The pretty girl continued to sing and strip. Her hands still unclasping the bra as she had her back towards Van. Her gloves were already laying on the ground. Van watched, mesmerized. He'd never really seen anything like this before… not even remotely close. As a matter of fact the strip tease was starting to have a pleasurable effect… because now, instead of Van seeing the blonde girl, he could now see Hitomi. Damn, was she sexy…
Aleena smiled to herself. The plan was going perfectly. She finally reached the last clasp of the bra when…"Errk.." She tried again while singing. "Who's that pretty girl in the mirror there? Who can that attractive girl be~… Erk. Blast! Why can't I take this damn thing off?!"
She struggled with the clasp in back but to no avail. She tried to look around to her back but it threw her off balance making her hop on one foot. She turned around while in her hopping balance struggle and looked at Van who had the look of a man who had just seen heaven on earth. Aleena hopped back around and tripped, landing in an undignified heap on the floor, bra still stuck.
Van smiled. Hitomi (He's seeing Aleena as her remember?)was so cute when she was clumsy.
Hitomi sat in her living quarters. She faintly remembered occupying
this very same room a few years ago. When she had first come
to Gaea. Hitomi smiled… 'Yes, that was a long time ago… I'm
just so glad that after the war they were able to rebuild Fanelia back
to it's original state.' She looked out on the sites of the city
and continued to reminisce. 'Two years ago you arrived on Gaea… two years
ago you were part of a world wide war… and also two years ago…' She
blushed. 'You fell in love with a King…'
She looked around her room. It was awfully quiet. Where was everybody? Why was she here anyway? She tried to think back to when she had been brought over by Van. Funny, he didn't mention anything… where was he anyway? Wasn't he supposed to be here right now? "Geez, just when you think you know some-" She stopped mid-sentence as she remembered what had happened a bit more clearly.
"Van!" Hitomi smacked Van across the face in rage. "How could you?! You know that I don't want to see visions anymore, and you still bring me here to help you in this war! How could you be so selfish?!" Hitomi began to sob into her hands. "What kind of a man are you? Don't you understand that there are things that you don't know yet? Things you need to know before you can be with me?" Van just stared at Hitomi, shocked.
"Oh no… what have I done?" She covered her mouth with her hand. "No wonder he isn't here right now." She began to cry. "I was soo angry, I didn't see before…" She remembered his shocked face. "Oh Van…" A tear fell from her eye… "I'm sorry… Where are you?" A blue light began to glow from the floor… "I love you…" and enveloped Hitomi, taking to where her heart was.
"Such a pretty face, such a pretty smile, such a pretty me~" Aleena continued to sing-song as she lay struggling on the ground.
Van stared at this wonderful apparition of Hitomi in front of him. She was nearly half naked and about to become more so, if she could unfasten the bra. "Hitomi…" He sighed as he continued to watch. Suddenly a blue light appeared in the middle of the floor and the 'real' Hitomi popped out of it. They ran into each others arms.
"Van!"
"Hitomi!"
"Van…"
"Hitomi…"
"Van…"
"Hitomi…"
"Van…"
"Hitomi…"
"Van…"
"Hitomi…"
"Van? Where are we?" Hitomi said as she looked around the dark room. A strange red light caught her eye and she noticed a half naked person in the midst of it. She strained her eyes to see who it could be…
"Allen-san?!"
"ALLEN-san?!" Van took a long close look at the whor---woman of ill
repute he was about to
use… "Sonna…." And passed out.
In the meantime, in a near-forgotten part of Gaea….
"Intracellular fluid pressure stabilizing!"
"Blood pressure is slowly being elevated!"
"Funky curls in his hair are just about restored by the---ooOOOW! Prototype curling irons… Dammit, I still say we should've tried giving him dreadlocks this time!"
"Shuddup and continue doing Emperor Dornkirk's hair, you insolent twit!"
"Nerve synapses are starting to take on desired patterns!"
"Alrighty then, let's get this party going!" The Dornkirk loyalist immediately shut up as he felt the questioning gaze of his comrade. "Sorry, I got a little too much into the spirit of reviving Lord Dornkirk," the loyalist said sheepishly.
"I still say he was sneaking in shots of that weird green fluid we used
to restore Dornkirk when we weren't looking," mumbled another loyalist,
a safe distance away from the icky-green-fluid guzzling loyalist.
Evil giggling ripped through the air and
everyone in the dimly lit arena immediately bowed down. The source
of the demented giggling, a girly-looking young man wearing an old Zaibach
Army uniform, has just stepped in.
"Welcome back, Dilandau-sama!" the loyalists chanted.
"How are things going?" Dilandau asked as he sat on a chair that was offered to him.
"Things are all ready, Dilandau-sama. All we need is your signal," one of the chief loyalists and Dilandau's new assistant, Keni, said. As he was saying this, he wheeled in a huge switch and set it next to Dilandau.
"Well done. Bring back Dornkirk!" Dilandau ranted out, and with evil giggling, pulled down the switch. The switch was connected to a rope, which was connected to a pulley, which pulled up a rubber chicken, which hit a sack of flour, which burst, sprinkling flour over some wires and loyalists below. The rubber chicken continued on its way up, hitting a lever, which opened a cage full of lab mice (which wasn't used, no animals other than the rubber chicken… which isn't even an animal… were harmed during the writing of this parody). The little mice then joyfully ran around the arena. The rubber chicken finally stopped as it hit the ceiling, which hit a button. The button released the holding pen, which was full of confetti and balloons. The confetti and balloons then were released, giving the dimly lit arena a somewhat happier feeling, even though the balloons and confetti were all colored black… albeit shiny, Zaibach Army uniform-style. Elsewhere, the mice, who never really liked this dimly lit arena, started nibbling on some wires because the wires were covered with flour. Alas, these wires were the main electrical wires. Being Gaean mice, the mice were not harmed at all, and just spat out the icky rubber coating on the wires. The wires now chewed through, all the power in the dimly lit arena immediately went out.
"D'oh!" the loyalists immediately chorused.
Dilandau, eerily keeping his calm, simply lit a match. "Alright, who did it this time?" He asked the loyalists. Small lamps started illuminating the arena. Despite the increasing light in the arena, no one answered Dilandau's query. "Who planned that stupid switch?!"
Keni timidly stepped forward. "I supervised the planning committee which planned the switch, Dilandau-sama. We are very sorry. We wanted to get doves, but there were no doves available, we only had mice…"
"Step forward a little more, Keni," Dilandau soothingly replied.
A little less timidly, Keni stepped forward. Keni stood out among the other loyalists. For one thing, he was shorter, smaller than a member of the Ispano Tribe. He was also dressed up as if he was going camping in the Antarctic. That, and the fact that his words were almost all muffled by a big puffy hood, part of his big puffy jacket. Keni stepped forward a bit more. As he took this step, he was immediately given a Dilandau Special Whiplash-causing Handprint-marking Slap ™. His head flew off, landing a few feet away from his fallen body.
Dilandau giggled the way only he can at his handiwork. "I haven't lost my touch," the resident gender-confused one mused.
From somewhere in the crowd of loyalists, a cry broke out. "Ohmigod, he killed Keni! You bastard!"
"Calm down, Kail, don't draw attention to us!"
"Shuddup, Stan, you just wanna kiss Wendi Testabaagaa."
"What are these cut-out paper animation freaks doing here?" Dilandau demanded. True, Keni's friends stood out from the other high-quality Sunrise-animated loyalists. Stepping near them with an unfathomable smirk on his face, Dilandau seemed harmless. Without warning, he brought out his lighter and set them on fire. "Heehee, they burn quite nicely," Dilandau sang in demented glee. "Now the only thing that would make my day complete would be to give someone an anal probe…."
"Young master, please, speak with the Crusade Crew!" Dryden Fassa's rat-ish assistant flailed about, trying to get his attention. "Please, we can hold off your father who thinks you're still heartbroken over Millerna-hime, but the Crusade Crew knows the truth!" The Rat-man then proceeded to cartwheel in front of Dryden, really truly desperate for attention. "I give up," he mumbled to himself, as he left the Dryden's room, which was cloudy with intoxicating smoke.
"Well, is he going to help us or not?" Gades demanded.
"I'm afraid the young master is not in any condition to come out of his room right now," the Rat-man (weakly) replied.
"What, is he receiving chemotherapy for some weird cancer right now or something? This whole ship, especially his room, reeks of POT!" Gades yelled.
"Er… pot? Why yes, we sell pots, exquisitely handcrafted by Zaibach Empire orphans. No sweatshop or mudshop labor involved, guarranteed!"
"You know what I'm talking about! Heartbroken my ass! Dryden has turned into a stoner ever since he left Asturia, hasn't he? Those greenhouses he invested in aren't your normal greenhouses that plant flowers and vegetables, they're greenhouses that grow and cultivate Gaea's most controversial drug! Pot! Marijuana! Cannabis! I even heard that Dryden is the mastermind behind the Cannabis Clubs!"
"They're not Cannabis Clubs, they're Cannabis Healing Centers!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Listen, shoot him with caffeine or something and then tell him that Asturia… no, Gaea needs his help once again," and with those words, Gades strode out of Dryden's ship and jumped into the Crusade.
"Any good news, Sarge," Kio eagerly asked.
"No, Sorry guys. Come on, let's sail back to Asturia." Their morale not lifted, the Crusade sailed back to Asturia.
Comments and criticisms? Send them
over to either Chaos-chan
or Kourin (Dammit, I did more work on this thing... did I? --- Kourin) .