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The Chronicles of Faust
By: Nez

Part 12

Author’s note:  After a long time of being a slacker Pile along with MU, here is the latest update of the Chronicles.  Later on, in this part, my writing style takes a definite turn toward the creative side, you should definitely be able to pick it up.  I was taking a writing course at the time and it worked wonders for making this interesting, both to read and to write.  Enjoy…

(Click here to skip to the chapter beginning)

The Absolution Saga

 After getting home, letting himself in and unconsciously grabbing a snack, he plopped down on the couch and stared at the ceiling for the next hour and a half, until Carolyn, who had taken care of all the soldiers after the fight, returned home.  After a few moments of thought, she asked him if he wanted to talk about anything, to which Faust replied that there was nothing to talk about.  He had been humiliated, killed and humiliated again, he didn't particularly want to talk about it or even think about it.

 After sitting dumbly on the couch for several more minutes, his mind reeling with the turmoil of the grossly changing/changed situation, rationality broke through.  It occurred to him that he should really get back into the habit of sleeping again.  Relegating the churning chaos of his thoughts to the back of his mind, Faust went off to bed and plopped down next to his wife without saying a word.

 Having forgotten about Laucon's request (or perhaps not really caring) Faust made no provisions for setting an alarm clock or other similar device to disturb him from his stupor, so he awoke to Laucon pounding on their door and sounding rather annoyed.  After untangling himself from his wife (when did they get tangled up?), both falling on the floor in the process, he threw on a bathrobe after returning her to the mattress and walked to the living room to see what the problem was.

 Laucon was standing outside the door, arms folded and a foot tapping his impatience.  He reminded Faust that he was supposed to be at the lookout for his "surprise."  Faust grudgingly agreed, once again remembering his recently developed dislike for surprises, to go along and retreated to the bedroom in order to get dressed for the trip.

 *(This was kind of fun, messing with the player that happened to be playing Laucon.  Everyone wanted their shot at the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but since Faust didn’t know what it was, he resisted going as much as he reasonably could.)

 Dressed in his vacation "Beach Bum" clothes, Faust flew with Laucon to the lookout.  Upon arriving, Laucon asked an attendant named "Po-Po" if the room was ready.  Faust was rather confused at this and was steeling himself for another unpleasant surprise when Laucon led him into the lookout and to a large wooden door set into a dome-shaped structure.

 Laucon opened the door and motioned for Faust to enter.  The only thing that could be seen coming from behind the door was an intense white light.  Sighing, Faust walked straight in prepared to handle whatever would be on the other side of that door.  A normal looking bedroom suite awaited him on the other side, beyond that was an infinite expanse of nothingness of the same white light as was emitted when the door opened.

 The slamming and consequent locking of a door interrupted Faust's observation.  Laucon strode up behind Faust and launched into an explanation of what would be named as the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.  The basic gist that Faust picked up was that he was stuck in this screwed up place with only Laucon for company over the next year.

 *(Talk about sexual tension, jeez…)

 Snorting in disgust, Faust cast a venomous look in Laucon's direction for the deception and flew off, away from the room housing the living quarters.  The next three months blurred by in Faust's mind.  Occasionally he would return for food whenever he was lucid enough to care, but otherwise he would go to the far reaches of the dimension and wage battle with his inner demons: failure, humiliation and torment.

 Most of the time Faust would end up passing out in place in the middle of his struggles only to wake up and resume them as if they had never stopped.  In the beginning it was almost more than what remained of his sanity could handle.  Faust would frequently pass out from massive power expenditures and random outbursts of incoherent fury as compared to being genuinely tired.

 Sometimes during his wanderings another figure would disturb his fuming reverie giving him a brief focus and a burst of release for his anger.  Casting intelligence and strategy to the wind, he charged the intruder and would throw as much power as quickly as possible to remove this nuisance.  It seemed to work, on account of whenever Faust (?) became aware again, the figure was gone.

 As time passed the raging flood of emotion in Faust's mind abated to the point where it could be controlled and directed to a degree.  This is the point where Faust began to make real progress with regard to training.  Whenever Laucon would show up Faust began to fight intelligently again, managing to last longer before being pummeled to a pulp and making Laucon work for his victories.

 During one fight, about six months into the year, a barrier in Faust's mind disappeared.  The resulting inundation of emotion ran through Faust's veins like molten steel, strengthening his muscles and propelling him to new heights of raw power.  At the end of that fight Faust was the one left standing, if only barely.

 Following this release, sanity returned completely to Faust and he was able to communicate rationally and act with the finesse he was known for, again.  Both Laucon and Faust began to work cooperatively to build up their techniques and various combat skills during the intervening months as the comrades they were. 

 One day several months later, Faust realized that he could go farther.  His training had strengthened his body to the point where he was more effective than he had ever been before.  Another plateau was in his sight and within his grasp.  Faust steeled himself for another climb and began to summon his energies and drive his way upward once again.

 Not nearly as difficult as the previous plateau the ascent was almost maddeningly simple.  He found that he could increase his power almost two-fold but at the drawback that his muscles would be swelled to a size where they would begin to slow him down at a point where he would be able to ill afford the loss in speed.

 Having gone as far as he figured he could go for now, Faust and Laucon, who had realized the same problems spent the little remaining time sparring, up to the last possible minute.  When Mr. Po-Po opened the door and informed them that their time was up, they limped out stiffly, sweating and out of breath but satisfied.

 *(We didn’t actually role play any of this out, I more or less BS-ed it.)

 It appeared that there was some gathering taking place on the lookout, as the usual suspects were collected around a table and stuffing their faces with the food that was piled high on the table.  After glancing longingly at the food, Faust turned away and flew off, having realized that he had another person to take care of that he hadn't seen for a year…

 Another Peaceufl Interlude

 Upon arriving home, Faust heard the disembodied-sounding voice of Chef Gumbo (coming from a speaker, by the sound of it.).  After listening for a few moments he discerned that the good Chef was instructing his wife on how to make a killer gumbo.  After assessing the situation, he determined his best course of action to be an encirclement maneuver.

 After Chef Gumbo finished his narrative and the communication system was deactivated, Faust made his move.  Carolyn was standing, facing the counter while doing her work, when she paused for a moment, sensing something amiss.  That moment of hesitation was enough for Faust to do his dirty work, in the blink of an eye he blurred behind his wife and had his arms around her waist before she could even react.

 After a panic-stricken few seconds, Carolyn realized who had accosted her, turned and melted into his embrace.  Faust rested his chin on her head as she briefly sobbed.  After a few quiet minutes, Faust's stomach broke the silence and stated the obvious question:   "When's dinner?"  Laughing a bit, she brushed off her face and told him to go take a shower and dinner would be ready by the time he got out.  She'd been told what he had been doing for the last day/year.

 When Faust emerged from the bathroom, dressed in his remaining set of "beach-bum" vacation clothes, the lights were turned down and he found a table that was set as if for royalty with his wife seated at the other side.  As graciously as he could in his current dress, he sat down and began a little pre-meal banter.  After a few moments Carolyn got a bowl of gumbo from a pot sitting on the counter and placed it in front of him.

 Carolyn watched with anticipation, and then relief, as Faust finished his bowl, cleared off the table and continued straight on with the pot.  Enough with this "bowl" nonsense.  After finishing the pot, Faust leaned back in his chair and mused that he hadn't had a self-cooked meal like that since their academy days, punctuating it with a small burp.

 Carolyn then got up and walked to the bedroom, saying over her shoulder that she had another surprise (groan) for Faust.  She came out a few moments later in heels and a brief (form-fitting, obviously) tube dress, turned a model's circle and asked him how he liked it.  This time he answered with a thunderous burp, knocking both of them off of their respective perches.  Picking himself up and blushing slightly, he strode to Carolyn, scooped her up, and continued to the bedroom commenting that he also remembered times in the academy when she wore significantly less…

 *(Comic relief with a distinct lack of class.)

 The next morning they awoke (again) to the sound of pounding on their door.  After disentangling himself from his wife and the wreckage of the mattress and the box springs and then the debris/broken appliances in the bedroom and finally grabbing a bed-sheet, he made his way to the door and found a slightly annoyed lieutenant waiting for him.

 The lieutenant informed him that the cruiser was leaving in an hour, as per his orders two weeks prior.  Faust dismissed the lieutenant and told him to meet them at the central lodge of this particular resort, with a disguised transport, in 45 minutes.

 *(This was really stupid.  Faust is at the top of the chain, yet somehow his subordinates control his schedule…)

 Upon returning to the bedroom and surveying the damage he and his wife had wrought, Faust decided that any attempt at repair was out of the question, since resorts overcharge to begin with.  To remedy the situation, Faust and Carolyn removed their belongings and then proceeded to level the hut.  When checking out, Faust told the attendant that their house had been struck by a freak bomb and gave her half a million yeti for construction of a new hut.  As an afterthought, Faust tossed the hut's keys to the attendant on the way out of the door.

 Following this, Faust instructed the pilot to book it up to the cruiser so he could be there to personally welcome Vegeta off of his shuttle.  Relieved to be off that stinking ball of rock, Faust felt the weight lifting off of his shoulders as the air pressure was lifting off of the shuttle.  They ended up disembarking from the shuttle about fifteen minutes before Vegeta arrived, so Faust had time to change into proper attire (vacation clothes not being proper attire).

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