A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol. 2 Read online

  “That’s good.” Gabrielle placed her cheek against his chest. “I slept really well, too. Tee-hee! I guess it’s because I was sleeping with you.”

  Alex was startled. “W-wait a minute! What do you mean you slept with me? I don’t remember going to sleep with you!”

  “I came in to ask if you wanted to take a bath with me last night, but you were already asleep. You looked so comfortable that I ended up climbing into bed with you. I must have fallen asleep because you were so warm and cuddly.”

  W-what kind of answer is that?!

  “You can’t just crawl into someone’s bed and sleep with them!” Alex yelled.

  “Eh? Why not?” Gabrielle asked, placing her delicate hands on his chest and lifting herself up to stare down at him. “We’re engaged now, aren’t we? I’ve read that married couples are supposed to sleep together.”

  Alex could not answer her. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to, but because there was something else that distracted him. Her boobs.

  Alex was a healthy teenage male, and just like any other male his age, he possessed a healthy interest in women. Gabrielle epitomized what Alex believed was true beauty. Her long silver tresses scintillated like a thousand microscopic jewel strands woven together. Bright green eyes, emeralds of innocence, perfectly reflected her vivacious personality. Slender shoulders. Long legs. Unblemished skin. A lithe yet buxom figure. Even the bright silver wings that protruded from her lower back just above the hips held a mesmerizing charm.

  While many of his teenage fantasies had featured Selene and Jasmine—sometimes together—Gabrielle had something that those two didn’t—several somethings.

  Two of those somethings were her boobs. Gabrielle sported breasts that were large and perky. They sat proudly on her chest, two hills that were capped with light pink nipples. As they bounced in front of his face, Alex felt an overwhelming desire crash into him. His mind became a deluge, a flood of erotic images that bombarded him.

  “You’re right,” Alex said as he placed one hand behind his back, using it to support him as he sat up. The other he wrapped around Gabrielle’s waist. “I’m sorry, Gabrielle. I wasn’t thinking properly. It’s perfectly okay for us to sleep together.”

  “Really?” Gabrielle’s vibrant smile made everything seem better. It also made his pants impossibly tight.

  “Really.” Alex nodded. “Since we’re engaged now, it’s okay.”

  “Yay! I’m so happy!”

  Alex smiled as Gabrielle cheered. “Now, since we’re awake, why don’t we do something else that married couples do?”

  Gabrielle tilted her head. “Eh? What are we going to do?”

  “This.”

  Alex leaned in and took one of Gabrielle’s nipples into his mouth. A loud moan left her parted lips as he swirled his tongue around it. The taste of salt tickled his tongue. Fingers ran through his hair, reaching behind him and pulling him deeper into Gabrielle’s bosom.

  “Oh, Alex!” Gabrielle’s cry of ecstasy echoed around the room.

  “Gya!”

  Alex jerked backwards like a man being shocked with several thousand volts of electricity. Gabrielle cried out as he bucked her off him and scrambled to his feet. She flew through the air and crashed back down with a loud yelp.

  “Owie.” Gabrielle rubbed her sore backside. Her wings flapped in agitation. “What was that for?”

  “I-I’m sorry,” Alex said with increasingly wide eyes. “I didn’t mean to…” He trailed off, his eyes widening further as he looked down and realized something else.

  Gabrielle was naked. Completely. Buck. Ass. Naked.

  “Alex?” Gabrielle looked at him, her questioning gaze innocent and pure, as though she hadn’t realized she was naked. Given what he had seen of her thus far, she probably did know about her lack of clothes. She just didn’t know that it was wrong to be naked.

  Alex spun around and squeezed his eyes shut. A feeling of vertigo passed over him and his loins tingled with unpleasant arousal. “A-anyway! I’m going out to get some exercise. Please get dressed while I’m gone!”

  He didn’t give Gabrielle a chance to respond and, grabbing his exercise clothes, ran out of the room and into the restroom. Once he’d locked the door, Alex pressed his back against it and slid down.

  That… that was…

  Intense. That had to have been the single most intense moment of his life, minus what had happened in this very restroom the first day that Gabrielle had started living with them.

  Alex took several deep breaths, trying to erase the memory of a naked Gabrielle from his mind, but also attempting to keep himself from feeling ashamed. Gabrielle wasn’t an object. Yet when she had appeared before him like that, all he could think about was how sexy she was, of how much he wanted her. Only a sick, disgusting pervert would think such rampant sexual thoughts. He felt like vomiting.

  After he changed into his workout clothes, Alex left the house and went for his morning jog.

  Maybe a 10-kilometer jog followed by 1,000 push-ups, 1,000 sit-ups, 1,000 squats, 1,000 pull ups, and 1,000 lunges would help clear his mind.

  1

  Gabrielle didn’t know what was wrong with Alex this morning. Why had he run out on her? It was weird. Granted, he didn’t seem to like taking baths with other people for some reason, but she hadn’t expected him to panic like that after discovering they had slept in the same bed last night. They were going to get married, after all. All married couples did this. The books that Michelle had lent her said so.

  Married…

  Before meeting Alex, the idea of marrying someone had been unappealing. Gabrielle didn’t want to marry the suitors that her father had chosen. All of them were boring. Uninspired. Not fun. They just wanted the title that came with the marriage, not Gabrielle.

  Alex was different. He was fun to be around, created cool inventions just like her, she could talk to him for hours, and he had a younger sibling who he doted on. Yes, if Gabrielle was going to marry someone, then she wanted to marry Alex. He was someone that she could see herself spending the rest of her life with.

  That was why she decided to head down to the lab and take a look at his biological mapping data again. There were still issues with his Angelisian crisis suit. She also needed to repair it since it had been destroyed during Alex’s fight with Azazel.

  The lab was a lot different than when Alex had given her a tour of his house, but that was because she had made a lot of modifications. She’d expanded the space. She’d modified all of Alex’s old equipment, upgrading all of it to Angelisian standards. Now, the lab was not only five times larger than before, everything in it was about twenty times better than standard human technology. She was quite proud of herself.

  Walking along the white tiles, Gabrielle stopped in front of Mr. Bio-Reader. It was a large contraption with a modified holoscreen that displayed 3-D images as well as numerous buttons and knobs. She manipulated the screen with experienced hands, pulling up all of the data she had taken on Alex.

  Looking at the data on Alex’s biological map, which hovered before her eyes as a three-dimensional holographic image, Gabrielle could do nothing but scratch her head. Alex’s bio-map showed all his body’s various systems. They ran through his body, glowing lines of color. The veins were red, the respiratory system was yellow, and his bioelectric system was blue.

  There doesn’t appear to be anything unusual about him. His bio-rhythm, bio-electromagnetic field, chemical balance… everything about him is the same as a regular human.

  Gabrielle had data on several human and near-human species, which she compared to Alex’s own data. There didn’t seem to be a significant difference between him and the other humans. What difference did exist was within the 5 to 25 percentile, which was the standard difference found in individual people. As far as she could tell, Alex was a regular pers—

  Wait.

  Blinking several times, Gabrielle manipulated the three-dimensional map, zooming into the area around his ch
est. There, she finally found something unusual.

  What is that?

  It looked like there was something black inside of him. The strange black mass was centered around his core, which was attached to his bioelectric system, but that was all she could figure out. Unfortunately, because Mr. Scanner was merely an updated version of Alex’s old scanner, it didn’t have the ability to zoom in any further. If she wanted to figure out what this thing inside of Alex was, then she would need to create a more advanced version of Mr. Scanner.

  Mr. Scanner 2.0, get ready to be built!

  Rolling up her imaginary sleeves, Gabrielle pulled her multi-purpose tool out of her D-space and readied herself.

  It was time to get to work.

  2

  Karen Kanzaki had never been more shocked than she was in that moment. She stared at the person appearing before her, a mere holographic projection using advanced alien technology that was light-years beyond humanity. The person on the other end, a commander in the Angelisian Army, stared solemnly from between strands of silvery-blond hair.

  “You can’t be serious,” she said, the first words since Azazel had spoken.

  “I am dead serious,” Azazel replied.

  Karen pounded a fist onto her desk. “That is absolutely unacceptable! If you think for one second that I will allow your king to do as he pleases, then your brain must have been fried with a blaster bolt.”

  “You have no choice in the matter.” The words cut through her like a precision laser. “This has been decided by my king, the ruler of the entire galaxy.”

  The real-time holographic image was of Azazel, a man whom she’d only been acquainted with for the past few days, and who she was already beginning to dislike.

  She had met with Azazel several days ago, when his vessel attacked one of the ships patrolling around Mars. He had claimed it was because he was trying to get their attention. After the matter was settled, she had learned that he was the bodyguard of a princess, and not just any princess. This princess’s father controlled most of the Milky Way Galaxy.

  Karen hadn’t believed him at first, but then he had used his ship, the Dauntless, to destroy a massive meteor with a single blast. Her superiors in the Galactic Defense Force, the GDF, had told her to cooperate with him. She’d been left with no choice. Karen had helped him find Gabrielle, which had precipitated a battle between Azazel and Alex. That was a disaster that she would rather not remember.

  Now, two days later, Azazel had just informed her of King Lucifer’s plans for Alex. It went without saying, but she did not approve of those plans. Not a bit.

  Taking a deep breath, Karen calmed down. She sat back in her seat, placed her elbows on the desk, and leaned forward. “What you are suggesting will put more than just Alexander at risk. The entire city—no, all of Mars and maybe even the rest of the solar system, will be in danger as well. What your ruler is asking for is unreasonable.”

  “Unreasonable though it may be, this is his decision. If you choose not to obey him, King Lucifer might decide to simply destroy this solar system. He’s done it before.” Azazel’s stern expression shifted into a grimace. “For what it is worth, I am sorry that this had to happen. I, too, wished for a different outcome.”

  “I’ll bet,” Karen replied in a scathing tone.

  As the conversation ended, the holographic representation of Azazel disappeared. Karen leaned back in her chair and pressed a hand to her forehead as if to ward off the coming headache.

  Alexander, you had better be careful. Trouble is coming your way.

  Her thoughts went to the young man that this conversation had been about. She hoped he was going to be okay.

  3

  Azazel sighed as the communication line between him and Karen Kanzaki was cut.

  That was not a pleasant conversation.

  As a commander of Angelisia, it was his sworn duty to obey all the orders from his king, regardless of what that order might be. Because of this, he’d forced Karen Kanzaki to accept the orders of a king that she did not bow to, all but told her that the son of the man she admired was going to be placed in danger, and disregarded her opinion. If Karen Kanzaki had not disliked him before, she certainly did now.

  “Commander Azazel,” his communication aide said. “A ship has just left hyperspace, bearing three-delta-two.”

  Azazel pushed aside his grievances and entered his commander mode. “What’s the vessel’s classification?”

  “It looks like the A2-B27 Slaver ships used by mercenaries and bounty hunters,” the aide said.

  Slaver ships did not necessarily mean that the person inside was a slave trader. Chances were that the person piloting it had heard about the competition for Gabrielle’s hand and was coming here to try and wrest her from Alexander’s grip. He wondered what species was inside of that vessel.

  “So it begins,” Azazel said ominously.

  There was a long pause as Azazel tracked the incoming vessel on the holoscreen. Something was tickling his brain, like an itch that he couldn’t scratch.

  “Why does it feel like I’m forgetting something?” he asked of no one in particular.

  None of his aides had an answer for him.

  4

  Shii-rya came out of hyperspace several hundred kilometers from the planet Mars, the place where Princess Gabrielle was supposedly staying. He adjusted his communication channel to the one that King Lucifer’s message had told him about. After a moment, static crackled in his ear, and then a voice spoke up.

  “Unidentified craft, this is Mars Aerospace Control. You have entered Mars airspace. Identify yourself and state your reason for coming here.”

  Hissing into his unit, Shii-rya repeated the message that he was supposed to say, “My name is Shii-rya Naga. I am here to claim Princess Gabrielle.”

  There was a pause from the other line. “… Understood. I have been told to direct you toward a docking station. Please follow my instructions.”

  Shii-rya followed the instructions that he was given. The person directed him toward a small docking bay that opened before him like the gaping maw to a toothless space snake. He adjusted the controls, pushing his craft forward and passing through the docking bay doors, which sealed shut behind him.

  After setting down, he waited for the ship’s interior and the docking bay to properly pressurize. Then he exited his ship. The docking bay was empty, which he’d expected. Several meters away, a single door opened, and he didn’t hesitate to walk through it. The door led into a long metal hallway of durasteel grates, oxygen tubes, and blinking lights.

  Two guards were stationed at the end. They were standing by a large durasteel door. The way their eyes widened as he walked up to them amused him. He knew that most humans were primitive apes, but these ones were apparently so backwater that they’d probably never seen his kind before.

  The one on the left fumbled with the tablet in his hand. He had dark skin and black hair. He was packing a good deal of muscle, which was visible beneath his skin-tight unitard. Yes, he would make a perfect body.

  “You are, um, Shii-rya, right?” the man asked.

  “That’s right,” Shii-rya said, flicking out his long, forked tongue.

  “Erm, right. So, we’ve been told to let you enter Mars City. However, you’re going to need to disguise yourself, and you will have a minder for the duration of your time here. Please cooperate with them.”

  A minder? That part had not been in King Lucifer’s message, which meant that whoever had decided on this, it had not been King Lucifer. It must have been a human who was high up on the food chain in this hick solar system.

  Shii-rya’s scaled lips twisted into a smile. “I’m sorry, but there’s no way I’m going to let you people tail me.”

  Quicker than either human could react, he slammed his tail into the soldier on the right. The woman cried out as she was tossed into the wall. A loud clang! echoed down the hall. The woman slid down, revealing the dent that she had made as she hit the floor, un
conscious.

  “Shit!” the man swore.

  He reached for something at his waist, but Shii-rya was faster. He wrapped his tail around the man’s throat and lifted him into the air. Grinning, he brought the struggling man, whose face was beginning to turn blue from a lack of oxygen, closer.

  “Now… I’ll be taking your body for my own, if you don’t mind,” Shii-rya said.

  Screams reverberated through the hallway.

  And then it became mercifully silent.

  5

  After walking Alice to school, Alex and Gabrielle went back home, where they spent several hours working on their inventions. It wasn’t until Gabrielle’s stomach grumbled that they decided to take a break. Gabrielle wanted to go out somewhere, so they hopped onto the nearest shuttle and flew to Mars City.

  Built inside of the Dollfus Crater, Mars City was a massive civilian population center situated inside of a dome. The dome, which kept the harmful atmosphere at bay, loomed over the city, a gigantic construct of glasteel that could barely be seen through.

  Alex lived outside of the city proper. The outer district, as they had been named, sat outside of the crater itself.

  Mars City was made up of four levels and four districts: upper, middle, lower, and under levels, and north, south, east, and west districts. While the levels were used to determine social status, the districts were more like designated zones that served specific functions. The east district where Alex and Gabrielle headed to was primarily a residential district.

  There were a lot more people at this time than there usually were. All of them were young people around their age, wearing the Atreyu Academy uniform, or a uniform from one of the less prestigious schools. Today was Friday. They must have been let out early. If Alex remembered right, there were only two standardization tests on Friday. That meant his friend would be at the shop they were going to.

  Entering the Metronome Sweet Shop, Alex was greeted by Selene. Her dark skin presented a lovely contrast to her light-colored clothes, a white skirt and a light-yellow shirt. Long dark hair descended her head in curls that bounced as she walked. Her black eyes reminded him of glittering obsidian.