National Novel Writing Month JAPANS

If you don't get it, you're not a nerd who has seen CG.

Story after the break

    “That's fine,” Tilda said. “Because there's a monster that needs killing.” She coughed, still dripping water. “Just stay the hell out of my way.”

    “I can't believe I lost...” Tilda muttered. She was lying face-down on her bed, barely able to move. After she had deactivated Krieg, the pain had hit her all at once. It felt like someone had thrown her down a rocky hill, and she had managed to land in a bramble bush. The spots where the Verbesserte's fangs had sunk into her neck were covered with a bandage that Arma had thankfully found and applied.
    “You don't have fighting experience,” Arma said. “You can only get so far on talent. Still, your reactions were good. You did exactly the right thing when it bit you, but you should have pressed the advantage you had when you struck it.” Arma sipped at a cup of tea, sitting next to the bed.
    “I was too busy trying not to die,” Tilda said. She rolled onto her side. “You said that thing was decades more advanced than Krieg. How am I supposed to beat it?”
    “The design is, yes,” Arma said. “Krieg is the most advanced weapon humans ever made, but the reification matrix's designs were limited by the imagination of the man who built it. He programmed it with the most advanced designs of his day, and enhanced with the technology he took from my people, but there are things he simply could not have anticipated.”
    “Like that stealth stuff?” Tilda asked. Arma nodded.
    “Yes. Though I suppose the Nazis did accidentally stumble onto some extremely primitive stealth designs towards the end of the war. It was really quite amazing. They were decades ahead of their time, but limited to the manufacturing and materials of their day. It is too bad they were so focused on their ideals. They would have been excellent puppets.”
    “They were evil,” Tilda said, rolling her eyes. “The Nazis went around killing millions of people and trying to take over the world.”
    “Unfortunately so,” Arma agreed. “Anyway, that's in the past. There are more important things to worry about.”
    “Yeah. How do I beat that stealth stuff? I can barely keep up with it, and it's much better armed than I am. I don't know if I can beat it.”
    “Not with Krieg's primary form,” Arma agreed. “You'll have to use one of the other channels.”
    “Other... channels?”
    “Well it would hardly be an ultimate weapon with only one shape!” Arma laughed. “I'm sure one of the other forms will be more useful in this fight. It will need time to recharge, though. And so do you.”
    “Yeah,” Tilda agreed. “I feel awful.” She paused. “But what if that thing follows us here? You said it was after Krieg, right? Won't it just track us here? I don't want my house blown up!”
    “Don't worry,” Arma said. “I built a simple orgone accumulator while you were sleeping last night for just this reason. I put Krieg inside. It should mask the energized orgone signal from the weapon, and allow it to recharge a bit more quickly.”
    “An orgone accumulator?” Tilda blinked. She hadn't ever heard of that. Or a lot of things she'd been having to learn about lately. It was starting to annoy her how much people seemed to know and just never told her. Aliens, monsters, secret Nazi weapons... it was like they'd been keeping her in the dark for her entire life.
    “Yes. Alternating layers of metal and organic material. I used tin foil and paper. A bit weak, but it should keep any Anunnaki or Verbesserte from detecting it.” She pointed to the kitchen. There was a complicated-looking chunk of origami taking up part of the counter.
    “Oh. So that's what that thing is.” Tilda sighed. “I couldn't even beat that Pax guy...” She could still feel that awful soggy weakness of being blasted by his water cannon.
    “That thing...” Arma growled. “That thing is absurd. It shouldn't exist.” She stood up from where she had been sitting next to the bed. “It uses our technology, and perverts it! It's good for nothing except killing my kind! Whoever designed it is a maniac!”
    “Mm,” Tilda said, not agreeing or disagreeing. Pax had felt draining and awful just to be around, so it was hard to disagree too strongly. “Arma, what the hell did he mean by deadly orgone radiation?”
    “I told you, it's just a silly term he's using for energized orgone.” Arma paced. “Energized orgone is natural for my people. We'd die without it, like you would die without food or water. In an environment like this, my body naturally makes small amounts of it to sustain me. Krieg generates huge amounts of energized orgone to create armor and weapons. It's useful technology.”
    “But you said it could be dangerous,” Tilda pointed out.
    “Only to a few people. It's like an allergy. You wouldn't call peanuts dangerous just because there are some people who will die if they eat them. We were introducing more sources of energized orgone into your environment before the Fimbulvetr. Humans would have long since become tolerant to it.”
    “Well... I guess.”
    “Besides, many humans, yourself included, are able to absorb and process energized orgone.” Arma ran a hand down Tilda's face. “It's why using Krieg makes you feel so good. The supply of energized orgone is much richer than anything else you've had in your life.” Tilda sighed.
    “How long until Krieg is charged up again?” Tilda asked, closing her eyes. She was vaguely aware that Arma was still petting her, not quite like a pet. She was too tired to ask the alien to stop, and it felt nice anyway.
    “An hour or two. Enough time for you to get some rest.” Arma kept petting her. Tilda drifted off to sleep.

    Paul sat in his room, brooding. He had seen Tilda come home with that strange woman from somewhere. She had looked really out of it. Probably drunk or something. He'd lived next door to Tilda for over a year now and she hadn't even said two words to him. She was so stuck up. He had to admit that she wasn't bad-looking, though.
    Paul stood up and paced, stepping on discarded clothing and papers. He had tried so many times to get on her good side. It wasn't fair! He was a hard-working man with lots of things going for him, and he wasn't bad looking either. He had to figure out a way to make her notice him.
    It wasn't like he was desperate for attention or anything. Why just a few days ago a woman had called him out of the blue and asked if he wanted some company. She hadn't actually showed up, but that was besides the point. She had probably gotten delayed or couldn't make it or something. Yeah, that was it. He could still remember her voice it was-
    It was coming through the thin wall from Tilda's apartment. Paul blinked. What? That was impossible! Did that mean the woman that had called him was... the same woman that was over in Tilda's apartment? No wonder she had called him out of nowhere! She had been toying with him the whole time! It was some friend of Tilda's, making fun of him!
    Paul threw a glass across the room, shattering it against a wall. He couldn't believe it! No, that wasn't it. He could. Women had always done this to him playing with his feelings and then crushing him just because they found it amusing!
    Paul stormed around the room, the center of a violent storm of emotions. It was taking all of his self control to avoid just going over there and screaming. But that was probably what they wanted. And he wasn't going to give them that statisfaction. No.
    He'd find a way to get revenge. Something that would mean they'd never make fun of him again. And then he'd be the one laughing and enjoying himself.

    Charles managed to get home just as Pax's power supply flickered and died. The armor it had formed around him dissolved back into pure orgone energy and dissipated into the air. It was probably for the best. It meant there wasn't any deadly orgone radiation around his house, and that he wasn't going to have to explain it to his mother. He took Pax from his waist and tucked it under his arm.
    He walked in to his mother cooking something on the stove.
    “Charles! I was so worried!” She ran over and hugged him. “I heard there was some kind of an accident at the University!”
    “I'm okay, Mom,” he said. “It was... pretty bad, though.” He shook his head. “I know some people got hurt. One of my professors...” He stopped, looking down.
    “Oh, Charles... sit down.” She led him to a chair. “I'll get you some tea.”
    “Thanks, Mom.” He sat, putting Pax on his lap. Charles rubbed his forehead, tired. It had been a long day. He was still trying to really grasp the idea that Professor Gable was dead. He really could have used the man's guidance right now. At the least, he could use some advice on how to use Pax. The weapon had so many components, most of which he hadn't even tried using yet.
    Charles looked down at the dove embossed on Pax and thought about how it had felt. It had been like riding a wild animal. It was primal and powerful in a way that was hard to explain. Every moment wearing the armor he had felt like he had been immersed in a rushing river of cold mountain water. If it had been much stronger, he would have been swept away by it.
    He had to admit it scared him a little. A little more and it would have eaten him. Too much like an untamed beast. Gable probably could have told him how to make it work for him instead of against him, but those weren't questions he could ask right now.
    “Here you go, Charles,” his mother said, putting the mug of hot tea in front of him. Charles looked up and smiled.
    “Thanks.” He sipped it.
    “Do you want to talk about what happened?” His mother sat down across from him. “I know it can be difficult to take about something like this, but it can help a lot to get your feelings off your chest.”
    “I still need to process it all,” Charles said, with a sigh. “This wasn't... it's not easy. It was all so sudden. It's not real to me yet.” His mother nodded, understanding. He couldn't tell her that he was still trying to figure out how he was going to stop the monster he had seen, or what he was going to do about Krieg. That woman was a pawn for evil alien forces and he didn't know if he could save her. Or if she wanted to be saved.
    “Okay, Charles,” she smiled. “I'm always here if you want to talk, though, okay?” He nodded. After a few moments, his mother went back to cooking. Charles sipped his tea quietly and thought. It was a while before he put his thoughts together enough to talk.
    “Mom... what do you do if someone really needs help, but they don't want it?” He looked down in his mug of tea, watching the tea leaves in the bottom swirl around.
    “If they don't want help, there are only two things you can do,” she said. “You can let them fail on their own, or you can give them the help they need even if they don't want it. If you're lucky, they'll understand why you did it, and they'll forgive you.”