fanfic_name = What If

chapter = Chapter III

Rating = AP15

Type = Adventure

fanfic = What If

Lisa walked around her quarters frantically and Claudia watched slightly amused as her best friend seemed about ready to have a nervous breakdown. This was Lisa's first date in a long time and Claudia knew it, so she wasn't surprised in the least to see her friend having such a hard time of it.

"Claudia!" Lisa wailed, "Help me; I have no idea what to do!" Lisa fell back down onto the couch in her quarters. Claudia walked over to Lisa's closet and pulled out a pale blue dynasty dress. Claudia smiled, 'I didn't know Lisa had these kinds of clothes,' but Claudia shrugged it off and walked over to Lisa and gave her the dress to wear.

Lisa took the dress and went to the bathroom to change and few minutes later, she re-emerged looking radiant. "Claudia," Lisa began, "don't you think I should wear make up or something?" Claudia sighed, "Lisa, have you ever worn makeup?"

"No," Lisa replied, "Well then why should you wear any now? Is that the Lisa Rick Hunter fell for?" Lisa blushed and Claudia laughed. "Don't try and deny it, the whole ship has heard about how you and Rick greeted each other after he got back yesterday."

Claudia might have said more but a knock at the door told them that Rick was here to pick up Lisa. "Now remember Lisa, you know he cares for, an above all, just have a good time got it?" Lisa looked at Claudia and nodded her head and got up and went to answer the door and when the door slid back she liked the response she received.

Rick was absolutely astounded at how beautiful Lisa looked. The pale blue dress hugged to her body and the shimmer of the dress made her absolutely beautiful. "Well," Lisa began and gave Rick a twirl, "do you like?" Rick still un-able to find his words just nodded his head.

Rick still stunned tried his hardest to find the words and manages a weak, "You look very nice Lisa." But to Lisa those few words made her feel like she was the most important thing in the galaxy.

"Well, we should get going," Rick said finally remembering how to speak. A he took Lisa's arm and escorted her down to his car laughing and talking the whole way. As they got to Rick's car, a red sports car the Ricks had obviously invested some time in. Rick opened Lisa's door and she sat down and Rick quickly crossed over and got in on his side.

"Rick, I didn't know you had a car," Lisa said as Rick sat down. Rick looked at her and chuckled to himself. Lisa liked surprised at Rick, "What's so funny mister?" Lisa demanded.

Rick started the care avoiding the question, "You didn't know because I bought it today, an you know, being a pilot and all I got a big discount." Lisa looked shocked at first, and then gave a sort of smile. "Well Ms. Hayes, if your ready to go," Rick pulled the car out of the Barrack's parking garage and got onto the road successfully without killing anyone.

Lisa made a mental note to herself, 'I got to remember not to let him drive when we come back, pilots are dangerous drivers,' but right now Lisa gave up worrying and thought about the great night that she was going to have with Rick and the great time she was having now with him.

Rick looked over at Lisa in that knockout dress and wondered why before a few days ago he hadn't seen how very beautiful she was. 'Jesus, look at her, she has to be heaven sent, there's no way anyone can be that beautiful and not be a gift from god!' Rick had to suddenly stop look at Lisa because he remembered he was driving and at that point was almost up on the curb.

'Damn I can't do that again,' Rick scolded himself, 'not while I'm driving anyway.' Rick smiled; he was going to show Lisa a good time no matter what, she was going to enjoy herself.

A few minutes later Rick pulled up to the restaurant and got out quickly and jumped over the back of the car and got Lisa's door before she could open and like a perfect gentleman opened the door and even gave her a bow. Lisa blushed and giggled.

Rick took Lisa's arm again and escorted her to the door and opened it for her an they walked in together. The assault on Lisa's senses was full and complete; it took her a minute for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The smell gave Lisa a strange feeling of comfort or was that Rick at her arm.

"Your name sir," the man at the door asked. "Hunter, Rick Hunter," Rick replied and the man looked up and down the list and found the name in the middle of the list. "Follow me sir," the man told them and walked them to a table next to a window that had a nice view of Macross Park. "Thank you," Rick told the man.

Rick pulled out Lisa's seat and gave her another bow, making her giggle again, "Oh Rick stop it, your making me feel like a God," Lisa said still laughing. Rick looked at her as he sat down, "God? Hardly," Rick began, "your no god, you're a goddess Lisa, I am stupid for never having noticed it before, but you're truly one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen."

Lisa sat there Rick's words sinking in, no one had ever told her that she was a goddess, an here was Rick, the person she adored, telling her she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. "T-thank you Rick, no one has ever told me that I was a goddess," Lisa's word's stumbled out.

Rick might have said more, something to the effect, 'Lisa I love you,' but their waiter came over and gave them there menu's and took there drink orders. Then a song started to play, and Rick got the urge to go and dance, so he got up and approached Lisa, "Would you care for a dance ma'am?" Rick asked. Lisa looked up at Rick and smiled, "You think you can keep up?"

Rick and Lisa made there way out to the dance floor and Rick pulled Lisa close, "Lisa, I haven't had this much fun in years, I feel so safe and comfortable when I am with you," Rick looked into Lisa's beautiful green eyes and found himself transfixed by them, continuing to dance.

Lisa found herself looking into Rick's blue eyes and seeing the love, the caring and she also saw the horror in his eyes that one gets from being a hardened combat veteran. "Rick I..." but before Lisa could finish what she was going to say, Rick said, "Hey the waiters back lets go order." Lisa gave an exasperated sigh, 'Men, always thinking about their stomachs.

Rick and Lisa sat down again and Lisa ordered shrimp scampi pasta with a Caesar salad. Rick ordered a huge rack of ribs. 'Typical man,' Lisa thought, 'always go for the most barbaric type of eating possible.' Rick looked up at Lisa and smiled at her.

Lisa looked at Rick's smile and she seemed to feel like she was melting, 'How is it that when he just smiles at me I feel like I am melting?' "So," Lisa asked looking at Rick, "how do you feel for Minmei? I mean, something's had to have changed since you asked me out." Lisa looked at Rick and saw a hurt look come over his face, 'Shit, why did I have to go off and start opening my big mouth?'

"Rick, I'm sorry I didn't mean to sound impertinent and rude, it's just that I am kind of curious as to why you'd ask an 'old sourpuss' out instead of Miss Macross." Rick sighed and looked at her, "its ok Lisa," Rick sighed again, "Minmei is long lost to me, there was never going to be an 'us' between Minmei and me. It took me some time to realize that Minmei was too childish and another thing is that she has no idea about the real world."

Lisa raised an eyebrow at Rick and nodded her head, "Well, that answers my question. How about you Rick? You have any personal questions for me?" Rick put his hand to his chin and sat there in a thoughtful pose, "Yeah I do actually, tell me about your ex-fiancé Karl, I mean how'd you meet, what happened, all that."

Now it was Rick's turn to feel like an asshole as Lisa's eye's filled with tears and she lowered her head and looked away. "Lisa, I'm sorry that was a completely out of line question. You don't have to answer if you don't want."

Lisa wiped her eyes and looked straight and Rick, "It's alright, like I said you could ask a personal question, fair is fair, but anyway. I meet Karl at UN Spacy, and our relationship took off from there. We were dating for only a little while before he asked to marry him, but then the Global Civil War got hotter and Karl requested to be stationed on Mar's base."

Rick gave a nod that suggested that he was having what he already knew reaffirmed. "I'm sorry you lost him Lisa, maybe if you hadn't he'd be here instead of me." Rick gave her a rueful smile and Lisa's temper got the better of her.

"Rick! Don't say that, I am happy to be here with you right now." Lisa held back the urge to haul of and slap him for being stupid. Rick blanched, he hadn't expected anger, "Lisa, all I meant was-" Rick never finished his sentence and just hung his head.

Lisa's face softened and she got up and went over to Rick, "It's ok Rick, it's just I don't like to talk about Karl and ever since I found you I haven't given him a second thought. I am so very happy to be here with you, don't ever doubt that." With that said Lisa went back to her seat and gave Rick a smile that makes Rick's heart skip a beat.

A few minutes later their food arrived and they began to eat and talk about small talk, chit-chatting about everything. But they only got half way through their meal when Lisa's wrist comm. gave off a beep, and a few seconds later Rick's did as well.

"Damn it," Lisa swore, why did all my good experiences have to be interrupted by something. Rick had a far different thing to say, "Thank God!" Rick exclaimed and realized his mistake, "No not you Lisa, here come Minmei, and he pointed towards the front door and Lisa did indeed see Minmei.

An as bad luck would have Minmei saw Rick and ran over to him completely ignoring Lisa, "Oh Rick what are you doing here?" Minmei squealed, "Well," Rick got out, "if you'd turn around you'd see I am on a date with Lisa." Minmei turned around and saw a woman in her twenties, "Lisa, who's Lisa? I thought I was the only one for you?" Minmei pouted.

"No Minmei your not, and you never where, an as far as I am concerned, you never will be. You never treated me like I was anything more then a toy to you. So no Minmei, you where never the only one for me, so get over yourself and grow up!" Rick was standing by now and even he was shocked at his own anger.

Lisa sat there watching the whole spectacle with a sort of happy feeling washing over her body. Lisa stood up now and went over and whispered something to Rick and Rick grabbed her arm and started to walk out, "Hey waiter bill it to me, I got to go military business." But Minmei wasn't done yet, she couldn't let that old succubus have Rick, he was hers, "Rick how could you?! What do you see in her anyway? She is like a million years old!"

A growing anger rose up in Rick and he got a devilish idea, he pulled Lisa close and kissed her, right there in the middle of the restaurant full on the mouth. Lisa was shocked but she didn't resist, she would take any opportunity to snipe at Minmei. As Rick and Lisa parted Minmei started to cry and Rick looked at Lisa, "Let's go babe, we have to change and report to Captain Gloval." Lisa didn't say a word, she was in heaven as she and Rick walked out arms locked.

Admiral Hayes sat down in his temporary quarters on Macross Island. He had been there for only a day and he knew that what he had was going to change the world. He had just called the SDF-1 and gotten the assistance of Lang, Lisa, and a VT pilot whose name he couldn't remember, Hunter or some nonsense like that.

Well it was time to go meet the good Professor, the man who had made the discovery of the Protoculture Matrix and the remains of the Fabricators which were at this time being rebuilt and almost finished.

As Hayes got up and walked to the Professors quarters only a few hundred feet from his he looked back on the last day and realized that even thought the Earth was in possession of the Protoculture Matrix it didn't mean anything if he couldn't get the pilots to fly the new VT's squadrons he knew would be formed after production began.

Hayes gave this some thought and realized he needed the best pilots he could get, of course there was UN Spacy, but he needed more, then Hayes had a recollection, there was a Air Force Academy in what was the United States and trained some of the most magnificent pilots Hayes had ever seen.

He reminded himself he would need to go and call the Commandant of the Academy later. As Hayes got to the Professors office and closed the door the short, pudgy man looked at him and told him to sit down.

"Admiral Hayes, me and my team are ready to test the Protoculture Shields, and we were hoping you would be present to watch the proceedings. As Hayes got comfortable a monitor was activated in front of him and he saw a sprawling cityscape before him.

"My team and I figured this would be the best way to teat the new shields is by live test." Hayes was still puzzled but gave no outward appearances, "in short Admiral, what we are going to do is detonating a protoculture based nuclear device over the city and see if the shields hold."

Hayes was appalled by what he was hearing, "No you can't endanger an entire city just for a test, and my reports indicate that the weapon systems of the Zentraedi are a lot stronger then any nuclear device we possess." The Professor just smiled, he had expected as much, "My dear Admiral, this is no ordinary nuclear device, we have built this one to, when it detonates will act like a Zentraedi weapon, or that is our hope anyway."

Hayes was still shocked, he couldn't let this happen, "No professor, I must protest, I cannot allow you to endanger an entire city for the sake of a test." But the Professor just looked at him and smiled, and this infuriated Hayes even more.

"Admiral, maybe you don't get it, we have already launched the weapon, what you protest at this point is completely irrelevant. An you won't have to wait long to see if this works or not because I believe in about thirty seconds the weapon will detonate above it's target."

Hayes was mortified as he watched the weapon streak towards the city and detonates above the helpless city. Hayes felt a lump in his throat and a knot in his stomach, 'God help us if that shield didn't hold,' but as the dust cleared and the picture re-fazed, you could clearly see a city sitting right where a huge crater should have been.

Hayes looked back at the man, "Well, Professor I must say, you have done it, I must congratulate you and your team. This is quite a discovery." Hayes stood up and prepared to leave, but the Professor stopped him, "Hayes, what do you plan to do with these shields? You promised me that you would do some good with them."

Hayes looked back at the man, "Don't worry my dear Professor, I do intend to do some good with these. A lot of good indeed." Hayes did an about face and walked out of the Professors quarters.

A/N: Alright this is the Third Chapter for you, hope you all enjoy it, I wanted to ass more but I fell that I need to save some of my ideas for the next few chapters I need to fill. So anyway I hope all the people who read this enjoy it. I know I enjoy writing them.

- Hide quoted text -

State = Continuará/To Be Continue

feedback = Sí/Yes