Wild ARMs: Off on a Tangent
By: Chibi-chan
Part 16: “Ripples”
*
The sound of a firm slap resounded in a small room of the Hiadan fortress Pandemonium, followed the sound of a body hitting the floor. Hanpan held his a hand to his cheek and looked up at the enraged man standing over him. “Always resorting to violence when you’re upset. You’re so very predictable, Zeik,” he said in an unusually soft voice, one that sounded almost alien to even himself.
“SILENCE!” Zeik roared. It was more than obvious that he was not pleased from what occurred that day. “You… You and your growing fascination with humans. What, are you planning to go to them and turn traitor like our fool sister Ceilidh?! You know what happened to her; you were there at the time. They saw you talking to her, I believe you said once. The humans saw her connection to us and they got scared. Now look at her. A pariah. Friendless. Homeless. Without family,” he spat, looking down and sneering at the fallen man.
“And free from you,” Hanpan retorted weakly.
“You still have spirit, hm? How annoying,” Zeik said disgustedly.
The Wind Mouse-like Hiadan rose to his feet and turned away. “If you don’t have anything important left to say, I’ll just go.”
Zeikfried leered at Hanpan. “Oh, no, I’m not done with you yet…” he said in a tone his brother didn’t quite like.
“No,” Hanpan said, shaking and not looking back at Zeik. “No…”
Zeik advanced toward the other man. “’No’? I think not.”
In a split second, Hanpan drew a knife from some hiding place, turned and held it threateningly, and yelled, “I said NO, dammit!” at the lustful demon.
“There’s that spirit again,” Zeik growled. Faster than Hanpan could react, he seized the younger man’s wrist and forced him to drop the weapon. “Listen here, you worthless wretch. You do what I tell you to do. You need me. Without me, you’d be out there on your own, rejected, despised, struggling to survive. Do you understand me?”
“I understand you’re an
asshole,” Hanpan growled back, minus much of the fire he had shown moments
before. But I also understand I
haven’t much choice in what to do right now…
*
That woman… I feel I know her from somewhere other than the ship… Lord Harken thought, pacing back and forth in the hallway. But how…? When? Why? And why did I have the urge to smack Hanpan one when I overheard Zeik grumbling about him flirting with her? His thoughts were interrupted by yelling and screaming from a room down the hall. “Oy, they’re at it again. Guess no one gets to sleep tonight.”
*
Calamity looked bleary-eyed at the n’th stolen Elw research book she had looked through in hopes of finding a countermeasure for Laine’s transformation. My lady, perhaps you should get some sleep, Luc suggested.
“Shaddap and get me some coffee, Luc,” Calamity grumbled. “I will defeat her, Luc; I swear it! And then, THEN I’ll capture her and bend her to my will… Yes… Ohohohohohoho…”
You can
do that after you get some sleep, my lady, Luc flatly told her. Calamity didn’t respond, for she was already
asleep, face down in the book. *sigh*
Sometimes I think my lady is narcoleptic…
*
Nearly everyone, if not indeed everyone, on the ship was asleep, as far as Elmina knew. She, however, lied awake in bed. Much was on her mind because of the day’s events. Garrett, Hanpan, both of them, prisoners in two different ways… I know Emma’s done something to Garrett, but what? Could it be? Could that one Metal Demon be…? After all, she did turn people into monsters; it wouldn’t be too out there to think she could… Snipping off that train of thought, she shifted under the coarse covers and turned onto her side. And the kid… I think this all this is too much for Cecil. I know he’d deny it if I said that, but I know all the fighting and traveling long distances is taking its toll on him.
Elmina turned again and sat up this time. She sighed and said softly to herself, “Well, at least it’s all downhill from here.” She paused, then added, “At least, I hope so.”
*
Laine also couldn’t sleep. However, unlike Elmina, it was not because of having a lot of things on her mind, it was because of her intense seasickness. After vomiting noisily over the rail, she muttered an apology to the Guardian of the Sea, Lucadia. “Rough night, eh?” James asked, heading toward her and offering her a handkerchief.
“You have no idea…” she groaned, pushing away the offered item, choosing to wipe her mouth with the back of her glove instead. She took a moment to try to shake the edge off her queasiness, then spoke. “You know, I wasn’t all that surprised to see you with Elmina and Cecil earlier. Bet you thought the best way to find me for the time being was to wait around for me to come back to them, hmm?”
James nodded. “Well, it worked, didn’t it? I mean, here you are…”
“I suppose,” Laine replied. “I was, however, surprised that you of all people stopped to get Cecil after he fell.” She stopped to giggle, then continued, “Don’t tell me Mister ‘serious bounty hunter guy’ got attached to someone. Heaven forbid you show something that could be considered weakness, hmm?”
“And heaven forbid you become attached to someone yourself, you frigid little… little… something my father taught me not to call a woman!” the bounty hunter growled, trying to keep from yelling at her.
“Go on, say it! I’ve been called everything else in my life, so why not just add one more word?!” the holmcross yelled, not caring if by any chance someone were to pop up and investigate what was going on or be awakened by her voice. “I’ve been called a monster, a threat to others, a menace, a ‘dangerous weapon of destruction’, and much, much worse, so what would being called a ‘frigid little bitch’ mean to me?!”
“Too much, if you ask me,” James told her solemnly. He turned and stepped away. “I know where the line is. Well, I have some idea where it is, anyway. I’ve learned it the hard way.”
Laine blinked, utterly confused by his change of tone. “Wha…?”
“My heritage. It never has and probably never will go over well with most people. You should have realized that,” he told her with the same somber tone.
The girl was silent for some time. A thought suddenly struck her. “Wait, if you’re so damned considerate, then why did you insist on comparing me to a man in drag?”
“Because that’s not an insult; it’s the truth,” the boy said without thinking. He paid for not thinking soon enough, since Laine popped him a good one shortly thereafter. “Just for that, when I get you somewhere where no one else can be hurt, I’ll show no mercy!” he said terribly unconvincingly.
*
There must be an insomnia epidemic, because Cecil, who was sitting up in bed, was engaged in a staring contest with Lina, who was sitting nearby. “Why are you here?” Cecil asked her, unblinking.
“I volunteered,” Lina said, also not blinking.
“Why?” Cecil asked.
“Because you’re a prince, meaning you have a lot of money at your disposal, and you’re young and not bad-looking either,” Lina told him.
Cecil finally blinked. “Well, at least you’re honest about it, unlike every other girl who’s ever asked me out.”
“Lotta people try to take advantage of you, huh?” she asked somewhat disinterestedly.
“Yeah. Hard to tell who’s sincere, if anyone is,” Cecil said.
“Sucks to be you then,” Lina said. “… hey, listen, I’ll give you this tip for free: Unless you have a death wish or something, you’d better just rest for a while if your hair goes white like that again. That’s just Not Good.”
Cecil shot her a dangerous (to himself only, rest assured) look. “What if I do have a death wish?”
Lina thwaped him upside his head. “Then you’re a friggin’ moron. If you’d stop and look, you’d see you got everything.”
“I see,” the prince said. He grinned at her and asked, “Could you do that again, but harder?”
Lina gave him a funny look instead. “Gods, you just reminded me of someone I once knew.”
*
The morning came like any other morning. The sea breeze blew. The crew of the ship did their usual tasks. The occasional sea bird flew overhead. All in all, one wouldn’t think something momentous had happened just the previous day.
“It almost doesn’t seem real, ‘Mina,” Cecil said, looking out at the endless sea stretching out to the horizon. “Everything just seems the same as it was before we even went out on this journey. There weren’t even any tidal waves from the impact, thanks to the Guardian of the Sea. Amazing, she still had enough power to prevent that…”
“I don’t think that everything seems the same, princey,” Elmina told the boy. “The playing field’s changed a lot. Before we thought we had an idea of what we were up against and the luxury of knowing where they were. Now we don’t even have a lead to where they are, plus they probably know now not to underestimate us.” She looked at Cecil and smiled. “And my view of you has changed a lot too. I used to think you were a lecherous, snotty little brat.”
“And now?” the prince asked.
“Now you’re a lecherous, stubborn, snotty little brat,” the warrior woman answered with a laugh.
Cecil turned his gaze to his companion. “I set myself up for that, didn’t I?”
Still laughing a little, Elmina draped her arm on his shoulders and gently shook him a little. ‘Yep, but hey, a ‘big sister’ has to tease her ‘little brother’ a little, eh?”
“’Big sister’? ‘Little brother’?” the boy repeated.
“Something wrong, kiddo?” Elmina asked, not sure if the reaction was positive or negative.
The young man looked her in the eye and did something he rarely, if ever before, did; he smiled sincerely. “A big sister… Who’dve thought this would happen if they saw our first meeting?”
“No one, more than likely,” Elmina said. She quickly and without warning put Cecil in a headlock. “And now for your first noogie from your big sister, kiddo!”
“What?! Hey! Don’t! OW!”
*
“So, where were you two headed before getting sidetracked by the Photosphere falling into the Inner Ocean?” James asked Laine and Lina out in the mess hall.
Lina was still finishing up breakfast, so Laine answered. “The vortex between the Inner Sea and Outer Ocean. Rumors of a sea dragon appearing there led the mayor of nearby Rosetta” (Laine involuntarily shuddered then) “to, quite interestingly, hire Lina to go out and see what was up, and she dragged me into going with her.”
“HEY! I didn’t have to twisht yer arm, ya know!” Lina protested through a partial mouthful of food. “You didn’t have to come along!”
“Of COURSE I had to! I couldn’t let a little girl like you got out there alone!” Laine protested right back, pressing the WRONG button on the Naga girl.
Lina choked and sputtered, not helped by the biscuit in her mouth, but managed to get out an outraged “’Little girl’?! ‘LITTLE GIRL’?!” in where she could.
James, on the other hand, sick of being smacked around by Laine, was quite pleased by the possibility of Laine getting the smack laid down on her for a change. Oh, this will be good… he thought. He watched as Lina chanted something and Laine watched on, confused. He smirked as a fireball blasted Laine into the wall some distance behind her. A disturbing thought flickered briefly in his head at that point. She’s like me, she is… He stopped smiling. Realization had sunk in. Dear Lucied, she’s like me…
*
“Sea dragon? Sounds like Lucadia to me,” Cecil said, the tale having been told to him. “But why would she show herself like this? There has to be a reason.”
“Money, beauty, and brains? What a rare combination,” Lina muttered to Laine while elbowing her, “Why didn’t you tell me all this before, hmm?”
“He may have all that, but I don’t think he’s found his heart yet,” Laine muttered back. “And stop that; it hurts!”
“We may as well check it out,” Elmina said, “It’s not like we know what to do next anyway; heck, maybe Lucadia can give us a clue.”
Wait, if they were going to the vortex from Rosetta, then how the hell could they have gotten to us in time? How could they have been anywhere near the crash site in the first place? Maybe she was really looking for Cecil first because of his connection to the Guardians. Or maybe… James was thinking. He was snapped out of his train of thought by a hand being waved in front of his face. “Wha? Huh? What do you want?”
Elmina studied James for a moment. “You’re one of those types who think too damn hard, aren’t you? You must be, for this is the second time I’ve had to bring you back to reality from your thoughts.”
“It’s just… Laine’s timing… It’s too good. Always in the right place at the right time. It’s unnatural,” the bounty hunter told her.
“It is kinda creepy, now that you mention it…” Elmina agreed.
*
Young Master… a familiar voice spoke in James’s head. The shadow of a black wolf, the Guardian of Desire stood next to the bed the young man was lying down on.
“She’s right, Lucied. I do think too damn much,” James said.
You have a lot to think about. You now know my mistress, your mother, is alive, correct?
James sat up faster than a blue hedgehog on crack could and gawked at the Guardian. “You knew?! You fucking KNEW she was alive and you didn’t tell me?!? How could you?!”
It would make you needlessly worry. Worrying would only impede my plans. Now, on to the subject of your dear Miss Roughnight…
“Don’t you change the subject! How could you know and not tell me?! You think I didn’t worry when I didn’t know?! And what do you mean, ‘your plans’?! What are you going to do, and what do I have to do with it?!” he yelled at the Guardian.
My plans are not your concern yet. Things have been set into motion, things you cannot change. You will defeat the pawn as planned. Do not try to interfere, or you’ll only hurt yourself.
“All this time, all this fucking time, you were just using me for whatever Guard’-damned purpose you have in mind!” James grabbed an ARM from the holster he set down on the nightstand and trained it on the wolf. “I refuse to be used by anyone, even if it means fighting a Guardian! Get out of my sight before I blast you, you… you…”
Go on. It is the technical term for the form I’m in, after all. A pause. James didn’t speak, and he still had the firearm pointed at her. No? Very well, I’ll leave until your temper subsides. Farewell.
The shadow of the black wolf faded into nothingness. James lowered the ARM and mumbled, “Damn it… Guard’-damn it all… And Guard’-damn me…”
*
A vibration… Lucadia? No, wait, there’s a second one. Lucied must be here too. I hear yelling. Must not be good news.
”all this time, all this fucking time, you were using me-“
Welcome to my club,
Jamie. Fun being a pawn of the Guardians, ain’t it?
“i refuse to be used by anyone, even if it means fighting a guardian!”
Wow, I thought I was the one with the death wish. Still, you’ve got some guts, Jamie. Wish I could say the same about me.
Cecil took a deep breath. Lucied’s gone. Lucadia’s vibration is getting stronger. We must be near. I’d better get ready…
*
“YOU are not going anywhere, princey! You still need to rest!” Elmina reprimanded. The group had assembled on the deck minutes before, James standing apart from the group and looking in the opposite direction.
“And just how do you plan on communicating with Lucadia without me, hmm?” Cecil told her coolly. There was no answer. “Just as I thought. So, everyone set? Laine? Lina? Jamie?”
“I’m not going,” James said, barely audible, shaken still from his discussion with Lucied.
“Say what?!” Cecil exclaimed reflexively.
“I’m not going,” the bounty hunter repeated. “I want nothing more to do with any Guardian.” He looked back to Laine. “You go with them without fear. They’ll need you,” he told her before going back inside the ship.
Cecil and Laine stared at where James was standing previously, equally dumbfounded, while Elmina and Lina looked at them, wondering what the hell just happened there.
Innocent One! So glad you made it! Lucadia’s voice resonated in the prince’s mind, but he was currently not in his mind. … Innocent One? Hel~LO! Sea Guardian to Innocent One, do you read me?! Nothing. Gods, Stoldark was right; you are flighty! WAKE UP, YOU MAGNIFICENT TWIT! Still nothing. … stupid git.
“… ‘stupid git’?! HEY!” Cecil protested, finally “waking up”.
‘Bout time. Ready for our meeting?
“I… uh… think were are…” Cecil said, briefly looking to the still confused faces of his companions.
Good. With that, bubbles emerged from the sea, engulfed the four on deck, and took them into the sea…
*
Laine’s face was turning an interesting shade of green as she stared at a wall of water in Lucadia’s shrine. “Uck, you would think seasickness wouldn’t affect you under the sea… Up and down, up and down, always moving…” she moaned, gagging after the word “moving”.
Lina gave her a disgusted look. “Sheesh, it’s just water, I mean, look at me, I can look at it no problem,” she said. She then watched the water for a little bit. “Ugh… OK, so it does make one a little queasy…”
“Can we please get on with this? I don’t wanna be here all day,” Cecil complained, purposely trying not to look at the wall of water that was making those two sick.
“Gladly,” Laine muttered, turning away from the wall.
*
All four of them were staring at a strange and unexpected sight: a fire burning underwater. Granted, it was still the air pocket the shrine was in, but still, it was damp down there and even if not that, it should have burned out long ago. “Should this even be possible?” Elmina asked no one in particular.
Lina and Zed both said, “Hey, if Daffy Duck can do it…” They exchanged odd looks. “I wanted to say that alone!” they yelled at each other.
“I am so going to try to get a share of the pay for this later,” Laine muttered to herself.
*
After some time, the quartet reached Lucadia’s chamber. Welcome, Innocent One and frie… a Naga?! What’s she doing here?! Get her away!
“Hey, I’m not like my creepy bitch-laughing cousins!” Lina complained.
“You just blow stuff up a lot,” Laine said softly.
“I heard that!” Lina said.
I guess the Naga’s not going anywhere, huh? Well, as long sa she doesn’t do that laugh…
“Any reason you wanted to see me, or you just wanted me to stop and say ‘Hi’?” Cecil asked wearily.
Before Lucadia could say another word, the Hiadan warrior, Lord Harken, literally dropped in. “Hey there, Red. Ready to fight? I was told to go after Timmy the Magic Shrimp here, but you seem like you’d be more fun to play with.”
“TIMMY”?! Why, I’ve never been so insulted! I’m a LADY, you metallic fu-
“Uh, Lucadia? I think we have more important things to deal with right now…” Cecil said, not happy about the fight before them.
Elmina had her sword drawn as she stared down Harken. “Just bring it, handsome. Maybe I’ll get some answers I’ve been looking for here after all…”
*
The pawn has to be Laine, right? So by not fighting her, I screw up Lucied’s plan, right? Unless the pawn’s someone else, but who else could be the pawn? James was thinking back on the ship.
*
“You call that a ‘Fast Draw’, Red? Lemme show you a REAL ‘Fast Draw’!” Harken taunted. He jumped into the air with his scythe and rapidly sent down energy blades down at Elmina and the others. Despite dodging them, the energy blades exploded upon impact with the floor, knocking all but Laine to the floor. “I call it the ‘Guilty Blade’. Like it, Red?” he said upon landing and avoiding a bullet. “Ah, the holmcross girl Calamity’s so obsessed with. You need to work on your aim, girl.”
*
James was still thinking. Would she use Cecil instead? No, no, he’s the quote-unquote “Innocent One”, besides which I wouldn’t fight him. I couldn’t. It’d be too easy to win, plus… OK, so I’ve become somewhat fond of him, it’s not like I… like I… like I love him or anything. Nope, nosiree, don’t think of him like that… I wonder if he’s doing OK…
*
Can’t keep this up much longer… Cecil thought. Sheesh, I thought Lina was better at blowing stuff up than this. Then again, maybe she’s actually wary of hurting Lucadia…
Stand… still… so I can blast you properly! Lina was thinking. So much for Cecil’s “wary of hurting Lucadia” idea.
*
*
Spotting an opening, Elmina lunged at the Metal Demon and in rapid succession disarmed him, knocked him to the floor, and pointed her sword at his throat. “Well, handsome, you put up one hell of a fight. What’re gonna do now?” she said, lacking the taunting tone her adversary had.
“Me? I’m getting my ass outta here, Red!” Lord Harken honestly replied trying to back away from the sword. A long-forgotten memory of his resurfaced just then. “That is, if you’ll let the man who knows about your Hello Kitty panties live,” he said, hoping that memory would distract her long enough to save his ass.
“What did you just say?!” Elmina said, backing away just enough to give Lord Harken a chance to scramble to his feet and beat a hasty retreat.
“… ‘Hello Kitty panties’? Can I see?” Cecil asked with a not so innocent grin on his face.
Laine and Lina both smacked him upside the head. “No, you little pervert,” Elmina said absently, “Besides, I haven’t had any of those for years.” Long enough ago for Garrett to know about…
*
End Chapter 16
Chibi’s notes:
Gosh, so much thinking by characters in this chapter… Guess Jamie’s over-thinking is contagious.
James: I am damn unsatisfied to be hit, betrayed, and bringing up my, er, little bit of questioning in one chapter.
You’re unsatisfied now, Jamie? Wait ‘til later chapters. Anyway, about “Guard’-damn”, it’s just meant be the Filgaian equivalent of a swear word don’t use myself… Now that I think about it, Jamie’s the first one in the story to use something stronger than “damn” and not have his words be glossed over ala Laine’s streams of obscenities. Funny, isn’t it? ^^;