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New Generaiton Heroes Ep4. The Hunters Exams And The New Under Ground Street Fighter REE!


Ryoka: I'm really worried about Ree, Mass...
She hasn't been to school or any where, ever since her and the others went to seabed...

VICE: Hm...

Ryoka: Shes just been out side the house all day punching on that punching bag...

VICE: Is she training for something?

Ryoka: No...

VICE: Hm... Ayu hasn't been her self lately either... Hows Ibuka?

Ryoka: Well, she seems alot more happier and out going now a days

VICE: I'll have a talk with Ree.

Ryoka: Ok


(Mean while at Moon Light High)


Ibuki: Alright class listen up. Today is the day of the final Hunters Exam.
If you pass this. Then you'll have the right to be known as Pionner 2's Hunters
And will be rewerded with a Hunters License.

Ayu: Wow did you hear that Ibuka?

Ibuka: Yeah, I can't believe it either!

Nel: Heh, So i'll be known as a hunter by passing this test eh? Hm...

Amiens: This maybe fun then

Otaru: Now the test will work like this, You all will be in a party of four

Nel: What?!

Ibuka: Really?

Groku: Yes! And all of you well be going into V.R Training!

Ayu: V.R Training!? Thats a bit Hardcore ain't it!?

Groku: If you wanna be Hunters then you'll have to go through this test

Ibuka: Ayu.. Whats V.R?

Ayu: V.R means "Virtua Reality Training"

Nel: Wait a min. Your saying that were gonna be training like that?

Ayu: Seems like it... But i'm wondering how on earth... How did they get a V.R System in school
with out telling the students or anything about it? ....

Amiens: Hm.. I've never heard Miles speak of the V.R System before...
Wonder does he know something about it...

Ayu: Ms Cary, Are sure we're ready for something like this?
I mean the V.R system is really dangerous... And how did this school get a V.R system?
As i remember reading... That the V.R Stage are The Lab's Programs and still being tested

Groku: Heh, I see we have a book worm in the class... You know alot about this stuff girl
a little too much then you should know

Ibuki: I'm not sure how we got this V.R System in are school. But don't worry...
If anything goes wrong i'll end the program.

Ayu: Hmm...

Ibuki: Master Ryu, Me and both your Mothers gone through V.R training before.
You girls have a gift that can get you through this

Ibuka: We do Master Ibuki?

Ibuki: Yes... You girls have the same will power as your father did.. To never give up..
Which why i loved him... And i love you girls too.
And i'll make sure nothing will ever happen to anyone of you girls

Ayu: *Smiles* Alright

Ibuka: Hehe, Thanks mom... (Ibuka then huged Master Ibuki)

Otaru: Mom?

Nel: What?

Ayu: Hehe

Ibuki: I guess i've really never told anyone. But i'm Ibuka's God Mother

Ayu: Yeah. So just in case something does happen to Ryoka.
Then Ibuka and Ree will still have a Mother

Ibuki: Now you guys get ready for the training

(They rushed off to get there gear together)


Otaru: I would have never have thought...

Groku: How can an Andriod be a God Mother? Blah!

(Ibuki Then press her ID Symbol in and changed back to her old Andriod looking self and said)

Ibuki: I maybe an Andriod.. But i asure you. I'm not a normal Andriod. I may be more Human
Then you Groku. (Then she changed back to her human looking form) Even if i'm a droid...
I still look after those girls like there my own...

Groku: Sounds like a wanna be human to me... Why don't you have your own children...
Oh that's right i forgot.. Your an Andriod.. You can't

Ibuki: Heh, You have no idea what i can do Mr Groku.

(As she walked away she turn around and said...)

Ibuki: And by the way Groku... I can have children...

(She said and then left to go meet the students)


(Mean while on Ree's side)


Ree: Grrha!

(She was punching on the punching bag for quite some time now)

VICE: Hey there Kiddo... If you keep punching on that bag like that...
It's not gonna be much useful later...

REE: Oh, Sup Aunt Vice

VICE: Whats the matter? Your mom been telling me you been out here alot...
And i think your friends are starting to worry about you

REE: It's nothing... Ha!

VICE: Hm..

(REE Kept continueing Punching The Bag)

VICE: You know that punching bag is gonna fight back you know...

REE: I know...

VICE: Well i asked your mom if i could take you some where to cool off,
And she said it was ok, wanna come?

REE: Hm..

VICE: Don't worry... If you love punching stuff.. Your gonna love where i'm taking you

REE: Ok... Let's go


(As they got in the car Ree asked Vice where were they going)

VICE: I'm taking you to my job! (She said as she smiled)

REE: Your job?

VICE: Yep... It's the darkest area in Pionner 2


(A Few Hours Later They Finally Got There)


REE: What is this place Aunt Vice?

VICE: It's where i work

(They got out of the car and walked into the build)

REE: Whoa...

(Ree could hear fighting sounds... Yelling & People Screaming In pain)
(The sounds were so horrable untill it would make a normal person too afraid to enter)

VICE: This place is the underground fighting dome... Battlers from all over come here

REE: Really?

VICE: Yep! And half of this place belongs to me...

REE: It does?!

VICE: Hunting doesn't pay much like it use too... So i went a head and got help to build
a fighting dome. Where most of the best battlers show up...
I was a underground fighter while i was a hunter too.
My friends weren't people i met by going Hunting... I met them by being a Battler...

REE: I see... Does Ayu know about this?

VICE: She does... But the rest don't...

??: Ah! It's the queen of this dome her self

VICE: Heh, Hey Ace.

Ace: Whos the kid with you?

VICE: Shes my niece. I bought her to fight

REE: What!?

Ace: Really? Heh, Well some new blood will be nice around here

REE: Aunt! I can't fight in this place! I'll be killed!

VICE: Naw you won't die... Although...

That was really tight Danzavare. I really hope to here later n_n

((*peeks in* Hope this isn't too dead to do a little posting in. ^^; I'd offer a visual aid for the main character of this little bit of prose, but as a PS2 player, I can't get screenshots. x_x And my subscription ends on the 27th this month, so I'm not sure I'll -ever- have any. ^^; But anyway!

Note: "JAIS" is pronounced like Jace, yay acronyms!))




Nine days, fourteen hours, twenty-seven minutes, and forty-two seconds. It was the exact length of time he'd been under the custody of the Alliance Military, staring thoughtlessly past the sterile beige ceiling he'd become all too used to.

Nine days too long, for the vast amounts of nothing he had accomplished.

JAIS never was one to stand still. Neither was any other Guardian, really, but this one felt exceptionally repressed from his captivity. Thin layers of dust had even started to collect between the joints in his armor, not yet having a chance to dull his burnished steel and royal burgundy. Strands of flaxen waves lied in disarray around his face and shoulders, sharing in the disheveled air that surrounded the CAST and his environs.

He certainly didn't make any attempts at looking hopeful, to say the least.

Dull thrumming from remote mechanisms and photon field generators in the holding cell 'doors' was the only noise in the place. In many ways, it was worse than total silence; nothing but that droll hum, day in and day out(not that he could tell night from day by anything except his chronometer lately). The too-rhythmic march of the occasional guard patrol tried to break the monotony, but failed miserably for the few around to hear it.

JAIS dared to slump further into the one corner of the cell he'd called home for the past week. He wasn't entirely sure why he was even being held, all he made out was some shouted nonsense about 'an illegally obtained synthesis board' and 'preserving GRM's integrity'.

Yeah, GRM and integrity go real well together, he mused to himself without bothering to grin at his own piercing wit. It was well known that GRM, the largest conglomerate in all of Gurhal, was involved in some shady activity before, but that opinion had become all but fact in the past month. Talk of experiments with native animals and SEED had even led the masses to acknowledge the hasty accusation that they were behind the new SEED-Form that had been reported in several Guardian outings. There was still reasonable doubt about such a ludicrous claim, but it wasn't anything JAIS bothered with thinking about.

All he could be bothered to think about now was what was going to happen once someone finally came for him. If someone finally came for him. What if there really wasn't anyone coming? If the AMF was just going to hold him in here forever? What would happen then--

scritch, scritch...

JAIS shot up with a start, wide hazel eyes immediately affixing to the wall directly to his left. The scratching wasn't all that loud, but any break in the monotony was enough to send a man in his condition -- however artifical -- into moderate shock. "Wh-who's there?!" A bit loud, perhaps, as a yelp equally as startled as his own emanated from the far wall.

"Not so loud, you'll draw attention!"

Female, hushed... definitely human or some derivative, as it lacked the tinniness that usually accompanied a typical voice synthesizer. Cautiously, he sidled closer to the wall. "Who are you?" This time much quieter, to the relief of all involved.

"Oh, no one in particular. Just another of the AMF's 'suspicious persons'." A wry grin was lost behind the sterile beige wall. "How about you? What're you in for?"

JAIS sighed, inching closer to the wall. "I'm not sure. I was just grabbed up out of nowhere, accused of something, and locked in here before I could even get a word out." He drew himself in, resting his arms on his knees.

A confirmatory hum, then what he assumed must've been a matching nod. "I see. That sort of thing happens all the time around here, it's usually unfounded and people are released quickly."

Quickly? I wish, JAIS almost said. "How quickly?"

"About two or three days. Why, how long have you been here?"

"Nine."

He could've sworn he heard her cringe. "Ouch! Sounds like you really got into something deep, then."

"And I don't even know what it is," he finished, looking to the ceiling for unseen counsel. "I don't remember the Alliance Military being this strict, though. What happened?"

The mystery girl grinned(again lost to the wall), taking on a derogatorily omniscient tone. "Then you haven't been here long; the AMF's been into every affair they can get their grubby CAST hands on ever since Firebreak. It's like they're accusing anyone the least bit suspicious-looking of affiliating with whatever started the whole thing."

Not to mention shouting bloody murder at every Guardian who didn't come running to Parum the second the outbreak happened, JAIS noted with a sneer. "I guess that would make sense."

The awkward pause that traditionally followed the end of a conversation found itself struggling for space before the girl chimed in with another question. "So! What's your name? Figure I might as well get something to call the only other decent voice in this place."

"Jace," he answered phonetically, "What's your--"

"Wait, wait, wait! You don't mean... you're not that Jace, are you? The one that's spelled all weird and acronym-y?"

For the first time in too long, JAIS perked a brow. She knows me? "Yeah, that's me. Why?"

The resulting squeal of delight from the other side of the wall pushed him a few more inches away from it. "I don't believe this! Oh man, you're like the idol of underground synthers! I can't believe I'm actually talking to the JAIS!" He could almost see the woman pressing herself against the wall. "Is it true that your creator named you after herself? Is she even a girl? Oh! And where'd she get your core board? C'mon man, share the wealth!"

JAIS shook his head, fruitlessly raising a hand. "Wait a second, what do you mean by 'the idol of underground synthers'?" He paused to rouse an even more demanding tone, "What do you know about me?!"

"Your creator never told you? Wow... I mean, if anyone would've said something, it would have been her--"

"Get to the point, damn it!"

An audible gasp, pause, then the girl continued meekly, "Your core board, I heard it was snuck out of GRM's top-secret development server!"

Time stopped. "...what?"

"Oh yeah, real heavy-duty stuff! That board was something that was never supposed to see the light of day, and yet someone went out and liberated it to share with every under-the-radar synth specialist to take pride in! Man, I wish I could've been there!"

More words passed emphatically through the wall, but fell to a deaf reception. Never supposed to see the light of day? Top secret...? JAIS's gaze drifted to the concrete floor. "That's not true. Can't be."

"Huh? What'd ya say?"

He shook his head, again to no avail, running vermillion hands through his hair. "Is that... is that why I've been in here? All this time?" In a flash, the scene came flooding back.

Guardian "JAIS", call number MDF-20030253, you are hereby detained by order of the Alliance Military and GRM under suspicion of illegal origin and unauthorized functionality. You will comply or face immediate termination with no final pleas.

"...okay? Hey! Come on, I didn't mean to, uh... do whatever it was I did! Really! I just rant sometimes, it all comes out in a rush! Oh man... I didn't... I didn't crash him, did I?"

No, no... I... I don't understand, he tried to say, hardly noticing none of the words actually made it past his synthesizer, Illegal origin? What... oh Light, Janice, what did you do?

Heavy, measured steps stopped squarely before JAIS's cell. "Detainee number 415-IO-7, designation 'JAIS'." There were no eyes for the startled Guardian to meet.

"It's time."



((Wow, that come out a lot darker than previously intended. XD If you guys like it, I could whip up the second, hopefully lighter, half!))

((And it's part two!))

"So, this is the one, is it?"

JAIS didn't even get time to stumble into the room before he was seized by two pairs of hands and secured to what was, in his mind, some horrible torture device. It was flat, it was cold, and it was angled just enough to keep his gaze from the door. His arms were pinned while being kept extended, which frankly was only uncomfortable because of the situation, and his feet were held roughly a foot apart; all of it kept him from escaping.

The torture began when one of the two men in the room found it a wonderful idea to lean in on the detained CAST close enough to let the human's tepid, moist breath hit him full in the face. JAIS couldn't help but grimace at the sensation, squinting his eyes shut in defiance. Mercifully, the man pulled back to 'hrm' and attend to something else.

"In for being an illegal synth product, eh?" The voice was hoarse and deep, the man behind it had to be at least forty by his intuition. "What is it, er... Jay-ihs? Jah-ees?"

"I think it's just 'Jace'." Younger, possibly a newman from the accent. Useless information, he knew, but any distraction from his situation was more than welcome.

"Oh! Right, thank you." The older man coughed, adjusting a pair of rimless glasses to regard a small tablet in his hands. "Definitely one of ours. A development serial, no less!" He almost chuckled, but was obviously amazed by the discovery. JAIS kept his gaze trained on the wall above the door as the man approached. "You're quite a piece of work!"

The silence was oppressive. Only fair that they share in his captivity, if only for a moment.

Another gravelly laugh. "Not much of a talker, I see." JAIS could barely make out the man tugging at his beard through peripheral vision. More than he wanted to see in any case. "You were certainly chatty while in that cell of yours, weren't you? Yes, talking to that girl, er... what was she in for?"

The younger man sighed. "I don't see what it has to do with anything, but she was being held for spreading anti-AMF propaganda."

"Mm, I see. Quite a naughty little Beast she is!" He grinned widely, petting his beard again. "Why, I wouldn't be surprised if they kept her in there for the rest of her days!"

That was it. JAIS snapped towards the elderly man, eyes full of a potent mixture of disgust and distress. "If you're going to kill me, get on with it already!"

"Oh! Oh my...!" JAIS didn't let up, even as he watched the old human stagger back and grasp at his chest. "Well, at least you can speak." He straightened as much as he could and looked at his tablet again. "No, we're not going to kill you. We're just going to find out why you're here, then we're going to find out if we have to terminate you. We have to follow the proper procedure, you see."

I must be losing it, JAIS decided, hearing his own high-pitched, sardonic laugh echo about the room. "Yeah, procedure. Can't do something as simple as kill a guy without all the red tape, can you?!" He shook his head, glaring daggers at the most outspoken of his captors. "You people sicken me."

"Opinionated, too! Hm-hm, quite impressive." The most dangerous look and vicious tone he could muster, and the guy was still acting like he wasn't there! JAIS spat out a sigh, sparing a glance to the other man in the room. Maybe he could rouse something out of the younger generation...

He put on his best snide grin and ventured again. "And what about you? You've been awfully quiet. Not so trusting of your boss, eh? A bit too far off the deep end for you?"

The silence went right back to smothering him.

Well. JAIS resigned the round of psychological warfare to the meatbags and settled down. The table was still terribly cold, so it couldn't quite be called relaxing, not to mention any man that was fully relaxed in this situation would be totally and utterly mad. Without anything of interest to get out of the organics, he settled on taking in as much about his new surroundings as he could.

Whitewash and pale blue light were sights for sore eyes compared to the stale beige of before. The whole room was well-lit, making the few bits of equipment he could see from his vantage clear and defined. Of course, no amount of definition helped the fact that he had no clue what any of the obscure devices did beyond the two sets of terminal desks flanking the door. The diabolical-looking device off to his right didn't mean well, though, with all those pointy and glowing bits coming off silvery armatures connected to the top of a central pillar he guessed was around his height. His eyes fell to the ceiling again, looking over the blue stripe painted above the door that bore the 'GRM' insignia on the left side of the room.

"It seems we'll have to perform a full matrix exploration."

JAIS was snapped out of his observational trance. He just barely caught the sight of the old human nodding before both him and his newman assistant approached. Each one took some kind of device in hand and came from the sides, connecting the halves to form a sort of visor held just over his forehead. "Wh-what's going on? What're you doing?" He sounded surprisingly meek, nervously looking from one man to the other.

Neither of them offered an iota of reassurance before going to the terminals. The confined CAST figured it was a good time to start struggling again, despite it being proved utterly useless from previous experience. "Wait, stop! What's going--"

There was a terrible, deafening quiet.

The soft light emanating from the Photon Scanner around his head went completely unnoticed. Everything went unnoticed. JAIS laid motionless, eyes wide and staring at nothing. The closest description to the impossible sensation he was experiencing was that several million tiny hands all dove into his head at the same time, poking and prodding at every little tenet of what was considered his mind. The Light was merciful, it seemed, as he failed to notice the twitches and convulsions his body underwent every time the two men tried to sort through all the odd photon formations that made up every thought he ever had.

The only way he could tell time was passing was through the brief pauses at the myriad stabs at his consciousness, and even then it was stretch trying to keep them all sorted out. He even swore he heard the muffled shadows of speech during the lapses, but none of it mattered when the hands went to work again. Every time, they dug a little deeper, touched a little closer to the very things that made him what he was... the things he never thought anyone would ever get that close to.

Closer... closer... don't, please don't go there--

JAIS' expression placated.

"'Hi'? But I'm not taller than you."

Newman and human alike looked to the CAST, looked to each other, then back again.

"Janice...? Is that right?" A pause, then, "Your name... do I have one too?" JAIS' voice had taken on a softer, more unsure intonation, as if he wasn't sure he was even speaking properly. The researchers turned to each other again, said something about something else, and went right back to work. Time passed, the CAST convulsed a few more times, and he could do nothing but succumb to the unrelenting prying.

"You're a Newman, aren't you? What's Neudaiz like? I heard they have that really neat mountain, it's supposed to be beautiful!"

"Wait, where are you going? I-I didn't mean it, really! It won't happen again!"

"Janice, Janice! I did it! I passed the finals, I'm really gonna be a Guardian!"

JAIS suddenly cried out, forcing himself to take back his mind and body. Probably not the wisest move, considering such force wracked every artificial nerve in his body with pain, but he didn't give it a second thought. "Please... just stop..." His plea was weak, broken, barely even audible, but it had to be said if there was even the slightest chance of it making them retreat.

No such luck.

He only managed a choke before the Scanner dove back in, perverting those most sacred sectors that contained his precious memories and kept his mind adhered. He could feel himself moving in ways he didn't mean to, replaying old scenes no one had a right to be watching, twitching when the merciless device poked where it wasn't supposed to.

A scant window opened. "Please..."

Again. "Please!"

He didn't feel the tears. "I'm begging you!"

not

there

don't

"STOP!"

He didn't see the newman run towards him. He didn't hear the sickening crack of plastic and metal. All he sensed was the absence of the hands, and even that was only for a moment. It was as if he were outside his own mind, watching it slowly begin to collapse upon itself.






...


hear me?

can you.... ar me?

Wake up.... wake up!

"Wake up!"

JAIS gasped desperately for air, collapsing into the newman's arms. He didn't even realize he'd been freed from the table, let alone that he was still 'him' and 'alive'. He merely settled for taking in the deepest breaths he could, wondering if anything he'd felt actually happened.

"Are you all right?" The direct address was enough to snap him back to reality. JAIS looked up from his odd vantage, nodded, and tried to stand once realizing he wasn't. "I have to apologize, that never should have happened."

A staggered gasp from his right kept him from forming a proper reply, drawing his attention to the sight of an elderly human staring at a terminal. The image could've been burned in for the time it lasted, but the man finally moved to look at him. "Oh... oh my, this is a terrible, terrible misunderstanding!"

"What?"

"Y-you really must forgive me, I had no idea...!" JAIS looked down at the man, rather perplexed about the embrace he was being held in. "How could I do such a thing to my own work?! Oh Light, take me now!"

"Your own...?"

It was a few awkward moments before the man spoke again. "Yes, you see... the core board used in your synthesis... I wrote it." The man would have looked embarrassed if he wasn't so depressed. "I-I just don't believe how anyone could have gotten a hold of it, let alone used it! I made sure to put it in the developer's garbage server!"

JAIS said nothing, working hard enough trying to comprehend the man's stammering. Thankfully, the newman was much more eager to speak after tossing his elder a dirty look. "The locked server or the public server?"

"...Eh?"

Sigh. "You dropped it in the public one. Again."

"Er, well... I... might have. Possibly." A hoarse cough, then he tapped at a panel beside the door. "Patroller? You can come back now, this man is free to go!"

JAIS stared at the door.

"Free to go?"

"Yes," the newman started, crossing his arms in an attempt to stave off his own sheepish air. "Because the board was on a public server, it wasn't obtained illegally. We have no right to hold you."

"...I can just... go."

"Exactly."

It took a moment for the words to register. Several moments, even minutes for the total lack of sense the entire situation now made as a whole.

"Former detainee number 415-IO-7, designation 'JAIS'. You are hereby relieved of capture and are free to leave the premises at your leisure."



It was another ten full minutes before JAIS finally left.















"Oh... oh! Hey! HEY! Are you alright!? You were all screaming and-and... screaming! Oh Light, tell me they didn't format you, pleeeease tell me they didn't--"

JAIS stopped, turned exactly ninety degrees to the left, and looked plainly at the Beast woman in the cell.

"I'm free to go."

"...buh?"

JAIS turned back. He almost laughed. "I'm free to go."

"...no way. After all THAT?!" The woman leaped to a stand, grabbing the photon bars, yelping, and letting them go again. "You're not telling me something, I know it! You've gotta be hiding something! C'mon, you can tell me, I'm trustworthy! I mean it! C'mooon!"

The Patroller paused, regarded a little beep in the back of his head, and approached the emphatic Beast's cell control. The shimmering bars of photon energy faded out of existance, a sight that confused the poor girl terribly. "Detainee number 887-DC-42, name 'Caradine Firdental', you have been cleared of all charges and are free to leave the--"

Cara didn't even give him a chance to finish his predetermined speech before she leapt all over JAIS. "They DID do something to you! Something that makes you keep quiet about whatever it was they did! But I can fix it, I can fix anything! You just gotta let me help you, come on!" JAIS merely kept walking.

"Please? I've even got those really swanky new A-Photon Path Modifiers! You know what those are right? Right? You just gotta let me work on you! I'll be gentle, I promise!

...

...but not too gentle, heh."

"What was that?"

"NOTHING, nothing at all! Your aural reception must be on the fritz, heh!"