Disclaimer: Guyver belongs to Yoshiki Takaya, I'm just borrowing
it. *shrug* Heck, none of the characters even appear in this
chapter.
C&C to sovereign_1701@hotmail.com
Website at
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/Hypetia/index.html
And now, on with the show :}
CH 1
Discovery
Aleshia couldn't sleep.
Why had she had to come here?
Why the southern hemisphere?
It was winter in June, for
crying out loud! Shivering, Aleshia fumed.
She was not a winter person
and even this tour of the archeological site wasn't enough to
balance out spending a night like this.
Stupid brokendown bus.
The frigid air curled warmly
around her body, the blanket giving neither warmth nor
protection against the plunging temperatures.
She arose in exasperation and
walked out into the wee hours of the morning, leaving her tent
and fellow tourists behind. The bright moonlight gave her
brown skin a pale overlay and gleamed in her mussed up hair.
Clouds of gossamar white
billowed in front of her as she regarded the dig.
Her tour group had originally
planned to leave for their appointed hotel, but the bus had
broken down, leaving them stranded at the Cronos dig.
Cold stone leeched the heat from her
feet. Shivering, she made her way down to one of the caves
abandoned as containing nothing of significance. Clad only in
her navy blue sleepwear, Aleshia drifted down like a shadow,
blending in perfectly with the dark rocks around her as the
gibbous moon shone down.
Desolation and silence hung in
the air as she explored the entrance with her fingers and cursed
herself for not bringing a torch. She debated going back for
one, but didn't really want to go through all that effort when
she would be returning in a few minutes anyway.
Aleshia cautiously made her way
deeper into the cavern, trailing her hand along the wall, which
is how she ended up in a dead end offshoot.
She was about to turn back and
give up her midnight venture, when her hands encounered a small
alcove well hidden from sight, the only way to find it was as
she had done - by touch.
Intrigued, she managed to fit
herself into the passageway sideways and shuffled along it thus
until her questing fingers encountered the termination of the
little cul-de-sac. Irrationally disappointed and shivering from
the cold, she was preparing to retrace her steps when her foot
nudged something proped up against the wall, though she only
knew about it because of the noise it made when it tipped over -
her feet were too numb to feel it by that time.
Intrigued, she manuevered the object
along with her foot as she shuffled out of the alcove.
Her frozen fingers couldn't
make out any specifics beyond the facts that whatever it was was
circular and somewhat thick.
The layers of dust and cobwebs
that had managed to cling to it up till then decided to come
loose and permeated the air, causing Aleshia to suppress a
sneezing fit. Suddenly terribly aware of the cold, she hurried
back to camp. As she hid her discovery in her suitcase she was
thankfull that she had not yet accumulated enough souviniers to
fill her extra space. Grumbling briefly about shoddy busses, she
fell asleep, still shivering, unaware that her life was about to
change beyond her wildest imaginings.
The following day another bus was
sent and the packing was hasty and hectic.
Aleshia had no time to spare
to reflect on her pre-dawn exploration as she yawned her way
onto their transport, and once seated she fell quickly asleep.
They kept busy the entire day to get back on schedule, so it was
only in her hotel room that she thought of her find; she waited
until her roomates were otherwise occupied outside the room, as
she was strangely reluctant to reveal her prize to anyone,
before she extracted the object and studied it in surprise.
Maybe it isn't an artifact after all, she thought, regarding the
three sections of covering and the tube-like coils wound around
inside them. What cinched it, however, was the metalic orb in
the middle of the fat disc - she doubted very much that the
ancient tribes of South Africa could have made something like
this thousands of years ago.
The orb was still burnished
and smooth to the touch.
The slight blue glow of the
orb went unnoticed as the voices sounded outside the door and
the door began to open.
Aleshia stuffed the disc back
in it's place quickly to keep from having her roomate ask
questions about her find. And so the trip went, they saw the
sights and visited the landmarks, days flying by swiftly as they
traveled from Graaff-Reinet to Cape Town, to Jo'burg, where
their plane left for home.
Aleshia circumvented customs
by storing her find in her luggage rather than her carryon,
which she did quickly before they headed for the airport.
Upon her return to the good old U.S.
of A., she was met and soundly greeted by her mother and
brother.
Rather than join her on her
trip, Mom had opted to stay at home and just relax, while Kevin
had, after an anguished debate, decided to go to a computer
camp.
After returning to her home,
located a ways out from the actual town,
and recovering from her
jetlag, she found herself alone in her room the next day. Unpacking her clothes, she took
out the disc and placed it carefully on her bed.
Her family was out; Helen, her
mom, was out shopping, and Kevin had gone into town with her
since their second car was in the garage for a squealing
fanbelt.
Aleshia had decided against
going with them because she wanted a moment of privacy after the
forced closeness of the tourgroup - and she wanted to
investigate the disc. So she finished unpacking, which
mostly consisted of throwing things in the laundry hamper, and
sat crosslegged on her bed. She ran her hands over the the light
blue outside covering of the disc. The exterior felt leathery, yet
was firm and unyielding against her probing fingers.
The coils inside felt cool and
dry, almost like a snake's skin.
Gently stroking the center
orb, the metal felt warm, and seemed almost to be glowing.
Aleshia frowned. That wasn't possible, was it?
Maybe it was more modern than
the dust and cobwebs had led her to believe.
Heck, what did she know, it
might have been hidden in the alcove only a year or so.
She leaned closer to look for
an activation switch or battery cover.
The coils began to move, at
first sluggishly, then picking up the pace.
The orb glowed stronger, the
light pulsed once, twice, three times, and exploded.
Not literally, but it certainly
seemed that way to Aleshia.
The trio of surface coverings
sprang open, releasing the restive coils swirling that
undulating beneath them.
Aleshia drew in a breath of
surprise and belated fear as the coils, now moist and warm,
wrapped about like an overzealous lover, clinging to every part
of her and covering her from head to foot.
She tried to jerk away, to
escape, but it had been too late from the moment the disc had
opened it's maw.
Still, she threw herself
backwards as the coils began to flow together and tightend about
her.
She began screaming in ernest
when she realized that the thing was invading her, through her
very pores, it seemed.
It flowed down her throat,
coating her insides, entered through her ears and nose, she
could almost feel it spreading in pulsing waves to her very
center, every organ, tissue, cell, was radiating pain and shock.
Her mind was adrift in a sea of pain and change and she screamed
her pain, not noticing that her voice shifted, gained an
overtone of metal, an almost synthetic echo.
The armour began to harden and
firm, taking on shape and form about her. Neural connecions were
established, muscles and organs were stengthened, made resiliant
and healthy. Suit systems were organized and
adjusted for their host. Features began to appear on the
humaniod blob. The control medal first, followed by eyes,
sensors, and weapons. The armour settled into it's final
configuratrion and a new Guyver lay prone across her bed.
Meanwhile, on the long driveway leading up to
the house, Kevin was running full tilt.
Having finished his business
in town, he'd caught a ride partway back to the house, on the
path leading up to it, he'd heard a faint scream coming from the
distant house.
Time passed. Because there was no threat, nor
anything that could be construed to be one, the Guyver unit lay
quiescent. Slowly, inch by inch, Aleshia floated to
conciousness.
She saw her ceiling, sharp and
different; familiar, yet not.
Details were sharper and
colours more varied.
Cautiously, she raised herself
up on her elbows, confused and wary of more pain. She knew something had happended,
but her mid shied away from the event.
Kevin hit the porch and, leaning against the
door with heaving lungs, fumbled frantically with the his bunch
of keys. Shaking, he finally managed to
find the right key and get into the house.
He had no breath left to call
out to his sister as he rushed up the stairs to her room, hoping
she was okay.
Aleshia's hearing picked up a sound, her
sensors swept forward and she focused on the moving something.
Driven by new reactions and
changed insticts, she prepared for a fight as the door opened.
Kevin stood revealed in the doorway,
alarm, anxiousness, and, as he beheld the appartition before
him, shock and confusion written over his face.
Leaning against his sister's
bed was something out of a nightmare; covered with a light blue
armour from head to foot, it's insectoid eyes gleamed menacingly
and a slight hum seemed to emanate from a blade extended from
one of it's elbows.
Aleshia, bewildered, reached towards
her exhausted brother.
"Kevin?" she queried,
"wha-"
Kevin, seeing no trace of his sister,
but only this very dangerous looking thing, assumed the worst,
so when it called him by his name in that strange, synthetic
voice, it broke him from his shock with a new surge of
adrenaline. "Where's Aleshia?"
Not waiting for an answer, he
continued, "Monster! What have you done with her!?" This having been a rethorical
question to which he expected no answer, he charged the thing
and threw a punch at it.
Aleshia seemed to react instictively
as she easily grabbed her brother's arm and flipped him over her
onto her bed. She stared at him, dumbfounded.
"Kev, you idiot. It's me, Ally," she returned his wide eyed gaze
with annoyance. "Why are
you looking at me like..."
Then she noticed her hands. A
layer of dark purple coated her hand; there were ridges on it,
almost as if a thin coil had been wrapped around her palm and
fingers. Turning her hand over she examined the top of it,
observing the hard coverings that completed the strange
gauntlet. There was more however, for the gauntlet did not end
at her wrist, but continued, and continued. In shock, Aleshia
stumbled toward her closet door mirror, needing confirmation.
It refused to register for a
moment - the image couldn't be her, could it? The figure facing her was taller
than she was and covered in some kind of ...armour? She ran her
hands across her face and along the spine that arose from her
forehead swept backwards. The figure in the mirror mimicked her
movements exactly. Her legs folded beneath her and she sat down
abruptly.
Memories of the melding
surfaced in her mind and a scream of denial built within her.
"A-A-Ally?" the whisper floated in
the air behind her.
She twisted around to see Kevin
moving cautiously towards her. The outburst of protest and
denial withered in her throat. She reached out a tentative hand,
which he carefully took in his. Strengthening their grip on each
other, Kevin lowered himself into a crosslegged position and
stared at his changed sister.
He pulled his scattered wits about
him and brought his thoughts to a semblance of order.
"How," he stated, and waited
silently, confused emotions swirling beneath.
Aleshia, her brother's hand acting as
an anchor, drew in a deep breath and began to relate the events
starting with her discovery of the disc.
Aleshia had finished her story and
was currently looking at her brother while he absorbed her
words. "So," he started slowly, "can you take it off?"
"The armour?" she shook her head reluctantly.
"I don't think so.
At least, not by taking it off
piece by piece...."
Kevin regarded the armour
speculatively.
He was silent for a while,
then said, "Have you thought of, of
asking the armour to
go away, or back to the disc form, or whatever"
"What?!" she burst out.
Defensively he explained, "Well it
can't hurt, and I think that it may have some basic commands,
like a computer, almost"
Sensing her non-comprehension
he sighed. "Look, you said it activated when you touched it.
If it's technologically
advanced enough to be touch activated it probably has some way
to control it, and since I don't see any on/off switches..."
Kevin trailed off, "All I'm saying is that it may work in
reverse if you tell it to."
He gave a helpless shrug. "It
can't be any more crazy than what's happened already," he pointed out.
Aleshia nodded in agreement and
rested her head in her hand.
"True"
Both their heads came up as another
car pulled into the driveway. "Mom!" They both exclaimed.
Kevin groaned and glanced at his
watch. "I forgot, she said she'd be home around now."
He looked at his sister in
alarm. "Do we tell her...?"
"No!" came Aleshia's
emphatic answer.
"Please, I couldn't deal
with that right now."
She met his doubtful gaze.
"Let me try to get it off first; if I
can't, we can tell Mom."
"We're going to have to tell her
sooner or later, you know."
"I know."
"Well, I'll go keep her busy. If you're not down in ten minutes
I'll come check on you, 'kay?" he said as he moved to implement
his plan, not giving her the opportunity to reply.
Aleshia tried to calm herself
down and shut away the outside world.
Not that she was all that
successful at the second part, some kind of sensors kept her
informed of her surroundings and possible danger sources at all
times.
Still, she managed to narrow
her concentration down, and directed a thought at the disc, as
she still thought of it.
Go away,
she
sent at it. There was a slight reaction, she could feel it, but
nothing happened.
She tried again.
Leave me-go away-get off me!
This time the reaction was
obvious and immediate - she felt the armour
twist away found
herself sitting on her floor, sans armour. She ran her hands over herself in
disbelieving elation, touched the mahogany skin of her face for
confirmation, simply looking at her reflection for a number of
minutes, then bounded down the stairs to greet her mother.
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