[IC][Story][Arc 1] Rob and Brent's as-yet-untitled sidestory (Rob's #10, Brent's TBD)
10-01-2018, 09:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-19-2018, 06:13 PM by robkelk.)
10-01-2018, 09:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-19-2018, 06:13 PM by robkelk.)
No, you didn't miss "Rob's as-yet-untitled sidestory #7" (the big raid) or "Rob's as-yet-untitled sidestory #9" (the fallout from Rob and Hyoga repairing Hvergelmir) - I haven't written them yet. But my discovering a particular piece of fan art awoke my muse.
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Friday, January 13, 2017
7:35 PM Eastern / 4:35 PM Pacific
Rob was using the big monitor in the common room for a videoconference with the Venice apartment. "Yes, the Rideau Canal Skateway will be opening tomorrow. I'd love to host everybody at once for ice skating, but we're already crowded - even with people sleeping on couches, we'll have to host visitors in shifts."
Tomoyo replied, "We do have an alternate option, Mr. Donaldson, if Sakura-chan would be kind enough to assist us."
"Yes, the Sakura Cards are quite versatile in her hands, aren't they? Are you thinking that she could use 'Little' on everyone and have our guests sleep in miniature bedrooms?"
"That is an option that I hadn't considered. My thought was to ask Sakura-chan to use The Twin on your building."
"Oh, of course! That card is certainly capable of duplicating an entire apartment building. And if Usagi would be kind enough to share the Silver Crystal with Miss Kinomoto, I suspect the two of them working together could create a permanent structure that would not draw upon Sakura's magic to remain manifested."
"That sounds lovely!" Tomoyo smiled. "I must design an outfit for Sakura-chan that would be suitable for such an undertaking."
"... and that'll give us enough room for everybody to have a proper apartment instead of something in the dimensional pocket that holds our onsen and sparring room, with a two-bedroom apartment for Accelerator and Mimi and another two-bedroom apartment for Touma and Index."
"Yay! Mimi finally gets my own bedroom!"
Rob winced at the torturous grammar that Last Order used - some kawaiisa speech patterns simply didn't translate well to English. "Right. Okay, everybody pack anything that you don't want duplicated, so we can move it outside. That definitely includes your bank cards and cellphones. Kuroko, would you be kind enough to help me move the boxes in my storage room into the dimensional pocket?"
"Certainly, just as soon as I've finished with my own packing."
As the others left to pack, Rob motioned to Rei Hino, who stayed behind. "What's wrong?"
"If this works, we're going to have a building filled - well, half-filled - with Misaka clones and Accelerator."
"And you don't trust Accelerator?"
"It isn't that; none of them really know how to live on their own."
"I think I know where this is going."
"Before you came here, you tended to an entire shrine with your grandfather."
Rei looked annoyed. "You could get Mii to move in with them."
"We asked Mii to move less than two months ago, to give Usagi and Mamoru the two-bedroom apartment. It isn't fair to ask her to move again."
Rei sighed. "All right. I'll move into the new building with our child soldiers and our resident psychopath."
"He's not... no, you're right. He is a serial killer. I'm asking a lot of you, I know, but I have faith that you can do the job. We'll get Kazari to wire up a panic button in your apartment, that will sound an alarm in my office if you use it."
"And Usagi's room, and Mii's apartment."
"And the common room. But nobody's moving until after we've hosted that skating party."
"Mr. Donaldson, I think you'd better come down here. There's something in the second storeroom that wasn't there a half-hour ago."
"What is it, Maika?" he asked as he headed down the stairs to the basement, followed by Ami and Ruiko.
"That." Maika pointed to a box on casters with a household satellite dish sitting on top.
"Oh dear gods," Ami whispered. "That's the Witches Electric Warp."
"The what?" Rob asked.
"The gadget that Mimete got stuck in?" Ruiko asked.
"Mimete? Of the Witches 5? Oh, dear. What's that doing here? How did it get here? And why now?"
"Rob..." Ami asked pensively, "What if Mimete is inside it?"
On the basis of better to be wrong than to be indecisive - especially if being indecisive meant possibly letting somebody die - Rob immediately started giving orders. "Maika, help me get this thing and a battery pack outside. Ami, go get Usagi and Rei. Rui-chan, go get Mikoto. Whoever's finished first, go grab a laptop. We meet outside the back door as soon as possible."
Three minutes later, everybody who lived in the building was gathered around the Witches Electric Warp, watching Kazari plug an old laptop into its serial port. "This is so old it doesn't even have USB. I hope this RS-232 kludge cable works."
"What were you doing with a RS-232 to USB cable, anyway?"
Kazari looked at Rob. "I thought it was yours."
"Trap?" Kuroko asked.
"Trap," Luna replied.
"Or a chance at salvation." Usagi was using her Neo-Queen Serenity voice.
Rob nodded. "Power it up, see whether we can purge the daimon from Mimete, and get her out of there."
"Unless Mimete is the daimon," Ruiko pointed out.
"In which case we take her down. Accelerator, would you be good enough to -?"
"No."
"Fine. Just make sure anything she shoots at you doesn't rebound into somebody else, okay?"
"Whatever."
Kazari stood up and backed away. "It's ready whenever everyone else is."
Mikoto stepped forward out of a huddle with the other girls, battery pack in hand. "And I'm ready."
"So are we," added Sailor Mars, charms already in hand. Sailor Moon stood beside her with the Crescent Moon Rod.
Rob took a breath, then exhaled slowly. "Do it."
Mikoto plugged the Witches Electric Warp into the battery pack, and kept hold of the power cable. Only Kuroko was close enough to notice she'd otherwise gone limp.
The laptop's screen flickered, then showed static which cleared to form a face - a familiar face to five of the Senshi. "Is somebody out there? Can you hear me? Please, get me out of here!"
"She's panicking. We have to help her!"
"Mii, she's as good an actress as I am," Sailor Venus countered.
"No! Please! Help me!"
"We can't just ..."
Jupiter cut Mii off. "We must."
"No! Damn you, Sailor Senshi! I'll strike you down where you stand!" The laptop started to glow...
... only to stop as Mikoto gasped, "I'm in." Her face appeared on the screen, opposite Mimete's.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?"
"I'm just a junior-high student with some skill at electromagnetics." The virtual camera panned back to show Mimete firing off a Charm Buster at Mikoto, who dodged it and returned fire with an electrostatic bolt.
"Nice touch on the camera work," Rob whispered.
"Thank you," Mikoto replied as she sent an artificial lightning bolt into Mimete's leg, causing the Witch to fall over onto a floor that wasn't there a moment ago.
"Oooooowwwwwwwwwww! You hurt me! You... you..."
"Bitch?" Ruiko offered, earning her a glare from Kuroko.
"Yes! You bitch!"
Rob leaned over to Kazari. "I thought that laptop didn't have a microphone."
"I think she's getting sensory input from the Electric Warp."
"That, or she's hearing through Mikoto's ears."
Mikoto dodged Mimete's half-focused attack, and shot her with lightning in both hands so that she couldn't attack again. "Stop that! I can't get you out of here if you keep attacking me!"
Mimete suddenly looked contrite and kawaii - and hopeful. "You're here to help me get out of here?"
"Yes, you idiot! Unless you like it in here!"
"I'm not an idiot!"
Mikoto stopped. "You're right. You're not an idiot." Then she zapped the floor beside Mimete, who was about to jump to her feet (which she'd re-grown in the cyberspace environment.) "And I'm not an idiot either. Stay where you are. Hyoga, are you ready out there?"
"As ready as I'll ever be!" Hyoga took off the necklace holding her AIM concentrator and placed it in Mikoto's hand. "You have it!" She immediately ran back to the Misaka Sisters, who surrounded her with their own bodies - and by extension their own AIM diffusion fields.
Everybody held their breaths... and waited, and watched, as Mimete faded from view on the laptop screen and into view above the AIM concentrator.
After a long quarter-minute, she was out of the Witches Electric Warp - but wasn't yet solid. That didn't stop her from being hit on the forehead by Sailor Mars's exorcism charms. A daimon wafted out of Mimete, only to be hit with a Mercury Aqua Rhapsody, a Jupiter Oak Evolution, and a Venus Love and Beauty Shock all at once. The daimon dissolved into nothingness.
The ghostly form of Mimete was crying, still hovering over the AIM concentrator. "Thank you, oh thank you so much. That thing made me... oh, gods, it made me kill Eudial... and I attacked you so many times... how can you forgive me?"
Usagi stepped forward, her rod in hand and her gentlest smile on her face. "There is nothing to forgive. I give you a choice; go on to your next stage of existence, or have a second chance here."
Mimete looked at Usagi. "If only you could, but nobody can give me a second chance at life."
"Is that you choice? Then be ready." She stepped back, spun in place, and shouted "MOON HEALING ESCALATION!"
Mimete disappeared... only to re-form, in a fully human body.
"I... but how?"
Ami smiled at the orange-haired woman's amazement. "She did the same for us, and for the entire world, not too long ago by our own life lines. You have your second chance at life, Mimete; please don't waste it."
"Please, don't call me that. My name is Mimi Hanyu."
From off to one side came a muttered, "That's my name, Mimi Misaka pouts."
As everyone else laughed, Mikoto finally let go of the Witches Electric Warp, stood up, walked to her clone-sisters, and handed the AIM concentrator back to Hyoga.
Rob caught Mimi's attention, and pointed to the Witches Electric Warp. "What do we do with this? Other than the clothes you're wearing, it's all you own in this world."
"Destroy it. Please. I never want to see it again." After a moment, Mimi added, "What did Sailor Mercury mean by 'our own life lines'? And what did you mean by 'this world', sir?"
Rob sighed. "Here we go again. You aren't currently in the world you were born in." Then he held out his hand. "Hello, I'm Rob Donaldson, and it's part of my job to acclimatize you to your life here while we're waiting for some Goddesses to figure out how to make sure you have a home universe to return to."
"You're kidding... He's kidding, right?" Everyone else shook their heads. "He isn't kidding. Can I go lie down somewhere, please? I think I'm in shock."
Ami and Rob quickly helped Mimi into the building's lobby.
As everyone else returned to packing the belongings that they didn't want duplicated the next day, Minako took Kuroko and Luna aside. "I really hope she isn't still acting."
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Friday, January 13, 2017
7:35 PM Eastern / 4:35 PM Pacific
Rob was using the big monitor in the common room for a videoconference with the Venice apartment. "Yes, the Rideau Canal Skateway will be opening tomorrow. I'd love to host everybody at once for ice skating, but we're already crowded - even with people sleeping on couches, we'll have to host visitors in shifts."
Tomoyo replied, "We do have an alternate option, Mr. Donaldson, if Sakura-chan would be kind enough to assist us."
"Yes, the Sakura Cards are quite versatile in her hands, aren't they? Are you thinking that she could use 'Little' on everyone and have our guests sleep in miniature bedrooms?"
"That is an option that I hadn't considered. My thought was to ask Sakura-chan to use The Twin on your building."
"Oh, of course! That card is certainly capable of duplicating an entire apartment building. And if Usagi would be kind enough to share the Silver Crystal with Miss Kinomoto, I suspect the two of them working together could create a permanent structure that would not draw upon Sakura's magic to remain manifested."
"That sounds lovely!" Tomoyo smiled. "I must design an outfit for Sakura-chan that would be suitable for such an undertaking."
"... and that'll give us enough room for everybody to have a proper apartment instead of something in the dimensional pocket that holds our onsen and sparring room, with a two-bedroom apartment for Accelerator and Mimi and another two-bedroom apartment for Touma and Index."
"Yay! Mimi finally gets my own bedroom!"
Rob winced at the torturous grammar that Last Order used - some kawaiisa speech patterns simply didn't translate well to English. "Right. Okay, everybody pack anything that you don't want duplicated, so we can move it outside. That definitely includes your bank cards and cellphones. Kuroko, would you be kind enough to help me move the boxes in my storage room into the dimensional pocket?"
"Certainly, just as soon as I've finished with my own packing."
As the others left to pack, Rob motioned to Rei Hino, who stayed behind. "What's wrong?"
"If this works, we're going to have a building filled - well, half-filled - with Misaka clones and Accelerator."
"And you don't trust Accelerator?"
"It isn't that; none of them really know how to live on their own."
"I think I know where this is going."
"Before you came here, you tended to an entire shrine with your grandfather."
Rei looked annoyed. "You could get Mii to move in with them."
"We asked Mii to move less than two months ago, to give Usagi and Mamoru the two-bedroom apartment. It isn't fair to ask her to move again."
Rei sighed. "All right. I'll move into the new building with our child soldiers and our resident psychopath."
"He's not... no, you're right. He is a serial killer. I'm asking a lot of you, I know, but I have faith that you can do the job. We'll get Kazari to wire up a panic button in your apartment, that will sound an alarm in my office if you use it."
"And Usagi's room, and Mii's apartment."
"And the common room. But nobody's moving until after we've hosted that skating party."
"Mr. Donaldson, I think you'd better come down here. There's something in the second storeroom that wasn't there a half-hour ago."
"What is it, Maika?" he asked as he headed down the stairs to the basement, followed by Ami and Ruiko.
"That." Maika pointed to a box on casters with a household satellite dish sitting on top.
"Oh dear gods," Ami whispered. "That's the Witches Electric Warp."
"The what?" Rob asked.
"The gadget that Mimete got stuck in?" Ruiko asked.
"Mimete? Of the Witches 5? Oh, dear. What's that doing here? How did it get here? And why now?"
"Rob..." Ami asked pensively, "What if Mimete is inside it?"
On the basis of better to be wrong than to be indecisive - especially if being indecisive meant possibly letting somebody die - Rob immediately started giving orders. "Maika, help me get this thing and a battery pack outside. Ami, go get Usagi and Rei. Rui-chan, go get Mikoto. Whoever's finished first, go grab a laptop. We meet outside the back door as soon as possible."
Three minutes later, everybody who lived in the building was gathered around the Witches Electric Warp, watching Kazari plug an old laptop into its serial port. "This is so old it doesn't even have USB. I hope this RS-232 kludge cable works."
"What were you doing with a RS-232 to USB cable, anyway?"
Kazari looked at Rob. "I thought it was yours."
"Trap?" Kuroko asked.
"Trap," Luna replied.
"Or a chance at salvation." Usagi was using her Neo-Queen Serenity voice.
Rob nodded. "Power it up, see whether we can purge the daimon from Mimete, and get her out of there."
"Unless Mimete is the daimon," Ruiko pointed out.
"In which case we take her down. Accelerator, would you be good enough to -?"
"No."
"Fine. Just make sure anything she shoots at you doesn't rebound into somebody else, okay?"
"Whatever."
Kazari stood up and backed away. "It's ready whenever everyone else is."
Mikoto stepped forward out of a huddle with the other girls, battery pack in hand. "And I'm ready."
"So are we," added Sailor Mars, charms already in hand. Sailor Moon stood beside her with the Crescent Moon Rod.
Rob took a breath, then exhaled slowly. "Do it."
Mikoto plugged the Witches Electric Warp into the battery pack, and kept hold of the power cable. Only Kuroko was close enough to notice she'd otherwise gone limp.
The laptop's screen flickered, then showed static which cleared to form a face - a familiar face to five of the Senshi. "Is somebody out there? Can you hear me? Please, get me out of here!"
"She's panicking. We have to help her!"
"Mii, she's as good an actress as I am," Sailor Venus countered.
"No! Please! Help me!"
"We can't just ..."
Jupiter cut Mii off. "We must."
"No! Damn you, Sailor Senshi! I'll strike you down where you stand!" The laptop started to glow...
... only to stop as Mikoto gasped, "I'm in." Her face appeared on the screen, opposite Mimete's.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?"
"I'm just a junior-high student with some skill at electromagnetics." The virtual camera panned back to show Mimete firing off a Charm Buster at Mikoto, who dodged it and returned fire with an electrostatic bolt.
"Nice touch on the camera work," Rob whispered.
"Thank you," Mikoto replied as she sent an artificial lightning bolt into Mimete's leg, causing the Witch to fall over onto a floor that wasn't there a moment ago.
"Oooooowwwwwwwwwww! You hurt me! You... you..."
"Bitch?" Ruiko offered, earning her a glare from Kuroko.
"Yes! You bitch!"
Rob leaned over to Kazari. "I thought that laptop didn't have a microphone."
"I think she's getting sensory input from the Electric Warp."
"That, or she's hearing through Mikoto's ears."
Mikoto dodged Mimete's half-focused attack, and shot her with lightning in both hands so that she couldn't attack again. "Stop that! I can't get you out of here if you keep attacking me!"
Mimete suddenly looked contrite and kawaii - and hopeful. "You're here to help me get out of here?"
"Yes, you idiot! Unless you like it in here!"
"I'm not an idiot!"
Mikoto stopped. "You're right. You're not an idiot." Then she zapped the floor beside Mimete, who was about to jump to her feet (which she'd re-grown in the cyberspace environment.) "And I'm not an idiot either. Stay where you are. Hyoga, are you ready out there?"
"As ready as I'll ever be!" Hyoga took off the necklace holding her AIM concentrator and placed it in Mikoto's hand. "You have it!" She immediately ran back to the Misaka Sisters, who surrounded her with their own bodies - and by extension their own AIM diffusion fields.
Everybody held their breaths... and waited, and watched, as Mimete faded from view on the laptop screen and into view above the AIM concentrator.
After a long quarter-minute, she was out of the Witches Electric Warp - but wasn't yet solid. That didn't stop her from being hit on the forehead by Sailor Mars's exorcism charms. A daimon wafted out of Mimete, only to be hit with a Mercury Aqua Rhapsody, a Jupiter Oak Evolution, and a Venus Love and Beauty Shock all at once. The daimon dissolved into nothingness.
The ghostly form of Mimete was crying, still hovering over the AIM concentrator. "Thank you, oh thank you so much. That thing made me... oh, gods, it made me kill Eudial... and I attacked you so many times... how can you forgive me?"
Usagi stepped forward, her rod in hand and her gentlest smile on her face. "There is nothing to forgive. I give you a choice; go on to your next stage of existence, or have a second chance here."
Mimete looked at Usagi. "If only you could, but nobody can give me a second chance at life."
"Is that you choice? Then be ready." She stepped back, spun in place, and shouted "MOON HEALING ESCALATION!"
Mimete disappeared... only to re-form, in a fully human body.
"I... but how?"
Ami smiled at the orange-haired woman's amazement. "She did the same for us, and for the entire world, not too long ago by our own life lines. You have your second chance at life, Mimete; please don't waste it."
"Please, don't call me that. My name is Mimi Hanyu."
From off to one side came a muttered, "That's my name, Mimi Misaka pouts."
As everyone else laughed, Mikoto finally let go of the Witches Electric Warp, stood up, walked to her clone-sisters, and handed the AIM concentrator back to Hyoga.
Rob caught Mimi's attention, and pointed to the Witches Electric Warp. "What do we do with this? Other than the clothes you're wearing, it's all you own in this world."
"Destroy it. Please. I never want to see it again." After a moment, Mimi added, "What did Sailor Mercury mean by 'our own life lines'? And what did you mean by 'this world', sir?"
Rob sighed. "Here we go again. You aren't currently in the world you were born in." Then he held out his hand. "Hello, I'm Rob Donaldson, and it's part of my job to acclimatize you to your life here while we're waiting for some Goddesses to figure out how to make sure you have a home universe to return to."
"You're kidding... He's kidding, right?" Everyone else shook their heads. "He isn't kidding. Can I go lie down somewhere, please? I think I'm in shock."
Ami and Rob quickly helped Mimi into the building's lobby.
As everyone else returned to packing the belongings that they didn't want duplicated the next day, Minako took Kuroko and Luna aside. "I really hope she isn't still acting."
--
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown