns the salute. “At ease Lieutenant. Um, can you tell me how preparations are going right now?”
“Yes Sir. The supplies are currently about seventy-five percent loaded, maintenance checks on the command vehicles and the armored jeeps are almost finished, and the testing of the communication and weapons systems are almost complete as well. I estimate we’ll be completely finished at least a half an hour ahead of schedule.”
Rob stares in amazement at the soldier and says, “Uh... well done Lieutenant. Keep up the good work. Is there anything that I can help out with?”
“No Sir. My men and the support staff have everything under control. But thank you for offering your assistance Sir.”
“Oh, one more thing Lieutenant. Have you seen the other HOLY officer assigned to this unit?”
“Yes Sir. The last time I saw her she was near the command vehicle over there.” He points to the vehicle near the far end of the ready room.
Rob salutes the soldier, “Thank you very much Lieutenant. You’re dismissed.” The soldier salutes back and hurries off to finish the last minute preparations.
Rob decides to go and try to find this Janette girl so he walks in the direction that Leieutenant Aoki pointed out. As he gets closer to the command vehicle at the other side of the room he begins to hear a slight noise. It has a regular rhythm and sounds like there is something hitting the side of the vehicle. He walks around the side of the vehicle to see what is going on but before he can, a green ball comes flying at his face! Out of sheer reflex he snatches it out of the air, spins around, and sends it flying back to where it came from.
A girl with long blonde hair and green eyes deftly catches it about two inches from her head.
“What did you do that for?!” Rob yells at her.
She smiles good naturedly, “To see if you’re as good as I’ve heard. You passed the test if you were wondering. Plus, that was pretty cool.”
Rob looks at her in disbelief. “I take it that you’re Janette, right?”
“Well, yeah. And you’re my partner, the new guy Rob, right? I mean, the HOLY uniform is a dead giveaway.”
“Uh, yeah. What were you doing?”
“Well, I got bored. Everyone seemed to have everything under control so I just went over here to kill some time until it’s time to leave. Then you came along and I threw my ball at you.”
Rob is about to reply when the lieutenant who spoke to him earlier jogs up to them and salutes both of them.
“Excuse me, Sirs! All final preparations are complete. We are ready to leave at your order.”
Janette smiles cheerily and salutes back, “Thanks Lieutenant! We’ll be with you in a minute.”
With that the Lieutenant Aoki returns her salute and heads toward one of the command vehicles.
Janette turns to Rob, still smiling, and holds her hand out towards him, “Here’s to a productive and hopefully fun partnership.”
Rob stares at her and her outstretched hand for a second. Finally, he grins and accepts her handshake.
TO BE CONTINUED......
END CHAPTER 6
Thanks to Kat Rhye Lee Dezaraye, Kaikunoyukoyuni, and Allison for their suggestions and grammar and spelling corrections.