8/09/04
"Did you manage to figure out what was causing the ten gigawatt loss, yet?" asked the long blonde hair woman in the grey business suit sitting at the table helping herself to some tea.
Jaes sighed as he opened up the fridge to remove the pickles. "No no. I think it might have to do with the flux capacitator being on five minutes longer than necessary."
She was Oxygen's Tutor, called OT for short (stands for office-temp. No one knew her real name. Just that she was currently substituting within Jaes' organization for a lot of high positions because everyone else up and died). Normally, right now she wouldn't be bothering Jaes, but Oxygen had not come home (again), so she was left without a student to tutor and with an employee who just didn't seem to work fast enough. Annoying, for sure, but Jaes couldn't do much about it. He was just glad that at least right now, the organization wasn't working on weapons of mass destruction anymore (actually, the thing was on life support at the moment, which suited Jaes just fine. Free paycheck with none of the moral dilemmas! And with two daughters and an unpaid science experiment to care for, as well as still pursuing his own personal research projects, he needed the funds).
Jaes was sharply reminded of the existance of one of those daughters when he closed the door, only to see a cute baby fox girl staring at him with sad beady eyes.
"Vulpecula?" Jaes adjusted his glasses. Wow, Vulpecula hadn't asked him for something in a long time. The girl had become rather independent within the house already considering that she was a baby, but...
But Vulpecula was tired of doing everything herself. She imagined that all the other Astra babies were probably pampered head to toe by their parents! And today, she was going to get her dad to make her a sandwhich! ...no, eating that might be pretty hard since she was still teething. Okay! Today she was going to get him to open up that baby food for her! It was all part of her devious plan to get around that barrier known as the childproof cap!
Now it was time to use her first weapon! The puppy eyes look! Sure, Vulpecula was a fox and not a puppy, but the puppy eyes look always worked! Especially against someone as easily charmed as Jaes.
"Er... is there something you need, Vulpie?" Jaes asked.
Hrm. Being a baby, Vulpecula was always held back by her inability to speak. Obviously, this was going to take a little body language. She began motioning her head towards the cabinet which held the baby food. Soon she'd train her dad to do lots of other things for her, too, but for now, WHAT THE!?
"DADDY!!!!" A young girl screamed as loud as she could from the doorway to catch Jaes' attention, causing OT to spill her tea and Jaes to immediately spin around.
"Whoa! What is it, Fiona?" Jaes stammered. "Do you need a ride to go see your friends again?"
"Wha? No, dad!" Fiona snapped. Jaes was always trying to just shoehorn her away from him these days! "Look at what I taught myself to do!"
With that, Fiona tossed three oranges in the air and began juggling them, tossing them from one hand to another and then up into the air before catching each one and repeating the loop.
"See, dad!? Isn't it great?"
"Er... well, yes, Fiona," Jaes began, before being bapped on his shoulder by a certain fox girl. Oh, what did she want!? Couldn't she see that Fiona was trying to show her dad something!?
What the heck was that fruit girl doing, getting in her way!? Vulpecula would have none of it! Now it was time for her patented fox baby whine! Pandering for Jaes' attention by pawing at his shoulder, Vulpecula whined in a really sad and torn manner! She was sad! She was torn! She was ignoooored and all she wanted was a little love by her loving father!
...and to make him open her baby food! Because as her father, it was Jaes' responsibility to follow her every whim!
But it was working! Jaes himself felt sorry for her! And rightfully so, because he was her slave and it was his obligation to wait on her hand and foot!
"Oh! I'm sorry, Vulpecula! I'll get to your food right away!" Jaes remarked.
The long blonde haired woman at the table looked at her watch, and then interupted, "Don't you have things to do, right now? I think you left that prototype flux damien capacitator on, didn't you?"
Alas, it seemed that everyone felt like getting in Vulpecula's way, today. This was highly vexing, seeing as to how they had plenty of other days of Jaes slacking off to go and try to bug him. Unfortunately, her opportunity was now gone as Jaes realized that leaving that flux damien capacitator on might end up melting an entire section of his labs or suck it into a black hole or whatever.
Vulpecula leapt off the table and scampered after him. She wasn't going to let him get away like he did all those other days.
Her dad was heading for the lab in the basement again! If he got there, he'd probably stay down there for the entire rest of the day like he always did! Ha, well, he could never outrun Fiona, because Fiona didn't just eat a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables. She WAS a healthy diet of fruit and vegetables!
...okay, no, she wasn't ever since Linali made her into a child, but beating her dad to the basement door was still too easy.
"HEY DAD!" Fiona cheered as she popped up in front of him, a watermelon slice balancing on her head and one on each of her opened arms. "I wasn't finished yet! You're going to miss the finale!
"Look, sweetie, daddy's a bit busy right now." Jaes explained. "Can we do this some other time?"
"That's what you always say!" Fiona snapped. "You never pay any attention to me anymore, and I wish we were back home in that stupid shack instead of this big house! Sure, it was small and dirty and dusty and it didn't have videogames, but you always paid a lot more attention to me back then and I miss that, dad!"
Jaes was stunned. "Fiona..."
Unfortunately, at that moment, a sprinting fox girl spiraled up him and on top of his head, her tail wagging in his face.
What a foolish girl. Well, she was no match for Vulpecula's devious wiles.
Leaping from Jaes' head onto Fiona's, Vulpecula caused Fiona to stumble back, which resulted in the two watermelon slices on her arms falling off. As for the watermelon slice on her head, Vulpecula grabbed it and chomped it down in one gulp, before spitting out all the seeds and slamming the leftover rind to the ground.
"Hey!" Fiona screamed as she yanked the fox girl off her head and glared at her. "You... How dare you!!! Okay, THIS ONE is going to have to show you the throwing skills she learned, THE HARD WAY!"
Er... wait, that wasn't very good. Vulpecula's eyes widened as Fiona prepared to chuck her across the room. Widened eyes that noticed that Jaes was gone.
Um... where did her dad go? ACK! Throwing Vulpecula across the room would have to wait. Besides, in retrospect, she'd probably break the thing or something (Then again, didn't cats always land on her feet? Fiona had to ask Brianna or Lex that, someday).
The basement door was closing! Fiona dashed for it and made it in just in time. Unfortunately, she forgot to let go of the fox girl who came with her. Fiona quickly tossed Vulpecula back, but the door already closed by then. Whatever. She had to see her dad.
Wow, Fiona never went down to the basement before. There sure were a lot of those sliding grey doors, just like in underground bases in spy movies! Neat! Still, there wasn't much time to enjoy the sites. She had a mission! And she saw where her dad was heading!
"Daaaad!" Fiona cried from the doorway. "I'm not finished yet!"
"Look, Fiona, I'm not finished either!" Jaes replied without looking back, as he began frantically pressing buttons on some strange cylinder gadget.
Silly girl. Didn't she know that Vulpecula always landed on her feet? Even with her diminuitive stature, it wasn't hard for her to keep pace and join Fiona in the room where Jaes was working.
Hmph, that girl still thought that she could get her dad's attention by calling to him like that! Well, Vulpecula bet she could do the same if she could actually talk. No matter. When one couldn't talk, all one had to do is take action!
Leaping onto the table and surprising Jaes in the process, Vulpecula knocked down that stupid cylinder thing that was taking up Jaes' attention. Attention that could have better been spent feeding her and showing her how to use the television!
"VULPECULA, NO!"
...of course, as she got blinded by a flashing light, Vulpecula realized that maybe knocking down something that could create black holes or melt the entire room or whatever the heck that thing did wasn't such a good idea.
...
...
...where was he?
Jaes looked around. White, white, and just white. No furniture, no ceiling, no walls, no floor, even. It was as if he were suspended in space. A space... of white.
A space where Fiona and Vulpecula had apparently been transported to, also.
"Er..." Fiona began, her voice echoing across the vast plain of nothingness. "I don't like this place very much. There isn't any color here at all. Where are we, dad? Hey! Did we die or something? This one never died, before! Wow!"
Ah! Maybe those theories were true!
"We seem to have been sucked into an empty dimensional void." Jaes explained. "One where time and space has no meaning. It resulted from the atoms of the flux capacitator being melted at the same time the black hole was created, melting the black hole and creating a pocket dimension formed completely out of electrons that bypassed the flux array."
"You mean magic?" Fiona asked.
Jaes smacked his forehead. "No, not magic! This is a very delicate scientific process that resulted in a phenomenom you can't even begin to comprehend!"
Vulpecula rolled her eyes. Why bother saying all that bullcrap when you could just say 'magic' was beyond her.
"LISTEN TO ME!" Jaes snapped at Vulpecula, noticing that she wasn't taking him very seriously, either. "We could be stuck here for forever! An eternity which will mean nothing but a mere millisecond in the real world because there is no time!"
"Gee, I dunno, dad." Fiona remarked, her hand to her chin in thought. "If it's magic, I'm sure Linali will find a way for us to get out."
Jaes was getting frustrated. "THIS IS NOT MAGIC! Linali can't just randomly MAGICALLY teleport into this scientific pocket dimension which previously didn't even exist half a second ago. A half second which may be a half second too much because THERE IS NO TIME here, so how on earth can Linali teleport into here when time isn't even passing where ever Linal is!? Nevermind the complete absurdity of just snapping her fingers and randomly coming over to us the instant this happened when no one is supposed to be able to reach here NOW or FOREVER!"
He angrily turned to Linali who was by his side.
"Can you explain to these two WHY you can't teleport here?"
...wait a minute.
"Gee, mister, I think you need a nap time or something." The girl responsible for Fiona's creation remarked, as Fiona cheered at her presence.
"YAY!" Fiona beamed. "Hi, Linali! We missed you!"
"Aw, thanks, Fiona!" the small purple haired child smiled back. "I have a gift for you!"
Fiona clasped her hands eagerly as Vulpecula went and took a nap on a stunned Jaes' head. "Really? A gift for me? But... but the only gift I want right now is for my dad to pay attention to me like he used to."
Linali grinned. "Then maybe this will help!"
With that, she cheerfully touched Fiona on the forehead. There was a flash of red, yellow, and blue lights, and suddenly Jaes saw that his little girl had grown up!
Standing before him in place of the adorable child with the coconut top and short basket skirt was now a gorgeous woman with a cloth top where her basket ribbon now was, and a longer basket skirt now with fringe at the bottom.
...a woman who was as tall as he was. Damn, Jaes knew he should have drank more milk as a kid!
Fiona instinctively threw back her head, allowing her long flowing locks of hair to land on her shoulders as Linali held up a small hand mirror.
"I... I'm an adult?" She rhetorically asked as she gazed into the mirror, her voice much more mature sounding than before. Wow, she was really beautiful, now!
"I hope it helps!" Linali smiled. "Now I have to get going again. I'm hungry. Bye bye!"
And in a blink, she was gone.
Vulpecula by now had opened her eyes to look at Fiona, though she was unimpressed. Not that Fiona cared.
"Are you happy now, dad!?" Fiona snapped as she walked up to her dad and poked him in the chest. "You almost missed my growing up!"
"But... but..." Jaes stammered, before sighing. "I'm sorry, sweetie. Is there anything I can do to make it up?"
"You can teach this one to drive!"
"...I was thinking something more along the lines of watching your act." Jaes replied.
"Oh, right! Sure thing, dad!" Whipping out her three oranges, Fiona began juggling them. One two three one two three! "Da dada da da da da DA! Dadalalala da, da! Da dada da da da da Da! Dadalalala la, la!"
One orange, two oranges, three oranges, they all moved in a circle again and again as Fiona 'da'd a dinky little tune, before it finally ended.
"Da da dala la, DA!" Fiona sang as she caught one orange in one hand, another in the other, and the third landing and balancing on her head.
Jaes clapped while Vulpecula tried to clap with her paws as best as she could.
"Hey, that was pretty good!" Jaes remarked, a sincere smile on his face. Vulpecula purred in agreement.
"Thanks, dad!"
"You're welcome, Fiona!"
"Well, I'll see you around, dad!" Fiona beamed before walking off.
"Sure thing!" Jaes nodded as he walked off in the other direction and Vulpecula fell off his head to the ground, landing on her feet as always.
Vulpecula blinked. She wished her growing up was as easy as some random girl coming over and touching her and then poof! Ah well. When she finally grew up, she'd get back in control. Because Vulpecula always got her way!
...she did have to wonder how they were going to get out of the empty void they were in, though.
