trans_9 | Aim to Win [Closed, pre Beyond the Sea Plot]

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Aim to Win [Closed, pre Beyond the Sea Plot]

The excitement of the poddrop had died down after a few days and Lash found herself back to her usual routine on the ship. It was rather amazing how much she could manage to do each 'day', from working in the labs, to shop management to training in the sensoriums. Truthfully, everything served to keep her occupied, which was an excellent thing--if Lash ever got bored anywhere it was a sure setup for a disaster of terrible repercussions. Probably explosive ones. Speaking of which...

"Fire! Fire!"

One of the ship's sensoriums was now being taken by her as she played it wisely and used it to tested out various prototypes before building them. They'd come out with a lot of robot parts to build thanks to SHODAN's rampage, and she was going to make the most use of what she'd gotten. With a typical Lash twist and flare, of course.

The soldier obeyed and fired the first cannon with a button press, the cannonball flying out and landing far away. Lash kept tabs using a CO pad, analyzing how the prototype fared. Upon landing, the cannonball opened itself up amongst the surprised enemy soldiers and turned into a small robot with turrets built on each side.

"Tee hee! It works, it works! Now, if I adjust the energy here, I should be able to build a small army, and that would be useful to aid during away missions..."

As she was about to approve it, the robot exploded. Soldiers, trees, dirt and burnt robot pieces flew into the air, landing close by.

"Oh oops! Hmmm...better not put that much energy into that one. The crew could lose a few arms and legs like that!" She said it with such a calm voice too, even if she was speaking to no one but herself and the nearby soldiers. With a small flick, she brushed off a piece of cracked robot, and began another prototype test.

Just another typical day for a wunderkind.

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It might have not been real but the danger was real in her heart so thank you for saving the day.

When the landed, she waited for the boat to rock back to a more standing position before answering. "Yeah that's true. You'd think that we wouldn't have this problem, considering." An Overlord and a Commanding Officer? Why did this always happen. She looked at the Prinnies, who shrank back from her smile.

"A little exploding and some chocolate pudding, maybe?" The Overlord had gotten her addicted to that dessert, truthfully. It was a thousand times better than 'possibly chocolate flavor slop' they had in her old lunches. In fact they tasted nothing alike, no wonder she loved it. "Or!" Or! "Hey wait I have a better idea!" Not for the Prinnies, unfortunately for them.

Suddenly the table had a hundred or so different types of ingredients; gummy worms, chocolate pieces, waffles, a few fruits, whipping cream, marshmallows, and a giant bowl of ice cream, both chocolate and vanilla flavored. It might have been a while ago, but the fun at the hotel still made her remember that special dessert they offered (and no not the one where you called up someone to your room).

"What do you think?"

"I think it needs a couple more flavors," he said, and passing a hand over the table he caused said flavors to appear -- along with a couple more toppings she forgot, like candy-shelled chocolate and candy bar crumbles! "Otherwise, I think your reputation for genius is well-deserved!"

"Oh! What is that?" She pointed at the M&Ms. "I don't think I've seen candy this brightly colored before!"

She made so many strange and bizarre inventions, it was easy to forget that the little things in life could easily amaze her. She grabbed a red one first, completely undoing the traditional color hierarchy.

"I didn't realize they had chocolate in them either!" You'd think she'd just made a scientific breakthrough.

Maybe once it had been easy, but Zetta had brought those out specifically because he doubted she'd seen them before -- and the excitement and delight on her face was a reward for the Overlord in turn. He might even admit to the fact if he knew how to phrase it in a more macho way.

"I've got all sorts of delicious stuff I intend to spring on you over time, you know." He grinned, tapping his temple with a claw.

Oh Zetta never change. ~~Or wait you already did.~~

"As long as it's not too hot, then I'll try it!" Really the fact she was delighted by all these things was almost a strange testament of how military life made anything that was made during peacetime or under a more relaxed regime amazing and strange and beautiful in some ways. Somewhat ironic too, considering they were in war here and the only place they could really do this was in the sensoriums. Yet it kept Lash motivated. She wasn't just fighting for her world to come back or to win this war, or even so she'd get to hang out with Zetta more till eternity - she'd do it for the candy and the food and all that Zetta could show her too.

She took one of the oversized spoons from the vanilla ice cream bowl and scooped it into the crystal bowl. Time to pile on a million ingredients stacked so high that it would be impossible to know there was ice cream under there.

"What are those?" she asked, pointing towards the hot cinnamon candy. Before even waiting for his answer, she plopped on in her mouth.

Hoo boy, no kidding he'd changed. Funny when one considered that all of this -- exposing Lash to new sensations, taking her on dates in the sensorium, and generally being a nice dude who loved to have fun with her -- had come about because teenage Zetta had wanted to get into her pants.

Not that adult Zetta had lost that desire, but all of this had become an end in itself, fun and enjoyable, rather than a means to an end.

"Nothing's hot," he said, confidently. Which, from HIS perspective, was true.

~~But Zetta, Lash didn't wear pants.~~ And to think, none of this would have happened if it wasn't for teenager hormones.

Just as he finished saying that, Lash opened her mouth, releasing a ball of fire, as the cinnamon candy did its job of burning her mouth. Goddammit! Of all the luck! Why did she always go for the spicy hot stuff? Why was candy hot and spicy?! Explosive maybe like the poprocks she'd eaten with Mandy and Hit Girl and Zetta during that Halloween thing, but this was just...okay it sorta tasted really good, but she wasn't sure if she could tolerate more than a few.

The funniest thing, however, was that she attempted to look like this was no big deal at all.

"Thoth tho thad." (Not so bad).

Yeah, them hooking up really was pretty hilariously contrived. Them ending up on this ship. Him becoming a book. Them both de-aging. Getting stuck in the same body... It never, ever would have happened without all of those mostly demeaning, undignified, horrid things.

For this result, and this alone, he was glad for it all. Subconsciously anyway.

"Try a kiki," he said, offering up the sliced fruit.

"Okay!" Ever enthusiastic despite the cinnamon burning sensation, she took the green fruit and put it into her mouth. The tangy taste caught her by surprise considering it was much less sweet than pure candy and cinnamon candy. There was only one problem, as she stood there, cheeks puffed up like she was half afraid she broke something. She remembered the watermelons during the beach party, and wondered if...

"Am I supposed to spit out the seeds?"

"Nope, you can eat those," he said, patient and good-natured with her stupid question as he would be with no one else. He offered up another bowl. "Pomegranate seeds?"

Thank you Zetta. Lash could certainly appreciate that, and would give you the same patient and good-natured attitude when the both of you would do SCIENCE things. Quickly swallowing the kiwi with a gulp, she looked over at what he was holding, at first thinking they were tiny little rubies. But no-no these were fruit of some kind, tiny and gleaming in the sun.

Tentatively, she took six of them. It seemed like a good number to test them out, and she put them all in together. Much like the kiwi, she was at first hit by the sour, but it was somehow more pleasant...

Oh wow. For some reason these tasted better than great! Her face didn't shy away from this either, as she broke into a smile.

"These are great," she finally managed to say, taking just another, and making it stand against the sun. "Do they come from trees?"

Lash, if you keep looking like that, Zetta is going to just start making out with you and no one will remember dessert.

"Yeah, they're a fruit." He opened his hand and conjured the image of a pomegranate proper into it. "I figured I better start you with the seeds, though, since the actual fruit looks like this."

He slit open the skin with a claw and popped the pomegranate into halves, to reveal the seeds inside it.

Well, the ice cream wasn't melting, so they had all the time in the world (figuratively). Maybe they could have it afterwards if it came to that. After seeing him slice the fruit, Lash walked over to where the Overlord was, taking a half from him and holding it in her hand, admiring the semi-transparent red fruit seeds stuck in the nooks of the fruit.

"So it's a bunch of rubies with an ugly shell. Tee hee hee! It's just like an eatable fruit geode." No wonder she liked it so much. Geodes, and Thundereggs now that she thought about it, were a godsend to the wunderkind in her rare executions to the volcanoes, as much as she hated them back home. Thankfully, that loathing had steadily lowered itself here, but her appreciation for the geological rocks had only increased. She tended to try to find a few to snag back before returning to the Black Hole base, studying the crystals which ended up helping her immensely when she figured out how to do the Black Crystals structures a few years later. No one ever touched them but her, which is why it was almost a sort of semi-secret of what they really held inside...

"Here!" she held up what honestly looked like a boring, simple rock and, then realize it would be even better to show two examples, put the pomegranate half on the table and made another stone appear, grinning as she offered both to him. "This one's a geode. That one's a thunderegg. They show up in volcanoes due to high temperatures and pressure and..." Lash stop babbling so much. "...I'll let you open them first. Do it exactly like how you opened up the fruit!" she instructed, waiting. There was the risk Zetta had seen either stone structures before, but Lash assumed and guessed he wasn't the type to pick up normal-looking rocks just to look at them. The Overlord had far more important things to do than that!

But when he did slice it open, the stone would show its true colors. The geode presented endless pieces of amethyst were cramped together inside, and the thunderegg, contrasted brightly with a series of red crystals inside, ending with a raw ruby in the middle. They had been her sources of power for a lot of her inventions, actually. Lash didn't even realize how the even amethyst and ruby stones fit them and their colors.

"Huh. What's the difference between a geode and a thunderegg?" he said as he took the former in one hand and sliced through the rock with a claw as effortlessly as he'd sliced through the fruit. (No demon ever needed a knife to peel citrus!)

Making an odd noise at the amethyst, he set the two halves of the geode down, then opened the thunderegg the same way. Then, as he awaited her answer, he casually carved out the ruby from the center and held it up to one blank white eye. With a claw carefully extended he began splitting and shaving the gem to form it into a worked product.

"Apart from the rocks you find inside? Not much. They are both formed near volcanoes from lava flow. Geodes are hollow, and thundereggs are solid." Perhaps a very broad term to describe all of it, but she didn't want to get too technical about it either. "Both have rhyolite shells; both were formed in air bubbles created by volcanic activity. Both were a pain to harvest back at home," she added, marveling how he was just slicing it so easily when it had required lasers, saw-blades and precision water pumps back at home to get them just the right slices. Geeze those claws could really be dangerous weapons...

"Oh and the best thing? After a couple of trips where I got all the materials I needed, I ended up finding a cavern filled with giant clear crystals! Taller than ten--no twenty times more than you are! Too bad it was right under the volcano and so how you needed cooling suits for it. Von Bolt didn't think it would be useful. It was only when the Bolt Guard came in that they looked at the idea of harvesting them for nefarious purposes. That's how I ended up making the Black Obelisks!"

Being a demon was awesome, Lash. It's like being a human, but BETTER and more AWESOME. Someday you'll get to try it!

He listened to her prattle on about light rhinos and volcanoes without any real comprehension, still working away at the gem in his hand. "Huh. I think I've seen a crystal field or two like that in my time. Nice background scenery for battles."

As long as she didn't have to die right now. After all, Black Hole Life expectancy already was lower than the average human, she'd live THIS awesome life first. Also she'd argue she could do a lot of the BETTER things with science.

"Really?" she replied, surprised, although it made sense. The place was supposed to be hot and it did have a few volcanoes, right? "No one was harvesting them either? You'd think someone would want to use crystals for lasers..." Especially since demons could probably cut and drag one from themselves, if Zetta chipping away told her anything. "What are you doing?" she finally asked, unable to see completely, his hands blocking it.

"It's a big cosmos, Lash, there are probably countless crystal caverns out there. The odds that the one I'm in is being harvested is prety low, all things considered. After all, when it comes to weapon technology, lasers are mostly in sword form." He chuckled, eager to see just what revolutions to battle and destruction Lash would bring to the Netherworld.

He opened his hand to offer her the cut ruby. Nothing special -- seriously, admitted-feelings or not he'd feel like an idiot if he cut her some big dumb gem heart thing -- but hers. At least until they left the Sensorium.

She had to laugh at that. Sometimes so stuck up in her Wars World mentality, Lash forgot how huge the entire cosmos must be. A reminder of how much she had wanted to visit the stars as a child and what let to her building those spaceships, rockets and satellites. "That's true! Considering everything is made of carbon..." She stopped, realizing what she was saying. "Well, I think. Logically, scientifically they should be." A pause. "Ship's been pretty good at surprising me, so who knows?" Yeah that's right, toss that logic out the window, it might do you a bit of good.

"Ooooh!" her eyes lit up and she took the ruby in her left hand, admiring it in the sunlight. "Thank you." Lash had, admittedly, not been giving many things in her life like this, and she smiled quietly for a few seconds, turning it over to look at the cut surfaces. You could almost think of her as a girl, then, if you blinked just the right way...

...But, not really knowing what else to do with it (it's not like Black Hole was known for their bling, even Kindle wasn't one to wear jewelery on her person), she made a giant laser appear, pressed a few buttons and plopped the gem right in the delicate middle holder. Quickly closing the door, she fired a test at the nearby ship...cutting it in two perfectly. There wasn't even a need for a charge up like usual.

Sorry Prinnies.

"Tee hee hee! That's amazing! I've never had a ruby THAT clear cut perfectly before."

It was, perhaps, maybe not quite the typical reaction most girls would have getting a gemstone offered to them, but it was probably part of the reason why they were such a good fit.

If Zetta were a normal guy, or even had any slightest illusions that he was dating a normal girl, sure that might have been weird or even disappointing. But Zetta had known exactly what she planned to do with the thing the moment he started carving it apart, and he also knew that when offered the choice between stupid jewelry or weapon components, she'd value the latter more highly, and be that much more grateful for the gift.

"I'll try to get you a real one sometime," he said, watching the Prinnies flailing and trying to deploy the live preservers, which were in fact actually giant candy circles that slowly dissolved in the water.

Trying to imagine Lash with any kind of jewelery for wearing as rather odd in itself. She didn't even have her ears pierced.

The sugar only attracted the two monsters. A few minutes later, all that was left was floating candy. Well that had been fun...were they not eating ice cream at one point? She grinned and settled down on a chair again.

"Maybe if we get lucky we'll end up on a planet make up just with Crystal Caverns. Imagine all the things we could make from that!" If Lash was in charged, she'd insist on those types of missions once in a while. "I do know how to make laboratory rubies and diamonds, if that helps."

Stuff like that was all secondary anyway. She was in good shape and cute, everything else was pretty secondary appearance-wise.

And yes, they had been eating ice cream; in fact, once Lash was done watching the carnage and had settled down in a chair again, Zetta offered her a bowl he'd prepared for her. It was pretty heavy on, well, just about everything; enjoy three scoops of different flavors, with toppings galore and fudge and caramel coating.

"But they aren't the same or something?"

Lash couldn't even identify half of the stuff he had put in the giant bowl (basically anything he had made show up, pretty much), but she confidently took a single bite from the entire thing and was won over. Wooow. This was even better than chocolate pudding, and that was saying something. Just...give her a minute before answering.

"Well sorta," she finally answered, spinning her spoon in her hand as she spoke. "It requires pure alumina, which we could only get in some part of Black Hole. Most of the deposits were in Green Earth. As you can guess they didn't want to share. Apart from that, it requires a lot of energy to produce, but they were always easier and perfect than mined rubies."

Take that nature! Science was always better! Almost.

While she was talking, she had been preparing a bowl for the Overlord as well. Unlike Zetta's Lash had been carefully constructing it, first laying out some of the ice and whipped creams and using that as a floor and ground base to make walls out of cookies, piling in the sweets in the middle before adding more whipped cream and forming a roof on top. A single candy corn was planted on top, rose gloriously above the rest. The fudge and caramel were splattered on the sides, like a sea around the taller building.

No, no, he's fine with taking that minute. It gave him a good chance to appreciate the look on her face as she became acquainted with all the various tastes and flavors. It was a good sight.

He watched her construct one for him with some confusion, which basically amounted to 'why the hell is she being so weirdly elaborate?'. Zetta hadn't to this point considered that her urge to build and construct might run deeper than just weapons and vehicles... but with her brains, he could see how putting order to the environment could just be second nature.

But wait, if she did that, why did she like destroying it all so much?

...hell with it, he was just gonna enjoy watching her work, and make interested noises while she talked.

Lash's reasons were somewhat simple -- the same reason why people made giant mountains of leaves in fall, only to throw themselves into the pile afterwards destroying all that careful work. Organizing gave her control over something be it an area, a weapon, a vehicle or just an ice cream sunday, but destroying meant complete control over it.

Not that she wanted to destroy Zetta's dessert now, which strangely enough showed how much she cared. There were some things that didn't require to be destroyed (although arguably nearly everything needed a self-destruct button). Instead she presented it to him, grinning, carefully holding up the plate so nothing on that delicately made structure would fall down. At least not until Zetta had said so.

"Tada! I'd make it more with fireworks, but all I had were poprocks."

No one let Lash find out about those sparkler cake decorations. At least now science talk was done.

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