Origin ARS 5 (7 page)

Scott realized that the carrot thief was
trying to feel him out. It was attempting to break
his
stance and composure while feeling out his reaction and defenses.
What the hell kind of rabbit was it?

Suddenly a strange energy began to radiate
from the rabbit. Scott was uncertain what it was. He could
recognize the mana, but there was an undercurrent of something
else, something that was not elemental in nature.

The rabbit was about to use a fighting skill,
Scott could sense the build-up. He could not let it fire off
whatever it was about to unleash or he would be in trouble. The
sorcerer moved forward quickly and struck out hard with a low
sweeping crescent strike.

The rabbit shot straight down into the
ground! One moment it was there, and in the next Scott's sweeping
kick whipped through empty air. If the sorcerer had not been so
focused on the bastard bunny, he would have thought that it had
teleported or had become invisible.

Though it pained him greatly Scott did his
best to feel for the rabbit beneath the earth. Scott's senses could
not find a proper lock. It felt like the bastard rabbit was
everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It was like it had become
the earth itself.

A brief moment passed while Scott attempted
to feel the rabbit out. Suddenly he sensed movement. A
concentration of energy formed near where he stood. Scott
instinctively jumped backward several feet to avoid what he thought
would be an attack. But to his surprise a tiny rabbit fist erupted
out of the ground at the mid-point of his jump! Scott had just
enough time to realize that the rabbit had tricked him before that
tiny fist rocketed into the bottom of his jaw. His teeth smashed
together and several of them cracked under the pressure. His jaw
was shattered by the blow!

Scott was sent flying up into the air several
feet, but the rabbit did not relent. It did its weird air-hop
movement and leapt up after him at great speed. It caught up to him
mid-jump, kicked off his chest, and then began to glow with a
fearsome power.

The world moved in slow motion at that point.
A loud masculine voice cried out, "Bunny!" The glow around the
rabbit increased several-fold. "Bunny!" The rabbit spun in mid-air,
rotated its paws around, and then pressed them together. The
brilliant glow radiating from the murder-minded rabbit moved to a
single point before its paws. A sphere of incredibly intense energy
formed there. "Haaa!"

The
Haaa!
echoed through the air
twice. It was as though the rabbit had shouted, but the world had
laughed at the sorcerer's plight. The sphere erupted into a
coherent beam of power that shot toward Scott, who had not quite
hit the ground yet. The moment his back touched the earth was the
moment that the beam of energy collided with him.

A vibrant explosion rocked the area. The
energy directed toward the sorcerer drove his body into the earth.
An impact crater revealed the true force of the blast. A thick
cloud of dust covered the area just before debris began to fall
from the sky.

From out of the dust a silhouette appeared.
It was the rabbit. It had reclaimed its carrot and now it had come
to gaze upon its victim. In a surprisingly deep voice, the same as
the one that spoke earlier, the rabbit said, "Foolish boy. Your
fists are as weak as your spirit."

The wah-bunny finished its carrot then dug
around in its vest pocket and pulled out two copper coins. It then
tossed them down onto Scott's chest and said, "Pay the ferryman on
your way to hell." before it turned away. After it did, the bunny
dropped down on all fours then hopped away like an ordinary
rabbit.

A happy sigh erupted from the bunny before he
began to pull up another carrot. He eyed the carrot lightly then
closed his eyes gently and hugged it to his chest while his fluffy
little tail wiggled happily.

"Stealing carrots is a rabbit's joy." he said
in a far higher register than before. Gone was the commanding voice
that he had used in battle.

~*~

Deep in the heart of the bedroom of a young
goddess in love, Origin had an important decision to make. Did she
wear the red dress that made her eyes seem to sparkle, or the blue
dress that matched her hair? These things were important as her
appearance had to be immaculate. She was scheduled to have a dinner
date with her father for the first time in quite a while. She
wanted to look pretty but also more like an adult so that he would
not worry about her excessively.

"Why is this never easy?" she asked the
mirror before her. She liked to dress her best, but things were
different when it was for a meeting with her father, especially
this meeting. He had not told her why he had wanted to meet, but
she had a good idea.

While she fidgeted and made little noises
related to decision making a buzzer sounded from her console.
Origin glanced over to it then frowned. "Again?"

She stopped worrying about her dresses for a
moment and went to see what had killed her love interest for the
second time. After reviewing the information a decidedly annoyed
frown arose upon her lips. "Mid, you didn't..."

Origin tapped her screen and an image of Mid
arose before her. She tapped on Mid's image twice and a window
screen appeared in front of the madly cackling Goddess of New
Beginnings. "Mid! What did you do?"

The beautiful woman on screen glanced over to
the new window screen and offered her younger sister a winning
smile. "He wanted a way to solve his headache problem."

"What?" asked Origin. Scott had a
headache?

Mid laughed softly then slipped her hand into
the bowl of popcorn she had conjured up to eat while watching the
show. "Yeah, his experience pools are overflowing and he's close to
a total mental overload. At least he was."

"You sent him to fight Bruce to deal with
that? You know that rabbit is an auto-level boss meant to be a
challenge for true reincarnated players! There's no way Scott could
have beaten him without developing his skills to match his stats."
said Origin with a protective growl.

Mid grinned broadly. "I know. His headache
will be less severe now, though. His overflowing experience pools
will be emptied out." Even though his levels would remain intact
upon death, the experience that was not fully absorbed from his
temporary pools would be emptied upon death. Only permanent
experience would remain intact.

"That's cruel! Do you hate him or something?"
asked Origin.

Mid took a bite of the popcorn in her hand
then pulled the brim of her hat down a little. "I don't think that
hate is the right word."

Origin stared at her sister for a moment then
sighed. "Mid..."

"Don't worry so much little sister. He loves
you." said Mid with a bright smile on her lips.

The light danced in Origin's eyes a little.
"Did he say so?"

Mid nodded. "So, when's the wedding? He
wouldn't tell me."

Origin's cheeks reddened slightly. "Mid,
that's a secret."

Mid pouted at her sister. "No fair. I don't
like it when I'm not the one with the secret."

"Suffer the mystery." said Origin
sweetly.

"You stole that from your fiancé." replied
Mid.

Origin laughed lightly then nodded. "He told
me that once or twice. It always irritated me a great deal."

"I can see why. But don't worry dear childe,
I'll take good care of our boy." said Mid.

Origin quirked her eyebrow then asked slowly,
"
Our
boy?"

"We shared a moment." said Mid lightly.

"Mid!" exclaimed Origin.

The onscreen sage laughed beautifully then
made a fancy gesture with her hand. "You are just too easy little
sister."

"Don't tease me Mid. You know I'm a little
sensitive right now." said Origin in annoyance.

Mid chuckled softly. "I know. Don't worry.
I'll take good care of your special little man."

Origin rolled her eyes but smiled softly at
her sister. Mid could be a handful, but she was a good sister at
heart. In her own way she had probably did think that coaxing Scott
into being brutally murdered by a rabbit with monk skills was the
best way to cure his headache.

"Well, he is going to respawn here soon. I'll
talk to you later." said Mid.

"Alright..." said Origin, her voice trailing
off.

The image onscreen faded out and Origin
sighed. She was certain Mid would not try anything too forward, but
it was still worrisome. Mid was crafty. Unlike Shara, who had the
flirtatious sophistication of a walrus in heat, Mid could easily
sneak another girl's man away if she really wanted to do so. Out of
all of Origin's Siblings, Mid was the one who took after their
mother the most.

She unleashed a soft sigh then started to
turn back to renew her nerve-wracking decision making regarding
what outfit to wear when she met her father. An alert sounded on
her console, a different one than the one that went off when Scott
died.

"Oh, they finally got back to him?" she
asked. It was an alert that she had tied to his cell phone on
Earth. Specifically it dealt with the US military. She had tied the
alert to it so that Scott could focus on his goals on ARS without
having to stop and check his voice email continuously.

She fiddled with her screen for a moment then
opened the alert message so that she could hear his voice mail. An
unfamiliar voice began to speak. She snorted after hearing what
that voice had to say.

"Foolish little men." Scott was not going to
go for their decision at all. They had decided to schedule him for
a meeting in three months, but he was to report for duty in
forty-eight hours. That wouldn't happen.

Origin rubbed her chin. "Well, both father
and Scott did say that I could negotiate directly if all else
failed."

A bright smile crossed her lips. "Why beat
around the bush?"

She brought her Earth avatar, Aria, up on
screen then made a few minor adjustments that she was allowed to
make. Her father had said that it was allowable to upgrade her
power base there slightly in case the mortals needed to see that
she was not lying about her nature.

Origin hopped into her console seat and
placed her tiara on her head. A brief moment later her
consciousness dimmed and then brightened once more. She was now
within the body of her avatar, Aria Ardent.

Aria yawned delicately then stretched her
body in a luxurious manner. Scott's bed was comfortable, and quite
large. After a moment she sighed then sniffed at his pillow. It had
not been long, but she missed him. In a way it was like her dreams
had come true. Who didn't daydream about their favorite fictional
character coming to life and falling in love with them? True, Scott
was not a work of fiction, but he had been just as inaccessible
until recently.

She sat up and the sheet slid down to reveal
her luxuriantly naked body. Aria noticed her nudity then blinked.
"Ah, that's right I should put on some clothes."

Aria started to retrieve the clothing that
she had worn before, but a thought occurred to her. A goofy little
grin crossed her lips and she bit her lower lip a little. "Scott's
closet..."

She moved to where her man-candy kept his
clothes and looked through his selection. She chose a plain white
button up shirt then giggled warmly. She slid it on and buttoned it
up before going to the bathroom mirror to check it out.

Aria fluffed her vibrant blue hair and turned
from side to side. "This is it, isn't it?"

It was a moment like in a movie where the
girlfriend wears her boyfriend's shirt the morning after they make
love. "Wow, if I had a cup of hot chocolate and a shameful smile
this would be almost perfect!"

After a moment she giggled once more. Then
danced in her eyes and she bit her lower lip a little before she
exclaimed. "Well, why not!"

She practically pranced as she headed toward
the kitchen. A few minutes later she sat at the kitchen table while
wearing nothing but her finance's shirt and her amused smile. She
sipped at her beverage then sighed warmly. "So shameless." Her
smile widened three sizes after saying it.

There was only one more way to make this
little morning scene perfect, but sadly it was not to be. It would
require the aid of a second party and that just would not happen.
Aria laughed at her silly thought, but then her eyes widened when
the doorbell rang. "No way!"

In the perfect morning after scenario she
would run into Scott's old fiancé right now. Did she dare go to the
door wearing only Scott's shirt? It could not possibly be Sarah at
the door, but the idea of it happening was so delightful that it
could not be helped. "Well, it would be rude not to answer..."

Aria giggled sweetly then pranced over to the
door. It was probably the mail man or one of those nice people who
wanted to bring the house owner the good news about their god even
though sending an e-mail would be faster.

The doorbell rang again and Aria spent a
moment tousling her hair in just the right way. "Do I look
appropriately scandalous?" She grinned. This would be great! "I
wonder who it is?"

Aria opened the door with a bright smile on
her lips and she cheerfully said, "Hello, may I help y—"

She stopped cold. On the other side of the
door was the person she had least expected.

The blond woman on the other side blinked
then leaned away in surprise. She took in the sight before her, the
sight of a blue haired woman wearing a shirt that was obviously too
big for her. It did not take much thought to realize what was
happening. "Where's Scott?"

"He's not here right now." said Aria. The
scenario was no longer as cute and whimsical as before. If anything
it had killed the mood.

"Oh." the blond woman said. "Uh, who.... Are
you?"