"Good evening, Ataru."
A shocked cry escaped the young man currently reclined on a futon -- which, in itself, was stretched out over the stipe of an alien mushroom whose base was planted into the floor of the living room one floor below and whose pileus was suspended several metres beyond the roof. Bolting up, Moroboshi Ataru looked wildly around the room for a moment before his eyes fixed on the dark shadow presently standing by his linen closet. Seeing the glowing eyes of the being standing there, a terrified scream surged up his throat.
One that was quickly silenced by a wave of the visitor's hand. The overhead light snapped on to reveal a grey-haired man looking distantly like Sean Connery, he dressed in a white, ankle-length cape draped all around him. "There's no need for that, Ataru," the visitor assured him in accent-less Nihon-go. "I wished to speak to you on a matter of great importance. And I have no desire to put up to your so-called 'friends,' much less your so-called 'wife' . . . " -- his eyebrow arched on saying that word before he asked, "Or do you actually see her as that?"
The Doctor tried not to smile too much as he sensed Ataru's mind instantly go to work. Finally, after a space of time much more brief than anyone native to Tomobiki might have suspected him using in a situation like this, Ataru then snapped, "Who says she's my wife?!" Fortunately for him, the Doctor had allowed him to speak. "Who are you, anyway?! Don't you know . . .?"
"You have a 'tag race' to run tomorrow." Ataru was quick to sense the mental quotations his visitor had just placed over the phrase that had come to represent the turning point in his life over a year ago. "Yes, I am aware of that, Ataru. That is why I am here to speak to you." A steely look then crossed the Doctor's face. "How would you like to put a stop to this whole situation tonight?"
Ataru blinked as he took in that statement, and then he sneered. "How?! The only way Lum'll agree to get rid of that memory-erasing device is if I either tag her horns or else . . . "
"Admit that you love her," the Doctor finished for him when he paused.
A nod. "Yes."
"A situation you do not like, correct?"
He growled. "Who wouldn't?"
"That is the reason I am here tonight, Ataru."
A blink. "What do you mean?"
"To colloquially phrase it, you have a gun stuck in your back," the Doctor explained. "You are being forced to play along with Lum's attempt at forcing you to bow to her will. By making Rupa keep the Yaminokuni mushrooms alive and active on Earth, she has placed the planet's whole biosphere in grave danger. By deploying that memory-altering device from her father's cruiser, she now has the means to wipe out the memories of everyone here in Tomobiki of her presence and the presence of her friends from beyond Earth since your first 'tag race' eighteen months ago. She has given you two choices to end this situation. The first one is quite difficult for you to achieve due to her flying abilities. The second one, you are loath to admit since it would, in your mind, force you down a road you do not wish to traverse at this time in your life. No other choices." Seeing Ataru gape in shocked disbelief at his causal dissertation of the present situation, the Doctor tried not to smile as he asked, "Not fair, isn't it?"
The younger man blinked several times before he breathed out, "No."
"Care to change that?"
Ataru perked. "How?"
A finger was raised. "Allow me to demonstrate."
With that, the Doctor stepped to the balcony of Ataru's bedroom. Opening the window, he then took a deep breath before screaming out:
"YIZIBA!"
The scream echoed over the city. Not a second later, the panicked cry of one Ran echoed from her spaceship, "WHO SPOKE THE UNSPEAKABLE NAME?!"
Benten. "WHO SAY THAT, ANYWAY?!"
Carla. "ARE THEY-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED HERE?!"
Ten. "I'M SCARED! LUM-CHAN, SAVE ME!"
Lum. "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?! WHO SAID THAT?!"
As further cries of panic and fear-driven anger echoed over Tomobiki from the aliens currently there, the Doctor turned to gaze knowingly at Ataru. The latter's jaw was dragging on the floor in disbelief. "How . . .?"
"In this universe of ours, Ataru, there are always those who are always stronger," the Doctor explained. "That name is the name of a planet by which Lum and all her friends and acquaintances are quite well aware of. A planet none of them wish to deal with." He smiled again. "Observe again." With that, he leaned once more outside to scream out:
"FIGHT SCENE!"
Again, that shout echoed over all of Tomobiki. The cries of anger and panic from the aliens Ataru knew of instantly turned into a rolling shriek of fear. Coming to the window of look outside, he was quick to sense the sounds of Ran's spaceship closing up. Within seconds, it was blasting off from its lot near the Moroboshi home, racing into the heavens. No doubt, heading back to Uru itself.
"Damn . . .!" he breathed out.
The Doctor gazed at him. "Intrigued?"
Ataru returned his look. "How?" he repeated himself again.
The Doctor smirked. "A planet where all living there -- man, woman and most children -- are metahumans of one sort or another. Some with power that would even outstrip that of Kal-El (whom you know of as Superman). A planet that has rejected all the past limitations society forced on their ancestors since their evolution into a race of metahumans forced them to find another way. A planet that, in the long run, could not be accepted by leaders of those races of 'norms' (such as Benten's or Rupa's) or 'sames' (such as Lum's or Oyuki's) because of the power the Yizibajohei had at their beck and call."
It took Ataru a bit to absorb that information. "A race of superheroes?"
"And supervillains. And neutrals, of course," the Doctor confirmed with a nod. It was, of course, much more complex than that, but if he wanted to bring Moroboshi Ataru into the fold, he had to try to avoid using any sort of overt "shock and awe" approach. "You could become one of them, you know. As I did."
The younger man's eyebrow arched. "I can?"
"Yes. I am from a town called Oswiecim -- 'Auschwitz' as you might better know it -- in Poland. My birth-name is Grigori Wysynski. Twenty-five years ago, a Yizibajohei 'recruiting agent' called the Shepherd brought me to that world so I could become what I am now, Doctor Destructo."
Ataru's other eyebrow joined its brother in the bangs of his hair. "'Destructo?'"
The Doctor's smile widened considerably. "You are far more intelligent than you allow others to believe," he noted. "And yes, that is what I was named by the Conservator when I was evolved into what you see before you today."
Ataru took another minute to consider that. "So why me?"
"Because you intrigue me, Ataru. You see . . . "
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(Posted Sun, 30 Sep 2007 18:52)
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