Haruhara Haruko, a.k.a. Haruha Raharu, a.k.a. The Wasp Woman, a.k.a. That Pink-Haired Psycho Bitch, arose from a restless slumber. It wasn’t really because of her surroundings; after all, she’d often had to sleep outdoors on her quest. This was particularly true when she’d just arrived in a new dimension and hadn’t had time to establish any sort of base of operations (preferably in or near the home of a potential N.O. gate). No, her uneasiness the previous night came from internal discomfort, rather than external.
It seemed that Atomsk’s trail had gone cold—the last few dimensions she’d stopped in hadn’t shown any trace of the ultra-powerful space pirate, or of the Medical Mechanica company, for that matter. Two possible explanations floated through Haruko’s mind, neither of them particularly comforting. Either her quarry was proving himself particularly adept at guessing her movements and hightailed it out of whatever dimension he was in before she got there, or she had completely lost track of glowing red bastard and would have to start all over from square one. Haruko knew that the former was much more likely, but she refused to believe that Atomsk could escape her so completely after she’d been so close to claiming his power.
If it weren’t for that kid…. Haruko sighed as she pushed that thought aside. It wasn’t really Naota’s fault—he was just a kid after all, and he was hardly the first impressionable youth who’d fallen for her charms. Really, there was no reason that his declaration of love should have caught her so off guard. Then again, she really did like the kid—he had a certain… spunk to him that she rarely found in other humans. Plus, he was kind of cute, and if the photo of his brother on his desk was any indication, Naota had a reasonably good chance of growing up to be rather handsome— Haruko shook her head vigorously to clear her mind. Ugh—maybe I’m just going soft. There clearly wasn’t any logical reason for her to dwell on Nandaba Naota. The space pirate ran her hands through her unkempt, shoulder-length pink hair as she looked towards the rising sun, blinking at its brightness in an effort to rouse the grogginess from her body. There would be time for relaxation later, when she had a roof over her head. For now, she needed to see if this new world had any evidence of Atomsk, or at the very least a likely N.O. gate she could exploit. At least she hadn’t run across any recently—she was not in the mood to talk to her superiors right now. She stretched her arms over her head and picked up the new bass guitar she’d recently acquired. She’d tried using the red double-necked guitar she’d gotten after her final battle with Naota, but it was just too unwieldy for her. That, and she’d never really developed the proper calluses to properly mash her fingers on the tiny strings of a standard six-string electric guitar, and to top it all off, it was right-handed. So, she’d sent that guitar in to her superiors (to prove that she’d gotten something out of the mess in Mabase), and to replace it, Haruko decided to finally order a left-handed B.C. Rich Platinum Series Warlock Bass, which she subsequently modified for use as a weapon. It was a pretty good investment: in addition to looking unbelievably cool, it performed almost as well as her old Rickenbacker 4001, both on and off the battlefield.
She idly strummed the bass riff from Pink Floyd’s “Money” as she took an assessment of her surroundings. Wherever she was, she was in a really boring part of it—nothing that notable in the landscape at all, at least in her opinion, and the only sign that there was any sort of civilization in this world was a road some distance away.
Haruko sighed yet again as she strapped the Warlock onto her back and put on her helmet and goggles in preparation for the next leg of her journey. With any luck, she’d find a town reasonably soon—
The space pirate abruptly stopped her train of thought as she stared at the bracelet around her wrist. The ring… it was twitching. Not much, but enough that it couldn’t be explained by the wind, or momentum from her own movements. A smile came to her face. Perfect! Maybe my luck is starting to pick up again. I’ll get you yet Atomsk!
She peeled out her yellow Vespa on to the road, heading in the general direction of the ring’s twitches, and soon zoomed past a solitary road sign informing her that she was on her way to:
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(Posted Thu, 12 Oct 2006 08:48)
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