A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol. 1 Page 8

  Alex’s despairing cry was like that of a child who’d been told he couldn’t watch late night cartoons.

  13

  Azazel was sitting in the command chamber, in an elevated chair that sat above the rest of the cockpit. Several Angelisians were stationed at the communication console and detection system. However, they were currently docked inside of Mars City. Thanks to that fact, there was no need to have the entire crew at their stations, so most of his soldiers were off duty.

  “Commander! We have an incoming transmission!” his communication aide said.

  “Is it from Angelisia?”

  “No, sir. It’s coming from inside of Mars City.”

  “Hm. Very well. Put it on screen.”

  A large holograph appeared before him, displaying a blonde woman with hair in drill-like curls, ice blue eyes, and the most infuriated of frowns.

  “Karen Kanzaki,” Azazel greeted. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”

  Karen Kanzaki was the commander of the Mars police forces. He didn’t know much more about the woman. They’d never met in person.

  When he’d first made contact with the humans of this quadrant, Karen was the person they placed in charge of communicating with him. Her job was to aid him until his mission was complete by providing support and tactical knowledge.

  “This isn’t a pleasure call,” Karen snapped. “Do you know what your subordinates did?”

  Azazel frowned. “Are you referring to Kane and Abel?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then no, I do not. What did they do?”

  “They got themselves arrested for public nudity.”

  Azazel frowned. That did not sound like Kane and Abel. Both of them were quite serious, not just when it came to doing their duty, but in their general disposition.

  “That does not sound like something they would do.”

  “Are you doubting me?”

  “Not at all. I am merely saying that there must have been extenuating circumstances.”

  “They claim they were locating your runaway princess when a mechanical dog suddenly attacked them.”

  “That sounds a lot like one of Lady Gabrielle’s inventions,” Azazel informed her. “I hope that you will let my subordinates go so they can continue their search. I promise to personally chastise them for not being careful enough. They should have known better than to underestimate Princess Gabrielle.”

  “See to it that you do,” Karen said before the screen cut off.

  Azazel remained silent for several seconds, and then smiled ruefully. “What an interesting woman.”

  14

  It took an extra two hours, but Alex traveled to another convenience store, bought some more food, and cooked it. Alice had complained about how she was starving by the time he’d finished, but there hadn’t been any other choice. It wasn’t like he could’ve fed her burnt food.

  After dinner, he, Alice, and Gabrielle wandered into the living room, where they watched the holovid.

  “Go, Titan Girl! Go, go!” Gabrielle cheered as the girl who had the strength of 100 men beat crap out of several villains.

  While Alice stared blankly at the screen and Gabrielle alternated between waving and cheering like a maniac, Alex frowned. Something was tickling at the edge of his awareness. He tried to think of what that something might be, but it slipped from his grasp like a greased traction cable.

  “Is something wrong, Bro?” Alice asked, having noticed his silence.

  “Not really.” Alex shook his head. “I just can’t help but feel like I’m forgetting something.”

  15

  Jasmine ran through the streets.

  The sun had long since gone down, meaning that only the streetlights were available to light her way. No stars were visible. Because the dome was designed to block out harmful rays, light from anything aside from the sun couldn’t penetrate it.

  She didn’t know how long she’d been running. Her shoes were long gone. She’d been forced to abandon them when that strange metal dog had chomped down on one of her laces. Now she ran barefoot, which felt like sandpaper against her feet, though she dared not stop. Behind her, a strange dog, a mechanical monstrosity, chased her, its eyes glowing a malicious green.

  “Arf! Arf!”

  “Why won’t this thing stop chasing me?!” Jasmine cried into the night.

  Unfortunately, there was no one around to hear her.

  Chapter 3

  Learning the Truth

  The morning after his and Gabrielle’s close encounter of the shady alien kind started off the same way that every morning did. After waking up, Alex went on his morning run, completed his morning exercise, took a shower, and then made his way down to the lab.

  Gabrielle was already there. His newest housemate was standing in front of Mr. Designer, which was Gabrielle’s name for the massive holographic console that was used to create invention concepts. From the look of things, she was currently designing what appeared to be some kind of suit.

  Is that an environment suit? It looks so… thin.

  “What are you making?” Alex asked as he walked up to her.

  “Oh! Alex, good morning.” Gabrielle smiled at him before returning to the holographic suit floating in the air. “I’m trying to create a modified version of an Angelisian crisis suit for human use.”

  “Human use?”

  “Yes, I thought you could use a suit like this. Angelisian crisis suits are powerful. They increase the wearer's strength, protect them from various elements, and it even has an anti-gravity propulsion field.”

  “You mean people wearing this can fly?”

  “Well, it might be hard for a human to fly,” Gabrielle confided, “but you should at least be able to jump really high.”

  “That’s good enough for me.”

  Alex had always wanted to be able to leap over buildings. There had been rumors that his father had been capable of jumping really far, of him literally bounding over skyscrapers while he was chasing criminals. While Alex had an impressive jump length and height, he couldn’t do that without using a vehicle of some kind.

  He looked at the suit as Gabrielle manipulated the holographic image. The first layer appeared to be a unitard. It had strange glowing lines running over the fabric, which reminded Alex of circuits. Over the unitard was armor—a chest plate that only covered the pectorals, shoulder pads, greaves, and vambraces. After studying the suit, he looked at the information detailing the composite material that it would be created with.

  “I don’t know any of these substances,” he murmured.

  “That’s because these are made from materials found only on Angelisia,” Gabrielle answered his unspoken question. “The unitard is made from strands of a plant called Venus Fibra, which are stronger than most alloys but are also flexible and elastic. The armor is made of adamantine—an ore found on asteroids that surround Angelisia.”

  Does that mean Angelisia is a planet with an asteroid ring like Saturn?

  “Cool.”

  Alex was fascinated by the knowledge that he was learning. In his younger years, he’d been considered a genius inventor. At the age of four, he’d created his first robot. At five, he’d built a fusion engine. His many inventions had earned him a good deal of fame when he was younger. He was even still receiving royalties for some of his older inventions.

  After the death of his dad, Alex’s inventions had stopped being useful and instead became failures. Most of them exploded in his face. The few that did work were useless.

  However, Alex still loved inventing, and he’d created many other inventions since. Hearing about new inventions, seeing new scientific methods in action, it was a wonderful thing. Alex could’ve listened to Gabrielle talk all day if only to learn more about her thoughts and ideas when it came to building mechanical devices.

  “But wait,” Alex said. “Do you have the materials necessary to make this?”

  “Of course I do!” Gabrielle exclaimed with a broad grin
. “Everything I need is stored in my D-space.”

  “D-space?” Alex blinked. “Is that where you pulled out… Mr. Recycle Doggy the other day?”

  “Uh huh!” Nodding several times, Gabrielle explained, “The D-space is an empty void that I separated from this dimension. It’s connected through my gloves.” She held up her hand to show off her gloves. Alex noticed the glowing circuits on her fingers. “By accessing my menu with these gloves, I can retrieve things from the D-space.”

  “That’s amazing!” Alex exclaimed. “That’s, like, the most awesome thing I’ve ever heard of! You’re incredible!”

  “Thanks!” Gabrielle beamed as her ears wiggled up and down and her wings flapped. She seemed inordinately pleased by his praise.

  They spoke for what must have been several more hours, discussing the specifics for the suit. How long it would take to complete, what sort of enhancements it would have, etc.

  “It will probably take about a day or two to finish,” Gabrielle admitted reluctantly, as if two days was a long time. “I need to calibrate the Synthetic Nerve Synapse system for human use.”

  All Angelisian crisis suits ran on a Synthetic Nerve Synapse, which was an enhancement system. It increased a person’s physical attributes by synchronizing with and pumping energy directly into their nerve synapses.

  When a nerve impulse reaches the synapse at the end of a neuron, it’s unable to pass directly to the next one. Instead, it triggers the neuron to release a chemical neurotransmitter. The neurotransmitter then drifts across the gap between the two neurons. Upon reaching the other side, it fits into a tailor-made receptor on the surface of the target neuron, like a key in a lock. This docking process converts the chemical signal back into an electrical nerve impulse.

  The Synthetic Nerve Synapse filled the neurons with energy, thereby increasing the speed at which the process was completed. The overall effect was an increase in all physical attributes: strength, endurance, speed, reflexes, hand to eye coordination… everything was increased by a factor of five—or so Gabrielle said.

  “Wouldn’t having all that energy running through the body be harmful?” Alex asked as Gabrielle finished explaining the concept behind the system.

  Gabrielle gained a thoughtful look. “It isn’t for Angelisians, but it might be for humans. The crisis suit runs on the energy found within our own bodies, but since you’re a human, your body doesn’t produce energy like mine does. We’ll have to create an artificial energy source, like a quantum core or something, but having that sort of energy running through you could cause damage…”

  There was a moment of silence. Gabrielle’s face became deeper and more thoughtful as she raised a hand to her mouth and bit her index finger. Despite himself, Alex thought the gesture was unbearably cute.

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” she said finally. “That… might extend how long it’ll take me to make this. We’ll have to experiment to see what forms of energy your body can and can’t accept. Do you mind if I take genetic samples and scan your body?”

  He assumed she was asking him for skin cells and a blood sample. “Sure. I don’t mind.”

  “Great. Step inside of Mr. Scanner.” Gabrielle gestured to a large, tube-shaped object. “This will take genetic samples, scan your biorhythms and create a detailed map of your body.”

  She typed on a console built into Mr. Scanner. Hissing echoed throughout the lab and steam shot out from exhaust vents along the device’s sides as the front suddenly cracked open. The bottom lifted like the lid of a box about to reveal its contents.

  Inside was what appeared to be an advanced scanning system. Lights and lenses marked the inside like polka dots. Scanners, mapping nodes, and several devices that he couldn’t name were situated along the interior.

  Alex stepped inside, and then Gabrielle typed some more. The lid closed around him. It wasn’t an uncomfortably tight fit, but Alex did feel a moment of claustrophobia. Bright lights emitted as several red beams moved up and down, scanning him. A strange fog shot out from several vents. It had a cloying scent that made Alex reflexively gag. Ten seconds passed. The lights died down, the fog dispersed, and then the lid opened with a hiss.

  “All done!” Gabrielle announced as Alex stepped outside. “It will take a day for Mr. Scanner to create a thorough map of your body, but this should tell us what sort of energy is and isn’t harmful to humans. Then I can create a generator and calibrate your suit for you.”

  “Nice. Thank you.”

  “Tee-hee, you’re welcome.”

  Alex and Gabrielle smiled at each other.

  “Ahem.”

  A cough made them turn. Alice stood in the doorway.

  “If you two are done making googly eyes at each other, how about making me breakfast?”

  Alex and Gabrielle looked at each other, and then turned back to Alice.

  “Yeah… I’ll make some breakfast. Sorry about that, Alice. Guess we got caught up talking.”

  “Whatever. Just hurry up. I’m starving.”

  As Alice walked back upstairs, Gabrielle and Alex followed her. While he thought about what he should make for breakfast, a larger part of him was thinking about the crisis suit that Gabrielle was making for him. He couldn’t wait to see how it turned out.

  1

  Alex and Gabrielle walked Alice to school again. Since he was no longer a cadet, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do, and Gabrielle couldn’t work on the crisis suit until the scans were complete. Besides that, she seemed to enjoy walking. He assumed it was because of her deplorable lack of freedom before running from those slavers.

  Jasmine was, again, waiting by the gate. She didn’t look good that morning. Bags hung under her eyes, which were bloodshot, and she stood with a noticeable slump.

  “Good morning, Jasmine!” Gabrielle greeted with a cheerful smile and a wave.

  Jasmine’s expression, which could have been defined as “irritated” at best and “do you want to die?” at worst, made even Alex pause.

  “Morning,” she grunted.

  “Are you okay, Jasmine?” Alex asked.

  “I’m fine,” she ground out.

  “It looks like you didn’t get much sleep last night.” Alex leaned over and studied Jasmine with keen eyes. “Maybe you should go home and rest?”

  “Oh! Oh ho ho ho!” Jasmine took several steps back and, holding a hand up to her face, she laughed. “Though I thank you for your concern, I assure you that I am… just… fine…”

  Jasmine swooned, tilting over. She would have fallen, had Alex not moved forward and caught her. Jasmine tried feebly to stand up, but her legs no longer seemed capable of holding her weight.

  “You really are exhausted.” With a grunt, Alex hooked an arm under Jasmine’s legs and lifted her up. She tried to protest, but he silenced her. “There’s no way I can just let you go to school. Look at you. Even your face is turning red. You might have a fever.”

  “I-I really am all right,” Jasmine mumbled, but Alex didn’t believe that for a second. Her face was steadily growing redder. She was clearly sick.

  “You’re not all right,” Alex told her. He then turned to Alice. “Do you think it would be okay if I took her to the nurse’s office?”

  Alice shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

  “Cool. I’ll see you later. Come on, Gabby. Let’s find the nurse’s office.”

  “Kay!”

  He and Gabrielle split off from Alice, who went off to her first class, and headed deeper into the school. It had been a long time since Alex had walked through Atreyu Academy, but as he traveled its vast interior, his feet seemed to remember where everything was.

  This is nostalgic. How long has it been since I’ve been here?

  Technically, it had only been two years. Children graduated from primary when they turned 18, and then they could either go to a university, get a job that doesn’t require a degree, or learn the ins and outs of their family’s business, as was the case with most nobles. Sti
ll, two years or not, it felt like much longer.

  “Whoa… who’s the babe?”

  “Check out the ass on her.”

  “Forget the ass. Check out dat rack!”

  “Hey, doesn’t that guy look familiar?”

  As they used a combination of warp points and escalators to reach the nurse’s office, students who were on their way to class tended to stop and stare. Alex frowned as he listened to their conversations. It sounded like most of them were talking about Gabrielle. They were saying lewd things about her, which he didn’t approve of, even if he understood why they were talking like that.

  Hormones really are the bane of every teenager’s existence.

  They eventually reached the nurse’s office. The scent of antiseptics hit Alex like a container of oil to the face. His shoes made a staccato rhythm as he walked along the white tiled floor, accompanied by Gabrielle’s softer footsteps. A series of beds sat along one wall while several cabinets and a desk were situated against another. The nurse was absent.

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” Gabrielle asked as Kevin walked over to a bed and set Jasmine down. She appeared to have fallen asleep while they’d been walking.

  “Um, if you could get me a thermometer, that would be nice.”

  “Kay!”

  Several seconds later, Gabrielle handed Alex the oddest looking device he’d ever seen. It was long and cylindrical. There was no screen, just a large bulb on one end and a tip on the other.

  “What is this?”

  “A thermometer, silly.”

  “I’ve never seen a thermometer like this. Do I stick it in her mouth or…?”

  “You’re supposed to stick it up her butt,” Gabrielle answered.

  … Silence.

  “E-excuse me?” Alex asked. “Could you please repeat that? I could have sworn you said that I needed to stick this up her butt.”

  “Yes, the best way to get an accurate reading is to stick that up her butt,” Gabrielle said, still smiling. She didn’t seem to understand why Alex was gawking at her.

  “I can’t do that!”

  “Why not? It’s easy. Just pull down her underwear and—”