Prince of Braves, Zero's Familiar

[Ryu Gabriev]

Well, the biggest thing is none of the GGG, including Gai, were seemingly capable of getting out of the situation they were left in at the end of FINAL with what limited time they had left. The ES Window was closing on them AT THAT MOMENT. Pulling any one of them out via summoning and leaving the rest to die seems rather cruel to the one chosen, doesn't it?

[Ryu Gabriev]

I think it's a bit too late to scale it back now as people weren't following the first time around. If there was any scaling down of powers it would have to be done at the very beginning as I myself found it Gary Stu-ish in the first chapter and was unable to continue, not only that I wasn't a big fan of SI's to begin with, my question for yous is what is being done now with your SI that couldn't have been done with an actual Character from GGG?

If it makes you feel better, I am doing something of a rewrite of the first chapter to add more depth and backstory to things. Ryu's about to get quite a shock from the summoning ritual once it's completed. but I'm always up for critique of my stuff if you're willing to help some with it. interested?

[Vahn]

I'll have to decline as SI aren't really my genre, I would give your fic a read over if it was a canon GGG in place, oped SI no matter how the decks are stack aren't that interesting to me. that's just my opinion though. I know for a fact many hate my fics so you should just do whatever you want with your story.

[Ryu Gabriev]

I'll have to decline as SI aren't really my genre, I would give your fic a read over if it was a canon GGG in place, oped SI no matter how the decks are stack aren't that interesting to me. that's just my opinion though. I know for a fact many hate my fics so you should just do whatever you want with your story.

No opinion is a bad one to me. Especially since I get so few of them in the first place. Big example is right here: the majority of this board can't really help me on this project since both genres together are out of the purview of most members here.

[Ryu Gabriev]

I never thought starting another project would help me get through my focusing problems for this one.
******
The sky outside had turned real ugly by the time night fell. I’d seen nasty storms before, but this was a first, as red lightning of all things lit up the sky in irregular intervals. As I sat in the frame of the window looking outside, I turned my head to look at my Little Miss still in her bed. She was still sleeping off her first successful controlled transformation, something I was still quite proud of. Who’s the Zero now, eh? But still, budding pride in my partner notwithstanding, that was hours ago. If she stays snoozing much longer, I’m gonna get rather… concerned.

A rap on the door knocked me out of my musings, turning my head in that direction in time for the familiar green hair of Miss Longueville to come into view. “Excuse my intrusion, but the Research Institute has agreed to a demonstration of the Lance’s capabilities in return for letting it fall into your control. It shall take place in a week if you find the terms acceptable.”

I nodded. “Sounds good. I just hope they can take the sight of a 12ft. tall powered armor.”

The secretary grinned slightly before her face turning somber again. “Now I think we have something else to discuss, Sir Ryu. Something involving why you thought I might be someone I wasn’t?”

Part of me wished I could slip through the floor at that point. I gave my horsetail a nervous tug as I started talking. “First off, you need to understand something about me. This.” I made a sweeping hand gesture all around my field of view. “Is not my world. My world has but one moon in the sky, no mages at all, and technologies that would awe you into silence.”

The green-haired mage cocked her head to the side with a slight smirk on her lips. “While a rather colorful description, what does it have to do with my question to you?”

“On my world, many sorts of tales and fables exist, one of which mirrors this world almost exactly.” Now it was my turn to wear a smirk as Miss Longueville stared at me wide-eyed. “Once I woke up after I got the rune it all came back to me. This place, the students, the various countries, everything."

I shifted my position till I was facing my listener directly before continuing. “When I returned from town yesterday and found out that Louise was gone, and Fouquet was responsible, well, didn't take me long to lock onto you as a target. Then we get to the start of the big fight, aaand-”

Catching her cue Miss Longueville finished the monologue for me. “Aaand then you got caught flat-footed when your suspicions proved slightly off.”

I felt a slight flush in my cheeks as I remembered that little part of my last escapade. “Um… yes. I did. Anyway, that’s how I thought you were Fouquet. I’m sorry I accused you of something like that with no real evidence to back it up.”

My inner voice was starting up a grand little pity party for me, full of berating, admonishment and a whole host of other things I would’ve most likely done to myself had the secretary’s next words not left me stunned. “Actually, if you had accused me a few weeks ago, you would have been right.”

All I could do was stare open mouthed as she began her explanation. “Years ago, my family in Albion was disgraced and I eventually found my way onto the streets. Like many before me, I still had my magic, so I eventually found my way as a sell-sword for this person and that person in Albion.” She turned her gaze away from me as the memories started flashing past her vision. “I could have done other crafts I suppose, but mercenary work was capable of helping me easily… take care of someone... who didn’t care that I had lost my rank and title. But it was when I found myself in the employ of one of my father’s old enemies that I got my first taste of stealing from nobles. The fool actually tried to forgo paying me for some guard duty since he recognized me, but a vault enchanted against most mages is little trouble to a golem’s fist ripping off the door.”

I gave a snort as the image of one of those oversized walking hills pulling a vault apart in it’s fists entered my head. “Best muscle you could ask for, it sounds like.”

The green-haired mage nodded before speaking up again. “It also proved very effective in establishing my reputation as someone you shouldn’t cross like that. And since jewelry is easily reconfigured by Earth magic, a few alterations were more than enough to make the items sellable to whoever wanted them. Thus did Fouquet the Sell-sword die, and Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt was born.”

I crossed my arms in front of me as I began considering all that I had heard thus far. “But if he recognized you, why didn’t he try siccing the authorities on you afterwards?”

Longueville giggled. “Noble Pride, why else? If it ever got out that a woman got the best of that pompous fool, he’d never be able to live it down, regardless of the circumstances involved.”

I chuckled a bit at the knot that particular sin could tie Nobles hands up with. “So then you pulled more and more thievery, converting what you stole into sellable goods, then used the money to care for this friend of yours?”

“Exactly. But about a few months ago, just as I started working here at the Academy, I… acquired a star sapphire necklace that I knew would look stunning on her. I made a few adjustments so that the jewel would truly sparkle in the light and mailed it to her along with the rest of my ‘earnings’ I had for her at the time.” As she continued her narrative, her eyes began to dip downwards as her shoulders began to tremble. “Imagine my surprise when I returned from another one of my escapades a few weeks later to find her in my quarters waiting for me. S-she had wanted to thank me in person… and instead she catches me red h-handed with some noble’s vain possessions. W-when she asked me… where I got them-”

A tremor quickly moved through Longueville’s body before she curled in on herself where she sat. I moved quickly to her side, rubbing her back and shoulders to help her calm down. “Memory still raw?”

The earth mage nodded after a few moments. “Y-yes. Forgive me, I just feel such shame with myself when I think back to that night. I would’ve done anything to make sure I never see that look in her eyes again.”

“So when she told you to hang up your cloak as Fouquet, it wasn’t hard for you to comply, was it?”

She nodded, straightening back into a sitting position while still loosely hugging herself. “Yes. The worst part of it is she is blissfully unaware of just how much control my feelings for her bestow… Oh Founder, listen to me, I come here to take answers from you and instead I start giving them with nary a thought. What’s happening to me this evening?”

Your sudden emotional unease can be partially attributed to Dimensional Readjustment Event now occurring.

We both turned towards the bed, where C.D. was still attached to Louise’s arm. “Dimensional Re-awhatta?” I asked, rather befuddled at that sudden influx of information.

As the both of us moved closer, C.D.’s watch face lit up and moments later the image of a plate spinning atop a slender stick appeared above it. Like this image you now see, you can consider that the universe we live in is composed of several different forces acting with and upon one another.

Suddenly the plate began slowing down, wobbling as it did so. However, should one or more of those elements disappear, that balance is disrupted. Such is the case right now, as the Source for this world has vanished.

The secretary next to me looked puzzled, but when I heard ‘Source’ I felt a chill go down my back. “Wait, so when you say ‘Source’, you mean-”

The device cut me off before I could continue. Correct.

My back suddenly grew icicles at the thought. “Then if the… Source is gone, how is it we’re all still here?”

The image changed to show the plate from before now standing on multiple sticks. Secondary Sources exist and are helping to reaffirm the balance, which is beginning to show improvement. If estimates hold true, System should be fully restored by morning. Seconds later the image vanished completely.

After letting that sink in for a moment, I suddenly clapped my hands together three times before rubbing the palms against each other for a moment. “May you rest in peace, Great One.”

The green haired mage looked at me strangely, and was about to opened her mouth to speak when a deep yawn came from Louise’s bed. Seconds after that,a familiar pink head of hair popped up from under the blankets. “W-what’s going on? Is it still nighttime?”

A flash of red lightning made her jump in place as I walked up to the bedside. “Yea, things are a little crazy out there right now. How’re you feeling, Little Miss?”

Her eyes locked with mine, seconds before a keening wail tore itself from her throat. “Kyaaaa!! Wh-w-who are you?! What is this place?!”

I turned away from the shocked, angry eyes of the pinkette, and met the eyes of the Headmaster’s secretary. She looked as confused as I did.
*****

[Ryu Gabriev]

It's been a while, I know, but I've been working on splicing the final touches to my first chapter, adding lots of backstory... care for some?

*****

A few hours later found the displaced dude from another dimension waking up with a rather splitting headache. “AaaAAaaaagH.. my head! What the everloving sonofabitch was that?! System: diagnostic function. Full Scan.”

He waited for the usual tone signalling that the internal assistant program acknowledged his request for an instant, then two… then several more while growing increasingly frantic over the increasing lack of response.

‘Oh god. Oh God. Ohgodohgodoh SHIT!’

It must be understood that the System program isn’t simply a way for the dude from another dimension to figure things out faster, it’s also an interface for his internal cybernetics. One that has direct connection to his brain. Thus if the program is suddenly unresponsive, either the program itself was damaged, or-

‘My brain’s fried… that little pink haired spore did something to me that fried my BRAIN!’

His breathing became quick and short while his eyes became like saucers as the possible types of damage began entering his mind. ‘I could be on borrowed time and not even know it just as my autonomic system shuts down. I could be a few IQ points shy of being a clinical retard! I could be three seconds away from having my grey matter pour out my ears! I could, I COULD...!!’

His train of thought suddenly stalled as all he could think of were the words ‘What if..’. But as the minutes started to tick by uninterrupted by what could have been happening, he started to calm back down. ‘I could simply be driving myself into an early grave from worrying too much...again.’

The stranger from another world sat back on his bottom with his back leaning against the wall, colored like cream with carved wood overlaid at the floor section, and looked around at his new surroundings. It seemed to be a fair-sized rectangular bedroom, much like a small apartment minus the kitchen or bathroom facilities that such a modern housing might have. Just to his right was an elaborate four-poster bed, opposite that on the far wall was an antique wardrobe with a small vanity to the right of that. Farthest away from his vision was a single window, and through the clear glass was the darkness of nighttime.

Turning his vision back onto himself, the unarmored warrior gave himself a look-see just in case something was missing from his person aside from his tech. His familiar baggy blue jeans and steel-toed black boots met his gaze first, followed by his maroon T-shirt under a dress shirt of the same color. The sleeves of the dress shirt were rolled up to the elbow and the shirt itself was worn unbuttoned like a thin jacket.

‘Ok Hoss, since it doesn’t seem like you’re in any danger at the moment, might as well figure out how much of you is still in there.’ The stranger from another world got comfortable before crossing his legs Indian style and crossing his arms in front of his chest. Then he closed his eyes, allowing himself to focus only on his past, instead of the current state of affairs.

‘Starting from the top, My name is… Ryu Gabriev? No, that’s not right, it’s something else. Isn’t it?... Beautiful, straight out of the gate a stumbling block.’ Ryu shook his head clear with a grimace before closing his eyes and continuing on. ‘My hometown, Dallas, TX. Year 2010. Age… 28? Yea, that sounds right.’

From there, the tapestry of the Texan’s past began to unfold before his Mind’s Eye. His simple happy childhood, the adversaries of school and high school, the friends he had made in that time. Beginning college and his multiple jobs as he came of age, trying to find something that ‘fit’ his admittedly poor work stamina at the time. Bowing to his parents’ wishes and beginning to focus firmly on finishing his Associate's Degree before the credits he had earned went stale.

Then, the first event that began shifting his life in a new unexpected direction: Hearing about the freak meteor landing in the Arizona desert. Supposedly, something had been discovered at the site, but the government was quick to silence any rumors coming from those who had witnessed the crash. Everyone at the college inclined to be interested in the stars had been abuzz with speculation. A downed spaceship? Alien survivors, perhaps? No one knew, and the G-men hadn’t told a soul.

It soon fell by the wayside like all other old news, and had almost escaped Ryu’s perception entirely when a group of medical personnel visited the school grounds claiming to be involved in a national Blood Drive. Everyone was encouraged to participate, Ryu included, and the cash incentive proved quite effective in garnering more than a few people’s interest. He didn’t know it at the time, but a special branch of the government researching what had been found had discovered something impressive about it. It reacted in the presence of specific people, shining with it’s own light and generating massive amounts of energy. Such as when the Texan himself took his turn for the procedure, it was one of the highest spike readings ever recorded during the screening process. Afterwards, came the offer in private: Assist us in our research and we can help ensure full grant access to whichever college you’d like to go to.

Nothing about the proposal seemed dangerous, so he accepted, and became part of Project 3G alongside it’s hallmark item: a fragment of G-Crystal that had been what impacted the desert floor earlier that year.

From there, the memories sped up once more. Participating in the first experiment to reach whoever had sent the G-Crystal to the USA in the first place. Suffering the unintended consequences, then going on to grow from the experience as a G-Cyborg. Meeting everyone in G-Command, including Professor Kisaragi, his daughter Honey, and Ol’ ‘Doc’ Danbei Hayami to name a few. At the thought of the curvaceous assistant professor, the G-cyborg’s heart skipped a beat. Granted, he never got anywhere with her, even as a warrior for Earth’s safety, females were still an enigma to him. But still, thoughts and imagination…

And of course, the Enemy couldn’t exactly be held out of this little remembrance session, could they? The giant sentient insectoids known as the Krix’ar, a technologically superior enemy that also possessed the ability to psychically mimic whatever was thought of them. Which was why they as a race had set out on this galactic campaign of conquest: the theory that if enough species in the known galaxy saw them as gods… could they not then become so? After all, a few dozen people thinking one of the invaders were invincible made them impervious to damage, which was why the G-crystal and the tech built around it was so invaluable to Earth’s defense. The only way the Bugs could be beaten was to first believe they could be beaten, and only the power of Courage could make that happen.

A sound from behind drew his attention to the wall opposite the window, where an open wooden door and the young pink haired girl from before stood meeting his eyes with her own. “It’s about time you woke up. You’ve been sleeping all afternoon.”

The stranger smirked. “You try waking up fast after getting kissed like that. Feels like you’ve cracked my head in two after that little stunt.”

The mage-in-training flushed scarlet as the barb hit home. ”Y-y-you d-d-d-d-dare?!”

Louise stomped past a table and chair that sat in front the door, past the dude from another dimension before plopping herself onto the bed in a sitting position. “As your master, I-I command you to never to speak of such things ever again!”

The G-cyborg raised an eyebrow at that, before frowning. “I am no one’s slave, kid. I will speak how I please, as I please.”

With that, he picked himself up from where he had been sleeping before and walked over to the table and plucked the chair from its resting place before leaning it against the wall and taking a seat. “Looks like whatever you did to me earlier made it so that we can now understand each other. But what could possibly have happened?”

“Does it matter? Familiars always gain special abilities once summoned, nothing unusual about that.” She trailed off as she began studying her own new item, a small device attached to her wrist that had been displaying strange characters and numbers ever since it appeared on her arm at the very moment the runes on her familiar's hand had completed their formation. Turning back towards her familiar, she took in his appearance, odd as it was, before speaking again.

“So what should I call you? Even commoners have names.”

The human familiar turned her way before speaking. “I do have one, but it doesn’t really feel like it’s mine. But the only name I can come up with is Ryu Gabriev, from Dallas, Texas in the good ol’ USA.”

“What sort of person uses such an odd name as that?” He grinned toothily at her, making the pinkette sigh before continuing. “My name is Louise de La Valliere, a mage training here at this Academy of Magic. You are my familiar, which is why you have those runes on your hand.”

The Texan felt his eyes go wide at hearing that name.‘Louise... Academy... FAMILIAR… ?! Crap-tastic. I’ve just been hijacked to Zero no Tsukaima.’ It had been a while since he’d last seen it, what with the war going on back home, but the uniqueness of the pinkette’s name jolted his brain back into gear bringing the memories of the show forward once more. ‘Great, I’m now this kid’s idiot familiar. And she’ll expect me to do everything she asks simply because she got away with kidnapping.’

Ryu turned his attention to the brand upon his left hand. With more and more of his knowledge of the show coming back to him, it was easy to recall that the familiar of Louise de la Valliere was almost universally Gandalfr, the Left Hand of God. This meant either that any item within his hands could be used to lethal effect, or anything that was originally constructed as a weapon could be instinctually used to it’s utmost. ‘Question is: which one is it?’

A few more minutes passed before Louise spoke up again. “Stop looking at your runes and come over here. Since it's obvious you're a commoner, without that armor on, you need some chores to do to keep busy..."

******

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