dp.e
MEGAZONE 23
"Remember--lightest touch counts!"
--The Pioneer Valley
Combat Club
Later that evening, in the still-intact-if-slightly-
rubble-littered Wedge, an evening of standard Wedging around
was taking place. Ben was taking a particular interest in
the boffa-weapon combat taking place; Zoner against Erik
Swimm, and Zoner was winning quite handily. (Actually, he
was winning around half the time, but inflicting more damage
in every combat.)
"Whose folder is this?" asked Kei, poking him in the
shoulder and indicating a blue folder lying on the Wedge
table.
"Dunno...I think it's Vaughn's. He's been looking for
it, as I recall..."
Just then, Vaughn entered the Wedge in his standard
garb; jeans, sneakers, t-shirt. "Morning. How's life.
Anyone seen my blue folder?"
"Yeah, it's--?" The folder was gone.
"Hmm?"
"Uh...never mind."
"Oh. Well, it must be in the next one over then." For
an instant, it seemed that he flickered, like a TV when
lightning strikes nearby. If Ben had blinked, he would've
missed it. "Well," said Vaughn, "since no one has seen it,
I guess I'll just go back to E7, take out my eyes, and become
unconscious. Good night..."
"'Night, Vaughn," Ben called as Vaughn padded out.
"Hmm?" Kei peered at Vaughn as he left, treading
unconcernedly upon the floor in his bare feet, and then
turned to Ben. "Wasn't he wearing shoes when he came in?"
"What?"
"Never mind..."
"Dunno..." Suddenly, on an impulse, Ben jumped up,
shucked his overcoat, and entered the Wedge floor, calling
for Erik to toss him the boffa-dagger, which he did.
Ben had been practicing for some time; he was a fairly
decent fighter now. He was holding his own against MegaZone
in what was a desperate combat to say the least. And then a
voice rang across the Wedge, clear as a bell:
"Zoner!"
MegaZone turned, held a hand for pause, and tossed his
boffa-dagger to Kei.
<<Thunderstruck, AC/DC>>
Ben saw his life flash before him with the initial
touch; then all his thoughts were based on defense against a
trained and practiced onslaught of PVC, foam, and duct tape.
He ducked sideways, then performed a nifty tuck under the
hissing arc of her boffa-dagger; popping back to his feet, he
swept his own weapon around in a slash of his own. Boffa-
dagger met boffa-dagger. Damn, she's fast, thought Ben as he
desperately parried a blinding series of attacks. There's
got to be a weakness somewhere.
He weaved across the Wedge, blocking and dodging, the
jeers of his fellow Wedge Rats echoing in his ears. He
ducked behind one of the columns, then did something
extremely sneaky; he kept the pillar between himself and Kei.
She couldn't get eyes on him for the life of her; it was as
though he had disappeared.
Then he reversed the direction of his travel around the
pillar, climbed onto one of the Wedge trash barrels, swept
the dagger in a great sweep, and tapped the point to Kei's
back, just between the shoulder blades.
She turned around and grinned. "Cheap trick," she said.
"Effective, but cheap."
"Uh, Ben? Could I have a word with you?" MegaZone said.
"Sure," Ben replied. "Yuri! Catch." He tossed her the
boffa-dagger and followed MegaZone out by the mailboxes.
"What's up, Zoner?"
"You've got to get them out of here," MegaZone said
urgently. "Now."
"What? Why?"
"You read the book. Everywhere they go, everyone dies."
"You die...she dies...evvverybody dies..."
"Stop it! You're not Ard, Ard is my roommate.
Seriously, I don't want to die just yet. I don't care how
good-looking they are, I! don't! want! to! die!"
"Zoner, you're overreacting. We're not going to die."
Ben turned and started heading back to the Wedge. "You worry
too much. Besides, there aren't any space stations around."
"You don't understand," MegaZone cried, following him.
"You're going to get us all killed!"
"I don't think so...somehow, I don't think so...just...
trust me on this, will you? I have a feeling about this."
"Yeah, it's called lust--"
"Oh, come on! You wound me, you really do. Take thy
beak from out my heart." He turned again and went to the
gweepery.
Wonder of wonders, an open terminal. He sat down and
logged in; a few moments later he sensed a presence, over his
shoulder, watching. He looked back; Kei was standing behind
him, looking at the monitor.
"What's up?" he asked, returning to his gweeping.
"Not much," Kei replied. "Yuri's fighting with MegaZone
and I got bored. Figured I'd come out here and see what you
were up to."
"He's gweeping," said Guyblood from the other terminal.
"That's all he ever does. He has no life."
A look of outrage formed on Kei's face; with one arm she
heaved Rick bodily from his seat, turning him and yanking his
face right into hers.
"Now look, buddy," she said dangerously, "I don't know
where you get off passing judgement like that, but it doesn't
seem to me you have much more of a life than he does--"
"Oh, thanks a lot, Kei," Ben muttered, smacking the
Return key a little harder than necessary.
"--and if it weren't for him gweeping, as you put it, I
wouldn't even be here right now!" She shook him rather
violently. "I ought to kill you right here and now, just for
the mess you caused in DAKA, you miserable little--"
"Uh, Kei?" Ben said, getting up and managing to maneuver
past his seat in the crowded gweepery.Z.
"What?!"
"He passed out about five seconds ago."
"Oh." Mildly peeved at not having been able to complete
her lecture, Kei dumped Rick unceremoniously back in his
seat. "How did he get out of that explosion anyway?"
"Idunno. But I do know a true gweep," Ben grinned,
looking at Rick's unconscious form and still-logged-in
terminal, "would never pass up this opportunity."
Hosehosehosebashbashbash.
"There, that ought to keep him wondering for a few
years," said Ben with a smile. He logged himself out, but
left Rick on, so he wouldn't be suspicious. Nothing in his
homedir looked different, but...
"What time is it anyway?" Kei asked him. He noticed
with some measure of surprise that, sometime while he was
hosing Guyblood's account, she had taken up a new position,
leaning, arms crossed, on the back of his shoulders, her chin
on the top of his head. He wondered, idly, what the hell
for?
"Uh..." He checked his watch. "Three-fifteen in the Oh
my God, what are we doing up this late 'ning."
"The what?"
"The Oh my God, what are we doing up this late 'ning.
From two to six AM. The other time periods are morning, six
to ten, midday, ten to two, afternoon, two to six, evening,
six to ten, and gweepning, ten to two."
"Oh."
Ben returned to the Wedge. Zoner and Yuri were sitting
in the corner of one of the booths, discussing something;
Zoner was using his hands to describe motions, which led Ben
to believe he was recounting some sort of adventure, probably
involving a death defying drive in the Daytona from Hell,
while Yuri listened attentively, pausing every now and then
to laugh politely.
"I," Ben announced upon reaching the Wedge, "am very,
very tired. I got up and studied for that Pascal test--
which, incidentally, I boned badly, for anyone who cares--
this morning at eight. It is now three-fifteen. I am
therefore going to bed."
"Then what are we going to do?" Yuri asked him.
In a startling case of parallel development, both he and
MegaZone considered for a moment; then each decided his
budding friendship with them was solid enough to try a silly,
joking innuendo.
"Come with me," they both said, and started for the
exits.
To their and everyone else in the Wedge's extremely
incredible surprise, Kei and Yuri looked at each other,
shrugged, split up, and followed.
Let me tell you, there were some turned heads on Morgan
4th that night.
<<Handle With Care, Traveling Wilburys>>
Ben couldn't keep the grin off his face as he walked
down the hallway toward his room, noting with detached
interest the skill with which the dorm had been Krazy Glued
back together by the Civils. (They had been practicing long
and hard for a day like this.)
Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your point of view),
his sleeping bag was not of the normal variety; if one were
to fully unzip it, it became two separate parts, both of
which could then be zipped into a separate sleeping bag.
After performing said operation with precision, Ben
flopped half of it onto the floor and kicked off his shoes.
An argument ensued over "no, I insist" and "no, it's your
room," but in the end, he managed to talk Kei into taking the
bed.
He put out the light, crawled into the bag, made himself
as comfortable as one can be with clothes on, and drifted off
to sleep, thinking about what a fincredible day he'd had.
Zoner, meanwhile, walked into E7 with a nonchalant grin.
Nobody in the apartment even questioned where she came from;
those who knew, knew, and those who didn't, didn't want to.
The only comment that was made was the one Chris Smith
screamed toward the ceiling:
"VAUGHN!!!!"
T.C.Weaver
Tanaqui
"It felt empowering" draft of Foxglove's answer to Thessaly...who knows about
power?
Creator of Alternate Universes
Creator of Alternate Universes
news from Emacs when all control-c does is make the keyboard beep...
And once again, my deepest and most humble apologies to anyone we've pissed off
with this misplaced posting...
Kei and Yuri say they're sorry too...
I can't speak for Zoner and ReRob tho...
--Gryphon
who wonders if this post will even come out
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No. I just want to blast something."
--Asrial
INTERNET: gry...@wpi.WPI.EDU SNAILNET: WPI Box 570, I00 Institute Rd,
BELLNET: (508)791-2539 Worcester, MA 01609
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------