Bridge's Datafiles

[J. T./Jessica]

Like I said, we'll probably get flamed. Getting flamed means people had to read it and be offended. I LIKE knowing people are reading my work...

Boy, do I ever have an ego...

[BloodAngel]

Majorly.

And now, entry three in the datafiless.
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You guys wanna know something? I’m getting really good at figuring out when a bad day’s ‘bout to make itself known. This time, we fought a monster outta *Final Fantasy Nine*.

No, really.

It all started with Daniel’s bad day at class. Again. Marius made some smart remarks about our weekend that should have tipped Daniel off immediately, but after the week we’d had, we were jumping at shadows more often than not.

When he got to work after class, he walked in on the same conversation Yolanda, J.T., and I had been having before he left. Yolanda and I were talking about *Lord of the Rings* (I was still going through the initial discovery phase where that was all I could talk about, and Yolanda and I had been best friends for years, so when I found something… so did she.), and J.T. was telling us to shut up.

Hey, if you don’t agree with the Aragorn/Legolas pairing, that’s your own problem. I’m unusual among LotR fans for completely ignoring the existence of Arwen, you see. I don’t think she exists even within the canon of the book. Read her again sometime, and see what I mean. So, who else can you hook Aragorn up with? Well, there’s another, much prettier Elf that would be just perfect for him: Legolas. I’ll get into my Aragorn/Legolas vs. Aragorn/Arwen argument later. Suffice to say, it was good enough to get J.T.’s support for the A/L pair, not the A/A.

And ya know something; I don’t get on J.T.’s case for all of his comic book stuff, so he shouldn’t get on to us for out LotR stuff. Although, I do agree with him about a good deal of his comic stuff. (Die, Scott Summers, and not just in *X-3*! Die, gaki, die!)

At any rate, Daniel walked in, commented about this being where he left, and Z consoled him by saying “Look at it this way, man, at least you don’t have to worry about missing out on anything,” which Daniel agreed with as he rummaged through his bag. That was when he realized he didn’t have one of his schoolbooks.

My first thought? “Please don’t let it be one of the expensive ones!” I’ve been pricing books lately, and the book I’m likely to have to use for math is $70 *used*. New? $120. Then I thought, “God, I hope he didn’t need it tonight!” Thankfully, he didn’t.

And life continued on as normal, right? Well, normal if you’re a Ranger, I suppose.

About ten minutes later, our new communicators went off. J.T., being the only one at that point who had *any* idea how the computers worked in the command center, made an excuse and took off.

He got back a few minutes later, cryptically informing us (We discovered later that he needn’t have bothered.) that there was a monster attack going down at the waterfront. We “managed” to talk Z into letting us take off to fight it without telling him that, and ran outside.

There, J.T. doubled over with laughter (Probably the same laughter you had, dear reader), telling us that it was something we had to see for ourselves. Since I knew he would be no good to us if he kept laughing, I smacked him over the head, telling him to get a grip.

We morphed, exchanged some witty banter, and teleported down to the waterfront.

I tell ya, if we were anime characters, *Angel Grove* would have felt the facefault. According to Justin, it looked like a Tantarian monster from FF IX. Personally, thought it looked like the Bookmaster, one of the monsters from Kingdom Hearts II, but I haven’t played FF IX. It got better, though. It was made from, wait for it… you guessed it, Dan’s book. Thankfully, it was his dictionary that he paid ninety-eight cents for.

Jessica’s reaction? “I’ve heard of killer homework, but this is ridiculous!”. Yeah, that was pretty much it right there.

That was when we met our next villain: Mars. Why, oh why couldn’t he be Kevin Smith from *Xena*? Ya know, Aries? Thanks for the blank stares, people.

He sent his advance guard first. The animal du jour? Crabs this time. Yes. Crabs. While the other five of us were busy battling the soon to be dubbed “Hardshells”, I noticed Daniel staring off into space.

Now, I’ve known this boy since I was fifteen, okay? He doesn’t freeze up like that. “Daniel!” I screamed as I held off a claw. “What the Hell are you doing?!”

He had noticed Mars. Guess who it was? That’s right, Marius. So, with a roar befitting his Literati designation, he took off after him.

And so the pair became engaged in a sword vs. ax fight, while we… were stuck with crabs and a giant book. Yeah.

“J.T., you and Daniel are the Final Fantasy freaks, how did you handle this guy in the game?”

“This is no game,” he snapped back. Oh, really? I was wondering why I didn’t see an HP bar anywhere. (Sarcasm, folks!) “Hit it till it falls!”

Okay, so that’s what we did: Massive Melee. The three of us with swords (J.T.’s Dragon Sword, my dear Spell Edge, and Justin’s Knight Sword (Typical European long sword)) struck it at the same time, sending it down. As it tried to regain its feet, Jessica got it with her Phoenix Bow and Yolanda with her Siren Daggers. That’s when it exploded. Heh heh. I like kablooies.

Somehow, Mars managed to resurrect the damned thing and it grew to, oh… twenty stories, grew arms and legs, the whole bit.

Well, f*ck. With Daniel busy, we’d be short the Demon’s firepower. So… we improvised. The other four of us covered J.T. while he switched the Dragon Spiritzord to battle mode. Once it did that, J.T and Justin attacked at the same time, cutting off one of the monster’s arms. Unfortunately, the arm grew back and paper created a whirlwind that knocked all but the Dragon nearly to the ground. Phoenix got caught by the Dragon.

Needless to say, things weren’t going too well. So, we formed our first Megazord. I actually ended up an important part! I’m one of the legs! Yes folks, that is how low my self-esteem gets.

As for who controls what:

J.T. and the Dragon: Ground-based controls.
Yolanda and the Siren: Operations.
Me and the Witch: Primary weapons (WHOO!)
Justin and the Knight: Secondary weapons.
Jessica and the Phoenix: Flight controls.

I’m gonna say it now; J.T. has some really dumb names for our attacks. Dragon Burner for a fire one, for example. When the fire attack did more damage than anything else had, so we combined the Witch Staff and the Dragon’s Tail Sword, then charged them with fire. On J.T.’s command, we unleashed the Hellfire Spear (Remember what I said about dumb names? That’s another one.) and another Dragon Burner.

Hee hee. Another kablooie! I love big booms. Oh, yes I am a fan of Mythbusters, how did you guess?

After the split second of euphoria ended, I remembered something vitally important.

“*DANIEL!*” Oh, gods! Is he okay?! I wrenched open the nearest escape hatch and fell the twenty stories to the ground, heedless of my own safety. Now that I think about it, it probably wasn’t a good move.

Oh, please, Amaterasu, Apollo, let him be safe! I ran faster than I ever had before in my life and all but tackled him, checking him for injuries. I was worried, since he was using the Demon Ax as a crutch.

“You should see the other guy, Mandi.” Oh, thank Diana! He’s using his nickname for me, he can’t be that badly hurt.

“What happened?” I didn’t see Marius anywhere, not even a pile of carbonized bones. None of us are that powerful.

“’S strange. Just as he was about to finish me off, Marius clutched his head in pain and disappeared…”

“Well,” I said as I helped him up and put his arm on my shoulders, “The important thing is, you’re not hurt, the big monster’s gone, and we can now go on with our lives until the next attack.” He chuckled.

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Mandi-chan, really.” We began to walk to a back alley devoid of activity.

“Eh, don’t worry about it. I blame all of this on J.T. and Jessica anyway.” That brought another laugh to Daniel’s throat, although this one sounded more pained than the last. “Come on. We’ll get you to a safe place for you to demorph, and then I’ll make sure you’re not too badly hurt. Do you think you can go back to work?”

“Do I have a choice?” I shrugged.

“Everyone’s got a choice. We can just say you got clobbered by some idiot with a lead pipe in the stomach and you need to take the rest of the day off to make sure you’re not badly hurt.”

“Will you be my private nurse?” I threw my head back and laughed as we powered down.

“You know I always will, until the day we die.” I smiled brightly.

“You’re a beautiful girl, you know that?” he asked as he tilted my chin up with his hand. That brought another soft smile to my face.

“So you keep telling me. You’re a wonderfully sweet liar, you know that?”

There was a flicker of sadness in his eyes, and then he shook his head. “I’ll convince you of that someday, Mandi-chan.” He kissed me then.

I’ll leave you there, dear reader. The triumphant defeat of the first monster we defeated in our first Megazord, the Spirit Megazord.

Did Daniel ever get back to work, you ask? Heh. What do *you* think?

Is this a dream? If it is, please don‘t
Wake me from this high
I’d become comfortably numb
Until you opened up my eyes
To what it’s like when everything’s right
I can’t believe

You found me when no one else was looking
How did you know just where I would be?
Yeah, you broke through all of the confusion
The ups and the downs and
You still didn‘t leave-
I guess that you saw
What nobody could see
You found me
You found me -- Kelly Clarkson, “You Found Me”, *Breakaway*

[Enigma!]

*Laughs.* Yup. That sounds like me. Pissed as all hell (As rarely as that occurs) one minute, laughing over nothing the next.

[BloodAngel]

I sure hope it sounds like you, as I've known you for five years, almost if not six.

And you are a wonderfully sweet liar.

[Enigma!]

I never lie when I say you're beautiful.

[BloodAngel]

Yeah, I know.

Did you see the little call back to "Tragedy in Six Acts"?

[Enigma!]

Yes. I said those lines before.

That's what worries me.

[BloodAngel]

I'm not sure which inspired the other on that line. I think they just kinda bled into each other and it would make an interesting parting conversation.

[BloodAngel]

Because Bridge and Sky are throwing a hissy-fit over something or other and are not letting me work, here is what I have so far on Entry Four of the Datafiles.
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About two days later, J.T. was in the backroom of Highway 2, working on a custom action figure while Yolanda, Daniel, and myself were stocking (Yeah, we do that a lot. We’re a really popular store, not to mention new volumes of manga and anime coming out every Tuesday.) and Justin was working check out. You see, Justin’s the best of us as far as math goes, so usually when he’s working he gets stuck with most of the check out duties.

At any rate, while we were stocking, Jon swaggered his way into the store.

“Well, well, well,” he drawled. “I see you’re in your place, Amanda.”

“Daniel?” I asked, ignoring Jon for the moment. When Daniel poked his head up over the row of manga, I added, “Did you hear something? Like an ill wind?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Unless you count the evil one standing nearby.”

I turned around to face Jon, pasting of look of false realization on my face. “Oh, Jonathan! I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware you worked today!”

He scowled. I’m certain it was his hope that it would terrify me, but all I felt was utter and complete boredom, as though I was watching *Catch and Release* when Kevin Smith of *Dogma* and *Clerks* wasn’t on the screen. “Fuck you, witch.”

I put a finger to my chin, as if thinking. “No, I’d rather not. You see,” I said, slinking up to him. “I’m not one of your fifty million women. I’m something you are not, nor will you ever be. I’m *faithful*. Go find your latest conquest somewhere else, because you lost the best thing that will ever happen to you six years ago!” I held back the urge to backhand him, instead stomping on his foot. Turning on my heel and stalking back to the yaoi section, I shot a quick wink at Daniel.

I think it was sheer luck that Jon didn’t morph right then and beat me to hell, because he walked to the backroom.

“About time someone said that to him,” stated Yolanda as she handed me the newest issue of *Black Knight*. “It’s been, what, seven years since you gave dating him a go and found out he was a bigger player than Gene Simmons?”

I shrugged. “Eh, just something I’ve always meant to do, but never really got around to.” I placed the volumes in the proper place, then picked up *FAKE*. As I put it in its place, I started singing “Love Like Winter”, a song by a group named AFI, softly. Realizing that Jon was out of ear range, as were any prying customers (The only one in the store was busy at the check-out, waiting for their purchase to be bagged), Daniel began to muse out loud.

“The Scorpion Spiritzord’s attack was definitely Jon... And now that I think about it, that spider and the ants you and Justin fought, Yolanda, those fit Marius’ style... The question is, how do they know each other?”

“It’s in the blood, it’s in the blood
I met my love before I was born
He wanted love, I taste of blood
He bit my lip, and drank my war
From years before. From years before.”

Yolanda sighed, “Don’t think about it, Daniel, it’ll just hurt your head.” Yolanda paused as the customer walked out the door. “...Amanda, couldn’t you sing something else?”

I thought for a moment, running through my mental playlist of songs I knew well. I settled on “I Dare You” by Shinedown. “I dare you to tell me to walk though fire…”

Suddenly, a fire sparked, incinerating a standee in the middle of the store.

“FIRE! FIRE!” Yolanda screamed, drawing the attention of J.T., Jon, and Jessica from the backroom, all three of them wielding fire extinguishers. The fire was out quickly, thank Aluë.

“I’ve heard of flameworthy songs before,” Jessica quipped, once she regained her breath. “But this is a bit much.”

“John’s a bad influence on you,” Jon commented, knowing full well J.T. does not answer to John no matter who says it… unless it’s Jessica, and then only when she calls him “Johnnie”. I swear, I hate them for their unfairly easy relationship. I had to fight for mine, damn it!

“Don’t call me ‘John!’” he shouted, not even faltering in the least. See what I mean? Once the fire was out completely, J.T. groaned. “How are we gonna explain *this* to Mr. Z?” That’s the truth.

“Blame me, it’s what you always do,” Jon snapped on his way out the door. Thank Goddess. If he stayed here any longer, I was gonna morph and kick his ass out myself -- in a very painful manner.

“It’s not what we *always* do,” Justin commented as the door swung shut, “Just what we *usually* do.” Um, Justin? It’s what *I* always do.

“Justin, you’re getting a real vindictive streak,” J.T. commented, “Nice.” Well, we had to corrupt him someday, didn’t we? “Everyone, out back in five minutes.”

In just that time, all six of us were out back, claiming our ten minutes. The other five were gathered around me as though they were interrogating the prime suspect of a murder case.

“Ok,” J.T. asked, “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” I answered. “One second I was singing, the next,” I simulated an explosion with my hands, “fire.”

Another flame sparked into existence, forcing me to blink in surprise. Uh… is this what I think it is?

“Mandi, what was that line you were singing in the store?” Daniel asked, a thought swirling clearly in his eyes.

“‘I dare you to tell me to walk through fire’,” I answered, causing another spark of fire to appear. Is… is this what I *hope* it is?

“Say that last word again…”

“What? Fire?”

Again, a fire flared into existence, this one so close to my face that I could feel its heat and I went a little cross-eyed looking at it.

“Fire,” J.T. and Daniel said in unison.

“What?” I asked, “Are you saying that *I* caused that fire?” Please be saying that! Another flame appeared, answering my question. I had a little mental squeal when I realized that my hope was exactly what was happening.

I, Amanda Violette, a practicing solitary eclectic witch for four years, am able to do something that most witches wish would happen:

Hollywood-style magick works for me! I say “fire”, BOOM! I make fire! I wonder if I could get that broom thing to work too…

“Try something else, Amanda,” Yolanda suggested, probably sensing my complete astonishment.

I thought about what I would do. I’ve been given a very precious ability and I should use it wisely. Ah! I know! “Um... Water?”

A ball of water appeared in the air over J.T.’s head and dropped, drenching him.

“What did you do that for?” J.T. complained, wiping water off of his face.

“No reason, just felt like it,” I shrugged. Well, once I have a little fun with it first, of course. Can’t have this kind of power and not play around with it a little. Besides, he had it coming. Not sure what for, but he definitely had it coming.

“Amanda,” Jessica began, “I think that you *might* need to watch what you say for a while until you learn to control this.”

“Good luck with that,” J.T. grumbled, trying to wring out his shirt.

I arched an eyebrow. “Water.” He’s very lucky I didn’t want him dead at that moment, otherwise I would have decided to find out if I could achieve the same effect with lightening.

Later that day, J.T. had packed up to go to some customs convention, which left the five of us sitting around the store. This was the biggest thing to hit Scenic in a while, so most of the city was at the con. I was laying on the counter, contemplating tossing a pencil into the ceiling tiles while Daniel was alphabetizing the music section again. Yolanda was straightening already straight anime titles while Justin was sitting back, staring at the ceiling as well.

“I hate these things,” I muttered as I held a pencil in my hands, wondering if I should throw it or melt the metal down at the eraser end to make something out of.

“Pencils?” Justin asked, watching the few pencils I had managed to actually get stuck in the tiles dangle.

“No, conventions.” I decided to toss it, blowing it towards the aisle when it wasn’t going to go into the tile. “None of the ones we could do some good marketing at come here.” I sighed. “What I wouldn’t give for Fellowsalsh or Yaoi-con.”

“Amanda?”

“Yeah, Justin?”

“You have some really odd interests.”

“Thank you, I do try.” Fellowslash is an annual convention of Lord of the Rings slash fans, and Yaoi Con is an anime convention in Canada celebrating the gay characters of anime and manga. There’s also one on the West Coast, in San Fran, but Yaoi Con East is easier to get to for us.

*“J.T... If you’re a Power Ranger, I’m Kaiba.”* Hmm? Did I hear something?

“Amanda…”

“Kaiba senses tingling?” I asked Yolanda as she turned to face me, a strange expression on her face.

“…I think so.”

“You know something oneechan? I’m too bored to even go Kaiba-stalking.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

And then we lapsed into silence again. That is, until six particular notes filled the air. “You too bored to find out what Mars is doing to us this time?”

[J. T./Jessica]

I am snickering at the 'Kaiba Sense' line...

[BloodAngel]

No opinion on the Jon smack down?

[J. T./Jessica]

Heh. I smirk.

[BloodAngel]

I need more than that, dude.

[J. T./Jessica]

How about;
"It's an interesting mirror to a scene I have planned for some point in the (distance undetermined) future"?

[BloodAngel]

Okay, that I like.

...Wanna tell the class about it?