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Description
I sat on the bed in the blue haired girl's room on her spaceship, which she called the Diplo, which, if I remembered correctly, was the HQ of the group Quark. I could vaguely remember hearing something about Quark, but I hadn't paid it much mind because it didn't seem to be anything that I needed to worry about. I kept searching my memory though, not really paying the guard, much mind, other then to note that he was tall and blond and had three green lines on his neck. He was also wearing skin tight black leather clothes, to show off his physique most likely, but the reason why was lost on me.

"I see you've met the captain of our little organization," he said to me, trying to strike up a conversation. I wasn't really in the mood to talk, but decided that anything would be better then an uncomfortable silence.

"No, I didn't meet the captain, just some blue haired girl that acts like she's the queen of the galaxy."

"Oh, you mean Maria? She is the captain! You really shouldn't piss her off, she's REALLY scary when she's angry!" the guy said, making a terrified face.

"You seriously expect me to believe that a 19 year old girl is the leader of an organization like Quark, and that she has the loyalty of everyone within it? Isn't that stretching it a bit much?"

"You can say what you like, but I wouldn't get on her bad side if I were you kid," he said shaking his head with a grin. "The name's Cliff by the way. Cliff Fitter. What's yours?"

"You can call me Trace for all that it'll matter," I replied coldly, not really in the mood to say anything more, blocking Cliff out as he continued to bombard me with questions. Honestly, I just wished I had some good 21st century earth music to listen too, but before I could do much more I heard the door swish open and looked up as Maria stood in front of me, her hand on her hip, close to the handle of her gun.

"So Mr. Takamichi," she started pausing, as if she was considering how to continue.

After several minutes, Cliff shook his head with a laugh. "What happened to that talk that I heard you rehearsing earlier?" Maria silenced him with a death glare that effectively shut him up. "Shouldn't you just give him the same talk you gave Fayt?"

"His power isn't on the same wavelength as mine and Fayt's Cliff. If he gets too stressed, his power's bound to overflow. I don't know about you, but I'd rather NOT get blown up in orbit."

"Point taken."

I blinked curiously but decided not to ask questions, especially since I could feel my communicator vibrating in my pocket. I slid carefully to the side so that they wouldn't see it and opened it, surprised at the face that was peering back at me.

"Fate-chan! What's up? I havn't seen you in a while!" I said softly as Maria and Cliff continued their conversation, hopefully soft enough that Maria and Cliff wouldn't hear me.

"Hey Trace, how's it going?" she replied, smiling somewhat. "Are you enjoying your vacation? Or are you out with some of your friends from class?"

"Oh, neither. I'm just talking to some girl named Maria. Don't worry, I have my wand with me, so I should be able to take care of myself if I need to."

"I see…well, I did teach you well, so you should be able to handle yourself just fine. You havn't been having any more panic attacks, have you? You always have been somewhat exciteable."

"No! Geeze Fate, I'm not THAT exciteable!"

Fate smiled shaking her head, her blond hair swishing from side to side. "Anyway, I need to get back to work. I'd check on you for your guardian. Lately she's been really busy with this case..." she muttered, more to herself then to me, since she knew I wouldn't really get it. I sighed as she hung up realizing now that Maria and Cliff were talking about something called symbological genetics.

"Are you even sure that there's a fourth Symbological gene, Maria? Didn't Fayt's old man say that there were only three?"

Maria started to say something but stopped when she remembered that I was there. "Look, suffice it to say, from the information I've got on him, Mr. Takamichi here is even more exciteable then Fayt is."

"Symbological genetics..." I muttered, blanking out until I heard Maria speaking.

"You have heard of it right?" Maria asked, looking at me with those clear eyes again.

"Symbological genetics...I heard that there was a trio of kids that got powers thanks to symbological genetics, but I don't remember who they were," I said lazily, cleaning out my ears with my thumb. "There was this whole to-do about something somewhere that had to do with someone somehow attempting to destroy the whole galaxy as we know it," I added, as infuriatingly vague as I could.

I just wasn't interested in being completely cooperative.

"Hey hey, let's drop the serious conversation for awhile, this isn't getting us anywhere," Cliff interjected before Maria could shoot back a snide comment. "How about we just take a break, get something to eat, and calm down. We can continue this conversation after lunch."

"Well, I guess even you can have a good idea sometimes," Maria commented courtly before leaving.

"What do you mean sometimes?" Cliff called after her before shaking his head in amusement and departing, leaving me to my own devices.

"...What was that all about?" I couldn't help but wonder aloud, but followed anyway since there wasn't really much to do in the captain's room but look through her clothes.

Wandering around the hallways, I could see several of the people glancing at me in curiousity before they continued on their way.

"This is boring... I really should get back to Heldian II," I muttered after a few more minutes of wandering. I held my wand up in front of me vertically, the familiar blue glow surrounding me. Right at that moment, before I could unleash the spell and return to my hotel room in Heldian, my concentration shattered, someone smacking me hard in the back to get my attention.

"Cliff! Don't kill the kid, he just got here!" I heard a male voice groan plaintively, underscored by a laughing girl, behind me.

"Ah, come on! I didn't hit him that hard!" the unmistakeable voice of Cliff laughed in reply. I regarded the other two that I hadn't met yet over my shoulder, not really interested in speaking at that time.

The boy that had complained to Cliff had blue hair, like Maria's, except that his was closer to a blue-green, while hers leaned more towards sky blue. He was wearing a white vest with what appeared to be a brown bracer on his right elbow, and wearing blue plated mail gauntlets and similar plated mail leg armor, his sword strapped securely to his rear hip, the hilt within easy reach on his right side.

I couldn't help but stare at the girl a little though. Her raven black hair extended all the way to her lower back. Her eyes had the unmistakeable slit of a cats eye, and her red shirt did much to distract me as it seemed to hug her body like a second skin. Her orange skirt didn't distract me as much as the shirt, but for some reason what really seemed to hold my attention were her orange-with-black-stripes cat ears and tail. It wasn't until she broke out in laughter that I noticed the small fangs in her mouth.

It was my first time seeing a feline folk. By far.

Cliff started to introduce them to me, he stopped, all three of them looking behind me, and it was only then that I noticed the running sounds. Before I could move, I felt the cold steely sharp edge of a katana on my shoulder, inches from my throat.

"Pathetic worm. You're even more worthless then that brown haired maggot!" A voice, cold and calculating in its hatred, muttered darkly behind me. Unlike the others so far though, I had no desire to learn the owner's name. I drowned Cliff out as he introduced the man, Albel by name, although this time I did react in time to block a swipe of his claw with my wand.

I just sighed and walked away before Albel could begin to say something, finding the kitchen with ease from the scent and sat at a table, Cliff soon joining me with a huge piece of meat that looked like it came off a mammoth's chest. Although I had only been talking to him for a few minutes, I already had a fairly decent impression of the type of person he was. As such, I wasn't really that surprised that when the girls walked in, his gaze settled on a blond girl with a black vest and shirt and blue shorts. When I looked back at him, I vaguely saw him mouthing the word 'Mirage', and assumed that to be the girl's name.

"Cliff, I don't think her butt is that big!" I said out loud after a few seconds, a really deep red blush permeating my face, as well as pointedly look away, despite the fact that Cliff hadn't said anything of the sort. Cliff sputtered coughing out a large piece of half chewed meat as the girls turned to look at him with accusing looks of embarrassment and disgust.

"I didn't say anything of the sort!" Cliff shouted, glaring at me angrily.

"Shadowfang?" I inquired innocently, and the wand's decorative pearl flashed with each word.

"Damn! Mirage's butt is as large as a planet! She needs to drop a few pounds!" the wand repeated Cliff's comment in his voice, exactly.

Cliff's mouth dropped, since he had just said those words quietly to himself. "Y-You...wha!!" Cliff stammered, the blond haired girl grabbing his arm and leading him away to a hallway. I did well to hide my gaping shock when I realized that he really had just said that to himself, as Cliff's howl of agonizing pain echoed throughout the ship.

"Honestly, that Cliff really needs to think before he speaks!" I heard Maria say, shaking her head without a hint of emotion.

"He does have some good ideas at times though," a brown haired girl next to her said optimistically.

I tried to keep myself from flinching as Cliff continued to howl in pain.

Description
I sat on the bed in the blue haired girl's room on her spaceship, which she called the Diplo, which, if I remembered correctly, was the HQ of the group Quark. I could vaguely remember hearing something about Quark, but I hadn't paid it much mind because it didn't seem to be anything that I needed to worry about. I kept searching my memory though, not really paying the guard, much mind, other then to note that he was tall and blond and had three green lines on his neck. He was also wearing skin tight black leather clothes, to show off his physique most likely, but the reason why was lost on me.

"I see you've met the captain of our little organization," he said to me, trying to strike up a conversation. I wasn't really in the mood to talk, but decided that anything would be better then an uncomfortable silence.

"No, I didn't meet the captain, just some blue haired girl that acts like she's the queen of the galaxy."

"Oh, you mean Maria? She is the captain! You really shouldn't piss her off, she's REALLY scary when she's angry!" the guy said, making a terrified face.

"You seriously expect me to believe that a 19 year old girl is the leader of an organization like Quark, and that she has the loyalty of everyone within it? Isn't that stretching it a bit much?"

"You can say what you like, but I wouldn't get on her bad side if I were you kid," he said shaking his head with a grin. "The name's Cliff by the way. Cliff Fitter. What's yours?"

"You can call me Trace for all that it'll matter," I replied coldly, not really in the mood to say anything more, blocking Cliff out as he continued to bombard me with questions. Honestly, I just wished I had some good 21st century earth music to listen too, but before I could do much more I heard the door swish open and looked up as Maria stood in front of me, her hand on her hip, close to the handle of her gun.

"So Mr. Takamichi," she started pausing, as if she was considering how to continue.

After several minutes, Cliff shook his head with a laugh. "What happened to that talk that I heard you rehearsing earlier?" Maria silenced him with a death glare that effectively shut him up. "Shouldn't you just give him the same talk you gave Fayt?"

"His power isn't on the same wavelength as mine and Fayt's Cliff. If he gets too stressed, his power's bound to overflow. I don't know about you, but I'd rather NOT get blown up in orbit."

"Point taken."

I blinked curiously but decided not to ask questions, especially since I could feel my communicator vibrating in my pocket. I slid carefully to the side so that they wouldn't see it and opened it, surprised at the face that was peering back at me.

"Fate-chan! What's up? I havn't seen you in a while!" I said softly as Maria and Cliff continued their conversation, hopefully soft enough that Maria and Cliff wouldn't hear me.

"Hey Trace, how's it going?" she replied, smiling somewhat. "Are you enjoying your vacation? Or are you out with some of your friends from class?"

"Oh, neither. I'm just talking to some girl named Maria. Don't worry, I have my wand with me, so I should be able to take care of myself if I need to."

"I see…well, I did teach you well, so you should be able to handle yourself just fine. You havn't been having any more panic attacks, have you? You always have been somewhat exciteable."

"No! Geeze Fate, I'm not THAT exciteable!"

Fate smiled shaking her head, her blond hair swishing from side to side. "Anyway, I need to get back to work. I'd check on you for your guardian. Lately she's been really busy with this case..." she muttered, more to herself then to me, since she knew I wouldn't really get it. I sighed as she hung up realizing now that Maria and Cliff were talking about something called symbological genetics.

"Are you even sure that there's a fourth Symbological gene, Maria? Didn't Fayt's old man say that there were only three?"

Maria started to say something but stopped when she remembered that I was there. "Look, suffice it to say, from the information I've got on him, Mr. Takamichi here is even more exciteable then Fayt is."

"Symbological genetics..." I muttered, blanking out until I heard Maria speaking.

"You have heard of it right?" Maria asked, looking at me with those clear eyes again.

"Symbological genetics...I heard that there was a trio of kids that got powers thanks to symbological genetics, but I don't remember who they were," I said lazily, cleaning out my ears with my thumb. "There was this whole to-do about something somewhere that had to do with someone somehow attempting to destroy the whole galaxy as we know it," I added, as infuriatingly vague as I could.

I just wasn't interested in being completely cooperative.

"Hey hey, let's drop the serious conversation for awhile, this isn't getting us anywhere," Cliff interjected before Maria could shoot back a snide comment. "How about we just take a break, get something to eat, and calm down. We can continue this conversation after lunch."

"Well, I guess even you can have a good idea sometimes," Maria commented courtly before leaving.

"What do you mean sometimes?" Cliff called after her before shaking his head in amusement and departing, leaving me to my own devices.

"...What was that all about?" I couldn't help but wonder aloud, but followed anyway since there wasn't really much to do in the captain's room but look through her clothes.

Wandering around the hallways, I could see several of the people glancing at me in curiousity before they continued on their way.

"This is boring... I really should get back to Heldian II," I muttered after a few more minutes of wandering. I held my wand up in front of me vertically, the familiar blue glow surrounding me. Right at that moment, before I could unleash the spell and return to my hotel room in Heldian, my concentration shattered, someone smacking me hard in the back to get my attention.

"Cliff! Don't kill the kid, he just got here!" I heard a male voice groan plaintively, underscored by a laughing girl, behind me.

"Ah, come on! I didn't hit him that hard!" the unmistakeable voice of Cliff laughed in reply. I regarded the other two that I hadn't met yet over my shoulder, not really interested in speaking at that time.

The boy that had complained to Cliff had blue hair, like Maria's, except that his was closer to a blue-green, while hers leaned more towards sky blue. He was wearing a white vest with what appeared to be a brown bracer on his right elbow, and wearing blue plated mail gauntlets and similar plated mail leg armor, his sword strapped securely to his rear hip, the hilt within easy reach on his right side.

I couldn't help but stare at the girl a little though. Her raven black hair extended all the way to her lower back. Her eyes had the unmistakeable slit of a cats eye, and her red shirt did much to distract me as it seemed to hug her body like a second skin. Her orange skirt didn't distract me as much as the shirt, but for some reason what really seemed to hold my attention were her orange-with-black-stripes cat ears and tail. It wasn't until she broke out in laughter that I noticed the small fangs in her mouth.

It was my first time seeing a feline folk. By far.

Cliff started to introduce them to me, he stopped, all three of them looking behind me, and it was only then that I noticed the running sounds. Before I could move, I felt the cold steely sharp edge of a katana on my shoulder, inches from my throat.

"Pathetic worm. You're even more worthless then that brown haired maggot!" A voice, cold and calculating in its hatred, muttered darkly behind me. Unlike the others so far though, I had no desire to learn the owner's name. I drowned Cliff out as he introduced the man, Albel by name, although this time I did react in time to block a swipe of his claw with my wand.

I just sighed and walked away before Albel could begin to say something, finding the kitchen with ease from the scent and sat at a table, Cliff soon joining me with a huge piece of meat that looked like it came off a mammoth's chest. Although I had only been talking to him for a few minutes, I already had a fairly decent impression of the type of person he was. As such, I wasn't really that surprised that when the girls walked in, his gaze settled on a blond girl with a black vest and shirt and blue shorts. When I looked back at him, I vaguely saw him mouthing the word 'Mirage', and assumed that to be the girl's name.

"Cliff, I don't think her butt is that big!" I said out loud after a few seconds, a really deep red blush permeating my face, as well as pointedly look away, despite the fact that Cliff hadn't said anything of the sort. Cliff sputtered coughing out a large piece of half chewed meat as the girls turned to look at him with accusing looks of embarrassment and disgust.

"I didn't say anything of the sort!" Cliff shouted, glaring at me angrily.

"Shadowfang?" I inquired innocently, and the wand's decorative pearl flashed with each word.

"Damn! Mirage's butt is as large as a planet! She needs to drop a few pounds!" the wand repeated Cliff's comment in his voice, exactly.

Cliff's mouth dropped, since he had just said those words quietly to himself. "Y-You...wha!!" Cliff stammered, the blond haired girl grabbing his arm and leading him away to a hallway. I did well to hide my gaping shock when I realized that he really had just said that to himself, as Cliff's howl of agonizing pain echoed throughout the ship.

"Honestly, that Cliff really needs to think before he speaks!" I heard Maria say, shaking her head without a hint of emotion.

"He does have some good ideas at times though," a brown haired girl next to her said optimistically.

I tried to keep myself from flinching as Cliff continued to howl in pain.