Story Description: A Marine Private is performing that most exalted of duties, Night Watchman, and reflects on past encounters while dreaming about new ones, not knowing of the encounter of his life that was about to take place…

Uploaded: 2/11/2016

Last Updated:

Chapter 1: On Strange Shores - Prologue

A dark-haired man clad in Marine Blues looks to the right as he lays prone on the asphalt. His eyes are unfocused in the distance.

*Phoof*

Marine Private David Gears was having a very unexciting day. He had woken up that morning in the barracks, did his morning ablutions and exercises, and had spent the day in the minor tasks that kept his assigned base in the ordered precision demanded of militaries the world over. It was just his luck that he drew the short straw for night sentry duty, and a continuation of that luck that saw him patrolling the zone around the base armory.

Private Gears, "Crazy Dave" to his drinking buddies after one memorable brawl in the pursuit of alcoholic bliss, in which a ring finger (the Private's) and an ear (a fellow drinker's) had made an unexpected coupling, was wishing he was anywhere but walking down Marine-Standard well-maintained asphalt in the middle of a cloudless night. In particular, Private Gears was remembering the dress a rather stunning woman he had met the week before was wearing, and rather more particularly, the same dress on the floor of a motel room the next morning.

Now, the good Private knew that he had been exceptionally lucky that night, and even more that he would likely never meet the girl (what was her name, "Dana", "Diane"?) again, but it is a fact of most men that they will often dwell on their greatest victories, and turn to their memories of them when seeking reassurance in their darkest hours.

And it was very dark that night, no clouds in the sky notwithstanding.

But, Private "Crazy Dave" Gears was a Marine, and a damn good one too, if he and his company were to be believed. And as a good Marine, Private Gears had most of his attention on the shadows at the edge of the armory building, and the bushes and trees that started a short distance from the edge of the road. There was no movement in the bushes, and no sounds in the human register to be heard, and the shadows of the armory were still and unbroken.

Indeed, the whole world seemed quite still, except for the light, steady thud, thump, thud of Gears' boots as he walked down the base road.

Private Gears turned the corner of the building, and continued his patrol.

The bay doors he had just passed in front of quivered slightly, as though a moderate breeze had angled to hit them directly.

The shuddering increased as the doors began opening vertically. Scarcely a sound was made as the doors finished their journey, a slight squeaking was heard as a cart was pulled to the entrance now open to the night air.

In the normal course of events, most individuals, even the brave and generally decent souls that made up the Marine Corp of the United States Navy, would have passed the gentle rattling of the bay doors as the effect of the mysterious cool night winds. But Private Gears was nothing if not thorough (another point added to his nickname), and made a slow about face to come back around the corner to the rear of the building.

When he saw the open door, and the cart loaded with cases that he knew stored the M4 Carbines for easy deployment, he immediately raised his own rifle and was about to issue a stern "Halt", when he suddenly found himself short of air.

There was a curious burning in his back, and when he tried to reach back, found that his left arm was sluggish, and unwilling to respond to his desperate commands to find what was shooting the blinding pain up and down his body.

Private Gears reflected that his last weekend had been incredible. If he had to choose any specific weekend to be his last on earth, he decided that Dana-or-Diane had left him with plenty of good memories to choose that one. He felt other weekends flash before his eyes, knowing that he was dying.

Private Gears never did manage to raise his voice, nor reach for his radio. He fell forward, and his eyes were glazed in death before his face met the immaculate asphalt.

A/N: Soo… Anyone up for a Dreaming of Sunshine Crossover that is not another Anime? I know I am!