Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip... dripdrip. Drip, drip, drip...
The figure in the next cell - if "cell" was the right word for such jury-rigged accomodations - tossed and turned, restlessly.
"Coordinator kid... Will you never get tired of listening to the water drip?"
The dark-haired boy grimaced.
"...I can't figure out where it's coming from, and it's driving me nuts... Do you think that can be on purpose?"
The man in the next "cell" shrugged beneath his covers.
"Pretty low-key for a interrogation technique, kid. - Could you take a look at Steller, if you're up already?"
OK, monkey look, monkey see... Damn. He was going to end up with a permanently bent neck at this rate...
"Sleeping. She looks OK... I mean, the docs here seem to be much better at..."
Treating her like a human being, right.
"So, how does that go. Sometimes, singing like a canary is the right and proper thing?"
The scarred man winced.
"I sing much prettier then any canary, brat. - There was not much reason to withhold information anyway, any more."
Not when it could keep Steller alive, that was for sure.
"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that. I'm not complaining, that's for sure. - Not that that means I'm not gonna whip your ass, anyhow."
"Whatever, kid... Wait..."
The soft footsteps in the corridor paused, then went on.
"Seems she's not coming tonight... Disappointed?"
"I... am not."
"Yeah, yeah... Well, she might come later, one can always hooopee... She really is "Miss Beautiful", isn't she now?"
The boy sneered, though strangely good-naturedly. The man just sighed.
What bothered him most of all sometimes was that the Coordinator boy not once asked him just why he'd boosted Steller up in that monster suit, to stampede through Berlin.
Children that age shouldn't just understand those things.
Once upon a time not so long ago, the man called Neo Roanoke thought, he'd thought he knew what he was.
He wasn't too sure, though, any more.
"Why don't you try to go to sleep instead of tossing and turning like that? I'll wake you up if "Miss Beautiful" comes a-calling - if you're too woozy to wake up yourself, that is?"
"Oh, be quiet, you."
The Coordinator boy in the next "cell" really did have a way with words, sometimes...
"...Neoo...?..."
And that voice was -
"Steller! You've woken up!"
"Steller! Are you all right!?"
Damn... Maybe he should have tried to ask them to put him in the "cell" the boy was in now, but if they'd done that, the boy wouldn't be able to see Steller's Medibed.
"...Shin. Shin? -Steller is..."
"Yeah, yeah, how are you feeling?"
"...Better. ...Steller is better, yes."
She sounded hazy but not hysterical, thank goodness. There was the sound of a small yawn.
"...Steller's still tied down, though..."
"Yeah, yeah, that's all right, don't fight them or you'll hurt your arms and feet, OK?"
The was a short pause.
"...Neo?"
" - Here, Steller."
"...Oh. Neo is all right?"
"Yes. Now rest."
The boy looked at him, and sneered. Now how anybody could manage to look both cold and somehow good-natured at the same time...
"The dumbfuck lier who threw you into that bloody monster suit is in the cell on the other side, so you can't see him, but don't worry about it, Steller. ...He's alright."
"...'kay, then..."
"...What about Sting and Auel?"
Neo bit his lip. Yes, she would remember that, despite and still, wouldn't she?
"They aren't here, Steller."
Auel was dead, Sting was - Sting probably had been taken away and "reprogrammed", already.
Neo was surprise to find that the thought of that still hurt.
(Posted Sat, 27 May 2006 14:33)
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