trans_9 | Is Your Love Strong Enough? Part 6

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Is Your Love Strong Enough? Part 6 - The Final Scratch

Such a strange occurrence needed, finally a conclusion. Thanks for the Time Lord's trinket gift, there was suddenly an old, fearsome creature made of gears, it's old features squeaking (although not as bad as before, since a certain someone had given him a good oil job). Analog,the fearsome creature known by some as a the crankiest Time Dragon, walked in the city to find out o where Eleven was. She could smell him even in here, you see (wow that's creepy). Flanked by her three handmaidens, the women giggling like schoolgirls at everything, memorized at the ship. The city could hold her well, for all her large size.

First step - Find the Doctor, ask him what he wants. Step two - Do that. Step three - Get out of here.

She still was a Time Dragon, after all. Proud....and cranky. These boring old puny humanoids were nothing as the greatness of HERSELF so the sooner they were our of her mind, the better.

[OOC - Done! Go for it.]

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Thankfully neither of them had seen Lash's realization, or they wouldn't commenting about her now on what she should and should not be doing. The Wunderkind wanted to, well, lash out at them and if they just gave her a damn minute to figure it out and stop moving Zetta's body around like a cheap doll she could do that. Yet she wasn't moving anything, thinking about everything swirling in her head. Well Zetta's head too right now, technically. Maybe if they knew that there was something blistering hot that was burning in her chest so much that the pain was almost unbearable, they wouldn't have...uhhh...wouldn't have done what?

'It's not the worst thing in the world' maybe for Mindy, but for Lash it went against everything she stood for. Her entire life, laid bare. The Black Hole teachings, the emotional control and disregard for anything nice and showing caring, the mutual acceptance between her and Zetta of ignoring their feelings for each other by just going off to blow something up and placing it behind a simple excuse of 'it's fun'. Fun she could do. This was...this was...

Two birds of a feather, stuck together...

There was a bit of fear too. What was she doing? What was she thinking? She was stuck in here with someone she...someone she...liked. She liked a lot. But that was an emotional response! Now she was a traitor...

Traitor to what? To a regime, hell, a world that didn't exist anymore? She could, she could...

She could do what she wanted!

...It was just a question of what she wanted exactly.

...

The thoughts stopped swirling, focused on a single thing. Maybe it had been the encouragement, as terrible as it had been from Ruffnut. Maybe it was Sakura's words, Pram's teasing laughter, Mindy's advice. Maybe it was just something in Lash that finally snapped. Maybe it was this entire week finally getting to her. Who knew, really. What she did know was that four words flew out of her mouth, just between the both of them that the others couldn't hear, in a confused tone as she surprised even herself.

"I love you, Zetta?"

It was tiny, meek, but there. And then, it grew, as it became Truth and flourished, as if her entire life had been grey before that devoid of color and those simple words, those four word, with nothing more than five letters, each carried everything and made her entire brain overflow. Shit. No wonder Black Hole stopped anything like this from happening, she could only imagine all the problems. This was even more powerful than hope, defiance, duty and everything else they wanted to crush from the other nations mixed together. This was probably, she realized, what Sturm, what Von Bolt had feared the most. Not just the love of a country, but the love of the people you wanted to defend.

Mindy was right. She suddenly did feel stronger, even if she wasn't in her own body. Maybe this would all make her life complicated that it ever had been before. But that is what life was about, right? Taking risks. And a Black Hole Wunderkind would not be true to herself if she didn't take it.

And just like that, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place and she said it again, this time a bit more certain.

I love you Zetta...

And again.

DID YOU HEAR THAT? I LOVE YOU ZETTA!

But she had said it. Then, when it was done, began to laugh at the absurdity of it all, sounding mad, probably, but she didn't care. Each giggle grew louder, more powerful than the one before. Not just because of how afraid she had been, but now that she said it, hey it wasn't bad at all! It felt great actually! She could get used to something like this! It wasn't going to stop her from blowing things up! It didn't make things suddenly less fun! It wasn't going to stop anything at all! Zetta was powerful, he wouldn't get repodded, she was the Wunderkind, she wouldn't get repodded either. There was nothing to fear about this!

Nothing but fear itself.

Now she wasn't afraid anymore.

Edited 2011-12-21 14:28 (UTC)

No.

No way!

This couldn't -- not Lash! It was impossible! Lash had more sense than that! That's why he kept this whole thing going in the first place! Because she wouldn't do something like fall in love with him!

Not like Salome had.

35,000 years the Overlord had lived up to the standards and expectations of a demon of his caliber. None of this love crap. None of this friendship nonsense! He had only enemies and trivial people not worth crushing! And Salome, but look how that had gone. She should have known better.

Lash should have known better.

"Strength my ass," the book muttered darkly. "I'm the strongest in the cosmos. I didn't get there by stupid emotions... I got there by raw power."

...but his strength was... different now. Sure, he had the mana power to back his claims up, but he didn't have arms or legs or a proper body. He didn't have a Netherworld, or a proper fortress. If push came to shove, he wouldn't have anything to count upon, not even his own mana power, in a fight. He'd have his minions, and his...

His disciples, of course. Who, he had to admit, were better as a team than apart. When had he stopped riding them on the "no friends" aspect of Overlording, and accepted that connection between them?

About the time he'd started dating Lash, he realized.

But that was irrelevant! Besides, he had other people who would side with him in a fight, because they knew he was the only way they were getting their worlds back! The Sacred Tome was the key to this entire quest, damn it!

But... they never really took that attitude with him, did they? They talked with him outside of battles, even did things to help him out when it wasn't strictly necessary. And on the flip side of things, all too often he'd ended up doing stuff for them as well. But that was only to keep them alive and able to fight in the battles, wasn't it?

Besides, it didn't matter! There was already precedent here. He'd cut all ties with Salome after her idiotic declaration of love, he had no choice but to do the same with Lash as well! Even if Lash inspired feelings in him that Salome never had, serene and sweet as she had been. Lash was anything but those things. She was feisty and fiery and fun and honestly pretty hot in an athletic sort of way--

Oh shit. 'Inspired feelings?' What the hell kind of crap thing was that to think?! He didn't -- he couldn't --

He was Zetta. The most badass freakin' Overlord in the cosmos! A demon! He couldn't love. He couldn't care. Demons didn't do that, Overlords didn't do that, and especially demon Overlords of his power didn't do that! If the other Overlords saw him -- him, the strongest being in existence! -- showing that sort of weakness, they would...

Would...

Challenge him? Laugh at him? Mock him?

He'd kick their asses if they did.

Or... Lash would. The thought brought a slow smile to his face.

I'm not sure I can say it. Not directly, but...

What the hell. I love you.

She wanted to say something. Wanted to say anything. Give him a hug, continue to laugh like crazy. Something. But the minute those words left his thoughts, something tore right inside her, and violently pushed her back into her own body as the soulcatcher's intertwined threads separated in two single pieces of string again.

Lash's soul traveled invisibly right back into her body, giving it a jolt for a half second before falling down again.

Then there was darkness. Confusion. A splitting headache.

On the outside, apart from a very subtle twitching her eyelashes, Lash was barely moving.

Edited 2011-12-22 09:42 (UTC)

Ruffnut was the one to break the silence that followed, "Did Lash's body just die?" she had retrieved her bag of popcorn and flicked a kernel at the wunderkind's nose. It bounced off and landed in her hair.

"If the power of love killed her then we're all to blame...not just me."

Mindy, in the other hand, was already on her feet and standing over Lash, putting her hands around the girl's stomach to lift her up.

"That's just stupid. She's getting her body back! She's not fucking dying! Now get me some water, ok?"

"Hey!" the book said, jerking upright. "Cut it out. And Lash, wake up, damn it."

Hey Zetta, guess whose turn it was to see someone they liked near unconscious?

Lash's headache was only intensifying as it went from bad to worse. Like her entire head would split open and...

Wait! I remember the last time that happened! She wanted to say something, but her mouth remained numb and dry. Unfortunately, the telepathic connection between the both of them was lost, or else Lash would have warned him of what was going to happen. Right now, try as she did to move anything, she was pretty much limp pudding in Mindy's hands.

Irritated and certainly not worried (seriously, anyone who expected more than a brief moment of self-honesty from Zetta deserved every pang of disappointment they felt), the book drifted over towards Mindy. "I'm not sure you should be lugging her around."

Mindy glanced at the Overlord, looking nonchalant. "I'm only going to do that until we get a place to lie her down. You've both been through a lot, but you're a book, and she's a person, so she's bound to be exhausted."

She looked over at Ruffnut, exchanging a knowing smile. "Help me out, Ruff?"

Ruffnut Shrugged "You know I think I heard this story before." She rubbed her chin ponderously, "Like, when the Valkyrie who was battle weary would not wait, the Viking warrior kissed her and she awoke refreshed and ready for more battles."

An abstract take on the "Sleeping Beauty" tale but more or less in the ballpark.

See, the thing about Lash hearing all of that is that LASH HEARD ALL OF THAT. What was Ruffnut even talking about? She still couldn't push either of them away, but managed to mutter something;

"Bowber bike."

Well, close to something she wanted to say. The headache was getting worse and worse.

"Ooooow," she added, in a very weak voice. Please don't mind she was starting to glow a little bit either. That was probably, totally normal.

Edited 2011-12-30 03:59 (UTC)

"Bowber bike?" Zetta blinked a moment, then glared at Mindy. "Hey, I've seen enough lame comedies to know that when someone starts acting unwell and says something you don't understand, it'll turn out they were warning you they were gonna do something really gross. Right after they do it. I'm assuming she's gonna throw up. That's usually the standard here."

Mindy shrugged. "Then she should go and puke already." To help though, she sat Lash on the floor a moment, sitting cross legged next to her. Of course, what they had talked about and all wasn't something she was going to harp on, not while the two of them were still being them. All that shit was going to be confusing, after all.

"Wish I knew what the hell 'bowber bike' was though."

"Maybe some new kind of killer robot?"

And Ruffnut was back to being unhelpful...good to know.

It was probably weird, then, that as they talked the light around them began to dim so much a strange sphere of darkness fell, causing Lash's glowing to be even more evident as the source was being adsorbed right into her. Oh great. She was going to get sick after this, wasn't she? Probably would need to go to the medical ward for the headache too.

Without warning, Lash stood up and bolts of lightening were unleashed outwards from her, hands, ears and mouth and right into the sky.

The unleashing of this power was always incredibly painful the first time. Each required a new connection in Wars World, and Lash had always ended up exactly like Zetta had suspected; headaches and vomiting when it was done. She had little doubt it was going to here as well. Yet knowing all too well that the most powerful ones back in her homeworld had been with family members and those that cared...about...each...other...it wasn't too hard to figure out what was happening...but Zetta wasn't a Commanding Officer! (And maybe she was back to slightly denying the whole caring part. Although it was much harder now.) Yet...an Overlord could count as a Commanding Officer, right? Her own powers seemed to think so.

"Power Strike!"

So that's what she'd been trying to tell them. No one really knew back at home how it happened, but it was probably the most dangerous move on any battlefield. Thankfully the light and lightening was more for show than anything else, even if it was draining to those involved. Combining CO powers to attack together, giving their armies the bonuses of both. Alone, a CO was powerful. Together, they were deadly. For one, tiny moment, their minds connect, a sort of mind synergy, as they quickly ordered their soldiers a series of moves and movements that a CO by itself would be impossible to do. When the people involved actually liked each other, the powers could be incredibly devastating power-boosting waves...

A few things happened, then. Suddenly it felt like she was alone with Zetta for a few seconds, powerful and strong, and everything seemed to slow down around them to a near crawling standstill. To Mindy and Ruffnut, it probably appeared that the both of them were now glowing.

The pain suddenly stopped, and Lash looked around confused and panicking, touching her forehead to make sure she wasn't dead. How come the pain had completely evaporated?

"Huh? That's weird! That never happened before."

"...the hell was all that?" Zetta said intelligently, looking around. "Looked like your power went pretty wild there."

The energy expenditure involved here was, for Zetta, miniscule; an order of magnitude less than Inviting a host of minions and ordering then about on the battlefield. He seemed unaffected, and was certainly unaware of any contribution he might be having to this whole mess.

"It's a Power Strike," she repeated again. "It happens when two Commanding Officers use their powers together. I guess since you use your power all the time I just connected to yours in some way...It was a technique we developed in Black Hole during the third war. You know, twice the pain equals twice the terror and so on. Usually it's pretty hard on the system the first time. For both users."

She shrugged. This was about as new to her as it was to Zetta, even if he had no idea he was involved.

Edited 2011-12-31 23:02 (UTC)

"Figures man," Hit girl said, shrugging. "I didn't have a doubt in my mind that was going to happen when the two of you collided together or whatever, and that's without understanding any of that crazy shit you guys talk about with powers and mana and stuff. I guess that means me and Ruffnut will have to work twice as hard, so we're not lagging behind."

And she looked at the viking girl expectantly for agreement.

Ruffnut rolled her eyes, "As if. We're the ones who figured out this love junk before they did." She didn't believe it for a minute though. She just didn't want to rag on Mindy for always thinking about training.

"Pffft, yeah right! Love junk whatever, what's really important here is all these stat bonuses that this could potentially do in terms to others and powering up the ship. I kinda wonder what it will do, actually. Maybe it can even power Zetta's henchmen too! Heck now we've just got to unleash it on you guys to see what I mean and..."

She looked over at Zetta.

"...But first we'll need a name for it. That's how it works. You wanna do the honors?"

Come on Zetta, time to be creative.

"...is there a character limit?" Netherworld attacks generally were pre-named, but even in those cases there was only so much you could fit on the display line.

And then they were back to talking abut whatever the fuck that she had no idea what it was. Character limits and power ups and all of that shit. Jesus, it was like trying to talk to D&D players.

"Oh for fucks sake, just call it 'afro demon' dance or whatever and be done with it. Sheesh."

Ruffnut snorted and gave Mindy a shove, "That's a stupid name, how about "Mad Love!" because ya know...you're both insane right? And the whole love thing is how you got the attack." It was just as terrible a name but at least Ruffnut could see how important a good name was?

"It doesn't work like that!" Lash protested at Ruffnut, the weird light still circling her. "It's sort of...man I dunno how to describe it. It just forms in your head or something. Like when I first used by Prime Tactics? It's like I always knew it should be called like that." She crossed her arms. "Dual Strikes are much more rare. In fact this is the fourth I've been able to do all my life!"

And we all knew Lash had lived a long life.

"Rebel Strike with Hawke, Brainstorm with Sonja and Battle Cruise with Flak." A pause. "It's kinda really bad if you try to do one with someone who doesn't like you." She looked at Zetta again. "Uhhhhhh I had no idea. All I know is that right now I feel like there's a bazillion pins and needles in my entire body from this energy overstock."

In other words, HURRY UP.

He'll give you a 'dual strike', Lash.

You know. In bed.

Right?

Zetta thought a moment (about things that weren't what he had just been thinking about), then suggested, "Advent of Apocalypse?"

HE thought it was cool, and frankly given who exactly was involved in this team-up, 'apocalypse' might in fact be underselling the end result.

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