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Sentinel of the Concrete Skies

• * * (Author's Notes, because I like giving notes: Well, Shinkada is, finally, back! After such a huge writing break I'm finally in the mood to write again. You see, I tried to force out the last few chapters of Liquid Metal. This was a HUGE mistake as I did it so much and failed so many times that I just lost the urge to write for... Well, a few months. But I finally got it back; in the form of this story. For now, it's only one chapter. It might be continued later, but I'm hoping to write it as a standalone. And then, hopefully, I'll be able to pick up LiM where it left off. I apologize deeply to any readers left, I really do, but I refuse to regurgitate a half-assed finished story that I just know I can do better than... Even though Chapters 1&2 were pretty bad, but that's irrelevant. The point is, I'll hopefully get this done, then go back to LiM and finally get that off my shoulders; then hopefully I'll be in the mood to decently re-do Ch1&2 since they're the only ones I'm really not happy with. And then back to this! I don't know. Either way, I've decided not to force myself to write anymore, because it has bad, bad outcomes. I hope you enjoy this, and I hope it tides you over until... Whatever the next chapter of LiM is. I think it's 9 or something... This story is heavily based on myself and my unnamed friend. It's kind of a 'What If'. Anubis' superiority over me is exaggerated; I'm better looking than him, for one. But for the point of the story it worked well. I also don't claim about half the jokes said between Kyo and Anubis, as they're from various sources such as Penny Arcade, Mac Hall, and Something Positive, and the cartoons Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Futurama, and Family Guy that me and Anubis tend to quote. I decided to input a lot more of my own opinions and experiences into this story than LiM which feels quite disjointed from me sometimes. This story is a lot more personal, so it'll probably end up having a fair bit of my own interjections.) (UPDATE: After writing most of this, I suddenly realized that I go off on tangents way too much, and that I'd have to make this multi-chapter. I don't -think- it'll be as long as LiM though. 3, maybe 4 chapters... I hope. If I don't go on any more insane sagas like the whole Splinter Cell rip-off, not to mention the irrepressable urge to give the story an antagonist just after said Splinter Cell rip-off. But! I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and that's what matters... So ner. Finally, my friend did a read of this before I finished it and said that some of it was very over the top, as if Kyo didn't quite fit in with the story. Well, while I did do a little bit of changes based on this, my own excuse is that it's meant to be that way. So I realized I should put a warning: Since this is my own story that I'm doing 100% for my own fun and don't really care how canon or correct it is, it's my own very little cheesy action story. It should be read with roughly the same mindset as an Arnold Schwarzenegger film: With absolutely no regard to anything being serious, at all. That being said, enjoy!) ********** Well, I figure I'll get introductions out of the way first. My name's Kyo. Yeah, boring name, I know. Kyo... Lindwurm. Ugh. I can't help but wonder what my parents were thinking. Not that I'd be able to ask them, but more on that later. You see, I was a normal kid. I had a pretty normal name, nothing dramatic like my friend Anubis... Yes, that's his real name. Cool, huh? He hates it of course, but I think it's awesome... Not that I'd ever tell him... Sorry, I tend to go off topic a lot. Anyway, as I was saying, normal kid. Normal name, average looks, jack of all trades and master of none. I can write, but not professionally, as I'm currently demonstrating. I can sing, but not enough to get me anywhere. I'm a martial artist, but not enough to get into any tournaments. For the longest time, I just studied endlessly, trying to find something I could actually excel at enough to get me somewhere in life; something that would let me swerve from the rapidly approaching fate of working as a shelf stocker at the local market for my entire life. For so long it seemed that absolutely everything would fail. That this horrible, demeaning fate would be realized. I had no idea that I would finally become something 'more', with a single impulsive decision. I am documenting this for both scientific reasons, recreation, and self development. (Hee! That sounded so smart!) But there are things I should explain before that, so the story actually starts at 1am, on a near-deserted tram heading back from the city with my good old friend Anubis... Oh, and don't think his girlfriend cheated on him because I'm more attractive... I'm really not. --- Saturday Tram #19 1:04am --- "... Talk to her." I don't think I'd ever seen Anubis looking so serious in my whole life. Normally we just joked around a lot; we both had our serious private lives but we were just casual friends who never really took anything seriously with each other... Kind of a wind-down friendship from the stresses of daily life. But right now there was nothing casual about it; Anubis was glaring at me as if I'd just stolen his girlfriend (again) and was just about ready to haul me over to what was quite possibly the girl of my dreams. Green, waist length hair. An absolutely cute beyond reasoning face. Teeth just that bit too long to give her the innocent look, but not long enough to make her look like a beaver. Round, relatively thick glasses. Eyes slanted just that perfect amount. And the school uniform, complete with miniskirt, definitely wasn't helping. Quite possibly? Who was I kidding, this girl just had to be holding a PS3 control in one hand and a 2 liter bottle of vanilla coke in the other, and she WOULD be the girl of my dreams. "You know I'm shy around girls -that- cute, Noobish," I softly, but mockingly angrily, shot back, using his old nickname from when we were still in high school to annoy him. "Dude. I know you. And I know that that girl is currently making your mind swim with every hentai movie you've ever seen, and replacing the females with clones of her. And if you pass this down now, I know you will commit to a life of celibacy. For the love of God, talk to her or I will MURDER YOU WITH MY RAGE." I cracked a smile at the quote, but shook my head. This is the moment I thought it'd come down to. I knew I was shy, perfectly well. But I always had an excuse. 'She's probably stupid'. 'She's reading a dumb manga'. 'I'm chasing another girl'. But I always thought, when I saw a girl I thought would be good enough for my (debatably high) standards, I'd be able to swallow my fear and just talk to her. But now, even though this girl was only a few seats away from me, I couldn't work it up. She was... Overwhelming. Completely. Everything about her, to me, screamed 'Better than you'. The train of thought was interrupted by a brisk slap to the cheek. It wasn't painful, but it certainly left a stung, and woke me up. "What kind of man slaps people?!" I hissed at Anu, who wasn't exactly trying to hide anything. "The kind that wants you to reach down and find a pair. Seriously. Talk to her, or I will." This got my brain spinning. The one fate worse than whatever humiliating, demoralizing, life-destroying scenario my paranoid mind could come up with, was Anubis getting yet ANOTHER beautiful girl who he didn't appreciate or even like that much, on top of how ever many girlfriends he had at the time already. I swallowed hard, glared, and bit the bullet... Or, I tried to. Upon turning around, the Goddess was gone. I looked outside in time to see her heading down the street and towards a different tram. This was it. This was that final moment that it all came down to. If I hesitated at all now, I would never, ever see this girl again, fate, science and whatever screwy religion I believed in were ALL telling me that at once. Luckily, it seemed even my conjoined cowardice and bad luck had its limits, and before I even thought of what the hell I was doing, my hand was on the Emergency Stop button and me and Anubis bolted out of the tram doors as the driver screamed his face off. Anubis, being the lucky bastard he is, once again proved that he's better than me in every way; this time by being about twice as fast as me. 'Bastard..,' I mumbled to myself as I sprinted after him, rapidly running out of breath and for the first time in my life, regretting having such a bad diet and a nonexistent workout schedule. Anubis waited for me with a smirk, but turned just in time to see the tram carrying the Greenhead begin to move off. One thing about tram drivers - they're jerks. They will never stop for you, they will never slow down for you, they will never open their doors for you. This tram was moving, and that meant we were boned. Well, by LOGIC it meant we were boned. But right now I'd just broken the law by falsely slamming an Emergency Stop button, and was now sprinting down the street to catch up to her tram. I was operating under the much-coveted 'LOJICK'. I bolted straight past Anubis and leapt onto the back of the tram, quickly grabbing hold of anything I could; I ended up with only half of a foothold and handhold, struggling to stay on as the tram picked up speed. However, my trademark luck picked up again, and I heard sirens from the side of the road. I heard a thunk and turned a bit to see Anu holding on to the side of the tram with a casual grin, giving me a thumbs up. "Nice, got the pigs' attention and everything," he said as he rolled his eyes, but I knew he was joking. We may be bitter rivals at times, and I'm always envious of his luck, but he's Anubis, and the mere look of his eyes made me know exactly what he was thinking. As soon as the tram stopped, I bolted inside of the doors just as the police jumped out of their car and run towards us. Anubis, being the (occasionally) decent person he is, did what any good wingman would do; he stood in the door and blocked their way. I grinned and I scanned the tram and quickly found Greenhead, who was looking at me like I was about to abduct her... So was the rest of the tram, come to think of it. I guess we caused more of a stir than we bargained for. I think, though, she noticed the casual look in my eyes, and half smiled... I wish I could say the same for the rest of the tram. When a tall guy with long hair, a goatee and a big trench coat comes into your tram with the police chasing him, you start to worry, unless you yourself are fairly alternative. And since Greenhead was smiling a bit, my hopes jumped higher still. I ignored the rest of the people (much to their relief, I'm sure) and approached Greenhead, and came to a startling realization. Well, I came to two, actually. The first one was that she was racked, so much that it was -almost- ridiculous. The keyword is almost, since she wasn't quite racked enough to look obscene; they actually suited her. And, as much as ugly people like to think otherwise, looks are about 40% of the deal, so I was definitely happy. The other realization was that I had no freaking clue what to say. 'Hi, I hijacked a tram and broke several laws to catch up to you. Can I have your number?' Right about then was when my brain was SUPPOSED to say, 'Uhhh, no'. Sadly, I was still in LOJICK mode, and before I could stop myself I'd already opened my dumb mouth. "Hey, I just chased down a tram and broke the law. Name's Kyo," I said to her with a half goofy, half suave smile, and a casual bow. Naturally, she didn't buy the suave half, and gradually began to break into a grin, before cracking up into the cutest attempt at holding back a giggle I'd ever heard. I could almost see the bubbles surrounding her over a pink and yellow background. Ugh. Nevertheless, she bowed back just as casually and smiled as she looked directly into my eyes. Which was when I noticed the absolutely, hands down, most beautiful part of her body; her breasts. No, I'm just kidding. It's her eyes. Her eyes were a perfect blue. Almost neon. Very bright, and they stood out against her hair in a way that accentuated both the green and blue. I've never believed in love at first sight... And I still don't. But it certainly was infatuation, and blindingly intense lust at first sight. The other part came later. "I'm Alexia," she said as she offered her hand. 'My God,' I thought. 'She even has the same NAME as the girl of my dreams. This is way, way too perfect to be real...' Unfortunately, fate decided that it was, in fact, too perfect to be real. Just as I was about to ask for her number, I heard a pained shout from outside, and turned to see Anubis collapse to the ground. My eyes widened, the near brother-like friendship instinct flaring up, and dashed outside. I'd later mentally beat the crap out of myself for completely forgetting Alexia. As I jumped off the tram, I turned in time to see the cop - there was only one, now - draw back his hand... And the tazer that was in it. Anubis was on the ground, eyes clenched shut and obviously fighting back yells of pain. I took one look at him, and dashed for the cop. Now, I've always been a relatively instinctual person, on most fronts. Girls? No. But a lot of other things, I am. And when I saw Anubis lying on the ground in that much pain, and the jackass cop over him with his tazer crackling and a sadistic grin of "I'm the law" printed on his lips, that instinct kicked in and I just dashed for him. I've also never been that fit of a person. I do martial arts, as I've mentioned before, but only once a week. I most likely didn't have any chance against a trained police officer, let alone an armed one. However, luck was on my side. He wasn't expecting me to have any ability and just thrust the tazer at my torso. I weaved to the side, silently thanking Capoeira, and spun into a side kick. This caught the cop off guard, and I hit him clean across the face with my foot, slamming his head against the tram and knocking him out. Just as I was about to haul off Anubis, the strange crap for the next week really kicked into gear. For no reason at all, I just jumped, and spun in the air. I had zero control and could feel myself doing it, but just couldn't do a thing. I saw a blur shoot past underneath me as I spun in the air, where my leg had been a moment ago, and realized I was spinning for way too long than gravity should have allowed. I heard a gust of air, but nothing else, and turned just in time to see a female officer holding a gun, eyes wide in shock, barrel aimed at my leg. She didn't move. Before I could react or even surrender, something flew by me and struck her in the stomach; the line from the tazer, evidently one of the shooting variety. I turned to see Anubis get up while holding his head and wincing, then dropping the tazer, and a wide-eyed shocked look in his eyes. Just before he could say anything, everything went black. *** --- ??? ??? ??? --- "Ugh... I hope someone wrote down the license plate of the Rathalos that hit me..." Great. Even when I had a headache that'd put my ex to shame, I still managed to impulsively make horrible jokes. "So you're finally awake, huh?" I heard the voice, but for now, ignored it, and took the time to look around where I was. I'd have to say the first thing I noticed was that I couldn't move my hands... Or my feet... Or, come to think of it, anything. My arms, legs, midsection and neck were all bound and completely restrained to the 'ground' I was on. As my vision slowly cleared up, I noticed I was actually on a metal table, raised a couple of feet off the ground. The fact that I was stark naked also wasn't lost on me. Finally, my vision cleared enough to get a decent view of the walls and contents of the room and, sure enough, I was stuck in a bad sci-fi movie. The walls were all shiny metal surfaces, there were bright LED lights covering half of the stuff in the room, and the whole atmosphere consisted of both a dull green glow and a low, electrical hum. To make things worse, a second later I was approached by a (very attractive, I might add) woman in a lab coat. "Nice to see you up, Drake. We almost thought we'd lost you, heh. You should be thankful though, we saved you," the woman said in a sultry voice. She was overacting so much I thought she could start chewing the scenery any second. "Saved me from what, the Matrix? And now you're going to turn me into a genetically enhanced android, I suppose," I said with a dull look; I'm good at pretending situations weren't as serious or confusing as they really were. The woman just smirked as if disappointed, and walked out of my view again. I couldn't follow her with my eyes, so I simply contented myself to stare at the typical overbearing lights. A few seconds later, after some noisy typing that I assumed was hers, I yelped as I felt a pain shoot through my arm. I glared up at the woman as she returned, and saw her with a rather large needle in my arm. I cried out as she began taking a blood sample, and got a chuckle for it. Yeah, I know, I'm a wuss. "Well, you'd think someone of your caliber wouldn't be phased by a tiny needle... Wonders never cease, eh Drake?" she asked as she noisily, in what I assumed were high heels, clacked her way back to the computer. "Why do you keep calling me that?" I asked, glaring up at the ceiling, the confusion now starting to get to me. "Well, that's what we've dubbed you... And I really don't care about your name, so I guess that's what you'll be called," she replied and, with no warning, began stroking my (understandably) limp manhood, electing both wide eyes and another yelp from me. "Hey, w-what's the big deal?!" I half yelled, glaring even angrier at her now. I was glad that this wasn't just typical hentai rape scene; for now, my body didn't betray me, and stayed unimpressed with her attentions. "Not that it's any of your concern, Drake, but I'm running tests. It just so happens I need a sperm sample. Would you rather I just directly used a needle?" she asked with a smirk, and if anything, I felt myself grow even less excited at the prospect. Looks like I'd have to go with her on this one. "I hope you'll understand if I have trouble getting into the mood, given my circumstances," I said dryly. I actually wanted to be willing now, because she didn't seem to care about me much and the prospect of having a needle... Down there, was very unpleasant indeed. A couple of seconds passed in awkward silence as she tried to get a reaction out of me, before she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine... Since you're cute, I'll actually put some effort into it," she said sarcastically; she was almost as dry as me. Fluidly stretching her arms back, her lab coat slid off her shoulders and onto the floor, showing that under the casual and loose lab coat were a pair of absolutely huge breasts. My eyebrows raised as I looked at her from the side, mouth threatening to hang open in awe. "Wow. You uh... Really fill the hentai scientist stereotype, huh?" I asked, showing off my complete lack of verbal restraint during any kind of sexual situation. She simply chuckled to herself as she slid her shirt over her head, further showing off the ridiculous inclines on her chest. "Mm... More personal information, wonderful. 12E, if you must know," she purred, gloating. 'Although, I guess she does have a right to gloat.' I realized a second later after thinking this, that they were almost definitely not real, judging from the fact that they were a perfect shape. She chuckled, I suppose seeing an almost disappointed look as I realized it, and slowly, teasingly raised one leg, making me realize she was wearing a miniskirt, and moved it to the other side of the table, squirming on top of me to get comfortable as she straddled me at the waist. I took a deep breath, as she'd inadvertently found one of my weaknesses. "Don't look so upset... Silicon is much better than natural, y'know... You'd be surprised how much better it feels on... Certain areas..," she once again purred, finally getting a reaction from me as she began to rub herself up and down on top of me, the frills of her evidently fancy undergarments just serving as more friction. She began to let out some gentle moans; obviously fake, considering I wasn't even 'at attention' yet, but they certainly did the trick at the time. "Ah... My little test patient finally deciding to give some results, hm?" she asked me in the same sultry tone. Again, just playing to the fetish, but she was right; all this clichéd scientist stuff was certainly doing what it was there for, and in only a few more seconds of her gentle, teasing rubbing I'd become fully erect. By now I was just a little confused. Tied down in a lab naked, been dubbed Drake, and now practically being molested by an incredibly sexy scientist. The fact that my male instinct of 'Sex Now Good' was telling me to shut up and stop thinking wasn't helping either, as half of me was saying to just sit back and enjoy the ride. I think the scientist lady must've seen me thinking, either that or irony kicked into high gear, as she reached back and unclipped her bra, releasing those - although fake - I must admit very appealing, perfectly rounded breasts. Instantly, the 'Sit Back' half won. After that the urge to turn into Rambo, break out of my bonds and roughly grab her tits was overwhelming. This is unusual, because I'm usually a pretty caring lover. Then again I'm usually in relationships that (try to) last more than a few hours, so the fling aspect probably triggered it. Luckily for her, I'm not Stallone, and wasn't able to inflict any damage to her artificial twins. Again, too much thinking, since as soon as I finished that train of thought, she slid back along me, earning a wince as the frills of her g-string rubbed directly against me, and quickly soothed it away by taking my shaft in her hand and languidly beginning to rub up and down, now actually purring rather than just purring her words, as she did. The unexpected noise, and of course the whole jerking off thing, just earned another groan out of me. Penis Mind 2, Logic 0. Scientist Woman cracked a smirk as she began to speed up the pace of her stroking, starting at a slow and gentle pace that only just managed to keep me stiff, and now beginning to develop into firm strokes that were making me feel tension gradually building. The way she was looking down at me with half-slitted eyes, and the way that her moving arm caused her breasts to gently waver side to side, were certainly helping her little experiment. "Hmm... Is this as big as it gets, Drake?" she asked, moving her spare hand to scribble something on her notebook. I frowned at her, being a bit sensitive about the matter. "Sorry about not being a superhuman freak. I'm slightly above average and that's good enough," I lightly snapped; the fact that just as I began talking she practically doubled both her pace and the grip on my shaft made me unable to be angry at her. Even though I was a little irritated, the way she was taking down notes about me even while getting me off just made the tension grow. Yeah, I know, I've got a tiny masochistic streak somewhere in my subconscious. It wasn't long before her hand was a blur, and the fact that I couldn't move an inch was really getting to me. By now the urge to even squirm, let alone that of needing to thrust into her strokes, was getting on the verge of painful. Luckily, I could feel the tension further and further, and although I was tempted to not warn her out of spite, the threat of the needle returned to my mind. "Ah... You might want to... Get that test tube ready..," I struggled to get out between breaths, eyes now closed and occasionally clenching. I got no response, and just as I opened my eyes to look down at her, I saw her practically doubled over at the waist, and felt her taking the head of my shaft into her lips. I let out a loud moan by impulse and had to fight not to fill her mouth right then. She simply giggled as she continued the blurred movements of her hand, only for a few seconds, before putting the stereotypical test beaker up against me just as I came. It'd been a while since I'd been with someone else, and God knows how many days I was out for, so she seemed pretty happy when I filled up a good quarter of the glass. I sighed and leaned back, the tension from not moving suddenly gone, and twitched slightly as I felt her tongue cleaning what the beaker had missed. As if nothing had happened, she slid off of me, put her clothes back on, and clacked back over to the computer. 'Wow, and I thought it was bad when us guys just go to sleep,' I thought to myself with a dry chuckle, content to just stare at the ceiling for now. After some more clichéd noisy typing, the scientist woman threw a shoddy blanket over me and, without even looking at me, said "Alright, that's it for today. Don't want you to get frostbite before your tests tomorrow," and slid from the room, turning off the lights and closing the door. I was left greasily glaring at the ceiling, unable to even think of closing my eyes thanks to the uncomfortable position, the noisy computers, and of course the overall confusion of the day. "Wonderful." *** "Alexia!" At that, she turned around, that innocent look on her face still there. Her innocent neutrality shed as she saw me and erupted into a smile as she embraced me, giggling in that way of hers. Only a moment later, she was pried out of my arms by... Anubis, of course. She embraced him now, and both of them seemed to not even realize I was there, before speeding away in some fancy car. I was left looking at myself with a huge, silhouetted figure standing next to me, although even in its jet black covering, massive demonic wings were evident. "Idiot. You're pathetic. You may as well die, you don't even have a use for yourself anymore. Just get up already." "What?" "Get up. C'mon, idiot, get up. For the love of... Just wake up." *** My eyes shot open as the silhouette told me to, its frustrated voice still in my head. ... For way too long. A shadow was being cast over the room from the door, and I looked out of the side of my eyes to see a head poking in. "Get up damn it. C'mon, get the hell up." Anubis. "I'm as up as I can get, idiot. I'm tied down here." I heard a sigh. "Any security?" "How the fuck should I know?" Another sigh. A moment later, I heard him close the door; another pause, and some typing on a machine behind me. A few more keystrokes, and the table suddenly shot upright, making the itchy, cold blanket fall off me, and a blush spread across my cheeks. "Oh for the love of... I'm going to have nightmares for weeks..," I heard Anu mutter as he continued to stroke away at the keyboard. A second later and the shackles came undone, causing my body, not used to moving for a couple of days, to fall to the ground. I shook my head and quickly looked around for something to put on. A pair of my own cargo pants and my near-infamous trench coat fell into my lap, and I looked up to see Anubis looking away as he dropped them down. "Just put them on before my brain dies from all the ugly." *** I think it was just about then that we both thanked all Gods of creation for having let us be Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid fans. As soon as we quietly jogged into the hallway, we saw a guard doing his rounds a little ways up. We quickly scanned for any security cameras, and near soundlessly moved towards him. Although we were trying to be quiet, me and Anubis are unmatched in our rivalry; even in this insane situation, we were half racing to be the one to get to him and snap his neck first. Just as he was about to turn the corner and run the risk of security cameras, I practically pounced and grabbed him, one arm around his mouth to shut him up and the other grabbing one of his arms. Anubis stood at the side, looking nervous and, I knew, wanting to try and be useful. I moved around a bit, doing my best to get into a better position while still keeping him both immobile and quiet, until his mouth was against the joint of my elbow. Then, giving it the best pull I could manage, I heard a loud snap and he went limp in my arms. Once again I thanked video games; this time for desensitizing me enough to let me not freak out at my first time killing someone. In our well-practiced routine, I was always the main man, since I was better at the whole 'not going Rambo' thing. I took off the guard's clothes then handed him to Anu for him to take him back to the room we came from, then began to strip and get into the guard's gear. Just as I finished, Anubis handed me his pistol, comlink, and tazer. I nodded to him, and as casually as I could, headed down the corridor the same way the guard was going. *** After about a minute walking, I stumbled across a bathroom. 'Perfect.' Still trying to act casual, I walked in and immediately scanned for security cameras, even though I knew I wouldn't find any. Privacy laws: A spy's best friend. One guy was at the urinal, and the stalls were empty. I grinned to myself at how, for once, my luck was going alright. I stepped up beside him, and using the small amount of survival training I had, flipped out the tazer and switched it on just as I stuck it into the back of his neck. I couldn't help but chuckle and quietly mumble, "Stealth KO: 500 points." Just as I'd dragged him into a stall and put his clothes under my own, making me look a bit chubbier but otherwise normal, there was a brisk knock on the door, making my eyes go wide and my heart jump to my throat. "Hey, James, you in there? What's taking so long man, you fall in?" My heart raced. Adrenaline pumped and I noticed that there was a stall just beside the door. Like I had however many days ago, I completely lost control of my body. I ran, although quietly, towards the door, and then about halfway, jumped in what I knew wouldn't ever make it. Normally. There was another gust of air, like last time, and I found myself boosted into the air, landing gracefully on top of the stall, out of site to anyone who just came in the door. I regained control, steadying myself, as another guard came into the bathroom. He looked around for a moment, scratching his head. "James? You in here?" He paused. And paused. And finally, after almost a freaken' year, shrugged, and left the room. "Bastard must've gone..." Following the Second Law of Espionage, I waited for about a minute, before jumping down. Letting out a long sigh, I shook my head, and exited the bathroom. 'Mi-shon, compurito." *** On the way back I couldn't help but wonder about the other supernatural event. 'And these repeated gusts of air whenever something weird happens...' I was pretty freaked out already by the events of the last couple of days, and it just wasn't getting any better. I rounded the next corner, and... "About time cocksmoker," Anubis grumbled, although he was grinning, as he took the uniform from me. I simply rolled my eyes and turned away as he changed. He was just about to come out when I saw something in the corner of my eye, and quickly shut the door with the arm out of view of the approaching guard. The newcomer guard saw me and power-walked up with a frown. 'Oh hell.' "You. Newbie," he said, only just quiet enough to not wake the entire damn complex. "What're you doing?" My brain whirred as I tried to come up with an excuse. "Project Drake is in here. I've been specially ordered to guard it no matter what." That wasn't too bad. "Project Drake?" he asked, raising a brow. "How do you know about that? That's classified, no one below Guard Commander should know any information," he accused, now glaring at me suspiciously. "I think I'll take a look in here..." "I'm sorry Commander but I can't allow you to do that. I've been strictly ordered not to let anyone in here, even you." Another pause as his glare narrowed. "By whom?" Oh crap. "By the woman in charge of the specimen. She was in a rush and I was doing my rounds, she told me to guard the door and not let anyone in, and she'd be back soon." "And how long ago was this?" "Approximately 4 minutes, sir." Another pause. "... Very well. Good job," he said, before walking off. Second Law of Espionage... And I opened the door. "Holy damn that was close, nice job there Corporal Dumbass," Anubis said, and we hurried in the complete opposite direction that the Guard Commander went in. "He'll likely go check up with that scientist chick. We'd better hurry or our cover'll be blown... And what happened to your jacket?" Anubis asked, poking me in the back. I reached back and felt that there were two rips in my guard's outfit. I blinked a bit, and shrugged. "Got into a small fight with that guard I got your outfit off," I said as we briskly walked down the sterile halls, fast enough to be hurrying but slow enough to not draw too much attention to ourselves. Anubis simply nodded, probably not really believing me, fidgeting with the grip of his pistol. 'Probably eager to test out his CS skills...' Yes I do think too much, and yes, irony does hate me. At that exact moment, four guards raced around a far corner in front of us and, seeing us, skidded to a halt and opened fire with their pistols. Me and Anubis ducked low, eyes widened, and dashed towards the side corridor in front of us, leaning against the wall as bullets tore through the air around the corner. "Okay... If they anticipated us coming from there, that means they probably came from the entrance," I said, trying to form up a plan. "It also means they know we're coming and if we do go that way, we'll have to fight our way through the entire squad," Anubis angrily replied, blind-firing a few times around the corner to let them know we were still there. By the sound of the gunshots, the squad was still at the far end of the hall. My brain was hurting even trying to come up with a way out of this one. I was just about ready to give up and at least go out in a hail of bullets, before something finally clicked in, as I noticed the insignia on Anubis' shoulder, then looked down at my own. I grabbed the comlink and turned it on, speaking into it with a labored voice. "This is Patrol Unit 7, me and Patrol Unit 9 attempted to flank the enemy but they're too good of a shot. 9 is injured badly and we need a med team ASAP." I could hear Anubis chuckling in the background, but I ignored him. "Roger that Patrol 7, we'll send a stretcher in through the back entrance. Can he walk?" "No, but I can help him." "Alright, meet them half way, you need to get away from the intruders. I'll tell the other guards to hold fire on the injured guards." I silently thanked whatever higher power had made this place have lax security that didn't follow procedure. Now there was only one problem left... And it looked like it'd just been solved. A female scientist had walked out of the door beside us, and was about to sprint off, when I quickly kicked Anubis as hard as I could in the leg after she'd turned around, and semi-quietly called out to her. Luckily, she turned around. "Hey you, we need your help. This guy's been shot so I need to get him out the back entrance. The intruders are cornered and we can't let them know we've let up on the firing, so all's we need you to do is fire around this corner towards them every so often, okay?" She hesitated, not that I could blame her. Anubis was a bad actor, but luckily he didn't have to act right now as he clutched his leg in pain. Seeing him half snarling must've convinced her, as she nodded and took the gun I offered her. I pulled Anu's arm around my shoulders and hoisted him off, grinning as our backs were to her. *** We passed a huge amount of guards on the way out. 'So their procedure sucks but their numbers are ridiculous? Lucky...' Anubis had given me a few kicks to compensate for his own, but I was too proud of myself to care. Just as I could see the back door approaching, I was stopped by none other than the guard captain, who looked over me and looked down at Anubis' leg to see the hastily-made bandage. My heart stopped beating for the pause. ... "Nice try you two. These guys are good. Apparently there's three of them now, God knows where the third one came from." And back to pumping blood. "Thank you, sir. Sorry we couldn't do better," I said as I saluted him and went out the door with Anubis and the med team. As soon as we were out, Anubis got in the back of the ambulance. I jumped in with him when the med team wasn't looking. We stayed there for a little while, simply trying to calm ourselves down, before the two in the front pulled over in front of the hospital. They saw me, then dropped as the two tazers got pushed into their chests. Shaking our heads, Anubis quickly pulled them into the back as we closed the doors and grabbed the bag he'd found and stuffed full of our clothes. Feeling pretty arrogant right now, I switched on the comlink and pulled it to my ear. "Guard Control, this is the people who escaped from your facility. You might want to stop firing on the cute scientist chick we had filling in for us while we pissed off. Catch'ya later." *** We'd abandoned the guard gear back at the ambulance; there was a chance it'd have GPS tracking to make it easier on guard patrol, and were now back in our standard clothes. "Don't do that again, by the way?" Anubis said, voice drained of its adrenaline and now just tired. "Oh yeah. Don't get abducted by a freaky government scientist group for research. Sure. I'll keep that in mind next time I break the law," complete with a roll of the eyes. "What'd they want with you, anyway?" Anu asked as we now tried to find where the hell we were. "No idea. They kept calling me Project Drake or some dumb crap like that. Can't say I'm not a little bit confused." "Project Drake? That's too clichéd, even for you." "Oh, and your moniker would be better? 'Project Retard! We found this amazing specimen of a human who can somehow operate without a brain!'" "I'm sorry, did you say something? I couldn't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am." And so went our conversation, as it always did. I know we sometimes seem like we hate each other, but as I said, we're pretty much our vent on each other. There are some times in life when you really just need to be an arrogant asshole. Take for instance, racism. I played a lot of International Online games back then, so many games had a firmer hold in other countries. In one game in particular, it was full of Brazilians who just did nothing but grief you. I don't hate Brazilians, not by a long shot. Hell, I do Capoeira. But from that game alone, you'd be hard pressed to find a single decent thing about Brazil. With Anubis just at home, we could both be racist, sexist, and overall a jerk... Neither of us felt that way, and we both knew it. We didn't believe a word that came out of our mouths half the time. But having someone who can just be your vent like that is... Well, it helped me be an open minded person instead of actually becoming an asshole, like I jokingly was, and am, with Anubis. That and he sometimes even helps me out, like with... I was pulled back into reality when I, with a jolt, suddenly remembered Alexia. "SHIT! ALEXIA!" I yelled at no one in particular, stopping dead as my eye twitched. "Damnit! Damnit damnit damnit! I didn't have a chance to get her number!!" I yelled as I looked at Anubis and literally felt like punching him for no good reason. "You only barely escape a government facility with your life, and the first thing into your head is some chick?" Anubis asked with a smirk, obviously just trying to shit me off; he would've done the same. "Of course! You know how rare it is for me to find a girl I think is hot. Besides, you saw her! My God!" "Yeah yeah, I saw her... So it's just as well for you I managed to talk to her while you were unconscious," he said as he handed me a folded up piece of paper from his pocket with a wide grin. I took it and looked down at it, eyes ready to pop from my head before I looked back up at him. "The cops let me off without a hitch, after they took you. She said to give you that and not read it, so naturally, I did anyway. That reminds me, you should probably hurry." I unfolded the note and quickly read it. 'Dear Kyo (Or, as your friend tells me, 'Khaoru') It's a shame you got arrested like that. It's kind of weird to know someone who gets escorted away from our first meeting in the back of a police car. Your friend says 'you're probably innocent,' so I guess if you manage to meet me at Golden Cup in the city by 6pm Tuesday, I'll believe you really were innocent.' I fished out my iRiver to check the time, although I already knew roughly what time it would be, because of irony if nothing else. "5:30. Okay, running time," I said, as calmly as I could, as I sprinted towards the nearest tram line. What wasn't seen then was a figure standing slightly to the side of the ambulance we'd abandoned, watching us as we sprinted off. In typical bad-guy fashion, he glared, and slipped back into the shadows. At least, that's what I assume he did. *** I felt kind of stupid when I got on the tram and asked, 'This is the way to the city, right?' but I was too rushed to avoid being stupid just for the sake of my pride and risk missing this. The place we'd somehow ended up in was about an hour away from the city, so I was pretty much screwed already. Of course there's no way that'd stop me from trying. "You do realize-" "Yes I do realize I'm screwed." "Okay, just so you know." "Yeah. I hate you." *** And of course, I arrived just in time... To see the shop closed. I slapped my forehead and literally sunk to my knees, cursing myself even though there wasn't really anything I could do. Anubis simply looked on and shook his head, arms crossed as I groaned, hitting two fingers against my forehead repeatedly. "Well, you know what they say. Better to have loved and lo-" I cut him off with a death glare that'd make a dragon whimper, and he promptly stepped back with his hands up. "W-whoah, sorry, bro. Y'know, it's never productive to mourn spilt milk. C'mon, there's an arcade just across the road, I'll let you take out your anger on me in Guilty Gear." I paused... Then smiled, just a little. "You always know just how to cheer me up." *** --- Monday The Blue House 7:06pm --- ---WARNING! This scene will make very little sense to non-Guilty Gear fans!--- About 5 rounds of Slayer and Zappa beating the snot out of Robo-Ky and Jam later, I admit, I was feeling much better. I was just about to call it a day when someone sat opposite me at the opponent side and challenged me. He was Asian, Japanese by the looks of him, with ridiculous hair that went pretty much straight up from a bandanna; reminded me instantly of Benimaru from King of Fighters. I nodded with a smirk in the universal gamer symbol of, 'Oh, it's on bitch.' He chose Ky. The smirk turned to a twitch and a vein popping up above my eye, and I instantly anticipated the worst. However, now that I wasn't fighting a friend anymore, it was time to stop pulling punches. The match started exactly as my paranoid self envisioned. 'Stun Edge! Stun Edge! Stun Edge!' I couldn't help but shudder in my seat. Luckily enough I'd taken extensive training to deal with moments like these. An air dash only barely above the range of his missile attacks later, and Slayer's cape was embedded in Ky's face. Expecting a counter immediately after, I dashed back, avoiding a slash, before dashing forward again and hitting with Slayer's two-hit dash-to-slash-slash combo, counter-hitting in a completely ideal situation and knocking him into the air. What followed was nothing short of brutal, and to this day I'll never know how I pulled off a Two Hit Dandy in an actual practical combo. I suppose the Stun Edge Spam really made me angry. I cracked my knuckles with a huge grin and readied myself for round two as I heard my opponent, almost choking in shock. The next round, I wasn't so fortunate. My air dash was interrupted by Ky's uppercut slash, and I took a small air combo for the mistake, although only lost about 30% due to the un-ideal situation for him. Unfortunately, I was now on the ground, and Ky's absolute play method came into play. Timing a Stun Edge Charge to be there when I got up, I had no choice but to Guard, and be pushed into Ky's ridiculous pressure game. Eventually I fell prey to one of his low kicks and was hit into a nasty aerial combo. Back on the ground, another Stun Edge Charge put me right back where I was before, and the second aerial combo ended the match. I grumbled as the vein above my eye reappeared. Even Anubis was grumbling at that. Final Round. This time I wasn't so hasty. Using Slayer's forward dash I weaved in between the Stun Edges, all the while gaining tension, and finished by teleporting behind him just as he attacked. Using something I'd only recently learned, I inputted Slayer's DHD input followed immediately by a jump, activating it just as I got off the ground. Ky barely got caught in the orb's range, but it was enough to hit him for a nice chunk of his health. I managed to get in a small air combo afterwards, but messed it up and lost him at about 60% damage. And then the stalemate begun. As soon as Ky was back up a melee fight began that pretty much had almost no hits. The occasional light punch would connect, but the timer was down to 20 by the time anyone hit. He, unfortunately, was the hitter, and got me in a nasty combo that put me relatively below his own health. 10 seconds left and it was now or never. I never liked wasting tension but now called for it. I initiated Slayer's Eternal Wings which he, expectedly, guarded, and left me wide open. As soon as he tried to uppercut me, I Roman Cancelled and dashed backwards, getting away from him, followed by an instant Mappa Punch which sent him into the wall, and bouncing back towards me. One Cross-wise Heel and another Footloose Journey later, and he was down. I sighed in relief, looking at the timer; 1, exactly. ---Guilty Gear scene over. Shut up, I had fun writing it.--- "Y-... You bastard!" Oh, here we go. "Yes, that would be me. Something wrong?" "That was total crap!" "That was total crap. -MY- playing was total crap. This from the one who spent the whole battle spamming Stun Edge? Ow, I think the logic center of my brain just imploded," I said, wincing in mock pain as I put my hand to my forehead, gripping it. "Hey, perfectly legitimate strategy!" he complained back in a voice that'd put an emokid to shame. "Yeah, so is shooting someone in the back when they're unarmed and on the ground," Anubis shot in, earning a grin from me. "Oh come on, can't you lose in peace for once bro? You're such a cryba-" The voice behind me stopped as I turned to see who it is. My eyebrows must've gone high enough to shift my hairline back. "A-...Alexia?!" I coughed, clearing my throat as I almost choked. I heard an excited 'Booyah!' from Anubis behind me. Alexia likewise just stared, but she composed herself first, eyes returning to normal as she smirked and crossed her arms. "Well well. And here I was thinking you weren't going to show up. What took you?" My head flinched forward as Anubis smacked me over the back of my head, knocking me out of my stunned state. 'I'll thank him with another beating in GGXX later.' "Heh. Well, sorry to keep you waiting, me and my friend got a little held up. But better late than never, right?" I asked, shrugging as I did. She simply shook her head and adjusted her glasses. "Well, I -did- say that if you were late I'd assume you were guilty... So maybe you were." "Me? Caught? No way! C'mon, I was outside there at about 6:20 anyway." "It was more about six for-" Anubis began, but was interrupted by someone's heel jamming into their toes. Alexia raised a brow and smirked, but didn't say anything. "C'mooon, you can't say it's not worth it? So I may have robbed a few stores or killed a few people, or blown up a few countries... Risk is worth it, isn't it?" I asked as I pulled off an innocent look, making it further obvious I was joking. Alexia simply acted like she was considering it, although I was pretty thankful it was obvious she'd already decided. *** --- Monday La Cher 8:22pm --- We'd ditched Anubis and the whiney thing that ended up being Alexia's younger brother and, to even my surprise, ended up deciding on a fancy restaurant to spend the rest of the evening at. "I'm paying... But only this once. So, you get to walk over me today, and today only. Got it?" "Okay, you asked for it," Alexia replied with a happy smile and indicated pretty much the most expensive thing on the list she could to the waiter. I groaned inwardly, but didn't show it. "And you, sir?" the typically fancy waiter asked, looking exactly like an 18th century butler. I pointed out some pasta that sounded nice, and had a nice price tag, and nodded my thanks to him. I turned back to Alexia as I poured myself another glass of water. "More wine, miss?" I asked, mocking the waiter's cheesy, fake French accent, earning a giggle. "Yes please Jeeves." We sat in silence for a small while, admiring the scenery. As much as I made fun of it, the restaurant overlooking the lake that flowed through under the city's bridges really was beautiful, especially since we were opposite the city and the lights were reflecting off the surface of the water; I couldn't have asked for a more perfect scene. "So... Why don't you have some wine?" Alexia asked me with a grin, eyes looking sideways from the colourful scene beside us. I shook my head with a chuckle, and gently swished the wine glass I had, acting as if it actually was wine. "I'm not a fan of alcohol. Plus I prefer water," I said calmly, now in a mood I hadn't felt in a very long while; relaxed. Alexia notched her head to the side as she took another sip. "Why not?" she asked as our food finally arrived, and she began to dig in pretty quickly. I nodded my thanks to the waiter and shrugged. "Just... Don't. Bit of a straight edge at times, I guess." "Hm... That's going to be a bit of a problem... I really do like my liquor," Alexia said with a playful smile. I could tell she was exaggerating a bit, but probably not by much, judging by the fact she'd already gotten through two glasses and was halfway through her third. "Nobody's perfect," I said with a chuckle, which got one out of her too, as I began to get into my pasta. "Mm, this is good. You get what you pay for I suppose," I said with a smirk after finishing a mouthful. "Sorry about my bro. He's a bit of a dweeb," she said after another mouthful of the risotto part of her dish. "Eh, it's all good. I'm used to people like that." "Heh, you must be. My bro's good at that game, he won some tournament last year, so if you're good enough to beat him I imagine you'd get a lot of complaints." I simply shrugged at that. Over the last few years I'd not only dropped most of my gaming habits, but I'd become slightly ashamed of them. And even more so ashamed about the fact that I could pick up almost any game and excel at it. ".. Sorry, did I hit a weak spot?" she asked, joking a little but genuinely concerned. I laughed a little and shook my head. "I uh... Only recently grew up. The memories of sitting in a dark room for hours a day playing videogames still haunts me a little. What's your bro do, anyway?" I asked, trying subtly to change the topic a little. "Oh, he's in medical, biology. He's a strange one," she said with a smile, before I heard the one voice I really didn't want to hear right now. "BRO! We've got to go RIGHT NOW!" Anubis. "What're you on ab-" I said as I turned to face him, but was rudely interrupted by a searing pain in my neck. I cried out and reflexively my hand went to my neck, turning to see what had just happened. My eyes widened as I saw a five-man team in SWAT gear heading quickly towards us. Most of them had strange shotguns which I shortly realized were tranq guns, judging by the fact that there was a tranq dart embedded into my neck. I quickly got up to run with Anubis, impulsively taking Alexia's hand as I did, but fell when another tranq hit me in the shoulder. I yelped out again, feeling the drugs begin to sink in. A moment later however, I felt something completely different. The drowsiness built up, then suddenly it rapidly dissipated as it was replaced by... Something that felt like adrenaline, but was about five times more intense. My entire body was shaking from the feeling of it, and I felt similar to what I'd felt over the last few days when I'd lost control of my body, except now I had a small amount of control. Impulsively I practically shoved Alexia into Anubis' arms and turned back towards the squad approaching us. There was yet another gust of wind ('why does that happen every time I lose control?' was my immediate thought), after which the squad very visibly hesitated, and I leapt at the men, practically snarling as I jumped much further than I knew should be possible; but right now the only thought was protecting Alex and Anu. The men gathered themselves and began shooting more darts at me, but they didn't do a thing. I grabbed one of the men around the neck, hearing people screaming around us, and lifted him off the ground without even trying. I snarled at him for one moment, and threw him straight over the rails and into the river. I spun around and grabbed another as I did, spinning and slamming his head straight into another's, KOing them both. I turned on the last two who were still firing darts into me as fast as they could, before seeing something in the corner of my eye. I turned my head, expecting a sneak attack from another unit, but instead saw only a huge, scaled wing. My eyes widened, thoughts racing to catch up with what was going on, as my eyes traced the wing back to... ... My back. Suddenly, I realized that my vision was tunneling and had a tint of red to it... And that my hands had warped, even the bone structure changing to make my hand almost a claw. I suddenly felt all the darts that'd hit me begin to take their effect, and in only another second I was out like a light. *** --- Tuesday ??? 6:12pm --- "Oh God... Not again..." "Luckily for you, no, not again." My eyes shot open at the voice and ended up staring right into Alexia's eyes, mere inches from my own. My eyes widened more if possible, and I swallowed the knot that'd formed in my throat, my cheeks colouring. I'd just been sedated by an elite armed force and woken up who-knows-where, yet the first thing that my mind told me to do was to lean up and kiss this mind-bogglingly beautiful girl. Luckily my brain managed to set its priorities right just in time. "W-where am I? What happened to those two guards left? What the hell was happening to me?" My mind flooded with way too many questions at once. "Shh, calm down. You're at my house. Anu grabbed a dart gun from one of the guards you took down and used it to take out the other two, and as for what's happening to you... Well, my brother is analyzing some samples he took." There was a long few moments of silence as Alexia leaned back and sat on the side of the couch I was on. "... What happened to me..?" She hesitated. It looked like recalling it troubled her quite a bit. "You... Grew wings... And, your hands twisted into claws... And you got scales up one of your arms..." Alexia kept pausing, and by the end she was almost in tears. I put a hand on her shoulder and she stopped, sniffing softly. "I'm... Sorry. I don't know what's going on, but I'm sorry for freaking you out like that..." We sat in more silence, her looking at the floor and me looking at the ceiling. After a few minutes that felt more like a few hours, Alex's brother came walking in, suddenly serious. "Oh, you're awake... Hey 'sis..." We both nodded to him, although I think both of us only cared about what his research had turned up. "Well, the samples were... Confusing, in the least... I'm not sure how it's at all possible, but basically you've got some Lizard DNA in you that's been lying dormant for a while... Some stressful situation or something has caused it to start to take over a bit since it's the superior genetic makeup, kind of like a survival of the fittest thing, only with your blood and genes..." I just sat there, only just comprehending what he was saying. "It's nothing life threatening or anything like that... Judging from the way it's taking over it seems you can control it somehow, to some extent... But if you let it take too much of a hold like you apparently did today then it'll eventually take over entirely." 'Well, it's not going to kill me. That's good...' "Oh, one other thing... In approximately two and a half hours the lizard blood will gain a 50% foothold and stay like that for a while, until you learn to push it back." "Meaning..?" Alex asked, finally talking. "Meaning, in about two hours he'll turn into that big... Lizard thing he was before, and stay like that until he can control it." The room was dead silent for a minute or so as my eyes glazed over, simply staring up at the ceiling. I think I may've gripped Alex's shoulder a fair bit harder because she moved her hand and placed it gently over mine; the calming effect that had on me was unbelievable. At least, the silence lasted until Anubis burst in. "Alright, so what's news guys?" he asked casually, completely clueless to the tension of the room. *** --- Tuesday Alex's Roof 8:19pm --- At about 8 I'd climbed onto the roof of the house to stare absently at the stars. It was only a few more minutes until the lizard half would settle in and I'd turn into that half Draconic... Thing... I'd been before. These last few days had been ridiculous. I took a while to look back on everything that'd happened. 'First Alex, then the police encounter... Dodging bullets with what I now know were wings that'd sprouted from my back... But why didn't my coat rip that time? My jacket had when I'd been in the guard uniform... And of course that... The busty scientist, and breaking out of the research facility... Dinner with-' "Hey." Alex. I sighed a little and looked over at her, crawling slowly across the roof, in her pajamas already. My heart skipped a beat at how ridiculously over-cute she looked. She sat beside me without another word, looking at the stars with me before looking down at the ground beneath us. "I've got about 5 minutes left, y'know... You might want to go inside." "No... I want to be here." I smiled that she'd put aside how much I'd scared her the first time. "Well, don't feel like you have to or anything." "Yeah, I know." I sighed a bit and kept looking straight up. "I'm worried... What happened to me? What the hell's going on? Why me?" Alex, to my surprise, giggled a little, and that giggle made my heart feel just a bit lighter. "You should be happy, nothing this interesting has ever happened to me." I blinked a bit at this. "I-... I'm sorry for involving you." "What did I just say? This is the most fun I've had in years. I should be thanking you." I smiled again. "Thanks." We sat in silence for a while, and after about another minute, I felt Alex put her hand gently on mine on the roof. I blushed a little and looked sideways at her. She just smiled back. And, after a moment, so did I. There we sat, staring at the stars as if there was nothing in the world but us, until I finally felt my blood begin to change, and my skin begin to shift. ---To be continued, 'cus I'm a jerk!---