Once upon a time, a faerie prince exiled himself to a little bitty backwater town in the far reaches of his father's kingdom, for the jealous faerie nobles hated him and his mother, and he tired of this. He lived in the tiny little town for centuries, for the faerie are a long lived race, you see. It was a town full of mortals, and he fell in love many times, and had many children, but rarely did he ever tell them what he truly was.
The problem with marrying mortals, is that mortals die, and to watch your loved one age when you do not is a tragedy for both of you. One day, the woman he loved died, and he retreated from the world, hardly speaking or acknowleging his two daughters. One of his daughters was kind and understanding like her mother, and she took care of her father in his grief, finding comfort from comforting him. The second grew wroth, for like her father, she had no stomach for ill treatment. She left in a rage, swearing never to return.
She wandered the world around the town, and finally found a man to love. She knew not her faerie heritage, nor the power that lay within her. There was no need for magic in her life, except the magic of love.
One day, her son grew strong and tall, and went to study with the sages of a larger town. From them, he learned many crafts, and the power within him stirred. He had a vision, a vision of a world in which magical golems would free the masses of their tiresome labors and leave them free to create beautiful art and to learn all that was learnable.
Yet, he lacked the materials he needed to build his golems, so he went to the local merchant's guild and offered to share his knowlege if the merchant would pay for materials to build the golems. The Guild Master agreed, and they began to build many wonderful golems.
The wizard was happy. He had a beautiful wife and two happy children, a boy and a girl. His golems were like children to him, and he had hundreds of those. Yet, not all was well in the kingdom. The wizard spent too much time in the lab, and his wife never saw him. She thought he loved the golems more than her, so one day she ran away. That shocked the wizard, and he began to look around him.
He saw that not all was well in the land. Some of the merchants were arming his golems and using them for conquest. They did not follow his instructions closely, and some of his golems had badly drawn runes, so they went mad. What he did not know was that some of the members of the Merchant's guild were inflamed by greed and power and consumed by the demons with which they had been consorting. The power of the great god of destruction, Shiva, was upon them, and they saw that the wizard must be eliminated before he could fight them. So one of them slew him.
What they did not understand is that it is not wise to meddle in the affairs of wizards. He had seen his fate coming and cast a mighty spell. He gifted his children with his powers and his wisdom. It would fall to them to save his children, the golems, from the power of Shiva.
Shiva's followers grew in strength in the towns of the fringes of the great Faerie empire. His avatars came, bearing his power and aiding his servants. They invoked Shiva, and he destroyed a great city for them, then they came in to 'help repair the city' with their new golems. Soon, everyone was dependent on them and they ruled the city in all but name. Many lands fell under their dominion, yet the great Faerie emperor did nothing, for his lands were vast, and he had almost forgotten the very existence of the province Shiva's followers ruled.
The wizard's daughter, however, could not forget. She took the power that her father had given her and his wisdom and went to his forge. She forged gleaming suits of magical armor with which to do battle against the Merchant's guild, which now called itself DEMON. But she had no warriors to wear her suits, so she went out into the streets of the city.
She found a street urchin with a heart of fire and took her away from her petty street fights and gave her a cause to fight for and mighty weapons with which to fight for it. She found a dancer in the wind and gave her wings with which to fly. A clever and beautiful sorceress, who was also of royal blood, though she knew it not, heard her call for help and came to the wizard's daughter, passing every test she gave her. To her was given further understanding of the powers of machines, of how to trick the golems and other mechanisms, and to see with magical sight. Though they often made fun of her, they all knew it was her wisdom which often guided them to victory.
"And I suppose you also spun straw into gold in your spare time, eh, Nene-chan?" A female voice cut in.
Nene was sitting on a large plush bed covered with sheets of golden satin. In her lap sat a young girl with long red hair like Nene's and soft brown eyes. Like Nene, she was dressed in an elaborate striped kimono with all the colors of the rainbow. She had a golden bow in her hair, while Nene was wearing a golden tiara upon her brow with a ruby set in it. Nene started at the voice and looked up. "Priss-chan!"
Priss winced faintly. Only Nene could call me Priss-chan when I'm in combat gear. She was wearing loose black pants and a heavy long sleeved dark tan jacket. Her hair was tied back in a pony-tail, and her face was marked with long black wedges along her cheeks. A metal rod sat in a holster on her belt on her left and a large nasty looking pistol on her right hip. "Telling your daughter lies about the good old days, eh?" She walked over and knelt down facing the little girl in Nene's lap. "And how are you today, Himeko?"
Nene laughed. "Like you were any better when I heard you telling Samantha about how you used to kill five boomers before breakfast and all you needed was your bare hands. You said you just used a hardsuit so the rest of us wouldn't feel inferior."
Himeko laughed and reached over and hugged Priss. "Hi, Auntie Priss! Been fighting monsters again?"
Priss laughed. "Hey, at least my lies are more plausible than yours, Nene-chan."
"Killing boomers with your bare hands is plausible? I don't think so." Nene laughed.
Priss picked up Himeko, "You want to be big and strong like me when you grow up and not flimsy like your mommy, right, Hime-chan?" She walked over to the window with her 'niece.'
They both stared out the window as Nene got up and walked over to them. Tiny specks of light shone in the blackness of space. A small blue, white, and brown planet slowly receeded in the distance. Himeko laughed, "I'll contribute to the team with my brains and good looks!"
Priss and Nene both laughed. "Your mommy taught you to say that, didn't she?" Priss asked Himeko, who nodded happily.
Nene stood by Priss' side, looking out the window at the retreating planet. "I can't believe we're not going to fight this." She gestured, and her cup floated over to her from the bedside table. She drank deeply, suddenly thirsty.
Priss sighed and reminded herself not to swear in front of the child. "If I had my way, we would. I don't like running away, but Celia doesn't think we can win."
Nene nodded. "We've evacuated as many people as we could. If only we'd been able to kill it back then..."
Priss forgot about the child and swore anyway. "We did kill it, Damnit! Things are supposed to stay dead when you kill them!"
"Even if Shiva is dead...I guess we didn't get all his children..."
As they watched, they could see the ice creeping across the face of the planet as it slowly shrank to a speck in the distance. They would not see the world on which they had been born again for over a thousand years.
They would always wonder if there had been some way they could have prevented it, could have saved their city, saved their world. The time would come when it would bloom again, but that task would fall to other heroes. To them would fall other duties than sleeping under a crystal mountain 'til that day. It was time for them to enter upon the rewards for their years of labor, years of battle and despair.
Together, they fought the evil of DEMON and slew many rampaging golems. Yet, the masters of the guild eluded them, for its head had made many golems of himself, and he could not be killed. Nor could the guild be destroyed, for it was vast beyond measure, and if you struck down one head, it grew two more like a hydra.
For time beyond measure, the wizard's daughter, her brother, and her three mighty knights did battle to protect their homeland, but it seemed as if their battle would never end. Shiva laughed at the puny humans. "I am the great lord of destruction, who dances across the universe without ceasing, leaving only flames and ashes in my wake. You cannot hope to stop me, for my vengeance cannot be denied. I am vengeance, and your puny efforts to avenge your father are but a shadow of my power, my glory, and my wrath."
The wizard's daughter did not hear this, for the blood of the faeries slumbered within her, and she could not see into other worlds as they did. She knew naught of the Gods and spirits. The seven secret names of Vishnu were a mystery to her, and she could not have named the Angels of the four corners if her life depended upon it.
Thus it was that she knew not truly what she fought. Though the golems of DEMON grew stronger and weilded ever greater powers of magic, she thought it mere human artifice, as did her warriors. They knew naught of the emperor either, for he had been absent from these lands for millennia. They knew nothing of the empire to which they belonged or the great emperor across the sea who would have thought he ruled them if he remembered they existed.
Only Shiva knew, and he moved carefully, for he would have nothing thwart the building of his power base until he was ready to move and smash the empire to bits. All the world would burn in flame and he would dance in the ashes.
There was only one loose end...he knew the emperor's son had visited these lands, and the blood of the fae slumbered within many. They had to be destroyed or else they might awaken and defeat him. He still smarted from the many defeats that the faerie had administered to him in ages past, for they were a cunning folk and mighty.
He told his servants to slay them, one by one, so that none of them would suspect they were being stalked. His servants, some willing, some unwitting, went forth to slay those who possessed the blood of the faerie.
Shiva laughed, for there was no one to stop him...Or so he thought...
The place is Mega-Tokyo. The year is 2034. The Dance of Shiva is about to begin.
Philosophers have argued for centuries over whether or not there was a prime mover, an uncaused cause. If everything is caused by something else, then either we must have an endless chain of causation, a circle, where the end is also the beginning, or there must be an unmoved mover, a cause that has no cause. If such is the case, then all stories are but part of one story, with a single beginning, and perhaps a single end. Life seems often a variegated tapestry, an interweaving of stories, of lives that come together and move apart, an endless dance to an unseen tune. Thus, every story is many stories as well, for the life of every person in a story is their story.
Thus, to start a story at the beginning is always a challenge, for often there is no single beginning, unless there is a beginning to all things. Perhaps this story begins on a train in Russia, in 1918...
The locomotive rumbled through the wastes of Siberia. For nearly 13 years, Andrei Andropov had driven the transcontinental line back and forth from the Pacific to Moscow almost every day of his life. This was the first time he'd ever transported royalty, though. The monarchy might have fallen, but Andrei was still loyal to it. The Czar himself had given Andrei a medal for his faithful service in 1905 during the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese war when he had defied a group of mutinous soldiers and diverted the train to take them to where they could be dealt with. He didn't have a left foot anymore because of that, but he kept going.
Now, the last survivor of the Russian royal family was on his train. A young girl named Anastasia Romanova, and her uncle, Sergei. Andrei was somewhat suspicious of Sergei. His Russian was flawless and the girl clearly trusted him implicitly, but he didn't look Russian. Something...something just wasn't quite right.
They had stopped in a small village to get more coal. Andrei prayed that the Soviet forces of those damn revolutionaries hadn't spread this far east yet. He and the coalman finished loading coal onto the train. Soon, they were moving out across the tundra again. He didn't know they had another passenger...
Or perhaps it began a hundred years later, somewhere in Japan.
Dr. Stingray parked his car in the garage and unloaded a very large crate. He could barely move it on his own. His daughter, Celia, helped his son, Mackie, get out of the car. Celia was twelve and Mackie was six now. They had taken a family vacation to a shrine out in the mountains. You could hardly tell from the joy in his children's eyes that their parents had just gotten divorced.
Celia did her best to help her father haul in the crate while Mackie opened the door for them. Her father took the crate to his lab, then went to fix some dinner for the three of them. Celia helped him, of course, while Mackie watched The New Adventures of Astroboy on the TV.
Later that night, Dr. Stingray opened the crate hesitantly. Inside was a giant cylinder of what looked like wood. There were the remains of a kanji painted on it, faded by age. But it was what was inside the cylinder which concerned him.He didn't get any sleep that night.
Or perhaps it all started long, long ago, on a planet far, far away.
"The sentence is death. For the destruction of an entire planet of sentient beings, you have been condemned to disintegration, Walyn. Do you have any last requests?"
Three figures sat behind a bench, shrouded in darkness by the bright lights that shone from behind them onto the figure before them, an unimpressive man in a simple blue robe. "As I said before, I did not kill them all. I made sure eight of them survived. Destruction for its own sake is pointless. You must make sure some survive so you can see how they respond. I did it all to advance knowledge. I did it for science."
One of the three judges shuddered, her spiky hair visibly shaking. "Don't talk to me about science. The Academy has repudiated you and all your work. We've destroyed every known copy of your results. Nothing you have done will live on."
The third judge spoke, a tall willowy woman with long blue hair. "As you have destroyed, so shall your legacy be destroyed. By the authority vested in me, I pronounce the sentence of death."
He smiled. "My work will go on without me. For a year of centuries, it will go on. Do not think I do not know who you are. This is only the beginning."
They were his last words before the third figure pushed a button and he was reduced to subatomic particles. For him, it was the ending, but for them, it was the opening of a door they would long strive unsuccessfully to push shut.
But we shall begin here, in Mega-Tokyo, in the year 2034...
The woman lay in the bed that morning, as she had lain in it every day for the last thirteen years. She had been injured by a rampaging drunk in a labor. She had in fact, been a cause celebre for a time. This had been one of the last straws leading to the passage of the 2022 laws that had massively restricted the use of labors. Combined with the release of the first models of boomers in that year and the years following, labors had almost entirely disappeared from use. The giant mechs had become the playthings of the rich, or were used only by very backward and desperate companies that had acquired them cheaply. Even Shinohara Industries, once the giant of the Labor market, had gone on to other things.
Meanwhile, she lingered, almost forgotten, in a coma. Rich relatives — or at least someone — was paying to keep her alive. Once a year, two people came to see her, on the anniversary of her accident, a boy and a girl, growing older over the years. The staff could almost mark the passage of time by their arrival. Her grandchildren, they thought. The woman herself was old, though she looked younger than her records claimed. They asserted she had been born in 1956, and the year was now 2034. Yet, her hair had only begun to gray in the last five years, and she had far fewer wrinkles than some women a decade younger. A few of the nurses made jokes about how much good beauty sleep really will do you. Still, she was the healthiest person in a coma they'd ever seen.
She was also perhaps the least visited patient in the hospital, and thus the head nurse was stunned when four men in suits came to the front desk and asked about visiting hours to see her. She would have been perhaps more stunned if she could have looked upstairs and seen the woman suddenly jolt, yawn, and sit up. Where am I? she thought, then rather quickly realized she was in a hospital. She instinctively felt her head. It was free of bandages, huge bumps, or other obvious signs of damage. I must have gotten a concussion or something. Why are all these machines attached to me? A nurse walked by and she hailed the nurse. "Excuse me, Miss. What is today?"
"It's March 15, 2034." The nurse blinked. Wasn't this patient supposedly in a coma?
The woman stared blankly. I must be dreaming. The last time I was awake, it was 2021! Her head felt funny too. There was this strange buzzing feeling, a feeling of danger. She'd felt it before, right before her accident, the one that had put her here. "I...have there been any visitors?"
The nurse smiled. "Once a year, just like clockwork, these two kids come to see you. Well, I guess they're not kids anymore, really."
Heavy footsteps echoed down the hallway. The sense of danger, of power approaching, grew stronger. "Can you get all this stuff off me?"
"Well, let me go get a doctor to get approval."
As the nurse turned to go, the woman said, "I...has my son come to see me?"
"Not unless he's around 17 or so now. At least not since I've been working here, and I've been here ten years." She turned and left.
The woman sat quietly on the bed. Has something happened to my son? Why hasn't he come to see me? And why do I feel like I'm in danger?
Four men came to the door, carrying briefcases. They stepped inside. One of them looked at her chart. She said, "Umm..hello?"
The man looking at the chart said, "She's the one."
To her horror, they proceeded to pull out submachineguns. They opened fire. To their surprise, as she screamed, "No!!!!!!," a glowing field of light appeared between her and them and the bullets quietly melted to slag as fast as they came. She wrenched herself loose from the machines and leapt out the window desperately. The chase was on.
Daley put down the phone. "Come on, Leon, we've got a really weird one this time."
Leon got up and tossed on his jacket. "Giant rampaging Vision Boomer?"
Daley laughed. "Worse. Four boomers chasing a flying woman in a hospital gown."
Leon blinked. "What?"
"This town gets more insane every day." They ran for their car.
Celia was talking to a customer when Mackie ran up to her. "Phone call for you."
Celia went into her office. "Yes?"
"You're not going to believe this!" It was Nene.
"You shouldn't call me here."
"Turn on the news!"
She turned on the small TV in her office. The "Live Action News Crew" of Channel 52's newscopter was broadcasting live footage of what rather distinctly looked like a middle-aged woman in a hospital gown flying over the city, with boomers shooting at her. Then she turned and a beam of energy fired from her palm vaporizing one of the boomers.
Celia said into the phone, "I can't believe this."
Nene said, "I assume we're going to scramble?"
Celia paused. "Yes." This was going to be a strange one. She could smell it.
Leon and Daley raced down the highway. It had been blocked off where the battle seemed to be occurring. There was a heavy weapons squad deployed here. They drove up. Looking around, Leon quickly spotted the ranking officer. "Lieutenant Shinohara, what's going on here?"
Lieutenant Shinohara Moemi was a skinny, boyish woman, one of the first graduates of the ADPolice Academy, back in 2030. She was in her late twenties now. Her hair was short, reddish, and straight, though you could hardly see it under her uniform cap, and her figure was slender. She was the one of the shortest Lieutenants Leon knew, and also one of the best. Her parents had both been cops, though they were retired now. "Three boomers trying to kill some boomer that looks like an old woman and fires energy beams. She's already killed two boomers. That we know of."
Daley looked up. "If she's a boomer, why is she wearing a hospital gown and..."
There was a sudden glow. They looked up and saw the woman now seemed to be wearing something that rather resembled a ceremonial kimono. Leon said, "I feel like I'm in a bad episode of You Thought It Couldn't Happen to You."
Daley said, "Hmm, they're heading towards the new Mall aren't they?"
Leon swore. "Shinohara, let's get moving...Time to make a really big mess."
Shinohara smiled. "Right. They'll be putting this one in the history books..."
The first warning the mall had of impending doom was when the roof over the food court shattered and a middle-aged woman in a kimono zoomed through the ceiling, followed by three boomers. People began streaming out of the mall in a panic. The woman turned and fired a blast, sending flaming chunks of boomer crashing into the McDonald's in the food court.
The ADPolice squads crashed into the mall through the east entrance as the Boomers chased the woman into Victoria's Secret's newest store in Japan. Soon, bits of underwear were flying everywhere.
The need to get the civilians out of the way slowed down the ADPolice squads. By the time they got everyone out of the way, the boomers and woman had crashed their way into a record store and there was one less boomer. The woman flew right at the ADPolice squad, a look of terror on her face, pursued by two boomers, their guns blazing away.
Ignoring the woman for the moment, the ADPolice squad opened fire on the boomers. They were a heavy weapons unit, with a mixture of low-grade battlemovers and high powered hand weaponry. The boomers themselves were high grade models, 56-C, designed for Polar Combat conditions. While they weren't as heavily armed as some models, they were fast and maneuverable and could fly for a long time.
Daley spent a few moments, wondering again how something so completely unaereodynamic could possibly fly. Of course, the woman was flying too... and she didn't even have a jet. He stared at her as she touched down by him and Leon. She looked human. He'd never seen a boomer look terrified, and he'd rarely seen any designed to look old. He glanced at her palms. Flesh just like his. How the hell was she firing those energy bolts around? This reminded him of those old magical girl shows too much. She was middle-aged, but in remarkably good shape, with long black hair with a few strands of grey. Her eyes were a clear blue, though shrouded by tears, and she had some sort of tattoo on her forehead that looked like three triangular wedges in blue. There were also dark brown wedges along her cheeks; the overall effect reminded him of warpaint. She was wearing a long formal blue and green kimono with a positively humongous and rather stiff bow in the back.
Leon said to her, "What the hell is going on here?"
The woman tried to pull herself together. "I was in the hospital and they tried to kill me!" She shuddered.
"You were visiting someone?"
"I was a patient. There was an accident with a malfunctioning labor and I got a concussion, I think." She looked at the battle. One of the boomers was wrestling with Lt. Shinohara, who was in a battlemover, while the other was busy wasting a large portion of the Heavy Weapons Squad. "What are these things? Aliens?"
Leon blinked. "They're combat boomers."
"They're what?" What's a boomer?, she wondered.
Daley coughed. "You mean to tell us you don't know what a boomer is?"
She thought for a moment. "Oh wait, they're some kind of robot?"
"Yeah." Daley paused. "Wait, you got injured by a labor?"
The woman nodded. "Over in the Ginza."
Leon said, "Wow, there haven't been many of those in the city for a long time."
Lieutenant Shinohara finished off her boomer and went after the second one, which was busy dodging shots from the remaining members of her squad. "Damnit, where's our backup?...why aren't the rest of the people showing up?"
"What's your name, anyway?," Daley asked.
"I'm Meylia. Meylia ..." The rest of what she said was drowned out by an explosion. The Sony Store at the far end of the hallway exploded and four more boomers came zooming out of it. The woman shrieked and took to the air, zooming off down the main court of the mall. Glass shattered in her wake.
Daley just stared at her in utter confusion. Maybe this is a nightmare, he thought.
We're fucked, Leon thought. He pulled out his gun and snapped a shot at the boomer as he dived behind a large potted plant for what little cover it could provide. He took off the boomer's lower right leg, for what good that would do.
The boomers mowed down the rest of the ADPolice squad, except for Lieutenant Shinohara, who was still going mano a mano with the remaining boomer of the first squad, and three other members of her squad who kept their heads and took cover in an electronics store. The 'electrical fuzz' from the 3000 or so functioning devices in the store were bad news for the boomers' senses, and provided just that extra incentive to forget about the three hapless policemen and chase their target instead.
Leon and Daley fired at the boomers as they passed overhead. This was almost as effective as trying to stop a nuke with a flyswatter. Leon turned to Daley and said, "Someone wants this woman very thoroughly dead, whoever she is."
"My theory is that pizza I had last night is causing me to hallucinate the entire thing."
The woman darted into the S-Mart at the end of the mall. Before the boomers could follow her, three lithe figures dropped down through the cupola at that end of the mall and blocked their path.
Daley laughed. "Here comes our guardian angels. I wonder where the pink one is?"
Leon turned and saw Lieutenant Shinohara slam the boomer she was fighting into the ground. He fired and detonated its head. Well, at least we accomplished something today, he thought, then settled back to watch the show as the Sabres took the four other boomers apart.
Lt. Shinohara rounded up the remains of her squad and radioed for medical help, then came over to Leon. "We just watch now?"
"Feel free to pitch in and help them...My general experience is that it works best to not get in their way." Leon said.
The fight was over quickly. Bits of boomers were scattered everywhere. The Sabres paused, then plunged into the store.
"They're after the woman too," Lt. Shinohara said.
Leon and Daley nodded. Leon said, "Stay here and wait for the medical teams. We'll go take a look."
"What if they're hostile, sir?"
"You think any of us could stand up those hardsuits?"
She frowned. "We need better equipment, not stuff that's five years out of date. Street punks are almost as well armed as we are."
Leon laughed. "We could be the Tank Police."
They both laughed at the thought, then Leon and Daley took off running.
The Sabres flew through S-Mart. Unfortunately, it was real big, they were real small, and pretty soon they had mainly succeeded in getting lost and discovering a really good sale on toilet paper in Aisle 4-b.
"This place is a maze", Linna said over her radio.
Celia nodded. "Quite."
"What the hell is this thing we're chasing, anyway? Whoever heard of a boomer in a kimono?" Priss asked, zooming through women's clothing.
"I don't know. But I'm interested in finding out why GENOM sent this many boomers to kill it." Celia was increasingly wishing Nene had been able to come. The one brief reading she had gotten on the woman seemed to indicate she was either completely organic, or was capable of faking human heat signatures and cloaking all of the EM emissions she should have been giving off. On the other hand, she was emitting some sort of strange energy. Her own equipment didn't have enough sophistication to really give her a clear idea of what. More important, the woman had been flying, and humans don't fly under their own power.
The Sabres zoomed about through S-mart. After a few minutes, Daley and Leon reached the entrance, right about the same time as the Sabres realized that the person they were looking for was gone.
As Leon was about to speak, the Sabres zoomed off. He sighed. "When do we get to learn to fly?"
Daley laughed. "My wings are still at the cleaners."
Meylia stared at herself in the mall bathroom mirror. What's happened to me? Where did these tattoos come from? How did I get into this outfit, anyway? The events of the last few hours were a blur of fear, anger, and power in her mind. She stared at her hands. Was I really flinging blasts of energy around like some sorceress?
She looked at the newspaper she had found abandoned in the bathroom. The date was March 15, 2034. For a moment, she just stared at it in shock, then started to skim through it. People and places she had never seen. Politicians she had never heard of. Talk of a space station.
It's time to go home, she thought. Assuming Douglas hasn't moved in the last 13 years...Maybe I should go back to the hospital...someone has been paying my bills. I should be able to get my son's address or my husband's.
She turned to go. Wait, what if there's more people waiting to kill me? More of those...boomers. The word was strange in her mind. I can't go back to the hospital...not openly.
She paused and laughed faintly to herself. A phonebook. If they're in Mega-Tokyo, I can find them in the phonebook. As soon as I figure out how to make myself stand out less.
She tried willing herself into normal clothing. A rush of light washed across her and she was once again in her hospital gown. This wouldn't do, although at least the tattoos were gone. She tried willing the kimono back. The light rushed across her and she was once again clad in tattoos and a fancy kimono. She realized now that her hair was done up as well. It was tied in the back with a deep blue ribbon into a pony-tail, with two shorter tails, one on either side of it. The overall effect was almost regal, except for the tattoos.
She was starting to like them a little. I never thought I'd like tattoos, but these seem so...natural. I wonder what Douglas will think...She laughed. He'll think I must have been in a biker gang all those years. Well, first I'll try finding a phonebook, and then I'll go to the hospital if I have to.
Celia and Nene sat in the computer room going over the logs of what the three hard suits had been able to record from the encounter. "This is really weird, what we're getting off this woman...or rather not getting," Nene said.
"She has to be some sort of boomer, or else she was wearing a completely transparent hardsuit. But she didn't act like a boomer," Celia said. "From what little we saw of her, she looked like a terrified human." She looked familiar, Celia thought.
"Lemme see if I can augment this footage." Nene began playing with image enhancement equipment.
Mackie ran in. "Bad news, sis."
"What?"
"That boomer attack...started at the hospital where grandma is."
Celia had a sudden sinking feeling. "Was she injured?"
"She's gone."
The sinking feeling got stronger. "She's missing?"
"The boomers blew up her room. They think she's dead."
Nene said, "Ahh, here's a clear shot of her face."
Celia turned to look at the picture and her jaw dropped, for just a moment. It was the first time Nene had ever seen Celia in shock.
Meylia hovered over the apartment complex. It was a very nice apartment complex, with an indoor pool, security guards, a very large covered parking lot and truly beautiful architecture. It was a joy to behold. There was only one problem with it. There was supposed to be a house here. Her house. The one they had saved for years to afford and finally had built. Now it was gone and someone had built an apartment complex. This had been her last hope. There were no Stingrays in the phonebook.
I'll have to go back to the hospital, she thought. Face the danger. Either that or...Go to see Father. If he's alive. Or my sister, if I had any clue where she was now.
It'll have to be the Hospital. She turned and flew. It came naturally to her now. The cool night air blew past her, but the outfit kept her warm. The really strange thing was that even her uncovered face felt warm. She flew through the city, wondering if maybe this was all just a horrible dream.
Leon and Daley went over everything with the head nurse for about the one hundredth time. "So, she's been in a coma since August 1, 2021."
"Yes. According to our records, her name is Meylia Stratford. She's been here since December 1, 2021, when she was moved here by her husband, now deceased. She was injured by a rampaging labor and suffered a concussion and other injuries. She went into a coma and never recovered. Until today."
"The nurse on duty reported she woke up."
"Yes. About a minute later, the boomer attack started. We haven't seen her since, but there's no corpse, either."
"Do you have any visual records of her?"
"We have enough x-rays, lab reports, and other paperwork to wallpaper a house, but unless you saw her spleen, it wouldn't help."
Daley looked around while Leon did the questioning. The outside wall was gone from the woman's room, and the inside walls were heavily damaged. It looked like there had been multiple explosions. He could see bullet holes as well. Someone had really wanted this woman dead.
"So who has been paying to keep her alive?"
"A trust fund. She does get visitors, though. They usually visit on the anniversary of her injury. Two kids. I guess they're grandchildren. One of them is a dark haired woman in her mid-twenties, the other is a younger boy with black hair in his teens. I wish I could tell you more, but we haven't seen them since last August." She blinked. "Or then again..."
Leon turned to look. It was Celia and Mackie Stingray. They were minor celebrities of a sort, the daughter and son of the famous inventor of the boomers, Dr. Katsuhito Stingray. He had a rather strong suspicion she was something else too. A few seconds later, he realized what the nurse meant. "Come looking for your missing grandmother?"
Celia said, "Hello, officer." She paused. Leon suspected she was trying to decide on a good load of bull to feed him.
Mackie said, "She still hasn't been found?"
Celia didn't seem pleased by this slip.
"Oh, we found her, but she ran off again," Leon said.
"What?" Mackie asked.
The head nurse started to say something, but Leon cut her off. "She is tall, slender, with long dark hair starting to grey? Blue eyes, doesn't look more than about two thirds her age?"
Mackie nodded. "Yeah."
Celia said, "You said she ran off?"
Leon stared at Celia. She knew something. He could tell. The question was how much she knew. Could this have been some boomer she had made? If she was responsible for what he suspected she was, she might easily be capable of such a thing. But why make one and spend years setting it up to supposedly be her grandmother? For that matter, why the hell would anyone want to kill some old woman who had been in a coma for thirteen years? And why in such a messily dramatic fashion? Unless..she knew something. If she had known something, while she was in the coma, there was no point in killing her...What could she possibly know that was still important 13 years later? Leon's head spun with questions.
Daley said, "Assuming that the woman we saw was her. Which is unlikely, unless your grandmother flies and fires plasma bolts from her hands. Oh, and has tattoos, too. On the other hand, whatever it was, she looked and acted more like a human than a boomer."
Mackie goggled.
Celia quirked an eyebrow. "Flew? Fired plasma bolts? I suppose she proclaimed herself Magical Princess Evangelia too?"
Leon sighed. "Someone at least wants us to believe that your grandmother is flying around tossing energy blasts. Something strange is going on. Can you think of anyone who would want her dead so badly they would send four boomers to do the job?"
Daley spent a few seconds wondering why anyone would engage in such gratuitous overkill against someone they should have expected to be in a coma.
Celia shook her head. "She had no enemies. And if she did, they could have easily killed her a long time ago." She paused. "If...If you do find her, let us know."
Mackie nodded. "I'd really like to be able to talk to her...she's been in the coma since I was really tiny."
Meylia hovered outside the building, listening through the holes in the walls. My grandchildren, she thought. They must be all grown up now. It sounds safe...those two cops are there.
Unseen by her, Nene, Linna, and Priss were watching her from the roof of the hospital. The three had come in their hardsuits just in case more boomers showed up. "Watching her is so creepy..." Priss said. "Can't you find what's holding her up, Saber-Pink?"
Linna laughed faintly. "Maybe she's using the Force."
Nene frowned. "I can't find anything holding her up. She's emitting all sorts of weird electromagnetic stuff and some low level radiation, but nothing capable of keeping her from plummeting to her death. It's not consistent with her being a boomer either. She's got a completely human heat signature. If she is a boomer, then she must be some sort of heavily modified sexaroid...that uses the Force."
Linna said, "Tell me you're kidding."
"Maybe she's thinking about her new boyfriend when she ought to be figuring out what's going on..." Priss said, teasingly.
"Maybe he could figure this out...he's the scientist. I just play with computers...Maybe she's an alien."
Linna started to laugh. "I suppose she's Obi-Wan Kenobi's sister?"
"Maybe she's Superman's mom." Priss said.
"Maybe you should shut up and let me think!" Nene shouted over the radio link, then looked gratified when the other two winced and tried to clutch their ears...hard to do with a helmet on.
It was then that the Sabres spotted a knot of six boomers approaching. "Yee gods, someone wants this woman dead," Linna said.
Priss frowned. "We need Celia if we're going to take that many."
Meylia spotted the boomers. She bolted at high speed and the boomers turned to pursue her.
Nene said, "I hate these high speed chases."
Priss sent a message to Celia, "They're chasing the woman. Soon as we're sure they're not going to double back here, we'll give chase."
Unfortunately, Celia, still talking to the cops, could not reply.
They gave chase. A few boomer explosions later, they lost the woman, but were rather impressed by her at the same time.
Late that night, Meylia sat in the woods, tired and alone. I had to steal my dinner, she thought. I feel so vile. I know my grandchildren are alive, but I don't dare approach them or they might get killed by those 'boomer' things. She stared at her hands, at the outfit she was wearing. What's happened to me? Did they try some really experimental treatment on me? Am I the six billion yen woman now or something? Where can I go?
The only other person I know who might be alive is...father. No, I can't, she thought. I haven't seen him since 1969. He's probably dead. She thought about how she had looked in the mirror. So should I. Or at least my hair should all be grey. If I'm in this good shape...I have to look. Maybe he'll be gone. But if I can find him...or my sister...She must be out there somewhere. It's been so long...
Meylia hopped a ride on top of a train. Flying is fun, she thought, but I'm getting so tired...
Back at the Saber headquarters, Nene and Celia were pouring over data again. "You think this woman is your grandmother?" Priss said for the fifth time.
"At least someone wants us to believe that. It could easily be a sexaroid made to look like her." Celia said.
"Since when did sexaroids fly?" Linna asked.
Nene said, "If she is a boomer, she's one of the best at impersonating a human I've ever seen. In fact, in this one close up, you can see her breathing. Boomers tend to forget that."
"They don't normally wear kimonos either...She looked like some kind of medieval noblewoman or something," Priss said.
The conference dragged on into the night, accomplishing nothing.
Meylia flew into the clearing. The pond was still there, as was the shrine. Yet, there were changes. A house sat there that had not been there during her childhood. The fields were untended, just gardens now. She hesitated. Would anyone here even know who she was? What will Father think of me?
She swallowed her pride and flew down to the front steps of her childhood home. She remembered the day she had last seen it.
The date was June 1, 1969. Meylia stood on the doorstep of her home. Well, what had been her home. Her father had withdrawn after her mother Kimiko died last year. What affection he had to give had been showered on Meylia's older sister. She couldn't take it anymore. It was like living in a mausoleum. Her out of touch with reality older sister seemed to be quite content to live in the middle of nowhere, doing nothing, playing as if she was Mom herself. Meylia was out of here.
She didn't know what she was going to do, but anything was better than this. She ran off through the fields to the tree. It always made her feel better. It was supposed to be a holy tree. It was wreathed in prayer ribbons. She knelt by the tree, which stood on an island inside a series of moats. "Watch over me, kami. Help my sister take care of dad. I don't know if they'll even notice I'm gone..."
She felt a presence. The world began to go fuzzy, but she dimly saw rays of light begin to shine down from the leaves. A nameless comfort ran through her. Unseen, something shone upon her forehead.
Back in the present, Meylia started. The tree. Was it still there? She looked around. If anyone was here, they were asleep. But trees...they never sleep. The tree...had it done this to her? So long ago?
She flew across the clearing and into the woods. The tree was still there, looking the same as always. As she approached, rays of light began to fire down from it's leaves to the ground. She could feel its presence, its power.
Power like hers. Did Father know about this?, she wondered...were you watching me the whole time? She flew forward, and had the first conversation of her life with a tree...
Russia, 1918
Sergei and Anastasia sat inside the lounge car of the train. The train was disturbingly empty, car after car of empty lounges and sleepers. In the aftermath of the October Revolution, it had been easy to steal a train, especially with the Engineer's connivance, but hard to get one that was suited for rapid travel. Their only consolation was that with but a single rail line crossing Siberia, it was impossible for their opponents to cut them off, for the Red army did not yet control Siberia. Yet.
"Uncle, will I ever see home again?" Anastasia asked.
"No." There was no point in lying to her, Sergei thought. "They would kill you as they killed your father and your mother and your brothers and sisters. We are the last of the Romanovs." Or to be more precise, he thought, you are.
"I thought all the troubles would be over when Rasputin died." She sighed. She was very young, only around nine or ten.
Sergei frowned. "He died, but his evil lived on." If only I had known sooner, he thought. What I do now is little repayment for the debt I owe her and her line. Perhaps one day...
She sighed and ate her cold sandwich and sipped her cold tea. "So where are we running to?"
"Nowhere," a voice barked out. It was a man in a red army uniform, carrying a pistol. "The line of the Romanovs ends here. We have no more use for royalty."
Sergei sighed. "Leave now and I shall allow you to live."
The man laughed. "I am ready for you this time, old man. You won't kill me this time as easily as you did the last."
Sergei frowned. His voice was tight with narrowly controlled anger. "You."
"I probably should have let you go and concentrated on my new regime, but I can't allow you to live." He paused and turned to the girl. "Go now. This is between me and him."
She stared up at her uncle. He nodded. "Go to Andrei, Anastasia."
She ran. Sergei stared at the man. "I'm surprised you made no effort to use her as a hostage."
"Like my master, I do not destroy needlessly. Everyone believes she is dead. That is good enough. Should she try to reclaim her heritage, no one will believe her or care. You, on the other hand, are a threat."
"If I had realized what fell from the sky that day..." He reached towards the sword that sat next to him.
"You'd have died, for you would have faced all of us and not just me." He leveled the gun. "Don't even think about that sword."
Sergei ignored him and did so anyway. The man fired. The bullet stopped about a foot from Sergei and vanished in a spray of light, which arced up in a semi-circular shield. "You should have known better than to waste your time with the gun."
The man cursed. "Damn this primitive technology."
Sergei nodded. "Primitive, yet effective...if you're slaughtering the innocent. Better luck next time...if there is one." He moved forward with his sword.
A few minutes later, a body fell bleeding into the snow off the train, not to be found until spring. Anastasia and Sergei took ship from Vladivostok a few days later. Anastasia and her descendants never returned.
June 4, 2034
Daley hugged his grandfather goodbye at the airport. "Thanks for coming to visit me, gramps."
His grandfather smiled. "Thank you for having me." He bowed. "I must be going. I'll make sure to give your cousins their presents from you."
Daley waved as his grandfather got in line to board the plane. He watched until his grandfather actually boarded, then turned to go. To his horror, one of those airport scooters was zooming straight at him with a pack of passengers running after it. Someone's suitcase had fallen down and jammed itself onto the accelerator. Some blonde woman lead the pack of people chasing it shouting, "Naughty luggage! Bad! Bad! No Biscuit!"
Daley got hit hard and went flying, crashing into a rack of chairs. He was pretty sure something was broken. The blonde ran over to him. "Are you okay? I'm sorry, my suitcase stole the vehicle! But look, you stopped it!"
The vehicle had come to a complete stop, as the collision knocked the suitcase off the accelerator.
"I feel so heroic...somebody call a doctor!"
June 5, 2034
Leon reported to his commander, having read the note that was waiting for him on his desk when he arrived. "You said you wanted to talk to me, sir?"
The Captain nodded. "Yes." He was an old balding black man, with only a fringe of white hair left around the back and over his ears. While he had looked like that for as long as Leon had been here, he often claimed that his men had caused all of his missing hair to fall out over the years. Normally, he and his desk never changed. However, today he looked even more worried than usual. Perhaps it had something to do with the deeply tanned curly haired blonde standing next to him. She looked young, perhaps in her mid-twenties, and she was dressed in an ADPolice uniform that just didn't quite seem right on her, possibly due to the classic 'giggly blond' look on her face. She reminded him somewhat of Lisa, the Chief's niece.
"This is Mihoshi. She's going to be your partner while Daley is in the hospital."
Leon tried to decide whether to be glad his new partner was cute or worried because she couldn't put on her uniform correctly. "You're new on the force, eh?"
She saluted with an odd gesture he'd never seen before. "I've been a cop for ages, but I'm new to the ADPolice."
And it's just my luck I get to break you in, he thought. If I wasn't taken...sort of...this would be more enjoyable. "Well, come with me, I'll show you the ropes." Little did Leon know that he was about to experience hell on earth. Or at least the 'bad cop movie comedy' variation.
Leon got into the car with Mihoshi. "So you've been working in the main police branch?"
She nodded, trying desperately to remember her alleged background. "Hai. I wanted a challenge after my old partner got reassigned."
"How long have you been a cop?" She looks younger than me, Leon thought. Mihoshi pulled the car out of the parking space without any trouble. Leon relaxed. Well, she can drive, he thought.
She drove through the garage slowly, much more slowly than any other cop in the building ever did. "Hmmmm. Close to fifty years now."
Leon blinked. "Did you say fifty years?"
She laughed nervously. "Did I say years? I meant days..uh weeks...er, about five years." Mihoshi wished they had let her write everything down on her hand like she had requested when she got sent to do this, but they wouldn't let her.
She pulled out into the traffic...onto the right side of the road. "Ano...why are all the cars coming at me?"
Leon blinked in total disbelief. "You're on the wrong side of the road!"
Mihoshi swerved at the last second into one of the left lanes going the right way. "Since when did everyone drive on the left?"
Leon said, "..." Why couldn't they have given me Nene for a parter? Heck, I'd take 'Chuck Danger, Rescue Ranger' right now, he thought. Maybe I can convince Priss to join ADP...
Mihoshi drove down the road, once again driving in a safe and rational manner. Leon relaxed again. "So why was your partner reassigned?"
"She had to in...She was sent to do undercover work. Where's your partner?" Mihoshi focused on her driving. She wanted to make a good impression, especially considering how cute her new partner was.
"He's in the hospital. So I assume you've done investigative work before?"
"Yes. Like when I first came to Earth...ano, I mean Tokyo."
Leon blinked.
"So where are we going, anyway?"
"Just cruise around the city until we get a call. We're on patrol, which basically means..."
"We listen to the radio and eat junk food until they call us." Mihoshi pulled into the parking lot of a Circle K. "I guess we'd better load up."
Maybe this won't be so bad after all, Leon thought.
He grabbed a bag of chips off the shelf and a large 20 ounce Coke, then turned and saw Mihoshi had five bags of chips, two 60 ounce sodas, and a box of donuts. And then again, he thought...
He sighed and got in line. To his surprise, the two people at the head of the line pulled out handguns and leveled them at the cashier. "Fork over the money, now."
Leon tapped Mihoshi on the shoulder. She nodded and dropped her stuff. Including the two sixty ounce drinks. They exploded, spraying down everyone as they spun about. The two would be robbers started, and one of them dropped his gun. The other one spun around and slipped on the gumdrops Mihoshi had just knocked on the ground. As Leon pulled his gun, the criminal fell and tossed his gun right into Mihoshi's hands. She fumbled with it and leveled it at him. "Freeze, icky criminal scum!"
The cashier blinked. "Hey, all right, the cops!"
Leon smiled. At least someone appreciates us. He looked down at himself briefly. His pants and shirt were a sticky, soda-drenched mess. Great, I'm going to have to go change. He handcuffed the two men. "We're going to have to go drop these off, then I have to change. I guess you will too." He took a good look at Mihoshi and saw she was completely dry, unlike everyone else, who was drenched. "Then again, maybe you won't."
Mihoshi reached to get her cube with the hairdryer, then in a moment of lucidity realized that they didn't have those cubes on earth. "I thought I had my hairdryer, but I just realized that I didn't," she said.
Leon blinked. This was going to be far too interesting.
Lieutenant Yamano watched her subordinates hard at work. She was in charge of the communications division of the ADPolice, which meant mostly riding herd over a flock of undiscplined men who thought they were were in an old "trucking" movie and viewed their equipment as basically giant CB radios, and a larger flock of young women who thought calling their boyfriends on Police lines was a perk of the job. It was hard to be sure which group was worse. Yamano hadn't wanted this job. She had made her start as a field grunt, doing real police work, not being a glorified switchboard operator like these idiots. She kept telling herself one of these days she would strangle the higher-ups for regarding moving her to this job as a 'promotion'. Still, I have done some good for this department, she thought. She turned to the new recruit. "So you've done this before?"
"I've done a little of everything. This'll be easy." Andrea Loughlin was tall and slender, with long black hair tied back in a pony-tail, running down to about mid-back. Her eyes were a deep brown, and her face was angular. She wore a headband to keep her bangs out of her eyes. Dressed in the standard ADPolice Communications uniform (a white blouse and a black skirt), she had a much more commanding presence than most of the people in the department, who ranged from unimpressive to goofy looking. "As long as I don't have to put up with...well, never mind that. So what do I do first?"
"First you meet your fellow staffers, and I assign one of them to show you the ropes, so to speak." Lt. Yamano looked around the room. "Will everyone who is slacking off, please raise their right hand!"
Five arms shot up before their owners realized what they were doing. They at least had the good grace to be embarrassed. One of them was Nene Romanova, who felt especially stupid for raising her hand. She quickly switched her screen so no one could see she was mucking.
Lt. Yamano said, "This is Officer Andrea Loughlin, formerly of the New York Police. She'll be working with us for a year to study our procedures in various departments. Unlike you losers, she's had real field experience, and I expect you to give her the utmost respect. Is that clear?"
Everyone mumbled and grumbled a bit, but they all nodded. Lt. Yamano continued. "Officer Romanova, I'm assigning you to show her the way we do things around here. You'd better do it right, or your head will roll."
Nene sighed and saluted, "Yes sir."
Lt. Yamano blinked. Amazing, she actually remembers how to salute. "Right. Well, go to it, Romanova." She spun on her heel and marched off.
Andrea walked over to Nene and sat down. "Pretty strict commander you have here."
"So you're from the New York Police?"
"Yeah. We send people over to other nations periodically to study your procedures, methods, equipment, and so on. New York doesn't have much in the way of Boomer problems right now, but that's because of the Robotics Code."
"Yeah, most boomers are banned in the United States, right?"
Andrea nodded. "US Robots and Mechanical Men got the Robotics code passed in the 2020s. Any robot that doesn't have the 'US Standard Robotic Behavior Code' hardwired into it is illegal. This prevents the use of combat boomers of any kind, for example, although there are ways to cheat to some extent. Robots can use force to protect people, so there are bodyguard robots, and they can use force against non-human targets, such as other boomers or mechs. Still, it does cut down heavily on boomer related crimes because the penalties are much stiffer. GENOM would have probably eaten US Robots alive by now if not for the code. We don't have armed vigilantes like the Knight Sabres either. So what is the truth about them, anyway? I've heard a lot of crazy stories."
Nene laughed nervously. "They don't work for us, that's for sure. They're sort of...uh, well...they fight the boomers too. They're not exactly rivals, but they're free operators. Anyway, lemme show you how all this stuff works."
Nene found out quickly that Andrea was a fast learner. Within a few hours, she had mastered the use of the equipment, though her lack of knowlege of city geography was another question...She didn't know where anything was, except the airport, her house, ADPolice headquarters, and a few train stations. "Maybe I can show you around town later when we get off work," Nene suggested. "So you don't send any TAC squads to the Mayor's house..."
Andrea said, "Thanks, I'd appreciate that. If this was New York, I'd be fine, but this city isn't much like my hometown."
"Right. We'd better get back to work before the lieutenant notices we're talking..."
Quincy sat in a darkened room, watching a monitor screen with two people on it. One was a tall woman with short black hair, dressed in black pants and a dark blue chinese coat with yellow ties. The other was a man with slightly longer brown hair and sun-glasses, wearing a suit. The woman had a pair of swords in her hands and appeared to be engaged in some sort of odd ritual behavior, swinging them about as she talked. The man seemed vaguely amused by the whole thing.
"So you placed a new agent in the ADPolice without consulting me, Adam?" Quincy said.
The man, Adam, frowned. "I was under the delusion that keeping an eye on the ADPolice was part of my duties. Given that GENOM has yet to develop a way for me to simply read minds. Besides, she's an expert at everything, especially at gaining people's trust. No one will ever suspect her."
The woman laughed. "Having a burst of idealism today, are you? He's simply positioning himself to crush you if this goes awry."
Quincy smiled faintly, "And what news from your mission, Eve?"
Eve frowned. "The woman in question is almost certainly Celia Stingray's grandmother, whatever else may have happened in the interlude, or a very good facsimile thereof. However, she has now vanished off the face of the earth. One of my agents thought he had found more, but..."
"But what?"
"He was investigating a news snippet that seemed to show her in the background at a protest on the University of Tokyo campus." She paused.
"And?" Quincy asked, his voice bland.
"He's now in the Charles Dexter Ward Home for the Mentally Injured. He doesn't remember anything before age 10. Cause unknown." She paused in her sword kata. "And his implants were crushed. Without surgical scars."
Quincy frowned. "That's impossible."
"So not even a partial neural recording could be recovered. Unless he regains his memories, we may never know what happened."
Quincy said, "So where is Seth?"
Adam sighed. "I thought you sent him on a 'secret mission'," he said, his voice getting just a touch of sarcasm on the last two words.
"He should have returned by now." Quincy frowned again. "Any progress in finding..."
Eve interrupted him. "No."
Quincy raised an eyebrow. "What was that about needing psychic powers?"
Eve laughed. "Well, you always ask if we've found him and the answer is always no. I think he's dead."
Quincy shook his head. "He's not dead."
Adam nodded. "He's out there."
Eve rolled her eyes. "I suppose he's living with Nick Hatchett, Robot Fighter, Princess Esmerelda, Ayukawa Madoka, and Buddha on an island in the Bahamas, too."
Adam tried not to laugh, having a greater appreciation of Quincy's ability to have them die at any time than Eve did.
Quincy laughed for about three seconds, startling Adam, who had concluded that Quincy had sold his sense of humor for start-up capital a long time ago. "You may speak more truly than you know. Anything else to report?"
Adam's mind raced through that statement, hunting for every possible nuance. After a few seconds, he put the thought on the backburner and turned his attention back to reality. "Here's our report on Schilling Enterprises," he began. The report took much longer than the preceding conversation, but in the cosmic scheme of things would turn out to be far less important.
That evening, Linna picked up Nene and Andrea in her new car. "Hi, I'm Yamazaki Linna, nice to meet you," she said to Andrea.
Andrea smiled. "Nice to meet you. I'm Andrea Loughlin from New York." She and Nene piled into the car.
"Your Japanese is very good, Andrea," Linna said as she pulled out into the flow of traffic.
"Thanks. I lived in Japan for a while when I was younger, so that sort of made me a natural for this assignment."
"Oh really? Where did you live?" Linna asked.
Andrea paused for a moment then said, "A small town up in the mountains, at a shrine. I was an exchange student."
Linna started to reply, then suddenly, a car swerved into her lane and she desperately swerved over to avoid it, sending more cars fleeing in panic. The offending vehicle, an ADPolice Patrol Car, managed to get back into the proper lane and roared off. Linna got only a brief glimpse of the blonde woman driving it. "Yeesh, when the police can't manage to stay on the right side of the road..."
Nene said, "Hey that looked like Leon's car, but he doesn't drive like that. I hope."
Andrea sighed and muttered something under her breath, then spoke more clearly. "Leon your boyfriend?"
Nene blushed. "I'd have to be insane to go out with that man! He's just one of our fellow officers. He's a detective. But his partner isn't blonde or female." She paused. "Oh wait, Daley's in the hospital. They must have given him a new partner for the duration."
Linna said, "Well, assuming we can avoid being killed by your fellow officers, it's time for my world famous tour of Mega-Tokyo. Fasten your seatbelts, this plane is about to take off!" The tour was soon in progress.
Wilson Kamisaka clicked on the mouse by his computer and his screen saver of Nick Hatchett, Heroic Robot Fighter images cut out. He called up his email program and checked his messages. The fifth one had no subject line and had the content, 'Look under your monitor'. He did so and found a note telling him to arrange an assassination. He wondered for the fifth time that day if he was the only sane person in Schilling Enterprises. Why am I supposed to have a lingerie shop owner killed? He sighed and went to work making the arrangements. I do what I'm paid for, he thought.
Linna drove the car off the Tokyo University campus. "Too bad your boyfriend wasn't home, Nene." She turned her attention to Andrea. "He's a really nice guy, though kinda...affectionate."
Nene laughed. "I don't mind as long as I'm the one he's being affectionate towards."
"And he's got that funky hair." Linna cut across three lanes of traffic so she could make the next turn.
"Funky hair?" Andrea asked.
"It's spiky like a punk rocker, but this really boring shade of brown." Linna explained.
Nene nodded. "He claims it's a family tradition or something."
Andrea laughed. "What, his parents have hair like that?"
"Well, he claims that, but I haven't met them yet. They both do classified government work he can't talk about." Nene sighed. "He's met my mom, though, and she really likes him a lot."
Linna laughed, "Well, except for fainting the first time she saw him."
"Mom doesn't handle surprises very well."
"Our next stop...somewhere we can eat. I'm hungry."
"Not half as hungry as I am!" Nene proclaimed.
Andrea said, "Yeah, I could do with food too." Amazingly, they made it through the night without a single boomer attack.
Celia put down the phone and sighed. Once again her distributor was acting up. The worst part about running this shop is dealing with other businesspeople, she thought. Doesn't anyone on this planet believe in things like making deadlines? The shipment was already a week late, but by the time I could make arrangements to get it from somewhere else, it will probably get here, she thought.
Luckily, I don't need this place to stay financially afloat, or I'd be in the poorhouse, she thought. A very loud crashing noise caught her attention. Something big must have fallen down in the shop, she thought. What's Mackie up to this time? She put down the papers she had been working on and headed out into the shop. Damage control time.
The entire central display had collapsed. Mackie was standing on part of it, trying to pull another part off of some very tanned blonde woman, who kept laughing with a really high-pitched and annoying laugh. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to check the price tag and the whole thing fell down."
Celia strode over. The girl had knocked down the whole thing trying to check a...pricetag? "Are you all right, Miss..."
"Mihoshi! Nice to meet you. I was just doing a little shopping...I accidentally set most of my underwear on fire last night and ..." Mackie managed to finally pull the stuff off Mihoshi, which caused the stuff he was standing on to suddenly topple, flinging him into another rack which collapsed. This set off a chain of collapsing clothing racks across the store, finally culminating in sending the last rack through the window.
Celia sighed internally. More repairs, plus that might have hit someone. At least she doesn't seem the type to sue. "Maybe I can help you find what you're looking for while Mackie goes and sees if he's killed anyone."
Celia helped the poor ditz look for some underwear and got the entire messy story of the chain of disasters that had culminated in the loss of most of her clothing the previous night. Celia soon concluded it was in her best interest to get this customer on her way as swiftly as possible.
Someone had dropped a ten thousand yen bill. Pretty big money to be casually dropped on the ground. He got out his wallet and bent over to pick it up. The sound of tinkling glass alerted him that something was wrong, but he was in the process of bending over to pick up the money, and didn't look up fast enough. The falling clothing rack fell on his head and knocked him out cold. His wallet flew out of his hands and a few seconds later, someone spotted it and took it.
Mackie emerged from the Silky Doll and soon found a man pinned under the fallen clothing rack. He quickly checked the man, who seemed to be not too badly injured, but he went ahead and ran back inside and called for an ambulance. What an unlucky guy, he thought.
Celia soon emerged with Mihoshi who said, "Oh no, this is all my fault! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!"
This woke the man up. He clutched his ears. "What's that horrible noise?" He saw his targets standing before him, but there were too many people around and his head hurt. It'll wait, he thought.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to knock over the rack on you!"
He tried to get up and Celia said, "You'd better not move until the ambulance gets here."
"Uh yeah, you're probably right."
He didn't even realize he'd lost his wallet until he was at the hospital. Without proof of his identity, he ended up getting tossed out of the hospital fairly quickly. He was not pleased.
Linna went to answer the knock on her door. Andrea was there in a blue gi. "Here I come for you to stomp me!" Andrea said, smiling, and stepped inside. "Thanks for offering to spar with me. I need someone to practice with to keep my skills up. Is Nene coming?"
Linna laughed. "I wish. She needs to get better at fighting...I mean, she is a cop." Linna went and changed into her yellow gi. She laid out a mat in the living room, then did some warm up exercises, as did Andrea.
They both bowed to each other, then stood for a moment, trying to decide what to do first. Andrea started things off with a flurry of kicks and punches. Linna easily avoided them all, then grabbed Andrea's foot and pulled her off her feet. "What do you practice, anyway?" she asked.
"A little of everything." She suddenly lunged forward, took a punch, and grabbed Linna in a shoulder hold and tossed her. Linna landed easily without hurting herself and sprang back up.
"Not bad." Hmm. Judo move. They danced about the mat, unleashing barrages of attacks on one another. Linna soon found out that Andrea really did know a little of everything, though often not many of the more advanced moves of any given style. Andrea observed Linna was one of the most natural, graceful fighters she had ever seen.
After a half hour, they both took a break. "You're really good," Andrea said, eagerly drinking a glass of apple juice.
"You too! I guess you get a lot of use for it, being a cop and all, though." Linna sat down in her nice very plush chair and worked on her glass of grape juice.
There was a knock at the door. Linna got up and got it. She blinked. It was Nene in a workout outfit. "You came?"
"What does it look like? Ryu's sister dragged him off somewhere, so I thought I'd come over."
Linna let Nene inside. "Feel up to a little sparring?" she teased.
"Sure!"
Linna blinked. Maybe she's sick.
Andrea got up. "Come on, Nene. I'll spar with you."
Linna sat and drank grape juice and watched. Nene and Andrea bowed to each other. Andrea stood still as Nene stared at her for a moment, then charged forward, unleashing a barrage of clumsy, though rapid punches. Andrea, moving only a little faster than Nene, methodically blocked them all, then gave Nene some advice on how to do the punches correctly. As Linna watched them spar, she soon realized that Andrea was fighting with maybe half the amount of speed she had shown earlier, and only using fairly basic moves. I guess she's trying to make Nene not feel too outclassed.
As she watched Nene successfully deliver some of the punches she had messed up earlier, a thought suddenly struck Linna. What if she was holding back with me too? Naaah, no one could be that good, her ego reassured her.
Pretty soon, Nene was exhausted. She flopped down on the floor, but to Linna's surprise, it was the first time she'd ever seen Nene happy after a workout.
Leon drove down Highway 49, pretending Mihoshi was only a figment of his imagination. This was easy since she was staring quietly out the window watching the world go by. Leon should have known by now this was a bad sign, but a man can dream, can't he?
Suddenly, the radio crackled to life. "Car 54, we have an out of control boomer on Highway 49. Coming your way. TAC squad has been dispatched."
Mihoshi started. "Hey, that sounded like..." She covered her mouth.
Leon blinked. "It sounded like someone in Communications...why, did she sound like some movie actress?"
Mihoshi waved her arms about, activating the windshield wipers. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Certainly not..."
"Not what?" Leon was soon distracted by the sound and sight of explosions ahead. He pulled over and yelled, "Get out and take cover! We've got to pray this thing doesn't waste us before the TAC squad gets here."
Mihoshi shrieked and pulled out her gun, diving behind the car. The boomer was moving down the road, methodically trashing every vehicle in its path. Leon popped up and took a shot at it and missed. Mihoshi pulled the trigger five times, but nothing happened.
"Waaaah, my gun is broken!"
Leon swore. "Did you remember to load it this time?"
She nodded and popped out the clip to show him. He stared at her gun. "The safety is on!"
She blushed and clicked it off, then stood up and fired at the boomer. She hit it in the gut, then fell down as the boomer flew over head, spraying fire everywhere. She howled in fear and convulsively pulled the trigger on her gun as she toppled backwards. "Waah, Leon, my gun is malfunctioning!"
Leon had dived under the car, praying it wouldn't explode. He crawled out and saw the boomer explode into flaming fragments and crash into the road. "Nice shooting, Mihoshi."
Mihoshi said, "There's something wrong with this gun! It knocked me down!"
Leon said, "Are you okay?"
Mihoshi got up. "My bottom hurts." She turned around. "Yay! I killed the big bad evil boomer!" She paused. "I was supposed to do that, right?"
Leon stared at the flaming boomer. "You just took out a military combat boomer, 45-B with a handgun. You should be proud." He paused. "Why do you think there's something wrong with your gun?"
"Everytime I pull the trigger, it pushes my arms back!"
"..." Maybe I'm having a bad dream. "That's called recoil."
"What's recoil?"
Leon contemplated fainting for dramatic effect. At this point, the ADPolice van roared up and unleashed a TAC squad. The commander, Sgt. Banks came over. "Where's the boomer?"
Mihoshi jumped up and down. "I killed it! I killed it!"
"You killed a 45-B?" Sgt. Banks said, disbelievingly.
"Yeah...can I get a gun without any 'recoil'? I don't like it."
The conversation only got weirder from there.
"All right! All you dogs line up!" Lt. Yamano shouted. She had the entire Communications department on the firing range, except for the ones currently on duty. "It's time for some shooting practice! You know the drill. Go to it."
The firing range soon resounded with the sounds of people missing the targets. Nene found to her surprise that she actually had gotten one of the higher scores. Only five people were ahead of her 60 points, although this wasn't saying much when the maximum possible score was 500 for ten shots. The next highest scores were Naoko with 80 points, Tom with 120, Tamiya with 130 points, Cynthia with 240, and Andrea with 490. She would have had 500, but she had sneezed during the last shot. Everyone gathered around her target in awe.
Yamano smiled. "Take this officer as your model! I expect all of you to be up to at least 100 by two weeks from now."
Naoko said to Andrea, "You're really good!"
She shrugged. "I'm a field operative normally. We use our guns a lot more than you have to. Other than shooting each other, I don't know what use there is to drilling you with weapons."
"Well, we did get attacked at headquarters last year," Naoko said. "You were on duty, right, Nene?"
Nene nodded. "Lemme tell you all about it."
Linna stretched and relaxed. She felt invigorated. One nice thing about being an aerobics instructor was that she felt invigorated instead of tired at the end of the day. One of her fellow instructors, a girl named Rachel Yamazaki came over to her. "Hey, Linna, you doing anything tonight?"
Rachel was short, with incredibly long black hair and a vaguely noble look to her, even in a workout outfit. She and Linna weren't related, although they did have the same last name. She and Linna and Rachel's roommate, Ursula, went out sometimes after work. Ursula was a painter and a bit of a ditz and she and Rachel bickered all the time, but they were fun to hang out with. It let Linna be a normal person and not think about boomers for a while.
"Naah. I was planning to be bored out of my skull." Linna leaned against the wall. "So what bar shall we be terrorizing tonight?"
Rachel thought for a moment. "How about the Lonely Eskimo? They've probably forgotten we exist by now."
Linna smiled faintly. "Or at least cleaned up the carpet. I'll come by your place at six, okay?"
Rachel nodded. "If we're lucky, Ursula will decide what to wear by then."
They both laughed.
Daley lay in bed, sighing. Stupid leg. Stupid flu. Stupid this, that and the next thing. I feel like I've been a laid up forever, he thought. He sighed.
"Hey, cheer up! It's party time!" Leon said.
Daley blinked. "Hey, Leon! Nice to see you!" He scooted over. "There's room for you here in bed with me if you don't mind my cast." He winked.
Leon laughed. "Well, I may have to join you if my crazy new partner keeps up her current string of luck."
Daley looked at Leon carefully. "You don't look injured."
Leon pulled up a chair and sat down. "Not for lack of her trying." He leaned back. "The woman is completely insane. Please tell me they're going to let you out soon."
"Uhh...I have bad news for you."
"You're going to be in here for a long time?"
"I'm taking a week's vacation to attend a party for my grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary and to celebrate my birthday in about two weeks, which should be right about the same time as I get out of here."
If Leon had not been too macho to cry in public, this would have been the perfect time to start crying. Instead, he just sat and screamed inside his head.
It was time for weekly fitness testing and practice at Celia's lab. Linna was in the simulation room, busily destroying holographic boomers. Meanwhile, Nene was on the treadmill and hating every second of it. She gritted her teeth in a totally gratuitous manner and kept jogging as fast as she could stand. I'm so sick and tired of Celia nagging me about being out of shape and Linna and Priss laughing at me. She pushed herself with a rare effort of willpower while Celia made the little non-commital humming noises that Nene knew all too well.
Finally, Celia said, "That's enough, Nene."
She kept moving and sprinted off the treadmill onto a chair. Celia walked over and handed her a clipboard. "Okay, now you monitor me."
Nene nodded and moved over to the monitor board. "How did I do?"
"Up 2% from last time. I take it you've been getting some exercise." Celia began running at about the same pace that had left Nene breathless. She seemed to barely notice her own speed.
"Our crazy new commander thinks the ADPolice is a boot camp or something. She's been doing morning exercises and shooting practice and everything. I'm so tired all the time!" Nene sighed. "At least Andrea's been able to help me with my shooting practice."
"That's good, Nene," Mackie said from the work out room monitor station. "Because you're next."
Nene sighed. A woman's work is never done, she thought.
Mackie once again manned the monitor board for the VR room while Nene practiced. Priss sat and watched, rather bored, while Linna and Celia half watched the combat testing and half put their attention into talking. "Has Nene been working out that you know of, Linna?" Celia asked. "Her results are up after three weeks of decline."
"Well, her new boss at work has been making everyone in her department work out. Plus, I sort of dropped a hint to her boyfriend."
Celia frowned.
"Not that kind of hint! I'm not stupid, you know. I just suggested he might want to encourage her to maybe work out with him so she'd get in better shape and have less trouble at work with her boss."
"I'm not concerned about you. I'm concerned about him."
"He's just this goofy engineering student with silly hair," Linna said.
"And Largo was just this goofy boomer. He looks like a goofy kid to me too, but we can't be too careful." She sighed. You thought Sylvie was just a normal person as well, Celia thought.
Linna sighed. "He seems like a nice kid. You never get this uptight over any of my boyfriends."
Priss laughed. "None of yours last long enough to make it worth bothering."
"Hey!" Linna stomped over to Priss. "At least I haven't been stringing the same guy along for two years!"
Priss got up. "That's because no guy in his right mind would date you for two years."
Celia sighed. "You're acting like children. Sit down."
Celia's words had little effect. They continued to glare at each other. I feel like someone's mom, she thought.
The glaring contest was ended when Mackie said, "Oh my god!"
Celia spun. "What's wrong?"
"Nene's up to level ten!"
Linna shrugged. "Wasn't she at level 12 last week?"
"Yes, but last week she had hacked in and reset the difficulty levels to half their normal rating. She only made it to the equivalent of level 8 on the correct scale. And she only made it to eight because she augmented her suit's simulated abilities." Mackie looked through the window, watching the big floating star chase Nene, who was running desperately avoiding the shots it was firing at her.
Priss laughed. "Looks like she runs better than she fights."
Celia said, "Perhaps she cracked the code again...if she'd only put that much effort into her body..."
"And perhaps she'll buy GENOM with her savings, too," Priss said.
The star finally zapped Nene. The machine made little pac-man death noises. Mackie laughed. "Well, we missed one bit of her hacking."
Nene emerged from the chamber and sat down hard. "Wow, that was really hard!"
Celia smiled. "Well, you've set a new record for times you didn't cheat. Or did you?"
"This soon? Of course not. I guess daily exercise does pay off."
Celia smiled a little broader and reminded herself to send an anonymous check to Lt. Yamano.
Andrea sat back in her nice plush chair and relaxed. I wish I knew how to get a nice comfy chair like this back home. She paused and thought, it would probably distract me too much, though. Straightening up, she idly tapped a key and clicked off the screen saver on her computer, which ceased to show a picture of the four Knight Sabres chasing Pac-man, replaced instead by the report she was typing.
Nene Romanova: Officer of the ADPolice, Communications division. A sweet girl who is, however, more than she seems. Nine of ten says she's working for someone, given that she's wasting her computer skills as a glorified switchboard operator. I have detected signs of at least five regular hackers in the ADPolice computer system, and I'm quite certain she works for at least one of them. We have become quite friendly over the last week. I hope it does not become necessary to take action against her, but I will do what is necessary.
I'll have to work on this, she thought. It'll do for a start. Oh, I almost forgot one thing...
against her, but I will do what is necessary. Yes, she is dating him. See attached files for all public records of her.
On to the next person, she thought. She typed out twenty more profiles, culminating in:
Linna Yamazaki: She is an aerobics instructor and expert martial artist, one of the best I've ever met. She is currently wasting her life dating this total loser, who I hope falls off a cliff.
Andrea sighed and deleted the entire thing. Maybe I don't need to report on her...It's not like I'm writing reports on my neighbors. She's not ADPolice, so it's unlikely that she...
Andrea paused. On the other hand, she might make a very good agent for us. Of course, fighting skills alone don't make a recruit but...there's something about her.
Andrea closed the file and opened a new one.
Potential Recruit: Yamazaki, Linna
Age: 22
This kept her busy for quite some time.
March 22, 1896
Galaxy Police Headquarters
The young officer saluted the commander. "Sir, the operation is complete. The final locks have clicked into place. KAIN will never bother the galaxy again."
"Good. I must go and compose a letter of condolence to the Royal family of Jurai on the loss of their leader, the Emperor." He turned to go.
"There's only one problem, sir."
"What's that?"
He bigsweated. "Umm...three other prisoners escaped the confinement grid while KAIN was being sealed in."
"Who?" The commander frowned.
"X-5000677, Z-3984, and Y-4303948. The grid partially slid open while KAIN was being shoved in, sir, as far as we can figure. Also, it seems possible that something broke into our computer system and assisted their escape."
"..." The commander began to pace back and forth. "It must have been an inside job. The security computer cannot be accessed from the outside world. It is linked into no other system. We must have a mole..."
The hunt was on.
Manami parked her car in the lot in front of the place. I hope I'm not lost, she thought, looking up at the big building, which rather resembled a warehouse. There was a big sign over the door, 'Alphonse's'. She walked inside, hoping this was the right place. She was greeted at the door by a woman dressed in what looked somewhat like a military uniform. The woman wore dark blue slacks and a dark blue blouse, with a tan vest over the blouse, buttoned in front. The white visor on her head bore the logo, 'SV2', whatever that meant. She had a nametag that read, 'Sgt. Kamazaki Yohko'. Her hair was short and black with a boyish cut. "Hi, welcome to Alphonse's. Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Professor Hiyama's history class?" I need to ask Professor Hiyama why we're meeting here, Manami thought. I'm glad I have a car.
"Ahh, follow me." Manami followed Kamazaki into the main room. The main room of Alphonse's is huge. The ceiling was about a hundred feet high and there were several stories of wide walkways around the walls with more tables up on them. The main floor was half empty, forming a dance floor, while the rest had tables. There was a bar by the far wall, and behind the bar stood a huge gleaming white mech. The walls were lined with pictures of various mechs, their pilots, and support staff. Light and breezy pop music was playing. She saw the other seven students in the seminar and professor Hiyama, her advisor, at one of the tables. Professor Hiyama smiled. "Hello, Manami-san."
Manami sat down. "I'm not late, am I?"
"No, we have another five minutes. When are you coming in for advising?"
"How about tomorrow?" She sat down, then said to the waitress, "Get me a Dr. Pepper please." The waitress nodded and said into her headset. "Dr. Pepper for table 8," then went to go get it.
"Okay. Sounds good to me. You're probably all wondering why I asked you all to meet here this week."
"Yes, I was wondering," Jonathon asked. He was a gaijin student at the university, and one of the best students in the class.
"Well, the main reason was I wanted an excuse to go out, and my husband is out of town, but..." Everyone facefaulted.
She laughed and ran her hands through her short, greying hair, looking at her students with a twinkle in her steel blue eyes. She was probably the happiest history professor they had ever met. Her husband was gone a lot of the time on research, but he taught at the university too. She was short, and in excellent shape for a woman of her age, whatever that was exactly, though she had a slight limp in her right leg. She had been at the university a lot longer than her students. "Well, since this is a class on Modern Japanese history, I thought we'd visit an important historical site. This was the headquarters of SV2, one of the special teams that was developed to deal with the problems of renegade labors. I hope you've done your reading."
They all nodded. Kyoko got out her copy of this week's readings, Patlabor: The rise and fall of SV2, by Goto Kiichi. She hadn't quite finished it. "I was wondering where they got a real Ingram."
"Manami, would you like to tell us about the circumstances surrounding the introduction of labors and why the SV2 was founded?" Professor Hiyama sat back and smiled.
Manami sweated a little. I should have read more carefully, she thought, then pulled herself together. "Around 1990, Shinohara Enterprises and Mendo Industries in Japan, US Robots in the United States, and SCHAFT in Europe all began intensive research into robotics. By 1996, they had developed the first labors, basically enhanced exoskeletons, for use in heavy industry and construction. In Japan, they first became important during the Babylon project, an effort to build a sea wall across Tokyo bay. SV2 was created to deal with this. This book..."
She pointed to the text, then continued, "is the memoir of Goto Kiichi, who was the head of SV2's Second Unit, and later head of the expanded Special Vehicles Command, then of the ADPolice when SVC was merged with other units to form the ADPolice in 2027 AD. Labors continued to be used until the early 2020s, when a series of accidents lead to heavy restrictions on their use, along with breakthroughs in Boomer technology, which came to replace the use of Labors, although some continue to be used to the present day."
The discussion continued from there.
Far across the room, Ryu sat with his girlfriend, blissfully unaware of the presence of his half-sister Manami. "So when are your friends going to get here?" he asked.
Nene smiled. This place is great. I can't believe Leon actually found somewhere this cool. Priss will probably complain about how bad the music is the entire time, though. And they'll both pretend this isn't a double date, either. Well, Priss will. "Soon, I hope. I guess Leon got held up with his new partner."
"He has a new partner?" Ryu had met Leon and Daley before. He and Nene had been dating for about three months since they had met at one of Priss' concerts that his sister had dragged him to. One of these days, mother's gonna find out what she's up to and heads will roll. Well, her mom...mine would probably laugh her head off.
"Some insane blonde woman. She has no brain. He's about to go stark raving mad, I think." Nene sipped her coke.
For a moment, Ryu felt a brief stab of panic. Naaah, it couldn't be her, he thought. "I've known people like that."
"How are your classes going?"
"They're going really well! I should be able to graduate this year without any problems. How are things going at the ADPolice?"
Nene smiled. "Well, we have a new girl in our department. She's really nice. Named Andrea Loughlin. I think she's from New York. She's incredibly good at everything. We were all worried we'd have to train her, but she knows our job better than a lot of us do."
"Well, that wouldn't be too hard. I bet I could do a better job than most of the ADPolice in any department," a woman standing nearby cut in. It was Priss. Nene fumed, while Ryu tried hard not to laugh.
Priss was dressed up. Well, as dressed up as she ever gets. She was wearing a green blouse and dark blue slacks, both of which Nene recognized as coming out of Linna's wardrobe. Leon stood nearby, grinning, wearing a white button up shirt and grey slacks. He was wearing a blue fish tie as well. "Then why don't you sign up and show us?"
He pulled a chair out for Priss, which she ignored, taking the other chair. He grinned ruefully and sat down between Nene and Priss, opposite Ryu.
Priss laughed. "The day I join the ADPolice is the day cows fly."
"What other job lets you blow up GENOM corporate property legally on a daily basis?" Leon started checking the menu.
Ryu laughed. "Well, other than working for GENOM. They blow up enough of their own property for five companies."
Priss took a look at the menu while she was talking. "Besides, if I joined the ADPolice, they might stick me with you, Leon."
"Worse, they might stick you with my new partner." Leon made a strangling noise. "Be glad you're not a detective, Nene."
"Is she really that bad?" Nene asked.
"She's a walking disaster area, half the time she talks like she's from another planet, and she managed to handcuff herself to the steering wheel of the car today, then lost the key. Luckily, someone found some bolt cutters or she'd still be in our patrol car."
"What do you carry handcuffs for, anyway?" Priss asked. "You can't exactly handcuff a boomer and take him downtown."
"Well, we do handle other police matters IF we stumble on them. They don't call us in for things like bank robberies, but if we happen to be there...and since getting my new partner, we've stumbled into twelve convenience store robberies, five bank robberies, two efforts to break into an ATM, twelve muggings and a car jacking. That's in one week."
Nene blinked. "What about boomer related crimes?"
Leon shrugged. "If I took this last week as a guide, I wouldn't know that Boomers exist. The one Boomer we got to, turned out to be some guy dressed up in a Boomer costume who was drunk." He paused. "Oh, well, we did run into one. She took it down with a handgun...must have been defective."
Priss laughed. "Our tax money at work."
"Well, this has been a pretty quiet week for boomers overall, anyway, right?" Ryu signalled a waitress to come over so they could order.
Before Leon could answer, the big screen TV over the bar suddenly came to life, its audio overriding the radio. "Tonight on Channel Ten Action News: The Coca Cola Corporation purchases Lithuania. President David Xanatos of the United States locked in struggle with Congress over the budget. Bishop Hino condemns the GENOM corporation for its continued abuses. And here in Mega-Tokyo, it looks like our resident vigilantes, the Knight Sabres, may be getting some competition. We'll be right back after this commercial break." An ad for Magical Princess Evangelia came on.
The waitress came and took their orders during the break. Ryu noticed Priss and Nene kept giving each other funny looks, while Leon looked greatly amused for no apparent reason. The problem with trying to break into a new group of friends, he thought, is that for a long time you can't understand why they do things.
The newscast resumed. Leon continued to list all the crazy things his new partner had done during the first part of the newscast, getting a lot of laughs from all three of his listeners. However, when the cast turned to local news, he shut up.
"The Juuban district of Tokyo has long been a place for unusual events. During the Nineties, it was the site of the urban legend of the Sailor Soldiers, whose existence remains disputed. What is undisputed is the vast number of unusual events and strange deaths that plagued the district for ten years. The most spectacular of these was the destruction of Mugen Gakuen in an explosion whose causes were never determined. Now, thirty years later, perhaps the cycle has begun again. For two weeks, local citizens have been dying, one per night, their blood drained. ADPolice were called in today after parallels were found with the so-called 'vampire killings' of a year ago."
Nene blinked. "I didn't hear anything about this."
Leon nodded. "Must have been a secret calling-in, because I didn't hear anything either."
Priss snorted. "New levels of cluelessness for the ADP, eh?"
"However, this proved unnecessary, as the offending sexaroid was found tied up on the roof of the ADPolice building, with photographic evidence and a Tarot card, the Queen of Swords, lying nearby. The suspected sexaroid claimed a flying woman in a kimono with a glowing sword had captured her. The investigation remains in progress. The origin of the sexaroid, long banned in Japan, remains unknown." The newsman paused and shuffled some papers on his desk.
The anchorwoman next to him cut in, "Looks like the Knight Sabres may have some competition, eh?"
He nodded. "Later tonight, our color commentator, Akiya Toshio will be commenting on whether it would be more cost effective to fire the entire ADPolice and put the Knight Sabres on permanent government retainer. This could complicate his analysis, though."
Leon said, "Hey!"
Priss laughed. Nene said, "Stupid news people don't know what they're talking about."
Ryu said, "A woman in a kimono? With a glowing sword?" His voice sounded a little strange, but no one noticed.
Priss said, "Maybe it's Angelfire, Queen of the Faeries. Could be that animated show is really a documentary." She laughed.
The waitress brought their food, and for a few minutes they were all preoccupied with getting their food to the right places. Leon then said, "Wait...a woman in a kimono...Maybe it's her."
"Her?" Ryu asked.
"We had an incident back in March with some boomer or...something in a kimono that flew and had a lot of other boomers out to kill it. Looked female."
Priss blinked. "Oh yeah. That new mall got trashed, right?"
Nene nodded. "I was on duty during that. I remember. We were all wondering if you guys were pulling our legs."
"So when's your next concert, Priss?" Ryu asked. "My sister is a big fan of yours, and she keeps telling me I have to go to your next gig. She won't say why, though."
Priss laughed. "Well, we finally are going to have a real concert. A new friend of mine helped me land a decent record contract. She's going to be opening for us at the concert. She's got a lot of enthusiasm, though I had to help her a lot with her wardrobe."
Nene said, "You're going to get us all tickets, right?"
Priss said, "Depends on if Leon pays for my meal or not." She winked at Nene.
Leon said, "Well, that depends on if you promise to not slap me goodnight."
Priss laughed. "I think I can agree to that...as long as you don't deserve it."
Nene laughed. "Better get the painkillers then, Leon."
"Hey! I'm not that bad!"
Back across the room, the discussion was continuing. "What other major sources do we have for knowlege on this situation?" Professor Hiyama asked.
"Well, we have memoirs by three other members of the SV2, Shinohara, Ohta, and for those who can read English, Kanuka Clancy's book, In the Shadow of Babylon: the Millennial Crisis of Tokyo. Also, there are vast quantities of newspapers, video footage, and several standard histories," Manami said.
"Or you could ask someone who was there," the new waitress said. "Like me."
Everyone turned and looked. The waitress was a middle aged, short woman, whose reddish hair was starting to grey. She was dressed like all the other waitresses, but her name tag read, "Commander Izumi Noa [Manager]". She also had officer's bars on the shoulders of her uniform. She smiled. "One of the waitresses told me you were discussing our many 'mighty deeds'."
Professor Hiyama smiled. "Something like that. I'm especially curious as to your perspective on the resignation of Chief Goto in 2028. Your husband's memoir only goes up to 2026."
The students sat back, a little bit in awe. For close to thirty years, the Special Vehicle Units had been some of the great heroes of Japan. Also the great scapegoats, but the bad had been forgotten faster than the good, for once. There was even an animated show in the late 2020s about them, which had helped to preserve their memory. Of course, the real SV2 had never fought aliens and giant monsters, but then, art doesn't always imitate life, and when it does, it often isn't very accurate.
"Well, that's because we retired after my husband's father died in the Kanto Quake in 2025. He took over Shinohara Industries, and I helped test Mechs for him and ran this place."
One of the students, Karin Aoi, asked, "Is that really an Ingram over there?"
Noa got a very happy look on her face. "That's not just an Ingram. That's the Ingram. My very own, Alphonse. "
"I guess you don't need a bouncer, eh?" One of the students asked.
"Alphonse and I can handle things pretty well. He's probably the last fully functional Ingram made before 2015 or so, and probably the only functional one in Japan that's not on its way out of the country. I could hop in Alphonse and go level a few city blocks right now if I wanted to. Getting back to your question, Professsor, Asuma-kun didn't handle the resignation in his book, because that happened after we both left the Special Vehicles Command. However..." She paused and looked around. "He was forced out. He was too effective. The ADPolice is nothing but a figurehead organization to keep the taxpayers from going on a rampage. As long as this city needs GENOM to live, the ADPolice will never be allowed to be effective."
"So you agree with the chief's thesis in his book that GENOM is deliberately unleashing boomers on the city?" Professor Hiyama asked.
"I find it a little too coincidental that a rampaging boomer just happened to go crashing through his neighborhood three days after the book was published."
"Well, GENOM did fire twelve executives in connection with that incident, the so-called 'Easter Massacre'." Jonathon pointed out.
Noa pulled up a chair and sat down. "Really, though, this wasn't much different from the sort of stuff that SCHAFT and US Robots pulled all the time back in the 2000s and 2010s. We've just exchanged one set of troublemakers for another. Certainly politics got in our way enough times. Let me tell you about the Griffon..."
After the newscast, the TV clicked off and the radio came back on, now tuned to 98.9 FM, playing the best oldies of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. "This day in Music: June 12, 1995, the band 'Hearts of Fire' has its first hit single released, 'Red Hat Day'. This band went on to have over 20 hits before breaking up in 2001 after a murder attempt was made, also on this date, on the lead singer, Ayukawa Madoka. The would-be killer was never caught, and Ayukawa vanished from the public eye with her husband, noted photographer, Kasuga Kyosuke. Here's a block of some of their hit singles, starting with, 'Red Hat Day'."
Nene, Leon, Priss, and Ryu were in the middle of dessert when this came on. Nene said, "Oh, I love this song! It's so romantic!"
Ryu looked over at the dance floor, which had some couples on it. "Shall we?"
"Let's!" Nene said, grabbing Ryu by the hand and dragging him over as the music began.
Leon looked over at Priss and was surprised to see she had a sudden melancholy look.
The music began to play,
"It was a bright April day,
the day I first saw you.
I walked alone with my red hat on
towards the stairs I always used."
"Is something wrong, Priss?" Leon asked, his usual brashness softening a little. For a few seconds, Leon thought Priss was going to cry. He could see her shake faintly.
She looked over at Leon, and for a moment, she was lost in memories...
{There had been an earthquake a little while earlier. Priscilla Samantha Asagiri had never experienced one before. She hoped no one had gotten hurt. She tried calling some people, but the phone lines were dead, so she turned on the CD player to listen to some music and wait for her parents to get home.
She had grown up on a steady diet of music from her parents' childhood, though this incorporated a wide range of stuff. Her father, Ryo Asagiri, tended to listen to old pop and classical music, while her mother prefered rowdier stuff. Priscilla wasn't sure which she preferred yet. She sat back on her bed and put on the red hat her mother had bought her at the store the day before, and started singing along.}
"Red hat day, blowing in the wind
Wind carried it away
Red hat day, blowing in the wind
Wind carried me to you."
{Priscilla smiled and sang along. I'm gonna be a famous idol singer one day, just like Ayukawa Madoka and Pearl and Debbie Gibson! She grabbed a pen off her desk to use as a microphone.}
"Priss, what's wrong?" Leon asked. He had almost never seen her like this. Usually she ran away first.
"I always walked alone
I thought I needed no one
Then you walked up the steps
and into my heart."
{Priscilla smiled. One day, I'll have a big handsome husband who will love me and stay with me forever. She looked up at the big picture of 'Nick Hatchett, Heroic Robot Fighter!'. We'll have wonderful adventures together, just like Nick Hatchett does! I bet I'd make a great robot fighter! }
Priss tried to fight off the memories. This is a happy song, it shouldn't make me sad, dammit! I want to have fun tonight and I don't want to let people see me cry.
"Red hat day, blowing in the wind
Wind carried it away
Red hat day, blowing in the wind
Wind carried me to you."
{The doorbell rang. Priscilla got up and ran to the door. Maybe Dad's home, she thought! I'm so glad they let me stay here by myself without a babysitter tonight! I feel so grown up!}
Leon reached over very, very slowly to take Priss's hand. She yanked it away. He sighed. "Say something, Priss. Go ahead and hit me if it helps."
"I ran from you at first
I tried to make you go away
But the harder I shoved
The more determined you became"
{She ran through the house, finally reaching the front door. A really big, unhappy looking man in a big blue uniform was standing there. He looked down. "Are you Priscilla Samantha Asagiri?"}
Priss looked up at Leon, staring into her eyes, her own eyes red from the effort of holding back tears, of fighting off the memory of that awful day. He smiled at her, not his usual confident 'I am so cool' smile, but a quiet one. "Uh...sorry about that," he said. "I just...thought it might help. Okay, stupid idea."
"Red hat day, blowing in the wind
Wind carried it away
Red hat day, blowing in the wind
Wind carried me to you."
{She nodded. "Yes sir, Mr. Officer. Can I help you?" Priscilla knew you should be be respectful and polite to police officers, because they worked hard for very little pay. Her daddy had told her so.}
"You never give up, do you," she said. It was not a question.
"Not when I see someone I ...care about in pain." He flinched slightly at his own statement.
So did she.
"I will follow my hat
For it knew my heart
I will follow my heart
For it leads me to you."
{"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, Priscilla," The officer began. He winced, thinking about the death of the poor child's parents, which he had witnessed during the quake only hours before. The song ended and her world shattered in pieces at the same time.}
Priss banished the memory and really looked at Leon. She didn't do this often. Too often, too easily, she didn't see Leon. Sometimes, she saw a cop. She didn't like cops. More often, she saw a man with a big ego and a grin to match who thought he was God's gift to women.
For just a moment, she could see him as he really was. She faced the truth she had hidden from for so long. It started to hide itself again immediately. She still wasn't ready to face it, to face him, more importantly to face herself, but it was a step. "It brought back some old memories that didn't need to be brought back." She got up. "Come on. Let's dance. Let's show these people how it's done!"
Leon got up and laughed, his normal mask dropping back into place. He smiled. "Time to rock and roll, eh?"
They walked to the dance floor, neither of them quite realizing they were holding hands.
Later, Priss and Nene were sitting at the table sipping drinks while the two men-folk were both in the bathroom. "I'm surprised Celia hasn't paged you yet to bug you about that boomer case," Priss said to Nene.
Nene laughed. "I'm not carrying my pager. I wanted to try and get through one date without being interrupted."
Priss laughed. "Neither am I, but I didn't think you had it in you."
Nene smiled impishly. "You and Leon were dancing pretty closely a minute ago."
Priss said, "Not as close as you and Ryu. I never thought I'd see you dating a guy with bigger hair than yours."
Nene said, "Hey, I like his hair!" Well, I've gotten used to it, anyway, but I have to stand up for my boyfriend.
Priss laughed, glad the subject of her and Leon had now been safely deflected. "I'm surprised you didn't ask Linna to come too. She's been wanting us to meet her new boyfriend for a while now."
"That's because he dumped her last night. She's off getting drunk, I think."
Priss frowned. "Yeesh, she goes through boyfriends the way some people go through tissue paper."
Nene nodded. "Luckily, she's got Andrea with her right now. They've gotten to be pretty friendly since I introduced them to each other. Andrea said she'd try and keep Linna from doing anything too stupid."
At that moment, the menfolk announced their presence as Leon said, "That Andrea Loughlin you're talking about?"
Nene nodded. "Yeah. She's a cop from New York who..."
Leon nodded. "I'd almost think Lt. Yamano was in love with her or something the way she keeps telling everyone she can find how glad she is that Loughlin got sent to her department first. I heard about the shooting range incident too."
Nene nodded. "She's so good at everything I can hardly believe it. And she's really nice too. It's kinda scary."
Priss said, "Sounds like the ADPolice should fire half their staff and just hire her then, eh?"
Ryu laughed. Nene frowned. Leon said, "Well, why don't you come downtown and show us how it's done, Officer Asagiri?"
Priss laughed. "I think I'd rather dance some more. Come on, Officer McNichol." She grabbed Leon and dragged him over to the dance floor again.
Ryu said, "They're such a cute couple. How long have they been doing this?"
Nene laughed. "About two years, but they're starting to get closer now, I think. Priss used to be a very angry person...she still is, but not as much as she used to be."
"How did you meet a rock star, anyway?" Ryu asked, sitting down.
Nene panicked, not having a good cover story and began babbling maniacally.
Leon and Priss stood outside the door of Priss' trailer, at that awkward stage when you don't want to leave each other's presence, but can't find more excuses to not do so. Leon said, "Well, I had fun." Inside, he hit himself for using one of the five lamest sentences in the universe.
Priss smiled in a rather uncharacteristic way. "Me too. I almost died of a sugar overdose from watching Nene and her boyfriend a few times, but..."
Leon laughed. "She's still young and cheery, unlike us grumpy old codgers, eh?"
Priss laughed, surprising herself. "You want to.." She began. The phone rang.
She swore mentally. So did he. "Uh, I have to answer the phone. See ya later, okay?"
He nodded, keeping his sighing to himself. "Maybe next Friday we can all go see Mystery Boomer Theatre 2034, eh?"
She laughed. "What, you want to go watch them make fun of your own job?"
The phone rang again. "Sounds good to me," Priss said. "Bye, Leon."
He just watched her trailer for a moment, then walked away. She picked up the phone, "Yo, this is Priss." At this point she noticed her answering machine indicated ten messages.
"Where have you been?" Celia asked, a note of rising irritation in her voice.
"Hey, I told you I was going on a date. It's not like we had any work lined up."
Celia sighed. "Go pick up Linna and get her over here. Nene thinks she went down to One-Eyed Toad."
Priss blinked. "What the hell would Linna be doing in a cop bar?"
"Apparently she's out with Nene's friend, the cop from New York." Celia's voice sounded a bit funny.
"Why do you need us, anyway?"
"Rampaging Boomer in Moon Hill Acres."
"What, that new family housing development?"
"Get a move on. We're probably already too late."
They got a move on.
Priss cursed as she raced across town. Linna had not been in that damn cop bar, nor did anyone remember seeing anyone who matched her description. Damnit, Linna, you picked the wrong night to get drunk, she thought, ignoring times she had done the same. She could hear the explosions in the distance. Some of the houses were burning. Sirens echoed through the explosions and screams. She began searching for the Silky Doll van.
She didn't find the van. She did find Celia and Nene. They were fighting a 34-B Urban combat boomer with flamethrower accessory, only $249,000 at your local Boomer-Mart. There was a flaming ADPolice combat vehicle which used to have ADPolice in it and now had some crispy corpses. She roared over into an alley to get out of the direct line of fire, then stuck her head out, trying to figure out where Mackie had hidden the van.
The fight wasn't going well. Nene was spending most of her time dodging heavy arms fire from the boomer and trying to minimize the fires it kept setting in various houses, while Celia was unsucessfully trying to either get its attention or close with it, and succeeding in neither.
The boomer chose this moment to spot Priss. It dived and charged down towards her, guns a-blazing. She swore and hopped back on her cycle, accelerating as fast as she could...into a dead end. She swore, and spun the bike around, hoping to somehow race under the boomer. It levelled its guns and would have smiled, if it could.
Priss shouted, "Fuck you!" and hurled her knife at it. Maybe it'll do something stupid long enough for Celia and Nene to get into this damn alley. The boomer caught the knife. She swore. It tried to laugh, but its voice synthesizer wasn't very good, and it sounded like it was gargling. It tossed the knife back at her. She moved to dodge, knowing it was too late, and that at best she'd be badly injured.
Suddenly, a streak of blue came down from the sky, striking the knife and shattering it to bits. Priss could see Celia and Nene behind the boomer, now, but they hadn't done that. It came from above. The streak pinned itself into the concrete, a blue sword made of light, which then dissolved away into nothingness. For a moment, everything was absolutely silent, then four heads, three human, one boomer, snapped up in unison.
A woman stood on the edge of the rooftop above. It was a woman in an ornate, multi-colored kimono of blue, yellow, and green. It was tied around the waist with a green belt that formed a huge bow in the back. Creepily, the bow did not move at all in the wind, being perfectly stiff. Her hair was black with long grey streaks, tied back in a pony-tail that ran down to her mid-back and her face was covered with black wedges along her cheeks, giving her a look that vaguely reminded one of a racoon.
Her face was cold with anger. For a moment, she intensely reminded Priss of Celia. "Foul abomination. Destroyer of the innocent, foe of all that is good. Die." She hurled her sword at the boomer, which opened fire on her, only to have the bullets bounce off a glowing field of blue energy which flared in front of her in a semi-circle. The blade pierced the boomer through what would have been its heart, if it had one. Celia leaped forward onto its shoulders and drove her wrist knife into the creature. The boomer collapsed, and died, if a robot can be said to die. Nene was just staring up at the woman.
Priss shouted up at the woman, "Who are you?"
The woman reached within her voluminous kimono and tossed down a card by the dead boomer. It was a Tarot card, the Queen of Swords. "Until I finish what I intend to do, I have no name." She turned to Celia and Nene. "Heroines of the city, I salute you. Until we meet again." She began to rise into the sky.
Celia said, "Wait!"
The woman raced off, accelerating rapidly. Far off, Priss heard the sound of sirens. More ADPolice. "Where's the van? Let's get out of here."
For a moment, Celia stared off into the sky. "Let's go, Knight Sabres."
They drove by Linna's house and Priss went and banged on the door. It flew open. She found Linna inside on the couch. "Zat you, Andrea?"
"It's the tooth fairy." She picked Linna up. "You need to lose some weight."
"Maybe if I throw up again..." She stunk of alcohol, and was limp as a rag doll in Priss' arms.
Priss hauled her out to the van. "The tooth fairy doesn't give quarters for vomit, just teeth. You're gonna be rich."
Linna laughed, "Rich! Woooo!!!!! Do I get a cute new boyfriend too?"
"I'll let you have Mackie," Priss said as she got into the back of the van.
Nene blinked. "You'll what?"
"Let's go," Priss said, putting down Linna. "I'll never call you fat again, Nene." She sat down on the bench. "Where the hell were you, Linna?"
Linna laughed. "The cop club was boring, so we went down to Hot Legs and picked a fight with some guys."
Nene blinked. "You what?"
"Even drunk, we kicked their asses good! I even learned a secret!" Linna crawled over to Nene. "Wanna know a secret?"
Nene swore she would never drink again after smelling Linna's breath. "What?"
Linna clambered to where her elbows and head were resting on Nene's knees. "Andrea is...Bruce Lee's granddaughter. Honest."
Nene began to laugh. "And I suppose she was raised by Elvis on a flying saucer?"
Linna blinked. "How'd you know that?" She started to laugh hysterically. "I tried to convince her to help me go kick Toshi's butt, but she said she had to go home and report to the Illuminati, or they'd take away her Rolls-Royce." She fell down.
Now Priss swore off alcohol forever, or at least until she could forget this. "Uh huh. You know, Celia is going to flay you alive when you sober up."
Linna said, "I'll just turn into Magical Princess Evangelia and destroy her with the Ruby Staff! Hahahahahahahah!!!!"
Priss clonked Linna on the head with the leg of Linna's suit. She quietly slumped over. Nene applauded. "I'm never drinking again," Nene said.
"I'm never letting Linna drink again," Priss grumbled.
Nene compared the sound clips for the fifth time. "Yes, the voice tags do match." She paused. "So who is this on the first tape?"
Linna was passed out on the floor, while Priss sat and looked increasingly grumpy, and Mackie goofed off, fiddling with the hardsuits.
"Are you sure?" Celia asked.
Nene sighed. "As sure as I can be at 2 am when I really would rather be asleep than doing something I'm sure you could do yourself just as well. It's not like I'm the one who built all this equipment," she snapped, then sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired and..."
Celia said, "To answer your question, the previous tape was made of myself, my father, my mother, and my grandmother and grandfather when I was ten. You just identified the 'Queen of Swords' voice as that of my grandmother."
Nene said, "But how? Since when did your grandmother fly and..."
Priss snorted. "Lemme guess, this is where you tell us about being an elf, eh?"
Celia said, "I have no idea what is going on, but either someone is making a remarkable effort with no discernable purpose to make us believe that is Meylia Stingray, or it is my grandmother."
"But why hasn't she contacted us?" Mackie asked. "It's got to be a trick."
"If it's a trick, then why hasn't she contacted us? Unless someone has an odd sense of humor, they know who she is if they've bothered to copy her."
Linna laughed in her sleep for no apparent reason. Celia sighed. "If only someone would invent a good way to get alcohol out of someone's system."
Priss yawned. "Can we discuss this tomorrow? I've had enough of fairy princesses and drunks for one night."
Celia nodded. "I'll chew out Linna in the morning. Mackie, take them home."
Nene sat half dead at her desk. She yawned, listening to various radio broadcasts droning on the ADPolice band. She could hear someone saying over and over, "Car 54, where are you?" Her head started slowly to dip towards her desk. Then she felt an icy hand on her neck and jumped.
Andrea smiled. "You look like something the cat dragged in. Did your man keep you up late last night?"
"A friend needed my help...kept me up til 2 am. I feel awful."
Andrea nodded. "I don't feel too great either. Linna and I got rather thoroughly smashed."
Nene stared through fuzzy vision at Andrea. She didn't look hungover. "Yeah, she was telling me you..." She dropped the level of her voice, "Went to Hot Legs and kicked someone's butt."
Andrea laughed and pulled back her sleeve. She had a bruise on her upper arm. "One of them got me, but I tossed him down the length of the bar. Don't tell Lt. Yamano. She'd freak."
"How many people were there?"
"Well, we only fought around ten or so." Andrea looked around. "I'd better get to my post. Talk to you later!" She went over to her position, seconds before Yamano emerged from her office and gave everyone the official Terminator glare.
Yamano smiled. "I think you all could do with a little waking up! Let's have some pushups!"
Nene groaned. I'm in hell...
April 4, 2018
Mega-Tokyo
Priscilla hid inside the big tube that formed an important part of the playground set at the 'David Tai Memorial Park'. She'll never find me here, she thought, giggling at how well she was hidden. Maggie never remembers to look inside the tubes. She could hear Maggie running around looking for her. Priscilla liked hide and go seek. She was really good at it. Well, the hiding part.
Maggie's footsteps went round and round the tubes, getting louder and softer as she moved closer or farther away. Priss tried to breathe as quietly as she could, but her breath echoed in her hearing like the sound of machinegun fire.
Suddenly, the footsteps went silent. Priscilla blinked. Maggie must be trying to lure me out into the open, she thought. I'll just wait a little longer, then look.
More silence. Priscilla crept over to the end of the tube and peeked out. She couldn't see Maggie, but she could only see half the park from here. Suddenly, she heard movement above her. Maggie was on top of the tube. Maggie laughed. "There you are!" She was shorter than Priscilla with long blue hair tied into two long pony-tails, one on either side of her head. She was wearing a green shirt and blue jeans. Priscilla ran for the "home" tree desperately. Maggie was right behind her, but slowly fell behind as she ran. She leaped at Priscilla's feet, and missed.
Priscilla tagged the tree and clung to it. "I made it! I'm home free!"
Maggie laughed. "You're so good at this, Prissie!"
"Don't call me Prissie! My name is Priscilla!" Priscilla really hated being called Prissie. "And I'm gonna be famous one day!"
"Are you still going to marry Nick Hatchett, Robot Fighter?"
"I'll get him away from Leslie somehow!"
They both laughed. Maggie looked at her watch. "I have to run. Big sister is expecting me home soon."
Priscilla said, "Oh, but my parents are about to get here and you haven't met them yet! Can't you stay a little while longer?"
Maggie sighed. "I'm sorry. Gotta go! Bye!" She ran off down the street. Priscilla went to go play on the monkey bars. A minute later, her father walked up. "Hiya, tiger."
She ran over and hugged her daddy. "Hi! You just missed Maggie again!"
He smiled. "I'm sure I'll meet her some day. Time for you to come home and eat dinner." He picked up his daughter. I had an imaginary friend too at your age, he thought.
Priscilla smiled and was happy to be carried, safe in her daddy's arms. "She was just here a minute ago!"
"I'm sure she was dear." He hadn't been sure if this girl was real before, but he had just watched Priscilla for the last ten minutes as she was pretending to play tag with someone who either didn't exist or was invisible to human sight. He chose to believe the former.
Somewhere around 23,000 BC or so.
The hooded woman took the baby in her arms. To most people, it would have seemed a baby like many others. The little girl had no hair yet, her eyes were squeezed shut, and she bore almost as much resemblence to a prune as a human being, just like every other newly born baby.
The mother sighed. She was tall, thin, and platinum blonde, her hair currently undressed in any of the elaborate hairstyles she normally adorned herself with. She wore a simple white shift, also unlike the palatial dresses she normally bore. "Must you do this?"
The woman picked up her staff, a long rod topped with an orb. "If I do not, in 25,000 years, humanity will become extinct in the solar system. This one alone cannot prevent what is soon to come here, but where she is going, she will make all the difference in the world. She is a warrior born, and she goes to a place that needs warriors desperately." The woman sighed. "I am sorry, my queen. Cherish your first daughter. I swear I shall never take her away from you."
The Queen sighed. "I know you know things I shall never know. She..She'll have a good home, won't she?"
"She will live a long life and know much joy." And much sorrow, but this is not the time to mention that, the hooded woman thought. She pulled her cloak around herself. She didn't need it, but the baby would. "There is one who waits for her there, though he knows it not. She will know love...once she escapes her own stubbornness about it."
The Queen got up and kissed her baby on the forehead. "Take my blessing with you, my child." The mark upon the Queen's forehead glowed brightly. "Your power will awaken when you most need it." She laid back down in the bed. "Go now, before I can change my mind."
The woman obeyed her Queen's command. She raised her staff, and the world folded around her and vanished. She walked through mists briefly, then they parted and she stood in an office. She wrapped the baby in the cloak, and raised her staff. The cloak became a blanket, her own garb became a conservative suit, dark green in color. She sat down at the desk, and looked at the set of completed adoption papers on the desk. Yes, this will work nicely, she thought. Be brave, little one...
July 2, 2034
Ryu parked his car in the parking garage of Nene's apartment complex. It was an old clunker, a 2025 Mitsuru Special, the Pinto of the 2020s. They walked quietly into the building, holding hands. "I'm sorry I didn't have enough money for us to go anywhere special," he said.
She smiled. "That's okay. We can just watch some of the stuff I taped this week and talk." And maybe a few other things too. She blushed at the thought.
Soon, they reached Nene's apartment. Nene got the tapes set up, then plopped down on the couch with Ryu. They snuggled up to each other. "What's first on our list of fine entertainment?"
"Magical Princess Evangelia, I think." The familiar theme song began to play, "Midnight Scrambler". Nene sang along, while Ryu just hummed. Nene had to tape this show every week, since she was usually at work when it came on.
They watched the antics at Neo-Gemstone-Tokyo palace as Princess Rei's rival, Princess Asuka, tried to wiggle Lord Shinji into going out on a date with her when all three of them were supposed to be studying for a history test instead.
Ryu laughed. "Reminds me of my mom." He began playing with Nene's hair. "Though her hair is a lot more like yours than mom's."
Nene laughed. "Well, her voice actress is old enough to almost be your mother, I think. Sailor V ran in the early nineties, I think...She must be in her fifties or sixties by now...sure doesn't look it. Oh wait, I'm getting confused...Rei has the really old seiyuu. Asuka's seiyuu is only a little older than me. And Shinji's seiyuu is actually married to Rei's, I think." She leaned her head over on Ryu's shoulder. "I'm soooo tired. Lt. Yamano is running us ragged."
"I bet working out with me doesn't help either."
She laughed. "Working out with you is fun. And I get to see you with your shirt off."
He laughed. "Is that a hint?"
Nene blushed. She was the oldest virgin she knew. She had come pretty close to it a few times, but none of her past relationships had lasted long enough, except one in junior high, but neither of them had been ready for sex, really, at that point. She had been dating Ryu since late March. Most people she knew would have had sex by this point, but she wasn't most people. She knew Ryu wanted it, but he was enough of a gentleman not to push too hard. She wanted her first time to be special. She was gradually coming to the conclusion that Ryu was the one she wanted it to be with, but she wasn't quite sure. "I..uh..."
Ryu gently kissed her. "Just joking, dear." He had hoped she was serious. He didn't want to push too hard...that had killed off too many of his past relationships, but he was pretty sure by now that he really did love Nene-chan. Of course, he'd thought that about a lot of other girls too, but this time was different. Nene hadn't run away screaming for one thing. I never, never should have taken any of Mom's advice, he thought. Not that his step-mother had been much help either. Ryu didn't want an arranged marriage, and all the girls she had tried to introduce him to had been far too formal and snobby for him.
After the first episode was over, the tape segued into the next show Nene had taped, a romantic comedy named Mayonnaise Boy. It had some kind of plot, but Ryu and Nene usually made out while watching it, so they really didn't have much of an idea of what it was about. This week wasn't any different. As soon as they heard the opening sequence. "You know, Puu, you are like a jar of Mayonnaise, full of white creamy stuff that no one really knows what the ingredients for it are, but you put it on your sandwich anyway," they turned off their ears, and started smooching.
They almost didn't notice when it finally came to an end. Nene got up to get another soda to drink while watching the next show, "You want one, Ryu-chan?"
"Sure. Get me a Dr. Pepper." She did so and sat back down next to him. They chatted and snuggled and watched anime until about 3 AM, when he finally went home. Little did he realize he would have cause to regret this...
Priss woke up in a pool of sweat from the fifth weird dream of the night. First she'd dreamed about being married to Leon. Unbelievable, but not as bad as the other dreams, though a few months ago, she might have thought otherwise. Then she'd dreamed about the encounter in the alleyway, only this time, there wasn't an energy sword to save her. The knife had pierced her heart. She'd looked up, and it was Celia twisting the knife. She hadn't slept for an hour after that one. Then she'd dreamed of stalking Quincy through GENOM Tower. She killed him again and again and again, and every time, he just laughed, and it was a boomer.
That wouldn't hadn't been too hard to sleep through, but then she dreamed about Linna throwing up in her trailer. That woke her up and left her disgusted. Finally, as Mr. Sun started to drop in for the morning, she fought her way back to sleep, only to dream again.
Priss was somewhere in GENOM Tower. Where, she didn't know. She was in her hardsuit, looking for something. What am I after? Quincy, maybe? No, that would be a waste of time. The dream was incredibly real, yet at the same time she knew she was dreaming. She came to a door. 'Boomer Morgue'. She opened the door, for lack of a better idea. Inside, two female techs were hard at work. One of them looked like a female version of Nene's boyfriend, with red hair. The second was short and young looking, despite her mature figure, with short green hair. Both were dressed in lab-coats, and hunched over some sexaroid on a table they were busilly operating on.
Priss moved a little closer, wondering why they didn't notice her. Something familiar about that second tech, she thought.
The first tech, slightly deranged looking, ran over to a massive lever on the wall, while the second tech put on welder's goggles. The first one shouted in a loud, yet childish voice, "It's alive!!!!!"
The second one said, "Not until you pull the lever, mama-san."
"What? Oh yes." The first tech pulled the lever. Priss simply watched, certain this was a dream. She had a dim memory of some movie she had seen that was like this.
A massive jolt of electricity shot down from a crystal rod over the table. The body jolted and sat up. As the sheet fell away from the body, Priss recognized her. Sylvie. She turned to the red-haired woman. "Thank you, mama-san!"
The woman hugged Sylvie tightly. "You deserved another chance."
Priss stared, unable to move. Sylvie...alive? No, it was impossible. It had to be a dream.
Sylvie hugged the second woman. "Sister!"
The woman took off her goggles. Priss recognized her as Anri, now. Priss stepped forward. It has to be a dream...so I can do whatever I want. "Sy..Sylvie?"
Sylvie stared at Priss for a moment, and to Priss' surprise, her hardsuit melted away, leaving her in only her jumpsuit. Sylvie leaped off the bed and ran over to her and hugged her. "You're alive, you're alive, you're alive..." Sylvie repeated like a mantra.
Priss said, "And so are you." It has to be a dream, but I don't care. She looked at the red-haired woman. "Who...are you?"
The woman laughed. "I'm the greatest genius that ever was! I can fix anything! I think I'll fix you next!"
Suddenly, Anri and Sylvie grabbed Priss and hauled her to the table. "Soon you'll be a magical princess just like us!"
The last thing Priss saw before she awoke was the crystal rod beginning to glow. She awoke, on the verge of screaming.
"That was the most fucked up dream I've had in months," she muttered to herself. "Mad scientists bringing Anri and Sylvie back to life...I wish." She sighed and dragged herself out of bed. Time for band practice. Our big day is coming up.
Ryu rolled down the windows on Manami's car, and turned the radio down to where he was only going half-deaf. "Where are we going, anyway?"
His sister had dragged him out of bed without telling him what was going on, just that it was 'critically important' that he come. Now he had to listen to her goofy hard rock music collection while sleepy. This was...a bad thing. 'I'm your angel of death, baby!' some woman shouted on the tape. 'I'm going to bring you....dooooowwwwnnnnn!' Oh god, what if she's dragging me to some concert?
"You get to see me warm up for my first big performance." She smiled. This is going to be so cool, she thought. I hope Ryu likes the song I wrote about him.
Ryu felt true, abject terror. "You...you're going to sing." He stared at the tape player. "Something like that."
"Yeah!"
"Your mother will have you crucified."
"And yours will get me back down from it. Our mothers fight all the time anyway. Besides, unless you tell them, how will they know? I'm going to be in disguise. Only you will know who I really am." She smiled at Ryu.
He recognized that smile. His mother got it right before she did something really stupid. Maybe I can run away and join the Foreign Legion, he thought. She might not find me there. "Would it be rude if I shot out my eardrums?"
"Ryu!!!!!!!!!!!!" Every driver on the highway for a half mile heard that.
Naoko walked over to Nene. Things were going slowly at ADPolice HQ, and everyone was afraid Lt. Yamano would decide this was the ideal time for a quick jog to the top of the building or something. Naoko sat down and sighed. "My stupid face chose right now to develop a pimple, the day before I have a hot date!"
Nene smiled. "I have just the stuff. Ever wondered why my face has a perfect complexion? It's because of this." She got out a small bottle and a cotton swab. The bottle was half full of a greenish liquid, which she daubed onto the swab, then began brushing it across Naoko's face. Naoko felt a strange, pleasant tingling feeling as Nene gently spread the liquid across her face, then brushed over the area with a fresh, dry swab.
"There you go, my family's special herbal facial cleanser. Kills Pimples Dead. Better than Clearasil and half the cost."
"It'll work by tommorrow night?"
"It's already done."
Naoko blinked and got out her compact. She took a look at her face. The pimple was gone. "I...Wow!"
"My family has used this stuff for generations. I've got the recipe somewhere in my apartment, if you want it."
"Trading makeup tips, eh, officers?" It was Lt. Yamano. "Why don't you continue your chat while you're running to the top floor up the stairs and calling me from the top floor?"
They both sighed. "Yes, sir." They took her advice.
Manami roared into the parking lot and slid her car into a parking space. The Takeuchi Arena was pretty small, but it would seat a few thousand. Ryu wouldn't admit it, but he was impressed. Too bad there was no way they could ever let the parents know about this. Dad wouldn't mind, and my mom wouldn't mind, but hers would freak.
He could feel the bass coming through the walls of the arena as they got closer. Manami was carrying a huge carry bag full of stuff and had Ryu carrying a box. They entered through the stage door and headed into a tiny little cramped dressing room with the word, 'Sonic and the Royal Family' on the door. Ryu blinked. "..."
She laughed. "I made sure my stage name wasn't recognizable, just in case we get in the news or something."
Inside the room were several of Manami's friends from school, all of them music majors. They waved. "Hey, Ryu, your sister recruited you to join the band, eh?"
Ryu laughed. "Thanks, I think I'd like to keep my eardrums. I thought music majors weren't supposed to be tone deaf."
Daisuke stuck his tongue out at Ryu. Meanwhile, Manami got a bunch of stuff out of the bag, picked up the box, and stepped out. "Hey, where are you going?"
She said, "I can't change in a room full of men."
Yuka said, "Since when was I male?"
"Well, the rest are men. I'll be right back." She bowed and left.
Ryu said, "How on Earth did you manage to get set up to play here?"
Yuka said, "Manami helped a friend of hers land a record contract, so we'll be opening for them. You know who Priss and the Replicants are, right?"
Ryu nodded. "I met Nene at one of her concerts. We've met."
"Cool. She rocks!"
The door opened and Priss walked in. "You guys ready?"
Yuka, a tall girl with dyed blue hair, put down her guitar and said, "Manami's suiting up."
Priss was dressed in her stage outfit, blonde wig and leather outfit and all. She looked at Ryu. "Yo, Ryu, cruising for babes again?"
Ryu laughed. "Kidnapped at gunpoint is more like it." He looked up and down at Priss. "You know, I think my Mom would probably wear something like that around the house if she ever saw an outfit like that."
Priss laughed. "I have to meet her some day, then. She's got hair like yours too, right?"
Ryu nodded. "Actually, you kinda remind me of her a lot."
The door opened again and someone walked in. She had green spiky hair, and was wearing a tight fitting red jumpsuit that was unzipped part way down her front, showing off some of her cleavage. Her eyes were green in hue as well, though a very dark green. Something seemed a little odd about them. "Well, do I look like your mom, Ryu?" It was Manami.
Ryu nearly fainted. She's not on drugs, is she? He took a look at the hair. "Is that a wig or did you..."
Manami smiled. "You can do amazing stuff with foam and rubber cement and stuff. It's hollow so I could put my hair up in it." She spun around. "Think there's any danger of the folks seeing me now?"
Ryu said, "I'm impressed. I wouldn't have bet a one yen coin that you would wear something like that."
Manami blushed. "Well, it is genre."
Priss laughed. "I wouldn't have guessed either. Good for you, girl. Come on, we have to get set up to run through everything. Ryu, you go play audience. Everyone else, let's get ready to rock."
They did.
Celia and Mackie parked the Silky Doll Van at a pay lot near the arena. "Did we really need to bring the hardsuits, sis? I'd rather be inside than out here playing babysitter."
Celia smiled. "Then you go inside, and I'll watch through the live feed. This is more your thing than mine."
Mackie blinked. Celia was going to go for that? No accounting for taste, he thought. "I guess this will make a good test for those remote cameras."
"I have things I can be doing, anyway. Enjoy the show."
Mackie ran off to the concert. Celia turned on the external cameras, including one linked to the live feed from Mackie's collar pin of a Tokyo Giants Baseball Cap. She then got out her laptop and called up some files. Running the test for the twelfth time, she compared some old video footage of her grandmother and the Queen of Swords. For the twelfth time, they matched up except for the tatoos on the Queen's face.
"It can't be," she whispered for at least the tenth time. "This has to be some kind of trick...but why? The only way anyone could know to do this would be if they suspected I was connected to the Knight Sabres. But what is she? She can't be a boomer. There isn't a boomer in existence with those kinds of capabilites. How can she fly without a jet?" She stopped talking to herself, and sighed. I want it to be her, but I can't trust my feelings. If it was her, surely she would have come to us...
She paused. If it was a trap, why hadn't she come to us? It's not like I'm completely unknown. Anyone wanting to trap the Sabres without knowing I was one of them would not choose her as bait. And if they wanted to find me, I'm not that invisible to society. It can't be aimed at Celia Stingray. Anyone who could find grandmother could certainly find me. I wouldn't have thought anyone in the world even remembered she existed.
An idle thought ran through her mind. Maybe they used her for experiments. No, I paid good money to keep her in a respectable hospital. What kind of experiments could enable her to do the things she's done?
Her thoughts chased each other round and round. She sighed. Finally, she decided to just sit back and watch the concert. She could see Nene's new boyfriend through the feed from Mackie's pin. His hair stood out in a crowd, even in a crowd of punks and crazed teenagers and college students. Looks like the auditorium is packed, she thought. I bet Priss is excited. To her own surprise, she found she was a little excited as well. My friend is hitting the big time.
The concept of friend had almost become alien to Sylia for a while in her life. She had been a quiet, though happy child when she was little, but she hadn't had very many close friends. After her father's death, she had tried to shut off her emotions.
As she had gradually found out, this was impossible. She had laid out rules for the Knight Sabres, rules intended to prevent betrayal, rules intended to keep them dependent on each other and in a sense isolated from the outside world. This had an unexpected effect. They grew to like and trust each other. They grew to be friends. To her surprise, despite her distaste for the style of music that Priss performed, she was pleased to see Priss getting a big break. She was happy to be there, if only at one end of a camera link.
She sat back and listened to the music, wondering briefly if the woman on stage was related to Ryu or if green spiky hair was in this year.
Ryu sat with Nene in the audience and twitched. "Something wrong, dear?" Nene asked. She had finally gotten off work and arrived late at the concert.
Ryu said, "They force me to listen to them practice over and over and over again...I think I'm going to go deaf. Plus, I keep expecting my step-mother to walk in and explode."
Nene laughed. "She's pretty strict, eh?"
"How grandmother ever produced someone as strict as my step-mother, I don't know. Grandma is even more warped than my mom is." He laughed faintly. "I'd almost expect them to be related. Well, my sister's grandmother. She's only my step-grandmother."
"So your dad has been married twice?"
"It's a loooong story. I'll tell you some other time when I can hear myself think."
Up on stage, Priss howled about being someone's angel of death.
Ryu laughed faintly. "I think she'd make a good angel of death."
Nene laughed. "Her bark is worse than her bite unless you make her really angry. She's had a lot harder life than either of us."
Ryu nodded. "My mom's like that."
Nene poked Ryu. "So when do I get to meet your mom?"
Ryu laughed. "I'll see if she can spare time to visit. I think she'll like you." He hugged Nene. "Just imagine a cross between me and Priss."
Nene said, "Thanks, I'll pass."
They both laughed.
They had a massive party at Spaghetti Palace afterwards. Hardly the height of class and taste, but most of the concert participants weren't exactly rolling in dough, yet anyway. They took up about five tables, between Manami's friends, her band, Priss' band, and Priss' friends. Ryu found himself at a table with Priss, Mackie, Celia, Nene, Linna, and Leon.
Celia smiled at him. "So, you're the infamous Hakubi-Masaki Ryu. Nice to meet you."
He laughed. "And you're the mysterious Celia Stingray. Nice to meet you, and yes, the hair is natural. I inherited it from my mother."
Leon said, "Oh, by the way, my new partner is probably going to show up soon, so I hope none of you are wearing anything you mind getting stained."
"Ahh, so we finally get to meet the queen of disasters?" Linna said.
Leon smiled. "It will be a nightmare to remember. I wore special stain-resistant clothing today."
The waitress was still taking orders when a blonde woman ran in, then skidded to a halt, slamming into Leon's chair from behind. The table did its level best to cut him in half, but failed. Leon said without looking, "Hello, Mihoshi."
Ryu looked over and suddenly snarfed his drink, spewing Dr. Pepper through his nose onto the tablecloth. No way, he thought. What was she doing in the ADPolice?
Mihoshi said, "Eep, I slammed you into the table!" She tried to pull him back from the table and the legs snagged in the carpet. He toppled backwards and fell on top of her. As he fell, his knees smacked the table and Ryu's drink fell into his lap. Ryu leapt up yelping. Everyone else on Ryu's side of the table jumped to avoid their drinks. Mihoshi looked over and saw Ryu. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home with..."
Ryu said, "Aunt Mihoshi, I've been attending Tokyo University for the last three years! Don't try and tell me that you haven't been told that 100,000 times!"
Nene blinked. "She's your aunt?"
Leon blinked. "She's your aunt?"
Further down, at the next table, Manami spotted Mihoshi and prayed Mihoshi wouldn't see her. She tried to slump down and hide as best she could.
Mihoshi ran over and hugged Ryu, knocking a canister of Parmesan cheese onto him, sending a huge cloud of cheese into the air. Priss turned to Leon, "Is she always like this?"
Leon sighed. "She's calmer and less destructive than normal."
Mackie said, "..."
Manami snuck out early, somehow managing to avoid Mihoshi, probably during the time when she somehow locked up the jukebox so it only played 'YMCA' over and over fifty times. It soon became clear that fleeing the Spaghetti Palace was the only reasonable option. Soon, they ended up at Linna's apartment, and the intoxication level began to rise.
"And then, I leveled my laser pistol at the horrible three eyed monster!" Mihoshi said, continuing her tale of how she had faced a pack of space pirates and their horrible three eyed beast. Everyone laughed, concluding she was even drunker than they were.
Nene and Ryu simply sat quietly on the couch and made out. Leon listened to the story and wished he was drunk enough to risk trying to make out with Priss. Unbeknownst to him, Priss was half wishing that too. Celia, Mackie, and Linna could hardly stop laughing at Mihoshi's crazy stories. It was better than television.
"So I fired my laser, and nothing happened! Suddenly, I realized I'd used the batteries from the laser for my CD player when its batteries went dead, so I ran for my life!"
Leon laughed. "Good thing ADPolice issue guns don't have batteries, eh?"
Mihoshi said, "They keep laughing at me when I ask them for a nice simple laser pistol without any of that nasty recoil stuff!"
Linna laughed so hard she fell out her chair. "So did the monster eat you?"
"No, it decided Kiyone looked tastier." The tale became even more implausible from there.
Nene and Ryu were the first two to wake up, probably because the sunlight struck them first as they woke up. Ryu woke up first, and left Nene asleep on the couch, while he stretched and looked around. The room looked like someone had released knockout gas during an orgy. Everyone was half-dressed and passed out all over each other. Priss had her head on Leon's chest, and Mihoshi's head was on Leon's legs, her feet on Mackie's chest. Mackie had his head stuck under the couch, and Celia was curled up in a nice plush chair nearby. Linna had apparently somehow made it to bed, though.
He laughed faintly. If only I had a camera. He walked over to Nene and picked her up, then tried to wake her with a kiss. It worked. She moaned. "My head..."
"Time for me to take you home, dear."
She stared at him. "Don't you have a headache or something?"
"I never get hangovers."
"You're evil."
"I know." They both laughed.
They had almost made it out the door when Priss woke up and realized where her head was. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!"
They made haste while the getting was good.
Ryu met Manami for lunch at the campus cafeteria. As usual, she had spread a tablecloth over her table. Ryu wondered briefly how much of her allowance she spent on buying and cleaning those things. "Hi, sis."
"Good afternoon, brother," she said. She was back to her normal, rather formal self. "Was that really Aunt Mihoshi?"
"Yeah. She didn't see you, though."
He could visibly see Manami relax. He smiled. "She's probably still passed out at Linna's apartment. We all got drunk and passed out there after eating at that Spaghetti place."
Manami sighed. "Drinking is bad for you, you know that." She ate her roast beef sandwich as if it was filet mignon.
Ryu munched on his pizza. "Not half as bad as if Aunt Mihoshi ever sees you in that outfit and tells Mom about it."
"What's she doing here anyway? And was that an ADPolice uniform she was wearing?"
"She seems to be working for the ADPolice. Maybe she and Aunt Kiyone had another fight."
"Well, I'm sure she'll come visit, now that she's been reminded that we're here." Manami smiled. "Have you told our parents about your girlfriend yet?"
"Yeah, I mentioned her in my last few letters to Mom. Of course, Mom didn't bother to write back."
"Hmm, Father didn't mention hearing anything about her in his last few letters to us."
"Well, he's probably worrying about what Great-Great-Grandfather will do."
Manami nodded. "Yes, she is rather low class."
Ryu frowned. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know I couldn't care less about that sort of thing." He sighed. Sometimes Manami acts as awful as those snooty nobles back home.
Manami nodded and sighed. "I'm sorry, brother. We both know that you will have to go through fire and hail to successfully pursue this relationship to the end of marriage. If that's what you want."
"It'll be a while before I'm ready to think about that. I don't intend to back down, though." And if Great-Great-Grandfather doesn't like it, he can just chew on his sceptre and howl and gnash his teeth.
"Well, if your mother could manage it..."
Ryu smiled. "And I can be just as persistent as her, if not more so. The difference is that I'm stubborn in an intelligent way."
"Like the time you sat at the table for three days because you didn't want to eat your peas?"
"Let's not discuss that."
Celia sat at her desk quietly, thinking. I can't believe I got drunk like that. Okay, I've been drunk before, but never in front of so many people I hardly know. It just...It felt good to cut loose....to have so many friendly people around. To relax. To make new friends. She sagged slightly and felt like a heavy weight was flowing out of her. We do need to be more careful. Not that anyone would believe anything we said while drunk. Like that crazy partner of Officer McNichol's. I've rarely met anyone with such a hyperactive imagination.
Unless she's really from outer space. She certainly acts like it. Celia began to laugh, a long healthy laugh. Mackie walked in. "You finally snapped, sis?"
Celia said, "Just wishing we had all those crazy stories Mihoshi was telling last night on tape."
Mackie grinned. "We never turned off the feed on my pin..."
Celia smiled and got up. "Time to go check the tapes...we may have a hit on our hands." They both laughed and raced off to the garage to check the tapes in the van. For a moment, they were the people they might have been if their father had never died, their mother never left them. It was a pity the moment could not last.
Manami walked into her advisor's office. Dr. Hiyama's office was a chaotic mess, the walls covered with art, degrees, pictures, and posters. There was a four layer bookcase stuffed full of various monographs, and her desk was a sea of papers fighting for space. The inbox had a large book stuck in it, and ten papers on top of that, with a Dr. Pepper can perching on top of the whole pile. Dr. Hiyama smiled. "Come in, Manami."
"Greetings, Hiyama-sensei." She bowed."I think I've figured out what classes I want to take next semester."
"History of Theatre, Gov 101, Asian History II, History of Monarchy, and Chinese IV, right?" Professor Hiyama smiled. "Feel free to sit down."
Manami sat down and blinked. Professor Hiyama always seems to know what I'm thinking, she thought.
"That's because I'm reading your mind." Professor Hiyama took a sip of her Dr. Pepper.
Manami coughed. "You're what?"
Professor Hiyama laughed. "I'm just yanking your chain, dear. I guess you hadn't realized you were mumbling under your breath about me knowing what you were thinking. Let's discuss those class selections."
Despite the explanation, Manami was jumpy for the rest of the day despite a complete absence of apparent mind reading.
Nene said to Naoko, "And then Priss threw Leon through the door into Linna's bedroom. He landed on her, and she woke up and freaked out. It only got worse from there from what I heard."
Naoko laughed. "So that's why he has that bandage on his head."
Andrea came up. "Either that or he injured himself after he saw what was on TV last night."
"What?"
"He and Mihoshi were the star attractions on The ADPolice Files." The ADPolice Files was one of the most popular shows on Mega-Tokyo TV 5. They hired video vultures to follow ADPolice officers around and surreptitiously tape them messing up. Every officer's nightmare was to appear on that show.
"Oh man!" Naoko said. "I'd bang my head too if I ever showed up on that!"
Andrea turned to Nene. "I have a bit of an odd question for you."
"Maybe I have an odd answer for you."
"Are you any relation to the Romanovs? The old emperors of Russia?"
Nene laughed. "My great-great-many greats-grandmother claimed to be Anastasia Romanov. So maybe I should be ruling Russia right now instead of just being the Queen of the ADPolice Communications Department."
Naoko laughed. "Well, we'd probably have more luck conquering Russia to seat you on your rightful throne than we do here."
Everyone laughed. The sad thing was that it was probably true.
Linna and Andrea bowed to each other. It was time for their weekly sparring sessions. Nene was there as usual, watching and waiting for her lessons afterwards. It had become a weekly ritual, of sorts. Linna and Andrea went at it like wildcats. Linna's combat style was very fluid, designed to flow out of the way of attacks and use an opponent's movements against them, while Andrea's was that of a raging river, battering down everything in its path. Most of her more advanced techniques were very aggressive, punches and kicks, rather than locks, holds, throws, and the like, though she seemed to have some basic training in just about everything.
Andrea's initial assault drove Linna back across the mat and almost off it, but then she rolled to one side and slid under the hail of blows, coming up behind Andrea and kicking her in the back, nearly sending her off the mat herself. Andrea spun around and dropped low, lashing out with a kick at Linna's ankles, but Linna leaped up out of the way, then landed and hooked Andrea's legs as she started to get back up. Andrea went down, but she managed to grab Linna's foot and toss her. Linna rolled and got back on her feet, then dodged and blocked a flurry of punches from Andrea. Managing to get beside Andrea, she shoulder locked her and tossed her off the mat.
Linna smiled faintly. Every time she managed to beat Andrea it was by getting her off the mat, somehow. Andrea didn't seem to feel pain much and hitting her was like pounding on rock. On the other hand, being hit by her felt like being hit with a rock. She had moments when she wondered if Andrea was a boomer, except that she had yet to meet a boomer who laughed, cried, and ate as much as Andrea did. Boomers weren't much for getting drunk, either.
Nene said, "Round 1, Linna wins. Fatality."
They all laughed. "Now let's see if you can kick her butt, Nene." Linna said, going to get herself a glass of grape juice.
Nene laughed. "More like time for my weekly beating."
Andrea smiled. "You are getting better, Nene."
Linna laughed. "That wouldn't be too hard." She sat down.
Nene got into something resembling a fighting stance. The lesson was soon in session. Linna watched as Nene unleashed a frantic barrage of attacks on Andrea, who blocked them all, then worked on correcting Nene's technique. Linna watched, amused. One of Nene's attacks actually got through and Andrea got clipped on the nose. Nene started jumping up and down yelling, "Woo woo!" over and over.
Linna laughed. Nene really is getting better, although I think Andrea let her get away with that. She's been doing better in testing as well. Between Andrea and her new boyfriend, she's really starting to shape up. It's about time too. We've been fighting boomers for two years now and she's just now really starting to take this all seriously.
Finally, Nene and Andrea finished and sat down. Linna got them some grape juice as well. "So when are you gonna come join us at the ADPolice, Linna?" Nene asked, laughing faintly.
Linna laughed. "When are you going to come teach aerobics with me, Nene?"
Andrea laughed. "Seriously, do you plan to teach aerobics and martial arts for the rest of your life or do you have other plans?"
"Well, I've been investing in my spare time, and I've thought about going into being a stock broker. I've been taking correspondence courses and some night courses." She paused. "How much longer will you be with us, Andrea?"
"I'll be in Tokyo for at least a year."
Nene smiled. "Good! Now we just have to set you up with a boyfriend. I'm sure Linna can find you one of her old ones. She's got dozens of them lying around unused."
Linna glared at Nene. "Nene!!!!"
Pretty soon, they all started laughing, then traded old boyfriend disaster stories for the rest of the afternoon.
A woman with long green hair and lavender eyes, dressed in a dark green business suit sat in her hotel room. She got a deck of cards out of her suitcase, carefully removing them from the silk handkerchief wrapped around them. She shuffled the deck nine times, cut it, then shuffled it once more. She began to deal out the cards in a cross formation:
The top card was the Querant's card, signifying the person seeking the future. The Queen of Staffs. The woman smiled faintly. The second card, forming the left bar of the cross, signifying the past, was the Moon. The middle card, signifying the present problem was the Tower. The right card, signfying the future, was the Devil. "So, the time has indeed come," she whispered. She laid out the next card, which fell below the present, the location of allies. It was the Four of Swords. The next card below that was the card of obstacles, the Two of Coins. Finally, the bottommost card, the card of her future goal, judgment Day.
Not much new here, she thought. She looked at the two of coins again. It showed a man bending to pick up two coins from the street, unaware a rock was about to fall on his head. "Unexpected calamity due to greed. The lust for power leading to destruction," she whispered.
The time for waiting was over. It was time for action.
Circa 23,000 BC
Prince Fortitude followed his sister into the huge cavern beneath the palace. A thousand years ago, the founder of the kingdom had carved this cavern, using her vast magical powers, and planted a tree. The Tree of Life, which sustained all living things upon the Moon. It had taken the combined power of the Five Ruling Wizards to create it, and its power was almost beyond human comprehension.
Unfortunately, now it was dying. The prince cried quietly. He could see that the rot had spread. For decades now, the tree had struggled with a disease that no one knew the cause of...or the cure. Five years ago, after the destruction of the Star Kingdom, the disease had begun to win. Only an experienced eye could tell the difference, but it seemed that nothing could stop it. Even the Silver Crystal had been of no avail. While it could purge the tree of disease, the disease always returned. There had to be some deeper cause, but no one knew what it was. One day, the Tree of Life would die, and all life on the moon would die with it.
"Why have we come here, sister? To stare at the face of our destruction will avail us nothing." He sighed.
He could not understand why she smiled at him. "There is something that we had forgotten about trees, you see..." She lead him around the tree to the other side of the cavern, where a huge crystal construct stood that resembled a giant glowing flowerpot made of diamond. In the heart of the construct stood a tiny five foot tall tree, with only a handful of branches, but upon those branches were green leaves, and tiny shafts of light shone down from the branches to the ground beneath them, like the vast shafts of light that shone forth from the leaves of the Tree of Life.
Fortitude stared in shock. "You...you...You made a...You made..."
Serenity laughed. "The days of the Five Ruling Wizards have passed and perhaps may never come again. However, there was something we didn't know about the Tree of Life."
"What?"
"I can hardly believe we never thought of it before, but I was so used to thinking of the Tree of Life as more an artifact than a real living creature..." She paused. "So it took my daughter to think of the possibility that the Tree of Life might actually have seeds."
Fortitude blinked, then laughed. "This would have made settling the outworlds a lot easier if we had realized this a long time ago."
"I did not know it could talk, either. We've taken it for granted for so long..."
"It talks?"
The tree's bark shimmered and a woman stepped out of the Tree of Life. She was tall and thin, dressed in shimmering green robes. Her face was lined with age, but there was no gray in her hair, which was a bright shining green in color. Her skin was dark brown, like the tree's bark. "I do indeed. Thank you for bringing your Prince of the Sword," the Lady of the Tree said.
Fortitude knelt instinctively. "I am honored to meet you. How may I be of service?"
"You must take my daughter and leave this system before it is too late." The Lady of the Tree gazed sadly at both of them. "The end of all things is upon us. I shall die soon, and this world with me. All the kingdoms are doomed. You must take a portion of this world's children and my daughter and flee while you still can."
Prince Fortitude turned to his sister. "But I am your Prince of the Sword. I cannot leave you in your hour of need! If doom approaches, I must stand and fight by your side."
Serenity sighed. "It must be done. You must lead those who I have sent with you. Rule them wisely and well, my brother, and perhaps one day your descendants will be able to return to us. Do not forget us."
"I will go then. And I shall never forget you or our world." He turned to the Lady of the Tree. "How should I address you, and what is your daughter's name?"
"You may call me whatever pleases you. I have had many names and none. But my daughter's name is Tsunami."
Ryu finished mixing the chemicals together. This was so easy he could do it in his sleep. I learned to do this when I was five, he thought, letting his mind drift to thoughts of his girlfriend. Nene-chan is so smart and beautiful, he thought. I just...I wish I knew what my parents will think. Great-Great-Grandfather will explode, I know that. I'm sure Dad will approve...who knows what Mom will think. Great-Grandpa will probably laugh his head off because Great-Great-Grandfather is angry, and Grandpa will probably hit on Nene...I wonder what... His mind drifted a little too much and suddenly the beaker shattered in his grip. He sighed.
His roommate, Shiro, sighed. They were lab partners and roommates, and Shiro knew Ryu did this sort of thing all the time. That's probably why his hair is spiked all the time, Shiro thought. I bet he did something to it by accident and it stuck that way. Ryu is brilliant at theory, but he always spazzes out during lab work. "Focus on the present, not on tonight, Ryu."
Ryu sighed. "I just...you know how much I love to go dancing and..."
"Look, if we don't finish this experiment, we can't write it up and turn it in by 5 so we can go dancing." Shiro said.
Ryu nodded. "Well, there's more where those came from."
Shiro sighed. Good thing Ryu's folks are rich so he can afford to replace everything he breaks. Cause he breaks a lot of stuff.
Manami roared down the road in her GENOM Shogun 345. It was a red sportscar capable of massively exceeding the speed limit. The latest Bob and His Chainsaw tape was blaring at about 30 decibels over the safe level. The windows were down, so the whole world got to share. This included her roommate, Shinobu, who was screaming at the top of her lungs. Not that anyone could hear her over Bob and His Chainsaw.
"You don't have to drive 200 KPH on the way to Colonel Chicken! The food is not going anywhere!" It was futile to even try to stop Manami, Shinobu knew. Normally, Manami was shy and demure, but behind the wheel of a car, she drove like a woman possessed. Not to mention this awful retro-trash, uh retro-thrash she listens to. She also had this odd habit of shouting hello to the two pillars that her family had donated to form the new gates of Tokyo University, every time she drove past them. And a few other weird habits, Shinobu thought. Maybe she's insane.
Manami ignored her and sang along with the song. She had a beautiful voice, even singing something ugly like this. Shinobu sighed. I should have realized that rooming with someone with blue hair would be a mistake.
They roared past a police car. Its siren came on. Shinobu sighed. Now we'll never get to Colonel Chicken. I should never have moved to Mega-Tokyo, she thought.
Ryu and Shiro ran home once the lab was completed. Their home was Shinohara Dormitory, named after some arms manufacturer who had donated money to renovate the dorm after the Kanto Quake, nine years ago. It was an upperclassmen coed dorm, with men and women on alternating floors.
As they got out of the elevator, they could hear partying noises. Loud music was blaring from somewhere near...no, in their suite. Ryu sighed. "I guess Taka passed that test he had been studying for and decided to party," Shiro said.
Ryu sighed. "Well, he can party all he wants. We're going to be gone."
They walked into the room, and in the living room of their suite, they were rather suprised to see Taka, Terri, Andy, Shiko, and some girl Shiro didn't know were busily drinking and dancing wildly around. Taka and Andy were Shiro's suitemates. They lived in the other bedroom of the suite. Taka and Andy were both tall, thin, and black haired, with identical gold-rimmed glasses. They liked to pretend they were twins, but they didn't really look much like each other. Shiko was Andy's girlfriend, a complete airhead of a blonde, complete with flower in her hair. She was majoring in sociology of all things, though how she passed her classes was beyond Shiro. Terri was short and thin, with a very pretty face, blue eyes, and long red hair. She had dated Ryu for a while, then they had broken up, but now she was after Andy, despite him already having a girlfriend. The other girl...there was something familiar about her, Shiro thought. She was well built and wearing somewhat revealing clothing. Despite the sake jug she was chugging from, he could see she had an elfin face, with green eyes. She was trying to drink and dance with Taka at the same time.
He looked over at Ryu and whispered, "Hey, is that Taka's girlfriend I keep hearing about?"
Ryu paled. His face turned several interesting colors, ans his lips moved wordlessly.
Shiro sidled over to Ryu. "She an ex-girlfriend of yours or..." Suddenly, Shiro realized the girl had spiked green hair, exactly the same as Ryu's. "Your sister?"
Ryu shouted, "Mom! What the hell are you doing?"
The room froze like someone had dropped anvils on everyone.
Shiro looked at the girl. She looked to be maybe 3 to 5 years older than Ryu at most, if not less. "That...you..."
The girl laughed. "My son!" She leaped over to Ryu and hugged him.
Taka froze in place. "You're...Ryu's...mother?"
Ryu sighed and hugged his mom. "Hi, Mom. Has something gone wrong back home?" Mom hadn't come to visit him once since he went to college. Not that he blamed her. She had a lot of work to do, and it was a long way to come to just see him. Especially since he came home for the holidays, anyway.
She laughed. "What, a mother can't come to visit her son for fun?"
Ryu smiled. "If this was fun, you'd have Dad with you too. So what's up?"
"Let's party a while, then we can..."
Terri said, "She's your Mom? She told us that..."
Ryu's Mom was across the room in a flash, putting her hand over Terri's mouth. "Now, now, I'm sure Ryu doesn't want to hear about..."
Ryu went over to Terri. "Mom, this is my friend, Terri Jones. Terri, this is my mom."
Ryu's mom took her hand off Terri's mouth. "Oh, you're that Terri! Nice to meet you." She paused. "Oh wait, are you the girl who dumped him for another girl?"
Terri giggled, "Actually, I'm the girl he was dumped for." She wasn't, but the alcohol was starting to talk for her.
"Mom!!!!!!" Ryu shouted. Maybe her not visiting wasn't such a bad thing after all...
Manami and Shinobu sat in Colonel Chicken. Shinobu sighed and pushed her brown bangs out of her eyes. I really need a haircut, she thought. Manami ate delicately, as if at a formal dinner. She had even spread out a tablecloth for the table. All traces of the maniac who had somehow outrun the police a few minutes ago were gone.
Shinobu ate and watched Manami, trying to figure out how she could be so weird. Her hair was long, tied back in a pony-tail that nearly ran down to her feet, and she had purple eyes. She was dressed in a purple blouse and a long black skirt. Manami always wore nice, expensive clothing. Her manners were impeccable. She could make eating a chicken leg look like she was giving a lecture on etiquette.
"So how are your classes going, Shinobu-san?" Manami smiled. "I think I got an A on my Calculus test. Mother will be pleased."
Shinobu said, "Pretty well." She paused. "Are you an only child?"
Manami laughed faintly. "I have a half-brother. We have the same father, but different mothers."
"Oh. So what do your folks do for a living?" Shinobu asked. I hardly know anything about her folks, she thought.
Manami blushed. "It...It's a state secret."
"Oh wow, your dad is like a James Bond type?"
Manami laughed a little. "Mom too, sort of."
There was an explosion outside. Shinobu blinked and dropped her chicken leg in her lap. They both looked out the window. A boomer was headed straight for Colonel Chicken, guns a-blazing. The staff and customers panicked, running everywhere.
"We've got to get out of here!" Shinobu yelled.
Manami frowned, her lips pursed tightly. "Insolent robots. Something needs to be done about them."
"Not by us!" Shinobu grabbed Manami and dragged her away from the table. Manami delicately dropped her biscuit back in the box and began cleaning her hands as Shinobu tried to drag her towards the bathrooms.
It was too late. The boomer crashed through the doors and fired a missile into the kitchen. Shinobu closed her eyes and said a prayer for her soul. The explosion rocked the restaurant. There were more explosions outside. When she opened her eyes, the kitchen was on fire. Dead and unconscious customers were strewn everywhere. Somehow, she and Manami had emerged unhurt. Unfortunately, the boomer now turned its attention to them. Its red eyes glowed in the dark of the devastated store.
Manami frowned. Shinobu cried. I'm too young to die, she thought.
The boomer leveled its gun at them slowly. Shinobu wondered if it was just playing around with them, or what.
The gun blazed to life...and nothing happened, with an audible click. Shinobu gave a great sigh of relief. "It...It's out of ammo."
The boomer opened its mouth wide and the particle beam cannon in its mouth began to glow. Shinobu screamed at the top of her lungs. Then a beam of purple light shot from the doorway and blew off the boomer's head. Shinobu blinked as the charred corpse collapsed.
Shinobu turned and looked at the doorway. A woman, completely unarmed, with long blue-black hair that went down to her feet in the back, tied into two long pony-tails stood in the door. Her eyes were large and purple, and she looked to be around 25 or so. She was wearing a nice blue and green flowered kimono. There appeared to be no way whatsover she could have fired off an energy beam, unless she had a hard suit hidden under her clothing.
Manami said, "Mother!" She walked over to her mother and hugged her.
Shinobu said, "..."
Manami's mother hugged her back. "It is good to see you, daughter."
Shinobu looked around. Something vaporized that boomer's head. Whatever it was, it wasn't here anymore. Maybe a Knight Saber had wandered by. "Ma'am...did you see what killed that Boomer?"
Manami's mother blinked. "Oh, I k..." She paused. "I saw someone in armor running away as I arrived." Her voice sounded a little odd. Shinobu quickly realized it was an accent she couldn't quite place. It sounded ever so slightly archaic.
Shinobu smiled. "Wow, it must have been one of the Knight Sabres."
Manami was laughing faintly. "Something like that. What brings you here, mother?" She paused. "And how did you find us?"
"A friend at your dorm said you had come here. We'd better go get your half-brother before his dorm gets leveled."
"Why would his dorm get leveled?" Shinobu asked.
"I'm not the only one who came to visit you two," Manami's mother replied.
Somehow, things had further degenerated at Ryu's room, and everyone but him was really thoroughly drunk. His mom was regaling them with a tale. "And then I fired the main lasers and boom! Dari's entire fortress blew to bits! We took all the silk and dyrilliam back to Episilon Gamma V and sold it for big bucks!"
Everyone laughed. "Your mom has a really active imagination," Terri said to Ryu. "She's cool." She paused. "So she's not really your ex-wife?"
Ryu slapped his forehead. "Mom!"
Mom laughed. "Naah, my real husband has cute brown hair and he's sooooooooo good in bed and he..."
Ryu almost screamed. "Mom!!!!!!"
"And he's going to be the emperor one day!"
Everyone laughed. Ryu wished he knew some way to just drop dead. At least Mom wasn't hitting on his roommate anymore. "So why exactly are you here, Mom?"
"We're gonna extract a hoooorible revenge on some people! Blow up their house and kill their dog and pillage their fields and..."
Taka and Shiro, both now drunk, laughed. "You with the Yakuza?"
Mom laughed. "Sure! Why not!" She got up and bared her left arm. "I'll get a big tatoo of Sonic the hedgehog!"
Everyone laughed.
There was a knock at the door. Ryu winced. Too many people have met Mom already. He opened the door. "Hello?"
His half-sister, Manami was there, and her mom too. "Aeka-sama!" Ryu said, hugging his step-mother.
Terri blinked. "Hey! Aren't you dating someone else?!"
Ryu blushed. "Everyone, this is my step-mother, Masaki Aeka, and my half-sister Manami. Manami, Aeka-sama, this is..."
"Zat you, Aeka-chan?" Ryu's mom shouted. "C'mere! I saved some sake for ya!"
Aeka frowned. "She's drunk."
Ryu sighed. "She was drunk before I got home."
Aeka stormed over. "Ryoko! We have very important business to take care of!"
Ryoko stood up. "Ohh, is that a come-on?"
Aeka turned beet red. "Ryoko!!!!!!!"
Tenchi and Youshou stood before Emperor Azusa of Jurai. Like him, they were dressed in the finery appropriate to the high and noble traditions of the house of Jurai. "Your request is denied," the emperor said. "I need you here, not gallivanting around that backwater planet again."
"I must go. She is my daughter," Youshou said.
"I'm sure those we have already sent will be adequate to do the job." The emperor frowned. He suddenly had a bad feeling. Perhaps it was realizing that his granddaughter's survival was possibly in the hands of Mihoshi...
"You really think so?"
Tenchi remained silent. The emperor frowned. Why wasn't he speaking? The feeling of unease grew. They've tricked me again, he thought. "I still can't let you go."
"I knew you'd say that, father. That's why we're transmitting this from somewhere far outside the Juraiian system. I hope you like these robots Wasyuu built for us."
Misaki laughed. Azusa frowned. "Youshou..."
Tenchi-bot smiled. "We'll see you when we bring back my aunt."
Azusa sighed. I think I should have beat my children more thoroughly when they were little. He turned to Funaho. "So, were both of you in on this?"
Funaho smiled. "Do you think he would have gotten out of the system without you knowing without our help?"
Azusa sighed and wondered once again if anyone ever told him anything.
Ryu and Manami finally managed to clear everyone out of Ryu's room, then locked the door. Aeka sat at Ryu's desk, while Ryoko sprawled on the bed. "C'mere with me, Aeka-chan! Come join me in bed!" She laughed like a maniac.
Aeka turned an even deeper shade of red. "Ryoko, you're being quite improper."
Ryu sighed. "I wish Dad would convince Mom to stop drinking."
"Well, considering what you did the other night," Manami began.
"Or what you did the other day? Shall we trade interesting stories, sister? Like that concert, eh?"
Manami blushed and fell silent.
Aeka smiled. "Oh, you went to a concert together?"
Ryu nodded and glared at Manami.
Manami said, "Yes, the Tokyo Chamber Orchestra performed a little while ago. We went to that together." It was true; they had. Nene, Manami, Shinobu, and Ryu had gone about two weeks ago to the chamber orchestra concert when they played on campus.
"So, did you just decide to drop in and surprise us?" Ryu asked, praying this was just a surprise visit and not the start of major trouble.
"We have to find your aunt Meylia and teach those who have been hunting her not to take up arms against the house of Jurai."
Ryu blinked. "What aunt Meylia?"
Aeka thought a moment. "Well, technically she'd be your great-aunt and my niece. I think. Hmm...if you look at it one way, she's actually your cousin..."
Ryu's head began to hurt. Trying to understand blood relations in his family always made his head want to explode. "Why haven't we heard of her before?"
"Youshou-sama thought she was dead. Then we got a message from Funaho. The tree, not my mother. She was alive and had awakened to her heritage. The GENOM corporation wants her dead, and we intend to find out why and put an end to it. No petty company will be allowed to threaten a member of the house of Jurai. We have to find her grandchildren as well, so they can learn who they truly are."
Ryoko sat up. "We're gonna kick some ass and take some names!"
Manami said, "So that's why Aunt Mihoshi is here."
Aeka nodded. "We sent her to infiltrate the ADPolice."
"What about Aunt Kiyone? Where is she?"
Ryoko laughed. "She's doing some real work while Mihoshi makes a big mess and distracts our enemies, whoever they are. Although Mom's doing the really dangerous job..."
"What's she doing?"
Dr. Martin lead the new Research Engineer through the halls of the GENOM Research Tower. He stopped at a door labelled 'Boomer Morgue'. "You'll be starting out here. Your job is to pick through all these dead boomers and see what we can learn from them to improve future designs, as well as salvaging whatever you can salvage."
"Am I the only person who does this?"
"For now. The last set of technicians were fired when they went on strike and the old supervisor just got moved up. You can get help if you need it, but for now, you'll be working on this. If we like your work, you should be moved up to main research in a few weeks or months."
The woman nodded. "Good. I prefer not to be disturbed."
Dr. Martin soon familiarized the new tech with the equipment available, then left, letting her go to work.
The woman began reading labels and checking case histories. Soon, she came to a drawer labeled, "33-S #4056. Deceased, 4/26/2033". She consulted this one's case history, then smiled sadly. Yes, this would make a good start. Such a tragic story. Poor child...
Quincy continued paging through his electronic mail. Much of it was trivial, and he wished again that there was some way to weed out the garbage without his having to read it. Then came something not so trivial:
Date: Oct 1 2034 20:25:31 -0600 (JST)
From: Z
To: Quincy
Subject: Them.
I've finally tracked down the one who slew Y back in the '80s.
However, that's not all the news I have. More importantly, the Jurai
have come to Earth. The one we found must have contacted them somehow.
Expect trouble. We must meet. I have contacted Shiva, but have yet to
recieve a useful reply. Perhaps we will succeed now where our
predecessors failed.
Quincy nodded. He knew it would come to this. He had hoped they would come. That was why he had not yet made a truly serious effort to reel her in. He paused for a moment, then began to type his reply.
Lt. Yamano walked over to Nene and tapped her on the shoulder. Nene started, leaped up, saluted, and stood at attention. "Yes, Ma'am?"
"That's yes sir, Officer Romanova."
"Uh, yes Sir."
"Telephone call for you. Make it quick."
Nene nodded and ran to the phone. "Hello?"
It was Ryu. "Hi, Nene-chan. Change of plans. My parents are in town and want to meet you. Hopefully, Mom will sober up before you get here."
Nene blinked. "They came by surprise?"
Ryu nodded, not that Nene could see him nodding. "Hai. Come on over when we planned, and we'll all go out to dinner instead."
Nene nodded. "Okay!" She walked back to her desk and sat down with a happy smile.
"Good news, Romanova?" Lt. Yamano asked.
"My boyfriend's parents are in town! I finally get to meet them!"
"Ahh, talking to your boyfriend while you're on the clock?"
Nene sighed. "Where am I jogging to this time, Lt.?"
Yamano laughed. "Here, take this to Accounting. If they don't get this by 5 PM, none of us will get paid on time."
Nene took off like a rocket. She raced through the computer department and slid down the railing of the stairs to save time, then vaulted over the side and leaped halfway down the next flight of stairs. To her own surprise, she actually landed without falling down. She sprinted down the hallway, past the shooting range, and into the next staircase, which she started taking three steps at a time. Flying out the doors at the bottom of the stairs, she sprinted into the accounting department, only to realize she had no idea where in accounting to take the papers. A nearby secretary looked up. "Those the vouchers from Communications?"
Nene nodded. "Hai!"
"Take them to recieving on the next floor down."
Nene screamed and sprinted out the doors, down the hallway to the stairs. A tac squad was coming up the stairs as she entered the stairwell. She barrelled right through the middle of them, sending startled troopers crashing into the walls as the manic redhead zoomed down and out onto the next floor down. Looking around, she spotted the sign 'Accounting: Reciepts Recieving'. She ran in the door and dumped the papers on the front secretary's desk. "Did I make it?"
The secretary smiled and hit a stopwatch. "Not bad. You beat the time of the girl last week by twenty seconds. Yes, you made it."
Nene gave a big sigh of relief. "Whew, I'll get paid."
The secretary blinked. "Actually, this signifies you all got paid last week..."
Nene quietly facefaulted.
Tenchi and Youshou sat in a nice quiet city park, one of the few left in Mega-Tokyo. By some miracle, it had survived the Kanto quake unscarred, except for the collapse of a swing set. The replacement for that swingset was now being occupied by two young girls, around age eight, by Youshou, and by a five year old boy. Having been co-opted by the children, Tenchi was busily pushing one of the young girls back and forth. She laughed as she swung. "So who are we waiting for, Grandpa?" Tenchi asked.
"Some very distant relatives of yours, Tenchi. Well, one of them is. He's descended from a woman I married back in the eighteenth century. I've remained close to their line for many years." Youshou swung back and forth slowly. His stomach rumbled loudly. "They should be here by now."
"I'm getting hungry too, but we shouldn't eat this close to dinner time." Tenchi smiled at the little girl as she laughed and started shouting something about flying.
"You sound like your mother...or my mother for that matter. We won't eat for a few hours, because it will probably take Ryoko that long to sober up enough that she won't be shouting in public about you being the next emperor or something." Youshou leaped out of the swing. "Let's go get some ramen while we wait." He laughed faintly. "That's one area where this planet is more advanced than Jurai...I can't get good ramen to save my life back there."
Tenchi laughed and said goodbye to the small children, then followed his grandfather. "Well, when you're emperor, you can change that."
Youshou laughed. "Maybe we'll open Disneyworld-Jurai while we're at it."
They both had a good laugh.
Nene knocked on Ryu's door. The door opened a crack. "Who is it?" Ryu asked.
"It's me, Nene." Nene had dressed up in a nice long green dress. It was somewhat formal, but she hoped it would make a good impression on Ryu's parents.
The door opened and Ryu pulled Nene inside, then slammed the door shut. Nene blinked. She could hear sounds of violence from Ryu's room. He sighed. "Come on...Mom and my step-mom are at it again."
Nene followed Ryu across the 'lounge' part of his suite to his bedroom. Inside, two women were beating each other with pillows while Manami tried to pull them apart. She wasn't having much luck.
"I am not drunk and I will not lay down and take a nap before Ryu's girlfriend gets here!" the tall woman with green spiky hair said. Nene blinked. That must be Ryu's mom...she really does have spiky hair.
The other woman sighed. "Have you no sense of dignity?" She looked a lot like Manami and Nene guessed that was her mother.
Ryu cleared his throat. "Umm..."
"You should know the answer to that by now, Mother," Manami said.
"Tenchi will not be happy if your first impression on whoever we're waiting for is that of a drunken lout!" The other woman said, waggling her finger at Ryoko and aiming low for Ryouko's legs with the pillow in her hand.
"Ummm...Mom, Aeka-sama..." Ryu tried again.
"Don't lecture me, Princess." Ryu's mom stuck out her tongue and bopped Aeka on the head.
"Excuse me! Nene is here!!!!!!" Ryu shouted. Nene stuck her fingers in her ears and staggered back a step.
Everyone turned. Manami and Aeka blushed in unison. Ryu's mom leaped over to Nene. "So you're my boy's girlfriend!" She hugged Nene so tightly that Nene could hardly breathe.
Aeka turned to Nene, tried to say something, then apparently changed her mind and said nothing. A few moments later, she bowed. "I am ..." She paused. "Aeka Masaki, Ryu's step-mother. Nice to meet you."
"Nice...to...meet...you..." Nene choked out. "I'm Nene Romanova."
Ryoko said, "And I'm Ryoko Hakubi-Masaki." She finally let go of Nene and looked her up and down. "Hmm. Nice clothing. Good hair color. Nice figure. Cute face. Survived that hug." She turned to Ryu. "You have my permission to get married any time you like."
Nene and Ryu both blushed. "We hadn't...umm..even thought about that yet."
Aeka said, "Tenchi-sama is looking forward to meeting you. Come, Nene, we can talk in the car." She turned to Manami. "You do have room for five, don't you?"
Ryoko laughed. "I can always carry a few if you don't."
Aeka closed her eyes for a moment, apparently trying to stay calm. "That shouldn't be necessary."
Manami said, "Well, it might get a little crowded with three in the back."
Ryoko laughed loudly. "It'll just be some good family togetherness! I'm sure Nene won't mind sitting in Ryu's lap."
Nene and Ryu both blushed.
Soon, but probably not as soon as Aeka might have wished, they made their way to the Platinum Falcon restaurant, high atop the Shinohara Towers Office Building, a very expensive place. Tenchi and Youshou met them there. They didn't have any trouble getting a table, though the waiter kept giving Ryoko and Ryu's hair some funny looks.
They managed to place their orders without any disasters, but then the hardest part of any restaurant trip began: waiting for the food to arrive. Tenchi said to Nene, "I understand you're a policewoman?"
Nene nodded. "I work for the ADPolice in their communications department. It's hard work, but I really like being part of it."
Ryoko said, "A cop eh? Hmmmm...."
Ryu smiled. "Don't worry, you're safe from her, Mom."
Everyone except Nene laughed. Nene was simply confused.
Nene said, "So what do all of you do for a living?"
Tenchi froze up and looked over at Ryoko and Aeka nervously.
Ryoko winked. "We're Yakuza. Don't tell anyone."
Aeka and Tenchi facefaulted. Ryu laughed. Manami blushed. "We are not Yakuza."
Youshou said, "I'm afraid we can't tell you too much about what we all do for a living. National security, you see."
"Wow, you're all spies and stuff?" Nene felt a little excited, like she was in a spy thriller. She'd always thought Ryu was joking.
Ryoko laughed and winked. "I'm a notorious pirate."
Tenchi said, "I hope it doesn't bother you that we can't talk about our past too much, yet. We'll tell you everything we can, but..."
Nene said, "Well, maybe you can answer this one question..."
"Yes?"
Nene said, "Which one of them are you married to right now and which one did you marry first?" She pointed to Aeka and Ryoko.
Tenchi bigsweated. "Uhhh...."
Ryoko leaped over and hugged Tenchi. "He's all mine!"
Aeka frowned faintly. "Not all yours."
Manami blushed and tried to act like she wasn't really there. Youshou laughed heartily. "Both of them. That's answering both of your questions, by the way."
Tenchi blushed now. This was going to be far too much fun to try to explain.
Celia was about to finish closing up the Silky Doll, when a customer started banging on the door. She sighed and walked over to the door. "Can I help you?"
It was that klutzy blond from a while ago. "You have to help me!"
Celia sighed. "With what?"
The woman began waving a box of stockings up and down. "Something's gone horribly wrong and I can't get them to work right!"
Celia opened the door the rest of the way. "Come in." The woman came in. "Your name is Mihoshi, right?"
Mihoshi nodded. "Officer Mihoshi of the ADPolice! At your service!" She saluted.
It figures, Celia thought.
Unseen by either of them, a man quietly walked up the hallway to the front doors and raised a pistol. Ahh, I can take out the bimbo who knocked that display case on me last time, too.
Mihoshi pulled a tangled mess of torn pantyhose out of the box. "It's all got holes in it and it's a big mess and I ..."
"Was it like this when you got it out of the box?" Celia asked.
Mihoshi continued to wave the box around. "Well, no, but after I washed them, they all tore! And they got kinda charred too."
Celia noticed this now. "They look almost like they were on fire."
"Well, my dryer broke so I had to use the oven."
Celia pondered briefly why the ADPolice didn't test for intelligence. "Well, I can't give you a free replacement since you damaged these yourselves, but..." She suddenly spotted the man with the gun, right as Mihoshi snagged her arm on a mobile display and sent it flying across the shop. She fell down, crashing into Celia. The man's first shot ricocheted off the flying display case and the second went through the now empty space where her chest had been before she fell down.
Mihoshi shouted, "Eep! Boomer attack! Freeze, ADPolice!" She sat up, whipping out her gun, which promptly flew out of her hands. For a moment, all three observers froze in place, watching the gun tumble across the room. The man tried to dodge too late and the gun struck him square in the forehead. His last thoughts were, I really hate blondes. Then he hit the concrete and had pleasant dreams for a while.
Dinner had arrived, and Nene was telling everyone interesting stories about her place of work. "And then these boomers attacked our headquarters! It was a nightmare. They took control of the computer system. To make matters worse, the chief's niece, the one I was telling you about earlier, was in the building! So, of course, I knew I had to make sure she got out alive."
Ryoko laughed. "Be glad Mihoshi wasn't working there yet or none of you would have gotten out alive."
"That's not a very nice thing to say, Ryoko," Aeka said.
Ryu laughed. "Well, they would have gotten out alive, but they wouldn't have enjoyed it very much. Aunt Mihoshi never gets you killed, but it sure feels like it sometimes."
Nene laughed. She was really enjoying this dinner. She wished they could tell her more about themselves, but the stories they had told her were very entertaining, and it was clear to her that there was a lot of affection in this family, despite the bickering between some of them. If Ryu thinks he can have two wives like his dad though, I'll kill him, she thought. "Yeah, that's what Leon says about her. Daley's supposed to be back pretty soon, though. I wonder who they'll put her with next."
Ryoko looked assessingly at Nene. "So you all blow away rampaging robots for a living, eh? I guess you must be a pretty good fighter."
Nene laughed nervously. "I'm getting better. I've been working out with Ryu and ..."
Ryoko winked. "Besides the horizontal work-out?"
Ryu said, "Mom!!!!!!"
Tenchi buried his face in his hands. Aeka and Manami turned a crimson shade. Nene blushed. "We work out at the gym, too. Uh, I mean..."
Now Ryu blushed. Aeka frowned at Ryu faintly. He sighed. "Mom, what would you do if we started asking you questions like that?"
"Answer them in detail of course!"
The next sound was Tenchi banging his head on the table.
Priss roared down the street, driving nowhere in particular. She didn't have anything better to do, so she was just roaring along, looking to find some cops to outrace when they tried to give her a speeding ticket. It wasn't satisfying her. Maybe I should go dancing, she thought. That didn't appeal either. She couldn't figure out why.
As she roared along the road, she suddenly realized she was driving past GENOM tower. Her recent nightmare flickered into her mind briefly. Damn tower, she thought. I hate you and everything you stand for. She gave GENOM the bird. That didn't satisfy either. She started to get pissed off at how she wasn't enjoying anything she did, but she couldn't get into that either.
This sucks, she thought. Why am I so bored tonight? Because you're alone, replied a voice in her head. I like being alone, she replied to herself. You'd rather be with him, the voice replied. I would not! she thought to herself. Shut up! Well, he did get off work at eight. You could go see him right now, the voice suggested. I don't need to see him, she thought at herself, turning her bike towards his apartment without even thinking about it.
Priss had a sudden feeling she was being watched. She looked around and spotted a woman in a business suit standing at the nearby intersection, waiting for the light to change. Something familiar about that woman, she thought as she drove off, leaving the woman far behind her.
The woman smiled faintly, crossing when the light turned green. Next stop, Tokyo University, she thought.
"So, I thought to myself, hey, I can drag Tenchi off for a little one on one, ya know?" Ryoko said. "Of course, looking back I can see I should have tossed a sheet over Azaka and Kamidake or something so they wouldn't see me and tell her, but when you're young, you don't think of these things."
Nene laughed. "Azaka and Kamidake are who?"
Aeka had her face buried in her hands on the table, simply spluttering every once in a while. Manami was patting her on the back, over and over again.
Youshou looked ready to just die laughing, while Tenchi quietly said, "Her bodyguards, sort of."
"Oh wow! Your own personal bodyguards! Your family must be rich, Aeka-san."
Aeka actually looked up and smiled faintly. "You could say that, Nene-chan. My family is very rich."
"My family is fairly well off, but we're not that rich. Now back in Russia, that was another story."
Youshou said, "Ahh, you are of the Imperial Romanov line?" He didn't sound surprised at all.
"Yeah! If they hadn't had that revolution, I'd be a princess right now and heir to the throne."
Aeka reached across the table and squeezed Nene's hand. "You have my condolences on the loss of your inheritance, Nene-hime."
Ryoko grinned. "I told you my son would find a good wife, Aeka, but noooo, you wouldn't believe me!"
Ryu simply smiled and hugged Nene-chan. He got an impish grin on his face. "You see, Aeka-san is related to the Emperor."
"Oh wow!" Nene was impressed. No wonder they can't talk about some stuff.
Tenchi laughed. "Let's not go tossing our bloodlines around, okay? Ryoko-chan might start feeling inferior. All she got from hers was spiky hair." He winked at Ryoko who laughed.
"And a few magic tricks." She began juggling small globes of energy.
Nene stared in awe. "Wow! How do you do that?"
Ryoko laughed. "Mom. I got all my tricks from Mom."
"Is she a professional stage magician?"
"She's a professional annoyance," Ryoko said, dismissing the energy balls.
Tenchi said nothing because he was too busy praying Ryoko wouldn't try and show off by summoning a monster or something else foolish. By not much of a coincidence, Ryu, Manami, and Aeka were also praying the exact same thing.
"Do you think she could teach me that trick? Or could you?" Nene had no clue how Ryoko was making the little globes of light appear, and she was starting to get curious.
Everyone began to laugh. "Mom's always looking for new guinea pigs," Ryoko said. "I'm sure she'd be far too happy to teach you this trick..."
Nene said, "I guess your Grandmother didn't come?"
"Oh, she's around town somewhere. Her new job keeps her busy, she says. She also keeps making this really obscure hints..." Ryoko said.
"Obscure hints?" Manami asked.
"Like she's pregnant or something...She keeps talking about me having sisters soon or something. Who knows. With Mom, sometimes you just don't want to know." Ryoko said.
"Wow. How old is she?" Nene asked. "If I may ask."
Tenchi started to speak, but Ryoko interrupted him. "20,000 years."
Nene laughed. "In other words, don't ask?"
"That's about right," Tenchi said.
Professor Hiyama was in her office, working late. Well, at the moment she was talking to her husband long-distance on the phone. "Yes, dear. I'll stop working and go home and eat before I die, dear. Try not to flirt with too many women at the conference."
She listened to his reply, then said, "I love you too." She hung up the phone and began piling papers and books into her briefcase. She felt the faintest of chimes ringing in her head. Trouble. She opened her office door and looked around the hallway. Everyone else had gone home, but she heard footsteps. "Is someone there?"
A woman walked around the corner into sight. She was tall with long dark greenish-black hair. Her eyes were lavender and she wore a dark green suit. Dr. Hiyama recognized her on sight. She frowned and stepped out into the hallway. "What are you doing here?"
The woman smiled as she always did. "Just making a social call."
Dr. Hiyama frowned. "You don't do social calls."
"You're right. The two of coins." She turned to leave.
Dr. Hiyama blinked. "What does the Tarot have to do with this? Why don't you just come out and say what you want so I can tell you to go play with your staff?"
The woman laughed faintly. "Feeling hostile today?"
"You have that effect on me. I've had enough of your manipulation and tricks. I couldn't care less about whatever you're trying to achieve. I'm a lot less gullible than I was when I first met you and I won't let you use me again." You disgust me, she thought. Especially when I catch myself acting like you.
"You have no right to judge me." The woman frowned, her amusement gone.
"I have every right."
"You have not seen what I have seen. You have not..."
"I have not sent people to their deaths when I could have prevented it! I have not lied and cheated and stolen in the name of some vision. I have done my best to help people with my abilities. Sometimes I may have had to hide that it was me who took action to prevent ending up in a damn laboratory or worse, but I never did anything to hurt anyone. I'm not a child you can intimidate and lecture any more. Now go away."
The woman watched the professor quietly without speaking. "Perhaps you have grown up after all." She turned and left. And I have gotten what I wanted.
Professor Hiyama fumed, but she would never find out what the woman had wanted this time. She went back to her office and ended up leaving about five minutes later than she had planned. As a result, she didn't see her old college roommate picking someone up in the parking lot, for her visitor did not intend the two to be reunited...yet.
Also unseen by Professor Hiyama, the woman now headed far across the city, on her way to accomplish her next objective.
Mihoshi paced about with Celia's cellular phone while Celia and Mackie watched the handcuffed would-be killer. "No, you need to send someone to get him because I don't have a car!"
Mackie turned to Celia. "This looks just like that guy who got clonked in the head by that display case the last time she was here."
Celia said, "No wallet. I don't recognize him either, except from that incident. Maybe he was gunning for her."
Mackie nodded. "Either that or this was one heck of a coincidence."
Mihoshi said, "I'm at the Silky Doll." She paused. "No, this is not a whorehouse!"
Celia overheard and blushed faintly.
Mackie laughed. "I wish."
Celia clonked him with a handy box of stockings.
The man moaned and began to wake up. He saw Celia looking down at him and felt the handcuffs. "Shit."
She smiled coldly. "So which of us were you trying to kill?"
"I don't have to say nothing."
Celia nodded. "Get the vise grips, Mackie."
"Hey, I got rights!"
Mihoshi shouted into the phone, "No, this is not a prank call! Come on, I need some help here!"
Mackie laughed. "Do we look like cops to you?"
The man paled. "Well, she's a cop!"
Celia smiled. "She's ADPolice. Their standard procedure is to blow the head off of criminals and ask questions later."
The man paled. "But I'm not a boomer!"
"Well, the only real way to be sure is to oh...throw you off a building and see if you survive." Mackie offered helpfully.
Mihoshi glanced over. "Did someone say this guy was a boomer?"
The man began to sweat heavily.
Andrea sighed. Late night duty on communications. Gotta love it. She walked over to Naoko, who said into her mike, "If you're a cop, why are you calling from a cellular phone?"
Andrea winced as the reply erupted out of Naoko's headphones. "Waaah!!!! Stop picking on me just because I'm off duty and my stockings had holes and I had to go to the store and someone tried to shoot me and..."
Andrea sighed. "She's a cop."
"How can you tell?"
"Trust me. She's Leon's temporary partner."
Naoko blinked. "Oh...She did sound kind of familiar."
Andrea sat down and sighed. This is gonna be one of those nights, she thought.
Mihoshi sat down by the prisoner. "Are you sure you're not a boomer?"
The man began to cry. "I'm not a boomer! I'm not!" He had been through interrogations before, but this was the worst one of his life. He'd say anything just to get the blonde woman to go away, he decided.
The Tokyo police who had had the delusion that they would be conducting the investigation were very surprised when the man began to tell them everything he knew.
Mackie said to Celia, "She still hasn't answered her pager."
Celia swore softly. "What about Priss and Linna?"
"Linna's on the way. Priss hasn't called us yet either."
Celia continued to read through various police records Nene had hacked into and downloaded to Celia's network a while ago. They were months out of date, unfortunately. The computer gave a tiny ping. 'Match identified'.
The man who had tried to shoot either her or the ditzy cop was Richard Yamato. Had faced eight counts of murder, been convicted twice. Basically a rather cheesy, two-bit assassin, though he was usually successful. Mostly worked for private individuals. Last conviction 2029. Released four months ago. Last conviction was on reduced charges of manslaughter.
Not much to go on, she thought. I'll have to see what my contacts can find out. "Keep bugging them."
Mackie nodded.
Quincy stood by his window, looking out at the city. More precisely, he was looking across town towards one of the residential districts that had been rebuilt after the Kanto Quake. "Are you sure that he is there? We cannot afford such a large scale commitment unless we are certain to take him."
"He has returned to Mega-Tokyo. He would not have been so foolish unless his plans were finally to be set in motion." The other man was tall and thin, with light olive skin and incongruous curly blonde hair. He had a sharp, angular face and dark green eyes.
"But what are his plans? Our efforts to infilitrate his agents have been completely fruitless."
"You should have killed him back in 2029."
Quincy turned and frowned. "I seem to remember that we tried. And that you were the one who said further action would be a mistake."
"And you listened to me?" The man grinned infuriatingly.
Quincy sighed. "Don't you take anything seriously?"
"She's out there. The one I must destroy. That, I take seriously. Anything else is just for laughs. Even your plans, Quincy, or should I say..." he began.
Quincy frowned. "You never know who might be listening." He turned and stared out the window. "Well, that diversion I arranged should keep the Sabers busy."
The other man smiled. "Perhaps the Queen of Swords will show up and we can kill two birds with one stone."
"I hope they all show up. At least then we might have some idea how many of them have arrived and how powerful they are." He paused and thought. "Arrange for Shinohara Industries to be to blame for this."
The man smiled. "I already have."
Quincy said, "What name should I be calling you by, anyway?"
"You may call me...Wallace. Yes, that will do nicely."
March 22, 2028 AD.
Linna sat in the lotus position, pretending it wasn't making her legs hurt, though it didn't hurt her legs as much as it used to. I picked Tai Chi because I thought I wouldn't have to do anything this stupid, she thought.
Nearby, Linna's master, a old japanese woman named Hiromi, sat quietly, breathing in and out, her eyes closed. Linna's eyes were closed too, but she wasn't exactly...meditating. To be precise, she was alternating between thinking about her new boyfriend and wondering what the point of all this was. Linna was sixteen, a beauty pageant queen, and very much in love. I have better things to be doing than trying to meditate on the meaning of a blade of grass, she thought. A blade of grass is just a bunch of atoms stuck together by tiny subatomic glue and stuff.
Nearby, her master frowned. "Linna. Stop whining."
Linna started. "But master, I didn't say anything."
"Yes, but you were whining inside." Hiromi turned and stared at Linna, unblinking. Linna shivered slightly. Hiromi rarely showed emotion, but over the years, Linna had gotten to where she could sense Hiromi's mood, even with almost no clues.
"You're angry with me."
"I did not say that."
Linna's voice went up in volume slightly. "But I can tell."
Hiromi smiled faintly. "Perhaps there is hope for you yet, little one. Even to understand one other person can be a great deed. So, tell me, what is a blade of grass?"
"A blade of grass is just an illusion like everything else." There, that sounds wise, Linna thought.
"I'm not asking you to tell me what someone in a Kung Fu movie might say. What is a blade of grass?"
"Uh, green?" Linna really hated all the mystical stuff that her master tried to teach her. Tai Chi was fun, and years of practice had given her a lot more self-confidence. She was proud of her skills. No one pushed her around anymore, or her friends, because everyone knew she could take any three of them at once. Unfortunately, the upper level stuff all seemed to require a bunch of goofy exercises that never worked. Linna couldn't figure out what she was doing wrong. I'm just not cut out for this, she thought.
Hiromi sighed. "At least you are not blind; we know that now."
Linna sighed. "I can't think about grass when I've got a hot date with Taiki tonight!"
Hiromi smiled. "All right, then meditate on Taiki for twenty minutes and tell me what he is."
Linna blinked. "Uh, hai, sensei." She closed her eyes and thought about Taiki. He was tall and handsome, with short brown hair and dreamy green eyes. He was the captain of the soccer team and as athletic as her. She fixed his image in her mind, then began thinking about him. How he smelled, what he looked like, his soft voice, how he looked at Lisa sometimes. She paused. She'd never really noticed that before, but he did kinda look lustfully at Lisa sometimes. Linna dismissed the thought. I'm just imagining things. She tried to focus, but now the idea that he might be cheating on her began to haunt her mind.
She sighed.
Hiromi turned to her. "You just aren't satisfied with anything, are you?"
"I just..."
"All things are transitory. You may believe in your heart that the love you feel will last forever, but it likely will not. All things pass in time. That is the first lesson."
"Hey, we're solid! We'll last!" Hiromi simply smiled. A week later, Taiki dumped Linna for Lisa.
Linna sat quietly on a chair and meditated while Mackie and Celia ran about gabbling about computer stuff and fretting over why Nene and Priss hadn't called them yet. Linna had never been good at meditating. A lot of this came from the fact that she tended to have insights she didn't want when she did succeed, but she kept trying. It did bring her peace as well, sometimes. It was just another way that she hadn't been able to live up to her potential, as her master usually reminded her when irritated. Linna tried one of the exercises her master had taught her.
You must learn to see through the illusion of reality, her master had said. Pick something, and focus on it until you can see that it is but illusion. Pluck away all of its qualities, one by one, until it dissolves. Then you will see through it to the truth behind it. It all sounded like a bunch of mystic crap to Linna, but it did work...all the techniques worked when Linna could actually succeed in focusing enough to do them. Usually, Linna didn't even bother.
Linna chose Priss' hardsuit for the exercise. She stared at it, imaging first that the color dissolved away, until it was a flat shining metal shape. Then she imagined the metal losing its opaqueness, so that it slowly became transparent. She could imagine Priss inside it. She saw Priss with her usual devil may care smile on her face, dressed in the usual KS jumpsuit worn inside her hardsuit.
In her mind, she reached out and the jumpsuit faded to gray, then dissolved away. Priss hung in the air before her, naked as the day she was born. Linna tried to focus, locking out thoughts like how Leon probably wished he could be seeing this. This was the hardest part. To get below the skin without just thinking about what was literally there...guts, blood, tissue...but what was truly behind the body...what they pointed to. Their true self behind the masks of illusion they used to protect themselves.
Dimly, Linna was aware that Celia was trying to say something to her, but she locked Celia out of her mind. She could feel it. She was about to truly see something. Her master would be proud, she hoped. The image of Priss in her mind softened a bit. Her face lost its harshness, her body its defensiveness. She was truly beautiful, Linna realized, when she wasn't hiding behind her rage. It was a part of her, a fire burning inside her. Sometimes she was consumed by it, but there was more to her than fire. Light rushed across the image of Priss in Linna's mind, the light of her courage, her hope, her desire for justice that so often manifested only in the desire for revenge. She saw the child that Priss had been and the woman she might one day be. For the first time in her life, Linna truly knew awe.
For a moment, she felt lowly and ashamed in her presence, forgetting entirely that Priss wasn't even there. For a moment, Linna achieved all her master had strove for years to teach her. She truly saw the world as it was. It couldn't last. If she had been alone, she would have seen more things. However, she did suddenly sense one last thing...
However, she lost her trance when Celia shook her. "Linna? Hello?"
Linna blinked and felt horribly dissappointed. "Priss..."
"What about Priss?"
"I've got this feeling like she's in danger..."
Mackie frowned. "Maybe that's why she's not answering her pager."
Nene had left the table to answer her pager. Ryu looked at his step-mother hopefully. "So what do you think of Nene, mother?"
Aeka smiled. "She seems like a very nice girl."
Ryoko said, "Never thought a child of mine would marry a cop."
Tenchi laughed. "I never thought a child of mine would have spiky hair either."
Youshou said, "She comes from a noble line. I owed them my life." He paused. "I couldn't save them when their time came, except for only one..."
Manami blinked. "I haven't heard this story."
"It is a long story. Suffice it to say that centuries ago, Mikhail Romanov saved me from being burnt at the stake as a witch. Since then I have done my best to aid them in their times of greatest need. I was only able to save one of them during the revolution. Nene is descended from Anastasia Romanova, the youngest daughter of the Czar." He turned to Ryu. "Do you trust her? Enough to let her into all our secrets?"
Ryu paused. "We have a lot, don't we?"
Ryoko said, "I think she can handle it."
Manami said, "Grandfather Azusa will pitch a fit."
Ryoko shrugged. "That's his natural state. She's royalty. What can he say to that?"
"Many things," Aeka said. "What do you think she'll do if she learns you aren't human, Ryu?"
"Hey, I'm part human!" Ryu said. And part Juraiian, and part uh...part Wasyuu-obaachan's species...what is she, anyway?
Ryoko smiled. "Hey, it didn't bother Tenchi at all to learn I wasn't human."
Aeka wondered briefly when Ryoko had gone and had her memories edited. "Yes, but Tenchi was part alien himself."
Tenchi frowned slightly, "Please don't talk of me in the past tense as if I wasn't here."
Manami said, "She might not believe you're an alien if you do tell her."
Ryu grinned and levitated in his seat. "I think I can persuade her."
Tenchi laughed. "Ryoko and Aeka didn't exactly have any trouble persuading me, either."
Ryu turned to his father, hopefully. "So what do you think of her, Dad?"
"I think she has secrets too."
Youshou nodded. Ryu blinked. "I..secrets? What kind of secrets?"
Ryoko nodded. "I got that feeling too, but it isn't necessarily something bad."
Ryu frowned. "I..uh..."
Tenchi smiled. "You have my blessing, son, but think of the consequences carefully before you decide."
Ryu nodded. This would take some thought, not always his strongpoint.
Nene said into the phone, "What is it, Celia? I'm with Ryu and his parents right now."
Celia frowned. "Why didn't you answer your pager sooner?"
"I kept getting 'All Circuits are busy' for the last twenty minutes. I've been trying." Maybe some phone lines went down, Nene thought.
Nene's pager started beeping again.
Celia sighed. "Get on over here as soon as you can. We have to make plans. Someone tried to have me killed, I think."
"As soon as I take care of this second call, I'm on the way."
She hung up and dialed the second number, which she recognized as one of the phones at the ADPolice communications department. "Hello?"
"Nene. You live over in Hanno Apartments, right?" Andrea asked.
"Yes. Why?"
"Bad news. We're getting reports of an angry boomer taking your neighborhood apart."
Nene blinked. "What?"
"You're not at home, right?"
"No, I'm out with Ryu and his parents...His father is married to two women! I could hardly believe it."
For a moment, there was silence on the other end of the line. "At the same time?"
Nene nodded, then realized Andrea couldn't hear her nodding. "Yeah. I've got to run...my poor apartment."
Andrea said, "Whoah, don't go anywhere near your apartment. I'll page you when the Sabres...uh, we stop the boomer."
They both laughed.
Priss could see Leon's apartment building ahead. I can't believe I'm doing this, she thought. Whatever exactly I am doing. She saw a little park next to the apartment building. A young couple were sitting in the swing set there, holding hands. It was so sweetly romantic that Priss had to resist the compulsion to gag. They both looked to be in their mid twenties. The man had short, neat black hair and was nicely dressed in slacks and a blue button-up shirt. The woman wore a nice blue sundress that came down to her knees. She caught Priss's attention, for her hair was...unique in Priss' experience. Her blonde hair wouldn't have been so unusual, except it was bound up in two buns on her head, one on each side, with a huge pony-tail trailing from each one. Priss slowed down her motorcycle and stared. She was getting an odd tingly sensation, and it was making her nervous.
Not as nervous as the explosion off in the distance. Plus, now she was getting this weird vibration in her leg. She parked her cycle at the edge of the park and listened, as well as checking her leg. She found her pager, which had somehow gotten set on vibration mode instead of making a noise. She sighed. Celia's probably telling me about oncoming boomers... She heard another closer explosion. The man and woman got up from the swing set and stared off towards the explosions. "Is nowhere in this city safe?" the man said, frowning.
Priss turned to them. "Not as long as Mega-Tokyo grovels at GENOM's feet." She tried to turn to go, but found herself staring into the woman's eyes. She had the most compassionate face that Priss had ever seen.
"You've lost people you cared about because of them." It was a statement, not a question. "And now you want revenge." She stepped a little closer to Priss. "If you hold on to your anger, it will consume you."
The man frowned slightly, for no apparent reason, but said nothing. Priss frowned. Who the hell is this? For a moment, Priss felt like she had seen this woman somewhere.
The woman stared at Priss. How did I know that, she wondered. I feel like I know her...but why?
Priss backed up slightly, almost afraid, but not sure why. "I have to go answer this page...umm...nice meeting you." She wheeled her bike over to the apartment garage. I'll use the payphone by the front door.
Back in the park, the man said to the woman, "She looked dangerous, dear."
"So does a guard dog, but it's only dangerous to those who deserve to be threatened...I don't think she was going to try anything." I hope, she thought.
"We'd best go inside if there's boomers out there."
The woman nodded and they headed back indoors.
Mackie said, "Boomer attack, sis."
Celia frowned. "Great. Page Nene and Priss again."
The phone rang. Celia got it.
Priss said, "Sorry, Celia. My pager got set to vibration mode. I think there's boomers around here too."
Celia said, "Right. We're on the way. Assuming Nene ever shows up."
"To the batcave?" Mackie asked.
Celia said to Priss, "Wait for us. We're coming. Where exactly are you?"
Priss said, "Close to where Nene lives. 53rd Street and Yama Road."
"We're on the way." She turned to Mackie. "The Batcave?"
Linna laughed. "So where is Priss?"
"Near where the boomer attack is happening, over on 53rd and Yama."
Linna frowned. I was right.
Nene came out and bowed to everyone. "I have to go. There's a boomer attack near my apartment and..."
Tenchi glanced over at Ryoko, who nodded. "Ahh, your bosses calling you?"
"Well, I'm not on duty, but it is my home and..."
Ryu got up. "I'll drive you wherever you need to go, Nene."
"I'll be fine. A friend is coming to pick me up." Nene bowed again. "It was very nice to meet all of you! How long will you be in town?"
"A few weeks at least, so I'm sure we'll see you again."
Ryoko said, "Do you work tomorrow, Nene-chan? I'd like to talk to you."
"I have tomorrow off. How about in the afternoon?"
"That would be great."
Nene bowed again, then went over and hugged Ryu.
Ryoko said, "What, no goodbye kiss? I'm dissappointed."
Tenchi laughed faintly, while Aeka turned to Ryoko. "It's not polite to kiss in public."
"Whoever said I was polite?" Ryoko said, grabbing Aeka and kissing her. Aeka almost fainted, while Ryoko laughed.
Ryu laughed faintly and kissed Nene. "I'll walk you out."
They got up and left together, though Nene stared back at Ryoko as they left. Aeka blushed tremendously and was silent.
Ryoko smiled. "I'm off. Make sure Ryu doesn't do anything crazier than I would before you see me again."
"In other words, let him do whatever he wants?" Manami asked.
Ryoko laughed. "That's just about right." She vanished.
Priss hung up the phone and headed for the door. Suddenly, a hand touched her shoulder. "Hi there!"
Priss spun around. "Oh, it's you, Leon."
Leon smiled. "What brings you to my neck of the woods?"
"I was going to come kick your ass for fun, but I just got a call, so I have to go."
Leon nodded. "There's a boomer attack in the area." He sighed. "Are you sure you don't want to join the ADPolice so I won't have to work with Mihoshi anymore?"
Priss started heading outside. "Not even if you get down and beg."
Leon dropped to his knees and mock-grovelled. "Pleeeeaaasse?"
Priss laughed. "Save it for your boss, Leon." She got onto her bike. An apartment building two blocks away blew up.
"I don't think it's gonna be safe to go into this, Priss," Leon said. He didn't expect her to listen. He wasn't even entirely serious. He was used to her going into danger by now, but he still had to try.
"Save the white knight routine for the populace. See ya later!"
"Are we still going dancing next Friday?"
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Priss roared off away from the explosions, then starts circling the area, looking for the Silky Doll truck. Meanwhile, Leon waited for either the approaching boomer or Mihoshi to find him first. He was hoping it would be the boomer.
Nene suited up while Linna sat idly and Celia played with the computer. "Sorry for the trouble. Ryu wanted to wait with me for my friends to pick me up."
Celia nodded. "Boomer activity is up, lately. Something funny is going on. And in residential neighborhoods, too."
Linna said, "And there's this Queen of Swords character."
"Whatever she is." Nene said. "Where's Priss?"
"In the thick of things, again."
"Didn't this happen last time?"
Celia said, "Linna isn't drunk, this time. After we deal with this, we need to discuss the other matter."
Nene nodded.
Mihoshi roared up in her battered car, further battering it as she lightly struck a fire hydrant. Leon could see the Boomer busily blowing up buildings one by one. Mihoshi said, "They're sending billions of people! They were right behind me, but they got caught at a light."
Leon sighed, then heard the sirens. "Let's hope it doesn't go after my apartment building. I'd kinda like to keep my stuff."
"Why don't coffee making boomers or something easy to deal with ever go on a rampage?" Mihoshi asked.
"Just our luck, I guess."
At that moment, something opened fire on the boomers from a nearby rooftop. It was the Knight Sabres. Mihoshi applauded. "How do you get to be one of them?"
Leon sighed. "Who knows."
"Battlesuits are fun, but I always start itching when I wear them," Mihoshi observed.
Leon thought about Mihoshi in a battlesuit and was suddenly very glad they weren't standard issue for his department. "Yeah."
Sabre-green leapt at the boomer, grabbing its legs and tossing it down to the road level. Sabre-white and Sabre-blue opened fire on the Boomer, which started to stagger, then fired back. They scattered. Sabre-pink hung back and observed.
Mihoshi said, "Ano, isn't someone on the roof over there?" She pointed onto the roof of Leon's apartment building. Leon looked up.
A woman in a kimono, holding a blue energy sword stood there. "It's the Queen of Swords."
"Ano? The what?"
The Queen of Swords started to fly forward, then a green streak grabbed her. She vanished. Leon blinked. "What the..."
Mihoshi said, "Neat! Teleportation is cool!"
The Sabres soon brought down the boomer, just before the ADPolice arrived, late as usual. Leon ran over to the nearest vehicle. "Another good practice run, eh?"
The driver laughed. "Just the way I like it."
The radio crackled to life. "Terrorist boomer attack at Twelve Oaks. Six boomers on the loose. Sakhalin Liberation Army claims responsibility, etc, etc."
Leon swore. "A diversion. Damnit."
The Sabres took off at high speed.
The driver said, "Looks like they just got the news, too."
"Here we go again."
Meylia started in surprise. She stared at the odd woman who floated in front of her. She has powers like mine, Meylia thought. Or is she a boomer?
Ryoko said, "Well, not exactly what I expected to find. But we've been looking for you too. You're Meylia Stingray, right?"
Meylia said hesitantly, "Yes. Who are you?"
Ryoko smiled. "I'm your...ah...er...niece-in-law. I'm married to Tenchi. Funaho did tell you who Tenchi is, right?"
Meylia nodded. "Hai."
"So why'd you run off and not tell anyone where you were going?"
"I couldn't wait. I had to get some revenge on the people who killed my son." Her voice was faint. "He should have never created those damn things."
"Well, you need to come see everyone. Your father is very eager to see you."
"Father..." her voice was faint.
"You had some kind of fight, right?"
"I ran away from home because he didn't seem to care if I lived or died." She sighed. "He's all I have left, now. And my grandchildren, but I don't know where they are."
Ryoko moved forward and said, "Well, if blowing up a few boomers would help put you in the mood for a family reunion..."
Meylia laughed. "No. I should go see Father. It's been decades. It's been too long. I don't want to be alone anymore."
Ryoko nodded. "Let's go." She grabbed Meylia and teleported away.
When the Sabres and the ADPolice arrived at the scene of the second boomer attack, the whole neighborhood was a nightmare. Buildings were on fire, people were fleeing everywhere, and some sort of really strange battle was raging. Anything that wasn't nailed down was flying into the air and hurling itself at the boomers, who were pouring every inch of firepower they had into one of the apartment buildings. It looked like a tornado was in the area, almost.
Celia said to Nene. "Can you figure out what's flinging all those cars and doors and other things around?"
Nene said quietly, "Nothing that shows up on my sensors."
Linna frowned. Priss said, "Maybe there's a poltergeist who doesn't like boomers. Let's go kick some butt."
Celia said, "Be careful. All those flying objects are going to make this very dangerous."
They all nodded. "Knight Sabres, go!"
The ADPolice, meanwhile, began forming up and opening fire on the boomers. Two of the boomers peeled off and attacked the ADPolice and another two moved to deal with the Sabres.
Priss went after the one on the left, while Linna took on the one on the right. Nene began trying to jam all outward transmissions so the boomers couldn't call for help and Celia headed for the building to try to figure out what the Boomers were attacking.
To her surprise, what she found was that two old people were busily holding off the boomers. One of them was a woman in her mid-sixties, with long gray hair, dressed in a suit-dress, who was busily blazing away at the boomers with an automatic weapon, while the other was a man of about the same age, who had an 'I am fiercely concentrating' look on his face, but no weaponry. As the boomers fired away at the two, the bullets all simply stopped short of the pair and fell to the ground. A few seconds later, three people in their mid-twenties ran out from the rubble. Two were girls with long black hair, the other a boy with short brown hair. All three had green eyes. One of them stared up at Celia, watching her. The other two turned and stared at one of the boomers, which began to fold in half backwards.
Celia shuddered slightly. What the hell is going on here? She turned and went after the other boomer, which seemed almost relieved to be dealing with a knight sabre instead of...whatever these people were.
Outside, Priss and Linna discovered these boomers were tougher than they expected. Linna said, "These things look like old outdated 12-Bs, but they're a damn sight faster and stronger!" She leapt, grabbed one, and tossed it into the ground. It got back up and tried to blast her with its mouth cannon, but she easily avoided the shot. "Not very bright though." The other boomer got hit instead.
Priss laughed. "You know any boomers that are bright?" She fired at her target, blasting it full of lead, but it kept coming.
Down the street, Leon and Mihoshi hid behind Mihoshi's car and watched the fighting. As a car flew up and struck the boomer that was in the process of folding in half, Mihoshi said, "Telekinesis."
Leon blinked. "What, you mean all this stuff flying around?"
Mihoshi nodded. "Yeah. Must be more than one. Most telekinetics aren't this strong."
Leon said, "You seriously think there's a bunch of psychics behind this?"
"Well, it could be ghosts..."
Leon groaned.
Lt. Shinohara and Lt. Takahito deployed their heavy weapons squads and blazed away. As was her wont, Lt. Shinohara went after one of the boomers herself, mano a mano. Meanwhile, the other boomer toasted about half of Takahito's squad before someone got a lucky hit right into its mouth cannon, which malfunctioned and blew its head off.
Back inside the building, Celia flipped onto the boomer's back and stabbed down into its head with her electro-knife. The boomer jolted a few times and 'died'. Suddenly, all of the sensors on her hardsuit went dead. "Can anyone hear me?" she said into her radio, but no one could hear her. "I've lost my sensors. There must be a problem with the insulation in my knife."
Two cars smacked into the folding over boomer near her, killing it. Unfortunately, Celia's hardsuit now turned towards the group of people near her and opened fire.
Seconds later, she was flung across the street into an adjacent building. She felt the impact but couldn't tell what was going on, though she suspected her suit had been shooting at something since she could feel the recoil.
Priss said, "Celia, what the hell are you doing?"
Nene said, "There's some kind of weird electrical field in her suit...I think the boomer did something to her before it died."
Linna tossed her opponent into the air, where a combination of ADPolice fire and two cars crashed into it, ripping it apart. "Right. You think I should try to subdue your suit, Celia?"
There was no reply. "I guess her radio is out," Nene said.
Celia's suit opened fire on her friends.
Mihoshi peeked up from behind the car again. "Ano, why is the white Sabre firing at the other ones?"
Leon looked up. "..." Probably this is all your fault somehow, he thought. "It must be a fake."
The green and the white sabre began to grapple. It was rapidly clear that the green one had the upper hand.
Meanwhile, Lt. Shinohara got flung into a building by the boomer she was grappling with, and her squad began firing at it. Mihoshi turned to Leon again, "Ano, why are we here?"
"It's going to be our job to find out what the hell is really going on here once this is over."
"So I shouldn't shoot at the boomer?"
Leon shrugged. "Do whatever you want."
Mihoshi popped up, fired off a shot, and fell down. The boomer turned and charged towards her and Leon. Leon groaned and fled. The boomer kept coming, with the ADPolice squads continuing to fire at it. Mihoshi screamed and ran, following Leon. Right as the boomer reached Mihoshi's car, a stray shot hit the gas tank and her car exploded in flames, catching the boomer in the explosion. It staggered and fell down, gradually burning to death.
"Waaaahhh!!!!!!" Mihoshi shouted. "My car!!!"
Nearby, Priss finished off her opponent and came to Linna's aid. Nene circled around to try to see what Celia had encountered inside the building. She thought she saw people, but then there was a bright flash of light and they were gone.
Priss said, "Nene, see if you can get over here and overload Celia's suit or something so we don't have to rip her apart to get her to stop."
Nene flew over and did so, then they withdrew. "I thought I saw some people, but they released a flare or something and left."
"We'll worry about that once we figure out what happened to Celia," Priss said.
Meylia and Ryoko appeared in the Masaki family's hotel room. "Hey, guess who I just found!" Ryoko said.
Everyone looked up from their conversation. Youshou and Meylia stared at each other for a long time without saying anything. Finally, Ryoko said, "Did everyone just die on me or what?"
Meylia said quietly, "Father."
Youshou smiled. "I have not seen you for 65 years, my daughter." He paused. "I am sorry for whatever I did that made you run away."
She ran over to him and began to cry, laying her head on his shoulder. "I've lost everything...everything I cared about. My husband. My son. My grandchildren. I don't know where they are."
Youshou quietly hugged his daughter. Ryoko patted Meylia on the shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll find them and avenge the death of your husband and your son. That's why we're here."
"What are your grandchildren's names, great-aunt Meylia?" Ryu asked.
"Celia and Mackie. Celia and Mackie Stingray."
Ryu and Manami blinked in unison. Ryu said, "Hey, they're friends of Nene's! In fact, we've all gotten drunk together before over at Linna's place."
Aeka looked at Manami who quickly said, "I wasn't there." Aeka was visibly relieved.
Ryu said, "Lemme go call Linna and see if she has Celia's phone number. I'm sure she'll be eager to see you."
No one was home to answer the phone. "Well, we can keep trying. I left a message on her answering machine."
Tenchi said, "Quite a bit of luck that you've met her."
Ryu nodded. "Well, it might not even be the right person, but I think your luck is looking up, great-aunt Meylia."
Meylia paused and shifted out of her battle garb into a more normal blue dress. "I certainly hope so."
Leon and Mihoshi combed through the wreckage of the apartment. There wasn't much left of what looked like the focus of the attack. The place barely looked lived in, except for a six pack of coke in the refrigerator and some peanut butter, some shirts and pants in the closet, a few million ramen takeout boxes in the garbage can, and a now-destroyed stereo with the remains of an old Ayukawa Madoka cd from the late 1990s, an even older Steve Miller band cd, and a slightly less old SMAP cd. "Waaah! What a waste of good music!" Mihoshi said. "Gunning down helpless CDs. Truly a tragedy."
Leon continued counting the days to Daley's return in his head and said, "Well, I'm going to guess that some guy was staying here, but it's hard to be sure. No corpses, no blood."
"Maybe the boomers were working for some rival ramen vendor than the one he was using," Mihoshi said, picking through the garbage.
Leon wondered if Mihoshi had sent her brain to the cleaners. "Maybe the boomers just couldn't stand the music he was playing."
"But he has such good taste in music!"
Leon quietly banged his head against the wall.
"Ano, do you need some asprin for that?"
Only Leon's machismo protected him from the need to cry.
Celia was out of her now dissassembled hardsuit. She quietly picked away at components with Nene's help, while Priss and Linna sat and half-watched, half-talked. Mackie was busy with some other stuff. "GENOM really wanted whoever lived there damn dead," Priss said.
"They had forcefields or something similar. I'm not surprised," Celia said.
"They what?"
"They had some kind of forcefield that was stopping the boomers from shooting them to tiny bits. What was moving all the cars and debris, I can't even begin to imagine," Celia said, hooking up the suit's arm to a computer.
"I'm surprised the Queen of Swords didn't turn up either time," Linna said.
"We still don't know what she is, either," Priss said. "Hey, Nene-chan, so what were Manami and Ryu's folks like?"
"They're going to be in town a while if you'd like to meet them." Nene said. "I could hardly believe it...two wives."
"What?" Linna said.
Nene nodded. "They're like salt and pepper. I could hardly believe it. At least now I know why Ryu and Manami are so different. They each take after their respective mothers a lot."
Priss laughed. "So Manami's mom is a shy retrothrash singer?"
Everyone laughed at that, even Celia a little. "Oh, don't mention that to Manami's mom...Apparently she would blow her top if she knew."
"What does Ryu's mom think of it?"
"If she knew, I think she'd want to join Manami's band."
Everyone laughed again.
Deep in the depths of a GENOM Research Facility, two figures toiled in the Boomer Morgue. There was a flash of light and a roll of thunder. One of the figures cackled. "It's alive! It's alive!" The other figure clonked the first one in the head with a spare boomer arm.
"Calm down, will you! We can't afford to attract attention."
The first figure laughed. "Don't worry, daughter. They won't find you such easy prey this time." I didn't go to all the trouble of a transtemporal tachyon scan to read your brain patterns from before your death just to let you get killed again, she thought. Although it doesn't seem to have quite worked perfectly. Perhaps hitting people in the head was always part of her personality. She sighed. Too bad I can't reach back thousands of years to...Well, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride and all that.
The second figure shuddered. "Are you sure it worked?"
"It worked for you, didn't it?" If not perfectly, she thought. Why do I always have violent children?
The third figure, the one on the table, sat up. "Nooo!!!!!!!!!" She blinked. "Hey, where am I?"
"In the village," the first figure said.
The second one promptly clonked her on the head again.
Priss floated in a formless void, surrounded by a kaleidscope of light and darkness, a seething sea of chaos. She hated it instantly. The whole place was just wrong. Priss didn't like chaos unless she was the one making it. Things kept appearing and vanishing in the corner of her vision. Gently mocking voices drifted through the void, just below the threshold of sound where she might have understood them. What's keeping me from falling? she wondered. Then she fell.
It is hard to tell you are falling when you can't see a real up or down, but Priss felt herself moving, a high wind billowing around her. The tank top she wore in bed kept trying to blow up and flap around her face, and for a moment, she was embarrased, then frustration took over.
Finally, Priss managed to get her shirt to behave, then realized the reason for this was that she wasn't falling anymore. In fact, she was standing on some kind of stone platform. Gradually, as the chaos faded away, she saw stone walls around her, and a open archway leading to a garden. Before her, a diamond floated in the air. At least, she thought it was a diamond. It could just as well been glass cut to resemble a diamond. It was one of the largest diamonds she had ever seen if it was one. It shone with a bright white light, and she could almost hear music, as if the light could be heard as well as seen. The scent of flowers in the air seemed to be coming from the light as well. It felt like it was calling her. She stepped forward, experiencing a very rare emotion for her, awe.
As she drew closer, she could make out a figure standing on the other side of the gem. She could feel warmth from the shining 'diamond', soothing away her pains and aches from the battle of the day before. As she drew closer, the diamond became blurry inside the increasingly bright light. Its shape began to change. She still couldn't see the woman on the other side. The woman had something on her forehead which also shone with a blazing light.
The diamond finished its transformation, becoming a tiny diamond sword. Priss stopped near it hesitantly. It terrified her and she didn't know why, but at the same time, she felt it was hers, that she should take it. And who is this woman staring at me? She looks so familiar. She could see the woman's deep blue eyes now, could make out the golden crescent moon upon her brow. Her hair was blonde and gathered into two spheres on the top like...the woman I ran into by Leon's house the other day...is this her? Priss wondered.
She stared at the sword. It's so beautiful, she thought, but far too small to be used as a weapon...She reached out her hand to take it, fighting back her fear.
"It is not the size of your weapon, but the size of your heart that matters," the woman said. "And the courage with which you wield it. You have much courage, Priscilla Samantha Asagiri. It is your greatest weapon."
Priss froze. "How did you know my name?"
"How could I not know my own daughter? The crystal waits for you to take it up and weild it in the cause of justice. This is but a dream, but the crystal is real, is reality itself. It waits for you in subspace. As do I."
The light began to fade, the castle to dissolve away. Priss struggled to keep from crying and shouting and crumbling away at the same time. "But...my mother is dead!"
"I never said I was alive, but I wait for you. You must come and set your sister free...Farewell, until we meet again."
Priss tried to rush forward. This had to be some kind of trick, deception. My mother is dead! No...mommy, don't leave me!!!!!!!
The world dissolved away into chaos, and Priss woke up in her bed, hearing cats meowing outside her window. She opened her window and tossed an old beer can at them. The two cats scampered away, dodging the can. She frowned. What an entirely screwed up dream.
She turned to go to bed, then realized all the aches and pains she should have had from the previous night's battle were completely gone. She wasn't able to sleep for the rest of the night.
Circa 9,900 BC
Not on this Earth
Wasyuu watched quietly as Angacil's relatives took him and their baby away. He looked helplessly back at her as his relatives carried their son Annadil, 'beloved gift' onto their ship, Mordil. Annadil had his father's blond curly hair, while his skin was somewhere between his father's dark olive coloration and his mother's pale peach skin.
Wasyuu would have cried, but she'd already cried so much that her tear glands had dried up. She could have destroyed them, but then that would have meant war. A war she could not win. A war in which her allies could not fight by her side, for the law was on the side of her enemies.
She turned silently and left. To watch would only bring more pain, and she had had enough of pain. Never again, she swore. Never again.
The pain was not yet over. Two days later, the news announced that the Mordil had been destroyed with all hands on board on its way to the capital world of the Mithlothian Empire. Wasyuu cried herself sick when she heard the news, until a holomessage came through. It was short. The image was a crudely rendered picture of Walyn, the voice sounded like a bad effort to mimic his voice. "I told you I would have my revenge. This is only the beginning."
Celia's phone rang. She picked it up. "Silky Doll, manager speaking."
It was Fargo at the other end of the line. "I may have a little surprise for you at our date at Chez Kino tonight at eight."
She laughed faintly. Fargo never gives up, she thought. I wonder which information this is. "I'll be there."
Fargo hung up. Celia got up and stretched. Maybe I'll even dress up, just to make him wonder. She laughed faintly. Me, flirting? I must be going mad in my old age.
Priss sat quietly in the park, watching children on the swingset. She had brought Sho to the park from the orphanage. She wished again she could have found him a good home. For a while, she'd thought about adopting him herself, but she didn't feel like she was cut out for motherhood. Not yet, anyway. Besides, if I got myself killed, he'd just be right back where he started.
She didn't know what to do with herself tonight. The band had already practiced, and Celia was still trying to collect information on her would-be assassin. Right now, Sho was playing with some children on the swingset. "Oneechan! Come give me a push." She laughed and got up and went over to him.
"Here we go!" She began pushing him, back and forth, harder and harder. He swung very high, laughing all the way. She finally stepped back and got out of the way.
The young girl on the swing next to him said, "Can you push me too, oneechan?"
Priss laughed. "Sure thing, kid." She began pushing the swing, a little more gently than with the boy. "How high do you want to go?"
"I want to fly to the stars!"
"Doesn't everyone?" Priss pushed harder. The girl's blue hair caught her attention. Wow, kids are dying their hair early these days. Then again, I used to imagine I had a little friend with blue hair. This kid looks a lot like how I imagined Maggie to be, Priss thought. I haven't thought about Maggie in years.
Priss sank into a bit of a fugue, lost in thought about her old imaginary friend, her arms working to push the swing without conscious thought. She probably would have still been there, pushing the swing, when the sun went down if she hadn't been snapped out of her reverie by the sounds of children screaming.
For a few seconds, she thought she must be hallucinating, but then she spotted the source of the trouble. It was a 45-L, 'Hair Care Professional Boomer'. They were used in the 24-hour barbershops that had sprung up in the last few years as traditional work hours further ceased to have much hold on the population at large. Unfortunately, the entire line had one major problem. Being cheaply made, their boomer minds needed to shut down periodically as they tended to rapidly accumulate bad sectors and other imbalances in their 'minds' if operated for too long at a time. More than a 12 hour shift caused an increasing risk of mental dysfunction. While rampaging combat boomers made the headlines, it was the berserkergang of the much more common L series boomers that gave the ADPolice most of its business. While the ADPolice had a bad reputation, in dealing with L series boomers, they were quick and efficient, limited mainly by numbers in their ability to make a rapid response.
Unfortunately, this wasn't much help to Priss right now when a boomer with multiple scissors and razor attachments was running wild through the park with her. Right now, it was shaving some poor girl's head, but the man lying halfway across the park trying to bind his arm with his dinner jacket was evidence that things could get much worse.
The boomer itself looked like a rampaging mannikin. It looked like an effort by a ten year old to model a human form, with a blocky torso, legs, and arms. It was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and knee-length pants, unneeded for decency, but giving it a softer and less dangerous look. It had actually articulated hands, but its hands were disproportionately large so as to contain various scissors, razors, hot water dispensers and other tools of its trade. It was horrendously out of date, and looked somewhat battered and in need of a tuneup.
Priss directed a swift curse at whatever idiot had left this thing unmaintained along with the idiot who bought it in the first place. She pulled out her knife. Celia's going to tell me I was an idiot, but I can't let this damn beast kill these kids.
Sho leaped off the swing and started throwing rocks at the boomer. "You damn monster, go home!"
Priss resolved to be more careful about swearing in front of children and charged forward. "Yo, shave and a haircut boy!" She hurled a rock to help get its attention.
It ignored her and finished shaving off the hair of the poor little red haired girl it was holding. Priss spent a few seconds trying to figure out the best place to stab the thing, then stuck her knife into its left hand, hoping to wreck the circuitry for controlling the hand.
Unfortunately, the boomer began to move as she stabbed it, and the blow only succeeded in cutting a small gash in its 'skin'. It backhanded her, sending her sprawling. It was strong, but not more than a fairly strong human, which gave Priss hope she could take this thing without getting herself killed. "Everyone, get the hell out of here!" she shouted.
Most of the kids took her advice. Two of them, however, did not. Sho kept throwing rocks at the boomer. The little blue haired girl didn't run either, though she did vault out of the swing she was on and started digging in her pockets for something. Priss tried to grab the boomer's left arm, while standing on its left, hoping to keep the bulk of its body between her and the right arm.
Unfortunately, she had forgotten for a moment that she wasn't in her hardsuit. The boomer easily dragged her around and pinned her. She would have been humiliated if she hadn't been getting increasingly angry.
She heard someone shouting something, but she couldn't quite understand what, then a bright cascade of light washed over the area, living Priss blinded for a few seconds. She heard the boomer saying something like, "Ahh, you'd like a buzz cut, Miss? Must be entering the army..."
She futilely kicked the boomer in what would have been his groin, if he wasn't a robot. At least I already wear a wig on stage, she thought, then kicked herself for trying to look on the bright side of things.
Priss heard some kid yelling something about princesses and kicks. A multi-colored blur moved in front of her, then the boomer suddenly let go of her and staggered backwards. Priss looked around and saw a blue haired girl, her hair tied up in two ponytails that seemed to erupt upwards out of the side of her head, then cascade down, standing nearby. There was a red flower in her hair by each pony-tail, and she wore an elaborate red and yellow outfit with a red 'jacket' top and a short yellow skirt. In her right hand, she clutched a two foot long wand with a large red heart at one end, fixed in a yellow frame.
The boomer looked at the girl and cocked its head. "Your hair is in violation of code 359 of the local School District code. Please remove it. You have fifteen seconds to comply."
Priss took those fifteen seconds to turn and finally stab the boomer in the wrist. She took a nasty jolt and went flying. Damn me for a fool, she thought. I'm not insulated in this outfit. Her brain then caught up with what she had seen before. What kinda crazy outfit is that kid wearing? Must be some anime fan kid. Probably thinks her toy has real powers.
The boomer charged the girl, who leapt fifteen feet straight up into the air, landed on a treebranch, then jumped down as the boomer ran through the spot where she had been and clonked the boomer on the head with her wand. It fell down.
Priss blinked. I must be dying and imagining this as I die. The boomer got back up and charged the girl again. She lithely dodged and tripped it. Sho shouted, "Kick its ass!"
How can that kid move so fast, Priss wondered. Is she cybered or something? Maybe she's some kind of crazy combat boomer...Well, she's on my side, that's all that matters for now. Priss looked around for something heavy she could use as a weapon, since her knife was still stuck in the boomer. "Sho, get out of here!" she yelled.
"I can't leave you, oneechan!"
"Then make sure you stay out of the way!" Priss grabbed a treebranch and moved forward. She smacked the boomer in the head.
It turned and popped out a razor. "Shave for you sir?" She swore and backpedalled. What I wouldn't give for my hardsuit, she thought. "Damn thing, if I was properly armed, I'd..." It moved faster than she thought possible, its razor aimed for her cheek.
Before she could scream, she felt arms wrapped around her waist, and suddenly, she was airborne. About a second later, she was up in a tree with the crazy blue haired girl. "Who the hell are you?" Priss asked.
"You're welcome," the girl said, smiling. "I'm Magical Princess Pretty Sammi! But you used to know me as Maggie."
I am going insane, Priss thought. It killed me and these are my last delusions as I die. "Maggie was imaginary!"
"No I wasn't! I'm as real as you. You think you got up in this tree on your own?"
Priss looked down. She was at least twenty feet up in the air. The boomer was trying to cut the hair of a statue in the fountain nearby. "I could be imagining I'm up in the tree."
"Your entire life could just be your imagination! We don't have time for solipsism! Your friend's life is in danger!" Sammi shook Priss. "Stop running from reality! I'm as real as you, and I need your help to stop this thing!"
Priss decided to worry about hallucinations later...deep thought wasn't her thing anyway. "I can't hurt this damn thing without a decent weapon. If only I had my..."
"Your hardsuit?"
Priss stared at the girl. "How the hell did you..."
The girl traced an arc on Priss' forehead with a finger. "There is power within you. Your hardsuit is not available, but it is. I can unlock it, but..."
Priss looked down and saw the boomer was almost 'done' with the statue. Sho still hadn't run to safety, either. "Sho, get the hell out of here!"
"No, I can't leave you!" Sho started running over to the tree.
Priss swore. Damn kid takes after me too much. "You say you can give me the power to stop this thing?" I must be crazy taking this seriously, but I'm never gonna stop this boomer with my bare hands.
"Yes, but there's a price."
Priss looked down. The boomer was looking for a new 'customer'. "I don't fucking care! I can't let this damn hunk of junk hurt Sho!"
Sammi smiled. "You have a brave and loving heart." She touched Priss' forehead with her wand and the heart began to glow. Priss felt her forehead growing warm as the girl traced an arc, the bottom half of a circle across her forehead. "Now say the words that come into your mind."
Priss' mind spun. Memories of her recent dream flitted through her mind, the crystal sword in the fortress and the woman who had called her daughter. Words spun and danced through her mind. Finally, a memory stabilized. Herself on her bike, gun in hand, preparing to revenge her boyfriend's death. A red Mercedes Benz pulling up and a woman stepping out of it. She was tall, with nice clothing and short dark hair. She had looked at Priss as if she had known Priss forever and said, "Will you entrust me with that burning heart of yours?" On that day, Priss had stepped off of the path to self-destruction, and onto a new path. A warrior's path. She finally understood why she had trusted the woman, why she had followed Celia Stingray away from the road of the vengeance that is as much upon oneself as others to a better way. Words formed in her mind now, and she gave them voice. "Burning heart power!!!!"
Light erupted from Priss' forehead and rushed across her body, which now floated, transfixed in the air above the tree branch. The whirling energies around her sent tree branches flying everywhere, as her clothing tore itself apart and reformed into a dark black outfit, rather similar to her stage costume, though without the blond wig. There were a few differences. Priss didn't normally wear a golden tiara with a blue gem set in it on stage, for one thing. She could almost feel power coursing through her veins, but she wasn't sure how to use it.
"Now what?"
Sammi pulled a short rod out of...somewhere. Priss quickly saw that it rather resembled a carved wooden sword hilt. "Take this, your rightful weapon," Sammi said.
She took it. She could see Sho trying to climb the tree. The boomer had spotted him and was rushing over. "How the hell do I use it?"
Suddenly, a blue blade of energy erupted from the end of the hilt. "Right." Priss said, cutting off Sammi as she started to say something. "Die!"
She leaped down at the oncoming boomer, aiming a blow down at its head. The sword cut right through the boomer, meeting no resistance whatsoever. It fell into two neatly severed halves, which ceased to move.
Priss concluded that hallucination or not, she liked this. Sho ran over to Priss. "Wow, oneechan! I didn't know you were a superhero!"
Priss laughed. "Me neither. Don't tell anyone, okay?"
"I promise!"
Sammi jumped down to Priss. "Good job!"
"I can hardly believe this is real..." Priss said. She could hear the ADPolice sirens in the distance. "How do I turn back to normal? And what was that you said about a price?"
"All you have to do is concentrate." Sammi shimmered and her clothing changed back to normal. Maggie smiled. "Like that."
Priss focused on what she was wearing before and swiftly reverted to normal. The sword hilt, however, remained. "Who...Who are you really?"
Maggie smiled. "Let's take your friend home, then we can talk properly." They left just in time to miss the ADPolice.
After getting off of work, Nene walked up the steps to her apartment. To her surprise, the door was ajar. She tensed. Could be a burglar. She could hear her TV playing inside and she knew she hadn't left that on. Good thing Lt. Yamano has us carrying guns all the time now, she thought. She got out her pistol. She heard the familiar theme music of Magical Princess Evangelia playing.
She kicked the door open and charged in, pistol ready, right as the TV started to play an ad. "Come see Aino Minako, seiyuu for Princess Rei, at the Northridge Mall this saturday from 9-12! She'll be signing autographs and some lucky fan will get the complete Aino Minako Video collection. That's right, the entire runs of Sailor V, Dread Space Pirate Bailesu, Dragon Ball PDQ, Hime-chan no Anvil, Dirty Pair Ultrakawaii Flash, and the first three seasons of Magical Princess Evangelia!"
Ryoko was sitting in Nene's nice new lounge chair, eating chips and drinking Dr. Pepper. "Hiya, Nene-chan! Nice gun you have there."
Nene blinked. "How...uh...how did you get in?"
Ryoko smiled. "You left the door unlocked. I love this chair!" She wiggled a bit. "It's soooo comfy. Nice TV too."
"You didn't mess with the VCR did you?"
"What, that primitive thing? Naah."
Nene gave a sigh of relief. Good, I'll have this episode on tape. She's eating up all my snack food! Oh well, I was planning to give her some of that, anyway. She sat down on one of her other chairs. "You watch this often?"
"Never seen it before, but it looks fun. So you're a big animation fan?"
Nene laughed. "The only reason I won't be down at the mall on Saturday is that I already have her autograph and the complete collection of her stuff."
"My son likes this stuff too. I'm too busy to ever keep up with it," Ryoko said.
"I understand you work for the government?"
Ryoko got up. "You could say that." She walked over and put away the food and the Dr. Pepper. "I've sort of come up in the world."
Nene said, "You can have more if you like."
Ryoko smiled. "We're gonna go to this little place I found this morning so we can talk. I shouldn't spoil my appetite."
Nene nodded. "What's it like?"
Ryoko laughed. "You'll see. First we're stopping by this other place..."
Sammi and Priss stopped at an ice cream parlor after dropping off Sho back at the orphanage. Sammi got a really huge ice cream cone with three scoops, while Priss got a simple strawberry ice cream cone. "So...what are you? You haven't aged a whit since I last saw you and I was what...nine then?"
Sammi said, "Wh...oh yes. I wanted to make sure you could recognize me. I can appear older...in fact, I usually do." The way she was munching on her ice cream seemed to deny that, though.
"But what are you?"
"I am a manifestation of what you might call a starship, named Tsunami. I am also a manifestation of Princess Sasami of the Juraiian Empire. In other words, I am from outer space."
Priss blinked. "You're an alien? But you look human."
"My people once came from Earth, so this is to be expected."
Priss raised an eyebrow. "What, this world was colonized by ancient astronauts or something?"
"More the reverse. Humanity originated here, but long ago, before recorded history, some humans fled this world during a disaster that is remembered dimly in many legends of your world." Tsunami munched on her ice cream some more.
Priss ate her ice cream quietly, her head spinning. Celia's never gonna believe any of this. I bet Nene will eat it all up. "So you gave me powers with your alien technology?"
Tsunami shook her head. "No, the power was already within you."
"I...I'm an alien?" If she tells me my parents were really from another planet...
"I didn't say that. Although you were born on the moon, if you are who I think you are. You're as human as anyone else, but you were born with a special gift because of your bloodline. You have a sister out there too, although you've never met."
"A sister? I'm an only child!"
"An adopted only child."
Priss paused and thought. "Good point...so who were my real parents?"
Tsunami took a deep breath. "It all starts a very long time ago..." I just hope this doesn't freak her out.
Naturally, of course, it did.
Nene soaked in the nice hot water at the bathhouse. "Oooh, this feels so good." She looked over at Ryoko, who had a figure she thought was about twenty times better than her. "How can someone your age look so good?"
Ryoko laughed. "Oil of Olay."
They both laughed. "So where are we going next? And why come here first?"
"Well, I wanted to see you naked, for one thing, and..." Ryoko began.
Nene blinked. "What?"
"Not like that! I am married, you know. Besides, I'm sure Ryu has seen it all before, and I am his mother so..."
"What kinda crazy logic is that?" Ryu's mom must be insane, Nene thought. She blushed.
"He has seen you like this, right?" I'm going to be very disappointed if he hasn't, she thought.
Nene blushed more. "Uh, well, we..."
Ryoko smiled. "Good! I was afraid the boy was starting to give up after that...maybe I shouldn't mention that...naaah, you have to hear this..."
Nene said, "I think Ryu would have told me if he wanted me to know."
Ryoko pouted for a few seconds. "Well, I wanted to see if you met the minimum physical standards. You passed. With a little work, you might be almost as good looking as me." She winked.
"Uh, thanks, I think."
"There's another reason I brought you here as well."
"What?" Now Nene was kind of nervous.
"We'll get to that in a minute." Her voice went from its usual playful tone to a very serious one. "How much do you love my son, Nene-chan?"
Nene blushed some more and turned her head away from Ryoko, only to somehow find Ryoko was now sitting on the other side of her. She started. "I...uhy...I mean..."
"Don't be shy. I won't kill you if you give me the wrong answer."
This was perhaps not the best way to calm Nene's fears. "I just...why are you asking me this?"
Ryoko's voice got very serious. "Because my son loves you very much. Like me, he really totally throws himself into his relationships. He needs someone who can give him as much love as he gives her."
Nene nodded. "Yeah. He tells me all the time how special I am, and how beautiful and smart and fun to be with. It's almost...scary sometimes. I just...It seems so right to be with him. So natural. I've never had a relationship this close before. I don't know what to do..." She stared at herself. "I guess that's probably not quite what you wanted to hear."
"Love is scary, isn't it?" Ryoko's voice had softened.
"And I feel so bad because he tells me everything that's going on with him and there's things I just can't tell him, and then I feel guilty."
"Because you're one of the Knight Sabres," Ryoko said casually.
"Yeah. I'd get my head bit off by..." Nene blinked. "I...uh...what gave you that crazy idea?"
"I saw you get into a truck, then the four Knight Sabres came flying out of it later." Ryoko said cheerfully. "Seems like pretty good evidence to me."
Nene boggled. Celia's gonna eat my brain. She thanked God that no one else was in the place today. "I...you..."
"I haven't told anyone...yet. I wanted to talk to you first." She paused.
Nene turned away again only to find Ryoko was still in front of her. "I had good reason to keep quiet."
"I'm sure you did. I'm not angry about it. Our family has many secrets." She turned slightly so she wasn't staring directly at Nene. "It's my duty to determine how soon we can tell them to you, you see. I like you, Nene, and I trust my son's judgment. I wish I had more time to get to know you before I make my decision, but events are rushing along quickly."
Nene said, "Wh...what kind of events?" Her head was spinning.
"Someone has been killing off one branch of our family over the years, and we're trying to figure out who and why. One of Youshou's daughters was almost killed by the GENOM corporation, and we think her grandchildren are probably in danger. Ryu thinks you know where they are. Do you know a Celia Stingray or a Mackie Stingray, Nene?"
Nene blinked. "Yes." I shouldn't have said that, she thought. Celia will kill me. She's Ryu's mother! She can't be bad, the other part of her brain said. Nene paused. "Wait, you said one of Youshou's daughters is Celia's grandmother? That means Celia and Ryu are...second cousins?"
Ryoko stared off into space for a moment. "Yes. I think that's about right. So if you marry Ryu, you and Celia will be second-cousins-in-law."
Nene spent a minute or two boggling. "I can hardly imagine them to be even that closely related." She blinked. "I...So Celia's grandmother is alive?"
"She's alive and well and staying in our hotel room."
Nene turned to Ryoko. "I...Is she the Queen of Swords?"
Ryoko nodded. "Yes."
"I...what...How does she do all that stuff?"
Ryoko said, "Her father is from another planet."
Nene blinked. "Youshou is an alien?"
"So am I and Aeka." Ryoko smiled faintly. "Welcome to the family secret. Well, one of them."
"I..you..."
Ryoko shrugged. "It would have come out sooner or later." She levitated into the air. "Just in case you thought I was kidding..."
Nene quietly fainted.
Priss stared at the remains of her ice cream. Could it all be true? Could I really be some kind of princess from a kingdom on the moon 25,000 years ago? It sounds like neo-pagan mystic bullshit...but what happened to me a little while ago was real. I can almost feel the power in me now. She fiddled with the sword hilt. "So...now what happens?" If I try to talk to any of my friends about this, they'll think I'm nuts.
"Well, I can help you learn to use your new abilities. Also, you need to meet the rest of us here...although you already know a few people of Juraiian descent."
Priss boggled. "I do? There's a lot of you here?"
"Your student Manami, for one thing. And her half-brother Ryu."
Priss boggled more. "Nene's dating an alien?"
Nene woke up in her apartment, in bed, wearing her pajamas. For a moment, she thought she had dreamed the whole thing, then she saw Ryoko sitting on the bed next to her. "Before you ask, I wasn't joking. Your friend Celia is descended from aliens, and so is Ryu. Tenchi grew up on Earth, but he's also descended from Youshou, who is half human and half-Juraiian. Aeka is also from Jurai, and I'm well...I'm special."
Nene shivered slightly. "I...why are you all here?"
"Youshou loves this world, and so do we. It's a long story...You want to talk here, or shall we go eat and I'll tell you over dinner?"
Nene wasn't sure what to say. "Food would be good."
She got up and got dressed. "How did you get me home before I woke up?"
Ryoko teleported across the room to demonstrate as she said, "Like this, but farther."
Nene almost fainted again.
It took a very long time for Ryoko to explain everything. Nene's brain struggled to not explode into tiny little shards. Finally, Ryoko said, "Any questions?"
Nene picked at her dinner and thought carefully. "So you're all royalty..." She felt very small and inferior.
"If you start calling me Princess, I'll kill you," Ryoko said cheerily. "Hey, don't feel bad. I was criminal scum before I met Tenchi. Ryu loves you because you're you. I didn't tell you all this to brag. I decided I trusted you enough to tell you. It may turn out to be a mistake, but once I make up my mind to do something, I do it. Besides, you're at least as royal as I am, if not more."
"What, you mean..."
Ryoko laughed. "Youshou did a little checking up. Technically, you are the heir to the Russian throne."
Nene blinked. "I really am descended from Anastasia Romanov?"
"Youshou's the one who got her out of Russia back in 1918." Ryoko wolfed down the last of her dinner and signalled the waitress, then ordered more food.
"He...but that was over a hundred years ago!"
"Didn't you hear me earlier? I came to Earth 700 years ago. I was born thousands of years ago. A lot of us live a very, very long time." She laughed. "Azusa's been bugging us to find Ryu a royal bride. I think he's going to have a heart attack on this one."
Nene laughed. "Well, this is all...so surprising. So...When do I get to ride in a spaceship?"
Ryoko laughed. "Finish your dinner first."
"Yes, Mother," Nene teased.
Ryoko laughed heartily. "Call me Mom. Aeka is Mother. I'm Mom."
"I...why did you kiss her at dinner last night?"
"Because that sort of thing really drives her crazy." Ryoko winked at Nene. "She's so much fun to tease because she blows her top so easily."
By the time dinner was over, Nene had come to accept that her life had just become weirder than she had ever imagined. She was still working on accepting the weirdness itself.
Tsunami could see Priss had reached the level where further revelations could only boggle her. "Do you have anything you have to do tonight? There are some people you might want to meet who can help you. Or I can come talk to you again tomorrow."
"I...I think I need to be alone for a while. Or maybe to go talk to some of my friends...I could use a nice long ride." Priss finished her ice cream.
"All right. If you need me, you can use the sword to send a message to me. Just focus on it and think of my name. I'll call you later and we can set up our next meeting." She bounced off through the door.
Priss stared. I haven't had my mind blown this thoroughly in a long time, she thought. She got up and left, not realizing a woman in a dark green suit with reddish eyes was watching her.
Nene and Ryoko appeared on the command deck of Ryo-oh-ki. Nene looked around. It was the strangest place she'd ever seen, with odd black spindle-shaped crystals floating everywhere. A huge viewscreen overhead showed the Earth, floating in space.
"We...We're in orbit."
Ryoko nodded. "Ryo-oh-ki, this is Her Imperial Highness, Romanova Nene, Tsarevna of Russia in Exile."
Nene laughed. "Just call me Nene-chan." She looked around. "Who are you talking to?"
"My ship."
Odd small brown furry rabbit-like faces appeared on the black floating crystals and a resounding "Mew" echoed through the ship.
"Ryo-oh-ki says hello. Ryo-oh-ki, hail Tsunami."
"Tsunami?"
"Tsunami is Princess Sasami's ship. She'll be wanting to meet you, too. She's been up here in orbit monitoring things for us. Sasami is Aeka's sister."
A tall woman appeared on the deck. She was beautiful with a blue tatoo on her forehead and long blue hair. Dressed in a formal kimono, she looked to be a little older than Celia, perhaps in her mid-twenties. Regally walking over to Nene, she said, "I am Princess Sasami. It is a great pleasure to finally meet you, Princess Nene."
Nene blushed. "Please, just call me Nene-chan."
"And you can call me Sasami-chan."
Ryoko laughed. "You're starting to sound like mom, Sasami."
Sasami winked. "Maybe I've been your mom all along."
Nene laughed. "This is all so much like a dream."
"Your old life was a dream. This is the waking. Yet, this too is another dream, though a higher one." Sasami said.
Before she could continue, Ryoko said, "Don't confuse her more with all that mystical stuff. Did you find that person you were looking for yet?"
Sasami nodded. "Yes, I did. She has been awakened. This will be very hard for her. But enough of that. I guess this is your first time in space, Nene?"
"I never thought I'd really be in space..." She stared out at the stars. "They're so beautiful."
Sasami smiled. "There's people living around those. You'll get to visit them some day."
"That would be nice."
Ryoko said, "Hey, I know something we can do for fun! Let's go stage a UFO sighting!"
Sasami laughed. "And dress up as Elvis?"
Nene laughed. "Roswell, New Mexico, here we come?"
"Right! Here we GO!" Ryoko turned to one of the crystals. "Set a course for Roswell, New Mexico!" She paused, then turned to Nene. "Where on the Earth is that?"
Roswell and a few JDF bases never did quite figure out what really happened that evening.
Manami walked quietly through the park with her father. "Where is Mother?"
"She and grandpa are off talking to some of his distant descendants. I wanted to take the chance to spend some time with you. I'm so busy, I hardly get to talk to my own children." He sighed. "I haven't been able to be a very good father."
"You've been a wonderful father, father." The park was part of the Tokyo University Campus. Before 2025, there had been three classroom buildings here, but they had been destroyed by the Kanto Quake. Now the basement of one of them was a pond, the reconstructed ground floor of a second one was a recreation center for the university, and the third one was completely demolished. Trees and grass flourished here, despite the pollution, and dozens of students were scattered across the park, enjoying its peace and quiet and beauty.
"Are you happy here, Manami?" Tenchi asked, picking up a stone and looking out across the pond.
"Yes, Father. I've really enjoyed being here much more than I had expected. I've made a lot of friends and many good memories. I..." She hesitated. "I almost wish I didn't have to leave in a few years."
Tenchi tried to skip the rock across the water. It sank. "This is a really nice university, even with all the damage we did to it when Ryoko and Aeka and I were here. I knew you'd like it." He picked up another rock, but it sank instead of skipping too.
Manami watched quietly. "What are you trying to do, father?"
"I'm trying to remember how to do this so I can teach it to you before I forget." He concentrated and threw another rock. It skipped once, then sank. "I haven't done this in decades, I think." He sighed. "I haven't had a decent bowl of ramen in decades either. Jurai is very advanced in some things...but not everything."
"Our world sets the standard for galactic high culture," Manami began.
Tenchi laughed. "You sound like a tourist brochure." He threw another rock. It sank...like a rock, amazingly enough.
Manami blushed faintly. "Sorry, father." She watched him sink three more rocks. "Why don't you use your powers to help you?"
"I could vaporize this entire pond too, but I won't. This is supposed to be a test of skill. Me against nature." He threw another rock. It skipped twice.
Manami quietly picked up a rock and tossed it. It skipped eight times and landed on the other side. "Like this?"
Tenchi sighed. "So much for teaching you how to do it."
Manami smiled. "You've taught me many things, father. Even if rock throwing isn't one of them."
"I understand you've become quite a singer."
Manami froze for a moment in abject fear. "I..um...yes."
"Ryu said I should ask you about it. Feel free to brag." He winked.
Manami briefly contemplated a few ways to torture her brother. "I am honored he thinks so highly of my singing." She sat down on a nearby bench. "Would you like to hear me sing something for you?"
Tenchi tried again to skip a rock. This time it went three times. He sat down by Manami. "I think I'd like that."
Manami spent a moment trying to remember a song that wouldn't get her in trouble. "Ahh, here's one from an old Earth album from the nineties. You might even remember it."
"My anger hides a loving heart;
My anger drives us far apart.
Only your love can heal the pain,
For it's your smile that brings the rain
That helps love's fields to grow.
Walk with me through summer's field
So we can help our hearts to heal.
Stride through the grass and smell the air
Under the sun without a care.
I want to walk with you.
We hid our love behind our pride,
Never letting others inside.
To end those lies must be our task;
Tear down the walls; Throw out the masks
We used to hide from love.
Walk with me through summer's field
So we can help our hearts to heal.
Stride through the grass and smell the air
Under the sun without a care.
I want to walk with you.
Love does not end with "I Love You",
Not if what the things we said were true.
We have to strive to make it grow.
We have to let our feelings show
Else love will fade like dew."
Tenchi listened quietly to the song, then applauded when Manami finished. "I remember that one. That was off of Red Hot Summer, Ayukawa Madoka's second album. It came out in 1997, when I was a freshman here. I danced with your mother to that song."
Manami smiled. "I guess I chose wisely, then."
Tenchi got a far away look. "We had a lot of good times here. Even if every dance tended to turn into a riot." He laughed. "So have you found a royal boyfriend yet?"
Manami laughed faintly. "Just a few dates."
"Can't find someone you like?"
"Not who great-great-grandfather Azusa wouldn't eat for breakfast." She sighed. "Ryu got lucky. He's still going to have an uphill battle, but..."
Tenchi frowned. "I will not let him push you into a marriage you don't want, or away from one you do want."
"I will do my duty," Manami said quietly.
"I want my children to have a choice like I did and to be able to be happy with who they marry, like I am. We all don't have a lot of freedom, I know, but you can't marry someone for hundreds of years if you don't like them." He laughed faintly. "I hope Ryoko's meeting with Nene is going okay."
"Nene is a very sweet girl. I think she'll make Ryu a good wife." Manami picked up another rock and casually skipped it eight times across the pond. "If she survives this talk, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if she challenged Nene-chan to a fight to see how good she is from all that robot fighting."
Tenchi bigsweated. "I...I should have thought of that." He started to get up.
Manami pulled him down. "I was joking, father." She laughed. "It's much more likely that she's getting Nene drunk."
Tenchi sighed. "I hope Nene can hold her liquor."
Manami got up. "My advisor wanted to meet you. It's almost the time I told her we'd be there."
Tenchi got up and followed her.
Linna went over her checkbook again. Something is just not adding up, she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing. She answered it. "Hello?"
"Hi, this is Ryu."
"Hi, Ryu! What's up?"
"I'm trying to get Celia Stingray's phone number for a relative of hers. Do you know it?"
Linna blinked. "Well, I...uh.." What's he want Celia's number for? A worm of suspicion gnawed at her.
"I just found out her grandmother and mine were sisters, you see, and..."
Linna blinked. "You're related to Celia?"
"Yes. I'm trying to get her number for her grandmother, my greataunt, Meylia Stingray."
She's alive! Linna thought. Celia's going to be very happy, very paranoid, or maybe both.
Professor Hiyama sat in her office and pretended to read a book. Actually, she was thinking about her encounter with her visitor the previous night. Damn that woman, she thought. What is she up to this time? If she's after one of my students...She caught herself growling out loud and laughed faintly. "And why did she mention that Tarot card? I suppose I should go find out what the Two of Coins means."
She turned on her radio. "Come on down to Chez Kino! You'll find the finest home-style dining in Mega-Tokyo at any of our five locations. We've got stores in..." Professor Hiyama changed the channel. "Fighting Evil by Moonlight..." She changed the channel again. "Masquerade...where the world will never find you..." She left the radio on that station.
Settling back into her chair, she tried to focus on reading The Pursuit of Flower Power. This time she was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in!"
One of her favorite students, Masaki Manami stood in the doorway, along with another person she recognized. She sprang to her feet. "Tenchi-san! It's been a long time!"
Tenchi laughed. "Wow, you're still here?"
Manami said, "This is my father, Tenchi Masaki." She cut off her prepared speech when she realized they already knew each other. "You know each other?"
"Professor Hiyama was teaching here when I got my degree. I had a few classes with her."
Professor Hiyama came over and shook Tenchi's hand. "It's been such a long time."
"I'm surprised you remember me."
"How could I forget one of my best students? Or those two crazy girls who were after you?" She looked over at Manami. "I always thought you looked familiar, but I couldn't remember why, until now. I take it Aeka was the one who finally won your heart?"
Tenchi laughed nervously. "It's a long story...uhh..."
"Ooooh! You married both of them! You sly dog!"
Tenchi jumped slightly. "How do you always figure these things out?"
Professor Hiyama laughed. "I have a knack. That would have solved one problem relationship I had...but that's another story. Sit down! I want to hear all about what you did with that silly political science degree you got from here. You're not running Japan yet, so I can only assume you did something else."
They spent a very long time reminiscing.
"So you all got out okay?" Youshou asked. He and Aeka were sitting on a nice plush couch in a hastily rented hotel room. The people they were visiting sat on the bed nearby and at the small table in the room.
Kasuga Kyosuke sat on the bed next to his wife, Madoka. They both had grey hair now, though they had kept in fairly good shape, especially Madoka. Her voice was still soft and musical. "Thanks to the children. We still don't know how GENOM found us."
"We don't know how they found Meylia either," Youshou said. "Or why they wanted her dead. Why did they wait so long to kill her?"
"There's a new man in GENOM now. He was behind that," the man sitting at the table said. He was the oldest looking person in the room, with short white hair and his face heavily lined by age. He looked lazy and indolent, but that hid a keen mind. Goto Kiichi turned to Youshou, "Ever hear of someone named Wallace?"
Youshou shook his head. "Other than an American politician nearly a century ago and a Scottish rebel many centuries ago, no. Where is he from?"
"That's just it. He's a man without a past. Whoever he is, he holds a lot of vaguely defined authority in the GENOM corporation. We've turned up a lot of agents working for him. He could just be another scapegoat Quincy has raised up only to sacrifice..."
Aeka said quietly, "But you don't think so."
"I think he may have had something to do with the recent murder attempt on Celia Stingray, too."
Aeka started. Youshou frowned. "Tell me more."
Mihoshi and Leon finished examining the park for evidence. There had been plenty of witnesses. Too bad their story was completely unbelievable. Mihoshi asked what must have been the twentieth child, "Who killed the boomer?"
"These two cool girls with magical powers! One of them had a lightsabre and the other one had a long wand with a heart on the end! The jedi one leaped down from the tree and cut the boomer in half, then left with her friend and some kid," the child, a cute little red haired girl, said.
"And you say one of them had blue hair?"
Leon sighed. The first part of the story was clear. The boomer had come from a barbershop adjoining the park. It had chased the customers out and followed some into the park, injuring two. It then gone after some kids. Then the testimony got crazy. One of the kids' big sister and one of the kids, a 'blue haired girl' had turned into 'jedi knights'/'magical princesses'/ 'magical warriors' and proceeded to cut the boomer in half.
Whatever had killed the boomer must have been using some kind of laser beam or other energy source...The blade wasn't made that could cut a boomer in half this well...Maybe a monofilament blade, but that wouldn't melt the edges. Probably the Queen of Swords, he concluded. The damage was similar...but then what about this 'blue haired girl'?
Mihoshi finished interrogating the kids. Leon turned to her. It's futile to even try, he thought, but I have to ask her. "So what do you think?"
"The boomer was cut in half by an energy blade. I didn't think they made those on this planet," Mihoshi said. "I mean..."
Leon sighed. "I'd almost think you weren't made on this planet."
"How did you guess?"
"We can talk about that later. Any idea what could have made this cut?"
"Probably the Queen of Swords. As for the blue haired girl..." She paused. "Oh, I know who that was!"
"You do?"
"Sure. Want me to call her so she can make a statement?"
Leon boggled. Can't hurt to try. "Uh, sure."
Priss drove mindlessly around the Tokyo University campus. Manami has to be around here somewhere...Where are you hiding, girl? She had tried all of Manami's usual hangouts. Checking her dorm room had gotten her the information that Manami was 'showing her folks around the campus' from Shinobu, and that Ryu's mother was certifiably insane. I bet she's definitely the alien parent, Priss thought. At least I finally understand why he has that spiky hair...
As she roared past the classroom buildings for the fifth time, she spotted Manami and a young dark haired man in his late twenties coming out of one of the buildings. Who's that? Priss wondered. Must be an older brother...he's not old enough to be her dad.
Priss roared up to the twosome. "Manami. We've got to talk."
Manami blushed faintly. This is going to require difficult explanations, she thought. Well, better to bite the bullet. "Priscilla-san, this is my father, Masaki Tenchi. Father, this is Asagiri Priscilla."
Tenchi bowed. "A pleasure to meet you. Are you attending Tokyo University?"
Priss laughed. "I sing for a living. In fact, your daughter opened for one of my concerts recently."
Manami got a look on her face like she'd just been hit with an eighteen-wheeler. I'm dead, she thought.
"Really?" He turned to Manami. "Why didn't you mention that?"
"It...umm...It slipped my mind," Manami said. "Would you like to walk with my father and me for a while, Priscilla-san? What was it you needed to talk to me about?"
Priss looked at Manami's father. Surely he knows about all this stuff. He looks so young. I guess this is where I see if I really have gone nuts... She parked her bike. "All right. So where are we headed to?"
"We were going to go get Ryu and get some food."
"Sounds good to me." Hmm. Blunt is best, Priss thought. "So, ever met a blue haired girl who calls herself Tsunami?"
Manami froze in place. Tenchi blinked. "
Priss continued on with a cheery tone of voice, "She told me you're from outer space. Jurai, to be precise."
Tenchi blinked. "She told you that?"
"Is it true?" Priss stared at Tenchi.
Tenchi put one hand behind his head. "Well, I was born on Earth, but..."
Manami said quietly, "Everything Tsunami told you was true. She does like jokes, but not on something this important. Why did she tell you all this?"
"Because she's been waiting for 25,000 years for me to reappear. I'm from where she was born." Priss stared up at the sky and found the moon hanging low over the horizon. "We're both from the moon." She shivered faintly. "I...I don't know what to do. How to deal with this...who I can tell..."
Tenchi nodded. "I had to go through something like this. I had an ordinary life you see...until one day I decided to go poking around in the family shrine..."
Celia sat in a booth at Chez Kino #1, in downtown Mega-Tokyo. It was a nice restaurant, but not too nice. The decor was set up to make it look like you were eating at home...if your home had 30 or so tables and booths. Fargo sat across from her dressed in his usual ever so slightly scruffy suit. He quietly slid an envelope to her as he perused the menu. "The food here is really good."
Celia quietly opened the envelope, having already decided what to buy. "So I understand."
"Even though there's a rumor that the owner of this chain is a boomer. I don't believe it, though." Fargo decided to get some chinese style chicken and american style biscuits.
Celia blinked. "Why would anyone believe she's a boomer?"
"She's in her fifties, but she looks to be in her twenties." He pointed to a picture on the wall, which showed a young woman with long reddish brown hair gathered back into a pony-tail in a chef's outfit. "That picture was supposedly taken in 2032."
Celia shrugged. "Some people keep their youth. I can't think of any reason why someone would put a boomer in charge of a restaurant chain." She quietly read through the papers while placing her order and waiting for the meal to arrive.
The assassination had been aimed at her. Yamato had confessed to the police that he had been hired by one Anton Robespierre, who Fargo's contacts claimed was an alias of Wilson Kamisaka of Schilling Enterprises. Schilling was involved in construction and architectural design in its Tokyo Branch, though it also had branches involved in furniture and carpet manufacturing. Kamisaka was third in command of the local branch and had a reputation as their 'fixer', handling shadow operations, not that Schilling Enterprises would seem to have a lot of need for such.
Celia quietly put away the envelope as the food arrived. She then noticed an odd bulge in Fargo's jacket pocket, and some sort of white fuzzy thing that was sticking out of it. "What's that in your pocket?"
Fargo blinked, then laughed. "I'd almost forgotten I still had that." He pulled it out. It was a small plushie doll of Sabre White. "I took my niece to see a bunch of seiyuu at a public appearance earlier today. She made me buy her a few dozen of these dolls, and someone was selling these as well. I, of course, had to carry them all. Guess I missed this one."
Celia laughed. "What's next, an animated series?"
"There's a rumor of that, actually."
They both laughed.
Mackie sat at home and watched TV, basically bored out of his skull. He was watching some old tapes Nene had lent him of Nick Hatchett, Robot Fighter. This was from the season where all the robots were working for Cthulhu. Nick and his girlfriend, Leslie, were fighting an army of Cyber-Deep-Ones in this episode who were trying to revive a giant crocodile that lived in the bay of Rio de Janeiro. As usual, the plot made little to no sense, maybe even negative amounts of sense, but the action sequences were well done and fun to watch.
The phone rang. He paused the tape and answered it. "Hello, Palace of Love, Mackie speaking."
The voice at the other end of the line was unfamiliar to him, though it stirred a faint chord of recognition. "Mackie Stingray?"
"Um, yes. Who is this?"
"This is your grandmother, Meylia. Is your sister home?"
Mackie nearly fainted.
At USSD, a screen began to flash. A man blinked and plinked keys on his keyboard. "Shit." He turned and ran to his superior. "We've got a big problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"You know our laser satellites?"
"Of course I do!" What kind of idiots are we hiring these days, the colonel wondered.
"We're ceasing to recieve transmissions from them, one by one."
"Shit." A flurry of activity soon began.
"Celia is what?" Priss said. She, Ryu, Manami, and Tenchi were at 'The University Cafe', an on-campus fast food place run by the dining hall administration.
Ryu repeated, "Celia is my second cousin and of Juraiian descent."
Priss boggled quietly. "Is anyone I know normal?"
"As far as I know, Leon is perfectly normal," Ryu said. "Unless Aunt Mihoshi has done something to him."
"Something permanent, anyway," Tenchi said.
Priss said, "And Linna, I guess."
"As far as we know," Manami said, grateful that her father had completely forgotten about her having opened for one of Priss' concerts.
Ryu said, "Anyone who has had that many different boyfriends is hardly normal."
"Thus says the man with spiky hair," Priss replied. I can't believe I'm taking this so calmly...then again, after hearing about Mr. Masaki's life...I think I got off easy.
"You'll help us against GENOM, won't you, Priss?" Ryu asked.
Priss laughed. "As if you didn't know I'd say yes."
"Had to ask, just to be polite."
Priss thought about her energy sword. This was going to be cool. "So what do we blow up first?"
Tenchi said, "Well, first we have to find out how much GENOM knows and why they're after the house of Jurai."
"Are you sure they even know about Jurai?" Priss asked. "Maybe they were after Meylia for some other reason."
"With six boomers for an ordinary human who had been in a coma for ten years? They have to know something." Tenchi said. "Although it could be someone is just using GENOM as a front..."
As Celia finished her dinner, her pager and Fargo's went off at the same time. Two seconds later, four other pagers went off across the restaurant. He laughed. "It never rains but it pours, eh?"
Celia nodded and quietly adjourned to the ladies' room. She got out her cellular phone. "You've got to come home, Celia!" Mackie said.
"Well, I was almost done here anyway. What's wrong?"
"G...G..."
"What?"
"Grandma's going to be here at nine."
Celia blinked audibly. "She what?"
"And our Great-grandfather too...and maybe some other relatives."
"She...She is alive?"
"Alive and well and called us on the phone. Also..." Mackie's voice trailed off.
"Also what?"
"Just come on home..."
"Okay. See you soon." Celia wondered why Mackie was acting strangely. She would soon find out.
Sasami, Ryoko, and Nene looked at the cargo in Tsunami's hold. Sasami turned to Nene. "What's the best way to disarm these things, anyway?"
Nene shrugged. "Break the lenses, maybe? We've got enough of them to experiment on."
Ryoko said, "I could just blow them to bits."
"Yes, but that wouldn't be very creative." The three of them put their heads together and began to plan.
Priss, Tenchi, Ryu, and Manami were back in the campus park again. Priss was finally starting to relax. Being around people who seemed to regard virtually anything, no matter how strange, as normal, was a relief. "So then Manami forgot the lyrics to 'Born to Be Wild' and started singing some hymn instead...We all thought she must have had too much to drink." Priss began singing 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' in a very wild style.
Everyone laughed, even Manami, though she was blushing. "Priss-san, if you tell my mother about this..."
"She'll die. I know. I can be discreet, even though it's no fun."
Tenchi laughed quietly. "I won't say anything, dear, but you're going to have to tell her eventually. If she finds out on her own..."
"This could be as bad as that tribble incident."
Manami buried her face in her hands. "Let's not even think about that. Please?"
Tenchi laughed. "The look on great-grandfather's face when he found tribbles under the sheets on his bed..."
Ryu laughed. "And mom rampaging through the palace, blasting tribbles right and left, shouting a war cry..."
"Please! I don't want to think about it!" Manami said. They wouldn't let me have any pets after that...
"So when do I get to meet your mom, Ryu? Sounds like my kind of person."
"Well, she's off with Nene-chan right now. They're supposed to come back by campus afterwards. I assume they'll get here soon."
Priss said, "Hey, Manami, have you sung that song you wrote about your brother for him yet?"
Ryu blinked. "What?"
"We were going to play it at our concert, but Dan had a brain spasm and couldn't remember any of it." She sighed. "I think he doesn't like it and doesn't want to tell me..."
Tenchi smiled. "I want to hear it."
Manami blushed. "Okay...here goes. It's pretty rough...I'm not a great songwriter."
"We walk through life together
Yet we walk on different paths
Two children of one father...
Our mothers set us on the roads we follow.
Wild Child, running free
Running free across the sea of space
Breaking all the rules
You are the chaos to my law.
I am the oak who stands
Strong against the wind and rain
I must stand unchanging
Against the winds and tides of fate.
Wild Child, running free
Running free across the sea of space
Breaking all the rules
You are the chaos to my law.
I look at you and I see
The freedom I wish was part of me.
You're not afraid to do
What you want, to be what you want.
Wild Child, running free
Running free across the sea of space
Breaking all the rules
You are the chaos to my law."
Ryu blushed. "Uh, thanks..." He wasn't sure what to say.
"It's even better with loud guitars and heavy drumming," Priss said. "The lyrics need work, but it gets the point across."
Tenchi nodded and hugged his daughter, who blushed more. "I'm proud of your musical talents. Keep working on it and you'll be a great musician one day."
Manami blushed. "You really think so?"
"Damn straight," Priss said. "All it takes is willpower and a little work. Okay, a lot of work."
She smiled. "Thanks."
Andrea finished downloading various files she wasn't supposed to have access to. One advantage of this shift is nothing ever happens and no one pays any attention to what we're doing. Also, Lt. Yamano has gone home for the night, which helps.
Checking timestamps, she noticed several of the files she was downloading had been accessed recently. Someone else is on the same trail I am, she thought. This doesn't bode well.
"Hey, Andrea, whatcha doing?" It was Leon.
Andrea froze and prayed Leon wasn't paying very close attention to what was on her monitor. She turned and blocked any view of it as best she could. "What are you doing here this late?" Then she spotted Mihoshi. Shit, she thought.
Mihoshi smiled, "Hi, ...Andrea! Nice headband you're wearing today!"
"We're investigating a bit of an odd case. Rampaging boomer cut in half by an energy blade. Probably the Queen of Swords...but..."
"But what?"
"I dunno. Something seems different. None of the kids who saw it said anything about a kimono, for one thing...and they all claimed she had a lightsabre."
"Well, energy weapons aren't exactly my field of expertise, either." Go away, Mihoshi, she thought. Sadly, Andrea had no psychic powers, so trying to influence Mihoshi's weak will was still beyond her abilities. "Still, we're not too far from making something like that, I think."
Leon shrugged. "I know some stuff about cars, but I'm no tech expert. I guess I'll have to bug the lab boys tomorrow."
Mihoshi looked over at the screen. "Whatcha reading?"
Andrea swore silently. Well, here comes the apocalypse, she thought. "A report on accident prone blondes."
"Really? Let me look!" She leaned over and struck several keys with her elbow."
'System shutting down in 30 seconds', the screen flashed.
It was only with effort that Andrea was able to avoid crying.
9334 BC
The Void
SHIVA sat in the void and looked out upon the universe. He was not pleased. They have killed my faithful servant, my child in whom I was proud, he thought.
He watched three figures. A man, a woman, and a...being. They would pay in blood. Theirs and that of their descendants. Already, he was laying up suffering enough for the woman...but the man...now that was another question.
SHIVA looked at his legions. Only once a century could he release one of his servants. I must choose wisely...ah, yes. This one.
9334 BC
Tridentis III, pleasure planet of the Juraiian empire.
Emperor Ryalin I relaxed in the nice warm waters of the hot springs, all the care of running his empire far away from him for the moment. Thoughts of the madman he had recently executed for the second time were far from his thoughts as he sat by his two wives and let the soft scent of the waters fill his nostrils as the warmth of the spring soothed his muscles.
He probably would have stayed there for a very long time, if he hadn't heard people screaming. His wives sprung to alert attention, as did his nearby bodyguards.
The sky began to rapidly darken, though it was mid-day. The emperor looked up and saw the Sun vanishing, like an eclipse. He relaxed. Nothing to worry about.
Far above, the crew of his wife's ship, the Celestine, were in a panic, wishing the Emperor's ship, the Tsunami, wasn't in another system with the Emperor's son, Crown Prince Ryalin, soon to be Ryalin II. "Are you sure that's what's happening?" One of them asked the oldest of the crew members.
"Whatever that cloud thing around the sun is...It's pushing the sun towards going nova. We have maybe 20 minutes if we're lucky..."
They weren't. They managed to get the Emperor up to the ship, just in time for the creature around the sun to disengage and move on just before the sun went nova, destroying the entire system. The creature, glutted on the hydrogen and helium it had ripped from the sun along with vast amounts of electromagnetic energy moved on through space, a loose cannon now. Soon, there was nothing left of Tridentis III but ashes. The legend of the Sun-Eater had begun.
And SHIVA danced.
Celia sat quietly and nervously. "This could be a trap."
Mackie sighed. "Anything could be a trap."
"Then why can't we get ahold of anyone?"
"We got ahold of Linna."
"She sounded funny on the phone."
Mackie walked over and shook Celia. "Snap out of it! This is our grandmother! We can't be paranoid about everyone! I thought you were getting over that, but I guess I was wrong."
The doorbell rang. Celia jumped. Mackie sighed. "I'll answer the door." As headed for the door, he resolved to not buy Celia any more coffee for a week.
It was Linna. "Hi, guys. What was so urgent? Not that I was doing anything anyway. Did we get a new job?"
"Grandma's coming to see us and Celia's afraid she's going to turn out to be Freddy Kruger or something."
"It's best to be prepared." Celia had pulled herself together. "Go suit up. I'll signal you if it's necessary."
"You think this could be another trap?"
"I've already got one assassin after me."
Linna nodded. "You called the others?"
"Yes, but they haven't called back. I'm starting to worry."
Priss said, "I'll be right back. Have to answer this page."
Ryu said, "We're not going anywhere. There's a pay phone over there." He pointed and went back to his rock-skipping contest with his dad. So far, he was winning. Tenchi looked a little aggravated but didn't say anything.
As soon as Priss was out of earshot, Tenchi said, "People change when you're not looking, don't they?"
Ryu blinked. "What are you talking about, dad?"
Tenchi smiled faintly. "I wish I got to spend more time with you two like this. I'm always so busy." He sighed. "I never feel like a very good parent. Part of me still thinks of you two as the two little kids who used to steal each other's toys and then destroy your playroom fighting over it."
Manami blushed.
Ryu laughed. "I'm surprised the repairs didn't bankrupt the empire."
"You've both grown up so much. And I see Manami must have been spending more time with Ryoko than I had realized." He glanced meaningfully off in Priss' direction.
Manami blushed more. "She's been very kind to me."
"You don't have to be ashamed of being her friend, Manami. I think dad's trying to say that he's glad you've made new friends. And that Priss reminds him of Mom."
Tenchi nodded. "They should join us soon. I guess she hasn't finished talking to Nene-chan yet..."
Linna suited up, then lurked in one of the side rooms of the living section of Celia's 'house', waiting for something interesting to happen. She could over hear Celia and Mackie arguing in the living room over whether Celia was being paranoid.
Linna agreed. Only Celia would want someone in armor hanging around when her grandmother was coming to visit...although if her Grandmother really was the Queen of Swords like Celia suspected, this might not be such a bad idea. I wish my grandparents were still around. She sighed and looked around the room she was in. Her eyes lit upon a photo album. I shouldn't pry, she thought. This stopped her for about 20 seconds.
The first picture was a classic multi-generational shot. A tall, thin woman with long black hair stood side by side in the background with a tall, blond man, who looked close to ten years older than her. Sitting in a pair of chairs in front of them were a short woman with short black hair in the same style as Celia wore now, holding a little girl in her lap, probably Celia herself, and a man with dark brown hair, glasses, and a moustache, who Linna recognized as Dr. Stingray. The woman was clearly pregnant. There was a little label underneath, 'Stingray family awaits release of the beta copy of the second generation of Stingrays,' in big blocky letters, and in smaller script beneath it, 'Kimiko's 36th Birthday'.
"I guess Kimiko must be Celia's mom." Linna paged through more pictures. She could hear Celia and Mackie through the walls and not just over her comlink now. She sighed. Boredom was starting to look better than this. The pictures were interesting, though. Hard to imagine Celia as an innocent child, she thought, looking at a picture of Celia playing horsey with her father and another one of her chasing Mackie around the house with a broom.
The doorbell rang. Linna put the photo album down quietly. Time to do my job, she thought.
Mackie answered the door. A woman stood before him with long dark hair, shot through with streaks of grey. He recognized her, though this was the first time that he could remember that she hadn't been lying in bed in a coma. A tall man stood near her. His face was lined with age, and his eyes were almost hidden behind his glasses. His hair was totally grey, but he still stood straight and looked healthy for his age. The woman stared at Mackie for a moment. "You've grown up so much...you were just a little boy..."
"Grandma?"
She rushed forward and crushed him in a hug. "My grandson..." She began to cry.
He blushed a little and hugged her back. "Come on in. Sis is waiting for you." He looked over at the man. "And you're my great-grandfather?"
He nodded. "Your father had my name...Katsuhito. It is a pleasure to meet you."
Mackie lead them into the living room. Some soft classical music was playing on the stereo, and Celia sat tensely in a large plush chair, looking more like she was facing the rack than being a model for Lazy-Boy. She looked up, saying nothing, her face impassive.
Meylia finally let go of Mackie and ran across the room to her, sweeping Celia out of the chair and into her arms. "I've missed you all so much...You look just like your mother, Celia-chan."
For a moment, Celia panicked, and then the tears came. "Grandmother..."
"You don't have to say anything, dear." For a long time, they simply hugged each other and cried.
Emotions had cooled a bit at the Stingray household, and everyone had sat down to talk. Celia decided to get right to the main question on her mind. "Grandmother...are you the Queen of Swords?"
Linna tensed in the other room. Here's the critical moment...
Meylia stood up from her chair and closed her eyes. A circle of glowing blue light formed around her left hand, then ran up her arm and down her torso, other arm, and legs. In its wake, her clothing transformed into her battle garb. A triparte blue tatoo formed upon her brow and black wedges on her cheeks. "Yes, I am."
"I...how..." Celia wasn't sure how to ask her grandmother what she really wanted to know.
Youshou spoke. "You come from a long and noble line...which is not of this Earth. The blood of Jurai flows strongly in your grandmother's veins...
Mackie said, "What?"
Linna blinked. Either Celia's great grandfather is insane or things are weirder than I had imagined. Or both.
Celia said nothing. It was strange, and yet, short of her grandmother being some sort of boomer possessing technology beyond that of any she had seen...Could it possibly be true?
"I know this must sound strange to you." Youshou began.
"You got that right! This sounds like a bad science fiction novel!" Mackie said, leaning forward.
"Am I not flesh and blood? I am no machine," Meylia said. "And yet, I possess these powers. Is that not proof enough?"
Linna listened, her mind boggling. Celia an alien? Well, part alien...how can they breed with humans, though?
"Why...Why didn't Father ever tell us?"
"Your father didn't know...I didn't know...until after my powers awakened. Our line has enemies, Celia-chan." Meylia said, reverting to normal.
"I lived on earth for many years and only rarely ever revealed where I really came from. It all began with an attack by space pirates..."
Linna's mind teetered on the edge as she listened to the entire story over the comlink. I've been working for an alien...She tried to pull herself together. Celia is my friend, alien or not. She acts as human as...
Mihoshi...what if those stories she was telling about the 'Galaxy Police' were really true? What if she's an alien too? How many of them are there? Linna tried not to panic. What if Andrea...Linna shook her head. I'm getting paranoid. I'll start thinking Priss was born on another planet too if I'm not careful.
Out in the living room, Youshou finished by saying, "We think someone in GENOM knows about the house of Juraii and sent those boomers. We can't think of any other reason they would have tried to kill Meylia, unless maybe they thought her son had told her something important. And whoever knows about Jurai must have found out fairly recently that she was connected to us or they would have tried to kill her sooner."
Celia frowned. "Someone tried to kill me recently as well. He seems to have been working for some two-bit company, but..."
"Well, you'll be safe now. We can protect you until we can teach you how to use your powers."
Mackie laughed. "We're not as defenseless as you might think."
"Even the best security won't do much against combat boomers."
Celia smiled. "This will. Saber-green, come out."
Linna came out of the side room and posed casually in the doorway.
Youshou nodded. "Not bad. You have the Knight Sabres on retainer?"
Celia laughed. "You could say that..."
Priss said, "I gotta go knock some sense into a friend's head. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Her pager went off. She sighed. "Back to the phone." She stomped off to the pay phone again.
A few seconds later, Ryoko and Nene appeared. Ryoko leapt over to Tenchi. "Hello, dear."
Ryu laughed. "I take it Mom decided to tell you everything."
Nene walked over quietly to Ryu and touched his arm, then stared up at his face. He blinked. "Is something wrong?"
Nene stared quietly at Ryu's face, smiling faintly, but saying nothing. He smiled back nervously, wondering what was going on. Finally, she stepped forward and buried her face in his chest, wrapping her arms around him. He hugged her tightly, wondering what exactly she and his mother had talked about.
Meanwhile, Ryoko, Tenchi, and Manami were talking. "I could hardly believe it. There used to be hundreds of those things up there!"
Tenchi blinked. "Hundreds of what things?"
"Laser satellites. And they were all aimed at the planet! What kind of crazy people point their weapons at themselves?" Ryoko waved her arms about. "Even Mom isn't that much of a nut." She looked around for a moment, as if she expected her mother to show up and do something in retaliation.
Tenchi nodded. "That does sound dangerous."
Manami frowned slightly. "Wait...you said, were?"
Ryoko laughed. "Well, Sasami-chan, Nene-chan, and I decided this was a bad thing so we got rid of all of them."
"You what?" Manami said.
Nene giggled and let go of Ryu. "Sasami-chan's going to return them to their rightful owners."
Tenchi sighed. "Just put up a big flag, 'Hello, Aliens are here', why don't you?"
Ryoko frowned. "One shot from those things and we'd all die in seconds. We couldn't risk them being aimed at us."
Nene nodded. "I've nearly been killed by those things. They're dangerous."
Priss stomped back. "Crazy woman needs to make up her mind...what was that about laser satellites?"
Priss saw Ryoko and Nene glance at each other, then at the others. Ryu said, "Nene-chan got tired of them so she and Mom went and blew them all up."
Priss began to laugh. "Seriously."
"Oh, Priss, this is my Mom, Hakubi-Masaki Ryoko, Princess of Jurai."
Ryoko blinked. "Don't call me princess!!!"
"Yes, your highness," Ryu said, grinning.
Ryoko teleported behind Ryu and noogied him. "I said don't call me that!" She then remembered Priss was here. "Ummm..."
Priss laughed. "I know everything, Princess Ryoko. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
Ryoko frothed delicately. "Don't call me princess!!!!"
Nene laughed. "Yes, your highness."
Ryoko looked over at Tenchi. "Help, they're picking on me!"
Tenchi laughed faintly. "Well, you are surrounded by royalty, dear."
Ryoko frothed impotently, then spotted Priss. "You're not royalty, are you?" She paused. "Umm...do I know you?"
Ryu laughed faintly. "This is Princess Priscilla S. Asagiri, Queen of Rock and Roll."
Ryoko twitched faintly, then shrugged. "Right. Well, let's go celebrate by getting royally drunk!"
Priss laughed. "Now that's a royal decree I can live with."
Aeka and Sasami sat quietly in the 'garden' section of Tsunami, staring out at the Earth through a 'window'. "Did you find the girl you've been looking for, Sasami-chan?" Aeka asked.
Sasami nodded. "I...hope I can do my duty well with her. She has had a hard life, and this will be an additional burden. I pray it will not break her."
Aeka nodded. "I'm sure this is all a shock for Celia too, and Nene." She paused. "What do you think of Nene, sister?"
"I like her. She's got a good heart and she's smart, too. I think she'll be good for him." Sasami smiled. "We had a lot of fun with her this evening."
Aeka sat quietly for a little while. "I never thought I'd see this world again..."
"Well, one day, they'll be ready for contact with Jurai, and then we'll be able to visit more often."
"Father is going to blow his top."
"Father always blows his top. It's just his way. When he meets Nene...then he'll really blow his top."
Aeka sighed. "I like her, but..."
"Father will adjust. He's much more reasonable than he acts." Sasami smiled. "Now whether she will surive meeting Wasyuu..."
They both laughed.
Ryu teleported into Nene's apartment. Nene was pretty heavily soused. So was Ryu, but luckily being drunk didn't affect his ability to teleport. He laid Nene down in her bed. "Go sleepie, dear."
"Don' wanna."
Ryu yawned. "Gotta go sleepie too."
"Don' leaf me. Sweep wit me." Nene flailed pathetically in Ryu's direction and almost fell out of the bed.
"We're drunker than a three day old glass of beer...can't sweep with you when you're me...uh, you're drunk."
"Meanie. Don' wanna be alone."
Ryu gave up, not having enough sense left in his head to deny her. he clambered onto the bed and they soon passed out in each other's arms.
Linna floated through darkness. She knew she was dreaming, since it looked rather like deep space, but she wasn't explosively decompressing. The earth looked like a big blue and brown bottlecap off to her left. She laughed to herself. All this talk of aliens...I must be dreaming of being in a spaceship.
Suddenly, Linna found herself standing on the deck of an Imperial Star Destroyer, looking out the main viewscreen. She was dressed in the clothing of a ship captain. She laughed loudly. An ensign approached her. "Captain, Rebel forces approaching."
It took effort to keep from laughing her head off at him. Hey, I'll play along, she thought. "What are they, ensign?"
"It looks like...looks like...ummmm..." The ensign laughed nervously. "Let me put it on the viewscreen."
The viewscreen flickered and the image of a giant rabbit with huge fangs appeared. It snarled. Linna laughed so hard she woke up.
Linna got up and went and got herself a glass of grape juice. That was cute, she thought. I can hardly believe all this, though...It's all so crazy...Nene and Celia and Mackie — royalty...half my friends are aliens...At least Priss and Andrea are normal. It's enough to make you feel a little inferior...stop whining, Linna thought.
There was a knock on the door. Linna opend the door and a glowing skull was floating in the hallway. For a few seconds, she just stared, then she screamed, dspite feeling like an idiot for screaming. Her apartment dissolved away around her and she was floating in space again...with the glowing skull. She shivered. I guess I didn't wake up.
The glowing skull grew a glowing skeleton, then shadows began to wrap around the bones, becoming flesh. "You...you are the one."
"The one what?" This was incredibly creepy, but fascinating at the same time. I wish I had my hardsuit, Linna thought. Shadows wrapped around her, and suddenly, she was wearing her hardsuit. Parts of her flesh were chilled by touching the metal. She didn't wear very much to bed, usually.
"That flimsy hunk of metal and ceramics will avail you nothing. It is nothing compared to the power of..."
Linna cut him off. "The force? Going to ask me to come to the dark side? Claim you're my father?"
The figure laughed, though its laughter was rather reminiscent of hearing someone say cheerily, 'well, I think I'll begin by flaying your arms. Is that okay with you?' "I find it unlikely that I would be your father. Who are you?"
Linna was about to speak when she heard a voice from behind her. "Don't tell him your name, girl."
She blinked. "Master Hiromi?"
Linna knew it had to be a dream...Master Hiromi was living in Hong Kong now. Not that that really mattered...given we're in deep space, I'd be dead if this wasn't a dream. Still... "Who are you?"
"I asked first." The figure, now fully fleshed, was a six-armed man with a big red dot on his forehead. He was dressed in an odd looking robe, cut to fit a six armed man, and upon his brow was a silver tiara with six gems set in it, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. His top right hand held a sword, his top left hand a shield. The middle hands held two flames, one white and one black. The bottom left hand held a horn and the right hand a scroll.
Something stirred dimly in Linna's memory. I've seen this guy somewhere before, she thought. Maybe a museum or something. He looks like a hindu deity or something.
Hiromi frowned. "Go away and leave her alone."
The being turned and stared at Hiromi, suddenly changing sex to female. "You."
Hiromi glared at the being. "Me."
Linna wondered if she somehow had put drugs in her dinner the previous night. This was tripped out. "Master...what's going on?"
She frowned and took Linna's hand. The world rippled around them and they were standing in Hiromi's dojo. Linna shook her head. "This is a dream...right?"
"Your body is asleep, yes. That was...a being who believes he is Shiva, god of destruction."
"You mean, like as in Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva? The triple aspected god or something..." Linna tried to remember her history classes in High School.
"Yes. There are too many answers to your question that would only obfuscate matters, but that will do. Do not believe what he tells you...He will say whatever is necessary to get what he wants. And what he wants is the destruction of this world and his enemies."
"His enemies?" What a screwed up dream, Linna thought...I don't normally dream about rampaging gods.
"Whoever they are...You must beware his temptations, Linna. I don't know why he has taken an interest in you, but it can't be anything good. Remember what I taught you."
Linna briefly wondered if Hiromi was going to turn into Obi-Wan Kenobi. For a second, she flickered and did turn into Obi-Wan Kenobi, then turned back to normal. "Stop that!" Hiromi barked.
Linna winced and increasingly fell into her old patterns of behavior with her master. "Yes, Master."
"I wish I had had more time to teach you."
You're the one who moved away, Linna thought.
"I know...I know. I'm the one who moved away. If I had known this would happen, I would not have left. Still, I will give you what I can." Hiromi reached over and tapped Linna's forehead. For a moment, the world dissolved in a phantasmagoric spray of light. the last thing Linna heard was, "When you need me, I will come."
She woke up in bed again. No more late night snacking, she thought. She turned over and went back to sleep. This time her dreams were much more normal, like the one with that hunky actor Otaki. What a blond dreamboat, she thought.
Priss woke up the next morning with a throbbing headache. "Ugh...something went down wrong." She heard cats squalling outside her window and threw a shoe at it. The cats shut up. "Stupid sunlight...Why can't the damn thing wait to come up when it's wanted."
"The world was not made for our convenience," a woman's voice replied.
Priss rolled over and buried her face in the pillow. "I hate it when you do that, Celia."
The woman laughed faintly. "I have had many names, but Celia has never been one of them."
Priss looked up through bleary eyes. "Who the fuck are you and why are you in my house?"
The woman was tall with long green-black hair and eyes that seemed to flit between purple and dark red in color. She wore a dark green business suit and was sitting in one of Priss' few chairs. "You may call me Mei'ou Setsuna. I have been waiting for you for a very long time."
"I don't know you from Satan, whoever you are." Priss watched the woman warily and started to clamber out of bed. Dim memories began to surface from the previous day. Priss could barely believe any of them, especially with her head throbbing. The cats squalled again outside and she swore.
"But I know you, child of the Moon Kingdom."
Priss froze. Either she's a whacko...or she knows something. Or we're both whacko. Where'd I put that damn sword...Oh yeah. She reached under the pillow.
"You won't be needing that. I'm not here to cut you in half or rant about how I'm going to kill you and your meddling dog, Toto, too." Setsuna smiled.
Priss got the sword anyway, then said, "Then why the hell did you barge in uninvited?"
"Would you have invited me in if I had knocked?"
"Hell no."
"Well, then." Setsuna got up and turned around. "Go ahead and get dressed."
Priss decided to go ahead and get dressed. If the woman does try something, at least I won't have to run around half-naked if we end up outside. "So whaddya want?"
"I have come to set you on the path you must follow."
"Uh huh. You think you're my fairy godmother or something?"
"I am the Guardian of Time. My task is to create the correct future. To guide you is part of that task."
Priss finished getting dressed. "And what if I don't want to be guided?"
"Then the Earth will perish and you with it."
"Look, Obi-Wan, I have other things to worry about than you, whoever the hell you are. I don't like people who barge into my place uninvited, threaten me, and try to push me around. I've got other things to think about and better things to do than to listen to you rant. End of the world my ass. Now get out!"
Setsuna shook her head quietly and headed to the door. "You will regret this. The blood of your friends is on your hands." She stepped out the door. "But then, you always do things the hard way, don't you?"
Priss had had enough. She stormed forward, sword in hand, though it wasn't activated. "Get the fuck out and don't come back!"
Before she reached Setsuna, she had stepped out the door. Priss looked around, but the woman was gone. Priss growled. Damn headache. Damn life. Damn woman...I hate hangovers...
She looked at the sword. My life just gets more screwed up every day.
Linna sprang out of bed, rested and happy. I really had some screwed up dreams. She started making herself breakfast. I'd better get a move on, she thought. I must have misset my alarm clock last night...oh wait, my morning classes are cancelled while they're fixing that wiring fault. She slowed down. I can relax a little.
A flashing light caught her attention. The answering machine had messages for her. She went over and hit the play button. Beep! "Don't forget what I told you last night, Linna. It's very important." It was Master Hiromi. Linna's knees quietly buckled and she fainted.
Nene began to wake up. Stupid headache. There's something on my chest...an arm. She tried to remember last night. Space Ship. Laser Satellites...Someone's in bed with me. She shrieked instinctively, then noticed it was Ryu, right about the same time as he woke up and teleported half way across the room instinctively.
"Ahh, what's wrong?"
Nene blinked. "I...you..."
"I seem to vaguely remember you inisisting I stay." Ryu walked back over to Nene and sat down next to her. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about all this before, but..."
Nen sat up and sighed. "Well, we both had our reasons to keep secrets." She made a come hither gesture at Ryu, who came over and sat down. Leaning her head against his shoulder, she said, "How much...how much longer are you going to stay on Earth?"
"Depends on how long I can keep the Emperor from calling me home. At least another year until I finish my degree. Longer, I hope." He paused and took a deep breath. "Nene...would you...come with me when I go?"
Nene blushed. "I...I can't answer that yet. I don't know...my friends need me, but...I don't want to be seperated from you either."
He noded. "I understand. We both have responsibilities we can't avoid. Although who knows what Celia will do now...she may not be staying here either."
Nene nodded. "Why do I have this vague feeling I'm forgetting something?"
Ryu thought for a moment. "Do you work today?"
Nene looked at the clock. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!" She sprung to her feet. "Lt. Yamano is going to flay me alive! I'm gonna be late...."
Ryu laughed. "If you can get ready in five minutes...I can get you to work on time."
"How are you going to...oh..." Nene laughed. "So how do I learn to do that?"
Ryu laughed. "I'll take you to see Grandma...Just remember...don't ever volunteer for anything when you are visiting her..."
Siberia
1908 AD
GP officer Kay turned to her partner. "Nice shooting, Yoori. They're going to have to make an emergency landing or be blown to bits."
They had been chasing this ship for days. These three renegades had escaped almost ten years ago. All three of them were wanted for more crimes than either Kay or Yoori could remember. Now, months of effort had finally lead them to these three, known only as X, Y, and Z. Real names unknown.
Yoori frowned. "We're about to enter a restricted system. No one is supposed to enter here without Juraiian permisson."
"Right. You call them while we give chase. If we stop to file paperwork, they'll find somewhere to hide!"
The paperwork was still in progress when they spotted the ship heading for the third planet from the sun. The computer's records were rather sketchy, but the planet was named 'Dirt'. What kind of weirdoes name their planet 'Dirt'?, Kay wondered. They probably worship a mud-god or something.
Yoori frowned. "They're heading for the surface."
"That's easily fixed." Kay opened fire.
"Hey! You might kill them!"
"You wanna try and comb the freaking surface for them? On a planet named 'Dirt?' No way."
Yoori buried her face in her hands, leaning foward and letting her dark blue hair cascade down onto the controls. "Well, they won't be getting away. Because there won't be anything left of them!"
The ship spiraled downward towards a snow covered forest in the northeastern corner of the largest continental mass on the planet.
"Right. Well, we can do a flyby and check for wreckage," Kay said.
There wasn't any wreckage, just a crater with fused sides and the trees leaning inwards towards the explosion. "That's creepy," Kay said.
"Their drive must have imploded. Shrunk the whole ship into a micro-black hole, then right out of the space-time continuum." Yoori said.
"Well, that'll make the report easy to write."
Yoori sighed and headed the ship back out of the system. Three less criminals in the universe, she thought, and no witnesses to our presence.
She was wrong on both counts. To the west stood a small hut, and by that hut stood a man in monk's robes, who had seen everything. And heading towards him were three glowing spheres of light...
Andrea groaned and dragged herself out of bed. Time to go spy on suspect #3, she thought. I hope this isn't as much a waste of time as the previous guy...
She soon got dressed and went to check her recording equipment. The subject was a man named Thomas Fujitsu, employee in the Computer Department of the ADPolice. I hope this guy didn't bring some woman home like the last one did, she thought. The last thing I need is a tape full of 'oh baby, oh baby'.
Her wish came true. She sat at her computer and punched a few keys, then flicked a switch. "Analysis of recording, Dairak?"
A voice spoke, "Subject led a boring normal life except for one unusual phone call. Shall I call it up?"
"Yes."
There was a brief pause. "Time stamp: 10:55 pm."
The phone rang. Thomas Fujitsu answered the phone. "Yeah, what?"
"Would you like to buy a copy of The Watchtower?"
"Thanks, I'd rather eat rocks."
"We've started advertising in the Tokyo Star. There's a Kingdom Hall in your area. We open at ten, you're welcome to..."
"What part of rocks don't you understand?"
Fujitsu hung up, then went and got a copy of the Tokyo Star from his dinner table. Unfortunately, Andrea couldn't see what he was reading from this angle.
Andrea went and got her copy of the Tokyo Star. Let's see...she paged through it and found an ad for the new kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Time to go see if our friend is on his way there. "Has he left his house yet?"
"Not yet."
"Good...time for me to do a little following, I think."
Noa stepped out of the car. Six Ingrams stood on carriers in front of her. They were numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 and looked rather incongrous in a clearing in the middle of a forest.She laughed and turned to her husband, Asuma. "What, no number one?"
He smiled. "If we take Alphonse out of your restaurant before we're ready, the government and GENOM will be all over us."
Noa looked at the collection of teenagers and young adults. "Where'd you find these people, anyway?"
Goto came out from behind one of the carriers. "Our psychic friends."
Noa blinked. "Heh...you always were a kidder, Chief. Seriously."
Asuma put one hand behind his head, and briefly looked like the kid he had been when he first became a labor pilot. "He's not kidding, Noa."
"They're all psychics?" One or two, Noa could believe, but this many?
"And blood relatives," Goto said. "I wanted to get Ohta for this, but he's too old. Also, if he left the Academy, people might notice." Ohta was a semi-retired shooting instructor at the ADPolice Academy now. He should have retired years ago, but as long as he remained somewhat active, he had access to guns. That was enough to keep him in the business, so to speak. "You and Asuma are the only two of us who are young enough to take a more active role in this...and I didn't want to drag everyone out of their lives into this. It's going to be very dangerous."
Noa continued to boggle. "Where did you get all these Ingrams, anyway, dear?" she asked Asuma.
He smiled. "Most of them are cobbled together from damaged ones we had in a warehouse. Two of them were supposedly melted down for parts back in 2027. We've been working on this for years. We have only so long before someone notices this. Let's go...time for us to play teacher."
I hope you know what you're doing, chief...The song "Revolution #1" began to echo in her head, So you say you want a Revolution...
Celia came out to the kitchen.A huge breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, and eggs was waiting there for her. Mackie was already eating, as was Meylia. "Good morning, dear. How are you?"
Celia smiled and sat down. "Still trying to figure out what to do next..."
"Well, once you finish work today, Father and I were going to see about trying to awaken you and Mackie's abilities while everyone else is out investigating."
Celia nodded. "I...Telling everyone about this is going to be...Priss is going to think I'm nuts. I almost think I'm nuts."
Mackie shrugged. "Something like that." He laughed. "As long as I get fed like this more often, I don't care if I find out I'm related to a giant flaming carnivorous gerbil."
Meylia and Celia both laughed. "None of our relatives are quite that strange, I think."
The morning sentry at USSD yawned. Boring morning. It's always a boring morning. There was a flash of light, and 200 disabled laser satellites appeared in the parking lot of USSD. Suddenly, the morning wasn't going to be so boring after all.
Priss stomped into her band's rented practice room. George, the new drummer, looked up. "Someone pissed in your wheaties again?"
"If you see a woman with long green hair and reddish eyes, kick her ass for me, okay?" Priss stomped over to the fridge. "Hey, there's nothing in here but non-alcholic sake...that's like making coffee without any beans."
"What?" Ruby, the guitarist said. "Who the hell did that?"
Priss grumbled. Someone out there is trying to piss me off.
The bass guitarist didn't know it, but he was about to come due for a beating.
Andrea sat casually in her car and watched a small monitor that was obeserving her target's living room. He stepped out the front door, and she turned on her engine. It was pretty easy to follow him over to the Kingdom Hall. I wonder how someone dresses for a place like this, she thought. I hope I won't look like a mutant. She was wearing a nice blue blouse and a long skirt. She had read the briefing her computer gave her, but it was stock full of unexplained terms that would have required more time than she had to do research. I'll just try to act respectful.
She followed him in.
Linna woke up. The answering machine messages had finished. She listened to the first message again. I'm not hallucinating. But it was just a dream! Just a dream, damnit! A memory took her.
Linna moved through the form gracefully as her master watched. She had been practicing this one for weeks. If beauty contests had done anything for her, they had made her able to do virtually anything with people watching her and not be bothered. Even knowing she would be yelled at if she messed up didn't phase her. Only the form mattered.
She finished the form, then returned to a standing ready position.
Her master was silent. Too silent. Linna frowned. "What did I do wrong?"
A soft snore answered her. Linna sighed.
Hiromi laughed. "Just joking. You did very well, but I can tell that something is bothering you."
"Master...how did you know that Taiki would dump me?"
"He's an obnoxious jerk."
"But..."
"Also, I dreamed it. And saw it."
"Dreams don't mean anything!"
"Some do, and some do not. Part of life is learning to tell the difference. You may see what was, what is, or what may be."
"But I never dreamed he would dump me...I had no clue."
"Only because you chose not to see them. If you go on ignoring whatever you don't want to see, Linna, you will end by seeing nothing at all...Do not be afraid to see, Linna."
Linna sighed. I have to know more...It's probably all just in my mind...but... She tried calling Master Hiromi, but no one answered. Now what? Maybe I should go talk to Celia...I've got a few hours until I have to teach my classes. If nothing else, she might be able to recommend me a good psychologist. I hope I don't need one.
Leon sat with Mihoshi at their desks. Only a few more days and Daley is back, Leon thought. Thank God. "Well, I've got the final report done on that haircut boomer. What little we have to report." Mihoshi was busily typing away at something at her desk and humming a tune to herself. "Oh, you're doing it? I thought you wanted me to do it."
Leon said, "We don't need a 20 page report for this..." Leon had learned that Mihoshi, whatever her other flaws, wrote the most thorough reports in the history of police departments. Too thorough. The boss didn't need every word spoken by anyone during the case...Mihoshi seemed to remember everything...too bad she couldn't ever do anything useful with everything she noticed.
He wandered over to see what she was typing. 'Haircut boomer missing its registration plate. Plate appeared to have been removed with a blowtorch or similar device rather than the screws being removed.'
Leon frowned. I hadn't noticed that... "Wait, the registration plate was melted off?"
Mihoshi nodded. "It might have been whatever killed it did that too."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I didn't really notice it until I actually thought about it." She paused. "Wait...why would the owner melt off the plate when he or she could just remove it with a screwdriver?"
"Why would the owner want to bother removing the plate at all? Unless someone wanted it to look destroyed in the...baah. Something is not making sense...unless whoever did this knew it would be destroyed in such a way that we might not realize the plate was deliberately removed instead of destroyed in the battle..." Leon frowned. But what would be the point of that?
Mihoshi thought for a second. "Maybe the person who removed the plate didn't have a screwdriver...if this was maybe a stolen boomer, and they just fused the plate off so it couldn't be traced. And if it was stolen, they might have taken parts or something for sale elsewhere and that's why it became unstable."
Leon nodded. "True. They might have just not wanted to bother removing the plate carefully...it's not like they needed it. Maybe we'd better go check out this haircut place a little more thoroughly."
Mihoshi nodded. "Sounds good to me."
"Let's go." Leon got up. I guess Mihoshi does come in handy, sometimes.
Linna headed home from the grocery store. She felt better now. I just needed to get my mind off this. I'll go put this stuff away, go teach my classes, then go home. Yes, that'll be good.
Linna's return home was about to be...delayed.
Andrea listened quietly through the door into the room she had just followed her target to.
"Ahh, the disk. Very good. Let's see what we have here." Andrea didn't recognize the deep male voice that had just spoken.
"Why couldn't I just email you the information?" This, on the other hand, was her target.
"Because a system that is not open to outside access can't be hacked into from the outside. It makes it rather difficult to recieve email too." Andrea could hear typing noises.
"You need me to stay or can I go now?"
More typing noises were the only reply at first. Finally, the first man spoke. "Hmm. This was all you could find on Loughlin?"
Fujitsu replied, "Yeah. The records on her are rather minimal."
"Hmmm. That confirms it. She is the one."
"So now what?"
"Just continuing gathering the usual information and monitoring. We'll handle this. You're a computer expert, not a field agent. See you later."
Andrea prepared to duck out of sight. Unfortunately...
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Two beefy men in business suits were confronting her.
"Help, I'm really lost," she said.
"Oh. Right. Follow us." The men turned and started to lead Andrea out of the building. Sadly, before they got out of sight of the door, Thomas Fujitsu stepped out of the room she had been listening to the conversation in.
Things only got worse from there.
Mihoshi and Leon paused in front of the new Kingdom Hall that had just opened about half a block from the barbershop they were heading to. Mihoshi stared at the sign. "Ano, what's a Jehovah?"
"He's the god they worship, I think. Actually, I'm really not sure." Leon spotted Linna, stuck in traffic, and waved.
Linna blinked and waved back. Wonder what they're doing around here, she thought. She rolled down the window, "Hello, officers."
Leon came over. "Hey, you know who these Jehovah's Witness people are? Mihoshi was wondering."
Linna shrugged. "A Hindu sect, maybe?" She paused. "No...Jehovah's another name for God...I think. I've never heard of these guys though."
At this point, there was an explosion inside the hall and Andrea came running out with a gun in her right hand, swearing loudly. Linna, Mihoshi, and Leon blinked in unison. Two huge men in suits with pistols were shooting at her.
Linna muttered, "They must be a militant sect...", then shouted, "Andrea, what the hell is going on?"
Andrea spotted her fellow officers. "Run! Run!!!!!"
Leon and Mihoshi drew their guns. "What the hell is going on here?"
"I found a hacker into the ADPolice system so I stupidly chased him here by myself...he had friends. Run, I think these are boomers!" Andrea ran. Leon and Mihoshi followed her lead.
"Where are we running to?" Mihoshi asked.
Linna watched them run. I hope Andrea's going to be okay...
"Somewhere they aren't!" Andrea said, turning down an alleyway.
Leon said, "Why don't we just shoot them?"
"They've either got body armor, or they're boomers." Andrea replied.
Mihoshi said, "If they're boomers, we're going to need help."
Leon said, "Mihoshi, you go to our car and call for backup. Andrea and I will take these guys for a long jog."
Mihoshi nodded and ran off. Leon turned to Andrea, "This hacker was working for this religious group?"
"He's an ADPolice employee, named Thomas Fujitsu. Works in computers. He was reporting to someone in there, but I suspect it's just a front. Why would some religious group want to infiltrate ADP?"
Leon nodded. "How'd you get on this guy's trail?"
"Someone hacked into my personal records. He was overconfident about his ability to hide his backtrail. He hacked into your records too...and a lot of other people."
Leon frowned. "Damnit. A traitor." They almost reached the end of the alleyway when two more figures stepped into view.
"End of the line."
"Shit."
The ADPolice officers finished combing the area while Mihoshi ran around everywhere, shouting, "Leon!"
Lt. Shinohara came over to Mihoshi. "Well, we haven't found a body, so probably whoever it was took both of them captive...whoever it was. The Jehovah's Witnesses want to press charges for tresspassing against Officer Loughlin if we ever find her."
Mihoshi pulled herself together. "Thank you, Lt. Shinohara. I need to go report in." Her lips moved without forming any coherent words and she trembled slightly. "I'm going to take one last look."
She went back to the alleyway and looked around. A few officers were still picking over it, but it didn't seem likely they'd find anything useful. Mihoshi wandered around. There has to be a clue somewhere...Distracted, she slipped on a banana peel and landed in a pile of garbage. A small red globe earring was lying about an inch from her eye. Ahah! A clue, she thought. Oh wait...this is one of those earrings. She smiled. All hope was not lost.
Linna finally finished her classes for the day and went home. She was rather surprised to find Mihoshi on her doorstep, trying hard not to cry. "Mihoshi, what's wrong?"
Mihoshi grabbed Linna. "You've got to help me! I can't find anyone else and they've got my partners!"
Linna blinked. "Who has your partners?" PartnerS?
"I don't know, but we've got to hurry before they kill her or something!"
"Ummm...If you know where she is, why haven't you called in the rest of the people at the ADPolice?"
"I did, but they don't know where to look!"
"Well, what good would I be?"
"I can't tell them about this transmitter she was carrying because it's a secret! Tenchi'll get mad at me! Waaaaahhh!!!!!"
Linna blinked. "Andrea is carrying a transmitter?"
Mihoshi nodded. "It's standard Galaxy Police Issue."
"Standard what?"
Mihoshi said, "Uh...Pretend I didn't say that, okay?"
Linna blinked. "You really are from outer space?"
Mihoshi jumped up and down. "How did you guess?"
"Let me go call some back up..." She paused. "Wait...Andrea was carrying the transmitter? She's from space too?"
"Yes! She's my partner...uh...waaah, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that either!"
Linna shook her head. Isn't anyone normal anymore?
Leon looked over at Andrea. "I don't suppose you've got a laser in your watch by any chance?"
Andrea laughed. "Not me."
They were both tied up in the corner of a large old warehouse. Two of the thugs were watching them, but not very well. They seemed to be waiting for someone. "Any idea who these people are?" Leon asked.
"Almost certainly GENOM...who else would bother to infiltrate ADPolice?" Besides us, Andrea thought. "Not that they'll admit it."
Leon nodded. "Well, maybe Mihoshi will find us." He paused. "On second thought, I think I'm going to pray for a quick death."
"Oh, she'll save us. We won't enjoy it...but somehow, she'll save us. She always accomplishes what she sets out to do. Everyone around her may suffer intensely, but she'll find us." Andrea laughed faintly. "Haven't you noticed that by now?"
Leon nodded. "Somehow, she does get stuff done...don't ask me how. So why did you go after this guy by yourself?"
Andrea sighed. "Because I'm stupid. I hate to say that...but yeah, this was stupid."
A car drove into the warehouse. A man got out. He was tall with short brown hair, wearing a dark suit. Three men who looked like, 'Joe bodyguard' surrounded him as he got out and walked over. "Interesting. I am surprised to see you here, Officer McNichol."
"Nice to meet you. Who the hell are you?"
The man smiled. "You may call me Mr. Warren, if you like."
"Not really, but I will anyway." Leon said. "You're making a lot of trouble for yourself, mister!"
The man laughed. "I would never have pegged you as one of their agents...but the world is full of surprises, I suppose."
Andrea recognized the man as the voice she had heard talking to Fujitsu before. "You got that right."
"So, do you want to tell us everything now, or do we have to beat it out of you? I don't care either way."
Andrea glanced over at Leon who said, "Well, I don't have any secrets. Ask me whatever you want." Much as I'd like to be defiant, he thought, what's he going to ask me that I can't tell him?
Andrea smiled faintly. "Whatever."
"So how long have you been working for the Yakuza, Officer McNichol?"
Leon laughed. "The what? What gives you a crazy idea like that?"
Andrea said, "He just happened to be in the area investigating another case. He's not part of this...he doesn't know anything."
"Uh huh. Just a coincidence. Right. And I'm the King of Siam. I suppose you're not aware that 'Officer Loughlin' is neither an officer nor really named Andrea Loughlin?" The man sounded clearly rhethorical.
"What?" Leon looked over at Andrea.
Andrea sighed. "Got any proof of that?"
"Besides the fact that no one in New York City knows who you are, other than your 'superior', who sang a different tune when we got ahold of him...you paid him pretty well, I have to admit."
Andrea laughed. "What gives you the crazy idea I'm Yakuza? They don't exactly recruit women, you know."
Leon just stared. She was a spy? In the ADPolice? Clearly not working for GENOM...assuming this guy was working for GENOM...haven't seen anyone yet we can prove is a boomer. Of course, Andrea might be a boomer. Leon's brain started tying itself into knots.
Andrea's earring pinged softly. She smiled.
"Then who are you really working for? SCHAFT? US Robots?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Andrea said. A tiny voice whispered in her ear. Too bad this thing doesn't have a longer range, she thought. Leon looked around. Where's that faint voice coming from.
Mr. Warren's frowned. He thought he heard something too. "Try me. I've heard some very wild true stories."
"Well, here's a little story. I'm from outer space, working for the Galaxy Police. My partner is about to blast her way in here with her space ship and turn you into a large pile of ash along with your little friends. Someone in your company has a grudge against the house of Jurai and we're going to bring him to justice, quite possibly over your dead body. Do you want to surrender now or shall we do this the hard way?"
Leon blinked. Mr. Warren began to laugh. "I haven't had this good a laugh in a long time. Let's try the truth this time around?"
"Okay, the truth is that my partner can't find the keys to her spaceship, so she brought the Knight Sabres instead. Knight Sabres, go!"
The ceiling exploded and four female figures in hard suits crashed down, followed by a fifth figure in a green clunky looking battle suit who toppled through the hole and landed on her head. She promptly started yelling, "Owwie!"
Everyone froze for a few seconds as Sabre-Green quietly slapped her forehead. Sabre Prime spoke. "Give up now."
Mr. Warren swore. Damnit. "Deal with them," he said to his bodyguards and ran. The three bodyguards promptly did the 'split out of their skin into a big blue laws of physics defying critter' trick. The Sabres opened fire, not waiting for them to finish. The other men in the place ran for their lives, knowing they were just ordinary humans and not heavily enough armed to deal with the Knight Sabres.
Sabre-Pink chased Mr. Warren while the others dealt with the three combat boomers. Meanwhile, the clunky green mech headed over to where Leon and Andrea were still tied up. Leon turned to Andrea. "Please tell me that's not Mihoshi in that thing."
"That's not Mihoshi in that thing." Andrea said.
The green mech tried to lean down to untie the two and fell down instead, nearly crushing Leon's legs. "Itai!" The mech shouted.
Leon sighed. "You lied to me!"
"You asked me to lie to you!"
"Good point."
Meanwhile, the Sabres were having a moderately rough time of it with the boomers. While this model of bodyguard boomer was low on offensive capabilities, they were very tough and fast, which made them hard to kill. Linna and her opponent danced about, both of them trying to get the other to make a mistake, neither succeeding. Priss was wrestling with hers. She managed to pin it, but then didn't have any weapons conveniently placed to do anything to it. Celia's opponent was wary, also, dodging her gunfire and managing to stay out of arm's reach.
Mr. Warren, on the other hand, had no luck. Sabre-Pink easily grabbed him and dragged him off. Meanwhile, the green mech managed to get back up and untie Andrea and Leon. Mihoshi popped up her face plate. "Are you two okay?"
"We're fine, Mihoshi," Leon said. What the hell is going on here? Damn I'm confused.
"Good! Time for me to save the day!" She turned and opened fire on the mech Celia was fighting. Her lasers cut it in half, then kept going and caused Mr. Warren's car to explode. "Ooops."
Mr. Warren tried not to cry. "My car!"
Andrea laughed. "Poor baby." She turned to Leon. "I think that's our cue to get out before we become collateral damage."
He nodded and ran.
Celia went after Priss's opponent and finished it off with her electroknife, then both of them went after Linna's opponent. By this point, most of the men had cleared out and the few that were left simply threw their hands in the air.
Nene dragged Mr. Warren over to the other sabres. Priss grinned at Warren. "I needed a good fight. Thank you."
"Uh, you're welcome."
"Now you're going to tell us everything."
Mr. Warren said, "Or you'll what?"
"Or I'll use you to play 'Operation'. With my railgun." Priss said.
Mr. Warren began to sweat.
Leon turned to Andrea outside. "What the hell is going on?"
"I can't tell you everything...but...I am really a cop. Just not from New York. However, I'm on leave from that job. GENOM has been killing off members of a family that is very important to me. So I came when they asked to infiltrate the ADPolice. We're trying to find out who in GENOM is responsible so we can bring them down. Mihoshi's a cop too where we're from. She's my partner in fact."
"And where are you from?"
She sighed. "I can't tell you that yet. I swear that I'm not any kind of corporate spy. I haven't done anything to obstruct the ADPolice. And I really was chasing someone who was hacking into people's files. He was a plant for GENOM."
"And the Knight Sabres are working for the same people you are? Or are they the people you work for?"
"Yes. They're working with us now."
The sounds of fighting had died down. Leon swore mentally. Now what do I do? I have to tell my superiors something... "So now what?"
"I think this is my resignation from the ADPolice so to speak. I've done my part. Mr. Warren should be waiting for you inside." She held out her hand. "It's been nice working with you and everyone at the ADPolice."
"I can't just let you leave! I..."
"Unless you can knock me out with sheer moral force, I'm out of here. Although I suspect we will meet again. Good day, Officer McNichol."
She ran off, leaving Leon staring after her. This is going to be too much fun trying to explain this at HQ.
Warren had sung like a bird. He was working for a man named Wallace, one of the new Vice Presidents at GENOM. Wallace was in charge of various corporate spies. Fujitsu was one of Warren's agents in the ADPolice. He had no connection to the assassination, or at least none they could shake out of him. However, he said he wouldn't be surprised to learn GENOM had agents in Schilling Enterprises, who were connected to it.
They'd wrung lots of names and places out of him. Of course, a lot of the information wouldn't stay good for long...
One piece of information, however, would. It was Wallace who had sent the attack on Meylia.
"Now what, Celia?" Nene asked. The Sabres had returned to base. Mihoshi and Andrea, whose real name was Kiyone, had headed off to let the others know what was going on.
"Time to rip this group of agents apart and see what falls when we shake the tree. But first, we'll need to confer with our new friends and see what they've learned."
Priss sat quietly and brooded. I've got to talk to someone normal...someone who isn't part of this...but hardly anyone falls into this category any more. "I need to be alone for a while. Call me when you need me or when we're going to do something."
Linna sighed. Andrea was the last normal person I knew that I was really close to...Although with that dream...no, I won't think about that. I guess I should call Master Hiromi. "Well, if we're not going to do anything right now, I'm gonna go too."
Celia looked at Nene. "I'll stay. We can practice being royalty together," Nene said, laughing.
Priss snorted. "If you put crowns on our hardsuits, I'll kill you. I'm outta here."
Celia said, "Keep in touch. We may do something later tonight."
Priss nodded. "Let's blow this palace, eh Linna?"
Linna quietly slapped herself mentally. Priss is still as normal as she ever was...I must be starting to go crazy in the head. As they walked out, she said, "I bet you never expected things would get this strange when Celia walked into your life, eh?"
Priss turned to her with a vaguely haunted look. "No, I didn't. Nothing quite like finding out someone is not quite what you thought they were?"
"Well, we're still the same. It's kinda scary. Then again, maybe someone will show up and tell us both we're faerie princesses, eh?"
Priss started, then stared suspiciously at Linna. Linna paled. "Sorry, I was trying to be funny..."
"You failed." Priss got on her bike and roared off.
Linna stared after her. What did I say? Maybe I'll go barhopping for a while...I need a drink.
July 4, 1995
Captain Goto stared at the wreckage around the school. Total devastation. The building was a burnt out wreck. Several blocks around the school were heavily devastated at best, leveled at worst. He turned to Lt. Taiko. "They're claiming this was the result of an electrical fire?"
"Combined with some unauthorized experiments that one of the chemistry teachers was apparently conducting. The only known survivor of the disaster is Professor Tomoe."
Goto frowned. "Wasn't he involved in some lab experiment a few years back that resulted in the death of everyone except himself and his daughter?"
Taiko, a tall woman with long greenish-black hair, nodded. "He's in custody. He seems to have snapped from the shock of it all. Babbling about demons and whatnot."
"And he's the only witness?"
"The only survivor. We've got statements from some few people who were in the general area and able to witness some of the events. They claim..."
"Don't trail off dramatically like that. They claim what?" Goto started to walk forward into the devastated area. Something horrible had happened here.
"They claim armies of demons and the Sailor Soldiers were duking it out here, sir. We also have reports of an exploding helicopter, forcefields, and..."
That day was only the beginning of a trip into a world far weirder than he had ever imagined.
March 31, 1996
"Still no ransom note?" Captain Goto asked Lt. Karino. Karino, a tall, strong, amiable looking man with rumbled black hair replied, "Nope. Not a whisper of a ransom note. I'd think they'd eloped if three of them weren't male, and just one female."
Goto nodded. "Well, to make matters worse, now the artifacts from the dig site are missing."
"Out of the vault?"
Goto nodded. "This is going to be one of those cases, I think." More interference from above, he thought. They don't really want us to solve this one. Shinonome High School's not going to be happy...They were counting on those artifacts to arouse more interest in their school. Goto frowned. At least this isn't as bad as that Mugen Gakuen disaster. That was a nightmare.
Karino sighed. "It'd be nice if just once we could actually do our job."
This became yet another unsolved case for U division. The missing students and teacher reappeared a few days later and suddenly everyone was acting as if nothing had ever happened...The missing artifacts reappeared and no one outside of U division seemed to remember them having ever been gone. Three years later, their superiors bumped Captain Goto upstairs to command one of the units of SV2...They thought he could do less damage there...They were wrong.
December 31, 2000 AD
Chief Goto sat quietly in his office, listening to the radio. Chief Shinobu perched on a chair nearby. "Well, I'm off to celebrate the new year," Shinobu said.
Goto looked up her, his face carefully blank."So where did you get the weighted coin?"
She laughed. "It was your coin."
"Well, something usually happens on New Years. We won't be bored at least."
"Maybe you'll get to play with another Griffin."
Linna sat, bored out of her skull, at the bar in 'Beers', one of her favorite hang-outs. Absolutely nothing was happening tonight. There wasn't even anything on TV. She had tried calling Rachel and Ursula, but they had run off somewhere. The last three bars she had been in, like this one, had all been showing the Nick Hatchett, Robot Fighter Anniversary special because it was the least boring thing on TV...and it was a rerun. Damn Nick Hatchett and his damn perky girlfriend, she thought. I wish I had my hardsuit so I could blow him away.
She sighed. I'm starting to sound like Priss, she thought. She looked around. Everyone else, all four of them, looked as bored as her. Maybe more so. She looked over at the bartender. "This city is dead tonight!"
He nodded. "I like it that way. Could use a little more business, though."
Linna got another beer, and chugged it. I wish Andrea had been home. At least we could have been bored together. The doors of the bar opened, and a handsome tall man with curly blond hair walked in. He was hard to see with his olive skin in the dim light of the bar, but Linna liked what she saw. Then he walked over to her and things began to look up...
Priss roared through the streets, driving aimlessly. Now what?, she thought. Hmmm. Maybe I should go practice with this new energy sword...The thought of carving up something appealed to her strongly. She turned and headed towards an abandoned building development she knew of. There should be plenty of junk lying around I can carve up.
As she headed down highway 20, she spotted a rapidly approaching cycle in her rearview mirror. A blue bike was zooming foward. It had two people riding on it, a tall thin blond guy with long bangs and a shorter woman with shoulder-length wavy green hair. She sped up, but to her surprise, the duo caught up with her. The man, who she guessed was maybe five or so years older than herself, gestured at her, then pulled ahead.
Priss smiled. A challenge, eh? Let's show you what I've got.
They raced down the mostly empty highway, passing what few cars got in their way. Both the guy and his cycle were damn good, Priss thought. I don't want to use my boost for just this...damn fuel for it is expensive.
They raced past the site where Priss had intended to stop, then switched highways to circle around the north side of the city. Finally, the man made another gesture and headed for an exit. Priss followed him down to a parking lot of a Colonel Chicken by the exit. The man smiled at Priss. "Damn, you're good. You on the racing circuit?"
Priss took off her helment. "Nope. I sing. You're a pro racer?"
The man laughed. "Yes. Ten'ou Hikaru. Dad was a racer too." There was an odd note in the man's voice, as if he was joking about something, though he hadn't said anything funny. "Cars and cycles, though I prefer cycles."
The woman smiled. "I'm Ten'ou Miki. Nice to meet you." She turned to the man and said with her musical voice, "I suppose you forgot that you were taking me to my rehearsal?"
The man blushed. "..."
"You act?" Priss paused. "Oh, I'm Priss. Priss S. Asagiri. Nice to meet you."
"I'm a violinist in the Tokyo Chamber Orchestra. I also do recordings. Right now, I'm supposed to be at a rehearsal for our next concert."
Priss cocked her head and looked at Hikaru. Something familiar about this guy...She shook her head. "Well, nice to meet you. Next time I won't go easy on you."
The man laughed. "Neither will I." He put his helmet back on and got on the cycle, as did the woman. "Maybe I'll see you at the next race, eh?"
Priss smiled. "Maybe you will." She drove off, feeling much cheered up.
Professor Hiyama sighed. Her husband's flight had been hijacked to Afghanistan, so he was going to be a few days late coming home...this happens all the time, she thought. And he wonders why I won't go on these trips with him during the school year...My students would never see me again. It gets lonely, sometimes, though.
She looked around the house, a wonderland of ancient artifacts, hand-carved furniture, but almost devoid of human life. With Johnny and Hikaru grown up and moved away, it seems so empty whenever Dear has to go. She put an old CD from the 2000s on, Baka Baka Baka by a band named DoCo. The rather silly opening song soon lightened up the house.
Settling into a reverie, she was startled when there was a knock on the door. She opened the door and found two old friends. "Kyosuke-kun! Madoka-san!" She hugged them both tightly. "Decided to come out of hiding long enough to visit me?" she teased.
They stepped in and closed the door. "We've found another one, Hikaru-chan," Kyosuke said.
"Another what?"
They all went and sat down in the living room. Hikaru turned down the stereo.
"Remember Y?"
Hikaru shuddered. "There's more of those things?" She remembered it all too well. She had spent fifty years trying to forget what that thing had done to her, what it had made her do. She had accepted what came from that, the power she now had, but to remember being posssessed...she could never forget it, but she frequently wished she could.
"We think it's running GENOM...or at least influencing it. After talking to someone you need to meet, we learned more about what that was."
"What was it?"
"It's from outer space like our ancestor was. A long time ago, someone had a serious feud with our ancestors and created a series of 'banes' to try and destroy them. Some of those came to earth somehow. That's why Y wanted to destroy all of the Kasugas."
"How many of those things are there?"
Madoka sighed. "We don't know. Could be only a few...could be hundreds. Apparently, the guy who created these things claimed he would unleash them for centuries to come."
Hikaru stood up. "GENOM...Are there enough of us to fight GENOM? A few dozen Kasugas plus me against dozens, maybe hundreds of boomers...This isn't going to be easy. Unless we..." She looked at Kyousuke.
He shook his head. "Time travel is too dangerous...We could make a really huge mess and still not get what we want. We can't risk it. Almost every time I've time travelled, things simply ended up worse. We still don't know for sure who our target is..."
Hikaru frowned. "Get me close enough and I can tell. I'll know." She paused. "If we can find people we can trust, I could..."
"Well, we do have some help..." Kyosuke got up. "Come with us. There are some people you need to meet." He paused. "Thank you, Hikaru-chan, for being willing to help."
She smiled. "Anything for you and Madoka-san. You're my oldest and dearest friends." She reached out and took their hands. "I take it we're going to go the fast way, ne?"
Kasuga laughed. "Beam us up, Scotty."
The trio vanished with an audible pop.
Priss pulled into the parking space and parked her bike. Time to weasel out of Leon whatever he told his bosses about today's incident, she thought.
Loud music greeted her when she reached Leon's floor. People were milling about in the hallway, in and out of various apartments. Must be a hall party, Priss thought. She spotted Leon talking to an old man. "Well, back in my day, the police all stomped around in giant robots and smashed everything, but they got the job done." The man continued ranting, while Leon kept trying unsuccessfully to get away.
Priss smiled faintly. She walked forward and grabbed Leon. "There you are!"
Leon smiled as he was dragged off. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it. I hear you got kidnapped?"
Leon sighed. "Oy, what a mess. My partner...was a plant. So was another ADPolice member. Three, in fact. One of them was working for GENOM...at least they'll get in trouble for this."
Priss nodded. "What, he admitted it?"
"The boss of one of the agents will likely walk, but we busted Fujitsu, at least, and he's singing like a bird. If he stays alive to trial, GENOM's going to have to toss a few executives over the side to stay afloat." He lead Priss into one of the apartments and got beer for both of them. "I won't cry too hard at losing my partner, but...Andrea was a good cop. Finding out she was a spy...Now, I'm not sure who else might be a spy as well."
"Well, my band could use a roadie if you want to get out of the cop business." Priss tried to keep a straight face, but started laughing.
Leon laughed too. "After this...I might take you up on it. Apparently the Knight Sabres are all tangled up in this too."
She nodded. "Maybe they're hiring." She laughed again.
He sighed. "I wish."
Priss looked at him. "You sound really down."
"I am really down. This whole business depresses me. At least Daley will be back in action in two days."
A woman's voice spoke from nearby. "Your partner, right, Mr. McNichol?"
Priss turned and looked. It was that blonde with the weird hairdo she had met a while back.
Leon nodded. "Please, call me Leon. Yeah, Daley Wong is my partner. Oh, I suppose you two haven't met. Priss, this is Usagi Chiba. Usagi, this is Priscilla S. Asagiri."
Usagi nodded. "We've met, briefly."
Priss nodded in unison with Usagi. "I think I scared her husband."
Usagi laughed. "Mamo-chan is very protective. " She looked at Priss. "You sing, right?"
Priss nodded. "Yeah. How did you know?"
"Leon talks about you a lot." She smiled faintly as Leon and Priss both blushed slightly. "All of it good, of course."
Priss looked over at Leon. "And what exactly have you been telling her?"
"How good looking his girlfriend is and..."
"Leon!!!!!"
Leon was about to experience much pain.
Noa climbed out of the labor. Breaking in a new labor was a pain in the butt, but Asuma was right, moving Alphonse would attract too much attention. Psychics..she shivered faintly. Okay, I've had dealings with supernatural people before, she thought, but....
December 31, 2000 AD
The labor carriers deployed at the edge of the park where the battle was taking place. Three labors were beating each other up in the park. Preliminary reports had identified this as the usual holiday problem of labor operators getting drunk and using their labors to clobber each other. Since none of the three labors had any sort of armnaments, this would be fairly easy to settle with the Ingrams.
The park itself was Mugen Gakuen Memorial park. After the tragic destruction of Mugen Gakuen in 1995 in a combined fire and chemical explosion, the wreckage had been cleared and bought by the city, then converted into a rather nice park.
At first, things went fairly well. One of the operators was sober enough to stop with just a warning. The other two continued to grapple with each other. Noa and Ohta moved in and grappled them, pulling them apart. They had almost subdued the two idiots when four more labors charged into the park. Noa sighed. Great. More drunken idiots who want to join the fun.
Asuma's voice broke in over the radio. "Oh my god..."
"What, what's wrong?" Noa asked.
"There's thirty more coming."
"What?" Noa froze up for a moment.
Asuma's voice sounded more fearful by the second. "There's rioting at the JSDF base. We're getting a lot of confused reports. And Juuban-ku is on fire."
"The whole district?"
"They're calling out the Riot Police. All sorts of crazy reports."
Noa turned and saw several dozen labors heading for the park, a mere fraction of the thousands in the city. These were different. No one was operating them. "This must be something like that HOS disaster...Has Unit 1 been called out?"
He paused, and radioed for more information. He didn't like what he heard. "Unit 1 was called in and is now under attack from its own labors."
"What?"
"Military labors are out of control at the base...the chief says we're getting out of here now!"
Noa tossed aside the person she was grappling with and tried to run for the carrier. The controls refused to respond. Alphonse twitched about as if he was drunk. Noa swore. "Alphonse, what are you doing?"
She struggled with the controls. It was like trying to walk through marshmellows. They weren't responding. In fact, it felt like something else was trying to issue contrary commands. Noa felt a growing sense of unease. No, I won't let something do this to my Alphonse! She growled and concentrated. The resistance increased, then suddenly popped. Alphonse took off at a run for the carrier...too late. Four labors had grabbed it and flipped it over.
Then she saw Ohta draw his gun and level it at the Unit 2 carrier. "What the hell are you doing?"
Ohta radioed back, almost crying. "It's out of control! I can't stop it!"
Noa charged with Alphonse and tackled Unit 2. The gun went flying. Unit 2 clumsily tried to fight back, but she managed to grapple it from behind and pin its arms. "Get out, Ohta. I don't know what's wrong or how to fix it."
Kumigami's voice cut in. "She's right. Get out."
"But my labor!!!!!"
"Will be your grave if you don't listen to her."
Ohta tried to get out but the seatbelt wouldn't unfasten. He shouted in frustration.
Noa looked around and saw a dozen labors closing in on her. "Stop screaming and hurry!"
"I can't get the damn seatbelt off!"
By the time Ohta got out and scrambled over onto Alphonse, it was too late to run. Noa was surrounded and one of them had Unit 2's gun. She stared down the barrel and prepared to try and yank the now empty Unit 2 around to absorb the blow.
She didn't have to. To her shock, a thin projectile struck the barrel of the gun, which fell apart. It looked remarkably like an ordinary cut red rose.
The battlefield fell silent for a few seconds and everyone looked up to see where that came from.
Fifteen figures out of urban myth stood upon one of the rooftops overlooking the park. Two men and thirteen women. One of the men wore a masquerade mask on his face and a matching tuxedo. In his hands he held a second rose and a long cane. By his side stood the leader of this group, a blond woman who had become known in urban legend as Sailor Moon, and her companions, the Sailor Soldiers. "Labors were created to serve humanity, not to destroy it! Using our very tools of construction as weapons of destruction is an abomination! I am the lovely sailor-suited warrior, Sailor Moon! I fight for love and justice, and in the name of the Moon, I will punish you!" Those watching closely could see several of the Sailor Soldiers mouthing the last two sentences in unison with Sailor Moon and giggling a bit.
Noa stared. My god, they're real, she thought. As more labors poured into the park, the men and women of SV2 became the last mortals to witness the Sailor Soldiers in action for over thirty years...
With effort, Noa willed the memory out of her mind. She looked around at her team. Five teenagers and young adults as pilots. A bunch of middle aged psychics as their "forwards", mostly their parents. The only other person with any actual training in this was Kasuga Akira, who was acting as the forward for Unit 3. He had in fact served in SV2 during the 2010s and 2020s before it became the ADPolice. Noa and Asuma went over to him. "What do you think?"
"If they didn't have the Power, we'd be dead...As it is...they'll be fine." Kasuga Akira was tall with dark black hair cut short like his father and his mother's deep green eyes. He was a lot stronger than his father had ever been, though he was now almost forty. Noa shivered a bit whenever she looked at him now. I worked with a psychic for ten years and never knew, she thought.
"Is it reliable enough for us to count on it?" Asuma asked. "Is there anything that can stop you from using it?"
"Eventually, we get too tired from prolonged usage and need to eat. As long as they don't lean too heavily on it..."
Noa sighed. "I can't believe we're doing this."
A female voice cut in from nearby. "You think you can't believe this?"
Akira, Noa, and Asuma turned around and saw two familiar figures. One was a mountain of a man, still strong and huge, his build belying his gray hair. The other was a much shorter woman with gray hair only marginally longer than her husband and a somewhat masculine appearance. Noa ran over to them. "Hiromi-kun! Taeki-kun!" It was Yamazaki Hiromi and his wife Taeki. They had been part of SV2 with Noa for three decades.
Hiromi blushed slightly. "It's good to see you, Noa-chan."
"We'll be joining you tomorrow. We meant to get here earlier, but Hiromi had to finish recording his last session for this season."
"Did they approve another season of Tales of the Past?" Noa hoped so. The last three years, Hiromi had been the nararrator for a children's anime that recounted various traditional Japanese legends after a chance encounter with an anime director he had greatly amused. Since retiring from the police, Hiromi hadn't had a lot to do and he had jumped at the chance.
"Yes. I'm very happy about it too."
Taeki looked at the various labor pilots, who were milling about moaning about being tired. "This is going to be far too interesting."
Linna made sure not to drink more since she had just met the guy. "So what is your name, anyway?"
"My name is...Robert. Robert Bruce. Shall we dance?"
"Sure! I know a good place! Let's go!"
"Is it close enough to walk?"
"Yeah, come on!"
They headed off to go dancing. She watched him in the moonlight. He looks a lot like Mihoshi, she thought. Part of her mind wondered if he was an alien too, but she dismissed the thought. Alcohol is getting to me.
He smiled to himself. I need to get out like this more often. I'd almost forgotten what this was like...
The party was winding down at Leon's building. For the last hour, it had just been her, Leon, and the Chibas in a room, rattling on about a variety of crazy experiences they had all had, or at least were able to imagine they'd had. "So then I come home and the roof of the kitchen is on fire and Usako is screaming about the water burning. It turned out she tossed a thing of cooking oil on the fire. We nearly had burnt odangoes for dinner," Mamoru said.
Priss laughed so hard she fell off the couch. Even Usagi was laughing. "Remind me not to invite you to cook for us anytime soon..."
Mamoru got up. "We really need to be turning in. Nice to meet you properly, Miss Asagiri."
"Call me Priss. I kill people who call me Miss."
Usagi blearily hugged Priss. "Okay, Priss." Priss blinked.
Usagi staggered out the door with her husband. Leon said, "You taking off too, Priss?"
Priss thought for a moment. "Leon, what would you do if you suddenly found out that...that...you weren't what you thought you were?"
Leon blinked, this being something he completely did not anticipate. "Like...uh...you mean like maybe finding out that my parents had actually adopted me or something?"
"Yeah."
Leon came back over from the door, closing it, and sat down on the couch. "Did you just find something like that out?"
Priss twitched. I shouldn't tell him, but I have to talk to someone and he's the only normal person I know who isn't part of this... Priss hated feeling vulnerable. She hated it with a burning passion. Exposing herself in any form was difficult and risky. If Leon took this wrong, she'd just be making her own life more of a hell than it already was. How do I tell him that one of my best friends is an alien, another one is dating an alien, and I was born 25,000 years ago? I can hardly believe any of it...I can't tell him everything, but... She got out the sword hilt. "Doesn't look like much, eh?"
Leon examined the carving. "What is it?"
"A sword hilt. My sword hilt. You see..." She stood up. "I..." The words came more easily from her lips. "Let me show you. Burning heart power!"
Leon fainted.
Far away in the void, a being became aware. If it had been even remotely humanoid, it could have been said that it "sat up and took notice".
But that was not the case. Its mind stirred to greater activity. Perhaps the one who has eluded me for so long has returned...I must alert my servants, SHIVA thought. Perhaps she will lead me to what eluded me that winter day 34 years ago...I must have it and I will. And I must find that dreamwalker as well....
X, Z. I HAVE NEED OF YOUR SERVICES.
They responded as they always did.
It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out. It being Mega-Tokyo, no one noticed or cared. A long ways away, Mackie, Celia, Aeka, Meylia, and Youshou were experiencing extreme frustration. Nene had left with Tenchi, Ryu, Manami, Ryoko and Sasami earlier."Still nothing," Celia said quietly.
Youshou shrugged. "A tree does not grow from acorn to full flower in a day. It may take weeks to awaken your abilities, given the circumstances."
Meylia nodded. "I never had a clue of any special abilities until I was three times your age...If it wasn't for...Hmmm, there's an idea."
Aeka said, "What?"
"Maybe Funaho could help. I think my abilities awakened because she put some kind of trigger on them..."
Youshou nodded. "I hoped to save time, but I think it would be the best measure."
"Maybe Tsunami can help too," Aeka suggested.
Mackie said, "I think my brain will explode if I try to visualize one more thing in my head. That's all I have to say." Especially since I keep visualizing the wrong things, like Priss, Mackie thought.
Leon woke up on the couch. He heard movement nearby. "That you, Priss?"
"Yeah. Done playing sleeping beauty?"
He sat up. "I had the strangest..." It wasn't a dream. Priss was standing before him, holding something that looked like a wooden lightsaber, dressed in an outfit that evoked her stage garb, but wasn't quite the same.
"Getting fragile in your old age, eh? At least you didn't nosebleed all over the floor." Priss laughed. "Of all the things I thought you might do..."
Leon sighed. Living this down would be too much fun. "Did you kill that haircut boomer the other day?"
"Yep." She waved her sword about. "Most of my life has been sucking, but I really like this sword. It's almost worth all the aggravation just to have it."
"Just be careful, okay? I only have one head. I'd like to keep it. So...how did this happen?" He paused. "Wait...Is the Queen of Swords your mother or something?"
Priss laughed. "I almost wouldn't be surprised if she was. You see..." She paused. "Damn. The more I think about this, the more lunatic it sounds."
He paused. "Is Mihoshi really from outer space?"
Priss blinked. "How did you find that out?"
Leon sighed. "Tell me everything. Trust me, it won't be any weirder than the rest of my day."
Leon was wrong of course, as he found out.
Wasyuu puttered about her lab. She always found it best to relax from a hard day of work by going home to her lab and doing some real work. She turned to her youngest daughter, "How's that search coming along?"
Her youngest daughter had shoulder length brown hair and was dressed in a nice white labcoat over a t-shirt and jeans. She was seated at a computer terminal, one of Wasyuu's specialty machines. "Well, I've located that power source. It is indeed inside the subspace equivalent of GENOM Tower. It appears to be a major ley line nexus connected to ten lesser nexi in the city."
Her slightly older sister was nearby, working with some odd equipment that looked like something made by the child of MC Escher and HR Giger, if one of them was actually female to make that possible. She was shorter than her younger sister, with short green hair. She was dressed similarly to her sister. The machine made a sort of growling ping. "We have visitors, Wasyuu-obachan."
"Don't call me obachan! Just call me Wasyuu-chan!"
"Yes, Wasyuu-obachan."
Wasyuu banged her head against the keyboard and accidentally destroyed two of her storage rooms. Luckily, nothing sentient was in them.
The doorbell rang. "Shall I get it, oba...Wasyuu-chan?" the younger daughter asked.
"Sure." She returned to typing away.
Her daughter teleported across the room to the door. "Hello...oh, hello sister Ryoko!"
Ryoko blinked. Sister Ryoko? Who is this? The others with her, Tenchi, Manami, Ryu, Nene, and Sasami, blinked. Sister? "Uh...sister? Do I know you?"
"Wasyuu-obachan! Ryoko has come to see us!"
Wasyuu got up. "Come on in! I need some guineapigs for this experiment anyway!"
The mob came in. Nene carefully followed Ryu's instructions, staying right next to him and touching nothing. That one girl looks familiar, she thought.
Ryoko stormed over to Wasyuu, "Why is this person claiming to be my sister?"
Wasyuu shrugged. "Because she is. I decided to adopt these poor waifs. Their lives had been cut cruely short so I rebuilt them as my first work project at my new job."
The younger one walked over to Ryoko. "Nice to meet you, sister. My name is Sylvie, and this is Anri." She pointed to the other girl.
Nene choked. "Sylvie?" She didn't mean to shout it out, but it happened anyway. Nene couldn't believe it. Sylvie was dead! Dead!
Sylvie turned around and her face brightened. "Nene-chan?"
Nene stumbled over her words. "You blew up! I saw you die...I..."
Sylvie teleported over to Nene. "I can hardly believe it myself."
"Ahh, you've met?" Wasyuu asked.
Sylvie nodded. "Hai." She paused, then asked, "Is Priss...still alive?"
"Yeah! She's going to be so happy, she'll probably throw Leon through a window to celebrate," Nene said. Nene could hardly believe it. Sylvie alive? I saw Priss kill her, she thought. Then again, she is a boomer, so it's not quite the same as if I died, but still...I didn't think a sexaroid could be revived like this.
Wasyuu walked over to Nene. "So you're the one my grandson is going to marry?"
"Uh...something like that, yeah." Nene wondered if they hadn't invented dating in space yet. Thoughts of Sylvie fled her mind in the face of a woman that everyone had been trying to induce a healthy fear of in her for the last few days. It had worked rather well.
Wasyuu got out an odd box with protuding rods and started scanning Nene with it, making various hmmming and hawing noises.
Ryoko teleported over. "Don't try anything funny, Mom."
Manami said, "Don't worry, Nene. She usually tricks you into doing something foolish so that it's your fault, instead of hers when she wants to experiment on you."
Wasyuu frowned. "Oh ye of little faith, I was just taking some readings for my records. I always ask for permission before doing anything permanent. So what do you do for a living, Nene-chan?"
"I'm a cop and one of the Knight Sabres."
"She also is very good with computers," Ryu said.
"Really? Let's see your stuff." Wasyuu conjured up a terminal for Nene. "Hack into something for me."
Nene smiled. "Let's see...maybe I'll divert some of Quincy's bank account to the Boomer Liberation Army today." She sat down and went to work. Ryu had never seen Nene hacking before. She looked disturbingly like Wasyuu in the middle of an experiment...
Hot Legs was nearby. It was a kind of rough place, but one of the best dance places Linna knew of. After an hour or so of dancing, she was starting to get tired, so she and Robert sat down. "Isn't this a lot like what you do all day?" he asked.
She laughed. "You're cuter than most of my customers. On the other hand, I bet this is nothing like what you do all day."
"You'd be surprised. There's about as much shouting and rushing around in commodities exchange, but the music isn't half as good." They bothed laughed at that.
"I've thought about going into that, but I never went to college. I'm not too old, but the idea of more school repulses me." She sighed. "I can't do this forever, though."
He nodded. "You're not that old, but you're right, there isn't much of a market for old aerobics instructors. If you save up now, though, you should be able to afford a good school. You make pretty good money, don't you?"
She laughed. "You'd be amazed."
Leon sat quietly, trying to get the entire story straight in his mind. If he hadn't seen Priss transform, he would have thought this was all a joke. "Why do I have this feeling that Daley is going to come back and tell me he's marrying the Chief or something..."
Priss laughed. "Or that he married Mihoshi?"
Leon sighed. "She was a spy and I was too stupid to figure it out. I can't believe it. I feel like a complete idiot."
"You are." Priss said, then regretted having let old instincts kick in. "I mean..."
"No, I am an idiot. What kind of detective am I? Maybe I will quit this job and be one of your roadies...I could handle that, maybe." Leon sat on the couch, staring at the floor. "My boss exploded when I tried to report on this last case to him...The higherups are having a total fit of paranoia. Security checks for everyone. Very thorough checks."
I'd better warn Nene, Priss thought. "I have a job opening for a helpless sidekick for my superhero business. I guess you'd qualify." She laughed, hoping he would too.
He did. "Better watch out for fanboys, Magical Princess Priscilla."
She turned off her sword and hung it from her belt, then sat down. "So you believe me?"
"I trust you, Priss. Besides, why would you tell me such a crazy story if it wasn't true? And I'm pretty sure I didn't hallucinate what I saw."
Priss yawned. "I'd better head home." She transformed back to normal. "This was fun, but I don't want to fall asleep on my cycle."
Leon got the door for her. "Thanks for talking to me."
"You too. Lemme know if you need a job."
He laughed. "I'll call you first."
Nene finished typing. Wasyuu and her daughters were arguing about something in the background as she came out of her trance, while Ryu was standing nearby, watching. Tenchi and Manami stood nearby, talking quietly, making sure they didn't touch anything. "What if they realize what you did, Mom?" Ryoko said.
Wasyuu laughed. "Oooh, they might fire me. I'm so scared." She faked being terrified. Anri giggled quietly, while Sylvie laughed loudly.
Anri said, "Don't worry, oneechan. Mom's a genius."
"Too much for her own good. You haven't been trying to survive being related to her for thousands of years like me." Ryoko frowned. I'd better get Nene out of her soon before Wasyuu tries anything...
Nene said, "I'm done."
"So what did you do?" Wasyuu asked.
"Swapped Quincy's salary with that of one of the janitors, using one of the vice presidents' account so he will be blamed." Nene said.
Wasyuu laughed. "I think I'm going to like you, girl. Want to be a guinea pig for one of my experiments?"
In unison, almost everyone in the room but Wasyuu, Sylvie, and Anri said, "No!"
Wasyuu frowned. "You people are no fun anymore."
Linna slumped happily into bed. She always felt better after getting a new boyfriend. It made her feel alive, wanted, and attractive. He was cute, nice, and rich, these being the three things she most wanted out of a boyfriend, not necessarily in that order.
I'll try and call Master Hiromi again in the morning...She drifted off to a peaceful, dreamless sleep, not aware she had begun a process of getting herself into even more trouble.
Nene settled into bed, remembering her final conversation with Sylvie and Anri.
"Don't tell Priss yet we're alive. We want to come tell her everything ourselves," Sylvie had asked Nene.
"But why? She's going to be really suspicious if you just show up out of the blue."
Anri sighed. "We're not sure if we're ready to face her ourselves, that's why."
Nene nodded. "Okay. I'll keep your secret."
Her last thoughts as she drifted into unconsciousness was to hope she hadn't made a mistake with that promise.
Z sat in a room, high in GENOM Tower and looked out upon the city. When he closed his body's eyes, he could see the skeins of power running out from the tower. X chose wisely when he had this built here, he thought. From here, we can make the city dance to our every whim. He extended himself into the lines of power and tugged them gently, sending tiny extensions of his will running down them to gather power. Seek out the one, he thought...the one who can lead us to the crystal...
Once we have the crystal, this world will shake, and we will finally be free of this hunk of rock.
X was awake too, elsewhere in the tower. He frowned. As usual, Z is running off half-cocked without even thinking about what he is doing. That idiot will probably bring every supernatural in the city down on our heads. Idiot. He'll ruin everything I've been working towards for the last hundred years.
For a moment, X wondered why Z was still so reckless and crazed while he himself had mellowed over the years. We were almost identical once, he thought. Maybe I absorbed too much from this human...no, I've benefited. After years of flailing aimlessly, I'm finally accomplishing our master's goals, but now I'm saddled with this idiot...I'm so glad he tends to clonk out so often from using too much power...or I'd never get anything done. I'd swear Largo was his fault too, somehow, but I can't prove it.
He reached over and picked up the phone. Time to make a few calls.
April 1, 1996
Hiyama Hikaru parked her car in the parking lot of her dorm, "Wombat Hall" at Tokyo University. Some insane American had gotten the hall renamed after he made a hefty donation to the school, so now the graduate students had to put up with wombat jokes. I wonder who I'll have as a roommate this year, she thought. As she got out, she saw a skinny short blonde girl with twin buns on her head, each with its own ponytail. The girl was busily unloading boxes into the hands of a rather older looking man with short black hair. A second girl, incredibly tall and strong looking was carrying a pile of luggage. Her hair was long and brown, tied back into a ponytail. Hikaru went over to them. "Hey, you need some help there?"
This girl looks awfully young to be a graduate student, Hikaru thought. Maybe she's one of those teen geniuses.
The girl smiled, her blue eyes shining. "Thanks. I've got to go all the way up to 503A. This is A tower, right?"
Hikaru nodded. "Hai." Wombat Hall was really four buildings around a plaza, A, B, C, and E Tower. There had once been a D tower, but it had burned down a long time ago. She blinked. "Wait...#503A?"
The man nodded. "Yes."
"Oh...you must be my new roommate! My old roommate graduated at the end of last semester."
The girl smiled. "I'm Tsukino Usagi. Nice to meet you!"
"I'm Hiyama Hikaru. Nice to meet you." They shook hands, and Hikaru grabbed some of Usagi's ton of stuff. The man quickly introduced himself as Chiba Mamoru, Usagi's fiancee, and the girl as Kino Makoto.
Hikaru unlocked the front door and got everyone inside. "I hope it doesn't sound rude asking, but how old are you? You look awfully young for a graduate student."
"Graduate Student? I'm a freshman!" Usagi said.
Hikaru facefaulted. I really hate the administration at this school...
Priss said to Celia, "So you'll be back in two days?"
Celia nodded. "Shake down and keep an eye on those names we got. Nene, finish getting all the info you can squeeze out of Schilling's computers. They're our next target. Then we go after Wallace."
Linna nodded. "Still no decent footage of him so we know what he looks like?"
"Not yet. He seems rather reclusive. We'll find him." Celia said. She handed out sheets of paper. "Here are your assignments."
Tenchi and Ryouko sat with Manami, Sasami, Ryu, Mihoshi, and Kiyone in Tsunami, looking at the charts Wasyuu had supplied them with. "GENOM Tower stands at the center of two circles of five points each. We're going to deliver these devices to the points so we can neutralize them as necessary." He pointed to the stack of metal cubes sitting on the table nearby. "We don't know if GENOM has the ability to use these energy nexi, but if they know the house of Jurai exists, then it is possible that they may."
"This won't take too long. Then what?" Kiyone asked.
"Then we get to hunt down some of these agents of theirs and see what we can find out."
"This'll be easy," Ryouko said.
Ryu and Manami walked into their second target. It appeared to be an humble ice cream parlor. The storefront looked like a typical late nineteenth, early twentieth century front with a cheap tarp forming a little shady spot in front of the store, which had big plate glass windows. The tarp was pink and so was the decor of 'Bobson's Fine Ice Cream'. Ryu whispered to Manami, "Where are we going to hide this thing in this place?"
Manami whispered back, "Get us some ice cream and I'll figure out a good place."
Ryu nodded and went to go get some chocolate for himself and his sister. This will be easy, he thought, if not quite so easy as that burnt-down temple we hid the first one at.
Mihoshi and Kiyone walked into the department store. Kiyone kept a firm grip on the cube. This time she wouldn't let Mihoshi even look at it. She said to Mihoshi, "While we're here, can you go pick me up a new scarf?"
Mihoshi nodded. "Sure!" She ran off down the aisle, snagging a huge pile of mugs and sending them toppling down on a clerk. Kiyone smiled. That should keep the staff busy...I should have thought of this at the first place.
Ryouko and Tenchi sat in the movie theater. "We don't have time to watch the whole thing, Ryouko."
"But Tenchi..." she purred. "We've delivered all of our cubes. Can't we have a little fun?"
"Well, maybe we can stay a little while longer..." Tenchi had the feeling this was a mistake.
Sasami sat on a floating disk in the main bridge of Tsunami. Wasyuu was on part of the viewscreen. "So they've got seven delivered?"
Sasami nodded. "Hai."
"I'm picking up odd power readings from some of these sites...something may be tapping them."
Sasami cocked her head. "Uhoh."
Wasyuu frowned. "What do you mean, Uhoh?"
"I have business to attend to." She concentrated for a moment, and suddenly there were two of her. One of them shrank to the size of a small child and looked much as Sasami had as a little girl.
Wasyuu said, "Eh?"
Sammi giggled. "Time to go help oneechan. I think she's about to have some trouble."
Wasyuu smiled. "I think I know someone who might be willing to help you."
Priss followed her target into the charm shop. This spy stuff is not my strong point, she thought. Oh well, I'm just waiting for him to go somewhere I can shake him down, anyway. The man was a two-bit punk, but he was also an informer in the pay of Wallace. He was about to do some informing. Linna was nearby in the car. Priss had only gone inside in case the punk slipped out the window or something. Nene was off doing her duty through the power of computer technology.
The punk, a fleabitten hood named "Trunks", was busily reading labels on good luck potions that looked suspiciously like Palmolive to Priss. She idly picked up a long ornately inscribed strip of paper. According to the attached tag, it was a charm to ward off demons. She laughed. Demons. As if.
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of her neck went stiff. Why do I have this bad feeling?
Z frowned. Someone is setting up power dampeners...I can't allow this. He extended his will and tweaked the sites of power. This should do something to keep them busy until I come up with a better plan, he thought...At least I hope it will. Deep thought was never Z's strong point.
The punk finally selected three potions, two charms, and a little statuette that looked far too much like Howdy Doody. Priss decided to buy the demon ward so she would look less suspicious. Suddenly, there was a high pitched tone. Everyone in the store winced, especially Priss, who felt like she was trapped in a bad feedback loop. A high pitched female voice shrieked out something incoherent as a bright reddish glow formed in the middle of the shop, slowly forming into a humanoid figure.
The shopkeeper, the punk, and Priss all stared at the strange creature, which shouted something else incoherent and shot out tentacles at all of them. Priss swore loudly, then the tentacles got too tight to scream...
Ryu and Manami sat quietly, eating their ice cream. "So what are we going to do?" he asked quietly.
"I'll hide it in the ladies' room," she said.
He nodded. Good plan. He was completely surprised when suddenly the shop became about twenty degrees colder, as was everyone else in the place. He got a good glimpse of the pale skinned woman in white who was to blame before suddenly everyone in the room was coated in ice.
Ryouko snuggled up to Tenchi. They hadn't had a good chance to just be alone together and really relax in years. They'd had plenty of private time, but there was always the worry of assassination, of a sudden call to an important Council meeting, that Manami's latest pet was rampaging through the halls of the palace again...
For a moment, Ryouko could pretend they were back in college, going on dates, attending classes, her and Aeka having riotous battles across the campus...the good old days. Why, Aeka and I haven't had a nice relaxing all out fight in at least three years, she thought. We're getting mellow in our old age.
Tenchi was enjoying relaxing as well. The movie was close to the ending. It won't hurt if we stay to the end, he thought.
Unfortunately, their reverie was rudely interrupted by screaming behind them. A dark skinned woman dressed in what looked like various vegetables was screaming something about avocadoes and tossing exploding fruit everywhere. Perhaps it would have made more sense if this site had stayed a supermarket for the last forty years, instead of being leveled by the 2025 quake and rebuilt as a theatre. Then again, it still probably wouldn't have made sense.
Z blinked. What the hell are these things? He had sensed some latent power objects in these sites and awakened them...this was not what he had expected. Actually, he wasn't sure what he had expected...still, these would do nicely...if he could get them to obey, instead of just rampaging and shouting "Avocado!" of all things. What kind of maniac goes around shouting out the names of fruit?
Priss swore mentally as the tentacles tried to choke her. This must be some kind of fucked up fusion boomer, she thought...Just my luck. The door opened and Linna ran in.
Linna stared in shock for a few seconds, then drew her gun and shot at the creature. The bullet passed right through it and into the wall. Linna swore loudly, then the creature fired out a tentacle that wrapped around her neck and arms. It laughed and kept shouting out something incoherent as the shopkeeper and the thug passed out.
Kiyone stretched. Missions accomplished, with only minor damage. Then her communicator started beeping. "This is Kiyone," she answered.
It was Sasami. "We've got problems. Get over to Bobson's Ice Cream...Looks like some of these sites were defended."
With effort, Kiyone dragged Mihoshi away from a UFO catcher doll machine and set out.
People fled everywhere in the theatre, though the movie kept playing. Ryouko sighed and rose into the air, manifesting her energy sword. Tenchi swiftly changed into his battlegarb. Ryouko said, "I really hate people who can't be quiet at the movies!"
"Avocado!" Droid Avocado, who resembled a dark-skinned woman clad in rotting fruit with really bad hair, hurled an exploding Kiwi fruit at Ryouko, who batted it aside.
Tenchi tried hard not to laugh at the silly looking monster. "Give up now!" He got an exploding bunch of grapes that flung him into the front row as his answer.
Ryouko charged at her ludicrous assailant, knocking aside the resulting barrage of fruit with ease. Tenchi peeled himself out of the row of chairs in the front and stood up. The strange creature cried out as Ryouko raised her sword high and sliced it down. To her surprise, the creature was sliced in half. It howled and evaporated, leaving behind a black gem that fell to the floor.
The movie played on to the mostly empty theatre. Ryouko blinked. "Geez, that was easy."
Tenchi said, "Some kind of odd crystalline construct...Must be a result of the power in this place. I guess."
Ryouko pocketed the crystal. "Mom will want this." She turned to Tenchi. "Well, now we can watch the movie in peace."
Tenchi facefaulted.
Kiyone and Mihoshi blinked at the snow blowing out the front door of Bobson's Ice Cream. Kiyone wondered for a moment if some relative of Mihoshi's worked here or if Mihoshi had been here earlier in the day, then choked down her paranoia. She drew her gun. "You ready, Mihoshi?"
Mihoshi was busy making a snowball. "Wow, I bet I could make a really good snowman with all this snow."
Here we go again, Kiyone thought.
Priss and Linna struggled futilely against the amorphous creature. If only I could reach my knife, Priss thought. If only I had my hardsuit, Linna thought.
They were both on the verge of collapse when suddenly there was a shout and two streaks of reddish purple light flashed across their vision. The tentacles collapsed into reddish goo and Droid Jellax screamed in pain. Priss staggered and turned her head, as did Linna.
Three figures stood in the doorway. One of them was familiar to Priss, if not Linna. It was Pretty Sammi. The other two were also familiar, but totally unexpected. They wore tightfitting red body suits and had a sort of tatoo of a black slash across their faces. It was Anri and Sylvie.
Priss, for the first time in her life, fainted. It was all too much. Linna simply stared in shock. "What the..but you...you..."
Droid Jellax shouted, "Jellax!" and fired tentacles at the trio. Pretty Sammi leapt out of the way. Anri and Sylvie tried to teleport out of the way and both picked the same spot, ending up in a tangled heap on the counter.
Linna ran over to Priss and dragged her towards the door. She paused and looked at the trio. I can't believe this is happening. Her vision settled on Pretty Sammi. For a moment, Sammi blurred, and then a barrage of images rushed across Linna's sight. A small child weilding a funky-looking staff. A tree shining and singing among the stars. A spaceship floating through the void. A young woman with long blue hair. All of these were the being she was gazing on, Linna realized. She didn't really want to know this. She tried to shut her eyes and drive out the thoughts and confusion.
Pretty Sammi bonked Jellax on the head, then said, "Come on, you two!"
Anri and Sylvie got untangled. They both held out their right hand and formed spheres of energy, then hurled them at the Droid, which howled and collapsed down into a small black gem. "Yatta! We got it!" Sylvie said.
Anri smiled. "Hai. No more running away." Her stance was more confident looking than before.
Pretty Sammi turned to Linna. "Are you okay, Linna?"
Linna blinked and opened her eyes. The images had stablized. "You...you're a...a tree?"
Pretty Sammi blinked now. "How did you know that?"
Sylvie and Anri rushed over to Priss, who slowly opened her eyes. "Linna, I must be hallucinating...I thought I saw..."
Sylvie kneeled and hugged Priss. "It was no dream."
Priss nearly fainted again.
Kiyone looked around the now frozen-over ice cream store. For a moment she wondered if someone had left the refrigerator door open for too long, but then she spotted the white clad woman with pale snow-colored skin floating in the air in the middle of the room. The room was full of snowmen with only a bit of clothing or a hat sticking out to show that there were humans inside them.
Mihoshi said, "Halt! You're under arrest for violating Galactic Code #345-YUP, which forbids turning people into snowmen!" She leveled her laser at the woman. "Come out with your hands up!"
Kiyone blinked. Galactic code what? Whatever. "Don't make us use force!"
The woman laughed. "Beruche will be pleased...I wonder where those Sailors went..."
Kiyone wondered what on earth the woman was talking about. "This is your last warning!"
The woman took a deep breath. Kiyone suddenly realized what was coming next. She leapt at Mihoshi and pushed her out of the blast, which clipped her legs. She was frozen in snow and ice from the waist down and stuck facing away from the woman.
Luckily for Kiyone, Mihoshi now opened fire on the woman, who started dodging laser blasts. Not so luckily for Kiyone, Mihoshi wasn't aiming very well, and a few shots nearly took off Kiyone's head.
Priss stared at Sylvie. It's not possible. I killed you. I had to kill you...You can't be alive! It's not possible! She tried to speak, but she couldn't focus long enough to give her mouth any instructions. Finally, she managed to croak out, "But..."
Linna just stared. This couldn't really be Sylvie and Anri. Not only were they dead, the real Sylvie and Anri didn't fly, teleport, and fire energy blasts. Or if they did, they sure had done a good job of hiding it. "You died. Both of you."
Sylvie resisted the urge to say, 'we got better'. "Wasyuu-okachan fixed us."
Anri nodded. "We were in the morgue at GENOM, and she adopted us and brought us back to life."
Sammi smiled. "She's not the greatest genius scientist in the universe for nothing."
Priss began to cry and hated herself for crying. "Is it...really you...I mean...I...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."
Sylvie hugged Priss tightly. "You did what you had to."
Sammi left the three of them to their reunion and walked over to Linna. "So you have the sight."
Linna blinked. "What? I'm just an aerobics instructor. I don't do mystic new age stuff."
"Neither do I, but if you could tell that..."
Linna laughed nervously. This was all getting to be too much for her again. "You mean the, uh...tree comment?"
"Yes. I am many things, and one of them is a tree that walks among the stars." She looked up and down at Linna and her eyes widened for a second. "Have you ever been in space?"
Linna smiled, remembering her dream of the previous night. "Only in my dreams."
"Then you know how beautiful it is. Come with me...we need to save your friends." She turned to go.
"What about Priss?"
"She needs time to adjust...she's not ready to fight. You are."
Linna followed Sammi out. "So you're with these aliens?"
Sammi smiled. "You could say that. Let's go get your hardsuit."
Kiyone shivered and swore. Mihoshi had nearly killed her twenty times so far in the last half an hour. The entire store was an frozen wasteland now. A squad of cops had shown up and they had gotten frozen too. She almost wished the ice maiden would finish her off so at least she wouldn't have to suffer anymore.
Somehow, Mihoshi still hadn't gotten frozen over. The ice maiden was clearly starting to get tired from chasing Mihoshi everywhere. Unfortunately, Mihoshi had used up the charge on her laser pistol by now. At least she didn't collapse the roof on us, Kiyone thought. The roof, naturally, then started to shake.
As the ice maiden finally trapped Mihoshi in the corner, the sound of gunfire suddenly attracted everyone's attention. The blue woman went flying. She did not bleed, but blackish energy leaked out of her new holes, looking eerily like blood. Mihoshi turned and looked. Kiyone would have looked if she could move.
Linna, now wearing her hardsuit, and Pretty Sammi stood in the doorway. Pretty Sammi leapt into the air, staff in hand, while Linna activated her jumpjet and power leaped at the ice maiden. Sammi smacked the ice maiden in the head, then Linna spun and sliced her up with her monofilament whips. The creature gave a shriek and dissolved away into mist. The reddish crystal upon her brow turned black and fell to the ground.
Linna definitely felt better. I can beat these damn things. I just have to be ready for them, she thought.As she looked around, the ice faded away and many unconscious people slumped to the floor.
Kiyone stretched. "Thanks for the save, Linna."
"You're welcome...Kiyone." Linna sighed. I wish she'd been able to trust me earlier with the truth.
Kiyone said, "We need to talk, girl." She turned to Sammi. "We're going to have to check out the other points...Where are these damn things coming from?"
"Something is manipulating these points...I think the enemy knows we know about them." Sammi said.
Mihoshi said, "Waaah, the staff is unconscious so I can't buy any ice cream!"
Kiyone ground her teeth and reminded herself that killing one's partner is a bad thing.
Leon sat at his desk and sighed. Daley gets back tomorrow. Today, I get to do paperwork — bleah — get yelled at by the chief — bleah — and watch everyone stare at each other as if they expected people to start sprouting tentacles — bleah.
Finally, he couldn't take it any longer and decided to go harrass Nene for a while over in communications. "Yo, Nene-chan. How's it going?"
"Busy. I think the brass is trying to decide if this falls in our sphere of activity or not...whatever is going on, the metropolitan police are getting whooped."
"Whooped by what?"
Nene laughed nervously. "Well, it's not boomers, but it's not ordinary criminals either..."
"Can you be more specific?"
"Well, it sort of kind of looks like monster attacks." Nene laughed nervously.
"Monster attacks?"
"We're also getting strange reports of people with paranormal powers fighting these monsters. An entire riot squad apparently got frozen at an ice cream store and saved by one of the Knight Sabres and a blue-haired eight-year-old. There was some sort of maniac who supposedly flew and hurled exploding fruit at a movie theatre. Etc, etc."
Leon frowned faintly. "How many of these things are there?"
"Somewhere around ten."
Leon thought for a moment. "Any pattern to these incidents?"
Nene called up a map and started punching in addresses. Ten dots lit up, forming two circles of five, one inside the other. In fact, they formed two perfect pentagons. "Oh my."
Leon looked at the map. "Have it calculate the exact center of the pentagon."
"The program isn't designed to do that."
Leon sighed and went and got a ruler from his desk and estimated. GENOM Tower was in the middle. "Can you differentiate them by time?"
Nene tried. "All the reports from the sites came in within ten minutes of each other."
"Hmmm. My instincts say to blame GENOM, but surely they wouldn't be stupid enough to do something like this and make a pattern that screams 'blame us'."
Nene laughed. "Maybe they're a target. They do have enemies. These things could be some kind of modified boomers, though the reports of their abilities...are really scary."
Leon nodded. "Well, the target locations are all rather insignificant...an ice cream shop, a video arcade, a jewelry store, a charm shop, a movie theatre, a bookstore, an art gallery...No pattern there. Maybe this is an advanced boomer fieldtest planned by an idiot."
Leon was half right.
Z frowned. This was getting out of hand. There were too many of these awakened creatures for him to control them all or keep proper track of them, even with them getting killed. A door opened and X walked in. "I see that age doesn't always bring wisdom."
Z glared at X. "Or tact."
"Touche. Are you perhaps trying to advertise your presence here? Do you want our enemies to be certain they can find us here? If you have some 'clever master plan', I'd like to be aware of it."
Z drummed his fingers on the table that he was sitting at."Our enemies are moving to close off our access to the hearts of the city. This location is powerful, but if they control all ten..."
"So you unleashed rampaging monsters?"
"At least they can't be traced to us by everyone, the way boomers would." Z sighed. X never used to criticize me all the time like this.
X said, "You go work on finding that dreamwalker. I'll do damage control for this."
Nodding, Z put his mind to work trying to think of how best to locate a dreamwalker.
Dr. Mizuno Ami hid behind the bookcase and prayed the monster wouldn't see her. Her husband was out there somewhere, having gotten himself clobbered trying to fight the strange creature, which looked rather like an insane flying female punk with a huge drum, babbling about thunder. In fact, there seemed to be a local rainstorm in progress. The glass of the bookstore windows had shattered and rain was pouring in. Unconcious cops were scattered everywhere. My day off isn't supposed to be like this, she thought for the fiftieth time.
"Thunderclap!" bellowed the strange being, trashing more of the bookstore as it banged its drum.
Ami winced. This thing is giving me a headache, she thought. There was something oddly familiar about the creature, although she was fairly certain she had never been attacked by boomer before. At least, she thought it was a boomer. What else could it be?, she thought.
A voice spoke. "A forgotten remnant of what once was and shall be nevermore." Pause. "Dead Scream." A corruscating bolt of energy filled the store with light and Ami scrunched her eyes shut. There was a great howl and the dreadful banging and thunder finally stopped. The rain began to fall more gently and the wind died.
The voice spoke again. "Come on out, Dr. Mizuno. It's over now."
Ami stepped out into the middle of the store. A dark green haired woman in what looked like an ornate sailor fuku had lifted Ami's husband up onto a table and seemed to be checking him for injuries. She whispered something to him that Ami could not hear and he awoke.
The woman turned to Ami and regarded her with a calculatedly neutral gaze. For a moment, Ami thought she knew this woman, but couldn't remember where or why or how. The woman said, "Your husband will be all right. He's tougher than he looks, with good reason." She smiled faintly. "But then, so are you. We will meet again."
She turned to leave. Ami said, "I...thank you...who are you?"
"One day you will not need to ask that question. I am Sailor Pluto. Good day." She stepped out the door.
Ami blinked and turned to her husband, a young looking man with short black hair. "Are you okay, dear?"
He nodded. "I've been better."
"Are you sure, Ryo-kun?" Ami sized her husband up. A few bruises, but otherwise, he looked unhurt.
Urawa Ryo nodded and smiled. "I'm fine, Ami-chan. Let's go."
Amid the long burnt-out wreckage of a once prosperous and holy Shinto shrine, someone moved. Her mind was dim and filled with the memory of her death. Something about...Mars. It was time for revenge...If only she could remember what Mars looked like.
There was a person nearby. His breath smelled strange and he wore crumpled dirty clothing. He stared at the woman, then took another swig.
"Where is...Mars?" she asked the man.
He blinked. "What, the planet?" I wonder what she's on, he thought. And where can I get some?
"The...person."
The man thought for a moment. This was harder than it looked, given the number of brain cells he had sacrificed to the bottle over the years. "Does he have a first name?"
She wracked her brain. "Sailor...Mars."
"Don't know him. Try the docks."
"Which way?"
He pointed east. "That way, I guess."
Passersby tried to ignore the weirdo wrestling woman as she staggered out of the ruins. They had learned to ignore it, since it was usually full of druggies and squatters. She looked little different from the bums that typically infested it. Well, more than a little, but not enough for them to care.
Priss finally pulled herself together. She could hear the cops coming. "We'd better get out of here."
Sylvie nodded and took Priss' hand. Flicker. Now they were standing, with Anri, on a beach looking out on the ocean. Priss blinked. "I wasn't expecting that."
Anri sat down on a rock. "The world is full of surprises. Some of them are even nice."
Priss laughed. "Yeah. So...you say this...Wasyuu brought you both back? What is she, some kind of..."
"Mother is a genius," Sylvie said. "If you want to meet her, she's been curious to meet you for a while."
"A genius. You...I mean...I wouldn't have thought it possible that..." Everything has a price, Priss thought. What's the price of...hey, Sammi never did tell me the price of my powers...
"Sometimes you just don't question good luck," Sylvie said. She paused. "So are you really 25,000 years old like Wasyuu-okachan said?"
Priss laughed. "I'll tell you everything, but I'll be surprised if you believe it all."
It took hours to clean out all the monsters and properly plant the devices. By that time it was getting late. After a brief meeting at which plans were made for the next day, they scattered in various directions. Linna found herself going out to eat with Kiyone at a nice Italian place.
For a while, they ate quietly, neither quite sure how to broach the subject. Finally, Kiyone said, "I'm sorry I decieved you for so long."
Linna sighed. "Well, I didn't exactly tell you everthing." She ate a little more, then asked, "How can you stand it?"
"Stand what?"
"Being around all these incredibly powerful beings...It makes me feel so inferior. I can keep up with them with my hard suit, but..."
Kiyone smiled, "Just because you don't turn into a spaceship or fire energy beams from your hands doesn't make you inferior, Linna. Just be the best at what you are. In the end, skill is far more important than powers. And you have plenty of that."
"You really think so?"
"You're one of the best fighters I know, and I know a lot of fighters." She paused and ate a bit more. "And there's the other issue too."
"Huh?"
"Power brings responsibility, yet you never have enough power to get everything you want. If you're not careful, you end up in a never ending spiral of constant searching for more and more power that satisfies you less and less." She turned and stared out the window into the night. "An easy road to damnation."
"That's why I got out of beauty contests. I didn't like what I was turning myself into...and there wasn't a future in it."
"That's another thing I meant to ask you about."
Linna blinked. "Eh?"
"How would you like to join the Galaxy Police? I think you'd have a lot more future there than working as an aerobics instructor."
Linna was not expecting that.
Priss sat quietly on a bench inside in one of the vast garden spaces inside Tsunami. Sasami sat by her, eating an ice cream cone. Priss had one too, but she was almost finished with it.
"Sasami. You mentioned a price of my powers, but you never told me what it was."
Sasami said, "The price of magical power is that you will never have a normal life again. Once you set off down that road, there is no returning."
Priss began to laugh. "Like I had a normal life. Geez, if that's all..."
"And with power comes responsibility. There are only two Sailor Warriors upon this world where once there were over a dozen. It is a heavy load for you to bear."
"You and me, eh?"
"You and Pluto. I share in your fate, yet most of my duties lie elsewhere."
Priss frowned. "Arrogant little..."
Sasami sighed. "Pluto has never been noted for her tact. Although she was worse than usual with you. A lot of her hopes are riding on you, you see."
"What the hell does she want from me?"
"We have to find the Empyrean Silver Crystal."
Priss started. "My dream..."
"It is the key to reawakening the other Sailor Warriors from their slumbers. Especially your sister."
"Sister," Priss said quietly.
"It's all hard to accept, isn't it?"
Priss nodded. "At least..."
"Hmm?"
"I'm glad my friends still treat me the same...well, the ones who know. Well, except for Manami calling me Princess all the time now."
Sasami laughed. "She's so much like her mother."
"I can't believe you and Aeka are sisters. As well as...how does that all work anyway? You're her sister, but you're also..."
"This is going to take a while." A long while.
Ryu, Tenchi, Nene, Ryouko, and Manami sat in the park on the Tokyo University campus and quietly looked up at the stars. Ryouko pointed off to one star. "That's Jurai, right?"
Manami smiled. "Indeed it is."
Nene looked up at it. "How far away is it?"
"Hundreds of light years." Ryouko said. "A few days in Ryo-ohki."
"Wow. I'd like to see it one day."
Ryu smiled. "Once I graduate, I can take you on a vacation there."
"Stick with us and you'll see more of it than you can stand," Ryouko said. She winked.
Manami said, "Jurai is a very beautiful world."
Nene looked up at the stars. One day, I'll be up there. She leaned over and snuggled up to Ryu, who smiled. "Your grandmother is a very interesting person, Ryu."
He laughed. "And dangerous. I spent many interesting days trying to survive being taught by her."
Manami nodded. "Like the time she decided to mind-switch us, then pretended she didn't know what had happened?"
Ryouko laughed. "He tried to tell me what happened, but I thought he and Manami were trying to play a joke on me!"
"Yeah, like Manami could play a joke to save her life!"
Manami said, "Don't tempt me, brother."
"Is that a threat?" he laughed.
Ryouko looked at Ryu. "Don't tempt your sister."
Manami smiled far too lovingly at Ryu. "Too late."
Ryouko and Manami looked at each other and began to laugh. Now Ryu was worried.
Linna floated through space in her dreams again. The stars were all in the wrong places and she felt lost. I wish I had a map, she thought. An AAA guidebook appeared in her hands. Opening it, she saw a vast array of dots with a X <— You are here. Some map.
She tried flapping her arms and found she could swim through space, so she started swimming along. Three stars caught her eye. They formed a close triangle in space, though several other constellations of stars hovered near them. Indeed, all three of the stars seemed to be binaries, orbiting in tiny circles with another star.
Many other stars clustered near these. In fact, as she got closer, they seemed to be moving closer together. All the stars seemed to move gently, more than they should have moved with her movement. The stars got closer and larger, becoming glowing spheres. Suddenly, she was in their midst. They swarmed around her, closing in on her. She panicked and tried to flee, but they followed her. One of them struck her right arm and suddenly grew, swallowing up the entire universe.
Linna was standing inside a laboratory, much to her surprise. It was very well equipped, or at least she thought it was. Really, she couldn't tell, but all the beakers and tubes and machines and things going ping looked scientific. The room had two exits. One seemed to lead into a house, while the other was huge vault door, locked and chained. Celia was trying to shove the door open, but it wasn't working very well. For one thing, the door opened into the room, but she was trying to push it open. For a second thing, Celia was chained to the scientific equipment and it was holding her back. She was having to strain to the utmost just to reach the door, let alone push.
For a few seconds, Linna simply stared, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. "Umm, Celia, what are you doing?"
Celia, still staring at the door, said, "Have...to...open...this door." She was straining badly and sounded extremely tired.
Linna walked over and saw that there was a lock on the chains by the table, and that in fact there was a key in the lock. "Why don't you take the chains off?"
"No, I can't do that!"
Linna blinked. This was way too surreal. How did I get here, anyway? She couldn't remember. "Why?"
"Daddy gave me these chains! They're all I have left of him!" Celia's voice sounded odd, perhaps because she was now a twelve year old. The chains had shrunk to fit and now she couldn't even reach the door. "Daddy said they'll keep me safe and tell me what to do!"
Linna blinked. Am I dreaming? This is too weird. "Then why are you trying to open the door?"
"Cause I wanna be a magical princess like Grandma and my magic wand is on the other side."
"How do you know that?"
"Cause daddy locked it away cause it was dangerous, but I need it so I can take care of my best friends." She looked at Linna and smiled nervously. "You're my friend, right?"
Linna said, "Of course you're my friend, Celia. One of my closest friends in the world. We're like family."
Celia strained at the chains again. "I just can't do it."
Linna walked over to the door. There was a key in its lock as well. She turned the lock and opened the door. "There you go."
"I can't reach the door!"
Linna knelt and tried to turn the key in the lock on Celia's chains, but it wouldn't budge. She kept trying, but it wouldn't move. Celia watched nervously. "But daddy said I should never take off the chains!"
"You can't get through the door if you don't. Don't you want to get through the door?"
"But..."
Linna shrugged. "Up to you. Guess I'll go see if I get to be a magical princess if I go in there." I must be dreaming, she concluded. She started to walk towards the door.
"No!!!! Don't go without me!"
Linna kept going. "Just unlock yourself and come with me."
She kept going, then heard a clicking noise. Suddenly, Celia was by her side, aging with every step. Beyond the door was a white light and...
Linna was sitting in her master's training hall. Hiromi was standing over her, sighing. "Get too close and they will always suck you in."
"I don't understand, master. What exactly did we just do?"
"We meditated and you entered the dream world. All those stars were dreams. You have to be very careful or they will suck you in. It takes great discipline. And if they are dreaming of you...you may not be able to get out."
Linna blinked. "How...how is that possible? You can't get into other people's dreams!"
Hiromi smiled. "I'm in this one, aren't I?"
The world shattered.
Linna woke up. "Ugh, what a weird dream."
Then a giant flaming Quincy ate her.
Linna woke up. "Ugh, what a weird dream." She flinched, but nothing happened. Was I really in Celia's dream? Naaah, I must have imagined things.
Celia woke up, her sheets, soaked with sweat. What a weird dream...and...She focused her thoughts for a moment and a glowing ball of light formed over her hand. A wash of excitement flowed over her and she felt like a child again on Christmas Day, opening her first present. She juggled the tiny glowing ball back and forth, laughing. Only with effort could she keep from running to show her grandmother what she could do. I feel like a small child, she thought. I feel...happy.
April 30, 2025
It had taken weeks for the tiny cult to get permission to use the park for a holy ritual. They needed a greenspace and Tokyo was notably deficient in such things. Nor was the city government very fond of obscure religious groups of late after several unfortunate incidents with crazed cults attempting to bomb various city functionaries. This group, however, the "Children of Herne", despite following some barbaric looking European nature god, had followed all the proper procedures and more importantly, paid bribes to the correct people. As long as they didn't cause any trouble, they'd be fine. If they did, they would likely be hung out to dry.
As it was, the city was going to have other things to think about.
The group was lead by a short and stocky, yet remarkably charismatic man who called himself "Cerunnos", though his parents had named him Daisuke. His hair was grey with age, but still curly. He had an amazing vigour for a man of his age — he seemed to bristle with life, which was part of how he had attracted his followers. They believed he was the avatar of Herne the Huntsman, some sort of fertility/nature god. The dogma of the cult was somewhat vague...more or less they were all under Cerunnos' sway and did whatever he told them, which often involved a lot of running naked and mad passionate sex.
What it involved right now was drawing a huge chalk circle in the middle of the park with one of those little machines used in football stadiums to refresh the grid lines, and drawing lots of runic squigglies inside it, while some of the others danced about chanting the words Cerunnos had taught them. Once everything was set up, they all moved inside the circle and began dancing in a ring with torches around 'Cerunnos', who chanted in a tongue that sounded to them like some alien language.
Long slumbering power awoke. Cerunnos could feel it. He laughed. Fools. They know not what they do. He abandoned his old body and became one with the site, the most powerful arcane point in all of Tokyo. Years of planning was about to come to fruition. To him had fallen the power of control over the earth: rock, stone, lava, and most importantly...fault lines. He 'grabbed' the nearby fault line and yanked. The Second Kanto Quake had begun.
Cerunnos, however, would not see the effects. He realized too late that he had overstressed himself. He had been too impatient and not gathered enough power from the point before causing the quake. As he slipped into unconsciousness within the earth, one of his followers fell down and dropped her torch. The entire park soon began to burn. Cerunnos' body burned to ashes and the fire spread. Not that he cared. It was but one of hundreds he had used over the millennia and not one of the better ones.
May 22, 2025
Tokyo lay in ruins in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Quake. Taka quietly drove his bulldozer through one of the devastated parks, as did several other workers. What was bad for the city was good for them. This GENOM company wanted to build its new headquarters here, so they were clearing away the rubble. Tearing down the outlying blocks of buildings was next. The GENOM Tower was going to be huge.
It's a pity about the park, he thought. This was really beautiful once. It was a memorial, too. But I guess the city is desperate for cash to rebuild after this big mess. Repairing all this fire damage would cost a bundle.
He shrugged off the thought and went back to focusing on his job, driving past the sign which read, 'Future site of GENOM Tower. Another fine job by Matsuura and Son, inc.' In years to come, he would kick himself for having had anything to do with this. By then it was too late.
Catherine Romanova was short and red-haired like her daughter, although her hair was much longer and tied back into a long-braid. Her husband, Kazuya, was red haired as well, and both of them were well into middle-age. She was dressed up in one of her nice business suits today because she was going to be meeting her daughter's boyfriend's parents. Having heard a few strange stories from Ryu about them, she was quite interested in seeing what they would actually be like.
Frantically, she flitted around the kitchen, trying to get everything ready while her husband "helped" her, which usually wasn't much help as he wasn't a very good cook. Not that she was the goddess of cooking herself. Both she and her husband liked to eat, but disliked cooking, which meant the best take-out places in the area knew them all by name.
He was competent at barbeque, however, so she had sent him out to grill meat. Unfortunately, he had finished before she did, which meant he was now hovering about, getting in the way. She was glad he wanted to help, though. She'd spent years beating that into him (He'd been raised to let the women do it all), then years regretting what happened when he did help.
The ringing of the doorbell sent him scurrying, and soon she got her first look at Tenchi and Ryouko Hakubi-Masaki. Tenchi looked quite respectable in a nice suit, while Ryouko...well, she'd always assumed Ryu had been joking when he claimed his spiky hair was inherited from his mother. Still, she was dressed nicely enough in red and black, although she kept tugging on her clothing as if it was a straitjacket.
Nene and Ryu were there as well, both dressed up in their best clothing. Ryu said, "Mrs. Romanova, these are my parents, Tenchi and Ryouko Hakubi-Masaki."
Tenchi stepped forward and offered her a hand, which she shook. "Nice to meet you."
Ryouko sniffed the air. "Smells good. When do we eat?"
"The food will be ready in just a few minutes. Kazuya, can you take our guests to the table?"
Soon, they all got seated, and started talking while waiting for the food. "So you're a lawyer?" Tenchi asked Kazuya.
Kazuya nodded. "Hai. I wanted to be a doctor when I was in high school, but then I discovered that I wasn't as good at science as I really needed and that I didn't actually enjoy doing biology experiments and since medicine is basically applied biology and chemistry, I ended up doing law instead. And Catherine runs a computer troubleshooting and consulting service. Nene takes after her mother."
Ryouko sipped her tea, then frowned and said, "This doesn't taste like sake."
Kazuya blinked. "It's not sake."
"Don't give her any," Ryu said. "Trust me."
"Hey, I can hold my liquor!" Ryouko snapped at Ryu.
Kazuya started to get up. "I think we have some in the kitchen."
Tenchi put a hand on Ryouko's shoulder and whispered into her ear. She fumed. "Tea will be fine," she said.
It was perhaps the hand of destiny that caused Catherine to come out of the kitchen with a bottle of sake at that moment. And people say Destiny has no sense of humor.
Dinner was over and the post-feeding drunken reminisences were in full progress. Nene and Ryu, despite their best efforts, had been unable to prevent their parents ending up soused and had finally yielded to the pressure, ending up hammered themselves. Catherine was standing on the sofa, acting out an elaborate story which no one really understood because it relied on knowing all the details of her life which only Kazuya knew, although Nene had flashes of comprehension. "Okay, so this was like after Mitsuru-sempai and Nanami-chan started dating. But before Shinobu-sempai's sister had him kidnapped and tattooed "cruel to his sister" on his forehead. Okay, now Nanami and I were trying to do our homework. She was bored out of our skull, so we decided to go down to the Tokyo U union, where we see this spiky haired girl and this really weird looking girl with long hair in this funky kimono and they're having a food fight and...hey, that was you!" She pointed at Ryouko.
Ryouko laughed. "What, the time Aeka and I started pelting each other with baked potatos?"
"Yeah. So we're walking along and Nanami gets hit in the head with a baked potato. Two seconds later, Mitsuru-sempai shows up with the entire girl's soccer team chasing him and shouting about underwear and then..." She paused. "You tell the rest, Kazuya-chan."
He shook his head. "I have no idea what on Earth you're talking about."
"Umm...neither do I."
Mass facefault time.
They didn't clean up until the next morning, mostly because the Romanovas simply passed out on the spot. The next morning, their heads pounded as they tried to clean up. "Now I remember why we don't have many parties anymore," Catherine said.
"Well, Ryu's parents seemed pretty nice, even though I never did get a straight answer on what they do for a living." Kazuya tried to figure out how so much clothing had gotten scattered around the living room when he didn't remember waking up naked.
Catherine plugged in the vacuum cleaner, concluded in three seconds that it would make her head explode if she listened to it much longer, then turned it off. "I think Ryouko said she was a spy."
"I remember Tenchi said something about the government. Working for the Emperor or some such thing. Then again, I also distinctly remember Ryouko flying." Kazuya sat down and laughed. "Like Shinobu-sempai's wife. I doubt Ryouko's from outer space like her, though."
Catherine nodded. "What's the odds that two people we know would marry aliens? I wouldn't have believed it myself if she hadn't shown up in her spaceship and challenged Shinobu-sempai to a game of tag for the future of the Earth at your high school reunion." Turning to her husband, she said, "That wasn't common at your high school, was it?"
"Even at Greenwood, aliens were pretty rare. Although I did meet some ghosts." Kazuya laughed. "But that reunion...that topped it all. I suppose we ought to tell Nene about that some day, but I don't think she believes in aliens."
Catherine nodded. "Well, she's not too likely to end up married to Alien royalty or go to outer space any time soon, so we don't need to worry about it." Thinking a minute, she said, "Maybe Nanami-chan and Mitsuru-sempai went to outer space."
"I don't think so, although...there was that one trip they wouldn't talk about." He sighed. "I wish we knew what happened to them."
"I'm sure Nanami's making a profit, wherever she's gone to." Catherine said, then clutched her head. "Remind me to get rid of the rest of the sake. Ugh, my head!"
"I'm just glad we've managed to build a nice normal life. No aliens. No ghosts. No people driving motorcycles down the hallway. Now, if I could just get around to getting rid of that one stump..."
Catherine knew better than to believe he would ever get rid of the stump, given that it had sat in their front yard for over twenty years and motivated the purchase of at least five tools, which had never been used. Her husband was a great lawyer and a bad handyman.
Kiyone slipped quietly through the hallways of Schilling Enterprises, ignoring the loud crashing noises coming from downstairs. She smiled faintly. If there's one thing Mihoshi does really well, it's create a diversion that attracts all possible attention. She looked at the primitive device in her hands. I can hardly believe any civilization would need to make a modem this large.
A simple enough job. Schilling Enterprise had two computer systems. One of them was used for less secure transactions and could be accessed from outside. The other one had no external connections and could only be accessed from inside the building. Normally.
Nene sat and hacked at a furious pace. Have to make sure all my tracks are covered so those security checks don't find anything. Part of the problem was not knowing for sure how many potential records had to be altered. Nene thought she had covered her tracks, but some tidbit of info that might reveal her true age or other information she had covered up might leak out.
She also had a ton of information to try to collate on Schilling Enterprises that her information gathering programs had dredged up. Just to further complicate matters, Wasyuu had given her a new computer that was much more powerful but also seemed to constantly go whacko. She'd given up on voice interface and was just typing now...the voice interface seemed to be far too literal and got confused easily. And the computer kept lecturing her and trying to tell her what to do, so she had to shut off its voice too.
The phone rang. She answered it. "Hello?"
"Hi, this is Celia. We're on our way back."
"Wow, this quick?"
Celia smiled, though Nene couldn't see it. "Something just clicked."
"Cool. I'm pretty sure the widget in Schilling's computers is working. Soon as you get back, we can make our raid."
"Good. We need to get moving. How are things going?"
"Enjoying my new toys. Worrying too much about keeping my job."
"Well, I don't know if any of our lives will be the same after this."
Nene nodded. That was for sure.
Unit 2 and Unit 3 faced off in the clearing while everyone else watched. Some kid named Hitomi was driving Unit 3. Noa's mind quietly ignored the fact that she hadn't been any older than the "kid" when she started doing this. They both drew their combat rods and the kid charged her, rod held high like someone out of a samurai movie.
Noa laughed quietly to herself and sidestepped, then slammed the kid in the back with her rod, sending her flying. The kid got up and did it again with similar results. Noa said, "This isn't a samurai movie. If you charge someone with a weapon held high over your head, not only do you leave yourself vulnerable, if they move, you can't do much. Don't run in an Ingram unless you have to. It's a lot harder to stop than it is with a human body."
The kid apparently ignored her, getting up and charging a third time. Noa sighed. Going to have to beat some sense into this one. She sidestepped again. Suddenly, Unit 3 was behind Noa, smashing Unit 2 in the head with her rod. Noa staggered, but managed to regain control. Bloody psychics cheat, she thought. "Not bad use of your powers." She backkicked and sent Unit 3 sprawling. "But how long can you keep this up?"
Unit 3 staggered to its feet. The girl looked dazed. Noa moved in, smacking Unit 2 over and over as the girl put up only a feeble resistance. Noa backed off. "Like I thought. You try teleporting one of these things and you're not going to be worth squat afterwards."
The girl moaned. "Never moved something this heavy before."
"Look, you people can all do things I can't do and never will be able to do. But it's got limits. You're not going to be able to stop in the middle of the battle because you've run out of power. We're going to be facing dozens, maybe hundreds of boomers and God knows what else. Use your powers wisely, and they'll give us the edge we need to survive. Lean on them too much and you'll be dead. You've got limits that our enemies do not. Boomers won't get tired and they'll keep coming until they can't move at all. Your powers don't make you invulnerable. Class dismissed for lunch." She got out of her Ingram and prayed they had actually listened to her.
Hiromi and Taeki joined her for lunch, along with the Chief, who had dropped in with some visitors. "Everyone, I have some friends I'd like you to meet." Noa looked up and blinked. "A...Ayukawa...?" Noa had all of her albums. She had thought Madoka was dead.
Madoka, Kyosuke, and Hikaru laughed, especially Madoka. "That brings back memories," she said.
Hikaru glomped onto Kyosuke's arm. "Daaaaaahling!" They all laughed again, leaving the others rather confused.
Noa blinked. "Professor Hiyama? You're part of this too?"
Hikaru smiled. "Couldn't resist the urge to make history as well as write about it."
Noa wondered for a moment what they could possibly need a historian, a musician, and a...whatever for.
Chief Goto said, "Well, I see you know two of our people. This fellow is Kasuga Kyosuke, noted photographer and not so noted psychic." He then introduced the three ex-SV2 officers to the guests.
Kyosuke posed in a rather silly pose for a moment, then laughed. "My son worked with you in SV2 for a while."
"Oh, you're Akira's father? He was a good officer."
"Hai. Anyway, we've come to make you an offer, Mrs. Shinohara," Hikaru said.
"An offer?"
Hikaru took a deep breath. "Due to an unfortunate encounter with one of the beings we're likely going to be facing soon, I...have the ability to help awaken people's psychic potential. It takes different forms with different people as far as I can tell...I've only done it a few times. It makes me rather...uncomfortable. However, given that you're going to be leading this assault and you're the only person who doesn't already have this ability..."
Noa blinked. "I..you...what?"
Taeki cocked her head. "And what is this going to cost her?"
"Well, it's irreversible, for one thing. If you decide you don't like it, I can't undo it. And not everyone has much potential. And the only way for me to determine that in advance...makes me rather uncomfortable as well."
Noa felt a bit overwhelmed. "I...uh...I'll have to think about this."
Hikaru nodded. "I understand. I wouldn't force this on anyone."
Noa had more to think about for the rest of the day than she really wanted.
Ryu worked on his homework, trying to not get too far behind. Thus, he almost didn't notice the head sticking up through his desk, looking at him with a mischevous twinkle. Almost. "Spying on me for Manami, mom?"
"Would I do such a thing?"
"In an instant."
Ryouko phased out of the furniture and hovered next to Ryu. "Spoilsport."
"Just don't rig up anything that'll destroy the dorm, okay?"
"It's not like we can't afford to repair it."
"Dad won't like it either."
Ryouko sighed. "You're no fun."
"I'd like to not get kicked out of my dorm and have to go live in a shoebox." He finished off the last physics problem and turned to his chemistry homework. "And try not to do anything that'll take out my roommate or suitemates, either, okay? No teleportals to deep space or anything like that."
"I suggested that, but Manami doesn't trust those things." Hmmmm, she thought. Maybe the...
"And if you put Nair in my shampoo, I'll help grandpa film you in bed again."
Ryouko said, "Again?"
Ryu laughed. That should distract Mom for a while, he thought.
Mackie sat quietly on the steps of the shrine while everyone ran around packing. He still hadn't managed to unlock his abilities yet. If I have any, he thought. At least Grandma and Aeka-san will stay here with me so I don't have to play with the tree by myself. Celia and Youshou were heading back to town. He could train her there and Celia wanted to plunge into the thick of things, Mackie could tell. He knew his sister well. She wouldn't show enthusiasm, but he could see it when she had it. Which was all too rare.
He felt hands on his shoulders and jumped. Meylia leaned down. "You okay, Mackie? You don't look so good."
He sighed. "I feel useless."
She sat down by him and put an arm around his shoulder and gave him a hug. "You're not useless."
"What if I never figure out how to do this?"
"If I could figure it out while lying in a coma, I'm sure you can. You're much smarter than I'll ever be." Her voice was soothing and quiet, but Mackie wasn't ready to believe.
"Yeah, right. That's why I'm 18 with no high school diploma, no job, and a future of being my sister's flunky for life." He sighed. "I haven't had a date in my entire life, probably because I only meet women who are armed to the teeth and several years older than me...at the youngest. Not to mention, every time I tried, Celia gave me a lecture on family secrets, our crusade, blah blah blah blah." He quietly sagged.
Meylia sighed. She knew it had been hard for her grandchildren but it had never quite been shoved in her face like this before. My poor grandson has lost all of his childhood. "So your sister hasn't let you date anyone at all?"
"Well, she hasn't dated anyone either, so at least she's not a hypocrite." He sighed. "I've thought about going off to college, but she really does need me...but I'm gonna go nuts if I can't ever have any social life at all."
"Well, I'll talk to Celia about it."
Mackie laughed faintly. "I don't think she'll listen. I'm surprised she hasn't tried to turn the Knight Sabres into a monastic order."
Meylia tried not to laugh at a sudden mental image of Priss in a nun's habit. "Is it really that bad?"
"Not all the time, but I just wish I could have a date. Just one date. Just to even see what it's like."
Meylia thought. Hmm. This could be a challenge. "I'll see what I can do."
Mackie sighed. "Grandma...Is this all as weird to you as it is to me?"
"More weird to me. I had a normal life until this happened. You never had one."
He nodded.
"I was all alone and terrified for weeks after I woke from the coma. I thought I had lost everyone I loved and turned into some kind of magical ghost or something. All I had left was revenge." She paused and smiled at Mackie. "I'm so glad that you two are still alive and okay. I love you two very much. You know that, don't you?"
Mackie smiled back. "I love you too, grandma." He felt a little better now.
Wilson Kamisaka sat on the couch, watching TV. He had taken the day off because it was his birthday. He was rather worried about the possibility that the idiot assassin might be traced to him. The guy had gotten arrested, but Stingray hadn't pressed charges...yet. Why did anyone in our company want her dead, anyway? "It just doesn't make any sense," he muttered to himself. "Why would anyone want a lingerie shop owner killed?"
"That's a good question. We intend to find out," said a woman's voice behind him.
He froze up. What the... Turning around, he saw a blue-green haired woman standing behind him, wearing an odd looking tight red jumpsuit. "Hi. Shall I cut off your hands first or would you like to come peacefully?" she asked with a cheery tone of voice.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm the dread space pirate Ryouko." She casually blasted his TV to a pile of smoking wires and glass. "That could be you."
Wilson came peacefully.
The Knight Sabres sat around the briefing table, such as it was. "So what's the plan?" Priss asked.
"Well, Wilson claims he gets his orders from an account on their machine whose password is supposedly only known by the head of Regional Operations at the company's headquarters back in Germany. However, Nene did some hacking and determined that someone has been logging into that account from here in Japan, namely from a Takahito Enterprises warehouse in Yokohama. The account hasn't been logged into from Germany in three months. Secondly, Takahito Enterprises is owned by Daichi Tool and Die, which is a subsidiary of GENOM. Thirdly, someone else inside Schilling must also be involved since usually notes for Wilson were hidden in his office and the email messages just told him where to look. The next step is going to be to catch the person in Takahito who is sending the messages...or at least using their computers." Celia paused for air.
Nene said, "The account being used from Takahito belongs to a minor executive, Dora Shinishi. Whoever is doing this logs onto the executive account at Schilling on a regular basis. We're going to catch them the next time they do."
"We also have a plan to make them believe GENOM is responsible for whatever damage we may do."
Priss laughed. "I like it."
"How are we going to make them think GENOM is responsible?" Linna asked.
Nene laughed. "When they see big blue boomers rampaging through their building, what else could they conclude?"
"How are we going to do that?" Linna asked.
"We're going to play dressup!" Nene laughed.
Now Priss and Linna were worried.
Noa sat quietly on the couch and watched TV. Asuma came over and sat down by her. "Thinking about the offer they made you?"
Noa nodded. "I can't decide if I should take it or not. It's not doing those kids much good as labor pilots, but..."
Asuma said, "I think you should take the offer...we're going to need every advantage we can get." He sat down beside Noa and handed her a cup of tea.
Sipping the tea slowly, she replied, "If I was younger, I think I would say yes. When I was really little, I wanted to be a superhero."
"Like the Senshi?"
She laughed. "Yeah. I didn't want to die like them, though." She shuddered.
He nodded. "I guess they had the Power too."
"It didn't save them."
"But they saved us."
Noa remembered that day. Indeed, she could never forget it. As much as she might have wanted to.
The battle seemed like it had been raging for hours. One of the Senshi, dressed in green, her hair in a long pony-tail, had gotten Ohta out of the park, or at least out of the fight. Noa was fighting desperately, practically walking on a sea of labors. Dozens, maybe hundreds were scattered about the park. She couldn't see any of her team mates. There were Senshi everywhere. They leapt about like berserk grasshoppers, carving swaths of destruction with fire, ice, cold, light, water and other substances.And above it all was mocking laughter and a strange play of lights in the sky, like the Aurora Borealis.
"Foolish Sailors. I can send every labor in the city after you if I want. You cannot hope to defeat them all." The voice was male and strangely hollow. Where it came from, Noa couldn't tell.
Noa punted a labor skyward and dodged a second one, which then got cut in half by a man in white armor on horseback. He paused briefly to bow to Noa. "You fight well, lady knight."
Noa laughed nervously. "You too. What is that thing, a monofilament sword?"
The man laughed. "Just magic." He turned and galloped into a knot of labors, scattering them about with single blows and lifting a red haired senshi up onto the horse from their midst.
Noa took a few seconds to boggle, then went back to fighting. What scared her was that if the opposition hadn't been constantly reinforced by more labors, they would have been able to win by now, easily. These people were scarily powerful. She watched one of them leap into the air and stab a labor in the 'head' with a short golden dagger. It fell over, smoking. Two more labors charged that senshi from the rear. Noa drew her gun and fired, blowing off the head of one labor. It collapsed and knocked down the other one.
The senshi spun and took out the second labor, then paused to smile at Noa. Noa smiled back and gave her the thumbs up, then returned to the fight. Maybe we'll actually win this, she thought. I hope Ohta's going to be okay, and everyone else...
That was when the shining lights in the sky came together into a glowing circle, in which could dimly be seen a face. It smirked. "Foolish Senshi. Come and get me, if you dare."
They dared. They came together in a massive circle and joined hands as Noa watched. The rampaging labors fell silent. The Senshi rose into the sky, riding a circle of light. They passed through the light in the sky, which shrunk and dwindled behind them. The horde of labors suddenly slumped over and collapsed. The Great Labor Riot of 2000 AD was over. The Senshi had not been seen again since that day.
"I wish I knew what happened to them... We don't even know if they managed to defeat whatever caused that."
"Well, it never happened again, so I'd have to assume we did."
She sipped her tea. "I had nightmares for months about labors rampaging without anyone controlling them. How the government managed to avoid having to totally supress them..."
"Well, you got a commendation out of it." He paused and thought for a moment. "Hmmm. Maybe if you take Hiyama-san's offer, that dream I had about you becoming 'Ingraman' will come true."
Noa laughed. "I'll bring you a souveneir from the M-61 galaxy."
They both relaxed a bit after that.
Linna shook her head faintly. Wearing a boomer costume over their hardsuits. If this fools anyone, they deserve what is coming to them. Apparently Wasyuu had offered some holobelts, but they weren't quite working right, so Celia and Nene had chased down these costumes. Apparently they had originally been designed for use in some cheesy movie like A Clockwork Boomer.
Nene was sitting at the computer, monitoring the computer accounts to see if the target logged onto either of them. If they did, she would trace their log on site and the Sabres would strike.
Priss sat back, feeling relaxed. This was something she knew how to deal with. No monsters, no magic, just fighting nice predictable humans and boomers with the people she trusted most. She had her sword with her, though, just in case.
Z put his current body to bed and slipped into the one he had prepared for this. I haven't found those interfering Juraiians, but I'll show X I can handle the Knight Sabres.
Assuming they were smart enough to follow the trail of clues I created for them. He paused as he headed for his car. I hope X wasn't needing the boomers I borrowed for this for anything.
The Sabres waited a few blocks from the warehouse in the Silky Doll truck, with Ryu up front driving. They had borrowed him since Mackie was still off in the countryside, training.
Nene's computer pinged. "They're online."
Celia nodded. "We're going in." Priss and Linna got up and followed her, while Nene stayed in the truck so she could monitor the 'net connections.
The Knight Sabres had already prepared their break in and had a handy second story window available to slip in through. From the walkway above the main floor of the warehouse, they could see the lifting equipment and the tons of crates that formed neat stacks on the floor below. They could also see the office that had the computer. They leaped down to the floor below and headed to the office door. Priss simply crashed through the wooden door to the office. "Dead or alive, you're coming with me!"
The man who sat in the chair ignored her and kept typing. He had short, black hair and wore a nice suit. They couldn't see his face, but he looked eerily familiar.
Priss grabbed his shoulder. "You deaf, pal?"
The man spun around in the chair. For a moment, the trio thought that Brian J. Mason was sitting before them. They all froze in place, sharing a common thought. Didn't we kill him twice?
Then they realized it wasn't actually him, though he looked creepily similiar. Cold eyes, a faint sneer, the same excessively slick hairstyle, and the same look of unwarranted confidence. The features, however, were somewhat different, though not by a lot. He looked sort of like a bad copy of Mason. He also had a high pitched whiny voice.
"I told you idiots to wait in the crates." 'Mason' blinked, apparently surprised by the sound of his own voice. "Now I remember why I wasn't using this body. Anyway, go back to the crates and wait for the Sabres to show up."
Celia said smoothly, "Yes sir."
They turned and walked out into the warehouse. Celia radioed the others so they wouldn't be overheard. "Nene, jam all communications out of the warehouse. Priss, Linna, be ready to cover me. I'm going to grab him. We can expect way too much company."
They nodded. Celia walked back into the office. "Sir, the Knight Sabres are here."
'Mason' blinked. "They are? It's awfully quiet."
"They're trying to be stealthy, sir. Shouldn't we get you out of here?"
"It doesn't matter if this body dies. It has a lousy voice, anyway." He quickly shut down the program he was running. "I might as well come out and say hello to them before they die." He followed Celia out into the warehouse and saw Priss and Linna waiting. "I thought I told you to go back to the crates."
Priss laughed. "We're on strike."
"What?"
Celia grabbed the man. "Let's go."
"Hey!"
"You're not too bright, are you?" Linna asked. They all leaped up to the upper level walkway.
The man shouted, "Save me!"
Two dozen crates burst open. It was the most boomers any of them had ever seen in one place. Priss swore loudly. The chase was on.
Leon finished off his paperwork. Stupid internal security checks. About the only thing they didn't ask me is what I had for dinner yesterday. As he got up to go, Daley walked up to him. "Hiya, Leon. Looks like I picked the wrong day to come back, eh?"
Leon said, "I hope you enjoy filling out internal security report forms."
"More fun than I can stand. Ready to hit the road with me again tomorrow?"
"Promise me you won't ask for a gun without recoil."
"Should I ask?"
"No."
The Sabres zoomed through the run down warehouse district with combat boomers in hot pursuit. There were just too many of them to fight them all at once. Ryu and Nene followed in the truck, trying to not look too conspicuous while they called for help. "So who are you?" Celia asked the man she was carrying.
The man laughed, seeming far too calm. "James Stuart. Nice costume, by the way. I guess you're actually one of the Knight Sabres inside that costume?"
"So how long have you been manipulating Wilson Kamisaka?"
The man visibly started. The Sabres dove into an alleyway to avoid gunfire from the pursuing boomers. "You're one of them!"
"Didn't you already guess that?"
The man howled an inchoate cry of rage. "Jurai!"
Now it was Celia's turn to start with surprise.
He laughed. "Two birds with one stone!"
Linna had a very bad feeling, which got worse when the man began to crackle with black energy. "Celia, dump him!"
It was too late. The energy crackled into Celia's suit and the jets got damaged. She plummeted to the ground, dropping Stuart, who crashed into a dumpster. Celia got back up. A quick damage assessment showed that other than the damaged jet, her boomer costume had taken the damage for her. Unfortunately, the twenty pursuing boomers were coming. She crashed through a nearby doorway into a warehouse. Maybe I can hide.
Stuart clambered to the top of the dumpster. "Get her!"
"Screw you," Priss said, opening fire on Stuart with her flechette cannon, then fleeing into the warehouse before the horde of boomers caught up, as did Linna. They scattered, hoping the boomers would split up too.
Out in the van, Ryu and Nene were having a frenzied discussion. "We have to do something!" Nene said.
"You think the five of us can fight twenty combat boomers?"
"Well..."
Ryu sighed. "Dad said they'll be here soon. All we can do is keep the communications jammed like you're doing." He paused. "Look. You stay here and do that. I'll go in and help."
"But you said..."
"I can phase so they can't hurt me." I hope they can't hurt me, he thought. "I'll distract them."
The boomers were milling about through the warehouse, trying methodically to track down their targets while the Sabres hid desperately, which wasn't easy in big blue boomer costumes. Priss managed to walk around a corner admidst the crates and right up to two of the boomers. "Shit." She opened fire with her gauss gun and blew the head off of one of the boomers, then ducked back out of sight as the other boomer blew away everything near her. She thought to herself, I guess this is my big chance to see how well this sword works on combat boomers. She transformed and leapt into the air, coming down over the flaming wreckage onto the boomer, cutting it in half before it realized what had happened. I like this, she thought.
Unfortunately, this gave away her position to half the boomers in the place. Luckily, Ryu chose this moment to appear in the air over the crates, attracting the attention of just about all the boomers. They opened fire and he teleported to one corner of the room. Darting hither and yon, he dodged desperately, teleporting frequently and trying to concentrate on staying phased.
Priss took advantage of the distraction to head for the exit, as did Linna and Celia. As they exited, a rather mangled Stuart leaned up out of the dumpster. Priss blinked. He survived being shot with my flechette gun?
"Damn you, Jurai...This body is giving out on me." He saw the sword, which Priss was still carrying and Linna now noticed. "Two of you...I could have gotten two of you at once...Should have brought a better body...didn't think I'd need it."
"What are you?" Celia asked.
"I am the bane of all your line, for you slew the beloved of the Great Lord SHIVA. Die!" He gathered more black energy around him, then quietly spewed more blood and died. The energy guttered out.
They took off for the truck. "What about Ryu?" Linna asked.
"He can just teleport out once we're clear." Celia said. I hope.
He did. They rendevoused at the truck, right as Ryouko, Tenchi, Manami, Kiyone, Mihoshi, and Sasami arrived. "Sorry it took so long," Tenchi said. "We got lost looking for the right warehouse."
Celia sighed. "With Stuart dead, we don't know for sure if he was connected to Wallace, although..."
"The horde o' boomers kinda says "GENOM" to me." Priss said.
Linna stared at the sword. "Where did you get that, Priss?"
I'm surprised she didn't say anything about my...oh yeah, it's inside my hardsuit so she can't see it, Priss thought. "Sasami gave it to me."
"Can I get one?" Linna had always wanted her own lightsabre.
Sasami laughed nervously. "Uhh..."
Celia said, "Also, whatever he was, he was after Juraiians. At least, he could tell I'm one, and it sent him into a frenzy. He said we had killed his beloved master Shiva's child or something like that."
"He must be one of the ...whatever they are that are using GENOM to try to make war on Juraii." Manami said.
Mihoshi says, "Kiyone and I have been doing some checking following some lines of investigation that Youshou-san suggested to us."
Kiyone nodded. "Three criminals with a noted hatred for the line of Jurai escaped from Galaxy Police custody in 1896. Two Galaxy Police Agents chased them to Earth and reported them killed...however..."
"However?"
"They shot down the spaceship the trio had stolen, but didn't actually recover any bodies. There is some evidence that the criminals possessed some sort of mind-swapping technology and may have survived the crash by taking over new bodies in the area. They might not even need bodies to survive. Youshou thought he may have encountered these beings before...it would explain some past experiences of his. And Wasyuu thinks she knows where they came from."
"Where?" Nene asked.
Sasami said, "It all began a very long time ago..."
Circa 10,000 BC
Walyn smiled. "How is the rainmaking coming along?" he asked his computer.
'Planet has insufficient water to flood entire planet.' the computer reported.
Walyn rolled his eyes and put down the report he was reading, floating over to the computer bank. "I know that. Otherwise the entire planet would already be submerged. You're supposed to be draining the water from Ascalis IV to make up the difference. That way we can compare catastrophic drought and catastrophic flooding."
"Professor Wasyuu is currently conducting experiments on Ascalis IV. It was my understanding that..."
"Do it anyway! We can't wait forever and a day for her to finish. Besides, I'm sure she'd do the same."
Like most people, he didn't really know Wasyuu very well.
By the time Sasami finished telling the story, everyone was very quiet. "And so we condemned him to death for devastating two worlds. But he swore his work would go on for a year of centuries, and so it has. Something is out there, unleashing disasters, stalking Wasyuu, myself, and the house of Jurai, for condemning Walyn to death. Every century, some menace is unleashed somewhere. We've never been able to find where he hid all these disasters, and we can't even be sure that any disaster or threat is connected to him...but just about anything that shows up gunning for Juraiians for no apparent reason usually is connected to him."
"In other words, there could be millions more of these things or they could be the only ones?" Linna asked.
"He claimed he served something named Shiva," Celia said.
"Like the god of destruction?" Nene asked.
"I don't like this idea of mind-switching entities...how could we tell we're getting the right person? How do we stop them?" Linna asked.
"Wasyuu's working on that."
Celia said, "So Wallace is quite possibly one of these things."
"Heck, that could have been the same thing if it was one of these mind-swapping whatsits," Priss said.
I don't like this, Linna thought. I don't like this at all...I wish we could have just stuck to nice simple Boomers like the old days.
May 1, 1996
Hikaru finished reading Louis XIV and 20 Million Frenchmen just as the strains of a waltz started to drift through the wall from Usagi's bedroom. It wasn't the sort of music she was used to hearing from Usagi's room, so it caught her attention. She got up and walked over to Usagi's room and knocked. The door swung open. Mamoru, Usagi's fiancee, and Usagi were trying to waltz. It wasn't working very well. Mamoru knew how to dance, but it clearly wasn't Usagi's strong point.
Hikaru said, "Need some help?"
Usagi said, "Do you know how to waltz well, Hikaru-chan?"
Hikaru laughed. "Is the Pope Catholic? Is the Emperor Japanese?" She walked over to the couple. "I wanted to go into professional dance when I was younger, and I learned all sorts of stuff."
She spent the next thirty minutes helping Usagi get the moves down and giving Mamoru tips on how to effectively "lead" Usagi. Finally, Usagi plopped down on her bed, exhausted. "Wow! You're really good at this. So why didn't you stay in dancing, Hikaru-chan?"
Hikaru sat down and sighed. "I was in a car wreck and I had leg injuries. I can handle something like this, but anything as stressful as professional dancing would wreck my legs permanently." I can only manage this because I have the Power, but I won't mention that.
"That's too bad, Hiyama-san," Mamoru said. "It's terrible when you can't follow your dream."
"I've had a lot of my dreams wrecked over the years, but I'm pretty good at bouncing back from disaster. Like my boyfriend falling in love with my best friend."
"Ack! That's awful!" Usagi said. "I can't believe your best friend and your boyfriend did that to you! You're such a nice person!"
You're so innocent and sweet, Usagi, Hikaru thought. I wish I was still as much like you as I used to be. She smiled. "Thank you, Usagi-chan." She noticed Usagi's Ayukawa Madoka poster on the wall and laughed. "You just put that up there?"
"Yeah! She's such a cooool singer!"
Hikaru laughed. "She's the one my boyfriend fell in love with."
"You're kidding!" Usagi got big eyes. "You know her?"
"We grew up together. And then this kid Kyousuke Kasuga moved to our town..."
The group prepared to scatter for the night. The leadership would likely be up all night trying to decide on the next action, but everyone else could get some sleep. Linna was about to ship out when Sasami approached her. "Mind if I talk to you for a while?"
"That's fine. I know a coffee house we can go to."
They soon got there in Linna's car, making insignificant small talk along the way. Linna got some coffee and a donut; Sasami got a big scoop of ice cream. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"
"How could you percieve my true nature? Very few people can see what I am."
"Uh...what exactly are you? Just because I saw that doesn't mean I understand it. And I have no idea how I could see that unless it has something to do with my martial arts training. Master Hiromi tried to teach me a lot of mystic stuff, but it never worked until recently like when I..."
"Like what?"
"Like when I accidentally ended up in one of Celia's dreams. If that really was one of her dreams."
Sasami got another ice cream cone, having rapidly finished her first one. "That is a very useful and incredibly dangerous talent."
"What, visiting people's dreams?"
"There is much you can learn from a person's dreams. But it can be very dangerous. If you are not careful, you can be trapped for the night or even longer in some cases. I can help you, if you'd like training, though dream walking is not my strong point."
"I...sure. So what are you?"
"My name is Princess Sasami of Jurai. My name is also Tsunami, a spaceship who has lived for twenty five thousand years. You see..."
It took a long time for Sasami to explain everything and even longer to get Linna to believe all of it.
X sighed. Another disaster caused by Z's incompetence. At least this time the ADPolice didn't get involved. Uncovering those Juraiian agents has left them rather paranoid. There has to be some way we can exploit that.
The worst part of this is that we don't know where the Juraiians are. With the satellites down, there's no good way to observe the entire city to find them. They could just be lurking in space somewhere. X paced back and forth, trying to decide how to draw them out.
We could strike at the Sabres...if Z is right, then one of them is Juraiian, and one of them is carrying a master key...that would draw out the Juraiians. However, a force capable of doing that successfully would attract too much attention...
Hmmm. There must be some way I can use Z to lure them into a trap. Either way, I'll be rid of one threat. Ideally, we need to capture one of their space ships too so we don't stay stuck on this rock.
X would need a lot of time to think. As usual, he wouldn't get as much as he really needed, or even just wanted.
One might think that learning to dream walk would be fun. Of course, one might also think that space is full of air or that anything as pretty as a fire can't burn you. To start with, Linna's training began with her being yanked out of a dream in which a gorgeous millionaire proposed to her.
"Hey! I was enjoying that!" She found herself floating in the starry void of space.
Sasami floated nearby, dressed in her usual garb, as compared to Linna, who was wearing a tank-top and panties and feeling a bit embarrassed. She had been better dressed in the dream, but this was what she had been sleeping in.
"You'll have plenty of time to dream when we're done. Also, I wanted to make sure you didn't send yourself somewhere I'd have to go looking for you."
"So what's first?"
"First you get dressed."
"How?"
"Think about wearing something else."
Linna thought about her hardsuit jumpsuit and suddenly she was wearing it. She thought about a donut and it appeared. She ate it. "Well, that's easy."
"Just don't forget you won't get real nourishment from imaginary donuts."
"Won't get fat either."
"Good point." Sasami turned and pointed at the panorama of stars. "These are all dreams. There are many other ways you could percieve this, but this is a fairly common one because it lets your mind use many metaphors to help you percieve the incomprehensible."
"So each star is someone dreaming?"
"Yes. The first step is to learn to find the dreamer you're looking for. The second step is to do it without getting sucked in."
"Okay. Let's say I want to go drop in on Nene's dreams. How would I do that?"
"The essential element is you think about the person you want to find. The better you know them, the easier it is."
"Right." Linna tried to picture Nene in her mind. It was pretty easy. An image of Nene in her ADPolice uniform sprang full blown into her mind. Soon, she started moving through space. "So this will take me to her dreams?"
"As long as you stay focused. The tricky part is stopping before you end up inside the dream."
Linna saw the same knot of stars from the night she had dreamed of Celia, but this time she was heading towards a different one of the swirling mass of binaries. She noted briefly that one binary was actually a trinary, which she hadn't quite noticed before. One of them was almost black. "Why is that one black?"
"He's shielding his dreams. One of my students. I'll try to teach you that as well. It's a useful skill. Now, let go of the image of Nene before you get pulled in."
Linna stopped thinking about Nene, but found she was still drifting towards one of the stars. "I'm still moving!"
"It's easy to find your friends' dreams and hard to stay out of them. Just concentrate on not moving."
Trying to concentrate on not doing something is not as easy as it sounds, though easier than trying to not itch. With effort, Linna managed it, for the moment. "Now what?"
"The next step is to find the exact one you want and observe it. Think about it getting bigger so you can actually see what is in it."
Linna looked at each of them, trying to intuit the right one from the tiny images she saw inside them. Finally, she selected what she thought was the right one and told it to grow. So of course, it grew to five thousand times original size and swallowed her up. Linna's new skill lacked the precision her fighting skills possessed.
Linna found herself standing in a vast royal hall, lined with tapestries on the walls, with two huge thrones at one end. Nene, dressed in elaborate renaissance style garb, mostly pink and purple, including one of those huge pleated collars, sat on one of the thrones, and Ryu sat on the other one.
The room was bustling with courtiers, some of whom Linna recognized, like Kiyone, Naoko, and Nene's mom, and others who Linna had never seen before in her life, all dressed in the same huge expensive satin clothing. In fact, Linna herself was dressed in such an outfit, all green and grey like her hardsuit.
The heralds blew a trumpet call and one cried out, "Queen Stingray of Tokyo has arrived."
Linna turned and saw Celia, dressed even more elaborately than Nene, if that was humanly possible, striding up the middle of the hall, followed by Priss in her hardsuit and Mackie, who was wearing a "wizard" costume — a blue robe covered with squiggly glyphs and a long pointed hat with the word "Wizzard" written on it. Linna tried hard not to laugh. A voice whispered to Linna, "Well, you found the right dream. However, letting yourself get sucked in like that was not so good."
It was Sasami. Linna turned to her. "I didn't think it would get that big."
"Well, luckily, this dream is not powerful enough to control you so getting out won't be too hard."
Queen Stingray and Empress Nene began having a discussion about recent Boomer attacks from Mordor and the necessity to mount another expedition against the Boomer Breeding Pits in the Mountains of Darkness. Perhaps General Priss' army of replicants would be able to hand it.
Linna said, "So how do we get out?"
"Basically, you have to will yourself out. This is easy with a dream like this, and a lot harder if the person is properly trained."
Linna closed her eyes and found herself back in the starry void. She could see Nene's dream floating nearby. "Well, that was easy."
"You have much to learn, but that's a good start. There's three important things to remember. One, you're not getting any rest while you do this, so don't spend too much time in any one night on this. Two, be very careful, or you might get caught in someone's dream and not be able to get out...and if it's a nightmare, you can mess yourself up pretty badly. Three, be very careful about how you use this. Not only can it be dangerous, but you shouldn't go traipsing around people's dreams for fun."
Linna nodded. "Right."
Not that anyone ever pays attention to these rules until they get burnt, Sasami thought, but I gave you a chance, anyway.
Ingraman flew off into the sky as the crowd cheered...and then Noa woke up. She laughed faintly then got out of bed, leaving her husband to sleep a while longer. The sun was still below the horizon, leaving the city to survive on its own light, which was still pretty substantial, especially on a cloudy night, since the clouds reflected back a lot of the night lights of the city.
Noa's body ached from driving labors around all day, though not half as much as it had after the first day of training her new students. Except for a few charity appearances, Noa hadn't driven labors in years since she retired from SV2. As a result, her body ached in ways she'd almost forgotten existed.
She didn't mind. While she loved her restaurant, she hadn't realized how much she'd missed being a labor pilot until she started doing it again. I feel young again, she thought. We may be going up against incredible odds, but I...I don't mind. This is all so completely insane, but I like it. It's probably foolish of me to be looking forward to a good fight, but I am.
Should I take Hiyama's deal?, she wondered. Those kids rely on their powers too much...but it would be useful. I should do it...because if I don't, I know I'll end up needing them. Assuming I can actually learn what I'm doing with them fast enough to do any good.
Having made up her mind, she went to go get some more sleep.
Priss finished another practice with her band. Kinda odd to do something this normal with all the crazy stuff in my life, she thought. She went and changed back into her normal clothing and headed for her bike. Setsuna was waiting there for her.
"Good afternoon."
"Now what the hell do you want?"
Setsuna smiled her usual infuriating smile. "It is time for you to be properly trained in your powers."
"I know how to fight."
"You know nothing. You're a brawler who has been very lucky, but luck won't keep you alive forever. Without the toys you rely on, you couldn't beat a decently trained fighter. Your friend Linna has twenty times your skill. Maybe forty. And there are things you will have to confront that would crush her like a grape."
"Hey! I'm a damn good figher!" Okay, Linna is better, but not twenty times better than me!
Setsuna laughed. "Right. Come and get me."
Priss charged forward and never did quite figure out how Setsuna grabbed her and flipped her into the nearby wall of the building. She did figure out how badly it hurt, though. Getting up, she aimed a kick at Setsuna and was pulled off her feet. Three more attacks got her three more beatings. "Okay, you're not bad."
"And you're not good."
Priss got mad and charged her again, this time getting grabbed and twisted around into an elbow lock. "You also get angry, which clouds your judgment. I couldn't have done this if you had been paying attention."
"Let go of me!"
"There is a lot you must do, and not much time to do it in."
"Dammit, let go of me!"
"Make me."
Priss tried her damnedest, but fifteen minutes of efforts to escape proved no more fruitful than trying to plug a hole in a dam with a toothpick. Maybe less fruitful. "All right. You win. I can't escape."
"As I was saying. There are three things you must do. First, you must find your sister."
"Why don't you just tell me where she is since you think you know everything?"
Setsuna ignored her and kept going. "Secondly, you must find the Empyrean Crystal."
"I already know that."
"And third, you must stay away from Leon."
Priss blinked. Of all the things Setsuna might have said, that was not something Priss expected. "You can't tell me what to do."
"Of course I can. I know what must be."
"No one can know the future!"
"Destiny cannot be denied."
"Screw destiny. I go where I want and I talk to who I want."
Setsuna let go of Priss. "If you ignore my guidance..."
"Then I won't have to put up with you popping up out of nowhere and telling me what to do. No one tells me what to do."
"Not even Celia Stingray?"
"I trust her. I don't trust you."
"Your fate be on your own head, then."
"Just the way I like it." Priss roared off on her motorcycle, still fuming. Can't see Leon, eh? Well, screw you, witch. I'll show you no one pushes me around.
Setsuna laughed once Priss was out of sight. "You are such a bull-headed one...and so easy to manipulate. You'll run right to him, just to spite me. Just as I planned. Now to let the 'good cop' play his part to my 'bad cop.'" She turned and walked away, smiling faintly. "Or is Tsunami the good cop...hmm. Well, two can do the job as well as one."
Leon and Daley examined the scene of the crime. Someone had torn three sailors limb from limb down at the docks the previous night. "So what makes you think this is a boomer crime?" Daley asked the ship's captain who had lost three of his crew.
"What, you think a human managed to rip the limbs off another human? That woman wasn't natural. I guess she might have just been a cyborg, but don't you guys handle those cases too?"
Leon wandered about, looking for something that might at least pretend to be a clue. Other than a few ashes near one of the chalk outlines, there weren't any.
"Yeah. So you say she looked like a highly muscular pro wrestler type?"
The captain nodded. "I'm not even sure what they got in the fight about. All I heard was something about Mars."
"Like the planet?"
"Yeah. Something about Mars. Having to kill Mars or something."
"But you have no employees by that name?"
"Not even close. Not even something that could be misheard as Mars. Heck, I've never met anyone named Mars. Maybe someone on one of the European vessels, though. The woman had a weird accent too."
Daley turned to Leon. "Found anything?"
"Not even close. I wish the Metropolitan Police had called us in sooner."
"Well, time for us to go check ships registries, then. Looking for a sailor named Mars. Or anyone named Mars for that matter."
Their search did not pay off...yet.
Somewhat later, Leon had returned to ADPolice headquarters. He stopped by Nene's desk. "How is the security check coming along, Nene?"
Nene looked up, looking very nervous. "I don't know. I just had my interview with the internal security woman. She made me really nervous." I hope those faked records hold up or I'm in trouble.
"Can you run a check on me for something, Nene-chan?"
"Sure. What?"
"We've got a lunatic cyborg on the loose, looking for someone, possibly a sailor, named Mars. At least maybe looking for someone named Mars. Can you see if you can find anyone in the city by that name?"
Nene nodded. This would be fairly easy. Just search the phonebook and local police records. It took only a few minutes. "No one. That's 'Mars' as in the English spelling, not the Japanese one, right?"
"Try it the other way too."
She did. "Okay. I found four people this way." She printed out names, addresses, and phone numbers. A few more minutes and... "None of them have police records besides a few parking tickets and the like. Good luck on your investigation."
"Thanks. At least I have my real, sane partner back."
"Had enough of Mihoshi to last you a lifetime?"
Suddenly, it struck Leon. Wait...Mihoshi is Ryu's aunt. Therefore... He got big eyes.
"Is something wrong?"
"I just had a revelation." More thoughts ran through his mind. Is Ryu working with them? Is Nene working with them? She hangs out with Priss a lot and I know Priss is one of the Knight Sabres...They had to have someone on the inside to get Mihoshi and Andrea hired so easily. Heck, to get Mihoshi hired at all. Nene is a genius with computers. Is Nene working for them...what if Nene is one of the Knight Sabres? It can't be a coincidence that she's dating Ryu and she knows Priss and...or maybe I'm just paranoid.
"About what?"
"You've given me some ideas. Thanks a lot for the help, Nene-chan." I'll ask Priss. She might tell me...or she might not. But I have to know. I have to know what's going on. Leon ran off.
Nene blinked. What's with him?
Priss banged on Leon's door a twentieth time. Dammit, where are you, Leon, she wondered, then answered her own question. He's probably at work.
She was about to leave when a voice startled her. "Hello, Priss-chan." It was Usagi, staggering along with two grocery bags full of food.
Priss turned around. "Got any idea where Leon is?"
"Probably at work, I think. I just got home from work myself." Usagi fumbled with the keys to her apartment.
"I should have remembered that." She turned to go.
"Is everything okay? You sound pretty mad about something," Usagi observed, finally getting the door to her apartment open.
"This damn woman keeps coming around, trying to tell me how to live my life."
"Your mom?" Usagi put the groceries down inside the apartment and stood in the doorway.
Priss laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to claim she was. Just this intefering busybody who's a..." Priss tried to rein in the impulse to swear. "Really annoying."
"Want to talk about it?"
"Sure." Priss felt the need to blow off some steam to a sympathetic ear. Usagi was a good listener.
Leon was getting ready to go home for the evening, when the boss called him. "Yeah, what's up?" Leon asked.
"Ready for your bout with our Internal Security investigator?"
"No."
"Too bad. She's in the office over there waiting for you."
Crap. This would be a lot easier if I hadn't just realized all that stuff. I gotta figure out what to do about it. Damnit. "Right."
Lt. Yamanoto strode out of the office, looking cranky as Leon walked up. She glared at Leon for no apparent reason, then marched off. Leon sighed and walked into the office.
The Internal Security Officer, Lt. Tara, was tall with long black hair and light blue eyes. She made Leon intensely nervous just by the cool way she looked at him. "I've heard many interesting stories about you, Officer McNichol."
Time to use my best charm, he thought. "Only the good ones are true."
"I certainly hope so. Am I correct in my understanding that you were Officer Mihoshi's partner?"
"Not of my own free will, but yes. At least in the same sense that two people chained together in a chain gang are partners."
He still didn't get a laugh. Tough audience. "You lodged no official complaints."
"Because no one ever pays any attention when you do."
She frowned slightly and made a check mark on her pad. "So, tell me about your experiences with this officer."
This took a very long time and mainly succeeded in making Leon even more nervous than before.
Ryu tried to finish his homework. Normally, this would be easy, but Manami kept calling him on the phone and laughing maniacally at him. He was starting to get pretty nervous, especially since his mom was helping her and probably grandma too if she had heard about this. As long as they don't douse Nene-chan with mutagens or something.
The phone rang. He picked it up and said, "Domino's Pizza."
"Bwahaha...oh, sorry." The woman hung up. It had been Manami.
Ryu felt marginally better.
Ryouko turned to Manami. "I guess he still hasn't tried listening to any music?"
"He should have called me and bitten my head off by now. Are you sure you switched his CDs?"
"He has the blue CD case, right?"
"Right. Are you sure you did the right room?"
"He was sitting at his desk, studying. Unless he was lost..."
"I doubt he was lost. What could have gone wrong?"
Nene set up her stereo to copy some of Ryu's CDs, blissfully unaware she was about to make ten copies of "BOB and his Chainsaw". She would never borrow Ryu's CDs again.
Mackie ran through the exercise in his mind again, managing to clear it of extraneous thoughts for once. I am the willow in the wind...no, that's not right. He opened his eyes, "What am I supposed to be thinking about?"
Youshou sighed. "You don't remember?"
Aeka said, "You have no discipline." She got up. "I'll be back. I'm taking a walk."
Meylia sighed. Aunt Aeka has no patience. He's just a boy. An idea struck her. "Try imagining a faucet."
Mackie closed his eyes and thought about a faucet. That was easy.
"Now imagine taking the faucet and turning the cold water on. It's an old and rusty faucet, so you might have to really put your shoulder into it."
Mackie could see it in his mind's eye. In fact, he'd had to fix a rusty old faucet here the other day so he imagined that faucet. In his mind, he got out a set of tools and fixed the faucet, then turned it on, just like he had in real life. Water started running. Unseen to him, he started to glow.
Youshou stared. "That was easy."
"You have to understand how his mind works."
"Now imagine yourself turning the faucet down to a trickle."
Mackie did so and the glow dimmed. Then in his mind, the handle came off and the faucet exploded out of control, just like he now remembered the real one had. "Uh oh."
Aeka saw the explosion all the way from Funaho.
"So then I snuck a frog into her bed. We could hear the screaming all the way from our wing at the far end of the building from her." Priss finished another story about her days in the orphanage, feeling a lot better than she had earlier.
Usagi laughed. "Remind me never to make you angry."
"That's a pretty good resolution." Priss laughed. "Although from that story about what you did to your brother...I don't think I've ever gotten angry enough to shave someone bald when they were asleep."
Usagi laughed. "I bet no one ever tried to put Nair in your shampoo, either...if I hadn't dropped it, I'd have ended up bald myself."
There was a knock on the door. Usagi answered it. It was Leon. "Hey, is Priss here? I thought I heard her as I was coming up the hallway."
"There you are!" Priss said.
"You missed me?"
"Yeah, wasted all my ammo hosing down your room, and you weren't even home so you could die properly."
Usagi laughed. "You wouldn't really shoot Mr. McNichol, would you?"
"Not if I could use a knife instead."
They all laughed. "Got a minute, Priss? I need to talk to you about some stuff."
"So you do want the roadie job?"
"Do I get free beer?"
"Only if you pay for it."
"Fair enough."
"Gotta run. See ya later, Usagi-chan."
"It's been nice talking to you, Priss-chan! If you need a frog for someone's bed, let me know and I'll talk to our school's biology teacher."
Priss looked at Leon, then at Usagi. "Okay, see if you can get a live one."
As Leon headed to his apartment, he asked Priss, "Should I even ask?"
"It'll be more fun if it's a surprise."
Leon locked the door after they went in. "You want something to drink?"
"A beer'll be fine."
"Right." He got two. "You're probably going to get mad at me for asking this, but..."
"I'm not marrying you, Leon."
Leon paused. Is she just trying to yank my chain and confuse me? "Uhh...Actually, this has to do with Nene."
"She's taken, Leon."
"I'm not proposing marriage to anyone!"
"Did a woman with long green-black hair tell you to stay away from me?"
Leon felt his carefully planned series of questions and speeches disintegrating around him. "Unless she dyed her hair and is working for internal security at ADPolice, no."
"So someone did tell you to..."
"No one told me to stay away from anyone! What are you talking about?"
"That damn busybody came around, picked a fight with me, and told me to stay away from you. And a bunch of other stuff. She's trying to use me and I hate it when people use me." Priss downed the entire beer in one swig, then burped.
"The woman who showed up in your trailer that you told me about?"
"Yeah. So she didn't come bug you about anything?"
Leon shook his head. "I haven't seen anyone by that name...She wouldn't happen to be named Mars would she by any chance?"
"Pluto. Sailor Pluto."
Leon thought for a second. "Wait...as in the..."
"Yeah, the Sailor Warriors. Didn't I tell you this before?"
He struck his forehead. "So that's what that thing was looking for...Sailor Mars. Was there a Sailor Mars? Is there a Sailor Mars?"
"As far as I know, me and Pluto are it. All the others are like asleep or something." I need to ask Sasami some more questions, Priss realized.
"There's some kind of cyborg looking for Sailor Mars."
"Or it could be another one of those damn droid things."
"Droid things?"
"Remember those weird 'boomer rampages' a few days ago? Some kind of magical critters named 'droids' were on the loose."
"Magic?"
"Do I need to do my song and dance for you again?" Priss laughed and chugged down the last bit of her bottle of beer.
"No, I remember. How many of those things are there?"
Priss got another beer. "I have no clue."
Leon steeled himself to try again. "Priss, I don't mean to pry, and I know we never talk about this. It's normally none of my business, but because of this recent affair with Mihoshi and Andrea and all...and internal security is asking around..."
"Spit it out, Leon."
Leon stared at the ground as he talked. "Is Nene one of the Knight Sabres and what the hell is going on? I know something big is going on and the Knight Sabres are mixed up in it, but I can't figure it out. I know too much, but I don't dare tell Internal Security about it because I don't want to start a line of inquiry that leads right to you and to my friends." He sighed. "I got grilled by Internal Security today about this and I think she figured out I was hiding something. If you can't tell me anything, I'll understand, but..."
"I can't tell you anything about the Sabres, Leon. But I can tell you that GENOM's being run by nasties from outer space." She paused, waiting for Leon to freak out.
Her expectations failed to come true, as he simply nodded and said, "Go on."
"Your ex-parter and her partner are both from outer space and so are a bunch of other people. We're planning to bust the aliens once we can find them. There's one hell of a dustup coming."
If Leon hadn't heard Kiyone talking to those GENOM agents and seen Priss' new...abilities, he would have thought she was whacked. However, it explained a few things, like the rumor he had heard about someone disabling all of those laser satellites.
Leon stopped pacing and sat down on the couch by Priss, turning on the TV. "So your friends took out the laser satellites?"
"Yep. I wish they'd shown up a few years ago."
Leon idly flicked through channels. "You think you'll ever be able to answer the other half of my question?"
"Let's get pineapple, sausage, and lettuce on the pizza this time."
"Right. No apricots?"
"We both threw up the last time we tried that. I just want to see you throw up."
They soon got into an argument about pizza toppings, and Leon didn't realize Priss had switched the topics on him until much later when they were both lying around sick from eating too much pizza after trying to prove the other person had a weaker stomach. Most people outgrow this sort of behavior in college. Sadly, neither of them had gone to college.
Priss woke up with a severe stomachache. She stifled the urge to moan, because she didn't want Leon to know she felt sick. No weakness. She looked around Leon's apartment. No Leon. She went ahead and moaned for a few seconds and got it out of her system. Bastard, leaving me on the floor after he's already gotten up. He could have at least put me on the couch. She staggered to her feet, then saw his feet sticking out from behind the couch.
She laughed. What the heck did he crawl back there for? She went over and kicked his foot. "Wake up."
The sun was just still down, she realized, looking out the window, yet she didn't feel tired. Leon wasn't getting up either.
"Come on, lazy butt!"
Silence. He's bluffing, she thought. She leaned over to drag him out and shake him awake, and saw that there was a huge hole in his chest. Leon was rather thoroughly dead. Some kind passing soul had scrawled 'A gift for you' on the wall next to him with his blood.
For a moment, Priss simply stared, totally unable to believe this. She was shaken out of her shock when strong hands grabbed her from behind and began to crush her throat. "Hello, old friend." It was a man's voice. She tried lashing out backwards instinctively, but it was like kicking stone. She couldn't speak either to transform. The voice was far to familiar to her. It was the voice of Largo.
This has to be some kind of nightmare, she thought. He's dead! He's fucking dead!
"You miss me?"
She would have cursed if she could speak. All she could do was flail pathetically and wish she had her hardsuit. If wishes were horses, though, beggars would ride. The realization also came to mind that keeping a boomer dead wasn't easy...if Wasyuu could bring Sylvie back to life after what happened to her...the aliens must have found some way to put Largo back together. Or make a new one. Priss swore mentally, feeling herself about to pass out.
"I should just blow your chest open like I did to him, but this is so much more personal and satisfying," Largo said.
For a minute, the only sound was that of bones on the verge of breaking. The silence ended with a whisper, "dead scream."
Fortuitously enough (or not), Largo was perfectly positioned to shield Priss from the blast that turned him into a small vapor pile and still flung her into the couch.
Pluto said, "I told you to stay away from him. It's not safe to be around the likes of us."
A wave of rage washed through Priss more pure in its intensity than she had felt since the day Sylvie had died. She transformed without even thinking about it. "This is your fault!"
"I told you to stay away from him. You ignored me. He died. How is this my fault?"
"I...you...." Priss' gut told her to just mangle Pluto, but her common sense was just barely managing to rein her in. Pluto had just saved her life, after all. "If you knew this would happen, why didn't you stop me?"
"Only you can control yourself. If someone else controls you for you, then you will always be the puppet of others. You have to learn to take responsibility for your actions and for their consequences on others."
This was not the best time for a lecture on responsibility. Priss twitched, unable to find a good excuse to rip Pluto apart like she wanted to, but totally lacking a good way to vent her anger. Attacking the person who killed Leon was no option — "Largo", if that had really been him, was dead. She could feel her anger roaring inside her, and it was getting harder and harder to ride the whirlwind without being carried by it. She knew Pluto was right, but knowing that didn't make her bit less angry that Leon was dead. At least I didn't have to kill him myself, a tiny bit of her whispered. This wasn't very comforting.
Linna said, "Can't we do something? We've got to tell her it's all just a nightmare!"
She and Sasami were floating in dream-space, staring into a three foot globe that contained the nightmare Priss was having about Leon being dead.
Sasami whispered something about Pluto always being an idiot, then said, "Much as you need to learn about defending yourself against nightmares, this is not the time or the place. She's trying to teach herself a lesson."
"What's this person doing in Priss' dream, anyway? Does she dreamwalk too?"
"Priss is only dreaming of her. If that was the real Pluto, I don't think we'd be able to see into this dream."
Linna said, "I can't just let Priss suffer like this. She has to know."
Sasami could have stopped Linna from entering the dream, but she didn't. Instead, she followed Linna in.
"How did you know to come here, anyway?" An awful suspicion insinuated itself into Priss' mind, since it was congruent with her desire, which was to mangle Setsuna. "You watched him die and you didn't do anything about it because you wanted to try and teach me a lesson!"
"I have never let an unnecessary death occur that I could have prevented."
Priss' mind struggled to stay coherent enough for her to try to translate that. Something tapped her on the shoulder. Her instincts took over and she swung around with her sword, preparing to cut it in half, whatever it was. Her sword stopped about a milimeter away from Linna's face.
Linna stared at Priss in abject fear, unable to speak, unable to breathe. Priss' face was a mask of pure rage, now transforming itself into pure horror. Priss stepped back.
A string of obscenities rang from her lips, totally incoherent. Finally, she managed to gasp out, "Oh God fucking shit, I'm sorry Linna, what the fuck are you doing here, I nearly cut your freaking head off." Her voice wavered between rage and terror.
"Snap out of it, Priss! It's just a dream! Leon isn't really dead!"
Priss stared at Linna for a few seconds as if she had said, 'Throat Warbler Mangrove', then turned to Pluto. "What the fuck is going on here?"
"I didn't do this."
"It's just a dream, Priss. You and I are the only real people here."
Priss' rage began to ebb, replaced by confusion. "Why the fuck would I do this to myself?"
"It's a nightmare, Priss. Why would anyone be stupid enough to rebuild Largo? Why didn't he kill you when he killed Leon?"
"To...to...You're right, Linna." Priss felt more relief than she would have ever believed possible. "Wait...if this is a dream, what are you doing here?"
Sasami spoke from nearby, startling Priss. "Because she is a dreamwalker, and she wouldn't listen to me when I told her to stay out of your dream."
Priss blinked. "Since when did you cruise around people's dreams, Linna?"
"Since when did you carry an energy sword and shout out transformation phrases?"
"So you're one of us too?" Priss looked at Sasami for confirmation.
Sasami smiled faintly. "Was it ever very likely that three of four Knight Sabres would turn out to be extraordinary and the fourth completely mundane?"
Priss and Linna stared at each other for a moment, then Linna laughed. "I suppose this does sort of count as special."
"What's so extraordinary about Nene?"
"One day worlds will shake at her command."
Priss began to laugh. "Yeah, right."
"One day she will be one of the rulers of Jurai. More importantly, she has a keen mind and will have a very long time to put it to work. Most importantly, she has a pure and loving heart, and that in itself can contain more power than anything can withstand." Sasami smiled, a childlike smile that transformed her as for a moment, the child who had become a woman shone through her older self.
Priss laughed bitterly. "Feh. Nene's out of touch with reality."
"No, reality is out of touch with her. That's its problem, not hers."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
Linna was wondering as well.
"Only by seeing the world as it should be, can we make it that way in fact as well as in hope. The rest of us need dreamers to show us the way. 'One must become as a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.' It is such as them who open the way for those weighed down by the world."
Linna decided to venture into philosophy, since things were going that way. "What, you're saying Nene is a Boddhisatva?"
"A what?"
"A Bodywhat?" Priss asked.
"Someone who reaches enlightenment and returns to lead others to it, instead of moving on to Nirvana. I think. Just what the point of Nirvana is in the first place, I don't know. Who wants to cease to exist?"
"It is the only way to escape the cares of the world."
"Oh."
"But I see it as running away." Sasami sighed. "Anyway. We could argue philosophy all night, but that's not why we came."
Priss thought for a moment. "Am I still dreaming?"
"Yes."
"Just getting that straight."
"Priss, would you like to see what the Moon Kingdom was like? I'd like to show you your heritage."
Priss blinked. "Time Travel?"
"No. Linna is going to take you inside my dream."
Linna blinked. "I am?" Did I forget this? I don't remember her telling me how to do this...
"Will I see my...my..." Priss couldn't quite bring herself to say mother.
"Yes. Just remember. Everything you will see is a dream. It may seem real, but it is only a dream, though it will be as close to the real thing as I can make it."
"I want to see it," Priss said.
Linna heard Sasami's voice in her mind. 'After I disappear, take Priss by the hand and lead her out the door into dream-space, then take her to my dream and enter it.'
Linna thought, praying Sasami would hear her, 'That's all I have to do?'
'Then you have to make sure she doesn't get herself killed. If you die in someone else's dream...you'll be lucky to wake up as a lobotomized zombie.'
Linna paled. 'Priss almost...'
'I told you nightmares were dangerous.' "Ready?"
"I was born ready," Priss said.
Sasami vanished in a poof of light.
Linna took Priss' hand. "Let's go."
Priss looked at Linna. "Thanks, Linna."
"You'd do this for me, wouldn't you?"
"That's not what I'm talking about."
Linna decided not to pry. "You're welcome."
She led Priss through the door and into the world of dreams.
June 1, 1996
Hikaru walked through the dark campus on the way back home from the library. It was just before midnight on a Wednesday and the campus was deserted. I hope I don't wake up Usagi coming in, she thought. Usagi was generally clonked out by 10 PM weekdays. She's probably the only college student on Earth who gets adequate sleep, Hikaru thought.
She heard voices as she came around the corner of the Engineering building, which sits on the north side of the Quad in the center of the Tokyo University campus. To her surprise, she saw Makoto and Usagi standing in the center of the quad, back to back by the statue of the Meiji Emperor that sits in the middle of the quad waiting for drunken students to put underwear or worse on his head. They were surrounded by six people that Hikaru thought were fraternity boys at first, until she realized that the average frat boy is not blue, scaley, or clawed. Sometimes, anyway.
For a few seconds, she just stared, unable to believe her eyes. She could hear them talking, but she was too far away to hear what was said clearly, at least until Usagi and Makoto both started shouting.
"Moon prism power!"
"Jupiter star power!"
Hikaru couldn't believe it at first. My roommate is Sailor Moon? The fight was soon in progress. Lightning sent two of the demons flying, while Sailor Moon clonked a third one on the head with her staff.
Hikaru watched for a few minutes and soon realized the two heroines were outmatched. I have to do something... Hikaru had not been in a real fight for a very long time, and she had almost never used her powers in combat before. She thought for a moment, then realized what she could do.
Sailor Moon lept and kicked another demon. "There's too many of these things, Jupiter!" she shouted.
"The others'll be here soon." Jupiter grunted as she slammed one of the demon's heads into the statue of the Meiji emperor. "We just have to hold out a little bit longer."
At that point, Moon got hit by a demon from behind and fell down. All three of the ones she was fighting got ready to grab her as she tried to get back up.
A straw hurled by hurricane force winds can pierce a telephone pole. Now imagine what a pencil could do at that speed. As one of the demons reached to grab Sailor Moon's face, it took a pencil through the heart. Ichor gushed everywhere and it collapsed.
A booming voice broke through the silence of the night. "I'm afraid you get an F for conduct, Mr. Demon." Everyone instinctively turned and looked to see who was speaking.
A woman stood atop the balcony of the Administration building, dressed in what looked like a cross between a Sailor Soldier fuku and a business suit. She had a fistful of pencils and pens in her hands, and she was wearing a small red mask rather like Sailor V's. Her hair was long and black, her eyes green, and her figure lush. "Attacking students is a no-no. I will punish you in the name of this University!" She hurled a barrage of pens and pencils moving at 150 MPH. The demons swiftly fell, writing in pain and spewing ichor as if they were showing up in Fist of the Northstar.
"Wow! A new Sailor!" Sailor Moon said. "You're really powerful!"
The demons started to get up.
"Too bad my thesis committee isn't this easy to deal with...Finish them off, Sailor Moon!" Hikaru tried not to laugh. I sound so hokey...I hope my illusion power is working.
"Right!" Sailor Moon held up her staff. "Shining Moon Power!" A wave of white light swept across the weakened demons, and they evaporated in instants, crumbling to dust and blowing away in a sudden gust of wind.
I hope Madoka doesn't mind me using her form as a disguise, Hikaru thought. Too bad I didn't have any guitar picks... "Good job, Sailor Moon! Now I must go grade some papers. Farewell!" She teleported back to her dorm.
"Wait! You haven't even told us your name!" Sailor Moon shouted.
Jupiter laughed. "They never tell us anything at first. She'll be back."
"I guess you're right. She must spend a lot of money on pencils, though." Sailor Moon looked at all the pencils that now littered the field.
Jupiter laughed some more. "Not any more than Mamoru spends on flowers, I bet."
Far away, Hikaru sat down to try and do some reading then realized she had flung everything she had to write with at the demons and couldn't do any notes. It was a d'oh! moment.
Linna held onto Priss as they drifted through dream-space to Sasami's dream. For once, it was easy to find the right dream, for it shone like a beacon to her. Maybe I'm getting better at this, she thought. Moving Priss wasn't easy though. It was like there was an elastic cord attached to Priss, and the farther she moved Priss, the more taut it became, trying to pull Priss back to her own dream.
Finally, they reached Sasami's dream and plunged into it. For a moment, the world turned into a phantasmagoric blur of whirling shapes, pirouetting around a huge spinning nexus, and then their vision cleared.
They stood in a devastated village by the seashore. Some of the buildings were on fire, and there were corpses strewn through the streets. Priss said, "You sure we're in the right dream, Linna?"
"Well, I thought this was the right dream."
A child's cry cut through the night. "Nooooooooooo!!!!"
"Fuck." Priss spat out and took off running through the burning village towards the voice.
Linna ran after her, then realized, hey, I bet I can summon my hardsuit, since this is a dream. It formed around her as she ran.
A young girl, her blond hair tied into two fluffy bundles that rather resembled rabbit ears, was trapped up against the side of a hut by three hunched over humanoid figures. They had green scaly skin and heavily sloped foreheads more remiscent of a frog or a fish than a human, but a largely human form with upright posture, two arms, two legs, hands, and feet. They did not have any eyebrows or eyelids, staring straight forward unblinkingly. They were armed only with simple spears, but were menacing, none the less.
Priss was still transformed from earlier, and she drew her sword. "Get away from that girl, you...whatever the fuck you are!"
The creatures turned and gave her the sort of look normally only found on the faces of rich people confronted by Pauly Shore or some other human fungus.
Linna raised her right arm and got ready to fire at the things. Unfortunately, Priss was in the way, so she simply did a suit-assisted leap and came down feet first on the head of one of the creatures. The creature slammed into the ground, surprised, not that anyone could tell. The second one tried to impale Priss, who simply chopped its spear into thirds, then cut it in half. The third one tried to run and Linna blew it to kingdom come with her laser.
The little girl simply stared in awe, then ran over and hugged Priss' legs. "You saved me! Thank you!"
Priss kneeled down and hugged the little girl. "What happened?"
"I stopped in this village on my way to find the Tree of Life and the Deep Ones came out of the sea and killed everyone!" The girl began to cry. "I tried to heal them, but they were all hurt too bad. Then the Deep Ones found me and I thought I was gonna die, but you saved me!"
"You were trying to find the Tree of Life all by yourself?" What kind of crazy mom lets her kid wander around looking for...uh..whatever that is, Linna wondered.
"An angel told me I had to save the world from all the monsters. I have to find the Tree of Life before they do so they'll have to go back home to the stars they came from. But I'm all alone and I don't know how I'm gonna stay alive long enough to get to it."
"Don't worry, little one, you're safe with me. My name is Priss. What's yours?" Priss' voice was soft and comforting, a tone that Linna had never heard her use before. She could hardly believe it.
Linna turned and looked around the village and the nearby sea. She could see splashing in the water. More Deep Ones, she guessed.
"My name is Serenity. I'm from the village of Branchai. My mommy is named Hope and my daddy was named Fortitude. Do you know where the Tree of Life is? I've been looking for it for ever so long."
Priss felt her eyes starting to tear up. Poor little child...how could anyone lay such a heavy burden on someone so young? "What are you going to do when you find it?"
"I want to heal the world. I can hear it crying in pain." The little girl started to cry. "All the monsters and death and everything...it's so...so wrong. It shouldn't be like this. It shouldn't have to be like this. Why is there so many bad things in the world, oneechan?" She hugged Priss tightly, crying against her chest.
Priss felt her own tears come now. Linna tried not to watch them cry. "I don't know, little one. It's just the way of the world."
"It's wrong! It shouldn't be this way! There has to be some way to fix it! There has to be some way to make it better!" Serenity began to glow. Priss looked at her and saw a glowing crescent moon on Serenity's forehead. White light erupted forth from her and the world dissolved away in its brightness.
The white light faded. Priss and Linna stood in a huge open plains near the banks of a river. Or to be precise, Priss was kneeling, trying to hug a girl who was no longer there, while Linna stood nearby. About a hundred yards away stood a huge stone monolith, about a hundred feet tall, covered with dried blood and strange runes that seemed to waver and move as they looked at them. Far off across the plains were more monoliths, one every few miles, forming a huge V shape that stretched off to the western horizon. Inside the wedge, the land was a blasted heath, full of twisted grey plants and strange phosphorescent lichens. The few trees looked like they were trying to claw their way out of the ground. Outside the wedge, things didn't look too healthy, but they weren't twisted and vile. The sun was high over head, a little to the east, shining down on the huge river that ran north and south to the east of the two heroines. Five figures stood next to the monolith — two men and three women. They all looked to be around sixteen years old. One of the women had short red wavy hair, one had long black hair, and the third was blonde, with her hair up in two short buns on either side of her head, each of which had a long attached pony-tail. The black haired woman wore a suit of gleaming armor and carried a huge spear, while the other two women were unarmed, unless you counted the quill held by the redhead or the wand held by the blonde. One of the men was short and stout, carrying a huge hammer. His hair was short and brown. The other was tall, wearing black armor, a sword strapped to his belt, his hair short and black.
"Are you ready, Vulcan?" the black haired woman asked the short man.
He lifted his hammer. "There will be no turning back once we start."
The blonde haired woman smiled. "This is why we were born. It is what we must do to heal the world."
"What the hell is going on here?" Linna muttered.
Priss stared. "That's her...the little girl."
"Who, the blonde? But she was..." Oh yeah. This is all a dream...It's so vivid, I keep forgetting. Linna felt embarrassed.
Priss winced. "Something awful lives inside that wedge of land...something wrong. I can feel it, like a knife in my gut."
Vulcan moved next to the monolith and closed his eyes. The black haired woman gestured and spread her arms out wide. A wave of energy rushed out and formed a dome over the group. The red haired woman joined hands with the blonde and with the man in the armor. The trio began to glow. Their light filled the dome, which included the huge blood-stained monolith.
Time passed strangely. While it felt like minutes, Linna and Priss could see the sun moving across the sky. Vulcan struck the monolith with blow after blow. It began to shake as he struck it methodically, building up vibrations. Finally, as the sun almost reached the horizon, the monolith shattered into a thousand shards of stone. A stiff wind began to blow from the east, rushing west into the land that had lain inside the wedge of monoliths. The dome grew, rushing forth into the wounded land. From within the dome, three voices spoke as one. "Heal."
And it was so. The energy washed across the land and in its wake, trees ceased to claw at the sky, grass grew green and lush, flowers sprung up from the land, and the fungus was cleared away as if it had never been. The monoliths began to explode as the power washed across them. Priss and Linna looked on in awe. The sun set, but the wave of power continued across the land. The stars came out, but they weren't...they didn't quite seem right. The constellations were subtly wrong. One star hung low on the horizon, almost seeming to glare balefully down upon the land. It hung on the western horizon, and from it descended a swarm of flying creatures. Ice from the cold of space clung to their bodies, melting off into steam as they rapidly plunged down from the heavens. They looked vaguely humanoid, though with batlike wings. Their heads were twisted and insectoid, except for the huge protruding snouts. They had a black chitinous exoskeleton and sharp claws upon their 'hands'. There were hundreds of them.
Linna stared. "Holy shit."
Priss said, "God damn. They're screwed." She charged forward. It was a suicidal fight. Priss liked suicidal fights. Deep down, what she wanted most was to die in a good cause. Sometimes, it was just to die.
Linna swore. "If you die in a dream, you'll turn into a vegetable! Come back!"
"Make me!" Crazy people, Priss thought. I like crazy people. She sprinted along the ground, faster than she would have believed possible.
Linna ran after her. "You're going to get us both killed!"
"It's a good day to die!" She lept into the air, slicing through the horde of creatures as they descended upon the dome. They died more easily than she thought they would, falling apart and crashing into the dome. Their remains evaporated as they struck it, while Priss, to her surprise, fell right through it.
Linna followed Priss, blasting monsters right and left. They died far more easily than the average boomer, not that Linna minded. She too dove down through the shield...
The world had changed again. They stood on the balcony of a great crystal palace. The five men and women stood nearby them. They were older now, somewhere in their mid-twenties. There were crowds celebrating in the streets of the city and fireworks exploding in the air. The man in black armor was in the middle of a speech. "General Pearl reports that the last of the byakhee have fled beyond the orbit of Pluto. As we speak, the Great Shield is being extended to protect the entire solar system! The Inhuman Wars are at an end! The Silver Millennium has begun! Let us celebrate!"
The crowd had already gone wild, so this royal command was hardly necessary. Priss smiled. "They won."
Linna nodded. "Looks like it. I wonder how long this dream is going to be."
Priss looked around. "I'm hoping we get to stick around for the party."
Linna looked up at the night sky and saw the Moon. It was blue and green and looked remarkably like the Earth, but with the continents wrong. Or was that the Earth in the sky?
Flicker.
Linna and Priss stood next to a long, neatly trimmed hedge, which was itself at the edge of a large, apparently freshly plowed field. The air was clean and crisp, if a bit cool. There was a row of trees on the other side of them, paralleling the hedge, and beyond that, another field. It was clearly farmland, unless the local idea of landscaping was stripping large squares of land clear of plants and plowing it for dramatic effect.
On the far side of this particular patch of ground, there was a knot of trees growing close together, and next to it was a fairly substantial two story dwelling. Children were playing in the yard.
Priss turned to Linna. "You sure we're still tuned into the right channel?"
Linna laughed. "We'd be back in dream-space if we somehow got out of Sasami's dream." I think. I hope we're not in some farmer's dream.
A man walked out of the farmhouse. He was dressed in a red tunic and green trousers, gathered shut with a black belt. His black boots stood out against the green grass around his home and the brown dirt as he entered the field. He was carrying a sack of seeds and singing a song in some language neither Linna nor Priss knew, though it seemed hauntingly familiar.
He began to walk through the field, singing and scattering seeds behind himself as he walked. To Priss and Linna's surprise, the seeds sank into the soil where they fell, and the ground almost bubbled in the man's wake. By the time he finished sowing seeds across the field, tiny plants were poking up from the ground where he had begun.
Linna said, "Magic..."
"Pretty useful magic, too."
The man looked over and finally noticed them. "Why hello, there. You two new here?"
"Uh, yeah, you could say that," Linna said.
The man wiped sweat from his brow, which surprised Linna and Priss, since what he had been doing didn't look very strenuous. "Would you like to stop a while and get something to drink? I need a rest after all that work."
"Sure. I could use a drink," Priss said.
The man started out across the field, which was now green with young plants. Priss and Linna followed, trying hard to not stomp on any of the new growth.
"So where are you ladies from?"
"Tokyo."
"Never heard of it. What planet is it on?"
This was the first time either of them had ever been asked what planet they were from. "Earth," Linna said finally.
"Ahh. Never been to Earth. Grew up on Mars, moved out here when I was younger. Lived here around thirty years now." The man only looked thirty.
Priss whispered to Linna, "Where the hell are we?"
Linna shrugged at Priss. I have no clue, she thought. Maybe we're on the Moon.
Their question was answered when they reached the house and got a clear view to the horizon and saw that the reddish blur off in the distance they had been able to see before was actually the planet Jupiter, looming hugely on the horizon, though it barely peeked over it.
Flicker.
Linna stood in an elaborate bedroom. A woman lay in a bed nearby, and next to her stood a woman in green and black robes with a hood pulled over her head. An ornate staff was propped against the end of the bed. The woman lying in the bed was holding a newborn infant close to her chest.
The hooded woman took the baby in her arms. To most people, it would have seemed a baby like many others. The little girl had no hair yet, her eyes were squeezed shut, and she bore almost as much resemblance to a prune as a human being, just like every other newly born baby.
Linna looked around. Hey...I lost Priss! Did she snap back to her own dreams?
The mother sighed. She was tall, thin, and platinum blonde, her hair currently not dressed in any of the elaborate hairstyles she normally adorned herself with. She wore a simple white shift, also unlike the palatial dresses she normally bore. "Must you do this?"
Linna looked at the woman. She looks like Serenity, she thought. Who the hell is this person taking her daughter away?
The woman picked up her staff, a long rod topped with an orb. "If I do not, in 25,000 years, humanity will become extinct in the solar system. This one alone cannot prevent what is soon to come here, but where she is going, she will make all the difference in the world. She is a warrior born, and she goes to a place that needs warriors desperately." The woman sighed. "I am sorry, my queen. Cherish your first daughter. I swear I shall never take her away from you."
25,000 years? What year is this? Where are we? Linna couldn't decide whether to watch this or go looking for Priss. I wonder why they haven't noticed me...
The Queen sighed. "I know you know things I shall never know. She..She'll have a good home, won't she?"
"She will live a long life and know much joy." And much sorrow, but this is not the time to mention that, the hooded woman thought. She pulled her cloak around herself. She didn't need it, but the baby would. "There is one who waits for her there, though he knows it not. She will know love...once she escapes her own stubborness about it."
I should do something, Linna thought. But what?
The Queen got up and kissed her baby on the forehead. "Take my blessing with you, my child." The mark upon the Queen's forehead glowed brightly. "Your power will awaken when you most need it." She laid back down in the bed. "Go now, before I can change my mind."
Linna recognized the mark. It is Serenity...or a relative at least. She looks different though.
The woman obeyed her Queen's command. She raised her staff, and the world folded around her and vanished. The Queen sighed and sank back into the bed. Linna stepped forward. Remember, it's just a dream. She probably won't freak at me suddenly appearing in her bedroom...if she even sees me. "Who was that?"
"Pluto, the guardian of time. Can you bring me my daughter from the antechamber, Temperance?"
Who's she talking to? Linna suddenly realized she was wearing a maid's outfit. She laughed faintly. "Yes, my queen." She went out to the antechamber and got a sleeping two year old from the small bed there. She brought the little blonde-haired girl to her mother.
Flicker.
Priss had reappeared. They were standing on a balcony again. A party was in full swing all around the palace they were in, which sat in the midst of a vast expanse of gardens. The Earth hung high in the starry sky above them. Priss was visibly shaking as Linna looked at her. Both of them were now clad in white finery that looked very expensive, as did the golden necklace that Priss was wearing, especially the gem studded "moon" that hung from the necklace. Linna soon realized she was also wearing a necklace. Hers was silver with a tiny jade version of her armor hanging from it.
Linna said, "Where have you been? You vanished on me...Pluto was taking the Queen's child..."
"I was the child," Priss spat out.
"What?"
"I couldn't do anything! I could think, but that was it! I wanted to speak, to run...but I was stuck in the baby's body. I couldn't even figure out how to cry properly." Priss shook. "She took me away from my mother. Next time I see her, I'm going to kick her ass from here to eternity."
"The Queen let her do it...they thought it was necessary." Linna wasn't quite sure why she was defending Pluto.
Priss fumed. "She could have waited until I was at least old enough to know my own mother!"
"At least this way you didn't know what you were missing...I think taking you away as a five-year-old or so would have been even harder on you."
Priss was getting irritated with Linna for not taking her side. Before she could say anything, two well dressed young noblemen swept out onto the balcony. "Lady Courage. Lady Prudence. Come and join the rest of us. You should be dancing!"
Before Linna or Priss could say anything, they were swept up by the two young noblemen, who swept them out onto the dance floor. The mood was infectious, and despite not really knowing what she was doing, Priss soon found herself enjoying the dance. There were hundreds of people dancing to the music.
As Priss moved across the floor, she recognized someone nearby. Hey, that looks just like Usagi! Whoever it was, she was wearing a beautiful dress and dancing with someone who looked suspiciously like Usagi's husband. It took Priss a few seconds to remember his name, Mamoru.
Suddenly it struck Priss. Serenity...my mother. Usagi. They all have the same hairstyle...They look like each other. As Priss watched, she saw her mother, the Queen, approach "Usagi".
"Serenity, my daughter, you have been dancing with Prince Endymion all night. There are others who wish to dance with you as well."
The younger Serenity spoke with Usagi's voice. "Have we really been dancing all night?"
A girl with long black hair who was dancing nearby laughed. "Only for the last four hours."
It is Usagi, Priss thought. But if she is the Queen's daughter... and I'm the Queen's daughter, then...My sister is living across the hall from Leon. Right under my nose, practically. She looked around the hall. If I see Leon here, I'm going to scream.
Instead she saw her fourth grade teacher, a cute redhead who was dancing with some clumsy tall nobleman she clearly didn't like. Priss boggled. Well, this is gonna make finding my sister a lot easier. I wonder if she even knows I exist...I guess not...I have to find her memories...or something. Priss tried to remember.
Flicker.
The sky was pitch black as if all the stars had been devoured or were hiding for fear of their lives when Priss and Linna found themselves back on the same balcony as when they had attended the party. This time, it was shouts of fear and the sound of running that surrounded them. They were still clad in the party gear they had worn before, but it was out of place now. They could both sense that a great battle was about to begin.
Linna looked up. "I guess we must be having really heavy cloud cover. I can't see any stars or the sun."
"I don't see any clouds." Priss felt horribly oppressed. This darkness was horribly wrong. It was like that blasted heath inside the monoliths.
It was at that moment that a huge red eye winked open in the sky and glared down at the palace of the Moon Kingdom. Linna could feel it looking at her, and only the fact that Priss was watching kept her from screaming, running inside the palace and hiding under something.
Priss stared at the eye. "Shit. It's fucking alive!"
The darkness ripped apart into seven beings of shadow who rained down upon the palace grounds as a horde of warriors poured into the palace gardens out of the darkness. The palace guard poured out to meet them, but it was clear they were horribly outnumbered.
"Who are these people?" Linna asked.
The stars could be seen again, now, but their light seemed pale and muted. Priss stared at the invading army. "They're toast, that's what they are." She transformed and leaped down from the balcony, sword held high.
Linna sighed. You're going to be the death of us. Still, I can't let these people be slaughtered, even if it is a dream. She concentrated and her party dress became her hardsuit. And I really can't let Priss get slaughtered. She charged into the fray.
Priss fought the greatest fight of her entire life. The fact that this was a dream had completely slipped her mind. This was her kingdom, her people. Her ancestors had moved heaven and earth to create a time of peace, and she was ready to die to defend it. Some tiny part of her knew the odds were impossible, but Priss didn't worry about odds. She cut a bloody swathe through the enemy army, but it was too big, the odds too heavy.
Linna carved an even larger swathe through the invading army. A few sword blows had revealed that none of the average invaders had anything that could do more than damage her paint job, which made mowing them down ridiculously easy. The real problem seemed to be whether she'd collapse from exhaustion before she could kill them all.
Then one of the seven shadows came after her. It was one of the creepiest things she had ever seen, a vaguely humanoid shimmering being seemingly forged from darkness with glowing red eyes. She opened fire on it and her laser simply punched a tiny hole in it which soon closed up. She tried to engage it hand to hand, but her blows went through it without hurting it at all. Even the monofilament whips didn't do anything to it. On the other hand, it's blows did little more than ding her armor and further damage the paint job.
Then Priss cut it in half with her sword and it dissolved away with a loud scream. Priss said, "Sorry to butt in, but it looked like you were gonna be here all day."
A loud scream cut across the battle. Priss recognized the voice crying "Endymion!" She ran that direction, cutting a swathe through the enemy army. Linna followed in her wake.
They were too late. Bodies were strewn everywhere, the senshi of the Moon Kingdom fallen. A tall pale woman with long red hair and a staff in her hands was gloating over her triumph as she carried off the Princess of the Moon and the Prince of the Earth. The last of the Moon's defenders had fled, and only two cats and the Queen remained.
Beryl was ranting something about snakes. The Queen ignored her and held up a yellow wand, tipped with two things: a crescent moon and a shining silver colored crystal. She spoke words of power and a wall of light erupted from the crystal. Priss and Linna closed their eyes, unable to bear to look.
Beryl's army was ripped apart in an instant. Many died, the rest cast out into what would become known as the Dark Kingdom. Soon, there was only silence and the fallen.
Linna stared around in horror. It was victory, but at too heavy a price.
Priss was in shock.
"The Silver Millennium has fallen," one of the cats said sadly.
"I shall send their fallen souls to Earth, so that they might one day be reborn and hopefully live in the peace that was denied them in this life." She raised the crescent moon wand and light flowed from it once more...
Flicker.
Priss and Linna floated in a misty void, surrounded by a kaliedscope of light and darkness, a seething sea of chaos. Things kept appearing and vanishing in the corners of their vision. Gently mocking voices drifted through the void, just below the threshold of sound where they might have understood them.
Priss turned to Linna. "Does this mean we're done?"
"Umm." 'Sasami, are you there?'
A figure strode out of the mists, which dissolved away. The pair stood on the balcony again, but now the palace lay in ruins. The garden was gone, only a wasteland remained. The world was bleak and lifeless, though the same Earth hung in the sky. The woman who had strode from the mists was Queen Serenity. "This is all that remains of my kingdom. Of your homeland, Priss." She turned to Linna. "So you are the one."
Linna blinked. "The one what?"
"The one who has brought my daughter to me. I thank you, Yamazaki Linna. I wish I could reward you, but that is not in my power. Except for this." She reached out and touched Linna's forehead. She felt an electric shock run through her. "You will know how to use this when the time comes." She turned back to Priss, who was staring at her. "My daughter. I am so proud of you."
"I haven't accomplished anything to be proud of." It was a rare moment of honesty for Priss. "All I've done is fight and sing a few songs."
Queen Serenity swept forward and embraced her daughter. "You have fought with all your heart and all the considerable courage you have in it. I was a great queen and I could not save my kingdom from destruction. Do not be bitter because of your past. You will do great deeds in the future, my daughter. I have faith in you."
Linna looked around at the devastation, remembering how beautiful it had been earlier in the dream. What a waste...such a peaceful place destroyed.
"I...Is Usagi my sister?"
"Yes. You must find the Silver Crystal so you can restore her memories and those of her friends. The world will need you all soon."
The Queen turned to Linna. "Will you help my daughter? She will need someone who can help her travel through the world of dreams where the crystal has hidden itself."
Linna blinked. "I..uh...me?" Linna pulled herself together. "Sure. I'll help as best I can. The crystal is in someone's dreams?"
"The world of dreams is shaped by human will, but there are vast tracts of it that lie beyond where people normally go in their dreams. Some of your scientists refer to it as subspace."
"As what?"
Queen Serenity tinysweated. "Anyway, the Crystal is hidden in the deeps of this world, the very universe within which we are now. I do not know where it is or how easily it can be found, but I hope you can help my daughter to find the Crystal."
"I will do my best."
Priss said, "We'll find it. I swear I'll find it, mother. I...will I see you again?"
"Not for a very long time. You must sleep now. You will need your rest." She began to fade. "I love you, Courage. I know you will not fail."
My name is Courage...It fits I guess. Priss smiled, though she was crying. "I love you too, mother."
The world dissolved away and Priss and Linna both sank into a deep, restful sleep. Far away from them in orbit over the earth, Sasami smiled in her sleep and rolled over.
Nene crawled out of bed. Ack, I'm late for...oh wait, I have today off. She was about to sag back into her bed when she heard noises in the kitchen. Great, an early morning burglar, she thought. She managed to find her bathrobe and her handgun and crept out into the living room, just in time for "BOB and his Chainsaw" to fill her apartment with noise spawned in Hell's music department. She screamed and so did the person who turned on the music, who turned out to be Ryu.
After a few seconds, he turned it off. "..."
Nene put down the gun. "You startled me!"
"What was this doing in your stereo?"
"All the CDs you lent me were like that!"
"Are you sure you didn't borrow this from Manami? Or Priss? Or maybe the forces of Evil?" Ryu pulled out the CD and looked at it, then at the CD case. "This looks like my case, but these aren't my....Manami..."
"What?"
"Manami switched all my CDs! Oooooooooo."
Nene laughed. "I guess she did get you."
"This calls for an escalating spiral of vengeance."
"Cool. Can I help?"
"Sure." Ryu kissed Nene. "Let's get some breakfast first, though."
"And then we'll plot our evil revenge."
"Exactly."
Hikaru and Noa sat down in her living room. "So you're ready for this?" Hikaru asked.
Noa nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be."
Hikaru moved closer on the couch and reached out her hand to Noa's forehead. "This may not be pleasant for you."
"It's painful? I can handle pain." Noa was very nervous. She knew she was standing at the edge of a line beyond which there was no turning back.
"Not physically. You'll remember things and you may not want to remember some of them. More importantly, you may not want other people to know them, but I won't be able to help learning them. To awaken your abilities, I have to know you...and knowing yourself or others can be painful, embarrassing, and unpleasant. I've only done this twice, not counting the time it was done to me, and that wasn't exactly voluntary. Well, sort of. Anyway, one of them was my best friend, but there were still things that...well, anyway. This is your last warning."
"Who did this to you, if I may ask? You say it wasn't voluntary?"
"One of the things you're going to be going up against tried to use me as a living weapon against my boyfriend and his family because they're descended from Juraiians. I nearly killed them all." Her voice was very faint.
"So the thing that did that to you is still out there?"
"I killed it." Her voice was very matter of fact, but sounded tight. "I ripped its spirit body apart and..." She shuddered. "I know how they can die, but it's not pleasant. Not pleasant at all." She stared off into space for a few seconds. "Anyway. You ready?" Clearly, she didn't want to talk about it anymore.
"Sock it to me."
Hikaru placed her hand on Noa's forehead and dived inside her mind.
Young Noa chased the cat down the hallway. "Alphonse! Alphonse!" Alphonse didn't pay any attention. Hikaru followed the young five year old as she chased the cat through an open door into the main room of her parents' brewery.
Noa's father grabbed Alphonse and laughed. He was a huge burly man with bright red hair. "Here you go, Noa-chan."
"Thank you, Poppa."
Noa's mother brought over a glass to Noa. "Here, try this."
Hikaru blinked. Her parents were giving her beer at age five?
"It's too bitter."
Her mother turned to her father. "I told you."
He grumbled. "Right, right. Shouldn't you be doing your homework, Noa-chan?"
Noa hugged her cat until it was almost ready to explode. "Okay!"
She got all the way to her room before she remembered she didn't have any homework.
Noa, now 17, finished gassing up her motorcycle. "You sure you're old enough for that thing?" the gas station attendant asked.
"It's not a thing. It's Alphonse." She paid the attendant and stalked off, leaping on the cycle and roaring off into the night.
Hikaru blinked. She named her motorcycle after her cat?
Hikaru watched Noa, now 21, carefully polish an Ingram by hand. Hikaru recognized it as the Ingram that was now in Noa's restaurant. Noa seemed to almost be in a trance as she worked. Another SV2 officer, who Hikaru recognized as Noa's husband, Asuma, approached her. "You're still here?"
Noa blinked. "I'm almost done cleaning Alphonse, Shinohara-kun." She paused. "Oh wait, you needed a ride, right?"
"Yeah."
She clambered down from the gantry. "I'll take you right now then, since it's supposed to rain soon and then I won't be able to take you."
She named her mech Alphonse too, Hikaru thought. I wonder why the name is so important to her.
Noa turned and saw several dozen labors heading for the park, a mere fraction of the thousands in the city. These were different. No one was operating them. "This must be something like that HOS disaster...Has Unit 1 been called out?"
Hikaru watched quietly. The worst part about trying to understand other people's memories was that you couldn't ask questions to try and find out the context. It was like reading a book by picking random pages.
He paused, and radioed for more information. He didn't like what he heard. "Unit 1 was called in and is now under attack from its own labors."
"What?"
"Military labors are out of control at the base...the chief says we're getting out of here now!"
Hikaru suddenly realized what was going on. December 31, 2000 AD. I remember that day all too well, unlike the others.
Noa tossed aside the person she was grappling with and tried to run for the carrier. The controls refused to respond. Alphonse twitched about as if he was drunk. Noa swore. "Alphonse, what are you doing?"
She struggled with the controls. It was like trying to walk through marshmellows. They weren't responding. In fact, it felt like something else was trying to issue contrary commands. Noa felt a growing sense of unease. No, I won't let something do this to my Alphonse! She growled and concentrated. The resistance increased, then suddenly popped. Alphonse took off at a run for the carrier...too late. Four labors had grabbed it and flipped it over.
Hikaru blinked. That shouldn't have been possible...I'll have to follow this up. Hikaru plunged deeper into Noa's mind.
Noa was substantially older in this memory, somewhere in her late thirties. She was confronting an old man and a bunch of armed punks in a warehouse. "Surrender now!" she cried out.
The old man laughed. "Soon, the virus we've planted in your mech's operating system will take effect and your mech will be paralyzed. If you run, you might get far enough away that we won't catch you when it shuts down." He checked his watch. "You have three minutes."
"I guess I have three minutes to render you all unable to move then."
The old man blinked, clearly not having quite thought of that.
Three minutes later, the men were all knocked out, or pinned on the floor with Alphonse sitting on their legs. Hikaru laughed faintly as she watched.
Noa was holding the old man up in the air. Three minutes. Four minutes. "Hmmm. Looks like your virus needs a little work."
The old man began to cry.
Shige said to Noa, "Yeah, they did put a virus in your mech. In fact, your mech ought to be not functional right now."
"I guess Alphonse's immune system was just too strong for it, eh?"
Shige shook his head. "Humans are the immune system of mechs. Like I said, this mech shouldn't be able to move. Your operating system looks like swiss cheese."
"But he's running just fine!"
"Who knows. The more we improve these labors, the less we understand them. Anyway, I'm going to restore your operating system from the backups."
She nodded. "Okay. I wonder what the Old Man would have thought of all this."
Shige said, "He'd have yelled at me for not keeping more recent backups." Shige looked at Alphonse. "On the other hand, the fact that this thing is still running after 20 years...I think he would have been happy about that."
"Well, with maintenance a car will last 20 years easily."
"Shinohara-san, you don't take cars into combat. Tanks don't last 20 years of frequent combat. We replaced Unit 2 and 3 years ago, but your mech just keeps going."
"That's 'cause I take extra good care of him."
"We take extra good care of all the mechs...anyway, I need to go work on this and you're going out with your husband tonight, right?"
Noa nodded. "Take good care of Alphonse." She turned to go.
"I always do."
Hikaru smiled faintly to herself and followed another thread of memory.
It was a cold winter's day. Noa was in her early twenties, but Hikaru couldn't tell quite how old she was. She and Asuma were standing out in the snow in front of SV2 HQ. He looked very nervous. "You have tomorrow off, don't you, Noa?"
"Hmm? Yeah. Why?"
"Interested in catching a movie with me?"
"Sure."
The man seemed visibly relieved. "How about the two thirty movie?"
"I'm going to be cleaning Alphonse."
Hikaru laughed faintly. She can't even tell, can she...
"On your day off?"
"I won't have time before then."
"..." He thought for a moment. "Four thirty?"
"Sure. What movie are we going to go see?"
"How about Sleepless in Shikoku?"
"I've been wanting to see the new Gundam movie."
"Okay, we can do that." He looked a little disappointed. She didn't quite notice.
"Cool! You're the only person I know who is willing to go see a good mech movie with me anymore!" She danced about happily.
"You up to going somewhere for a nice meal after that?"
"Sure. I'm kinda getting tired of the stuff we eat here. Then I'll take you by my parent's brewery and see how much we can squeeze out of them."
"I thought you couldn't get drunk anymore because of growing up there."
She laughed. "Only Mom's homecooking so to speak, if you know what I mean."
He was about to find out. Hikaru smiled. First date, I guess. She leaped down another thread of memory.
Noa, 17 years old in this memory, sat with her friends watching an entirely ridiculous show called Sailor V Gundam. Imagine giant fuku-wearing combat mechs. Then try to get the image out of your head before it rots your brain.
Hikaru blinked. I can't believe anyone besides me watched this silly show.
Apparently Noa's friends couldn't believe it either. "Why are you making us watch this awful show?"
"Cause I think these giant robots are just so cool! I'm gonna be a giant robot pilot one day."
"But this show is soooooo bad. It looks like five year olds drew it...and where did Sailor V get all these mechs, anyway?"
"You people have no imagination. I'll have my own mech and I'll name it Alphonse!"
"You name everything Alphonse! What is it with you and that name?"
Noa smiled. "I just like it..."
Hikaru tried diving down another thread of memory.
Noa, age 5, ran frantically through the mall. She was completely lost. I shouldna gone to look at that dollie, she thought, cause now I can't find Mommy anywhere. Mommy got lost! "Mommy, where are you!"
Poor child, Hikaru thought. I know the feeling.
She ran headfirst into the legs of a huge old man. Well, huge from her perspective. He was dressed in archaic garb, and looked somewhat like a priest. He wore glasses and had short grey hair and a bushy grey moustache. He looked down at the child. "Are you okay, little one?"
"My Mommy is lost!" Where is everyone? Where's Daddy? I can't find anyone!
"I'll help you find her. What does she look like?"
"She's big and beautiful and has brown hair and she's really nice! And she's wearing a green dress."
"Okay." The man began leading Noa through the mall, keeping up a steady stream of chitchat with her. Slowly, Noa's fear and worries faded. "So what's your name, little one?"
"Izumi Noa. What's your name?"
"My name is Masaki Katsuhito."
Hikaru looked at the man. Something about him was familiar. One of Kyosuke's relatives?, she thought.
Noa looked around at everything for sale in the mall. There were tons and tons of stuff for sale. Then she saw it. The perfect doll. It was a little Gundam mech plushie in a UFO catcher machine. "I want it! I want it!" She pointed. It's important to point so adults know what you want.
Katsuhito laughed. "You like mechs, little girl?"
"They're really neat!"
"I'll see what I can do." He got out a coin and soon snagged the doll and gave it to her. "He'll keep you safe whenever you're in danger. You'll have a big strong mech to protect you."
Noa giggled. "He needs a name."
Katsuhito thought for a moment, looking around. A sign caught his eye. "How about Alphonse? I guess he's a French mech."
"Yeah! That sounds like a neat name!" I can use that for our new cat too, Noa thought.
Hikaru laughed, then suddenly realized where she knew the man from...
Hikaru stood in a vast hanger. It looked like a trophy room. Alphonse stood against one wall by a gantry and elevated walkway. Pictures lined the wall by Alphonse, showing various battles and other deeds he had accomplished. By a second wall stood a series of statues of people Hikaru could not recognize for the most part, though the uniforms identified them as the members of SV2. A third wall held people Hikaru recognized as Noa's family from some of the memories. Her cousins, father, mother, and others. The fourth wall held a single statue, Noa's husband, Shinohara Asuma. The statue changed as Hikaru watched it, aging from a young and nervous man to the confident elder gentleman that Hikaru had met before. The pictures on the wall behind him were a mixture of scenes. Asuma with a toothache. Asuma recieving an award. Asuma riding on Noa's motorcycle with her. Asuma throwing a snowball at someone. Asuma in his SV2 uniform, giving orders. Asuma and Noa's wedding day. Their first kiss.
Hikaru turned away, not wanting to pry too deeply. In the middle of the room, Noa floated, suspended from invisible wires. She was dressed in her SV2 uniform, and she looked younger than in real life, though not as young as in some of the memories. She had a red string tied to each of her thumbs. The one from her right hand lead to Asuma, the one from her left to Alphonse.
Hikaru smiled faintly. I wonder what I would have seen if I ever...She wiped the thought from her mind. No time for regrets. She examined Noa more closely. Yes, I can see it, she thought. Her power is already awake. Together, they are more than they are apart. The whole greater than the sum of its parts. Two humans and a machine...not your normal love triangle.
Now how exactly do I explain this to her? She thought for a moment, then acted.
Noa blinked as Hikaru pulled her hand away from Noa's forehead. "I can sense where Asuma is...he's eating a sandwich at the office and reading some papers. And I can sense..." She looked at Hikaru. "Am I clairvoyant now?"
"You had a very powerful bond with those you love. It is stronger now. Together, the three of you are stronger than any foe."
"The three of us? You mean..."
Hikaru smiled. "I think you know what I mean."
Asuma sneezed and papers flew everywhere. I guess someone is thinking of me. Probably Noa, I guess. I can almost see her talking to Professor Hiyama, now that I think about her. He could hear her voice in his mind, and he smiled. I love you Noa, maybe even almost as much as you love your mech. If that's humanly possible.
May 22, 2016
Quincy sat at his desk and stared at the man before him. He looked remarkably bland for what he what he claimed to be, with neatly trimmed brown hair and a nice suit. "An interesting proposal, Mr. Xavier. But can you prove it?"
"Call in your secretary."
"I don't have my own secretary yet."
"Call in anyone."
Quincy called in Taki from Accounting. When Taki arrived, Mr. Xavier promptly crumpled and suddenly Taki spoke. "Satisfied?"
"Interesting. So why didn't you just take my body since I can't stop you?"
"Past experiences have taught me there is value in cooperation and there may times when I may need to be elsewhere. Plus, you have knowledge that I do not. My life has taught me little of how to run a company, but I have scientific knowlege beyond your wildest imagining. We can do far more together than separately."
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and the rise of a company to world power.
Priss woke up with a severe stomach ache. She stifled the urge to moan, because she didn't want Leon to know she felt sick. No weakness. She looked around Leon's apartment. It was just a dream. He's okay, she told herself. No Leon. A twinge of fear struck her and she stifled it. He's probably in the bathroom or gone to work or something.
She looked around. No note. No bathroom noises. She used the bathroom herself, thus making doubly sure Leon wasn't in there. He wasn't in the kitchen either. Nothing but silence. Bastard didn't even leave a note, she thought.
The living room door opened, and Priss spun. It was Leon with a handful of mail. "Oh, hi, Priss. I forgot to pick up my mail last night. You wanna grab something to eat before I go to work? Assuming you don't feel too sick to eat?"
Priss felt a wave of relief wash over her. She sauntered over to Leon. "I feel great. You're the one who can't handle weird pizzas."
"I seem to remember you worshipping the porcelain goddess last night."
"I was just trying to comfort her after she had to deal with you." Priss replied, grinning. "Face it, you just have a weak stomach."
"In your dreams," Leon replied. "Come on, let's go. I don't have anything here worth eating, and I gotta get to work soon."
Dreams. Priss thought about her dreams. I have a lot of things to do, she thought. She looked at Leon. When I thought you had died... It was time to be honest with herself about how she felt about Leon. She hadn't really loved anyone in a long time. There had been her old boyfriend who got killed by GENOM. There had been Sylvie. And now... Priss was used to acting on impulses so she did. She grabbed Leon and kissed him.
Leon didn't make it to work on time that day.
Ryu whispered to Nene, "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
"Hey, unlike some people, I don't fire energy beams from my hands. I'm gonna need an upgrade to keep up and Celia is too busy to work on our hardsuits," Nene replied. "I was very specific on what I wanted Wasyuu to do."
"I love my grandmother very much, but it's been a really long time since I've been part of any of her experiments if I could help it." Ryu looked around Wasyuu's lab. "We can still run before she gets back."
Nene laughed. I just have to remember Ryouko's advice, and I'll be okay. I hope. "I don't think so."
"Don't say I didn't warn you." He started to lean against a nearby machine, then decided it was better not to touch anything unnecessarily.
Wasyuu returned, carrying an earring. "Here, put this on."
"A subspace beacon?" Ryu asked.
Nene put it on.
"Yes. This will enable the battlesuit to find you so it doesn't materialize in the wrong place. It also has the sensor for the activation phrase."
"Activation phrase?"
"To summon the armor, you shout, 'Knight Saber Power, Make Up!'"
It took all of Ryu's willpower not to fall down laughing.
"Can't you reset it to something less silly?"
"No." Wasyuu's eyes twinkled, and her smile was impish.
"I don't believe you," Nene said. She stared fixedly at Wasyuu. "The most brilliant scientist in the universe isn't capable of changing a command phrase? I could do that."
Wasyuu pouted. "But..."
"Please?"
"Okay." Wasyuu summoned up her keyboard. "How about, 'Sim Sim Salabim'?"
"How about 'Summon Armor'?"
Wasyuu sighed. "Kids these days just don't appreciate culture." She typed away for about ten seconds. "Okay, now try it out. Ryu, better step back."
Ryu stepped back.
"Summon Armor," Nene said. Nothing happened.
"You have to shout it."
"Summon armor!" Nene shouted. She rose into the air and spun about. To her surprise, her clothing ripped into tiny shreds, leaving her totally naked for about a second. Ryu tried not to stare and failed. The shreds blew away from her and pink and purple ribbons formed around her, becoming her jumpsuit she normally wore inside the hardsuit, then the pieces of armor appeared and slammed together around her. At the end of the transformation, she was still hovering in the air, now wearing a modified version of her Knight Saber hardsuit.
Wasyuu clapped her hands, "The anti-grav system is adjusted correctly for your weight. I was a little worried you'd lied about your weight and it wouldn't be strong enough."
Nene flew down to the ground. "I was butt-naked up there!"
"I thought that would be the best way to distract anyone who might be watching so they wouldn't attack before the armor finished appearing." Wasyuu started typing again, "I could add a bright flash of light to blind them as well so they won't actually see you naked if it bothers you. Aren't you proud of your body?"
Ryu restrained himself from commenting, which wasn't easy.
"This isn't some anime where we have to give fanservice! I don't want anyone but Ryu seeing me naked!" She blushed inside the armor. "Uh, I mean..."
Wasyuu laughed. "It's about time. Anyway, I could change it, but it would take me weeks to reconfigure it properly to work another way."
Nene looked at the screen, which contained a 'reconfigure experimental hardsuit' icon. She pressed it and a list of options came up. "Right. I'll just relieve you of the labor."
Wasyuu said, "You're taking all the fun out of this."
"If you really want fun, you can help Ryu and me get even with Manami and Ryouko for playing a prank on us."
Wasyuu's eyes lit up. "I minored in clever revenge at the Science Academy."
Nene finished reconfiguring the transformation sequence. "Got any ideas?"
Wasyuu always has ideas.
Youshou whacked Mackie on the head with the wooden practice sword for the twentieth time that day. "You have to concentrate."
Mackie sat down and sighed. "Is this really necessary? I mean, I'm not going to be able to learn hardly anything in the amount of time we have before we make our big move, right?"
Youshou sat down on the ground beside them, looking around the clearing. Memories of training on this very field with Tenchi flitted through his mind. I wish we had more time, he thought. "Every little bit will help."
"Yeah, like I'll get to do anything anyway. I ought to be practicing cheering everyone on. That and truck driving."
Youshou frowned. "If you take that attitude, that's all you'll ever be good for. Is that all you want to be? Your sister's flunky?"
"No, but I..."
"But you aren't willing to get off your fat behind and do anything to change matters. I won't make you do this, but if you don't try to be more than you are, you'll never become something better. Some of the things I tell you to do may seem pointless, but they're all intended to make you rise above yourself and shatter your limitations. You can wallow in self-pity and complain about what people have done to you and how useless you are, or you can solve your problems." He got into a ready position. "I've been pleased with your progress, but not your attitude. Shall we continue, or should we just go back to Mega-Tokyo?"
Mackie blinked, trying to process all of this. "I just feel like I'm not any good at this compared to you and..."
"I've been swordfighting for close to 800 years now. You've got a long ways to go to catch up. The important thing is to keep trying and do your best."
Mackie nodded and lunged at Youshou. "En Garde!"
Youshou laughed. "For Queen and Country."
The fight began anew.
"So as we head into the twenty thirties, we can see that..." Professor Hiyama lectured on about the aftermath of the Kanto Quake of 2025.
Her students took notes, many of them using laptop computers, others using an old fashioned pen and notepad. Manami was one of the former, typing at high speed. Unlike many of her classes, this was one that was full of material that was actually new to her. That was one reason she was majoring in history. It was an area that had not been covered in her education on Jurai. To be precise, Earth history had not been covered there, and her father, while he had tried to teach her, wasn't much of an expert in his homeworld's history.
The lecture soon came to an end. As Manami was about to leave, Professor Hiyama stopped her. "Do you have a minute, Manami?"
"Sure."
She followed Professor Hiyama to her office, closing the door behind her as she came in. "What's up?"
"Has your great-grandfather told you about meeting me?"
"Oh, you met great-grandfather? How did that happen?"
"You should be careful. There are GENOM agents on this campus trying to find the person who took out one of their agents, and even your powers won't save you from a bullet in the back."
Manami blinked. She wasn't expecting this. "I...uh..."
"I know about where you are from and a lot of other things. I wanted you to know I know in case you should need my help. Your great-grandfather has many allies."
"Are you from the Kasuga clan?"
Professor Hiyama laughed. "Almost."
"I don't understand."
"I really ought to put this explanation on tape," she muttered to herself, then launched into the whole saga.
Noa faced off with her students. Here's where we see if this makes a difference, she thought. I really wish I was using Alphonse, though, so I could tell.
On the other hand, the constant awareness of her husband was a little bit distracting, though she was getting used to shoving it to the back of her brain so it didn't constantly fill her thoughts. I hope I'm not making him sneeze constantly. She laughed at the thought.
"You ready, Umi?" she asked the driver of Unit 6.
Umi, a blue haired girl with sharply angled features, nodded. She was one of Noa's best students. Unlike the others, she listened, she didn't rely too much on her powers, and she actually seemed to know how to fight in a sensible manner. "Hai, sensei."
"And you, Yusaku?"
Yusaku was the blond boy with rumpled hair who drove Unit 4. He was very psychically powerful, but fairly inept in a fight, though he had more sense than Hitomi, who seemed to think she was in a samurai movie. "Ready as I ever am."
"Okay, both of you try to take me."
They all drew their combat rods. The two teens tried to come at Noa from two sides. Yusaku charged forward, while Umi approached more warily. Noa flowed with the attack, side-stepping, grabbing unit 4's arm and spinning in place, letting his momentum carry him around to go crashing into Unit 6. Well, that was the plan. Unit 6 got out of the way, and Unit 4 leveled a tree instead.
Unit 6 waited for Unit 4 to get up. He peeled himself off the tree and charged Noa again. This time, she simply blocked his attack. Unit 6, however, was now able to get a blow in from the side and strike Unit 2. Noa smiled. Good teamwork, even if it was unwitting on Unit 4's part.
She spun, the mech moving more fluidly than on previous days and struck at Unit 6's hand. Umi instinctively tried to avoid her hand getting thumped and left herself open for a solid thumping.
"Remember, the blows to your mech can't hurt you physically, though avoiding getting hit is a good idea, don't let it make you leave yourself wide open."
Umi nodded.
Noa smiled. I think I am fighting better, though maybe it's only my ego that has gotten more powerful.
Priss was nervous. She knew she shouldn't be, since Linna had done this sort of thing all the time and Nene was currently massively in violation of rule #10 and usually Priss didn't even think about the rules...however, it wasn't just rule #10 she was thinking of violating.
Priss hated feeling panicky, so she choked it down and stomped into the Silky Doll. Some tiny part of her brain mentioned, "You are now in violation of rule #9", but she ignored it. Even Celia daily violated that rule.
Celia was nowhere to be seen. Priss went and knocked on the office door, waving off a clerk who tried to see if she needed help.
Celia opened the door, smiling. "How are you today, Priss?"
"I need to talk to you."
"Come on in, then." Celia sat down. Unusually, the radio was tuned to a music station instead of 24-hour news channel 96.1 Some light breezy pop was playing. Priss sat down, wondering briefly if she had wandered into another universe. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Sure."
Celia got Priss a coke. "Sorry I don't have anything stronger."
Has Celia been kidnapped and replaced by a boomer?, Priss wondered briefly. Maybe this will be easier than I thought. "I..uh...well, I...ummm..."
"Let me guess. You finally broke rule #10?" Celia had a look that in someone else might have been described as a twinkle in her eye. Priss found it scary.
"..." Priss blinked. "I...how did you know?" Did she learn to read minds during that training trip? Wait, what does she mean by finally?
"I was wondering if you would ever get serious with Leon." She sipped from her own soda. "Looks like I win the betting pool, too."
Priss' jaw dropped. Incoherent noises came out. "Be...betting pool?"
Celia laughed. "Just yanking your chain. Linna tried to start one, but I wouldn't let her."
Priss said, "Well, that's one relief. The thing I really needed to ask you is..." She hesitated. Why is Celia so happy? Did she get laid? Priss laughed mentally at the thought. No way. Who would she be sleeping with?
"I'm still working on the next set of upgrades. They should be ready fairly soon, with Wasyuu's help. You won't be able to believe some of the stuff you'll be able to do." Celia was becoming even more animated. "It'll take me years to catch up, maybe decades, but even the simple stuff is just amazing." It looked like she could rant all day.
Priss cut her off. "Leon wants to know what the hell is going on, and I want to tell him."
"Okay."
Priss didn't quite notice the reply. "He's kept my secret for over a year, and I think he really deserves, after the whole mess with Mihoshi, to at least know what's going on. He even kept our involvement in that secret from his own bosses to protect us and..."
"I said it was okay, Priss. Have him come talk to me as soon as he can."
Priss stared. Maybe Celia did get laid. Or having alien powers softens you up. She thought about her own recent behavior. That's starting to look like a likely theory. "..."
Celia laughed. "Perhaps you expected me to produce a gun and shoot you on the spot just for asking?"
"Well, uh..."
Celia sighed. "We were all different people when we made those rules, especially me. There was a time when I would have been willing to back them up with death. That time is over and done. We'd have all had to die for breaking rule #9 a long time ago if we were going to be rigid on the rules."
Priss nodded. "We've never broken #6."
"And that's the only one we've never broken. Have you met Linna's new boyfriend yet?"
"No. She tried to bring him to one of my concerts, but he got sick. Have any of us but Linna met him yet?"
"No. He's got money, of course." Celia smiled sardonically.
Priss laughed. "Are we starting a betting pool on how long this relationship lasts?"
"Actually, Nene and I have one going..."
Priss and Celia both fell out of their chairs laughing.
The hammer banged on the table, sending everyone in the room jumping in shock. Usagi laughed. "This meeting will come to order."
Haruka laughed. "Yeah, right. Like any of these meetings ever come to order." Michiru, sitting next to Haruka, laughed faintly. "Whadja call a special meeting for, anyway?"
Dr. Mizuno Ami, sitting halfway across the room stood up. "I asked Usagi to call the meeting since I think I've made a minor breakthrough in my studies."
Minako Grant, famous voice actress and Oil of Olay spokeswoman, said, "So when can we start selling it?" Everyone laughed, even Ami.
There were sixteen of them — eight women and eight men. Eight couples united by two bonds. First, all of them had lived in the Juuban district of Tokyo during the nineties, when they had met. Secondly, none of them had aged a day in the last thirty years or possibly longer. They should have all been in their mid fifties or older. One of them had white hair, but his face was unlined by age, and he knew he had gone white in his youth. It had taken a long time to realize that they were not aging, but once it began to become obvious, they had formed the Juuban Society and set out to find out why they were unaging.
All of them had had to take measures to try to ward off attention for their youthfulness. Haruka and Michiru had gone so far as to fake their own deaths and assume the identity of relatives of themselves, with the help of a little plastic surgery and faked computer records. They were Hikaru and Michelle now. Minako and her husband, who lived a high profile life, simply let people believe that she had had plastic surgery. Some, like Usagi, hadn't really done anything, since Usagi really had no clue how to deal with this.
Finally, Ami had begun the most productive quest, putting her access to medical research equipment to good use. She stood now, and began to speak. "So far, I have been unable to isolate any common genetic factor that might provide a basis for understanding why we are all not aging. However, I have discovered certain chemicals present in the bloodstream of all of us which I suspect are related to this phenomenon, since they are not present in any of the blood samples I have worked with from other subjects. Secondly, injecting these chemicals into mice retarded their aging process for several months. Thus, in theory, if I could synthesize these chemicals, it is possible that..."
Makoto interrupted. "In other words, we're living fountains of youth?"
"These chemicals will not make you young, they merely retard the aging process so that you don't get older. In fact, they will prevent children, or at least young mice, from maturing physically and possibly mentally, though it's harder to tell with mice. This could provide an explanation for why none of us have been able to successfully have children."
Everyone was silent for a moment, then Naru said, "Because the children can't even develop in our wombs? They can't even age that much?"
Ami nodded. "It seems so, though the problem then arises of how any of us ever made it to maturity."
"Well, that could be questioned in a few cases," Bishop Hino said. Usagi stuck out her tongue at her.
"Where are these chemicals coming from?" Michiru asked.
"Our bodies are naturally manufacturing them as far as I can tell, unless someone is secretly giving us all periodic injections, which seems rather unlikely. I haven't figured out how to make these chemicals in any artificial manner yet; they're incredibly complex. I don't even understand how they work. Still, I have high hopes of eventually figuring them out. The disturbing thing, however, is that even with the resources of the Human Genome Project, your personal genetic records, and a very powerful computer, I still don't have a clue as to what genetic factor is responsible for this. I really have no idea why us and no one else."
Usagi said, "It must be Miss Haruna's fault. All that homework warped our body chemistry."
That got a lot of laughs. Ami continued. "The odd thing, is that we all know each other. Now, there may simply be a lot more Ageless out there that we don't know about, but given that there is not even a hint of this in any medical journal and..." She trailed off.
"And what?" Steven asked.
"Isn't it awfully convenient that each of us has the person we most care about to stay with us for eternity or at least a very long time? If we had actually known this was going to happen, it would be different, but none of us had any clue at the time that we wouldn't age. I can only conclude that someone or something did this deliberately to us, though I can't even speculate why. I love Ryo-kun very much, and I'm glad neither of us will have to watch the other age and die...but this is way too much of a coincidence."
"Maybe Sensei had something to do with this." Ryo said. "He was always doing all kind of crazy experiments and..."
"No. Biology was not his forte," the white haired man, Professor Tomoe, said. "And more importantly, he would have told us. Plus, if he could block the aging process, why didn't he use it on himself? He left me all of his notes, and none of them even vaguely refer to anything that could have this effect. Now if we all thought we were living in Ancient Sumeria or started glowing purple, I could see it."
"Maybe he just wants us to think he's dead," Haruka surmised.
"And maybe Fu Manchu is to blame for this," Professor Tomoe said. He sighed. "I take it the sample of the genetics and blood of our relatives didn't help any?"
Dr. Mizuno's face got a wistful look. "The sample of your daughter was seriously deteriorated. I was able to get a genetic reading from her hair, but if she possessed the A-factor, as I call it, I was unable to determine from the blood sample. The chemical degrades rapidly in contact with a nitrogen-rich environment like the Earth's atmosphere. With regard to the other samples, I found no trace of the A-factor in any of the blood samples from your various relatives. As far as I can tell, each of us is unique in our families in that regard."
Urawa said, "Have you tested the A-factor with human subjects yet?"
"No. Maintaining the level of secrecy we desire would become difficult at that stage. Also, until I can manufacture it artificially, I don't think I could get any noticable effects. While a fairly small dose seems to work well on mice, humans have a tremendously higher body mass and would require much larger doses."
The discussion continued until late in the afternoon, mainly succeeding in making everyone a bit more uncomfortable than before.
Chaos swirled around her as she slept, her dreams shaping the stuff of creation into nightmare visions and pleasant wonderlands that lasted anywhere from moments to what passes for eons in a world with no time of its own. Wrapped in a shroud of ether, she rolled over and the world around her shattered. The large white house through which her mind had been wandering in recent whatevers dissolved away and became a school that looked like a huge skyscraper, a church of metal, wires, and glass.
Only one thing kept the chaos from slowly claiming her for its own, devouring her essence to renew itself. A gem floated only inches from her, a shining translucent white gem that looked like an elaborately faceted diamond. It wrapped her in light and shielded her from what existed before the world and will exist afterwards, the stuff of which dreams are made. For dreams can devour an unwary dreamer.
Her hair was short and black, and in one hand she grasped her weapon, a long golden glaive. She was the warrior of creation and destruction. She could slay the entire population of the Earth under the right circumstances. But for now, she was the pawn of whoever might find her. Luckily for the world, she had not yet been found.
Aeka bowed to Youshou, Meylia, and Mackie. "I'm leaving now. Tenchi needs me in the city."
Youshou nodded. "Thank you for your assistance. We will come if you need us before our planned departure time."
Aeka nodded. Meylia said, "I'm heading to the city for a few days as well, father. There are matters I wish to discuss with my grandaughter and some other business." She winked at Mackie, who laughed faintly. Youshou pretended he already knew what she was winking at Mackie for.
Youshou said, "Well, I have much to instruct Mackie in. Come, great-grandson. Time for your sword practice."
Mackie groaned and followed. A few seconds later, his grand-mother and his great-half-grandaunt vanished in different though similar poofs of light. Mackie walked through the forest, carrying his wooden sword, mentally preparing himself for the beating of the day. He soon realized they were actually heading to the sacred tree. "Is this the right way?"
Youshou laughed faintly. "You'll be getting a special lesson today."
"The tree is going to stomp on me personally?"
Youshou laughed. "A history lesson. There are many things the Masaki Tree can teach you better than I can."
They soon reached the vast prayer-ribbon encircled tree, surrounded by pools of water and the beams of light that shone from its branches. Youshou stepped foward and touched the trunk of the tree with his right hand, and Mackie began to see. It was all new to him, and some of it quite exciting, but largely not relevant to this story, so we'll move on.
General Masunga frowned. "So, in other words, the best Intelligence has been able to do is to proclaim what happened impossible?" General Masunga was a huge burly black man in an immaculate uniform with curly gray hair cut short. He had begun his career in the Nigerian military and had made a reputation for accomplishing the impossible and for scrupulous honesty. He had thus emerged as a logical candidate to head the USSD after the resignation of General Dunkelkopf on corruption charges in early 2034. USSD had gone through five commanders in seven years. While Masunga had no major backers for the job, he had no major enemies either and an impeccable reputation.
Unfortunately, Masunga was faced with a major crisis. Two hundred and twenty two laser satellites were the main weapon the USSD had in dealing with one of its major duties, the prevention of nuclear war. For decades, the UN had been a toothless organization; now it had sharp fangs. Unfortunately, some unknown force had defanged it. It had taken every ounce of resources they had to keep this secret, or at least out of the public eye. General Masunga had been counting on Intelligence to find out who did this. They were failing him. He didn't like failure.
"Sir, no one on Earth has the resources to remove all the laser satellites in a single night. If they had been shot down, we would have had warning. Some astronomer would have seen something. They also wouldn't have shown up mostly undamaged but disarmed on our doorstep. Also, we wouldn't have ended up with the other fifty laser satellites in orbit belonging to various nations."
That was the strangest part. Not only had something disarmed and landed all the laser satellites, the same unknown someone had stolen all the other laser satellites in orbit and parked them in USSD's parking lot. No other satellites had been touched, just the deadly beam weapons. Even illegal covert spy satellites had been left out there. The space stations were unmolested. It seemed completely insane.
"Still no reports of any unusual activities from the space stations?"
"Someone on monitor duty went mad at Space Station Everest and started playing "Stairway to Heaven" over and over on all intercom channels at max volume a few days ago and had to be sent to an asylum. There might be a connection, but I doubt it."
"I suspect SPDC instinctively in this, but I can't think of why they would do it."
"The SPDC is a ..." the aide began.
"A front for GENOM. They own the space colonies in all but name. Their boomers are all over them. However, GENOM wouldn't just do this for fun. They might just be panicky and worried about a repetition of the Largo disaster, but GENOM doesn't normally use a sledgehammer when a regular one would do. Nor would they give us back the satellites minus the weaponry. It's almost like they wanted to taunt us." The general pounded his desk with his fist. "Or wanted to see if World War III would break out once the main line of defense against the nukes was gone. That's what I'm afraid of...that some lunatic group of terrorists somehow pulled this off and hopes to provoke the big one."
"Well, we're not picking up broadcasts of 'Mars needs women' so at least this probably doesn't presage alien invasion."
"I'd almost be ready to believe it."
Leon and Daley cruised across town, heading for another crime site. "I can't believe you were late today, what with internal security breathing down our necks the way they are."
Leon shrugged. "My record is flawless, I haven't done anything wrong, and I'm not the top-ranked patrol officer for nothing. The Internal Security Agent didn't like me, but I think I'll be okay." He grinned. "Besides, I had much more important business."
"Recovering from an upset stomach again? Passed out drunk in an alleyway? Kidnapped by aliens and forced into a weight loss clinic for your ego?" Daley speculated, grinning.
"Two years of work finally paid off." Leon roared down an exit from the highway.
Daley blinked. "What have you been working on for...oh."
Leon laughed. "The hard part is gonna be 'meeting the family', so to speak."
"What family? I thought Priss' folks were dead."
"I can't really talk about it, but I'm just worried that getting Priss to admit her feelings is gonna turn out to be the easy part of this relationship."
"Well, I'm still available if things don't work out," Daley said, trying not to laugh.
"Good to know I have choices. " Leon pulled into the Planetarium parking lot. Time to go to work.
"Ahh, rumors of your demise were greatly exaggerated, I see," Asuma Shinohara commented upon meeting Kate Madigan for the first time.
"I am rather more cybernetic than before," she replied, though she looked fully human in her well-tailored suit. "GENOM provides top-notch medical care. I would likely be dead, had I worked for any lesser corporation." Her tone made it clear which corporation in particular she was speaking of.
Asuma ignored the snub. "Our workers typically are never injured by rampaging boomers manufactured by your corporation, so we've never had to put much effort into fixing the sort of damage that can result." All right, he didn't really ignore it. "How may I help you, Miss Madigan?"
"That's Ms. Madigan, thank you."
"You're welcome." He sat and waited for her to explain her business.
"I understand that your corporation still manufactures Ingrams and parts for the above?"
"Ahh, has GENOM decided to finally invest in a security system that doesn't go on rampages?"
Madigan blinked. "What?"
"Yes, we do continue to manufacture them. Most of our purchasers are in the smaller, poorer nations who can't afford more sophisticated systems. Also, there's a collector's market, of all things." He laughed faintly. "Given that the Ingram possesses no built-in weaponry in the standard models, they're actually legal for personal ownership in some nations. In fact, they're being used for construction in Ghana as we speak. They have several advantages over boomers, after all."
"Really? I can't think of a single one."
"I'm sure you're not paid to think...of disadvantages, of course. The number one advantage is quite simple. Ingrams never do anything you don't tell them to do. They don't go mad and rampage through suburban areas with chainguns. They don't steal laser satellite control codes and vaporize our facilities. An Ingram is a reliable tool as long as you don't skimp on maintenance and have competent pilots. We've also been largely free of the sort of terrorist activity that plagues GENOM. You'd think every terrorist on Earth did nothing but steal experimental combat cyberdroids and turn them loose in Tokyo. What was it last time, the Wombat Liberation Army? We, on the other hand, have never lost a single Ingram to terrorists." He smiled, trying to think of further ways to dig in a few jabs.
"Oh really? We have reason to believe that several Ingrams have gone missing from your warehouses recently."
"They were sold to the Citusi in Africa. They won't be rampaging through downtown Tokyo anytime soon, so you can rest in peace that your car won't be blown into a fine mist by anything but your own company's manufactures. I'd ask how you even learned of this shipment, but I'm sure you won't tell me. Someone no doubt is operating on multiple payrolls. Would you like to drop some veiled threats now, or are we done?"
Kate got up. "I believe my questions have been as satisfactorily answered as they are likely to be." She headed for the door. "I understand your wife was a noted Ingram pilot?"
"The best that ever was. We both served in SV2 for thirty years. In fact, she still has Alphonse in her restaurant."
Kate blinked. "A fully operational Ingram in her restaurant? How did she get that one past the government?"
"The fact that it can't run around killing people by itself no doubt helped. A former prime minister would be pushing up daisies if not for Noa and Alphonse. Sometimes, heroism is rewarded." He smiled balefully at her.
She nodded. As she left, Asuma said, "One final question."
She stuck her head back in the doorway. "Yes?"
"I don't suppose you know why your boss dresses like a pimp, do you?"
Not suprisingly, she wouldn't dignify that with an answer.
He smiled. I shouldn't have done that. I should have been polite. Father would have been excruciatingly polite. But dammit, it felt good, he thought. He could almost hear Noa laughing inside his head. She'll get a good laugh out of this tonight, he thought.
Leon and Daley checked out the murder site. It was a planetarium and the machine operator was dead with a large hunk of machinery wrapped around and imbedded in his head. "So what makes you think this was a boomer crime and not an ordinary murder?" Daley asked the planetarium manager.
"Excuse me, but how on God's green earth could anyone but a boomer rip the machinery out of the ground and wrap it around someone's head?" the manager replied, irritated.
"No witnesses, though?" Daley asked as Leon looked around the small planetarium.
"I heard someone shouting about Mars. I came to investigate, and someone was running out the door on the far side of the auditorium. Mr. Taiho was already dead by that point."
Leon's head snapped around. "Mars? A Sailor Mars, maybe?"
The man thought for a moment. "Yeah." He paused. "How did you know that?"
Leon sighed. "Previous investigation. This person won't bother you again."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Well for one thing, criminals usually don't really return to the scene of the crime, especially boomers. Secondly, this person is looking for something, and they won't find her here."
Daley raised an eyebrow. "You know something you're not telling me?"
Leon laughed. "A little faerie gave me a few hints. Soon as we finish here, we get to talk to my other pixie friend." It didn't take long to finish.
"Oh, Nene's not in today. This is her day off," Naoko told Leon.
"Blast it. I need a computer search on something."
"Why can't you do it yourself?"
Leon smiled faintly. "Nene's got the special touch."
"Hey, I thought I had the special touch," Daley said, a smile on his lips.
Leon laughed. "Not that kind of special touch."
The day blurred by in a haze of classes for Linna. Over the years, it had gotten easier and easier for her to just disconnect her mind and teach her classes by instinct alone. She spent most of that time thinking about things ranging from soap operas to deep philosophy to what she would cook for dinner.Thus, she didn't realize Nene was in her class today until it was over and Nene came over to her.
Linna blinked. "Hi, Nene. What brings you here?"
"Ryu had to do homework, so I came here to get my workout."
Linna blinked. Nene? Workout? In the same sentence? I guess she has been trying harder to get in shape. She took an assessing look at Nene. She had a long way to go, but it was working. Nene looked better than Linna had ever seen her looking before. "Good for you. Wanna come grab some dinner with me? I'm hungry and I feel too lazy to cook."
Nene nodded. "Sure!" They both grabbed their stuff and got ready to go, when a man appeared in the door, dressed in a suit, with curly blonde hair and darkish skin.
"Robert!" Linna said. "Hey, Nene, this is Robert Bruce, who I've told you about."
Robert smiled. "Ahh, Nene Romanova. So where's your crown?"
She laughed. "It's at the cleaners along with my royal garb, so I had to dress as a peasant."
Linna swept over to Robert and glomped onto his arm. "You want to join us for dinner?"
"Sure. I was just on my way to see if you wanted to come eat with me. I think I can cover her royal highness as well."
Nene laughed. I like this guy. He looks like Mihoshi, she thought. I hope he's not as klutzy as her, though.
Leon walked down the hallway towards his apartment. As he reached for the doorknob, he heard muffled voices inside and noticed the door was slightly ajar. He frowned. Great, a burglar. He drew his gun, then realized there was some sort of odd smell in the hallway, somewhat like what a spice factory might smell like if it spontaneously combusted. He kicked the door open and moved in, gun ready.
The smell was even stronger inside. He heard voices in the kitchen, then as he moved into the room, he spotted Priss and Usagi in the kitchen. He laughed and put down his gun as they stared at him. He stared back, because there were two very unusual things about Priss. One, she was wearing an apron. Secondly, there were interesting stains all over Priss, Usagi, and the kitchen. Priss was caught in the act of trying to clean up the mess while Usagi was cooking. She put a hand behind her head and laughed nervously. "Uh, hi, Leon."
Leon strode over. "I...uh...what happened?"
"Priss asked me to help her cook a nice meal for the two of you, but things got somewhat out of hand."
Leon noticed the carrot driven through the ceiling. "Did you accidentally add nitroglycerine to it?"
"I was not as clear in my instructions as I should have been," Usagi said.
Priss frowned faintly. Actually I screwed up bad, but thanks for covering for me, Usagi-chan, she thought. "I'll get this all cleaned up, Leon. Oh, I've got some good news for you."
"You won 50 million yen in the lottery and you're going to give it all to me?"
"Better."
"You inherited a controlling interest in GENOM and you're going to turn it into a toy manufacturing company?"
"The Big Cheese is ready to answer your questions, so to speak."
"When and where?"
Usagi went back to working on the food, concluding that she had no idea what they were talking about.
"Later tonight, if you want. She'll be playing with her new toys at home all night, I suspect."
Leon laughed. "Well, I'm going to take a shower, then I'll help you finish cleaning this up." He took a look at the food. "Wow, this looks pretty good."
Priss laughed. "Usagi's a much better cook than I am."
"You're better than you think, Priss-chan." Usagi said. "But feel free to ask me for help whenever you like."
Priss looked around at the food. "Actually, I think we've made too much. You and Mamoru want to eat with us?"
"Sure. I'm not going to have time to cook dinner before Mamo-chan gets home, anyway."
"Sorry about that."
"No need to apologize. I was glad to help. Just be glad you asked me, and not my friend Minako. She still can't cook to save her life after all these years. Her husband had to get a flame-retardant ceiling for their kitchen."
Everyone got a good laugh out of that.
Leon walked into the Silky Doll nervously. Leon had overcome most of his fears a long time ago. Even going up against the DD Battlemover hadn't made him this nervous and it had a nuke in it. I feel like I'm walking into a Mafia don's office, he thought. Like I'm about to be given an offer I can't refuse.
The main thing that kept him going was that Priss was with him, watching him, and he would die before he admitted he was scared of her friends.His mind knew he had no reason to be afraid, but he was scared anyway.
Celia was waiting for them. She locked the door as they entered. "Follow me."
Leon followed quietly. They headed into the back and got into the freight elevator. Celia was silent as the elevator rose, as was Priss. Leon tried not to think about all the times he had seen the Sabers blow off something's head. Trying to not think about something is one of the hardest of all possible acts, and he wasn't having much success. Finally, he broke the silence. "So, do I have to get tattooed or what?"
Priss laughed. "Yeah. We were thinking a nice brown cow would look good on you."
Celia kept her composure, with effort. "We're not the Yakuza. For one thing, if you mess up, we cut off your leg, not a finger."
Leon laughed. "I guess that would be a strong incentive not to make any mistakes."
The elevator arrived. They walked through a short maze of hallways and out into a patio with a swimming pool. Celia nodded at Priss, who grinned. They began to circle the pool. "The first step is your formal initiation."
"Do I have to swear an oath or what?"
Priss grinned. "We decided a baptism would be appropriate." Before Leon could react, she and Celia picked up Leon and hurled him into the pool. Leon had rarely been more surprised in his entire life. He floundered like a drowning cabbit. "You did take the mechanical shark out of the pool, right, Celia?"
Leon got out of the pool faster than most people would have believed possible.
Ryouko floated about fifty feet over the alleyway, holding the punk by his jacket. "You sure you don't want to tell me all about your friends?"
The punk began to cry. "Oh god, you're a fucking boomer, I'm dead, you're gonna rip my head off, oh God, please..."
"Stop whining or I'll feed you to my ship."
"Yu...Yes, ma'am." the punk tried to pull himself together.
"So what does this Adam guy look like?"
"Tall, long brown hair, usually wears sun glasses. Perfect body, the sort you'd have to work out for ages to get. Usually wears nice suits. I haven't seen him in a while, though."
Ryouko smiled. "And if you wanted to find him?"
The punk told her. Ryouko flew down and dumped him in a pile of garbage. "Don't let me see you again."
"Yes, ma'am!" He ran for his life.
Manami finished off her homework just before there was a knock on her door. She got up and changed the music in the stereo so that it was now playing soft classical music instead of Priss and the Replicants. "Come in."
Meylia walked in, dressed in a long blue dress. "How are you this evening?"
"Done with homework. Waiting for Mom to show up."
"She's talking with your father and Ryouko. She'll be here in a little while." Meylia looked around the room. "Are you dating anyone, Manami-chan?"
Manami sighed. "Unlike my brother, I haven't found a handy prince."
Meylia smiled. "Well, if you don't mind someone playing matchmaker, I know a handy prince who is looking to go on a date with someone."
Manami blinked. "..."
"You might want to hide those heavy metal CDs, by the way, dear, before your mother gets here," Meylia said, looking at Manami's record collection.
Manami blushed and did so.
Leon looked at the hardsuits, seeing them up close for the first time. "How do you get the parts for these without GENOM finding out? I mean, you can't exactly go down to the shop and just whip them up, can you?"
"I employ a very discreet black market lab in Europe. They bought up a large amount of equipment after SCHAFT, Fogg Industries, and Verne Robotics collapsed in the 2020s in the face of competition from GENOM. It's expensive, but it keeps anyone from finding out where my suits come from. Also, some of the parts are manufactured by US Robots and Mechanical Men. Dr. Calvin's research was important to the development of the Motoroids. I only wish my father had paid more attention to it." Celia led Leon over to the testing room. "And this is our 'danger room'."
Leon nodded. "Similar to what we now have at ADPolice HQ, but much better, I suspect."
"Nene doesn't do any better in ours than yours, either, I bet," Priss said.
Leon sighed. "So did you recruit her because she is an ADPolice officer, or did she join the ADPolice to help you?"
"Some of both. Nene-chan sees herself very much as a knight in shining armor, sometimes. She stays in the ADPolice because it's a way to help people," Celia said. "And it also helps us in our mission."
"What about Andrea and Mihoshi? They work for you too? Is the Queen of Swords connected to you guys?"
Celia took a deep breath. "She's my grandmother." It got even more mind-blowing for Leon from there on out.
Nene munched on her dinner, wondering if Linna's new boyfriend really had bottomless pockets, or if he was just trying to show off. They were eating at the 'Heian Era', a theme restaurant that created the illusion of being in twelfth century Japan. The food was very traditional and very good. It also was very expensive. Of course, with her Knight Sabre earnings, Nene could have easily afforded it, but it still cost a lot.
"So you work for the ADPolice, Nene?" Robert asked.
Nene nodded. "Making the streets safe for humanity. Mostly, I work in the office, though. Computers, communications, doing people's paperwork. Except when I get sent on traffic duty."
Robert blinked. "The ADPolice does traffic duty?"
"Not when we can help it."
"So how many tickets did you give Priss this month?" Linna asked.
Nene laughed. "Only one. She really hates it when I do that."
More pleasant conversation followed, only to be interrupted by the sound of screaming. Nearby, a huge freaky looking woman in a pro-wrestler's outfit was busily throttling some unfortunate businesswoman with long black hair. The freak was bellowing something loud and incoherent.
Robert groaned. "Great. Here goes dinner."
Nene got her gun out of her purse. "Linna, call the police. Depending on if this is just a nut or worse, I'll probably need backup."
Linna got her cellular phone and dialed. Nene moved closer to the nut and leveled her gun. "Freeze, ADPolice!"
The attack had people worried, the news that the ADPolice were on the scene incited mass panic, unfortunately. People began screaming and running for exits. Nene sighed.
The wrestler tossed the woman aside and stared at Nene with a bizarre confused expression on her face. She mouthed something, then moved a little closer to Nene.
"One step closer and I shoot!" Too bad I can't use my new armor, Nene thought. Please let this just be a nutcase and not a C-53 or something.
The woman picked up a table and threw it at Nene, who dodged desperately. Linna, meanwhile, got through to the police and started reporting what was going on, while Robert hid under the table with her.
The woman looked around and spotted Linna and started heading towards her. Nene got back up. "Halt!"
The woman ignored her. Linna was busy on the phone and didn't notice. Robert did notice and tried to get her attention. "Linna."
"Just a minute." she replied. "Anyway, officer, Officer Romanova is here, she needs backup and..."
"Linna!"
"Just a minute!"
"Linna, she's coming for us!" Robert started dragging Linna away.
The wrestler sped up. Nene opened fire. Three 9mm slugs struck the wrestler, flattening themselves on her skin and punching tiny holes in her tacky uniform. The woman howled and her form began to shift and flow. She grew larger and her hair became more wild than before. Her physique was grotesquely huge. Nene swore mentally. Aaaaaa, it is a boomer, she thought. The wrestler turned and grinned at Nene. "You stink." She charged forward.
Robert dragged Linna out into the foyer as she finished her call. Dammit, I need to call Celia, she thought, but I can't do that with Robert watching. He handed her his car keys. "Go get the car running. I have to go to the bathroom." He sprinted off.
Linna laughed faintly and ran to the parking garage, calling Celia along the way.
Nene ran for her life. Luckily, she was far more nimble than the giant wrestler. Unluckily, she had run the wrong way and it was between her and the exit. As it chased her into a corner, she realized that everyone had fled. "Hah! Now I've got you just where I want you!"
The giant wrestler looked up, perhaps expecting something to fall on her head.
Nene shouted, "Summon armor!" and transformed, realizing as she did so that Wasyuu had reset the armor again so that she was once again totally naked in the middle of the transformation. I'm gonna have to talk to that woman, she thought.
The wrestler spoke one word after simply standing and watching the transformation, almost as if she had expected it. "Moon?"
Nene blinked. Moon? What does the moon have to do with anything? She activated her ECM to cut off the "boomer"'s communications, assuming it was one, and called up Celia on the radio. "Did Linna get through to you?"
"We're on the way." was the reply.
The wrestler charged forward and Nene leapt over its head and landed behind it, then tried kicking it in the back. She still wasn't sure if it was a boomer or what. Boomers sometimes ripped out of their skin, but they didn't normally just get bigger without ripping out. Also, her sensors were giving her weird readings. It didn't have a heat pattern like a boomer or like a real human being. In fact, it didn't show up on Infrared at all. No electrical or magnetic fields either, so it seemed unlikely to be any kind of boomer, but human beings have body heat and don't get huge. Nene was confused, to say the least.
The wrestler didn't even notice the kick as far as Nene could tell. She spun and slugged Nene, who went flying across the restaurant into a miniature pagoda, leveling it. This thing can't be human, Nene thought, peeling herself out of the pagoda. The wrestler laughed.
No point in not using these, then, Nene thought, opening fire with her lasers. The wrestler ran from the laser barrage after Nene blew off her left arm. She didn't bleed, though there was a bit of a purplish glow around the wound. Apparently, this was enough for her as she crashed through a wall and fled. The building then began to collapse on Nene, who discovered her lasers had been a little too effective. By the time she managed to peel herself out of the rubble, the wrestler was gone and the ADPolice were arriving. Nene quickly concealed herself and transformed back.
Lt. Shinohara approached Nene. "So the cyberpsycho took off?"
"After tangling with one of the Knight Sabers." Nene spotted the Silky Doll van driving up nearby and smiled faintly. Wow, the ADPolice actually beat us to the site for once.
Lt. Shinohara looked around. "Wow, the whole building is leveled. I'm impressed. So is the woman dead in there or what?"
"I don't think it was just a cyberpsycho. Maybe some kind of funky experimental boomer. It got bigger, but didn't actually burst out its skin. On the other hand, it relied entirely on hand to hand. No energy weapons or guns or anything as far as I could tell."
Lt. Shinohara frowned. "Maybe a cyberpsycho with some kind of holograph projector or something..." She sounded dubious about her own statement.
"She was strong enough to hurl a Knight Saber across the room, but not apparently strong enough to hurt her very much as far as I could tell."
Leon walked up, apparently from nowhere. "Yo, Nene-chan. What's up?"
"Homocidal crazed wrestler."
Leon frowned. "Looking for someone named 'Sailor Mars'?"
Lt. Shinohara turned to Leon. "You think you know who the perp is?"
He nodded. "C'mon, Nene. I need your brain." He grabbed Nene and dragged her off. "Let me know if you find anything interesting, Lt. Shinohara."
Shinohara nodded.
Nene and Leon sat by Celia's computer system. "See what you can find for me about 'Sailor Mars'."
Nene nodded. "What's his first name?"
"Not a sailor named Mars. Sailor Mars, as in the Sailor Warrior."
"Haven't they been missing and presumed dead for thirty years — if they ever existed?"
"There's a killer out there who doesn't agree with you."
Priss, lurking nearby, said, "Sailor Mars. She's not dead. Just asleep."
"Asleep?" Nene asked.
"She and the others lost their memories thirty years ago. I have to find them and get them their memories back."
Nene thought for a moment. "Was there a Sailor Moon?"
Priss smiled. "Yes."
"Ahh, that explains that," Nene said enigmatically. "Any idea why this crazed wrestler is after Sailor Mars?"
"Wants a rematch, maybe. No clue."
Nene searched the computer records as best she could. Unfortunately, a lot of the records didn't go back far enough. "Hmm. Here's an interesting case. This nutcase back in 2031 was keeping a harem of sexaroids built to look like the Sailor Senshi. He lived up on Space Station Trinity."
"How did he know what they looked like?" Priss asked.
"Apparently he got ahold of footage of them in combat that someone had filmed way back in the nineties, plus he had tons of old Sailor V episodes and whatnot. The case was never satisfactorily resolved, but somehow he got vaporized with a plasma weapon or something capable of massively charring him to a crisp. It was suspected that the sexaroids were responsible as they all vanished between the last time the guy was seen alive and when his body was found. However, the sexaroids were never caught."
Leon blinked. "This happened on a space station and they couldn't find the sexaroids?"
Nene nodded. "This guy was a high ranking SPDC executive, too. SPDC cooperated fully in the investigation. According to the report, there was basically no way the sexaroids could have escaped unless they leaped out an airlock, flapped their arms and flew to another station, the moon, or the earth."
Leon frowned. "Someone had to have smuggled them out."
"Anyway, here's a pic of the 'Sailor Mars' sexaroid." The picture resembled a young girl, perhaps around sixteen to eighteen, with long black hair, brown eyes, and a slightly pronounced nose. She had an almost noble look to her.
Priss stared at the picture. "She looks kinda familiar."
"Run a driver's license and criminal record check with those pictures, Nene." Leon said.
This took a while. Finally, the results came in. Nene blinked. "This is funky as all get out. Two seperate people. Matches 1999 Driver's License pic for one Hino Rei, and a 2032 pic for Rachel Yamazaki."
"Check for most recent Driver's License pic for Hino Rei and anything else you can find. Any data on this Yamazaki person?"
Priss said, "Hey, that's Linna's family name."
"Hmm. She can't drive worth a flip. She's gotten twenty speeding tickets and fifteen parking violations in the last two years. Her license is currently suspended. She's paid her taxes on time, yearly income of 3,000,000 yen a year. This is Yamazaki by the way. Here's the address."
Priss thought for a moment. "If you could find this person, why didn't the investigators track her down?"
"There's no record of this Rachel Yamazaki before 2032, and the investigation closed in 2031. Ahh, here's stuff on Hino. She's the...Bishop of Mega-Tokyo."
"We can probably rule her out then," Priss said. "Not too likely she's an escaped Sexaroid."
Leon laughed. "Possibly this 'wrestler' or whatever she is, is looking for the Sailor Mars sexaroid. It would make more sense than her looking for someone who has been completely missing for over thirty years."
Nene nodded. "I wonder if the Bishop is the real Sailor Mars, then. The picture of her that matched the sexaroid pic would have been taken around the same time as the footage used to build the sexaroids." She scanned the oodles of data that her search had found. "Hino, Rei. Born April 19, 1978. Attended a catholic girls' academy up to middle school, then attended Tsunami High School. Attended Tokyo University, with a degree in music and philosophy. Attended Kyoto Seminary, graduated top of her class. Moved to United States, taught at a Catholic university in Los Angeles. Released a record in 2003. Joined Sisters of Charity in 2005. Attended Third Vatican Council in 2020, thought to have been instrumental in the decree admitting women to the priesthood. Ordained in 2021. Became bishop of Mega-Tokyo in 2032. No criminal record, except for six speeding tickets in 1999 and twenty four parking violations spaced over the last thirty years in various jurisdictions. Seven published books, twenty journal articles and two records."
"Isn't eleven years a pretty quick time to become a bishop?" Leon asked.
"Well, in the Russian Orthodox Church, yes." Nene said. "I don't know about with the Catholics. She seems like one of those fast-track brilliant kind of people, though. Here's a music sample from a home page someone did of one of her albums."
It was a wistful piece of music about going on a long journey and leaving those you love behind because some roads must be walked alone.
"Not bad," Priss said. "She's got a good singing voice. Not my kind of music, but I can tell talent when I hear it."
Leon nodded. "Well, I have some leads now, or at least people to warn."
"I've got someone else you can talk to, Leon, who might be able to help you."
"A Sailor expert?"
Priss nodded. "Assuming Celia can get ahold of Sasami for us."
Haruka sat quietly, staring out the window into the night sky. He was having one of his fits of nameless dread again. He hated them. Fear would creep down into his soul and grip him with the knowledge that evil stalked the night and there was nothing he could do about it. Yet, he felt like he should be able to do something about it. A certain low-lying guilt haunted him on these nights, and he hated it.
He almost jumped out of his skin when he felt his wife's arms wrap around him. He relaxed. "You should be asleep, dear," he said.
She laughed. "So should you. Having one of those moods again?"
"I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like our life is too perfect and something has to come wreck it. Like there's something I should be doing, I'm not, and I'm going to be punished for following my dreams instead of my duty."
"Your only duty is to me, dear. Come to bed. Losing sleep won't help."
"Someone's testing us. Trying to see how we'll react. This immortality...it can't be an accident, a coincidence. We're pawns on someone's chessboard. Trying to get us to...to..."
Michiru kissed Haruka's cheek. "Don't make me use the frying pan on you, dear. We don't know anything."
"You've felt it too, haven't you." It was a statement, not a question.
"And unlike you, I know better than to fret over things I cannot change. I also know you have a race tomorrow, and if you don't get any sleep and blow yourself up in a crash, I'll be very displeased with you."
"So would I." Haruka sighed. Maybe I'll have a prophetic dream or something. No such luck.
Linna hovered in the sea of dreams. Tiny spheres whirred about her now, dancing at her command. She smiled. No more being trapped for me, she thought, now that I know what I'm doing. She took a deep breath. I probably shouldn't be doing this, but Priss asked me to...
She called up the feeble image in her mind of her target. If only I'd actually seen her myself, she thought. A tiny part of her brain tried to warn her this could be pretty dangerous, but she ignored it. As the image formed in her mind, the 'stars' spun about her, bringing her face to face with a constellation of stars moving in a tight interlinked pattern. There was a strange shadow across them...their light seemed dimmed, except for one, which shone brightly. She sensed that was the one.
She called it closer and enlarged it, or perhaps shrank herself. The shiny surface turned translucent, then transparent. A woman was standing in something that resembled an airport, though made of crystal, with a white haired man. It looked safe to enter, so she did...
"Will Hitomi Jordan please come to the white courtesy phone. Will Hitomi Jordan please come to the white courtesy phone. Will..." A pleasant female voice echoed through the building, endlessly calling someone who apparently just wasn't listening or perhaps was rather slow. Linna looked about, trying to keep herself out of the fabric of the dream and simply observing. People bustled about the long crystalline hallway lined with lounges, chatting, waiting, reading, listening to music, eating, saying farewell to friends and engaging in many other rituals of 'airport' behavior that Linna was fully familiar with.
Indeed, at first Linna thought she was inside a modern day airport. It had the same feeling, the same sense of the edge of departure. It took a few minutes for the alieness of the place to begin to sink in. The building was made of pastel colored crystal or glass for the most part. The clothing styles were unfamiliar, ranging from the archaic to things that looked like they were designed for a bad science fiction movie. Several people appeared to be flying with no visible means of support. The signs were written in a strange script that Linna didn't recognize. What is this place, she wondered.
More importantly, Linna couldn't quite figure out who was the person she was trying to spy on here. There was a woman nearby who sort of fit Priss' description: tall, greenish-black long hair, reddish eyes, but the woman was wearing perfectly ordinary clothing and appeared to be walking arm in arm with some white haired guy with glasses, in the middle of embarrassingly cutesy behavior. Sufficiently cutesy that Linna couldn't stand to watch much of it for fear of a sugar overdose.
I guess she's dreaming about her boyfriend or something, Linna thought. But where the heck are we? Maybe it's symbolic or something. I can guess she likes crystals and pastel shades, but...
The paging stopped and a second voice, this one male said, "Final call for Flight 205 to Juno City, Callisto, connecting through Barsoom City, Mars. Repeat, this is the final call for..."
Linna blinked. Mars? Callisto? Someone ran by at full tilt towards one of the lounges. Linna didn't get a clear view of him, but he dropped a newspaper at her feet. She picked it up, intending to call after him, then remembered she was trying to keep herself from being fully sucked into this dream. Besides, if he was in that much of a hurry, he probably wouldn't want to come back for it anyway.
She picked up the newspaper, vaguely keeping an eye on her target, who was now sitting in one of the lounges, waiting for a flight no doubt. The paper was titled, 'Crystal Tokyo Sentinel'. The front page headline story read, "Kzinti-Solar Trade Agreement signed." The story was apparently about the signing of a free trade agreement between the 'Solar Kingdom' and the Kzinti empire, establishing free trade between the two races. The content of the story itself was not disturbing so much as the picture of a blond woman in a long yellow dress shaking hands with a huge furry cat-man. Under that was a story on archaeological work in the ruins of 'New York City'.
Linna blinked. What in God's green earth is going on here? And how can I read this if I couldn't read the signs. She looked up and now she could read the signs. Pluto, if that was who it was, was waiting for a flight to Tranquillity City on the Moon, according to the sign over the lounge gate. Linna slowly raised the newspaper and looked at the date on it. 'Flowers 8, in the fifty-second year of the Crystal Millennium.' Wait, isn't it supposed to be impossible to read in a dream?, she thought. Maybe that's why this isn't making any sense.
She decided to go listen in on the conversation between the woman and her boyfriend. "So you think it will finally work right this time?" she said.
"Well, I'm largely just adapting their technology to our power supplies and making a few other modifications to make sure nothing nasty can seep through," he said. "Once we finally have a workable teleportation system, everyone will be able to visit the other worlds. There just aren't enough people who can teleport more than a few dozen pounds of stuff at a time, not to mention the range problems and the way planets move around. Anyway, enough talk about work."
Linna blinked. Teleportation? Other worlds? Wait...what if she's one of these aliens...
Linna watched a little while longer until the man's flight arrived. The woman turned and headed back through the 'airport.' Linna followed her, curious. Soon, she emerged from the building into a 'parking lot'. The lot was full of vehicles ranging from bicycles to strange crystalline hunks of rock. All the buildings were made of beautiful crystal formations and she could see a vast city spreading off to what she guessed was the south, assuming the sun was still rising in the east, anyway. She could hardly believe her eyes. Suddenly, the world jolted around her...
Linna was now standing with the woman inside another huge crystal building. This one was full of people scuttling hither and yon, all of them wearing garb that reminded her of the Renaissance. All of them had a badge with a golden crescent moon superimposed over the Earth. The woman she had been following was dressed in appropriate garb in greens and reddish purple. Linna followed her, not sure what else to do.
The woman walked into a throne room, a vast cavern of golden and white crystal with a huge translucent throne that looked carved from diamond. A woman was sitting on the throne, snoozing. There was a golden crown upon her brow, and she was dressed in a long white strapless dress decorated with golden crescent moons and rabbits. She looked to be her mid-twenties and her hair was done up in two buns with trailing pony-tails, one on each side of her head. Smiling at something in her dream, she mumbled something about tuxedos.
The woman Linna was following laughed faintly. Courtiers flitted about everywhere, but no one seemed to want to wake up the sleeping queen.
The woman spoke. "Serenity, we have a visitor."
The woman started awake. "Just five more...oh, hello, Pluto." She turned and looked right at Linna, who started. "Nice to meet you."
I...what, she can see me! Linna thought.
Pluto laughed. "Of course she can. You actually thought you could get away with this? You have much to learn, young one."
Linna started. "You...You've been watching me this entire time?"
"I have been expecting you. If you could have surprised me, you might have gotten away with it. I have not been surprised in a very long time." Pluto smiled. "And you will be staying until I let you go."
Linna frowned. Oh great. A hostage.
"Not a hostage."
Linna started. "You...you read minds?"
"You're inside my mind and here I am the master. You can keep no secrets from me. I have things to show you. You wanted to understand me? Here's your chance and the message you can bear to your friend."
Serenity smiled. "Welcome to the future. I am Queen Serenity, one of the two rulers of the Solar Kingdom. And you are?"
"Linna Yamazaki."
Serenity smiled. "I thought I recognized you. One of the Knight Sabres, right?"
"You...know me?"
"I am...related to some people you know." She smiled. "Like my sister, Priss Asagiri."
Linna paused. Priss' sister is the ruler of...whatever this place is? "Uh...what year is this?"
"By your reckoning, it would be 3053 AD, I think. Math was never my strong point, and we're still trying to be sure we've computed how long the Age of Ice lasted correctly. We are in roughly the same location as the GENOM Tower in your time. This is the city of Crystal Tokyo."
Pluto bowed to Serenity. "I have business to attend to."
"I know. See you later." Serenity turned back to her guest. "You have quite an interesting future ahead of you."
Linna tried to assimilate it all. "I'm in the future?"
Serenity nodded. "This is what your world will one day become when our plans come to fruition. I'm not sure why Pluto brought you here, but then it's often hard to tell why Pluto does things. Other than everything she does is intended to bring this time to pass, for the good of all." She sighed. "Unfortunately, she's never learned to be very diplomatic about it."
Linna nodded, remembering what Priss had told her. "She tried to tell Priss to stay away from Leon. So of course, Priss ran straight to Leon."
Serenity smiled faintly. "Indeed. They have several children now."
Linna's jaw almost dropped. "They...wait, they're still around?"
"She and Leon have been around for a very, very long time."
"I...am..."
"Are you still around?"
Linna nodded mutely.
"Do you really want to know? I can tell you from personal experience that knowing your own fate is often not a very pleasant thing. What if I told you that tomorrow you would wake up and be eaten by a mad dog?"
Linna paled. "I'm going to die tomorrow?"
Serenity blinked. "That was an example. You're not going to be eaten by a mad dog. But what if I told you something like that?"
Linna said, "I'd be pretty unhappy."
"Exactly. Those who can see the future are often made miserable by it. Like poor Pluto. Imagine if every time you looked at someone, you knew exactly how they would die."
Linna shivered.
"But enough grimness. It's about time for dinner, anyway. Come with me.
Linna followed her quietly into a grand dining hall, with several dozen tables. Everyone sat down, seemingly knowing their place instinctively. Everyone except Linna, that is. Queen Serenity guided her to a place right next to Serenity. The crowd seemed rather surprised and impressed. Linna whispered, "Who usually sits here?"
"My husband. He's in Africa right now."
Linna tried to remember her best manners. It didn't seem to be working. She felt rather underdressed, surrounded by lace and satin finery. The odd thing was that there didn't seem to be any servants...where was the food going to come from?
Serenity bowed her head and everyone fell silent for a few seconds. As she raised her head, dozens of plates of food appeared on the tables and everyone started serving themselves. Linna blinked, then started serving herself. "I...how did that happen?" she whispered to Serenity.
Serenity smiled. "Teleported from the kitchens."
Linna starting eating. The food was exquisite. On the other hand, the conversations around her were totally baffling. It was like walking into a play in the last five minutes. Serenity smiled reassuringly at her and chatted with her in a way that made Linna feel totally relaxed.
Finally, the meal was over and they headed out onto a balcony. Linna could see the entire city. "How did you become Queen?" She paused. "You're really Priss' sister?"
"I'm asleep in your time. I don't remember who she is...or who I am. I ask you to help us, Linna."
"I...me? What can I do?"
"You are a dreamwalker. You can help Priss find the Silver Crystal and to understand how to use it. You can help her to truly see her heritage and understand it."
"I...hardly know what I'm doing."
"Indeed. I think you've almost forgotten this is a dream."
Linna started. She had forgotten. "I...uh...yeah." She laughed nervously.
"Tsunami can help you. She is a powerful friend of our line. You can trust her. Perhaps more than you can trust me. Remember that in a person's dream, everything you hear is their opinion."
Linna nodded. "Hai. Tsunami taught me that."
"And this is Pluto's dream."
The world dissolved away into mist as Linna suddenly realized that Serenity had said that with Pluto's voice. That was all Pluto's dream...what she is working for. Is it any of it real? It was such a beautiful dream...Tsunami. I'll have to talk to her about this.
Linna awoke with much to think about.
May 15, 2021
Siberia is cold year round. May just means that you can plant crops, if you're desperate enough to live there. It also made the digging easier for the team of GENOM employees, who had been digging around an old meteor crater for a week now and wondering what the hell anyone expected to find.
Vladmir Offsky was the head of the dig, and only he knew what they were looking for, though he had no clue how his bosses had gotten the idea that such a thing was to be found here. He didn't care. Digging in Siberia was at least different from the usual round of reports and pointless yammering of consultants. Having grown up in Siberia, the weather didn't bother him much.
The site was silent in a noisy sort of way, with only the sound of machines and ocassional grunts by the labor operators breaking the silence. One of GENOM's new Labors, the H-5 Digging specialist was being tested here and the five giant crab like mechs were hard at work. Five men could do the work of dozens.
One of the mechs raised a giant's handful of dirt and rock, and within it was a huge metal cylinder covered with strange squiggly writing. Vladmir blinked. My God, they were right. There is something buried here. And I always through the Tunguska Incident was just a meteor...
A dark void of nothingness beyond measure or comprehension surrounded Linna. She stood upon a flat featureless plane that stretched out to the edge of forever. Three hooded and cloaked figures floated in the air nearby, watching her. She didn't know where she was or how she had gotten there, but she knew they had come to pass some sort of judgment. "Where am I?"
"In what sense?" asked the first figure, who spoke with the voice of a young girl. In her hands, she held a short pointed stick and a ball of tangled wool.
Linna wasn't sure how to answer that, so she repeated herself. "Where am I?"
"In a bed in Mega-Tokyo," said the second voice, that of a mature woman. She held a pair of crochet hooks. "I assume you remember your apartment number?"
Linna blinked. "This doesn't look like my...oh, I'm dreaming this."
"You forget too easily, girl. It may be your doom if you are not careful." The third voice was that of an old woman. She held a pair of scissors.
"Or the doom of another. It depends on which proves the greater fool." the young girl said.
Linna had a vague feeling she should recognize these people, but she couldn't. Well, if this is a dream, she thought, I might as well get comfortable. She concentrated and a huge plush armchair appeared. She plopped down in it. "I don't suppose you could tell me what you are talking about?"
"Actually, you were supposed to sleep through this," the oldest voice said.
"I am sleeping," Linna replied.
The middle aged woman laughed. "She's got you there."
"Oh shut up." The old woman pouted.
"I told you it is not so easy to enter the mind of a dreamwalker unobserved. Well, to tell you is just as good as what we intended. We are the Fates."
Linna blinked. "Uh, does this mean I'm dead?"
"You will probably wish we had told you yes in the days to come," the oldest said. Her voice sounded strange.
"..."
The middle one spoke now. "Remember us, Linna, dancer and warrior. We shall come when you call us, but choose the time wisely." Her voice too sounded strange.
Linna stared. Please let this just be a funky dream, she thought.
"For we are the judges of the living and the dead. Even the Gods cannot escape the power of fate." The third voice had shifted as well, growing deeper. She sounded more male than female now.
The oldest one spoke with a voice now definitely male. "Remember, Linna Yamazaki, for your time to stand before our tribunal is soon."
The middle man spoke, "Prepare your case."
The youngest spoke, "This audience is ended."
They faded away. Linna shook. Do they mean I'm going to die? Was this a threat? I don't understand. I don't want to understand.
Priss sat alone in her trailer, not because she had to, but because she chose to. She had been at Leon's again the previous night, but now she wanted to be alone for a little while. It was a very different kind of alone now, though. She looked around her disaster area of a home and heard a tiny voice in her head that she hadn't heard for a very long time, 'Prissie, clean up your room!"
She laughed. Mom was so obsessed with having a clean house. Maybe because Grandma was such a total slob. She got out her well-concealed photo album. I haven't looked in this for a long time. The first picture in the album was of her and her parents in a fishing boat. She was five and holding up the first fish she had ever caught herself, while her parents struck hokey triumphant poses around her. She had short hair like her father in the picture, while her mother bore a strong resemblence to her current self.
I wonder if you'd be proud of me, Mom. Why didn't you ever tell me I was adopted? And why do I look so much like you if I was? I know...I know my true past now, but...Priss felt herself beginning to cry and swore softly. I guess it doesn't matter. I love you so much. I miss you both terribly. I wish I could have said goodbye. I wish you'd never gone into town. I wish...
Priss sighed. If wishes were bikes, we'd all be bikers, she thought. If only I could travel through time for real and not just in a dream. Or even see them in a dream. She paged through the album, traveling down memory lane. An image of herself playing softball. A picture of her dad trying to cook fish, shrouded in smoke. A picture of her posing with her mom on her mom's motorcycle. A picture of her with the boy she had a crush on in the fifth grade. They were both wearing their little league uniforms. With a start, she suddenly realized she couldn't remember his name. Slowly, she removed the picture from the album and turned it over. 'Priscilla and Yamato Youta pose after another triumphant game.' Priss let her memories carry her away for a few minutes, remembering the game as it all came back to her. She had hit a homerun, sending her, Youta, and Anna around the bases, winning the game 9-7. How could I ever have forgotten this, she wondered.
Because you tried to forget everything, that's why, she answered herself. The new you found the old you to be a horrible embarrassment, fishing, laughing, playing baseball, chasing that silly little boy, singing along to really cheesy pop music records. You tried to pretend it never happened so it couldn't hurt you anymore. The dams she had so carefully built over the years cracked and shattered, and everything she had tried to bury rose from its grave to haunt her mind. All she could do was cry.
She didn't know how long she cried for, but it felt like forever. There was a knock on the door. She shouted, "Go away and die!"
The voice was muffled and female. "Priscilla. Are you okay? Celia's been trying to call you for an hour, but you haven't been answering." Priss recognized the voice, but she couldn't actually put a name to it.
She staggered over and opened the door, her face a tear-stained mess. Meylia was standing there, dressed in a outfit that looked borrowed from Celia, a nice business suit for women. "Priscilla! What's wrong? You look awful." Her face was wrought with compassion.
It was more than Priss could stand. She wanted to slam the door and go cry some more, but she couldn't muster the energy to do it. She just stood there and cried, babbling incoherently. Meylia stepped forward and hugged her, letting Priss cry onto her shoulder. They stood there for a long time, and finally Priss pulled herself together enough to say, "Why can't I ever be happy?"
"Of course you can be happy. You looked very happy yesterday." Meylia's voice was soothing. She hadn't been a mother for nothing.
"But it never lasts. Something horrible always happens and everyone dies and I have to go on without them." Priss mustered the strength to pull Meylia inside and close the door so at least the whole world wouldn't be watching.
"It happens to everyone, dear. I had to watch my mother slowly waste away and die. I had to watch my father ignore me, ignore everyone after she died. I finally ran away from home because I couldn't stand it anymore. I went through a lot of hell after that, trying to survive on my own." They sat down on Priss' bed, since everything else had junk piled on it.
"I thought it was over. I found someone I loved and I started over. We had many good years, but then one day I got hit in the head and when I woke up, my husband was dead. My son was dead. My grandchildren were missing.I had no home, no money, no family. Nothing. All I had was the clothing on my back and powers I didn't understand. My son's own creations were trying to kill me." Meylia's voice took on a harder edge. "I was lost and confused, and when I started to understand a little more of what was going on, I was angry. Very angry. I had days where I wanted to just fly into GENOM Tower, kill everyone in sight and work my way up through the building until I was wallowing in blood."
Priss nodded. "After they killed my boyfriend, I wanted to get even. I was going to try and do something like that, but Celia found me and convinced me to get even another way. It was like...she...I can hardly believe she managed to convince me. I think I just needed someone else to care. I was so totally alone and I'd lost the only person who gave a damn about me."
Meylia nodded. She saw the album lying open nearby and suddenly understood. "You've been thinking about your childhood, haven't you."
Priss nodded. "I was so happy. I...I think about how I was and I can't even see how that could be the same person as me. After my parents died, I closed myself off. I've gotten so hard, so violent, so angry. As long as how I didn't think about how I used to be, it didn't bug me. I liked how I was. But now...I feel like I've betrayed them. Like I threw away their memory and everything they tried to teach me. I don't know who I am. Especially with this Moon Kingdom business."
"Moon Kingdom business?"
Priss explained everything as best she could, though it was bit incoherent at times. She felt a lot better, though rather drained, by the time she finished. "So I'm trying to figure out who I really am and what it all really means. I don't feel like a princess, but I am. I want to honor my parents and what they wanted me to be, but I'm not like that anymore. And then there's Leon...I'm afraid Pluto's going to be right, but I'm sick of making myself miserable to avoid misery. I can't do that anymore."
"Follow your heart, dear. Do you love Leon?"
Priss' voice was very quiet, almost a whisper. "Yes."
"Then it doesn't matter what Pluto says. If you stay away from him, he could die anyway. Making yourself miserable to avoid getting hurt doesn't accomplish anything. We get hurt no matter what we do. You can't avoid pain. All you can do is find the joys that make life worth living despite the pain. Otherwise, you might as well be dead, because that's the only real escape from pain."
"I never had the strength to do that, no matter how hard I tried sometimes. Like when I had to...to kill Sylvie. I wanted to die after that. It was my old boyfriend all over again." Priss shuddered and tried to fight off the memory.
"Did getting even for that satisfy you?"
"No. It couldn't bring back Sylvie. Until...When I saw her again...I owe Wasyuu big. It's like...My deepest shame wiped away. I had to kill her to save the city...she begged me to kill her, but I always felt like I should have been able to save her. There had to be some way we could have kept her alive. And now she's back. Everything's going so right, but that's always when something horrible happens in my life. Every time I'm happy, boom." Priss got up and started pacing around. "I hate thinking, because I always end up making myself miserable."
"I know this is useless advice, but don't bother yourself like that. There's no point in fretting just to fret. Maybe we should go do something to get your mind off this."
Priss thought for a moment. "We could go hunt for that thing Nene fought last night. Whatever it is, it's going around hurting innocent people and I can't stand that."
Meylia got up. "Time for the Queen and Knight of Swords to ride forth to battle, eh?"
Priss laughed. "Knight of Swords. I like that. Let's go kick some butt. That's what I do best."
The hunt was on.
Quincy sat and listened to the report. "In conclusion, whatever it was, it wasn't one of ours. However, our agents in US Robots and Mechanical Men have reported that its capabilities seem similar to those of their RX-34 model, though clearly it isn't using one of their brains, unless its sensors are so damaged it can't tell it's dealing with human beings."
The agent was Eve, one of Quincy's best intelligence coordinators. She was lithe, with short brown hair and a penchant for archaic garb. Despite her quirks, she was brilliant, and only part of it was due to her augmented brain. "My current operating theory is that the same person is behind it who is behind the other major free agents operating in Mega-Tokyo: the Knight Sabres, the Queen of Swords, and that anti-grav using boomer."
Quincy raised an eyebrow. "Anti-grav using boomer?"
"We've had reports of a woman with spiky hair, either blue, green, or somewhere in between. The reports vary. She possesses some sort of particle beam generator, an energy sword, and some sort of anti-grav flight capabilities. Some of the informants claimed she could pass through walls, but I find that implausible. I suppose it could be done with fusion technology, but not at the kind of speeds they claim. Given that the Queen of Swords demonstrates many of the same abilities, there has to be a link. Either a common origin or they're both getting armed by the same person or organization. The Knight Sabers are the only organization in Tokyo who might possess such technology that we haven't ferreted out yet. I'm surprised we haven't penetrated their organization by now."
"The Sabers did not make the Queen of Swords or this other person. If they were capable of such technology, they would be using it themselves," Quincy said. "I think gaining this anti-grav technology should be a priority. Have boomers ready to scramble should either of these people be spotted. So far our researchers haven't been able to accomplish more than building those stupid gravity cannon, which don't work any better than a good laser, but use more energy, which was not the idea."
"What about the Sabers?"
"What about them?"
Eve fell silent at that.
Quincy turned to Katherine Madigan, who wondered once again why Quincy did nothing about the Knight Sabers. It would be so easy, she thought. Yet, Quincy does nothing. Maybe they secretly work for him. They certainly seem to have taken a part in ending the Hou Bang's efforts to kill him. They stopped Largo when they could have let him destroy GENOM forever. And yet...they killed Mason and have wrecked several of our operations. Maybe that was just Quincy's way of getting rid of Mason...letting him stick his neck out and get it cut off in a way that no one could trace back to him.
Quincy interrupted her thoughts. "How was the meeting with Mr. Shinohara?"
"He taunted and defied me. It was a complete waste of time. I suppose he's so petulant because GENOM was founded by an ex-employee of Shinohara Industries. They could have been us if things had been different. As it is, they can't compete effectively with us in anything except their Military Labor manufactures, which seem to have remarkably high sale rates in the less developed nations."
"That's because with all the refining they've done over the years, an Ingram, a Watson, or a Yama sells for about a quarter the cost of a boomer. In addition, they've upgraded the armnaments of their mechs to include giant hand-gun shaped railguns, which lets people indulge their macho instincts. Many people find a certain thrill in being able to carry a handgun that packs the power of a tank cannon. There's also a substantial collector's market for fools with money to burn. And Shinohara dominates the market for them absolutely." Quincy didn't sound like he was talking about a rival, but almost as if he was discussing an old friend for whom he felt a certain admiration.
"Why haven't we been able to undercut them?"
"Shinohara Industries inspires a great deal of loyalty in its customers. Also, the company is run by the husband of the most famous Police labor pilot in the world." Quincy's voice faltered oddly. "How many companies can say one of its products, driven by the CEO's wife, prevented an assassination attempt on the Prime Minister of one of the greatest nations of the planet?"
"So do you think this report about the disappearing labors warrants further investigation?"
"Yes. Shinohara Industries doesn't lose labors, no one ever steals them successfully, and they don't do covert illegal sales. If those labors truly went missing, then something funny is going on. Six new-model Ingrams with Abotex armor and a vast amount of ammunition are out there, and they may be a dagger aimed at us."
"Surely we can handle six Ingrams."
Quincy frowned. "Our agents in the USSD recently reported that every single USSD military satellite was plucked from the sky and dumped in their parking lot. With the weaponry gone. Someone has over 200 laser weapons capable of devastating a ten-kilometer radius when deployed from a sufficient distance, such as from the top of Mount Fuji to downtown Tokyo. These weapon systems are also within the lifting capabilities of say, a new-model Ingram."
"..." Kate Madigan stared at Quincy. "Largo all over again."
"There is no way that Shinohara Industries could be behind this. They don't have the resources to somehow steal all the laser satellites, but they would make a wonderful scapegoat for whoever is behind it."
"But who is behind this? None of GENOM's enemies have the capabilities to steal all those laser satellites. Not without someone spotting them." Eve said. "SDPC possesses the only space fleet even vaguely capable of pulling off such a feat without getting stopped, but they would have been spotted. Plus, they wouldn't do that."
"You'd almost think aliens were responsible," Kate said. She thought for a moment. "Perhaps someone has somehow duplicated the OMS and used it to..."
"The OMS is not connected to this. Aliens on the other hand..."
Kate blinked. "I was joking, sir."
"I am not." He turned to the nearby computer bank and called up a report. "Read this."
Kate could hardly believe it. Eve was less surprised, but there were a few surprises for her as well.
Noa drilled her students. Bit by bit, they were getting better. It was about time. She glanced over and saw Takeo lecturing the forwards on their duties again. They were starting to do work as teams now, with forwards paired to each Ingram. Unfortunately, the forwards weren't paying enough attention a lot of the time and it wasn't working so well.
Giving her students over to Takeo, she got out of her Ingram and went to talk to Hiromi. "When are we going to go pick up the targets for live ammunition practice?"
"You want to do that right now?" Hiromi was relaxing and watching. The other labor carrier drivers were all professional truckers, so he didn't have to train anyone. In fact, he had started a vegetable garden and spent most of his time at the training grounds tending it.
"Sure."
They got into the eighteen wheeler that had been used to smuggle the Ingrams to the site one by one and headed out for the highway. "You're so lively, Noa. It just amazes me."
Noa laughed. "I never should have retired. I feel like I'm as young as those kids. I love my restaurant, but it's not the same."
He nodded. "That's why Ohta stayed in the ADPolice after the merger."
"We ought to go visit him!"
"Sounds good to me."
Leon and Daley pulled up outside the apartment building. "I hope she's home. We drove a long way to get here and if this is all for nothing..." Daley said.
Leon smiled. "Don't worry about it. I've got a good feeling about this." They headed upstairs and knocked on the door.
Rachel Yamazaki answered the door, dressed in a workout outfit. "Hello?" A workout tape was playing on her TV.
"Hello, Ms. Yamazaki. I'm officer Leon McNichols from the ADPolice and this is my partner Daley Wong. Can you spare a few minutes to talk to us?"
"Uh, sure. Come on in." She ushered them into the living room. They could hear shower noises coming from the bathroom. The apartment was a tiny one-bedroom apartment with a combined living room and kitchen, plus two closets and a small bathroom. Rachel gestured to the couch and the two officers sat down. "What is this about?"
"We stumbled across this by accident while investigating another case, but we believe you might be a potential target for a cyberpsycho we're trying to track down." Leon said.
Daley sighed. "I'd like to stress potential target. We aren't sure we've nailed down this nutcase's pattern, but you match one potential pattern due to your physical appearance. You bear a strong resemblence to the urban legendary figure 'Sailor Mars'."
"If she's an urban legend, how can anyone know what she looks like?"
"Unlike Vampires, it appears that they could be photographed, and someone a few years ago got enough footage to try to make boomer duplicates of them. You and several other people match the Mars template." Daley watched Rachel to see how she reacted. She was clearly nervous, but that could be for a variety of reasons.
Leon looked around the apartment. There were three paintings, very nicely done on the walls, all originals. One depicted a swan rising from a lake, one depicted a starry sky over the mountains, and one showed an angry cow charging towards the observer. There were also two photos on an end table. One showed a woman with long blonde hair holding up a trophy, the other showed Rachel posing in front of a fitness club, 'The Fitness Bee'. There were several other people in the background. To his surprise, Leon recognized Linna as one of them. "You work at the Fitness Bee?"
Rachel blinked. "I guess you did your research. Yeah. I've been working there about a year or so."
"Do you know a Linna Yamazaki?"
Rachel laughed. "Funky coincidence, eh? No relation at all as far as we can tell." She looked at Leon. "You're not her new boyfriend, are you?"
Daley smirked. "Priss'll kill you if she hears about this."
"And if she hears about it, I'll know who told her. Anyway, have you seen anyone unusual in your neighborhood? We think the psycho resembles a female wrestler with multi-colored hair and possibly some tattoos."
"I haven't seen anyone who fits that description."
The bathroom door opened and the blond from the picture walked out. She looked vaguely familiar to Leon, especially in the flesh, though he couldn't place the face. She was also buck naked from the waist up, though she had a towel wrapped around her waist. "Rachel, I can't find the ... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!" She let out an ear-piercing shriek that almost knocked Daley out of his chair. She fled back into the bathroom.
Rachel got up. "Ursula, you bonehead! Couldn't you hear us talking out here?"
"I thought it must be the TV. Why'd you invite guys over while I'm taking a shower?"
"Because they're police officers!"
Another howl cut through the room. "I'm really sorry about the parking tickets! I'll send a check as soon as my next set of paintings sell! Please don't arrest me!" They could hear her almost crying on the other side of the door.
"We're not here about any parking tickets you might have. We don't do that sort of thing in the ADPolice, anyway."
"I swear I'm not a rampaging boomer! I haven't killed anyone! I'm not starting riots, I..."
Things only degenerated from there.
Professor Hiyama waited quietly at the airport. She was waiting for two people. The first one was her husband, who had finally gotten out of all that nasty trouble in Afghanistan. He stepped into the lobby, as handsome to her as the day they had first met, though his once blond hair was now a tousled grey and he sported a beard like his fathers', though she no longer mentioned it since he always shaved it off whenever she actually pointed this out.
She ran forward and hugged him tightly. "Welcome home, dear."
He smiled. "Hello, Hikaru-chan. Trying to break my bones, are you?"
"Not as hard as you keep trying. So what went wrong this time?"
"You remember Franklin, right?"
She thought for a moment. "Which Franklin? Jessie's son or..."
"Yeah. That one. Well, he was at the conference, but these Thugee were after him and they hijacked our plane on the way home, then..."
Hikaru listened to her husband rattle on about his latest adventure. Whatever else life was in her household, it was never boring.
"So what do you think, Daley?" Leon asked as they drove to their appointment to see the Bishop.
"I think I've seen that Ursula somewhere before."
"Well, she did win that art award. Maybe you saw her on the news."
"Maybe." Leon zoomed around a corner far too quickly. "But I don't think so. Something was different the other time...It'll come to me."
"I think she is the escaped sexaroid. We looked at pictures of the other ones. Ursula might be another escapee. You and Nene did a real job getting all that data."
"Now we just have to figure out how to talk to the Bishop about this without offending her." Leon said.
"Just don't blurt out, 'You look like an escaped sexaroid that a cyberpsycho might be after', and we'll be fine."
"And don't mention parking tickets." They both laughed.
Priss and Meylia had been cruising around the town on Priss' cycle for hours. "You know, we really need a better plan."
"Well, unless we had an orbital satellite to watch the entire city at once from or search for the person, we..."
Priss laughed. "Let's go pay Sasami a visit."
Ryouko sat on the roof of Ryu's dorm, looking out at the university. This brings back memories, she thought. I spent some of the happiest years of my life here. She could see the whole university from atop the massive, ugly dormitory. It looked like a brick with windows. Most of the campus was beautiful, the result of massive rebuilding after the Kanto Quake. Somehow, Ryu's dorm had survived the quake intact and ugly as ever. Tenchi had lived here for four years when he went to Tokyo U. Next door was Miyaki Hall, which had been rebuilt after the quake, and renamed after the millionaire wife of a billionaire industrialist. It still looked largely the same. In fact, she could see her and Aeka's old room. We must have destroyed the interior of our room 2000 times, she thought. At least once a week. I wonder if the people living there now have any idea that beings from another planet lived in the same room as them.
I'll go peek, she thought. I have to see what it looks like. She flew over. No one noticed since they didn't expect there to be flying people on campus. Phasing her head through the wall, she spotted Aeka talking to some college student. Better move before Aeka spots me. She flew around to the window at the end of the hallway and clambered in, then walked down the hallway and knocked.
The college student, a young girl with wild light brown hair and odd blue tattoos on her forehead answered the door. "Hi! I take it you're looking for your old roomate?"
Ryouko blinked. "I...uh, how did you guess?"
"She said you'd be here in just a minute." The girl let Ryouko into the room. Aeka was sitting in a chair, dressed in one of her usual formal kimonos, laughing faintly.
"I see we both had the same idea," Aeka said.
"Yeah." Ryouko looked around. The posters were different, the carpet had changed, but the room was largely the same. In fact, the same corner of the carpet was slightly turned up.
The girl noticed her glance. "So you're the one who carved 'R and T' in a heart in the floor under the carpet over there?"
Ryouko blushed. "Yeah."
Aeka said, "Ahh, defacing school property as usual."
The girl looked over at the far corner from that one. "I don't suppose you're the one who carved 'A and T' in a heart over there in the other corner, Mrs. Masaki?"
Ryouko cackled. "The pot has been caught by the kettle, eh, Aeka-hime-chan?"
"I suppose living with you for four years was a corrupting influence, eh, Ryouko-hime-chan?"
Ryouko fumed. "Don't call me Princess!"
"Would you prefer your full title?"
"Oh wow, you two are nobility?" The girl looked excited. "Oh, Mrs. Ryouko, my name is Keiko. Morisato Keiko."
Ryouko said, "I'm Hakubi-Masaki Ryouko. Nice to meet you." She looked at Aeka. "Didn't we know someone named that?"
"Yeah. The boy who went to Nekomi Tech. He was dating that exchange student, who was really a..."
"Oh wow, you knew my parents too?"
"I think so, but I'd expect all their children to be older than you are." Aeka said. "You're not over 20, are you?"
"Well, I'm the youngest of eight."
Ryouko visibly boggled. "Wow. I think I'd go mad. One keeps me busy enough. Sort of two if you count Manami."
"She's mine, thank you. I remember the labor very clearly."
"How about if I take her and you can have my mother? Three moms are more fun than two." Ryouko said.
"If my father ever marries your mother, I'm going to hide in another galaxy."
"I'll join you."
"All right, Maggots! Let's see some serious shooting this time." Ohta marched up and down the line of ADPolice desk personnel who Lt. Yamano had dragooned into more gun practice. They were getting used to it by now, actually. Ohta would never admit it, but some of them were even starting to get pretty good. Too much praise would only make you weak, Ohta knew. The only way to make compliments mean anything was to be as sparing as possible.
They opened fire. Ohta marched back and forth. Ohta was semi-retired, but he had been happy to come out on Yamano's request and give the desk staff a refresher course in shooting. Ohta remembered the Yoshida incident from last winter and he didn't want anything like that happening again. This time, they'd be ready. If only I'd still had my Ingram, he thought. I could have solved the whole situation myself. I can't believe they sold them all. Still, those new battlesuits are pretty good. They can't hold a candle to our old Labors, though. Damn bureaucrats.
He paused by one of the better shooters, a young redhead named Nene Romanova. He wasn't certain what her normal duties were, though he had the impression she worked in communications. Whatever they were, she was in better shape than a lot of the desk jockeys and her shooting was better too. She was up to 320 of a possible 500 points. "Not bad, Romanova."
"Well, the last person I shot didn't even notice the bullets, but I keep trying."
"You've seen actual combat?"
Nene stopped shooting because her laughter was throwing off her aim too much. "Among other things, I tried to go out to eat last night and a cyberpsycho wrecked the place. Then the roof collapsed. I shot the woman three times, but the bullets just bounced off, basically."
"Subdermal armor, no doubt. I hate that stuff. Someone looks perfectly normal, you fill them with lead, they just laugh."
Nene decided not to ask how many times this had happened to Ohta, who proceeded to launch into a long anecdote about it anyway. Her sanity was only saved by Ohta suddenly falling silent because two huge hands had closed over his mouth.
The huge man behind him said, "Guess who." A middle-aged redhead with greying hair stood next to both of them, laughing.
Ohta said, "You're dead meat! That's what!" He spun around. "Yamazaki-san!" Nene recognized the big man now as Linna's uncle.
"Hi, Yamazaki-san!" That's not his wife, though, Nene thought.
The woman hugged Ohta, who blushed. "We heard the sound of gunfire in the street, so we thought you must have dropped by ADPolice headquarters, Ohta-san."
"Just teaching these desk jockeys how to shoot, Shinohara-san." Ohta said. "I don't suppose you've decided to come back and show them how to fight too?" There was a hint of eagerness in his voice. Back when Goto had been forced to resign as head of the ADPolice, almost everyone from the old SV2 who was left had resigned en masse in a show of support for him. Ohta had been the only one to stay. The police force was his life. Also, he couldn't legally carry a gun if he wasn't a cop. Still, it had been very hard for him, and his friends knew he was always still hoping they'd come back.
"What, you're getting too fragile to do it yourself?" Noa teased Ohta. Ohta was twenty years older than her, but he was made out of stone. You'll probably outlive me, she thought. Assuming you don't get yourself shot, anyway.
Nene looked at the woman again. Something familiar about that name...Ahah! "Are you Lt. Shinohara's mother?"
Noa nodded. "Shinohara Noa at your service. I served in SV2 from 1999 to 2026 and then in the ADPolice for a year."
Nene bowed. "I'm Romanova Nene, communications. Nice to meet you! So you're the one who saved the Prime Minister?"
Noa smiled. "Yes. Oh, and this is..."
"Yamazaki Hiromi, right? I know your niece, Linna."
Hiromi smiled. "Ah, so you're that Nene. It's nice to meet you."
"So where's your wife, Yamazaki-san?" Ohta asked.
"Browbeating the young into line."
Ohta laughed. "Romanova-san, go back to your shooting. Us old fogies are going to talk for a while. C'mon. Shige will want to see you guys since you dropped by."
Nene went back to her shooting, and they headed downstairs.
Priss and Meylia got a few stares as they roared through the upper class neighborhood. "Maybe I should go airborne and scout from above," Meylia said.
Priss nodded. "Good idea."
They pulled onto a side street and Meylia transformed, going airborne. Priss resumed searching the neighborhood where Sasami had spotted a possible subject. She roared past a cathedral which looked oddly out of place in the neighborhood, among other reasons because it looked to be decades older than the rest of the housing, which was simultaneously high class and pre-fab. They all looked hand made in exactly the same way.
There was a parking lot on the other side of it and she spotted Leon's car. She turned and roared into the parking lot and drove over to double check. Getting out a pen and a scrap of paper, she scribbled, 'Tag, you're it.' on the paper and tucked it into the windshield.
Her cellular rang. "Priss, I see someone heading for the small house behind that cathedral."
"Right." Priss parked her cycle and transformed.
Leon and Daley had been beating around the bush for a while, trying to ask questions without outright asking anything they didn't think would get a real answer. It wasn't going too well.
Bishop Hino was short and dignified, her face and bearing noble, her hair long and black. She was dressed in a nice business suit at the moment and could have easily been mistaken for an average corporate executive if she had looked less honest. Whenever she looked at Leon or Daley, they felt like she was penetrating into their very souls and ferreting out their innermost secrets. Her voice had a faint musical tinge to it, making it easy for them to believe she had recorded musical albums in her youth. The hard to believe part was that she was around sixty years old and looked twenty-five. She looked like an older, mature version of Rachel Yamazaki. She would still make a good idol singer, Leon thought.
"So why exactly did you come to see me?"
Leon decided to be blunt. "There's a nutcase running around attacking people who resemble your basic physical type and we're trying to both warn people and figure out what this person is up to, exactly."
There was a disturbance at the front door and the sound of smashing echoed through the building. Leon leapt to his feet. "Oh great."
Daley and Leon drew their guns. "If you know a good place to hide, you might want to use it." Leon said. "Daley, call for backup and cover the bishop. I'll check this out."
The bishop cocked her head and her eyes got big. "Demon."
Leon blinked. "What?"
Bishop Hino got up from her desk and picked up a long staff with a hooked end leaning against the wall. "There is more in heaven and earth than is dreamed of in your philosophy, officers."
The wall shattered and a huge crazed woman with multi-colored hair and a warped, monstrously muscular physique crashed through the wall. She charged towards the bishop. Leon and Daley opened fire on her, but the bullets were almost as much use as firing tiddlywinks at someone. They flattened against her skin and fell to the ground. "Nene was right," Leon said. "Must be subdermal armor."
Bishop Hino sighed. "No, it's a demon. I suggest you run while you still can." She raised the staff and leapt over her desk, moving towards the creature and began chanting something in Latin.
The creature backed up, keeping a wary eye on the staff.
"What, you run into demons often?" Leon asked, reloading for another round of fire.
"Not since I left the Sacred Office and became a Bishop." She took a swipe at the wrestler, who dodged backwards.
Daley took off to call for backup and to try to get better guns from the car. Unfortunately, the wrestler spotted him and went after him. Leon and Bishop Hino chased the wrestler through the rectory. Daley ran out through the front door, and the wrestler was about to follow when someone blocked her.
Priss stood in the doorway, sword in hand. "Give up now, punk." Protected as she was by the glamor of the house of Serenity, clad in her battle garb, Daley didn't recognize her. The bishop wouldn't have recognized her in any case. Leon paused briefly to remind himself not to call her Priss with anyone watching.
The wrestler wasn't willing to give up. "Uranus!" she bellowed and lunged at Priss, who stabbed her with the sword while the Bishop struck her on the back with her staff. Multi-colored light enveloped them and the wrestler transformed into a horrid black shadowy beast with a reddish gem floating in its heart. She lashed out and sent Priss flying out into the parking lot.
Daley ran to the car and got out some heavy rifles for himself and Leon from the trunk. Leon ran over to join him, while Priss and the Bishop faced off with the thing. Meylia dove down from the sky and boxed the thing in on a third side. "What is this thing, anyway?"
"It's a demon." Bishop Hino said.
Priss said. "It's toast! That's what it is." She charged it, slashing through it with her sword. However, the shadows simply reformed behind the swing. It lashed out, sending her flying again.
A few pokes from the bishop only got her tossed aside as well. The creature turned to Meylia. "Jupiter?"
"I always preferred Venus, myself." She fired a bolt at the gemstone, guessing it was important. It shattered to tiny bits, turning black and falling to the ground. The blackness dissolved away with a final incoherent cry.
Leon stared. "What the hell was that?"
The Bishop turned to him. "Are you deaf? That was a demon." She turned to Priss and Meylia. "I thank you for your assistance."
Leon suddenly recognized Meylia. "Hey, the Queen of Swords."
She turned and looked at Leon, smiling. "Hello, Officer McNichol."
"How did you know my name?"
Priss laughed. "Take a wild guess. Have fun writing this one up, officers. I feel the need for food."
Meylia laughed. "Are you all right, Ms. Bishop?"
"My last name is Hino, not Bishop," the Bishop said, smiling. "I'm fine."
Daley got some gloves and a bag and swept up the remains of the gem. "The lab boys are gonna think we're nuts."
"I'll happily make a statement for you, officers, if you think they won't believe you," Bishop Hino said.
"Thanks."
Ryouko and Aeka sat on one of the benches on the Quad and watched students bustle about. "Looks like some of them overslept," Ryouko said, pointing to two students running at full tilt with half-buttoned shirts.
"You would be the expert at that." Aeka observed.
"Hey, I wasn't late to all my classes!"
"True. Every time I dragged you out of bed or threw you out the window, you usually woke up in time."
"Hey, I wasn't that bad!"
"I seem to remember someone with spiky hair sleeping through her world history final."
"I thought it was the next day!" Aeka laughed. "I seem to remember someone trying to convince her biology professor that her spaceship ate her biology project. Perhaps carrot research was not the ideal choice, ne?"
"It was the only idea I could think of! I hate science projects. Anything really interesting would have been so far past this planet's capabilities that they wouldn't have understood anything I said. Also, even Mom hadn't done a serious carrot research project." Ryouko sighed. "But nooooo, Ryo-ohki decided to eat the whole thing. She even ate my notes just because they had pictures of carrots. She didn't get carrots for a month after that."
Aeka could hardly stop laughing. "I didn't do much better with that speech on whether or not Japan should invest in space exploration. When I started talking about the Khunds, the teacher must have thought I was insane."
Ryouko got up and struck a pose. "The fleets of the Khunds are within thirty light years of this system! In days they could strike and over run this world unless we are ready!" She mimed drawing on the chalkboard. "I think the teacher liked you, or maybe he just had a good sense of humor." The crowds were thinning as the next round of classes began. "Why did we ever leave here, Aeka?"
Aeka blinked. "Even you managed to graduate."
Ryouko turned back to Aeka. "That's not what I meant, and you know it. Why'd we ever leave this world? We had so much fun here."
"Because after the Alpha Cygni incident back in 2010, Father needed us. All my brothers and sisters except Sasami and Youshou died and Father almost died. We're the only family he has left and the most likely heirs to the throne."
Ryouko sat down again, staring up into the sky. "That doesn't explain why I went."
"Tenchi had to go, and you wouldn't let him go without you."
"He never asked to be part of all this. All he ever wanted was a normal life. We could have had so much fun..."
"What's eating you, Ryouko? This doesn't normally bother you this much."
Ryouko sighed. "I'd forgotten what it was like. For thousands of years, I lived day to day like this, not knowing where my next meal was coming from, not knowing who I'd meet next. Thousands of years of adventure and excitement."
"You were Peter Pan and the universe was Never-Never land."
"Yeah." Ryouko pretended she had some idea what Aeka was talking about. She had gotten good at this over the years. "I couldn't be a kid anymore. But I miss being a kid. It was fun. It was carefree. No one ever called me Princess. That's why I hate being called that. It's a reminder that my youth is dead and gone. This is all bringing back too many memories and taunting me with the knowledge it can't be like that again."
"Then why do you stay? Why not take off and be free?"
"Because I can't stand to leave the people I care about anymore. I seem to been infected with this damn sense of duty. I have the kids, my husband, and you to look after. It's my job to protect you four, and you all seem to need it a lot."
Aeka smiled faintly. "I'll be happy to rescue you next time." She paused. "Treasure your memories of freedom, Ryouko. You had thousands of years of it; I only had fifteen and I'll always treasure them. I learned a lot in a little time."
"What are you talking about? You sound like you had been held prisoner most of your life."
"I have been. You know how strict Juraiian etiquette can be. You get away with far more than I ever could, especially when I was young. I was a slave to my duties. Everything I did was for the greater good of the Juraiian Empire and very little of it was anything I really wanted. The thing I wanted most I never got." She fell silent. "That's one reason I was so desperate to find him. It was something for me, and I never got anything for me."
"Is it really that bad?" Ryouko asked, then remembered Aeka asking her the same thing. "I seem to have gotten some of your sense of duty over the years."
Aeka smiled. "I think I've gotten some of your wildness, your freedom, your passion over the years. I always envied you how you could say exactly what you felt, did what you wanted, indulged yourself. We were such total opposites when we met."
"I'm surprised that Sasami didn't walk off with Tenchi while we were fighting over him."
Aeka laughed. "I figured that out a few years ago and it helped me understand why Youshou never came back to me."
Ryouko blinked. "There's a connection?"
"Youshou was about as old compared to me as Tenchi was compared to Sasami. Well, actually Sasami was older than Tenchi, but you know what I mean."
Ryouko nodded.
"The first impression someone makes on you tends to stick in your mind. It can shape how you see that person. To me, Youshou was this tall handsome man who I loved, at first almost like a father, then as I grew older, as someone I wanted to marry. But to Youshou, I was always his little sister. The same for Tenchi and Sasami. I think he still sees the little girl when he looks at her. Tenchi was an only child. He always wanted a sister. That's what Sasami became, regardless of what she might have wanted."
"While you and Tenchi, being the 'same age', didn't get into that kind of relationship."
Aeka nodded. "That psychology class really did come in useful, even if the teacher didn't actually believe anything he was saying. I think Father would have freaked even more over Sasami marrying Tenchi than me marrying him."
Ryouko nodded. "You know, I still don't know what made him finally decide to let me marry Tenchi. I know he and Tenchi had a very long talk that night, but Tenchi claimed he still was refusing to allow it when they finished talking, even after Tenchi threatened to go back to Earth. Then the next day, no explanation, he reversed his position."
Aeka laughed. "Do you really want to know?"
"Of course I want to know! I don't ask rhetorical questions!"
Aeka's face got very flat and calm. "I promised him you'd sleep with him."
Ryouko got huge eyes. "You what?!?!?!?!?!?"
Aeka fell over, laughing. "You are so gullible, Ryouko! You actually believe I'd do something that insane?"
Ryouko fumed. "What happened to a Princess' word is her bond?"
"Even a Princess may yank someone's chain every once in a while. Seriously, what really happened was that I went to him and told him that if he didn't approve the wedding, I'd run away with Tenchi and never come back. And if he tried to marry me to someone else as a punishment, I'd kill whoever he picked. If he tried to find another wife for Tenchi, I'd kill her. You and I would be Tenchi's wives, or else." Her voice was quiet now. "I think he almost decided to take his chances, but I wouldn't back down, no matter how loudly he yelled and lectured me about my duty. I didn't care. I've always done everything his way, the empire's way. For once, I was going to do it my way, to follow my heart. No champions, no one to fight my battle for me. I had to do it myself. I fought and I won. I think it's the moment I'm most proud of in my entire life."
Ryouko thumped Aeka on the back. "Good for you, girl! I guess all those arguments we had made a good warm-up for this, eh?"
Aeka smiled. "I just asked myself what you would do in my situation, then left out the part where you blasted him."
Ryouko laughed heartily. "I think you should have left that part in." She sobered a little. "I never knew you did that. I wish I had known so I could have thanked you."
"I owe you more than I could ever repay, Ryouko. I'd be dead many times over and lost the man I love if not for you. Now, if you only wouldn't leave your clothing all over the floor..."
"What's the point of having servants if you don't have work for them to do?"
"We don't have servants in the hotel room!"
"Oh, that floor." Ryouko paused. "What do you think your father is going to think about Nene?"
"The forecaster predicts periodic explosions, followed by rantings about bloodlines and what the Senate will think. I plan to teach Nene as much Juraiian etiquette as possible so that she will be able to put on a good show. I think I can also use the case of Ryalin IV as a precedent."
"I think I'll teach Nene how to blow up your father." They both laughed. "I hope she'll be able to adapt. It's so completely different from her life here. She'll be giving up a lot if she sticks this out."
"Every choice you make forces you to give something up. We start with infinite possibilities and one by one, we narrow our choices by the decisions we make, carving out the story of our life, stroke by stroke, with everything we do. She'll gain a lot too, you know. A longer life and a universe to explore. Knowledge beyond her imagining. Jurai does have some good things ."
"Yeah. Life in the palace has its advantages, and I have to admit I love doing spy stuff."
"Just don't set up any more matchmaking sessions with Orandans for our kids, okay?"
"How was I supposed to know they were all giant snakes who use illusions? The one I met was really cool, and he looked like a Juraiian! I thought Ryu and Manami might meet someone they liked! Mom never emphasized interstellar geography when I was little."
"The worst part of it was that Mother knew you were messing up and she let you do it. She knew all along."
"She knew? And she let me embarrass myself like that?"
Aeka smiled. "She's a lot smarter than she acts. You know that. Besides, she thinks Orandans are cute. She nearly crushed the poor ambassador to death."
They reminisced for a very long time.
The Old Man ruled the ADPolice HQ repair facilities. He had been doing mechanical work for the police since the dawn of time as far as anyone knew. In 7 years, the ADPolice had gone through four chiefs, but the Old Man had outlasted them all. He'd been doing mechanical work for decades before that. He could identify any part to anything on sight. He could fix a broken K-11 battlesuit with a ball of twine and bubblegum and have it work better than before. You couldn't speak without him hearing you, he was everywhere at once, and he rode them all like a mad dog. They feared him, they respected him, and they loved him. The rest of the ADPolice never had the equipment they needed; the Old Man made sure the mechanics had the most up to date equipment available, even if the stuff they were fixing wasn't of the same quality.
The Old Man was unmarried. He was married to his job and his machines. Thus, the entire staff nearly fainted when a woman walked into the facilities and hugged him. Several staff members swore off alcohol on the spot. "Hiya, Shige-san." Noa said. "We thought we'd come down and visit you."
Shige laughed. "You sure you're not trying to get me to come do a house call on Alphonse?"
"He's just fine. Hiromi and I were driving around town and thought we'd drop by and see you and Ohta-san."
The crew continued to stare. A woman. Talking to their boss. They couldn't believe it. Shige looked around. "What are you people staring at? Go back to work!"
They dove back to work, but the whispering had started. Shige smiled faintly. "Come into my office."
They adjourned to his office. Shige pushed a button on his desk, then closed the door. "So the chief came to see you too?" Everyone sat down.
Noa blinked. "I...how did you know?"
"You look more alive than I've seen you in years. It's not that you were unhappy, but I know you. You're just not alive unless you're driving a labor. That's why I plan to work 'til I drop dead with a wrench in my hand. I know you only left to show your support for the chief. So, while it's possible you've just been showing off for someone in Alphonse..."
Ohta laughed. "You sure you're not Sherlock Holmes now? If the chief needed labor pilots, he would have called me in too, ya know."
Noa and Hiromi got a little uncomfortable. They had sort of assumed that Ohta knew. On second thought, Noa realized that Ohta would have been out there every day if he knew.
Ohta continued. "I know something is up, though. The chief and his wife and some friends of his came to see me the other day. It was supposedly a social call, but I'm not dumb. He told me he suspected there might be an attack on the ADPolice HQ again, though he wouldn't explain why. That's one reason I've been working so hard with those desk jockeys. That incident with Dr. Miriam showed we were vulnerable because the desk staff doesn't know how to fight. I tried to convince the higher ups we needed more and better mechs, but they wouldn't listen. I would have been happy to train the rest of the staff in using them." His voice was eager. They could tell that what he really wanted was another chance to go into action; that he would almost welcome such an attack.
"They wouldn't do it because they're not nuts, Ohta." The door opened and an unexpected voice dominated the room. "And the chief didn't tell you anything because he was waiting for your forward to arrive. Luckily for you, I had some vacation time coming and so did my husband."
Ohta spun in surprised. "Kanuka Clancy-san!"
Kanuka smiled. She was older now, with grey hair like the others, but she had kept in fine shape. "That's Assistant Commissioner Kanuka McClaine now. I've been married for twenty years; you ought to remember it since you came to the wedding, Ohta-san."
"McClaine is such a goofy sounding name." Ohta said. "Clancy was much better."
"You'd sing a different tune if you had to put up with all the jokes and questions about whether you were related to Tom Clancy." Kanuka smiled. "Don't everyone say hello at once."
Noa ran over and hugged Kanuka. "Where's your husband?"
Kanuka laughed. "Switching hotels. He's soooo paranoid about finding the right hotel. Not to mention wherever we go, we usually end up changing hotels every few days. Getting him onto a plane's really hard too. He won't go back to the Kennedy Space Center anymore, either."
Shige laughed. "I'm surprised you two even try to take vacations anymore."
"If I don't get out of New York periodically, I go mad."
"How could anyone tell?" Ohta asked.
Hiromi said quietly, "Don't taunt your forward, Ohta. You'll regret it."
"How is CLAT doing, Kanuka-san?" Shige asked.
"Better than you guys, but then US Robots and Mechanical Men doesn't make half as much trouble as GENOM and Gulf and Bradley is based in Houston, so the Texas Rangers get to play with their creations instead of us."
There was a lot of catching up to be done.
The chief stared at Leon and Daley. "All that's left of the killer is a shattered gemstone?"
"And some dust, sir." Daley said, pointing at the other envelope. "We have a sworn statement from the bishop."
"What am I supposed to tell the families of those dock workers?"
"The killer died fighting the police. Which is what happened."
"Plus the Queen and Knight of Swords. What's next, the King and the Page of Swords?"
"I suppose Quincy is the King of Coins and Kate Madigan the Queen," Daley said.
Leon laughed. "Linna must be the Queen of Cups, the way she drinks."
"Seriously, this city is starting to crawl with unexplained beings and events, like that weird outbreak a few weeks ago which we still haven't solved. People have been turning up dead in weird ways. The Queen of Swords, who must be a boomer, but why GENOM would make a super-boomer to kill its own boomers, I don't know. This new person, the Knight of Swords. I had two officers report they saw a woman with green spiky hair leaving the site of a boomer death by phasing through a wall. Good, honest officers who don't drink on duty or hallucinate. Rumors of something strange happening at USSD. Spies in the force who were admitted on the recommendation of city leaders. Rumors that one of the Sailor Warriors has crawled out of whatever hole they've been in all these years and is going around smiting evil. Someone from GENOM was here this morning inquiring as to what happened to the old Ingrams after they were phased out in the 2020s. I can smell a storm coming, gentlemen, and we make a mighty big lightning rod. I want answers and I want them now." Chief Todo was agitated, not with anger, but with concern.
Leon said, "What did happen to those Ingrams?"
"Sold to Thailand, I think. Provided a lot of the cost of this building, actually." Chief Todo said. "The funny thing is that GENOM could have found that out without bugging me. I wasn't even in Japan yet at that point in time. That was Saito's first action after he replaced Goto as Chief. Saito was practically on their payroll. Everyone thought GENOM was behind the move...yet, they had to come ask."
"In other words, someone too new to GENOM to know wanted to know for some reason."
"Why would anyone care?" Daley asked. "Do they even make those things anymore?"
"I know where there's one in this city. There's a restaurant run by an ex-SV2 officer. She has one."
"..." Daley was surprised. "A functional Ingram inside the city limits in the hands of a civilian?"
Leon nodded. "You've heard of Izumi Noa, right?"
"Oh...her."
The chief laughed faintly. "She's in the building visiting some old friends. Most of her old team resigned when Goto did, back in the late 2020s. There's still some of them here, though, like that lunatic Ohta that Yamano dredged up to teach our desk staff to shoot."
"What's the point of that anyway?"
"Having the ADPolice HQ taken over by boomers last Christmas didn't exactly help our reputation. It's almost certain to happen again eventually, especially with all this weird stuff going on. I'd rather we be ready." The chief sighed. "Anyway, you two go home. Consider this case closed, I guess. I'll let you know if I need you."
They both headed home.
Wasyuu finished the final adjustments. This should work, she thought. It had taken her all of ten hours to build this machine, but this time, it would work, she was sure. She and Ryu took cover behind the blast shield as extra-cosmic energies surged through the control chamber, warping the very fabric of space and time around a single flat silvery disc with a hole in the middle.
Finally, a bell pinged and Ryu popped his head up. "I think we're done, grandma."
She nodded. "Right. Let's test it out." Putting on radiation suits, they entered the chamber and extracted the disc, then inserted it into a small testing device. Soon the strains of 'Bob and his Chainsaw' erupted through the room, sending them both fleeing.
"You're right. You really can't record over those damn things." Wasyuu said. "What use is a storage media you can't change?"
"That's gonna make this a lot harder."
Ryu nodded. "Wait...could you make a duplicate that looked the same, but had different sounds stored on it?"
Wasyuu slapped herself. "I can't believe I didn't think of that. You sure she doesn't like Zylcanian Xsither music?"
"She once got so aggravated with it, she tried to toss the musician out the window."
"Right. Now I just have to find that recording I made once of Mihoshi singing at a karaoke bar."
"What ever possessed you to do that?"
"I realized it made a great burglar deterrent. They hear that and they run and never come back." Ryu couldn't argue with that.
Priss pulled the motorcycle to a halt, and she and Meylia got off it. This was Priss' favorite stretch of beach. She always went here when she wanted to think or to have a private conversation with someone. "Here we are."
Meylia stretched. The shadows were long on the ground; the air was cooler than in the city. Waves crashed gently against the shore. The beach was isolated and quiet despite the highway nearby. "So why do you think that thing was after her?"
"It thought she was Sailor Mars for some reason. If we knew where it came from, maybe we could guess." Priss parked her bike and walked over to the edge of the sand. "Some old monster looking for revenge, I guess. Maybe she trapped it for thirty years and it just now escaped."
A voice cut through the stillness. "It was a droid, created a thousand years in the future and brought back through time by the Weird Sisters close to forty years ago. It was revived by a fool tampering with powers he doesn't understand." It was Pluto. How she had snuck up on them, Priss had no idea.
Meylia blinked and turned to Priss. "A friend of yours?"
"No. Here to spout more enigmatic bullshit at me, Pluto?"
"The reason it was looking for the bishop is that the bishop is Sailor Mars. She is one of those you must awaken. Z draws ever closer to finding the crystal. You must not delay. You must find it before he does, or this city will perish and this world with it."
Meylia listened quietly, trying to figure out who this person was and what was going on.
"I don't know how to get to where it is!"
"Ask the master of subspace. She can open the door, and the dreamer can guide you to what you seek. Gather your court, princess, for you will need them." Pluto turned and began to walk away.
"Hey, are you gonna just leave?"
Pluto smiled. "I don't think you really want me to stay."
She passed behind a tree and vanished.
"Who was that?"
"I don't suppose you know who the master of subspace is?"
"I think Wasyuu calls herself that sometimes."
"Right. We have another trip to make."
Linna sat at the bar and sighed, drinking another beer. Damn dream, she thought. Were those really the fates? What the hell were they talking about? And where the hell is Priss? I need to tell her what I found out, but I can't find her anywhere. Heck, I can't find anyone except Celia, and she wouldn't know anything about this. So what am I doing? I'm sitting in a trashy bar drinking lousy American beer.
She shoved away the beer, paid her bill, got up, and stormed out. I feel like hopping a train to Hokkaido and hiding for a few weeks, she thought. I hate all this pressure. I'm surrounded by enigmatic all-powerful beings.
The streets flew by. She didn't know where she was going; she just went. It was the best she could do. No one paid any attention to her. The streets of Mega-Tokyo are a great place to be anonymous. However, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going, either.
Thus, when she rammed head on into someone, she didn't even realize what she had done for a few seconds. Packages flew everywhere, as did a sheaf of papers in a huge spray of white rain. Linna started picking things up. "I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
"That's okay. I wasn't in any hurry, anyway." The woman's voice was soft and pleasant. She had ash-blonde hair in an odd style, a little wavy with a spiky tuft in front. More unusual was the blue tattoo on her forehead and her turban-like headgear. "Are you okay? You look like something is bothering you."
Linna started. How could the woman tell? "Yeah. I just feel like my life is out of control." In a more sane moment, Linna would have asked herself why she was telling this to a woman she had never met before. This wasn't a more sane moment, however.
"Oh, by the way, my name is Belldandy. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, I'm Linna."
"Linna Yamazaki, the dancer and health instructor?" Belldandy smiled as she finished picking up her packages.
"I...you know me?"
"My eldest daughter goes to your gym."
Linna laughed. "It's not exactly my gym. I just work there. How did you know I used to be a dancer?"
"I can just look at you and tell. You move like a dancer. Thanks for helping me pick up my packages."
"You're welcome."
"Maybe I can treat you to a drink somewhere in thanks?"
"Sure." When Linna looked back on this, she would wonder how exactly she had forgotten that she herself had been responsible for the packages being knocked down in the first place.
Leon dropped Daley off at his apartment. Daley paused in the doorway of the car. "Be careful, Leon."
"Eh, what?"
"I think the chief is right. Something funny is up. Maybe we're going to have another night of chaos like the Millennial riots. Maybe worse. I've got a really bad feeling about all this."
"I'll be careful," Leon said, trying to soothe Daley's worries.
"I wish I could believe that. You're not any better at being cautious than your girlfriend is. I don't want to go to your funeral."
"What's eating you, man? You're not normally this morbid." Leon's usual grin wavered.
"That thing we fought. Whatever it was...I wish I'd never seen it. If it really was a demon, then there's more where that came from...What good are guns and police departments against supernatural monsters? If those things are real, why does everyone think they're imaginary? Is there a cover-up? And who's conducting it? The government? Or worse, the monsters? They might be..." he shook his head. "I really am not looking forward to going into my apartment. I feel like something's waiting for me." He shook his head. "I'm really being a goober, eh?"
"You want me to come up with you?"
"No. I'll be fine. I'm just being an idiot. I think I'm gonna go buy a crucifix and have the local temple bless my apartment though." Daley turned to go. "Or maybe go find out what else the bishop knows about demons."
"She did act like she'd encountered them before."
"Goodnight, Leon."
"Goodnight, Daley." Leon watched Daley until he disappeared into the building. I hope he's gonna be okay.
"So apparently they're going to judge me for something or something. I dunno. Maybe I'm going nuts." Linna finished telling Belldandy about her dream. She could hardly believe she had told her about it, but it was too late now.
Belldandy frowned. "The Fates rarely make house calls, and no one ever likes it when they do. Are you going to be in a dance contest of some kind sometime soon?"
"Not that I'm aware of. I haven't been in one in a few years."
"Do you have any enemies?"
"Living or dead?"
"Do you have any enemies who dance?"
"I've never seen any of my enemies dance. You think this has something to do with dancing?"
"They called you two things. Dancer and warrior. Warfare doesn't normally require judges, but a dance contest..."
"You think the fates will judge a dance contest between me and someone?"
"I can't imagine why the Fates would be interested, but it seems likely."
"I guess I need to practice."
Belldandy nodded. "Also, if you see a woman with something like this on her forehead," she said, drawing a v-shaped symbol on a napkin, "run as fast as you can and call me. I don't know if she has anything to do with this, but..." She scribbled a number on her napkin. "You can usually reach me here."
"Who would this woman be?"
"Her name is Marller. She's a demon."
A few weeks ago, Linna would have laughed her head off. She had now reached the point where she simply quietly accepted this as almost normal. "Does she dance?"
"She can't abide Disco music. You can drive her off with it. I pray you won't have to have a dance contest with her. She's very good."
Linna copied down the phone number and started thinking about where she could buy a disco CD.
March 28, 2028
Linna looked at the weapon rack again. It was full of weapons she had never seen used. An ornately carved sword with herons and ravens worked into a pattern on the hilt sat next to a fire-blackened bokken, three naginatas, two decorated maces, five daggers, a long spear with ravens carved onto the blade, and two well made four foot staves on the top of the rack. A long metal staff with a loop on the bottom and a broken off top stood in the back and a pair of hand claws, a length of chain with hooks on each end, three egg-shell grenades, a second, plain sword, and a .357 magnum sat on the bottom of the rack. Over the rack, a handmade composite bow and a quiver of arrows hung on the wall. The rack was enclosed in a glass case that looked like it hadn't been opened in a long time.
"Master, why do you keep these weapons if you never use them?"
"They are reminders of foes I have defeated, friends I have lost, and the past that is no more. The bow would be locked in there too, except that I use it for target shooting sometimes." Master Hiromi sighed and ran her fingers through her long grey hair. "I have not fought using a weapon for nearly thirty years now."
Linna blinked. "Why not? Were you too dependent on them?"
"The person I once was reveled in weapons. She was a violent vengeful fool and spilled too much blood. Then one day, I faced myself and was horrified."
"I don't understand."
Hiromi sat down. "Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time in Tokyo, there was a young girl who loved a boy. The girl was a mighty martial artist, and she acknowledged no equal in her skills but him. All those who came near the boy tasted her wrath, and those who thwarted her were lucky to escape with minor injuries. She did not understand how she seemed to others, for she cared only for him and herself."
Linna sat down and listened.
"She was not alone in her love for the boy. She had to fight for his love. In the end, she won. Her skills grew, as did her pride. There was another girl, not a rival, but a friend of sorts, the kindest, gentlest woman that this girl had ever known. They had become friends despite the girl's bad temper and foolish pride, for the kind girl could see beyond her outward flaws and saw the good in the heroine of this story. There was a boy who believed he loved the kind girl, but she did not love him. He was persistent beyond measure, and the kind girl was too kind to get rid of him. So our heroine decided to apply her own solution: she beat the crap out of him."
Linna blinked. She was sure her master had to be talking about herself, but she couldn't believe Master Hiromi had ever beaten anyone who didn't deserve it.
"He was wroth, but no fool. It might have ended there, but there were powers at work in the city. The end of the millennium was coming, and things that should not be stalked the streets of the city. The boy dabbled in arts best left to professionals, seeking vengeance. He found something, or maybe it found him. "
Master Hiromi paused, the story clearly painful to remember. "Do you believe in monsters, Linna?"
"Hell no."
"Another aspect of your education I must remedy." She sighed. "He stalked her friends, one by one, leaving their severed heads for her to find. Others died as well, those the dark spirit's master wanted slain. Those who contract with dark powers for vengeance get what they asked for, but usually a lot more as well..." Her voice trailed off. She took a deep breath. "The girl and her love sought the killer. They found him. It was the fiercest battle of her life. Finally, they defeated him. The girl raised her sword to sever his head, but her friend intervened. She pleaded for his life, telling the girl that it was not his fault, that he was possessed. Somehow, her friend drove the spirit from his body with the power of the goodness that dwelt in her. She redeemed him and brought peace and life where the girl had only found death. Her friend had saved a man she did not even like, when almost anyone would have sought revenge. She was shamed beyond measure. All her might, her skill, could bring only destruction. For two weeks, she went nowhere and talked to no one but the man she loved."
Linna stared. Could this all be true? People don't get possessed, she thought. The man must have just snapped, but...
"Then the millennial riots began. In her despair, the woman had forgotten one thing. The spirit had been driven out, not slain. You were not alive then, but I will never forget it. Rampaging labors crashed through her neighborhood. They tried to claim after the Millennial Riots that a virus was responsible. The girl knew better. She awakened just as her love's head was crushed by a labor. She could feel the presence of the spirit that had slain her friends. Now it had taken her love as well. It was more than any mind could bear."
Linna gasped. "That's...Oh god, I'm sorry." A mental image of a Labor squashing her boyfriend's head ran through Linna's mind. She winced.
"I do not know how long she wandered, her mind gone. Somehow she avoided death in the riots. Somehow, she avoided the fires. Somehow, she avoided starvation. Perhaps she was blessed by the gods. Days, weeks, maybe months later, her friend found her, and slowly began the process of healing her."
Master Hiromi took a deep breath. "She threw away her entire life to regain her sanity. She changed her name, her hair, her whole way of life. For a time, she clung to her friend like a lifeline, trying to be like her in all things, for she was sorely shamed of all she had been."
"Then why do you teach martial arts now?"
"I'm getting to that. Be patient."
Linna nodded.
"For a time, she was content, but slowly, she became dissatisfied. Much as she admired her friend, she could not be her friend. No one is so bad that they should throw away every aspect of their self. She had a dream, and realized what she was called to do. She had skills and wisdom that she had learned, skills and wisdom that must be passed on. She took up the Art once more, but differently. Where once she had struck with weapons to destroy, now she used her body to protect. She learned new arts and refined old ones. She dreamed of creating a new art and a band of followers who could seek out the monsters who had destroyed her life and prevent them from destroying more lives. She had walked Shiva's road and it destroyed her, she had tried to walk Brahma's path, but it was too hard for her, now she turned to Vishnu's way, and in it she found her peace. She had made only one mistake."
"What mistake was that?"
"No one believes in monsters anymore, nor could she find the one who had destroyed her life.In twenty eight years since then, she has seen neither hide nor hair of the beast that slew her friends, her love, and her old self. She has found few who would believe the tales she told, and fewer yet who could learn her skills."
"I'm trying as hard as I can!" Linna sighed. I just can't get the hang of half the stuff she tries to teach me.
"You're the best student I've ever had."
Linna gasped.
"If only I could have begun when you were younger. You would surpass me by now, I know. I will not likely find another as apt as you in the years to come."
Linna didn't know what to say.
"Indeed, in some ways, you surpass me already. I have not loved again since I lost my one and only love. I cannot walk Brahma's path anymore. It is beyond me. I cannot create, for my heart still aches and I do not know how to heal it. You have suffered a grave loss, and yet, you have learned to love and live again. I wish you could teach me how you did it." Her voice was soft and very faint. "All three ways are open to you, to walk as you must in the story of your life. I can teach you the roads of Vishnu and Shiva, and teach you I shall. Brahma's path, the road of creation, love, and life renewed, you must walk alone, for it is beyond my ken now."
Linna tried to understand, though her brain kept wanting to glaze over. "I wish I knew how to help you, master."
"Just remember, sometimes, living can be a far more horrible fate than death."
Linna headed home early, arriving just in time for the phone to ring. She rushed and picked it up. "Hello?"
"Hi! This is Robert. Mind if I come over?"
"Sure! I don't feel like being alone tonight."
She had a wonderful night.
Wasyuu, Sylvie, Anri, Meylia, and Priss sat on 'chairs' in Wasyuu's subspace laboratory. "So do you think you can help us, Wasyuu?"
"Sure! It'll be a challenge. So how are you going to actually find this thing once I get you into subspace?"
"Uhh..." Priss said.
"Linna's a dreamwalker," Sylvie said. "She can guide them. A lot depends on how well hidden it is."
"Mom, can we go with her to help her?" Anri asked.
"Sure. I'll set up a subspace beacon you two can home in on to get everyone back once you find it...Sylvie, can you go find my parts for that?"
Sylvie nodded, got up, and vanished in a spray of light.
Meylia said, "So, you, me, Linna, Sylvie, and Anri. That makes five. Should be enough, I hope."
A voice spoke from nearby. "It is a good number for a princess of the Moon Kingdom." It was Sasami. "The crystal will be well-guarded, though I'm not sure how."
"Can you come with us, Sasami?" Priss asked.
"I will be needed here. The curtain is about to rise on the final act of this story. Shiva will strike once he knows that either he has obtained the crystal or you have."
"I hope we can stop him," Anri said.
"We will never have a better chance. If you can find the crystal and free Saturn, then his fate will be sealed. If he gets to Saturn first...I hope you've made your funeral arrangements."
This was not something they really wanted to be reminded of .
"So do you think this can work?" Ryu asked Nene.
"I've never seen him on a date, so I don't know. I think he's too ecchi for your sister, but maybe he'll behave himself. With us along, he should stay in line." she replied. "So the plan is dinner and a movie, basically, right?"
Ryu nodded. "Assuming we can find one we all agree on. Manami tends to like these really awful artsy films. Especially if they have loud music."
"Oh, did Wasyuu-chan fix up those CDs for us?"
"You wanna hear it?"
"Will I be able to keep my sanity?"
"Define sanity."
"Let's just listen to one of my CDs, then."
Z floated in the void, his host body asleep, communing with his master. "I have found her, the dream walker whom you sent me to find."
ARE YOU SURE IT IS THE ONE?
"She walks even now, as we speak. Shall I slay her?"
NO. SHE WILL LEAD US TO WHAT WE SEEK. WATCH HER AND SEE WHERE SHE WANDERS.
"As you command."
Quincy listened to another agent report to him. Normally, Cain would have reported to Eve, but this was an investigation that Quincy was especially interested in.
"Well, I finally found those records. They did a good job of covering their tracks, but I think I have enough evidence to prove it." Cain was a tall man with short, neat black hair. He was holding a long pointer and pointing to various faces and names on a large monitor screen on the wall. "Here's a photo of Dr. Mizuno Ami in 2000 AD. Here's a picture of her in 2033 AD. There's no difference. Here's a photo of her husband, Urawa Ryo, in 2001 AD. Here's a picture of him now. He had better hair in the first picture, but still..." He clicked through more names and faces. "There's at least twelve of these people. We also have Saul's report on Mizuno's anagathics research. I think she's made a major breakthrough. Either that, or they're all time traveling boomers." He laughed. "Which isn't bloody likely."
Quincy cocked his head and turned to a nearby terminal. "Hold on a moment."
Soon, more images appeared on the screen, quite similar for the most part to the ones already present. "Would you say these pictures look like those?"
"Yes, sir. I take it someone else already discovered some of this?"
"I think we've just found some people I've been looking for for a while. Get them all as soon as you can."
"Yes, sir."
"Do you understand your instructions?" Kate Madigan asked the woman standing before her. The woman was tall, with long black hair with a greenish tint to it and reddish eyes. She wore a uniform familiar to the people of the city of Mega-Tokyo.
"Follow Shinohara Noa everywhere, and report back every three hours as to her movement. Without being seen. I'd rather you lose her than be spotted."
The woman nodded. "So why am I reporting to you instead of Adam and Eve?"
"Adam is likely permanently indisposed and Eve has other things on her mind. If she enters the university campus, notify me immediately. We've lost several agents there."
"I have no intention of dying any time soon."
"Neither did they. Now get on it."
The woman nodded and walked out.
Kate frowned. I'd much rather assign a human to this, but who can I trust? Those aliens could be anywhere, looking just like us...possessing people. She didn't want to believe in possession, but GENOM was on the verge of being able to successfully record over people's brains with new brain patterns, which was the next best thing. It didn't surprise her that aliens would already have such a capability. Even Eve could be one of them. Quincy could be...no, he wouldn't have told us if he was one of them. Unless...
She dismissed the thought. That way lies infinite regressive loops of paranoia, she thought.
The machine was huge, resembling a giant castle doorway, complete with gargoyle heads on the knockers, surrounded by wires and flashing lights and beeping widgets and what resembled giant electronic spaghetti strainers. It was, to say the least, weird looking.
"You sure this thing will work?" Priss said dubiously. It looked like a bad joke to her.
"I am the greatest genius in the universe! Only five people in all of creation could duplicate this device and it would take them decades!"
"Why were those boxes labeled subspace doorway kit, then, Mom?" Sylvie asked, smiling.
Wasyuu frowned. "Back me up here!"
"It'll work," Anri said. "I have faith in Mom."
"See! At least one of my children appreciates me." Wasyuu said.
"Right." Priss said, transforming, as did the others into battle garb, except for Linna, who didn't have a transformation sequence to call her own. Watching them all transform wasn't quite the best way to get her confidence up for this either.
Linna yawned. "Couldn't you have let me sleep a little later?"
"If I'd done that, the doorway would turn you into a kumquat," Wasyuu noted.
Linna said, "What?"
"Well, not really, but I wanted to see how you would react if I said that."
It took a while for them to pry Linna's hands off Wasyuu's throat even with four superhumanly strong people in the room.
The sun shone down brightly as Haruka raced down the track, passing his only real competitor, some old guy who kept showing up at these races and losing to him. He was pretty good, he thought, but I'm better. Still, for someone who must be at least twenty years older than anyone else here, he's pretty good. Haruka glanced up in the stands. Yep, the guy's wife was up there too. She was a cute young thing with a funky hairstyle and tattoos on her forehead. For a moment, Haruka lost himself in thought, trying to remember their names, but it kept running out of his mind like sand through a sieve every time he almost remembered it.
Haruka didn't even realize his competitor had passed him again while he was distracted until a cheer went up. He cursed to himself. I got so distracted trying to remember this guy's name that I slowed down and he beat me. She looked up in the stands and saw a quite attractive woman with long white hair that belied her age, which looked to be in her early twenties. She was laughing, and somehow, Haruka knew this was her fault. Haruka sighed and crossed the finish line. I hate coming in second, he thought. He could hear Michiru cheering for him, but it only hurt him to know he'd lost anyway.
He looked up in the sky and saw dark clouds slowly creeping west from the bay. Storm's coming, he thought.
Noa got up and headed out into the countryside, blissfully unaware she was being followed. The spy followed her, blissfully unaware that she too was being followed. She was about to deliver her first report when a voice whispered two words and a blast of energy reduced her to ashes.
The first report went in, but with somewhat different content than it should have possessed.
The group held hands in a ring with Linna concentrating. They could feel themselves moving, but in the roiling chaos of subspace, they could not see any landmarks to give them a real idea of how fast. Endless minutes turned into hours, or at least seemed to do so.
Finally, Priss' patience gave out. "Damnit, I'm sick of this fog. I'm sick of just standing here. I want to do something!"
Sometimes wishes come true. The fog boiled away, and the group stood in the streets of Mega-Tokyo, just outside GENOM tower. Dozens, maybe hundreds of boomers were erupting from the tower, rampaging through the streets of the city. Priss swore. "Shit. Something must have gone wrong. We have to stop those things!"
Meylia stared in horror as building after building exploded from boomer assaults. "Damn you!" She leapt into the air and zoomed towards the boomers, hurling bolts of destruction. Sylvie and Anri took to the air as well, assaulting their errant siblings. Priss drew her sword and leapt into the fray, cutting a swath of destruction through the horde.
Linna sighed. We can't fight all those boomers. I wish Wasyuu had had time to revamp my hardsuit so it would work in subspace, so I could have brought it. Suddenly, her hardsuit materialized around her. She blinked and the realization struck her. None of this was real. We're still in subspace. "Stop! This isn't real!" she shouted.
They couldn't hear her, or perhaps they didn't want to. They each had their own reason to hate GENOM and to want it and all its minions dead. Linna had her moments of anger, but she was not the eternal vengeance type. She could have sworn hatred forever when her parents died at the hands of boomers, but she didn't. She knew better than that. They didn't. If she didn't do something, they'd never escape their revenge fantasy except by death.
But how can I stop them? She concentrated. I've got to will this out of existence. She focused, and GENOM tower began to waver. She ignored the explosions and mass destruction of boomers and put all of her will into simply erasing it all. She could feel their wills sustaining this. Part of them wanted this, to go down taking as many of their enemies with them as possible. Linna knew better. Dying won't avenge those you loved. Living well is the best revenge. She spoke with her mind, bending subspace to her will. Something got through to the others and their wills began to withdraw from the setting before them. It became translucent, then two-dimensional, then winked out entirely.
Priss looked embarrassed. "Some leader I was...Is this going to happen again?"
"If we're not careful. Subspace responds to our minds and desires. That's why it is the land of dreams." Linna concentrated and her hardsuit vanished. "And the more you believe in what it offers, the more real that offer becomes."
"But it only reshapes this world."
"I think so. I'm hardly an expert."
"You know more than us. Lead on, Linna." Anri said.
Linna still didn't want to lead, but there was nothing she could do about it.
"How soon will they be back?" Kiyone asked Sasami. Sasami, Ryouko, Tenchi, Aeka, Kiyone, and Mihoshi were having a strategy session.
"Not soon enough," Sasami replied."Either one of Shiva's minions will beat them to the crystal, or he will strike as soon as he knows his servants have failed. At least he cannot use the satellites against us."
"So what do we do now?"
"Neutralize GENOM's space capabilities so they can't be used against us."
Ryouko laughed. "I'll go get my pirate hat."
More minutes passed, or hours, or even days. Time has little meaning in subspace, for nothing ever happens without a will to make it so. "This is boring as hell," Priss said.
"May you live in interesting times is an old Chinese curse," Meylia said. "I think it applies here as well."
"Any idea how close we are, Linna?"
"Um, closer than we were." At least I hope so, Linna thought. We could be going round and round. "If we all think about it, we can conjure up some chairs to sit on if you're getting tired of standing."
"Good idea!" Anri said. Soon, they were all squared away in comfy chairs in a tight little circle.
"So does anything actually live here?" Meylia asked.
"Sasami told me that there are beings who live in subspace that shape parts of it to their will. Hopefully we won't run into any of them. They tend to dislike intruders. The ones that don't usually like to play with intruders. Sometimes the intruders even survive that."
Anri shivered. "I hope we don't run into anything like that."
"Try not to think about it. The more we think about such things, the more likely we are to meet one."
Telling people to not think about something is notoriously futile.
Monitor duty at Genaros station was usually a very boring activity. Basically, the monitor was a glorified switchboard operator, given that the odds of any thief making it onto the station was basically nil. A boomer could do the job, in fact, a boomer often did do the job, but sometimes humans were put in charge, either as punishment or when a lot of classified communications were expected to come through.
Jonathan Frakes was there for reason one. He was bored out of his skull. The worst part were the external monitors. "What's the point of these stupid things. It's not like someone's gonna do a drive-by shooting..." he muttered to himself, staring at images of the sides of the station and deep space.
He could see the usual boring nothing going on. Turning to examine the images of internal station business, nothing of any interest whatsoever was going on there, either. He therefore turned to the only interesting aspect of monitor duty, trying to pick up TV and radio signals from Earth. He was getting pretty good at it. One of the monitors blanked, then One Life to Live, one of the longest running TV shows of all time, came up. It was utterly moronic, but he didn't care. It beat boredom. Cutting off his own fingers would have been more interesting.
Sadly, the screen he chose to blank was the one where he might have actually seen something to warn him of the attack on the station that was about to start.
Manami finished making herself up. She was rather nervous. I haven't had a date in a couple of months, she suddenly realized. I really haven't gotten to know Mackie very well...I guess I'll find out. He's only two years younger than me. I wonder what kind of music he likes. Dozens of thoughts ran wild through her head until finally, there was a knock at the front door. Ryu, Nene, and Mackie were there. They were all dressed fairly casually, while Manami was wearing a rather formal kimono. Nene blinked. "Were we supposed to dress formally?"
Manami blushed. "Umm...let me change into something simpler."
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Mackie said. "You look really good in that."
Manami said, "I'd feel odd being the only one dressed up." She headed into her bedroom and plunged headlong into her closet, questing for something to wear. She soon found a blouse and a skirt that sort of matched, so she put them on and ran back out.
Ryu straightened up from fiddling with her CD box. "Don't you have anything worth listening to?"
"Everything I have is worth listening to." She swept over to Mackie and dragged him out the door. "Unlike that garbage you favor."
"Ahh. Then you won't mind if I borrow some of your CDs to play for your mom?"
Manami froze for a moment. "Don't you dare!"
Mackie said, "Well, I thought you had some good music in your collection, Manami."
The group headed out into the hallway. "Whose car are we taking?" Manami asked.
"I thought we'd take my car," Ryu said.
Manami laughed. "Right." She swept down the hallway with Mackie in tow.
Ryu looked over at Nene. "I have a bad feeling about this. She normally hates riding in my car."
Nene shrugged. "Don't ask me."
Subspace winked out of existence around them in an instant. To their surprise, Priss and her friends found themselves standing in a great hall, hung with tapestries of funerals, death, and the dying. Great gold torcs hung on the wall as well, bejeweled and hand-crafted. All around them stood a legion of skeletons, armed with swords and axes. A man, clad in black and red, with black hair in a widow's peak, sat on a huge bone throne before them, a silver diadem upon his brow. To say the least, this was not the droid they were looking for.
"It has been long since we had visitors," the man said, his voice booming through the chamber as if he had a microphone in his throat.
"Uh, sorry to trespass," Linna said. "We'll just be moving on."
She concentrated, but the place remained quite stable.
The man frowned. "To reject my hospitality is quite rude."
"We're on a very urgent mission, sir," Meylia said. "Perhaps we could drop in on the way back."
"May I ask who you are?" Sylvie asked.
"I have used many names. You may call me Arawn. I am the lord of the dead."
Looking at the decor, Priss wasn't too surprised. "Get us out of here, Linna," she whispered.
"I think he must be maintaining this place," she replied. "I can't will it away."
"Indeed, I am." Arawn said. "I am no phantasm of your mind. This is but one of my many houses and the many faces that I wear. Come. Eat with me and then I shall let you continue on your way."
Priss' stomach rumbled. Maybe that's not such a bad idea, she thought. "Right. Lead on."
They soon adjourned to the adjacent feast hall. There were dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of people there. It was difficult to tell how large the room was or how far it extended. On the other hand, it was easy for them to recognize the other guests at their table. Easier than they would have wished. Their dead had come to greet them. The first to arrive at the table were Linna's parents, Moemi and Takashi, and Irene Chang, followed by Meylia's husband, Douglas Stingray, and her son, Katsuhito. Close on their heels were three people without last names, Nam, Meg, and Lou, born in a factory, and died in a space station a year ago. Finally, a small knot of people approached the table together. A young woman, Sho's mother, a young man in biker leathers, Fang, Priss' old boyfriend, and finally, a trio of older adults. Priss's mom and dad stood together, just as she last remembered seeing them, and near them stood the woman she had come to see as also her mother, her birth mother, Queen Serenity.
For a moment, the five stood in silence, staring at those who had come to their table, unable to believe it was true. The tears took them and they rushed forward to those whom they had lost. For long minutes, none of them could speak, simply drinking in the presence of lost friends, family, and loves.
Linna hugged her mother, and cried. "Mom...mom...mom..." She couldn't speak coherently. She wanted to stay there and shelter in her mother's loving arms forever.
Meylia clung to her husband, Douglas Stingray, like a barnacle to a ship. "My beloved husband, I have missed you so much."
"And I have missed you, my love. I have waited so long for you."
Sylvie and Anri lost themselves in a group hug with their three friends who had sacrificed themselves so that Sylvie and Anri could escape Genaros. "I'm sorry...we failed you. We couldn't even keep ourselves alive. You died for nothing."
"You did your best," Meg said. "There's nothing to be ashamed of."
Priss was completely incoherent, clinging to her mother and father like a five year old baby and crying enough tears to make her own river. She tried to speak, but words failed her. Her friends and family gathered around her, supporting her wordlessly as she cried her love for them.
Finally, Priss managed to get out a coherent sentence. "Mom, Dad, I love you. I've missed you so much. Oh, god, I've failed you, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."
Priss' mother squeezed Priss tightly. "You haven't failed us. We're very proud of you. I could never have done half the things you've done. We love you, Priscilla."
Priss' father spoke, "You can be whatever you set your mind to, Prissie."
"You...you're not angry with me?"
"How could I be angry with my only child?"
Priss glanced over at Queen Serenity, who stood nearby, smiling silently. "Mom, I..."
"I know, dear. She told us. Don't worry. We still love you. It's not like I didn't know I didn't give birth to you, dear."
Priss laughed faintly. Something nagged at her for a moment, but she dismissed it. This was not a time to worry about whatever her stupid brain wanted to pester her with this time.
Later, none of them was sure how long the reunion lasted. Finally, the tears drained away and the pain and joy faded to more humanly bearable levels. They took their places at the table, where by means unknown to them, a great feast was laid out, although Arawn apparently didn't believe in silverware, other than knives.
The food smelled delicious. Waves of anticipation rushed through them, though the more fastidious part of Meylia's mind wished she had learned how to make forks and napkins with her powers. Arawn smiled and raised his flagon. "A toast to our visitors."
Everyone raised their flagons. Priss looked at her parents, who smiled back proudly at her. She looked at Queen Serenity, who had taken the seat next to her, but looked troubled. "What's wrong?" she whispered.
Queen Serenity's lips moved without words for a few seconds, then she closed her eyes and concentrated. Arawn was yammering in the background. Time seemed to almost slow to a halt as Serenity finally choked out, "Those who eat in the land of the dead may never leave."
Priss dropped the glass like a snake. Meylia, nearby, overheard this and said, "Like the legend of Persephone..."
Anri and Sylvie turned. "The what?"
Linna turned to Arawn. "You tried to trap us."
Arawn frowned, his visage darkening. "Damn it, I wrought my lures too well."
Serenity stood. "What I was, I do no know, only what you have made me, and what you have made will have no part of this."
"Then you shall be remade." Arawn gestured and Serenity began to blur, fading away. The hall began to darken and the doors slammed shut.
Priss howled. "No! Mother!!!!!!"
Linna concentrated and summoned her hardsuit. "It's all a trick, Priss. The dead don't go to subspace...and if that had been the real Queen Serenity, where's her husband, your birth father?"
Priss' face darkened. "I. Don't. Like. Being. Used."
Arawn laughed. "Alive or dead, I'll have you. I can use beings of power. Kill them."
Their friends, relatives, and loves rose up and attacked. Meg, Lou, and Nam grappled Sylvie and Anri. "You left us to die. You don't care about anyone but yourselves or you would have wanted to stay with us!"
Anri couldn't bring herself to fight them. "No! We wanted to stay and die with you! You told us to go on!" She lay limply as Lou began to crush her.
Sylvie, on the other hand, wasn't ready to go gently into the good night. "You're all fakes! You have no right to accuse us! Damn you!" She threw Meg into the wall, even though it tore her up inside, then leveled her hand at Nam. "Don't make me kill you."
"You haven't got the guts." Nam lunged forward. Sylvie closed her eyes and fired. Nam lost her head. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Then Meg peeled herself off the wall and charged her again.
Linna tossed her parents and Irene around like tenpins. They couldn't possibly hurt her in her hardsuit, but she couldn't quite bring herself to hurt them. Damn you, Arawn, she thought. Damn you to hell.
Meylia shook off her husband and son. She rose into the air, flying out of their reach, even after they climbed up on the table. She formed an energy sword. "Arawn. I'm coming for you."
It was worst of all for Priss. Fang stabbed her in the leg as she tried to toss her mother away before her father could grab her too. Sho's mother was trying to chew on her leg, but she managed to boot her away. There was nothing left but a blur of Serenity. She howled in pain from the leg blow and kicked Fang in the balls. To her surprise, he ignored the blow and stabbed her again. She knew they were fakes, but she couldn't bring herself to go all out on them. If I don't fight harder, I'm going to die, she realized.
Sylvie closed her eyes again and blew Meg to powder, then turned Lou into hamburger. She cried as she slew them. "Anri. Save Priss. I'm going after Arawn."
Meylia dived at Arawn and some of the dead rose into the air and attacked her. They were people she barely remembered, some real, some fictional, some glimpsed only briefly, others whom she had gone to school with. She steeled herself and laid about her with her energy blade. The dead fell in droves, but more kept coming.
Linna saw Meylia and almost slapped herself. She lept away from her parents to Meylia's aid, flailing away with her monofilament whips.
Priss struggled, trying to find the strength to actually go all out against the shades, but unable to locate it. Anri plunged in and blew off Fang's head. Priss howled, watching him die again.
Arawn laughed, watching the battle with glee. "Live or dead, you'll never leave this realm while I live." Suddenly Sylvie appeared behind him and blew a large hole in his chest.
"We'll just have to see what happens if you die, then." She blasted him again and again.
He staggered, howling in pain. "No, you can't kill me! I am the god of death! I am the lord of the land of the dead! You cannot slay death!"
"I've been dead, and I don't remember you. You're a fake, and you're gonna be a dead fake." Sylvie fired at Arawn again.
The blow struck home. "No! I am the Lord of Death! I am..." His voice trailed off as he dissolved into nothingness. Only his crown endured, rattling to the ground.
The 'dead' gave a great shout of joy and dissolved away into the mist as did the entire castle. Within seconds, only Priss' wounds and the crown remained to give any evidence that Arawn or his realm had ever existed. Priss gave a great shout and chopped the crown with her sword. It turned black and crumbled. A howl erupted from it, shaking them to their very bones. As the howl faded, the last remains of the crown blew away into the mist.
"Priss! You're hurt!" Sylvie ran over to Priss.
"I've had worse. This isn't even as bad as what Anri did to me that time."
Anri blushed.
"We don't have anything to bandage you with," Meylia said.
Linna concentrated. Instant bandages. "Here you go, from the subspace dispensary. Hopefully, you'll stop bleeding before we leave subspace, cause I don't think these things can go with you."
"Can we just will her wounds away?" Anri asked.
"I don't think this works on people who are physically present. Otherwise, we could just wish ourselves all-powerful."
"Well, maybe Priss can affect herself. Try it!"
Priss shrugged. She tried concentrating on not being hurt. Her wounds closed up, though she could still feel the pain and they clearly weren't fully healed. "Shit."
"You always were hard to kill, Priss," Linna said. "Good guess, Anri." I wonder if we could wish ourselves all-powerful. Linna tried. As far as she could tell, nothing happened.
Kate Madigan waded through paperwork while she waited for the agent to report back. The call finally came in. "You'll find this interesting."
"What? Where did she go?"
"SDPC."
Kate choked. "How long as she been there?"
"She went in, I got ready to call in, then she left a few seconds ago in one of their vehicles, heading out west of the city."
More trouble with SDPC, Kate thought. Just great. "Keep an eye on her."
"Yes, ma'am."
We'll see what Quincy thinks about this. If they stole the Ingrams and the laser satellites...someone's playing an intricate game here to have kept our agents inside SDPC from finding out. We've been betrayed. She would have been even more panicked if she knew her 'agent' was laughing at her.
Everyone settled down in the car. Ryu said, "Nene, can you turn on the radio? Assuming it works today." Nene reached over and turned on the radio. "Howl at the Moon" by Ozzy Osbourne seized control of their ears at 110 DB. Nene was nearly flung through her seat. She managed to turn down the volume to where it was nearly off and the music settled down to a more bearable lesson. Ryu sighed. "Manami, did you change the radio station?"
Manami began to laugh. Mackie said, "Nice song. What language is it in? Serbo-croatian?"
"English, I think," Nene said. "Not that anyone could tell." She tried changing the station. There was no escape from Ozzie. "Hey, it's claiming I'm changing channels, but..."
Finally, the music changed, not that it helped. As Ryu pulled out of the parking lot, Ozzie faded out and 'I'm your angel of death', by the Warrens faded in. Then 'Be kruel to your skool', 'Smash your neighbor's skull', 'Master of Puppets', and 'The 21 chainsaw and backfire salute' followed as Nene desperately spun the radio dial. "Aaaaaaaaaaa!" Nene couldn't stand it. Mackie rocked on, as did Manami.
Ryu briefly contemplated suicide, then said, "Lemme guess, you did something to the radio."
"Your mom and I fixed it so that your radio only plays good music."
"Can I get you guys to do this for my car then?" Mackie asked.
Ryu ground his teeth. "Nene, put in that CD."
Nene said, "Are you sure she won't blow up your car if I do that?"
Mackie blinked. "Huh?"
Ryu put in the CD he and Wasyuu had made. "You'll love this, Manami. It's a handmade CD."
"Of what?"
"It's a mix of Zylcanian Xsither music, Wayne Newton, Barry Manilow, Vogon poetry set to music, and this one other CD."
Manami ground her teeth. "You wouldn't dare. What other CD?"
"'Why are there so many songs about banjos?' CD."
"You can't break me!"
Ryu laughed. "Okay, Nene, hit it."
Only years of etiquette training enabled Manami to not rip off her brother's head. It couldn't stop her from fantasizing about it, though.
Images flickered ever so briefly in the mist, forming and vanishing too quickly for them to see. Suddenly, something they hadn't expected loomed before them. It was a huge wall that stretched to infinity. Priss blinked. "A wall?"
Linna laughed. "There has to be a door or something. Maybe we can blow a hole in it."
Sylvie said, "I'll phase through it and see what's on the other side." She passed through the wall, out of sight.
Meylia said, "I wish I could do that."
Anri smiled. "Mom taught us some nice tricks."
Linna said, "If my master had ever succeeded in trying to teach me to astrally project, I could get through it."
"Your master tried to teach you to astrally project?"
"All I ever got was a headache. If I'd actually believed in the possibility, I might have done a better job. She tried to teach me a lot of stuff...I'd have studied harder if I'd actually believed half the stuff she tried to teach me. It usually involved a lot of funky mystic stuff that went way over my head." Linna sighed. "I wish I had time to go back for some brush up lessons now."
They waited a while. Sylvie still hadn't come back. "Maybe I should just stick my head through and see what's keeping her," Anri suggested.
"Let's blast a hole in the wall. She ought to be back by now."
They opened fire with everything on the wall. It ignored them. Linna tried kicking the wall with her suit and her fist went right through it as if it wasn't there. She blinked.
Meylia laughed. "I guess we forgot to try touching it."
They stepped through the wall together, ready to face whatever might lie beyond.
Dr. Mizuno Ami peered through the microscope. She sighed. Still no results. There's something I'm missing, she thought. I can identify this thing's chemical structure, but I can't duplicate it. What am I missing?
A woman spoke nearby. "Dr. Mizuno Ami?"
Ami turned around. She didn't recognize the immaculately dressed woman. "Can I help you?"
The woman smiled. "Yes." She grabbed Ami, gagged her, and carried her off before Ami could even blink.
Noa drove back from the training ground and picked up her husband from work. "Ugh, I'm exhausted," she said.
"Don't sweat it. I don't feel like cooking either. Let's go out to eat."
"Where are we going?"
"Well, we do own a restaurant, you know."
Noa laughed. "Eat at our own restaurant. What a concept."
Sylvie was pounding and blasting away at the wall as they stepped through. "I couldn't get back to you!"
Linna tried touching the wall. It was solid from this side.
Meylia laughed nervously. "I think that's a hint."
They pressed onwards through the mist. Sooner than they expected, it parted, revealing a archway. A figure stood, clad in loose white clothing of an arabian style in the doorway. Its face was hidden, though a few strands of black hair poked out from under its hood. Its voice was clearly male, and it spoke. "My duty now is to guard this threshold. Who are you who would pass?"
"Sylvie Hakubi."
"Anri Hakubi."
"Yamazaki Linna."
"Meylia Stingray of the House of Jurai."
Priss thought for a moment. "Princess Courage of the House of Serenity, First Princess of the Sword of the Moon Kingdom. I am known also as Priscilla Samantha Asagiri, a member of the Knight Sabres and lead singer for Priss and the Replicants."
"What is your quest?"
A thought struck Meylia's brain and she tried not to laugh. Sylvie muttered something about the Holy Grail and Meylia nearly lost it. Priss tried to ignore them. "We seek the Silver Crystal of the Moon Kingdom that we might liberate the sleeping Sailors from their slumber of over thirty years."
The figure stared at each of them. "Why have you come?"
Priss paused. "Didn't I just answer that?" There was something familiar about the voice, though she couldn't quite place it. She felt like she had met this guy somewhere.
"Yes, you have."
Sylvie said, "Oh, you're asking the rest of us?"
The figure nodded. Sylvie said, "I've come to help my best friend. I'll ride into hell itself if I have to, to help her."
Anri said, "Where Priss and Sylvie go, I will go."
"I have come to aid my friend," Meylia said. "And I have come to enjoy adventure, I must admit. Plus, we will need the Sailors' help, I think, in the days to come."
"I had to come. They couldn't find the crystal without me," Linna said.
"But why did you come?"
"I just told you."
"No you didn't."
Linna stared at the man. "I don't understand."
"You usually don't."
Now Linna was starting to get irritated. "Look, I told you. They needed me."
The man simply stared at her.
Priss thought for a moment. "Maybe he's asking why you cared that we needed you."
"Because Priss needed me. She's my friend, and I want to help her. This is good practice for my dream-walking skills too."
The man smiled. "Your final question."
There were audible sighs of relief. Priss thought hard. I know this voice. Who is this guy? She whispered to Linna, "Does this guy sound familiar to you?"
"He vaguely reminds me of that DJ on the Oldies station."
Priss laughed.
"How many times must a person die?"
Linna blinked.
"At least once," Sylvie said.
"As rarely as possible, since you can't normally come back," Anri said.
"Who's judging the must here?" Meylia asked.
The figure was silent.
"Well, you have to be born twice to enter the kingdom of heaven...I think," Linna said, trying to dredge up childhood memories of occasional visits to the Christian church her mother had attended. "So I'd say once."
Meylia shrugged. "I'm clueless."
"As many times as is necessary," Priss said. "I'll die a thousand times if I have to."
The figure smiled faintly. "You may enter." He stepped backwards through the doorway and vanished into the mists, leaving behind only a white rose. "My long vigil is over. I pray that you will set us all free." His voice faded now as well.
They all stepped through the doorway. Meylia said to Linna, "So how can someone be born twice, anyway?"
"Wait for Wasyuu to find you," Priss said, smiling at Sylvie, who laughed.
Mackie, Manami, Ryu and Nene waited for their order to come though. Mackie looked around Alphonse's. "This is a pretty nice place. You come here often, Manami?"
"My advisor brought our class here a few months ago," Manami said. "I thought you'd like it."
Mackie stared at the Ingram. "I've always wanted to drive one of those things. It's so...big."
Nene laughed. "Better not let the manager hear you wanting to run off with her Ingram."
Manami nodded. "I got to meet her last time." She looked around. "Hey, she's over there. I guess that must be her husband and, uh...daughter maybe?"
Nene looked over. "Hey, there's Lt. Shinohara. She must be..." Nene slapped her forehead. "I'm a moron today. I knew vaguely that her mom ran this place. My brains must be fried."
Mackie looked longingly at the Ingram. "I wonder if she'd..."
"I hear she killed the last person who asked." Ryu said, smiling faintly.
Mackie winced. "You're kidding, right?"
Nene said, "It can't hurt to ask. I'm sure she probably enjoys talking about her exploits."
Manami said, "If I thought she'd remember me, I'd try introducing you."
"I know Lt. Shinohara. I'll bring you over, Mackie."
"Thanks!" Mackie followed Nene over to the other table.
Ryu leaned over to Manami. "Well, what do you think?"
"I'm sure she'll at least talk to him about it."
Ryu laughed. "Nice dodge. I mean, what do you think of Mackie?"
"He seems like a nice young man. And we like the same music, which is nice."
Ryu nodded. "Nene's told me some wild stories, but he seems to be on his best behavior. Maybe he's only ecchi with people he knows well."
"Or when he has nothing to lose. You're not worried about me, are you?"
"You could vaporize him in five seconds. While unconscious. I'm not worried. I'm just hoping this will all go okay. I know you haven't had a date in a long time and..."
She interrupted him. "I've been busy. I've got a lot of homework this semester and..."
"I'm not trying to lecture you, Manami. I'm just trying to be a good big brother."
"Half-brother."
"Same difference. You know my mom and your mom act like we're both their own flesh and blood. And Grandma loves you just as much as me. Maybe more so because you're more gullible."
"I am not gullible! I have the sense not to submit to any of Wasyuu-obasan's experiments."
Ryu began to laugh very loudly. Manami had a sinking feeling she had missed something.
Haruka headed home on his motorcycle with Michiru. "Damnit, I should have won. That woman did something to me."
Michiru sighed. "Like what? Cast a spell on you? I don't think so."
Haruka sighed and looked in his rearview. "Someone's following us."
"What?"
"This woman's been following me for about the last five miles."
"Maybe she's just heading across town like us."
"I can tell."
Michiru sighed. My husband is so paranoid. "Then take the next exit and see if she follows."
"Good idea." Haruka waited until the last second and roared off down the exit. The woman followed in her sports car as soon as he did so. "I was right!" He roared off into the maze of streets to try to lose her.
Kate Madigan finished reporting to Quincy. "It seems there is something wrong with SPDC, sir."
He frowned. "Everything is coming unhinged at once."
"Has something else happened?"
"We've lost Genaros."
"We've what?"
"Follow me. I've already called an executive meeting. We have a major mounting crisis." They rushed off to the meeting.
A recording played, staticky and faint. "slkdjflskdj...breaking down the doors...sldflwoeiur...Boomer armnaments can't stop her...sljsk.w..known it wasn't an asteroid...slkdfjldskjwoeur.... Asteroids don't change course. There's a hole in the ..sdjflsvkcjkjkjruo..."
The voice on the tape changed. An amused female voice. Where the previous voice had spoken in English, this one spoke in accented Japanese, with a rural accent. <Radio. I didn't even think of jamming the radio transmissions on these frequencies.>
There was another burst of static and a third voice, or was it? In fact, it sounded rather like some sort of cat meowing. Static swallowed all sound entirely.
Mr. Holsom punched the off button. "That was our last transmission from Genaros station. We can only assume that either the USSD has taken over the station or there has been some sort of successful terrorist take over."
"It could be another rogue boomer incident like those sexaroids who escaped last year," suggested one of the other executives of GENOM in the room.
"Doubtful. The voiceprint for the woman doesn't match that of any boomer in our registry. Nor does she match the print of any of the human crew. USSD continues to assert their innocence in this affair. We can only conclude that someone on the station betrayed us and helped smuggle in terrorists, somehow."
"It could be SCHAFT or another of our competitors," a third executive suggested.
"Possibly, but so few companies have the resources that such a deed would call up only a very short list of suspects. We are, of course, investigating this possibility. It seems unlikely, given that there is nothing on the station worth the effort of an actual takeover." Mr. Holsom paused. "The biggest question remaining is why the approach of the ...whoever they are, went unnoticed. It seems far too likely that those responsible for the missing laser satellites have struck again."
Quincy walked in. "Couldn't wait for me? Well, I think I have the answer to our questions, and it is not an answer we are going to like."
Beyond the doorway, the mists were gone. The team of five stood within a dark stone maze. Tunnels ran hither and yon in all directions. Priss turned to Linna. "Which way do we go?"
Linna concentrated and felt a slight pull down one of the tunnels. "This way, I think."
Slowly, she guided them through the maze, praying she wasn't just imagining which way to go. Finally, they came to a huge room, riven with a chasm whose bottom was too deep to see. Furthermore, the chasm was nearly 200 feet across, too far to jump. The walls were riven as well, the chasm extending beyond the room out of sight through the rock.
For Sylvie and Anri, this was about as much of a barrier as a line of tiddleywinks. They simply teleported across. Linna concentrated and called up her hardsuit, then jumped across. Meylia could fly. Priss, on the other hand, was out of luck. "Gee, thanks, guys."
Linna shouted back. "Just call up your hardsuit and do a power-assisted jump!"
"How do I do that?"
"Just think about it! It's not like I'm the only person who can do this, you know!"
Priss concentrated and her hardsuit formed around her. She took a deep breath and leaped across the chasm. She made it, though the suit dissolved away as soon as she landed and lost her concentration. "That was too easy."
"Well, if you'd come alone, you'd still be looking for a way across."
Priss sighed. "If I had come alone, I'd still be in Arawn's realm, if I'd even gotten that far. I feel like I haven't done anything right since I got here."
Anri hesitantly put a hand on Priss' shoulder. "Don't feel so bad. We all would have fallen for Arawn's trap if we hadn't been warned."
Meylia nodded. "And she wouldn't have been there to warn us without you."
Priss straightened up and moved forward. "Let's get this over with."
Across town, a series of kidnappings mostly went off rather smoothly. A few, however, did not go so well. One boomer lost her targets in a chase through the backstreets of Mega-Tokyo. A second broke into a school counselor's office only to discover that the school counsellor had called in sick. A break-in at the counsellor's house revealed that she wasn't home either. Preparing to think of other options, the boomer then heard someone whisper something, shortly after which it was blasted to bits.
The one which went wrong the worst...well, not counting that last one, was a double snatch and grab of a school teacher and her husband. It started out well enough...
Usagi answered the door. "Hi! Can I help you?"
"I'm selling vacuum cleaners. Mind if I show you one of our models?"
"Sure. Come on in."
The boomer made small talk and ran through some snappy patter, carefully drawing out the admission that Usagi's husband would be home soon. She successfully drew out her routine until Mamoru walked in the door. Just as she was about to grab and sedate both of them, someone started pounding on the front door.
Mamoru answered the door and Haruka and Michiru ran in. "Can we use your phone?"
"What's wrong, Haruka-kun?" Usagi asked.
Haruka glanced over at the boomer, clearly not wanting to talk in front of her, despite being unaware she was a boomer.
"She's Hitomi, Haruka. She's a vaccum cleaner salesman. Hitomi, these are my friends Haruka and Michiru."
The boomer blinked. More of the targets? Can I grab them all? She radioed the boomer who was supposed to be following these two.
"There's a woman who's been following us all over town and we don't know why. I'm sorry we lead her this way, but we needed to get to a phone and we didn't want to lead her to our house." Haruka sighed. "So we led her here. I'm sorry."
"Go right ahead," Mamoru said. "I'll go see if Leon is home."
"Leon?"
"He's with the ADPolice."
If boomers swore, Hitomi would have sworn. Great, my targets live next door to an ADPolice officer. This isn't going to be good. The screaming when she burst out of her skin was the most satisfying part of a frustrating evening.
Mackie headed back to his table with Nene just as another unexpected set of visitors arrived at Noa's table. It was Kanuka McClaine and her husband, John. He was of medium height and broadly built with wavy hair. Well, what was left of his hair was wavy and gray. He was dressed in a nice suit. He was also the most paranoid looking man that Noa had ever seen. He glanced over at the Ingram. "That thing can't move by itself, can it?"
Noa laughed. "Only in a cheesy horror movie." Not counting the Millennial Riots, she thought. Let's not think about that.
Her daughter Moemi threw back her head and laughed. "What, like Labor Day Labor Massacre? 'Surely, there must be a scientific explanation for this!' 'Only the science of...black magic!'"
They all laughed, except John, who muttered to himself something about hotels. Noa called over a waitress for them and they quickly placed their orders. The food soon arrived, and they all started eating. "So you're in the ADPolice, Moemi?" John asked.
Moemi nodded. "Yeah."
"I heard your headquarters got taken over last Christmas?" Kanuka asked.
Moemi blushed faintly. "I hate to admit it, but yes."
She turned to her husband. "See, it doesn't just happen to you! Everyone has these kind of problems."
"Three days, max. That'll give us enough hospital time afterwards to recover before we have to fly home."
She sighed. "You're incorrigible."
"Next time we go to the Grand Canyon. No one can take over the entire Grand Canyon."
Asuma laughed. "I take it your vacations have gone badly in the past?"
"I think I was born with a 'Terrorists please attack me and my family' sign on my head. My first wife finally left me after the sixth or seventh hostage situation...with her as the hostage. Heck, I met Kanuka during another one of them. I'm never going back to the Kennedy Space Center. Ever."
Everyone laughed, not realizing it was all true.
The maze continued, then opened out into a huge beautiful garden under a starry sky. Far across the garden was a beautiful palace, and in the sky over the palace hung the huge, beautiful Earth, dominating the sky.
"The royal palace," Priss whispered.
Anri looked around. "Wow, this place is so pretty."
Linna said, "I think this means we're almost there."
Slowly, they walked through the garden towards the palace, a gentle breeze making the branches of the trees rustle as they passed. They were all nervous with anticipation.
They crossed half the garden before they realized that the sky was getting darker. Looking up, they could see black storm clouds covering the sky. Linna and Priss suddenly had a very bad feeling. "Run." Priss said.
Sylvie and Anri grabbed Priss and teleported to the palace doors, while Meylia took to the air and Linna conjured her hardsuit once more, running as fast as possible. As Priss opened the doors, the clouds finished swallowing the sky. The whole world suddenly went silent and a great red eye opened in the clouds, glaring down balefully at them.
"Shit." was all Priss could say.
Anri and Sylvie managed to drag Priss into the palace. Priss seemed unable to move, but for whatever reason, they were not affected. Sylvie turned and slammed the doors shut, trapping the light outside. Priss gave a great shudder and whispered, "Metallia."
"Who?"
Priss looked around. "Where's Linna and Meylia?"
"I think they're still outside."
"Shit! We can't leave them out there!" She moved to open the doors, but Sylvie grabbed her hands.
"You'll just get paralyzed again. I'll go help them. It doesn't seem to effect me and Anri. Anri, you go with Priss."
Anri nodded quietly.
"I can't just leave them!"
"Priss, if you go out, you'll just get paralyzed again! I seem to be immune, so I'll go out." Probably because I'm not really human, she thought. "Go find the crystal. Something must be trying to keep us from getting to it."
Priss swore repeatedly and pointlessly, then turned to head into the building. "Come on, Anri. Let's go search the palace."
Anri went with her silently as Sylvie phased through the door and out into the yard.
Leon charged into the Chibas' apartment. He knew he should wait for backup, but he knew they'd never get there before it was too late. Why the hell is a boomer attacking them, he wondered. They've never done anything to hurt anyone.
He stood in the doorway. "Freeze! ADPolice!" He recognized the boomer as a fairly new-model C-class cyberdroid. He leveled his gun. Against a C-class, he might have a chance. Not much of a chance, but it was better than nothing.
Usagi was unconscious on the table. Michiru was down on the floor with the couch on top of her. The boomer had Haruka pinned under one foot and was applying an anesthetic to him. Mamoru was trying to beat the boomer with a cane. It wasn't accomplishing much.
The boomer finished off Haruka, then looked up at Leon. "ADPolice, eh? I'm just doing your job, bringing in these renegade sexaroids."
Leon blinked. "What?"
"I understand you've done some investigating of that case yourself."
No way, Leon thought. My neighbors are not renegade sexaroids. Something nagged at his mind, but he was too busy to think about it. "And how would you know about that?"
"Someone hacked into our records. Someone in ADPolice."
"I'm no hacker."
"They used your account."
I'm going to kill Nene, Leon thought. Leon kept talking, hoping his backup would arrive before the boomer was ready to fight.
The yard plunged into anarchy. Shadows rained down from the sky. Where they struck, the garden became blighted and twisted. The ground erupted and figures of rock and clay, cast in a crude parody of human shape, burst forth and began to close in on Linna and Meylia who were unable to move.
Sylvie erupted through the doors and saw them, teleporting to their sides in an instant. Dozens, maybe hundreds of the monsters were closing in. It tore her heart to see the beautiful garden destroyed and turned to corruption and death. Her rage ignited and she began to blast the monsters with great gouts of energy. They blew up easily, but there were dozens more where those came from. She soon realized this was a fight she could not win.
Despair raged in Meylia's soul. She could not move. She was powerless, helpless, a mere mortal in the face of undying wrath. She was failing her friends as she had failed her husband and her son, failed her father, failed everyone. She had never felt so worthless since the day she had decided to run away from home.
She could feel the evil of the cloud, power beyond measure. It dwarfed her, reminding her how insignificant she was. "The evil that men do lives on, the good is oft interred with their bones," one poet had said, and she saw the truth of that now. In the end, all things went down to destruction. Sylvie was fighting desperately, but she would be overwhelmed. Entropy increases over time. It was the darkest moment of Meylia's life.
If Linna could have seen what was going on, she might have despaired. Linna, however, did not see the mounting battle. For her, the world had winked out the instant that the eye had opened. She floated, naked, in the misty void once more.
For a few seconds, she didn't know where she was, then it all came back to her. How did I get here? Where is everyone? Hey, I'm naked! She concentrated and her exercise outfit appeared on her. She laughed faintly. I could wear anything here and I end up with this.
"Ahh, but it is more lovely on you than a fine gown on many women." The strong male voice cut through the silence. It was the voice of her boyfriend, Robert Bruce.
Linna started. "Robert? What are you doing here?"
"I have come to make you an offer, my love."
Linna blinked. "An offer?"
"Do you know that you talk in your sleep?"
"I what???"
"I heard much last night, as you lay sleeping. I had long hoped you were the one I had looked for. It is so rare that I find one like myself, a potential immortal."
"I...Immortal?"
"For such as us, death is not the end, for we can survive the death of our bodies and find new flesh. Let me show you the way, Linna, and then we can be together, forever." He moved closer and took her hand. "Walking in dreams is only the beginning. You will be like a god, as I am, the world ours to mold as we will."
Even my boyfriend is all-powerful, Linna thought. "I don't understand."
His voice was soothing. "Did you truly think your heritage was normal and mundane? Like your friends, you possess an inheritance of power. Everyone has an astral body, but yours is more powerful than most. It uses your body, but it doesn't need it. Even if you die, you will live on if you let me teach you, for I can show you how to find a new body. In fact, here in subspace, you could make your own body, though it would be of no use beyond this world. I have lived for millennia, Linna, and I'd like you to join me."
Linna stared. "I...uh..." A thought struck her. "Where are my friends?"
Robert's face darkened. "The defenses of the Silver Crystal lay them waste. Only you could I save."
"Liar." Another voice broke through the silence of the void. "Your minions haven't killed them yet, and this is all your fault." A second figure emerged from the mists. It was Master Hiromi. Her voice was tight with barely controlled rage.
Linna blinked. "Master Hiromi?"
"Don't listen to her, Linna! It's a trick! Someone's trying to deceive you!"
Master Hiromi closed in on Robert. "He would condemn you to his own fate of damnation, Linna. That was his eye you saw. He followed you here so he could take the crystal for himself and destroy you all. He is a servant of Shiva, the lord of destruction. All he can offer you is eternal evil."
"Liar! I love Linna! I just want her to be able to be with me forever!"
"You want to possess her forever, maybe. You know nothing of love. Those who give themselves to destruction can no longer create, can no longer love. At best, they can only parody such things." Master Hiromi had almost reached Robert now. Linna, stared, uncertain what to do. "You slew my friends. You slew my only love. You slew my ability to love. I almost gave myself to your master in my despair and I can barely avoid his grasp even now. Perhaps if I destroy you, I will fall into the same void from which you were spawned. I don't care anymore. Finally, I have found you, and I will see you dead!" She moved, and her attack was beautiful to behold. Fluidly, she moved across the intervening space and grasped Robert to her like a lover, then leapt into the air and slammed him into the ground. She danced upon his skull, then lifted him high again to lay him low.
It was like watching a combat ballroom dance marathon. Robert was clearly outmatched. Blood flew and bruises mounted on his flesh, while he could hardly lay a hand on her. Finally, she had him pinned on the ground, her hands around his throat. Linna could bear no more.
She rushed over. "Stop! You'll kill him! There has to be a mistake!"
"I can smell it upon him. The same spirit I fought so long ago. He is the one. I will kill him if it damns my soul to hell. I will have vengeance or death. I would welcome either." Her grip tightened.
"Help me, Linna," he choked out. "She's killing me."
Linna hesitated. She'd never seen Master Hiromi like this before, so angry. She wouldn't be doing this unless Robert really was the one...no, that's not possible! I couldn't love such an evil being, could I? "Stop it! You've got to be making a mistake!"
"He is the one. I will have his heart for what he has done." The anger controlled her voice now, and her face was contorted with hate.
Robert begged, choking out the words, "Linna...please..."
It was more than she could bear. "I'm sorry, Master. I have to do this." She struck at Hiromi's wrists, forcing her to release her grip, then grabbed Hiromi and tossed her aside. "Snap out of it, master! Didn't you always tell me that revenge was bad?"
Master Hiromi got to her feet. "He must be destroyed. There is no other cure for his evil. Some infections must be cut out."
"But who appointed you the judge of all mankind?" Linna helped Robert get up.
Master Hiromi winced. "We all must lay judgment every day. It is inescapable, much as we would like to escape it. You have the sight, Linna. Use it. Remember what I taught you. You can see his heart and judge for yourself."
Linna gulped and turned to Robert. She tried to clear her mind as he tried to remember how to breathe. She opened her eyes wide and truly gazed into his soul.
His clothing peeled away before her sight. He stood naked before her in her mind's eye, as he had lain in her bed the previous night. Memories of that night tried to seize her mind, but she shoved them away, and dug deeper. He shimmered and a starry space filled her vision. She peeled away the stars and gazed upon his soul.
Quincy gave the orders. GENOM forces began to move into place around the world. Carefully, he went over his plans. At least Z is too busy to try to "improve" on my plans, he thought. I can't decide whether to hope that he gets the Crystal or to hope they kill him. It would spare me the trouble.
Priss and Anri wandered through the palace. "This thing could be anywhere."
"You have no idea where we might find it?"
Priss thought. "The throne room."
"Okay, we go to the throne room. Where is it?"
"I have no clue."
Anri facefaulted.
Only three times in her life had Linna successfully followed her master's teaching and truly gazed upon someone's soul. The first had contained beauty beyond her imagining. The second time had been the most baffling of her life. The third time was a nightmare. Millennia of destruction stretched out before her. Birth in a strange glass tube in a dark laboratory. Baby's first steps carried him through the void of space at his father's command. Teething upon an earthquake that destroyed a city. The power of command over earth and rock was his. Across countless light-years and centuries of time, the being Linna had known as Robert Bruce had hopped from body to body, spreading destruction at his master's command, seeking those upon whom the master's wrath must be poured out, in a legacy of vengeance with three goals. The House of Jurai must be destroyed. The scientist Wasyuu who had betrayed the master must be destroyed. Most of all, Tsunami, must be destroyed. They had slain Walyn, the beloved child of the Great One, Shiva.
This body was just another shell, though a special one, provided by his master. Why it was special, she could not see. All that she had seen in him before this moment had just been a mask, a shell he had painstakingly created for her benefit. And yet, he did love her, as best he could. His offer was sincere. He did want her to be with him forever. Even a being such as he needed companionship.
The vision faded, and the world returned. She wanted to run away and cry, to curl in a ball at the horror she had seen. His offer had tempted her. She feared the power he had to offer, and yet, she craved it as well, feeling outmatched by all those around her.
His face darkened. "So be it. We could have been so good together, Linna." Master Hiromi leaped to her feet. Robert said, "I should have come back for you a long time ago, but I thought it better to let you live and suffer. X may think I lack subtlety, but he just doesn't understand me."
"Frankly, I couldn't care less," Master Hiromi said, moving forward to attack again.
As Linna pulled herself together, Robert moved, grabbing Master Hiromi. "Die," he commanded. Black bolts of energy coruscated around her frame. Before Linna's eyes, she began to age and rot. She clenched her teeth and drove blows into Robert's frame, though her blows grew weaker.
Linna saw what was happening. She called up her hardsuit and opened fire, blasting Robert away from Master Hiromi. She ran over to her. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you. Oh god, this is awful."
Master Hiromi, barely more than a withered mummy, smiled. "This is only my dream self. He cannot slay me. Remember what I taught you."
Robert got back up, his wounds closing. He frowned. "You'll pay for that."
Master Hiromi began to fade away. "Linna, this is all in your mind...a dream within the dreamworld. Your body is standing defenseless. If he keeps you busy for too long, your body may be slain as well." She coughed and her voice grew fainter. "A high price will be demanded of you, Linna. I pray you will find the strength to pay it. Remember, that death is not the end, especially for one such as you. There is power in sacrifice, and the greatest sacrifice is..." She vanished before she could finish her sentence.
Robert stood in the heart of a swirling black maelstrom. "This is your last chance, Linna. Join me and live, or defy me and die."
Linna mustered her courage and charged forward, her heart aching. "You won't kill me. This is my mind and my dream, and I rule here. Die!"
Robert vanished the instant before the beam Linna fired from her hands would have struck him and obliterated him. The next thing Linna did was open her eyes.
Meylia stood paralyzed next to her. A few feet away, Sylvie was desperately blasting incoming golems, trying to keep them away from her and Meylia. Linna opened fire, blowing several apart.
Sylvie blinked. "Hey, you're moving."
A voice boomed from the sky. "Not for long. I tire of this game." The eye in the sky glowed with a black light.
Linna recognized the light. It was the same ray of destruction she had hurled at Robert in her mind a few seconds ago. It seemed that turnabout was fair play. This bolt would be large enough to obliterate them all. "Sylvie, when I signal you, grab Meylia and teleport away."
"What about you? I can't take both of you!"
Linna's voice was strangely calm. "Priss always said all these boyfriends would be the death of me one day." I have to make him think I'm dead, she thought. I just hope I don't really die in the process. "Go!" She leaped over the horde and charged off towards a handy tree she could use to help her.
Sylvie swore, grabbed Meylia and teleported.
The bolt stabbed down from the heavens at Linna. She prayed her plan would work.
"So what else are we going to have to face, Priss?" Anri asked. She strained to hear some hint of what might be going on outside, but the palace was silent except for her and Priss' footsteps
Priss shrugged. "I have no clue. I'm not even absolutely sure the crystal is in here...we may have just stumbled into another trap."
They pushed open a set of double doors and answered their doubts. Beyond the doors lay a huge, beautiful throne room. It stretched out before them, two lines of pillars forming a highway to the throne, upon which slept a sleeping warrior. She looked to be in her early twenties, clad in the fuku of the Sailor Warriors. Upon her brow was a tiara and in her hands she clutched a glaive. She drew the eye to her, and even in her sleep, she made those viewing her very uneasy.
Yet, her presence was dwarfed by what floated before her. A multi-faceted gem, like a diamond, yet somehow different in some intangible way, hung five feet from her head with no visible means of support. It shone with a pure white light, obliterating all shadows in the room. It was the Ginzuishou, the Silver Crystal of the Moon Kingdom. It sang with a song of comfort and joy that Priss could hear in her soul.
She stepped into the room, moving almost like a zombie towards the crystal. Anri tried to follow, but she was unable to step into the room. Priss could feel the warmth coming from the crystal as she drew closer. The glow was blinding. As she moved closer to the crystal, a figure began to form in the air between her and the gem, but she couldn't see it clearly.
Anri's augmented sight, however, could. She couldn't believe it. "Priss! Watch out! It's Largo!"
Priss blinked. The light of the crystal dimmed to a more bearable level. The being known as Largo stood before her. She couldn't believe it. This had to be a trick. What the hell would Largo be doing here? "I won't let you trick me."
Largo smiled. "Trick you? I have not come to trick you. I have come to do homage. Soon you will become what I only dreamed of becoming. You will be a god among mortals. Compared to the Silver Crystal, the laser satellites I commanded were nothing."
Priss frowned. "Then why haven't you taken the crystal?"
"I can no more wield the Silver Crystal than you could have the Black Box integrated into your body. You are of the House of Serenity, the House of Jurai, for the two lines are one. To them is given the crystal to wield. To them is given the power to become a god."
Priss said, "So you're not going to try to stop me from taking it?"
He laughed. "I want you to take it. We have a common goal. We both wish to see GENOM destroyed. You can succeed where I failed. Take the crystal, and you will be unstoppable. With the Crystal, you could rip GENOM Tower up and fling it into the ocean. You could find where the real Quincy is hiding and kill him. But that is not all. As soon as you take the Crystal, Saturn will awaken. Her power plus that of the crystal would be unstoppable, and she will be yours to command. You could reshape the world to your vision. Don't you dream of a better world?"
Priss had come this far without really thinking about what she planned to do with the crystal besides liberating her sister. "Nothing is that powerful."
"With the crystal, your mother obliterated an entire army. She gathered millions of souls and sent them thousands of years into the future. With the crystal, the original Queen Serenity turned the moon from a lifeless rock into a habitable world. All it takes is will and a vision of what should be. I know you possess both."
For a moment, that vision possessed her mind. She could see herself destroying GENOM Tower. Horrible deaths for all those who had wrecked her life. She remembered the prosperity and peace of the Silver Millennium. That could live again. She could restore its wisdom, awaken everyone's memories of that time that it might be rebuilt. It would all be so easy. She had only to reach out and take the gem and she would be avenged.
She stepped closer to the gem. Largo got out of her way. Anri tried to shout something, but Priss couldn't hear her. She tried blasting Largo, but her shots wouldn't pass through the doorway. Priss was inches from taking the Silver Crystal, when a second voice cut through the stillness that had settled on her mind.
"Who died and made you God?" It was Leon's voice.
Priss froze in place and turned. Largo stood to her left, and Leon stood to her right. "Leon? How the fuck did you get here?"
"Answer my question. Where did you get the right to judge the world and destroy all those you find wanting?"
"Damnit, Leon! I have the power! I have to act! If I can stop GENOM and I don't, then I'm responsible for what they do! They've wrecked my life and millions of others! The blood of innocents is crying out for revenge!"
"You can't repay evil with evil. If you kill millions of GENOM employees, you'll become worse than them. Most GENOM employees are just ordinary people trying to make a living. And who gave you the power of life and death?"
"They killed my boyfriend, my best friend, and her closest friend! Their machines killed your first partner and they've killed hundreds of others! They've got to pay!"
"You've killed too, Priss. Dozens of times."
"They were all a bunch of piece of shit boomers!"
"Are all boomers evil too? So who isn't evil? Why not just kill all of humanity and start over if you're going to be Goddess Priss? Isn't everyone flawed? Don't we all do bad things sometimes? Or will you just kill those you don't like and spare the rest? Should we burn offerings to you to appease your wrath?"
"You should know she would never do that," Largo said. "She's not a maniac."
"You're not that way now...but power corrupts. Do you really think you can wield all that power like that and stay the same?"
Priss hesitated. "Don't you trust me, Leon?"
"Do you really trust yourself that much? Is this what your mother would want you to do with the heritage she left you? Do you think this is what your sister would do?"
"He's just trying to confuse you," Largo urged. "Don't listen to him. If you don't take the crystal and use it, someone else will. Don't you want your revenge?"
Priss thought about what Leon had said. What would Usagi do with it? Not destroy GENOM, that was for sure. She was a healer, not a warrior. She turned and gazed upon the crystal. It hung in the air, waiting for her to take it. It could heal or kill, as she desired. I didn't come here for vengeance, she thought. I came here for love. I wanted to help my sister, to heal her, to set her free. I can't believe I almost let Largo of all people lead me astray. She stepped forward and grasped the crystal. White power rushed over her in a tidal wave, washing through her body and soul. She had made her choice, and she chose life over death.
Her uniform transformed as she assumed the traditional uniform of the First Prince — or in this case, Princess — of the Sword. She wore knee high brown boots and tan pants. A black vest covered a tan shirt with poofy sleeves. There were black parallel slash-like tattoos upon her cheeks, giving her a look somewhat like a racoon, and a blue tattoo of a sword upon her brow. Black gloves covered her hands, one of which grasped her sword. She brought the crystal around to the sword and it fused into the hilt. She held the sword high above. "I, Princess Courage of the house of Serenity, have come to claim that which belongs to my line, the Silver Crystal. Let the Senshi awake from their slumbers! Set them free!"
Largo snarled and evaporated. The final test was over, and Priss had passed it. Leon smiled. "Your mother would be proud. My work is done. I pray your friend will do as well in her trials to come." He faded away too, no more the real Leon than that had been the real Largo.
Priss was transfigured in shimmering light, white feathery wings sprouting from her back, waves of power rushing out from her, across subspace and into realspace. Saturn's eyes snapped open. The Awakening had begun.
Sylvie stared in horror across the now destroyed garden. Linna had evaporated in the bolt from above. Tears flowed from Sylvie's eyes. Someone gave themselves to save me again, she thought. She's gone. Sylvie's face hardened as she looked up into the cloud. If you can die, I will kill you, she thought.
At that moment, light erupted from every window and door of the palace, washing across the grounds like a wave. In its wake, the damage that had been done was washed away. Trees stood straight and tall once more. Flowers reached to the sky. The grass was no longer torn with great gashes of stone and clay. The light struck the cloud and it howled with a voice that sounded like the death cry of an entire world. Sylvie clutched her ears.
The light washed through Sylvie. She felt like her soul was on fire, growing lighter by the second as parts of it caught fire and burned away to ashes, which blew away in a spiritual wind. What remained behind glowed with a shining light. If she could have seen herself, she wouldn't have recognized herself.
She could barely recognize Meylia when she turned to her. Twin shining wings of blue light streamed out behind her, and her hair blew in the wind of the crystal's power. The tattoos upon her cheeks and forehead shone with a soft blue light, and all her years of age had dropped away. She looked no older than Sylvie now. As she stood erect, all traces of the fear and worthlessness that had paralyzed her was gone. Sylvie hadn't realized her own clothing was gone until she saw that Meylia was naked. It was not the nakedness of an adult, tainted by either arousal or shame, but that of a child, who needed no clothing to stand before the world, the nakedness of man and woman before the Fall.
For a moment, all the tragedies of human existence faded away. All the pain of their lives took a vacation, and their hearts were filled with joy. The stars shone down upon them once again; the evil, observing cloud burned away by hope and love. Who knows what joy lurks in the hearts of man?
Linna hovered in the mists above the cloud. She gave a great sigh of relief. Same trick worked for me as worked for him, she thought. A voice boomed through the air. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you." The cloud boiled up around her. She tried to teleport away, but it felt like pushing through a wall. Shit, she thought.
"Subspace is malleable to will, and my will is stronger than yours will ever be. I'm sorry I have to do this, Linna, but you leave me no choice." The cloud tried to force itself through cracks in her hardsuit. She focused her will and the cracks closed.
Now the air pressure increased and her suit began to buckle. She thought harder and the suit sprang back into shape, but the pressure became stronger and stronger. Mocking laughter surrounded her as her suit finally gave way. "You might have beaten me if you'd chosen the right tactics, but a weakling like you could never beat me in a test of strength. I destroyed an entire city. All you can destroy is yourself."
Linna struggled, trying to fix the suit with her mind. Normally, she might have despaired and given up, but she wouldn't let this bastard beat her. "You can kill my body, but you won't get my soul, you murdering bastard. At least now I know why you sucked in bed." She couldn't resist a last jab.
"What? I do not suck in bed!" The pressure eased slightly.
Linna smiled faintly. Guys can be so stupid sometimes. "I tell you, it was pretty hard faking an orgasm for your benefit."
There was silence for a moment. "You're lying."
"So did you have your real one replaced with a toothpick or were you always like that?" Linna knew she was only delaying the inevitable, but maybe someone would save her somehow if she could keep him busy, or he might slip enough to enable her to try to teleport away through subspace again.
Unfortunately, he now chose to play the berserk rage card. Linna could feel herself being crushed. Bones hovered on the verge of breaking. At the same time, he wasn't thinking clearly enough to block her well. She gathered her will to try to flee one more time.
Just as her ribcage began to break, he gave a great howl of agony that nearly drove Linna deaf. Linna seized her chance and fled in a panic, vanishing into the mists. As she vanished, the edge of a wave of light struck her. Seconds later, both she and her tormentor were gone.
Leon swore over and over and over at himself for being an idiot. Now a boomer had him by the throat and was about to kill him. A second boomer was picking up Haruka and Michiru. "Stop screwing around and kill the guy already," she said.
There was a moan from the table, and Usagi sat up, rubbing her head. The first boomer blinked. "Didn't I anaesthetize you?"
"Run, Usagi," Leon choked out.
Usagi saw Leon being held by the throat, her friends being carried off, and her husband lying battered on the floor. "No! You can't do this!"
"Stop me." the first boomer said.
Usagi began to scream, an ear piercing wail that cut through the walls, waking people up in adjacent buildings. The second boomer turned off its audio sensors in time. The first one instinctively put its hands to its ears in a fit of stupidity, dropping Leon in the process. It was the most hideous sound it had ever heard. It tried to move forward and knock her out, but the sound was too much for it. The second boomer sighed and headed for her.
It was at that moment that the two boomers picked up strange radiation pulses from all the people in the room except Leon and themselves. They hesitated, trying to deduce the meaning of this.
Leon, on the other hand, had a momentary vision, the first one of his entire life. He saw Priss, clad in pure white with wings like an angel, holding a sword, hovering in the air before him. She was more beautiful than he had believed possible. "Help us," he whispered. Something washed through him, a feeling of reassurance and calm. Somehow, he knew everything would be okay.
Usagi's screaming cut off like a switch turning off. For a moment, she was utterly silent, then she spoke in a voice that was calm and full of assurance. "Please go away. I don't want to have to hurt you."
The first boomer laughed. "As if you could hurt us."
Usagi stood on the table and put her hand on the brooch that was pinned to her blouse. "I could destroy you, but I don't want to have to. Please don't make me."
"Oh, I'm trembling." The boomer walked forward, now that the awful sound was over.
Leon quietly crawled towards his gun. Keep it up, Usagi, he thought. Keep them talking while I get my gun.
"So be it," Usagi said sadly. She raised one arm to the sky. "Moon eternal power!" A wave of light rushed through the room and she became Eternal Sailor Moon. Her wings promptly knocked a fifty thousand yen painting off the wall.
The boomers hesitated for a moment, unsure how to react to this. In that second, they lost their chance to survive. "Moon Tiara Action!" Well, actually it was one of her nicer plates, but it cut off their heads rather well. It wouldn't be much use for dinner, though. She turned to Leon, "Are you okay, Leon?" then rushed over to her husband.
Leon stared. "I'll be better when Priss gets here...I really need to learn to wait for backup."
Sailor Moon smiled. "I wouldn't want my future brother-in-law to get killed."
"You...you know?"
"I know now. She's coming for you, Leon. You can trust in that."
Saturn bowed to Priss, smiling. "Long have we waited for you." She stretched. "I feel refreshed. But then if 30 years isn't enough sleep for someone, you can't ever get enough sleep."
Priss laughed. The glow of the crystal faded now, and she sheathed her sword. The wings she had sprouted faded away, but the new uniform remained. "Come on, we've got to get back. Everyone is expecting us." Anri joined her and Saturn as they retraced their steps through the palace. The initial exhilaration of coming fully into her power had faded, but she felt a strong current of joy in her heart, and she could tell that Saturn and Anri did too. They walked quietly through the palace, for they needed no words.
They emerged into the garden where Sylvie and Meylia stood, clad once more in their normal garb. Unlike Priss, they looked worried. "Priss, have you seen Linna?" Sylvie asked very quietly.
"Not since I headed into the palace. She's missing?"
"The last we saw of her, she lead the cloud's blasts away from us, then vanished as one struck her." Meylia said. "We don't know if she's alive or dead." Her tone of voice was rather clear as to which option she thought was the case."
Priss couldn't believe it. "She can't be dead! She can't!"
"Unless she's unconscious somewhere, she ought to be back by now," Sylvie said quietly. "I hope she's alive, but..."
"We've got to find her!" Priss looked around. "There's a lot of ground to search, but..."
As she looked about, the entire grounds started to become translucent. Saturn said, "The test is over. This place will dissolve back into the mists."
"We'll never find her if that happens!"
"You'll never find her in subspace without someone who knows the ways of it to guide you." The group suddenly realized Pluto was standing behind them. "She is alive, thanks to you, Priss, but you will not find her. She must prepare herself for the test that lies before her, and that is a road she must walk without you, just as you faced your final test alone."
"You knew this would happen, didn't you." It wasn't a question.
"What must be, must be. I know where she is. I could take you there."
"But you won't."
"The consequences would be horrible beyond your imagination. Sometimes, one person must drink the cup of suffering undeservedly that others might be spared a draught that would destroy them."
"Damnit, it's my fault she got dragged into this! Tell us where she is so we can help her!" Priss' voice wavered. "Please. I don't know what it is you expect her to do, but if someone has to go, I'll go. Linna doesn't deserve to suffer."
Pluto's calm expression cracked for a moment, and Priss could see pain in Pluto's eyes. "Because you believe you deserve to suffer, you cannot do what she must."
"How the fuck would you know?" Priss shouted. Sylvie laid a hand on Priss's shoulder and tried to say something to calm her, but Priss shouted over Sylvie. "You won't even tell me where she is or what she has to do! What kind of goddamn game are you playing?"
"One who seeks death cannot champion life." She sighed. "Until you truly make your peace with the dead, this task is beyond you." Pluto stared into Priss' eyes. "How many times must a person die?"
"As many times as is necessary," Priss whispered.
"This is necessary." Pluto turned. "Also, your friends need you more than she does."
"Linna is my friend, damnit!"
"The majority of the Sailor Senshi are in the hands of GENOM. SHIVA's servants are on the march, and there is about to be a riot. The Stingrays, Nene, and the house of Jurai are about to come under an all-out assault. Finally, the man you love has been marked for death. Will you abandon them to their fate to thwart me?"
Priss winced. "Damn you!!!" She sagged.
"For better and for worse, my soul is beyond mortal power, much as I might wish otherwise." Pluto cut open a hole in the swirling mists with her staff. "God speed you home and bless your endeavours. The curtain has risen on the final chapter of this war." She stepped through the portal and vanished, leaving words hanging in the air. "The dance of SHIVA has begun."
Vanity of Vanities, says Quoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
What profit has man from all the labor
which he toils at under the sun?
— Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
Again I considered all the oppressions
that take place under the sun:
the tears of the victims with none to comfort them!
From the hand of their oppressors come violence,
and there is none to comfort them!
And those now dead, I declared more fortunate
in death than are the living to still be alive.
And better off than both is the yet unborn,
who has not seen the wicked work that is done under the sun.
— Ecclesiastes 4:1-3
Again I saw under the sun
that the race is not won by the swift,
nor the battle by the valiant,
nor a livelihood by the wise,
nor riches by the shrewd,
nor favor by the experts;
for a time of calamity comes to all alike.
— Ecclesiates 9:11
What man is he that yearneth
For length unmeasured of days?
Folly mine eye discerneth
Encompassing all his ways.
For years over-running the measure
shall change thee in evil wise:
Grief draweth nigh thee; and pleasure,
Behold it is hid from thine eyes.
This to their wage have they
Which overlive their day...
— Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
God has given me over to the impious;
into the clutches of the wicked he has cast me.
I was in peace, but he dislodged me;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces.
He has set me up for a target;
his arrows strike me from all directions.
He pierces my sides without mercy,
he pours out my gall upon the ground.
He pierces me with thrust upon thrust;
he attacks me like a warrior.
I have fastened sackcloth over my skin,
and have laid my brow in the dust.
My face is inflamed with weeping
and there is darkness over my eyes,
Although my hands are free from violence,
and my prayer is sincere.
— Job 18:11-17
Who can say, "I have made my heart clean,
I am cleansed of my sin"?
— Proverbs 20:9
"It's a good thing Celia had this tape of Manami performing. She's quite shy about showing off for us. Are you sure we can use it here, though?" The device that was attached to the viewscreen looked disturbingly jury-rigged.
"Wasyuu built this for me a long time ago. I'm pretty sure I repaired it correctly." Aeka put the tape into the off-mauve metal box, then sat back on the bench with her husband. They were sitting inside one of Ryu-oh's gardens.
The words 'Field Test 4 — Microcamera 2' appeared on the view screen. The first few minutes consisted of various chest height footage of a crowd trying to get into an auditorium that was too small for it.
"Wow, quite a mob of people coming to see the performance. But the camera is jiggling a lot."
Tenchi nodded. "This was filmed on some sort of concealed camera pin thing that Mackie took to the concert with him." He looked at his watch. "I thought Ryouko was coming."
"The last I saw of her, she and Mihoshi were trying to teach a group of boomers to sing 'Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum' or something. I told her we were going to watch a tape of Manami performing and she collapsed laughing, so I gave up."
Finally, the camera steadied, showing an empty stage. A few moments later, the opening band, Sonic and the Royal Family came on. When Aeka recognized Manami, she nearly fainted. When Manami started singing, she did faint.
Deep in the swirling mists of subspace, SHIVA stirred. It was time. One servant had failed to gain the Crystal, but he might still prove useful. SHIVA stretched out a hand and gathered the drifting remains of his servant from the void, feeding him power and renewing him. Slowly, the being that had come to think of himself as Z returned to consciousness. "Master?"
YOU FAILED ME.
"Yes, I did. I let myself be distracted by that girl."
THE DREAMWALKER.
"I should have ignored her and gone after the crystal. I can see that now." Death clears the mind wonderfully. Thousands of years of building madness had faded to a duller roar. The clarity of his purpose had returned.
YOU WON'T MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. It was not a question.
"What shall I do, master?"
SHOW ME WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN OF HER.
Z opened his mind to his master, creator, lord, and god.
If a god could start, SHIVA would have.
SO, SHE IS THE ONE.
"I don't understand."
YOU COULD NOT. I WONDERED WHEN THEY WOULD MEDDLE IN THIS. NOW I KNOW. GO, FIND THE CRYSTAL AND BRING IT TO ME. I MUST DEAL WITH THIS ONE MYSELF. IT IS NO WONDER YOU FAILED. THOUGH HOW THEY HOPED TO FOOL ME WITH THIS TRICK A SECOND TIME...
"I thought she died. I could feel her dying as I...died."
ARE YOU STILL DEAD?
"No."
THERE'S YOUR ANSWER. NOW GO.
Z went.
Linna floated in the void, naked to the world, not that there was anything in the mist to see her. So this is what death feels like, she thought. Her body still ached. I thought at least the pain went away. She wished for a nice soft comfy bed and got one. I guess I'm still in subspace, she thought. I must not have really died.
"It depends on your definition of death," said a voice nearby. It was the voice of Master Hiromi.
Linna rolled over on the bed. "Well, if I'm dead, I don't have a body, so I shouldn't be feeling any pain. Did we win?"
Linna finally saw Master Hiromi. Or to be more precise, the being that sounded like Master Hiromi. She was dressed, for one thing, in a long blue satin Chinese style dress slit up along the thighs. For another thing, she looked thirty to forty years younger than Linna remembered her Master being. Her hair was long, not cut short, and it was a pleasant green instead of grey. Only her eyes remained the same, though they now twinkled with a light Linna had rarely seen in her Master's eyes. "The battle has only begun, Linna. Priss found the crystal, if that is what you mean, and none of your companions have yet fallen."
Linna tried to sit up. "Ugh. I've got to go help them." She flopped over and fell back down. "Aaaaah, my ribs...."
The woman walked over to her. "Your ribcage has been crushed, more bones than I know the names for are broken, and only the gods know how much internal damage to your organs."
"Master Hiromi, is that really you? You look so..."
The woman laughed. "Young? That is because Master Hiromi is dead."
Linna choked. "No..."
"Yes. Losing her dream self was too much for an old woman. Normally, it would have only turned her into a vegetable, but given her age, she died." She put a hand on Linna's forehead and the worst of the agony faded.
"I...then who are you?"
"Tz'u Hsi was the egg. Master Hiromi was the caterpillar. Death was the cocoon. I am the butterfly."
"But if you're dead...but you say I'm not?"
"You hover on the verge of death. You must either step forward and embrace your destiny, or step backwards and pray that Chance will master Fate on your behalf."
Linna was thoroughly confused. "But if I'm not dead, how can you be here?"
"I did not say I was dead. I said that Hiromi's body died. It is better that way. She was miserable, now I am content."
Linna had the vague feeling Master Hiromi was trying to teach her another lesson, but the haze of pain in her head made it hard to think. "You said I don't have to die?"
"You need but ask and this cup will be taken from you. Only a willing sacrifice truly has power."
"What...what will happen if I do not die?"
"I cannot see the future. You will be free to rejoin your friends. Perhaps there is another who can accomplish this task. I do not know who that person might be. I am no god or goddess, no mistress of fate. I would go in your place if I could, but I cannot. I must await my turn to reenter the dance of life. These are my last footsteps upon the stage for a time."
Linna didn't want to die, but she knew Master Hiromi had never lied to her. "What will happen to me if I...chose to die?"
"You will face the greatest test of your life, with your soul on the line. You will experience pain you cannot possibly imagine. You will experience horrors that would break me in an instant. That is why no one can make you do this. SHIVA will try to destroy you. He must be faced, or he will destroy us all. Will you face him, Linna?"
"He's the one behind all this?"
"So he believes."
"I'll go. What do I have to do?" She winced. "Please tell me I don't have to do it with my ribs broken."
"No more than my hair is gray." She pulled a sword out of the air. It was the one that Linna had seen so many times on Hiromi's weapon rack. "Angels of the Four Corners, I invoke thee. " She scratched a circle in the mist around the bed. Silver fire sprung up in her wake. She paused at each of the four points of the compass. "Raphael, who comes with the morning's glow, I invoke thee. Michael, who leads the armies of Heaven, I invoke thee. Gabriel, who bears the messages of the Lord of Heaven, I invoke thee. Uriel, who bears death with the setting sun, I invoke thee. Come now and open the way. Send one to bear this one, thy servant, to her fate." The ring of silver fire surrounded them now, cutting off all view of the mists of subspace.
"Wow, I never knew you practiced magic like this," Linna said.
The one who had once been Hiromi laughed. "I saw this on an anime once, that's all..."
As a winged figure appeared and snatched Linna away, Linna managed to gasp out, "You're kidding!"
"In subspace, all you need is will...anything else is just a focus for your mind, a crutch to help you believe. Remember that!"
Sailor Moon and Leon managed to revive everyone. Mamoru smiled at Sailor Moon. "Nice to see I didn't forget everything this time."
Sailor Moon laughed. "No hanging around in a turban, either."
Leon pretended he had any idea what they were talking about. "So I suppose you're Tuxedo Kamen."
Mamoru stood and transformed in an instant. "You're right, Leon."
Across the room, Haruka sat quietly and stared at the wall. Michiru touched his shoulder. "Haruka-kun."
Silence.
"Haruka-kun."
Silence.
She leaned closer and whispered into his ear. "Haruka-kun."
Silence.
This time, she tried shouting. "Haruka-kun!!!!!!"
Haruka visibly wobbled like a weeble, then spoke quietly. "What am I, Michiru?"
"You're the one I love."
"Don't evade my question."
"If you're asking why the crystal made you a boy for thirty-four years, I can't answer that. Maybe it's because your past self in the Silver Millennium was a boy. I don't know. You'd know better than I would."
"What's going to happen if I transform? I don't know how to be a girl anymore." He shuddered faintly.
Michiru hugged him tightly. "You never were that good at being feminine anyway."
He rolled his eyes. "You're a big help."
"Dammit, I don't know what to tell you! You keep acting like I could shake my magic wand and make this all go away so you wouldn't have to deal with it!" Michiru tried to rein in her temper and succeeded. "Whatever happens, I will love you. I have loved you as a boy and as a girl, and both loves were true, for it was the same person that I loved. You love me, don't you?"
Haruka turned and hugged Michiru fiercely. "With all my heart." He sighed. "I just feel like there's something here...like I'm supposed to learn something, but I don't know what."
Sailor Moon came over. "Are you okay, Haruka? What's wrong?"
Haruka bowed his head. "I'm just...I'm fine, Princess." He stood up. "We've got to go save the others. They should have contacted us by now if they weren't being held captive."
Michiru stood up as well. "Assuming they remember."
Sailor Moon smiled. "I felt my sister touching them all. She has awakened each and everyone of us. We must go to them. GENOM has them, no doubt." She turned to Leon. "Leon, this is Haruka and Michiru, also known as Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune."
"Nice to meet you." Leon did a double-take. "Wait. Sailor Uranus?"
Haruka winced. "My life is kinda complicated."
Leon looked at Haruka again. "Hey, I've seen you in races, haven't I? I saw you get interviewed on ESPN a loooong time ago."
Haruka smiled. "I was born to run like the wind." He turned to Sailor Moon. "We must go. I don't have my car, but you two have one, right?"
Leon heard ADPolice vehicles arriving outside. "Hmm. Sounds like my co-workers are arriving, unless sirens are now in fashion. I don't suppose someone besides me could stick around long enough so I can make a report without looking insane again? I already..." A thought struck him. "So Bishop Hino is Sailor Mars, right?"
Sailor Moon blinked. "How did you know that?"
He laughed. "I used my special Moon Detection Powers and figured it out from the red sand on her shoes."
"You have special Moon Detection Powers?" Sailor Moon asked. "Can you use them to figure out where our friends are?"
Leon would have facefaulted if he could have stopped laughing so hard he couldn't stand up anyway.
Wasyuu sat and typed away, pretending she wasn't watching the subspace door out of the corner of one eye and that she wasn't starting to worry. A tiny bell rang. "Ahh, this search finally finished."
She clicked a button and the screen divided, shoving her current work to one side. Two pictures came up on the screen. Ah, so I've finally located what I've been looking for. The first picture was someone she expected to see. I thought he'd be one of them. Then she looked at the second picture and nearly choked.
It's not possible. It has to be a coincidence. Deep down, Wasyuu knew better, but sometimes lying to yourself is the only way to cope.
Quincy strode through the halls of GENOM. It was time to take desperate measures. Z ran around a corner, wearing the curly blond haired body again. Quincy glanced over at him. "I take it you failed.
"I made many unnecessary mistakes."
Quincy laughed at him. "Is there such a thing as a necessary mistake?"
Z ignored the laughter. "How many of the Sailors and their friends have we secured?"
"All of the Inner Senshi except Sailor Moon. Their husbands. Pluto's husband. However, due to ADPolice intervention, we seem to have lost Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Kamen, Uranus, and Neptune. Nor have we found Pluto. Unlike the others, she seems to have known we were coming, as we should have expected."
They continued walking rapidly down the hallway. "It will have to do. It's enough for me to lure them here where I can hopefully destroy them, or use their friends as hostages for force them to hand over the crystal."
"If my memories and research are correct, Uranus and Neptune would probably let you slay the others and themselves before they'd hand over the Silver Crystal," Quincy pointed out.
Z laughed. "Perhaps it is better that we did not capture Sailor Moon then, eh? Whoever among the dreamwalker's friends found the crystal, she will no doubt bring it to Sailor Moon, and we both know that while Sailor Moon has many powers, ruthlessness is not one of them. She will give us the crystal to save her friends. She would give her life if she had to."
"What of the dreamwalker?"
"She is dead." He knew he shouldn't lie, but he didn't want to admit he had failed so miserably in front of Quincy.
Quincy raised an eyebrow. "You slew a dreamwalker in subspace. I suppose you created a new race of sentients while you were at it."
"I felt her die."
"Let me guess. You threw her in the briar patch?"
Z frowned. "She's dead, X. Dead. She's not coming back." Not if the master is going to deal with her.
"Where shall I tell her to find you?"
Z frowned. "With the prisoners." He strode off, then cursed himself for actually answering that question.
The door in Wasyuu's laboratory opened up. She cursed and quickly wiped away her tears, then turned to face the returning band of heroines. Priss stepped through first, looking rather angry, followed by Sylvie and Anri, with Meylia bringing up the rear. Wasyuu stared at Priss. "What are you doing in Juraiian battle garb?"
"What's it to you? I'll wear what I fucking want to."
Sylvie said, "Mother...we...lost Linna. Priss is upset."
Wasyuu sighed. "I was afraid she wasn't ready for this. Tsunami should have gone with you. She's much more experienced than that child."
Priss glared at Wasyuu. "Linna is not a child! Dammit, none of us were ready for this! Don't give me your goddamn condescension!" She stormed over and glared down at Wasyuu. "You childish bitch. Is this all just some experiment to you?"
Wasyuu rarely gave herself to rage. Anger was unhealthy, pointless and unscientific. It was her policy to never get angry, but for Priss, she would make an exception. She glared back at Priss. "If I was truly childish, I would kill you now. You will never leave this lab alive if I do not let you leave. And who are you to call me childish?" She reined in her voice. "I am the second oldest living being on this planet. When I was born, your ancestors were banging rocks together to make fire. When I was imprisoned by Kagato, your ancestors had just figured out that you could do interesting things with iron." Wasyuu began to grow, assuming her adult form, which could look Priss in the eye. "You weren't even a sperm and an egg when I got out of that imprisonment. I have visited five galaxies. I have seen entire star systems die. I have outlived my entire species. Do you know how many people I have had to watch die? People I cared about? You whine and pule because your family died in a fucking earthquake. A nova wiped out my homeworld while I was trapped and could do nothing. The last of my race died friendless and alone when your island was inhabited by rock worshipping barbarians. Do you know how many friends I have lost over the years? Laboratory accidents alone have claimed more people than you will ever meet. I could populate this city with my dead."
She stepped forward, and Priss retreated. "My husband was taken from me and there was nothing I could do. My infant child was pulled from my arms and taken away...then they both died in a shuttle accident that would never have happened if they had stayed with me. I lost the love of my life because I wasn't 'high class' enough for his family. I didn't have a pedigree good enough for them, as if I was some sort of rarlycor or a trained pirta. I didn't trust anyone for thousands of years. He betrayed me and locked me away for three thousand years. I sat, trapped, alone, with nothing to do, for three thousand years. Do you think you could have dealt with that?"
Priss struggled to speak, but she couldn't. She had finally made someone angrier than she was, and she didn't know what to do. Five millnenia of repressed anger was targeted on her. She staggered back, nearly tripping over a machine. Meylia tried to move between the two, but Sylvie and Anri held her back.
"I finally loved again...and I lost out to my own daughter! Do you know how humiliating that is? How humiliating it is to be in love with someone I am 79 times older than? The worst part of it is that I can't stop! He's been married for over twenty years and I still can't turn off the goddamn emotions every time I see him! You whine about losing people you loved! At least they aren't around, taunting you unmercifully just by existing with a love you know will never be! I was beaten by a virtual infant compared to me and by my own child!" Wasyuu was getting louder and louder. Sylvie began moving towards her, worried she was going to snap and do something permanent to Priss.
"And the worst part of it, is that I can't do anything about it! I could strap him in a machine and make him love me in an instant, but that wouldn't be real. I could destroy my own daughter to get rid of one of my rivals, but I couldn't do that because I love my children more than I love myself. I could destroy Aeka, but he wouldn't like that." Her voice dipped. "And that means more to me than anything else in the world. I can pretend to be the uncaring beast I became after I lost my husband, but it's not fun anymore if it makes him unhappy." She paused. "Why the hell am I telling you this, you little brat? Damn you for making me talk about this!!!!!"
Sylvie moved to Wasyuu's side. "Mother..." Her voice had a warning tone to it.
Priss cowered. Fear had taken her. Only her pride kept her from turning and fleeing for her life.
For a moment, Wasyuu glared at Sylvie, then suddenly she deflated like a balloon, sagging back into her child-like form. She sighed. "You're right, daughter. I'm being childish, just as bad as I'm accusing her of being."
Sylvie hugged Wasyuu tightly.
Wasyuu turned to Priss and said, "Dammit, child! Your entire world is going to fucking die if we don't all hold ourselves together! This isn't just some excuse for you to act out your damn death wish! Linna knew the risks she was taking! The risks you take every day! I'm sure she wouldn't be whining and picking fights with people if you were dead! I'm sorry she died and I wish it hadn't happened, but we have to go on. If you want to die and go join her, I'll be happy to oblige you, but otherwise, we need to work together so her sacrifice won't be in vain. So what's it going to be?"
Priss cursed herself for falling apart and said quietly, "We work together. I...I'm sorry."
"I'm the one who should be sorry, Priss. At my age, I ought to have learned not to get carried away like that." Wasyuu sighed. "I'll contact the others. I suppose you're going to go find your sister now."
Priss nodded, unnaturally subdued. "We're off to find her." And Leon, she thought. "Let's go."
She and Meylia and Sylvie headed for the exit to realspace. Anri hung back and went over to Wasyuu, hugging her. "Are you going to be okay, mom?"
Wasyuu sagged. "I haven't been that angry since Kagato imprisoned me. I thought I'd never be that angry again. I must have spent entire weeks in a fugue of berserk anger at times, even though I couldn't move. I'd spend entire days planning a five-year cycle of tortures to use on him when I got out. Finally, all the rage burned out of me. I didn't think I'd ever get angry again after that. But then, I never thought I'd love again either."
"You want me to stay with you?"
"Go with Priss, child. She needs you. Let your caution and your love temper her rage and her impulsiveness." She sighed. "She is so much like your sister Ryouko."
Anri turned to go. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"I'll be fine." Wasyuu put on her best smile. "May the currents guide you and the wind be ever at your back, guiding you home to harbor. I sail into the setting sun, bidding you farewell, until we meet again beyond the sea or on it." She hugged her daughter. "Go out and show them how it's done."
Anri laughed and departed. "Bye, Mom. Don't lock the door before I get home." She flew off, unaware that Wasyuu had bid her farewell with the traditional farewell used by inhabitants of her homeworld who expected to die before they met again.
Quincy punched in the authorization codes, then turned to Director Anna Holmes and Executive Vice President Ryu Matanabe. They nodded grimly and punched in their authorization codes. Quincy put the helmet over his head and merged with the Overmind System. X flowed out of him and into the system. In an instant, he became one with it. In theory, the Overmind system would allow a human to take control of any boomer in the world instantly and control it utterly. Bulk generic orders could be issued to hundreds of boomers, but only a handful could actually be puppeted at a time, for a human mind was limited. When it came to machines, X's limits transcended humans by an almost unimaginable factor. With such a tool, he felt he could move the world. He was close to the mark.
Thousands of boomer minds became one. X linked the arcane powers of the ancient node upon which he had purposefully built GENOM Tower to the Overmind System. It was about to do things which its designers had never intended. While it held out under the strain, he would be the next best thing to a god.
It took X instants to master the mind of every boomer in SDPC. It took under a half an hour to determine that he had been tricked. SDPC had nothing to do with the takeover of Genaros, or the missing satellites, or the missing Ingrams. Then he tried to find the Ingrams and something blocked him, even at his augmented level of power. He began to batter through the barrier, which began to yield, but very, very slowly. Nothing could stand before his might. He had been tricked, and he knew who must be responsible. He could sense them now, scattered about the city, the world...He could feel the House of Jurai's members, like ants biting his skin. Power intoxicated him. He would crush them beneath his heels.
Boomers swarmed like flies, and he laughed. They will die! All of them! Power corrupts. If you're already corrupt...it lets you make a really big mess. X had kept his sanity in part by restrained use of his powers, by not tapping the source of both his power and his kind's tendencies to madness. He was lost in power now, like a drunkard falling off the wagon, gone on a bender of absolute power. All would know his might.
Linna stared at the woman who was carrying her. Her hair was long and black, and there was a blue circle on her forehead. She wore red and blue baggy clothing and possessed a pair of huge white beautiful wings. Her age was hard to determine, but she seemed to be around Linna's age or maybe a little older. Her eyes sparkled with glee, and she had a huge hammer on a stick strapped to her back. She spoke loudly. "So, you're the one."
Linna squirmed. "Oww...owww...owwwwwww....this really hurts being carried like this."
"Oh yeah, broken ribs. Sorry about that. We're almost there." The mists parted over a huge lake. "Ahh, there we are." The lake stretched out to infinity, and the only way Linna knew it wasn't a sea was that there was no smell of brine. "You ready?"
"If you make me...owwwww...swim, I'm going to hurt you."
"I guess I'm about to suffer." She let go of Linna, who screamed as she plummeted into the water. "Just be glad you're not a bug!" she shouted at Linna. "I don't have to hit you with my hammer too!"
Linna struck the water, which embraced her with warm arms. For a moment, her body was racked with agony, as if her flesh was being torn from her bones. She thanked the gods she had at least managed to get her mouth shut before she hit the water so she wouldn't drown. She struggled to try to stop descending, realizing as she did so that the aches and pains in her body had lessened. Struggling to reach the surface, she realized she'd never make it in time. I'm going to freaking drown.
Something was moving in the water. It was the angel. "Open your mouth and breathe," she said. "If you try to hold your breath, you'll suffocate!"
Linna couldn't reply. She kept trying to swim to the surface, praying she'd make it before she ran out of air.
"Damnit, Linna, if you don't breathe, you'll die! In subspace, you can hold your breath until you die again! Your will is stronger than your instincts! The water won't kill you, but you can!"
Linna stared at her. This had to be some kind of trick. I can't breathe water.
"Yes you can! You just have to believe! Have a little faith! I wouldn't bring you here to die!"
Linna closed her eyes. She believed, opened her mouth, and lived. She felt the water flowing into her, bringing her new life. The pain ebbed from her body. She savoured the sweet taste of the water in her mouth. She spoke in amazement, "What is this?"
"The mother of all waters and their grave. The ocean beyond oceans. The great sea of the water of life. You have been immersed and made clean." The angel did an idle backflip in the water. "Oh, by the way, my name is Skuld."
Linna laughed like a small child, zipping about. She had always loved to swim. "It feels so warm. I feel like I could stay here forever."
"Sadly, we cannot. We must go now that you are healed."
"Do we have to? Can't I stay a little while longer?" Linna idly did a backstroke through the water.
"A pleasure can be experienced, but if we cling to it, it turns to bitterness in our mouth. Those who cling to past pleasures become incapable of experiencing new ones. We must take the adventure that Kamisama has put before us."
"In other words, you can never go home again."
"Not in the same way. Even if it does not change, you will. Let us go." She dived deeper into the water and Linna followed her. After what seemed like hours of swimming, they reached the bottom of the lake and dove into a deep tunnel further into the earth below.
The tunnel finally opened up into a pool in a dimly lit cavern. Huge stalagmites and stalactites poked down from the ceiling and up from the floor, forming strange shapes that seemed to change whenever Linna didn't look directly at them. She clambered out of the water, and was instantly dry.
"Lead on, Virgil," she said to Skuld, who laughed.
"Then who is Beatrice?" Skuld said, winking.
"A very large corporation. I've invested quite a bit in Beatrice," Linna said.
Skuld laughed louder. "This way, sahib." They walked through the caverns, which were lit only by dim phosphorescent lichens and the glow from Skuld's wings.
The cavern narrowed into a tunnel, and the tunnel ended at a door. A young girl playing with a Minky Momo plushie stood in front of the door. "Who are you that would pass my door?"
"My name is Linna, little girl."
"I'm not little!" the girl tried to bellow. She was almost as terrifying as an angry smurf. "Why are you naked?"
Linna started, suddenly realizing she was naked. The answer swam into her mind. "Because I have just been born, and I was born with no clothing."
The child opened the door. "Take the clothing that awaits you and pass on with my blessing."
Beyond the door, the tunnel continued. Just beyond the door was a hook in the wall, on which hung a simple white robe and a belt. Linna put it on and tied it at the waist with the belt. Walking onwards with Skuld, she asked, "How much farther must we go?"
"Until you are ready for what is to come."
Linna reached a second door, this one manned by a teenage girl. "Why have you no weapons and armor?" the girl asked.
"My body is the only weapons and armor I was born with."
The girl nodded. "Arm yourself then with your weapons, put on your armor, and pass on with my blessing."
Linna opened the door and found a staff of oak and a blue headband like she always wore. She wrapped it round her head, took up the staff and moved on. "How much further, Skuld?"
"As far as is necessary."
Ryu, Mackie, Manami, and Nene had almost finished dinner when suddenly a threatening presence loomed over the table. They didn't notice it at first, which made it even madder. Ryu said to Nene, "You do have the tickets for ADPolice Academy II, right?"
Nene sighed. "I do have the tickets." I think.
Manami ignored the vague feeling she had of doom. This date will go well, she thought. It's going well so far. No reason for me to panic.
Mackie had that feeling of doom as well. Looking up, he saw a very angry Aeka looming over Manami from behind. "Um, Manami-chan..."
"Yes?"
"Does your mother normally tag along on your dates and loom menacingly over you?"
"What?"
Ryu looked over. "Oh, hi, Mother. What's up? Did something go wrong?"
Aeka tried to speak, but nothing but incoherent sputtering came out.
Manami turned around and paled. "Mother, what's wrong?" Manami had a feeling she knew exactly what was wrong.
At this point, Tenchi ran in the front door of the restaurant. "Aeka, calm down!" I never thought she could move this fast, he thought.
"Music..." Aeka managed to grate out. "Evil Muuuussssiiiicccc...."
Mackie blinked. "Evil music?"
Ryu said, "Looks like that secret's blown. You won't mind if I take Nene and hide on another planet, will you, Manami?"
Manami would have said something, but her mother was strangling her. Tenchi ran over and tried to pull Aeka off of Manami. Ryu got up and tried to help his dad. Mackie and Nene stood and watched helplessly, making occasional useless inane comments.
Noa saw this and got up, excusing herself from her friends. It's my duty to resolve this as the manager, she thought. She came over. "Excuse me, but brawling is against our rules here."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Shinohara," Tenchi said. "My wife just found out our daughter is in a punk band and she's not handling it well."
Manami flailed about pointlessly as her mother babbled incoherently at her about honor, duty, and suicide. Ryu finally managed to pry one of Aeka's arms from around Manami's throat so she could breathe.
Noa laughed a little. "Don't make me sic Alphonse on you, ma'am. I'd really appreciate it if you could stop strangling your daughter so I won't have to make a scene."
Aeka took a deep breath and let go. "Manami...how could you?"
Her voice was very quiet. "Because I like music like that."
Aeka began to cry herself a river. "I've failed as a mother." Blah blah blah. The usual rant about ungrateful children, bringing dishonor on the family for generations to come, a thousand years of solitude, followed. Most of the group turned off their ears having heard this a thousand times before. Tenchi started timing it with his stopwatch.
Finally, Noa said, "Well, if you're all done strangling each other..."
Tenchi nodded. "She should keep going another three minutes, then she'll be okay."
Noa turned to go. The army of boomers chose that moment to break through the walls. It was a motley horde, ranging from haircut boomers to pet boomers to a smattering of combat boomers. The four combat boomers began to rake the room with gunfire. Guests fled for their lives or died on the spot. John McClaine kicked over his group's table and pulled everyone down behind it. He turned to his wife. "See, I told you. No more vacations ever again! I've had enough of this." His wife bowed her head, defeated.
The horde of boomers began to rampage, laying waste to the restaurant. The four combat boomers turned and homed in on the table Noa had gone over to. They zoomed across the room and their particle cannons warmed up. Asuma watched in horror as they fired at his wife. Beams of blue energy crossed the room in an instant, homing in on the five people they were being egged on to kill by a commanding voice that could not be denied. Four of their targets possessed the blood of Jurai, and one was the especial enemy of the voice driving them onwards. A semi-innocent bystander stood in the blast zone as well, but she would just be gravy.
Asuma closed his eyes. He couldn't bear to watch. All fell silent for a moment. There was no screaming. Somehow, he could tell Noa was okay, though his mind couldn't believe that was possible. He opened his eyes, and could hardly believe what he saw. Noa was unhurt and now running towards Alphonse. The man whose wife had been strangling his daughter stood between the boomers and his family, one arm outstretched. Just beyond his hand, three six foot long white wedges floated in the air, glowing brightly. The boomers fired a second time and the three wedges stopped the blasts.
An instant later, waves of light and sound erupted from the vicinity of that table. The man's wife and daughter turned and fired energy blasts at two of the combat boomers, blowing them to tiny bits. The man's son disappeared and reappeared behind a third boomer, slicing its head off with an energy blade. The red haired girl somehow called up a battlesuit from nowhere.
Soon, the tide of battle turned. Noa scrambled up into Alphonse and activated him. The various menial labor boomers were almost as effective against Alphonse as toy soldiers against an M-1 tank. Three more combat boomers arrived, and lived long enough to fire off two or three shots. Juraiians ran wild, blowing boomers to tiny bits. Within about four minutes, it was all over.
Kanuka whispered to Asuma, "Please tell me this doesn't happen frequently in Mega-Tokyo."
"This doesn't happen frequently in Mega-Tokyo."
Moemi stood up. "Good job, Mom! You been practicing on the neighbors again?"
Noa laughed. "I'm practicing for my starring role in Labor Day Labor Massacre II."
Linna reached a third door, guarded by a woman in the fullness of maturity. She smiled at Linna. "Why have you no wings with which to fly?"
"I was not born with wings. My dance is the only wings I possess."
The woman nodded. "That is wings enough. Pass on with my blessing."
Linna opened the door and as she stepped through it, wings sprouted from her back, erupting through the robe she wore. She stopped in shock and instinctively flapped her wings once, sending Skuld's hair flying. "Can I really fly with these, Skuld?"
"As far as is necessary."
Linna blinked. "Are you listening to me, Skuld?"
Skuld laughed. "Sorry, couldn't resist. Yes, Linna, wings are made for flying."
Linna reached a fourth door, this one manned by an old woman who looked hauntingly familiar, yet Linna could not recognize her. "Why have you no wisdom?"
"I was born with only my heart to guide me."
"That is all the wisdom you will ever need. Follow your heart, Linna, and pass on to the battle that awaits you." She opened the door for Linna.
Skuld said, "My journey with you is ended, Linna. Go forth, and meet your destiny."
"But...I don't know what I must do."
"Did you not hear what you just said? Open yourself to wisdom and it will come to your heart. Go forward with courage and you will know what to do." Skuld stepped forward and hugged Linna. "May the Lord of Heaven bless you and hold you in the palm of his hand."
"Thank you, Skuld." Linna prayed it was true, turned, and stepped through the door.
Celia cursed. The city was going to hell in a handbasket, the Knight Sabres were scattered all over creation, and in fact, one of them was dead, or at best, gone. Priss was off somewhere hunting for the Sailors. Nene was halfway across town along with most of Celia's relatives. The only person actually in the building with her was Youshou, although Ryouko and Sasami would be here soon. Mihoshi and Kiyone were coming, but they were halfway around the planet right now and it would take them a little while.
Youshou looked up. "I agree. Being caught off guard like this is not good. They must have realized we were going after the Crystal and wanted to strike first."
"Damnit, I never should have let Mackie go on that date." She sat down hard and pulled herself together. "I should have anticipated this."
"No one expects you to be all-knowing, great-granddaughter. We have all made mistakes. Indeed, I have had many more years than you to make mistakes and have made many more." He cocked his head slightly. "I believe Ryouko is here."
A few seconds later, she phased up through the floor. "Hiya, gramps. Hi, Celia. So when do we go blow up the Tower?"
Celia smiled faintly. "We have to wait for everyone to get here."
Ryouko sat down in the air. "Right. Maybe I should nip across town and see how Tenchi is doing."
"He's fine. Sasami is going to pick them up." Youshou said.
Celia blinked. "Can't they just drive?"
"Excuse me, I have to make a phone call." He got up and left.
Ryouko frowned. "He's up to something."
"How can you tell?"
"He's breathing."
Linna stood in a vast Roman-style arena, at the bottom of a huge pit surrounded by vast stands of stone seats reaching up to the sky. A blue sky vaulted over the arena, though she couldn't see the sun anywhere. The arena was empty, but clean, as if it had just been prepared for a grand event. Linna looked back and the door through which she had entered was gone. Now what? No one is here, she thought, and there's no way to get up out of the arena pit. She turned round and round, then remembered her wings. So how do I take off? I guess I'll try the Superman method. She ran across the arena, flapping her wings, then jumped. She soared up into the air.
For a few minutes, Linna lost herself in flight. It was a wonderful experience of freedom, the like of which she had rarely felt. No wonder Celia put flight capabilities in her hardsuit, she thought. I wonder how long I can fly without getting tired? That thought made her resolve to actually fly to something while she still could.
While she had been lost in thought, dark clouds, all too familiar, had rumbled into view on the southern horizon and now were moving to cover the southern half of the stadium. She could see the shadow they cast creep across the arena floor, laying claim to it. She flew up and landed upon a seating box at the far end of the stadium. I guess this is where the emperor would sit, she thought.
The cloud laid claim to half the stadium, then stopped. A voice boomed across the stadium.
SURRENDER AND YOUR DEATH WILL BE SWIFT. DEFY ME AND I WILL TORTURE YOU FOR MILLENIA BEFORE YOU DIE.
Linna shuddered. The voice was not so much heard as felt. It was like a 200 DB whisper. The cloud was much like the one she had faced before, but she knew in her heart it was not the same, any more than a pet cat is the same as a lion. I couldn't beat Robert...how can I beat this thing? For a moment, the arena filled with people and she saw Christians being torn apart by lions, downed gladiators getting a thumbs down, a pack of wolves savaging a bear. The moment passed, the images faded, and she choked down her fear. No one is invincible. There has to be some way to defeat him. "I won't surrender."
THEN YOU WILL DIE.
The cloud rumbled and Linna could see lightning bolts jumping back and forth between parts of it. "Who are you and why are you hiding up in the clouds like a spineless coward?" Let's see if he's dumb enough to be taunted, she thought, praying he was.
WHO AM I? WHILE YOUR ANCESTORS SWUNG IN THE TREES AND ATE NUTS AND BERRIES, I WAS. BEFORE THE FIRST CREATURE CRAWLED OUT OF YOUR SEAS ONTO THE LAND, I WAS. WHEN YOUR BALL OF ROCK, WATER, AND GAS WAS STILL FORMING FROM THE CHAOS THAT SPAWNED IT, I WAS.
The cloud spat lightning and fire into the arena, and a figure formed from the midst of the whirling pillar of destruction. It changed constantly as Linna gazed upon it. It was a blazing pillar of fire, it was a man with six arms, holding a flame, a gem, a sword, a human heart, a pool of water, and nothing at all, it was a woman with a belt of skulls and a skirt of human hair, her eyes bone white, her skin a deep black like darkest night, it was a silly looking man with an ugly brown mustache and a receding hairline, it was a tentacular monstrosity with greenish gelatinous skin, huge batlike wings, faceted eyes, and tentacles around a hidden mouth.
I AM SHIVA, THE LORD OF DESTRUCTION, AND I SHALL DANCE ON THE GRAVE OF YOUR WORLD, SPREADING MY CLEANSING FIRE THROUGH ALL THE COSMOS, RETURNING ALL THINGS TO THE NOTHING FROM WHENCE THEY CAME.
Flames whirred around the figure as it laughed. It moved constantly, in an everchanging pattern, smoke, flame, and lightning erupting from its limbs, for the dance of SHIVA is neverending. And still it changed. It took the shape of a man with slick black hair, then a similar man, but with pitch white mottled skin and red eyes, then a woman with long black hair, vials of poison in her hands, then a tanned woman with a knobby forehead, clad in strange black garb. No shape could interpret SHIVA for long.
It scared Linna more than anything she had ever seen. Many of the shapes were alien to her, but some were far too familiar, insinuating possibilities she didn't want to think about. She knew what Shiva was, at least in the myths. How do I fight a god? Unless Vishnu wanders by to help out with one of his avatars, I'm screwed unless I can trick him somehow. I wonder if he plays chess.
Memories of a cheesy movie she had seen once on a classic movie channel floated through her mind, and she laughed. That's it, I'll challenge him to Twister. She threw back her head and her laughter filled the arena.
In all the history of the universe, SHIVA had seen many things. However, no one had ever laughed at him in all that time.
FOOLISH MORTAL WHO LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF HER OWN DEATH, NO ONE CAN ESCAPE MY POWER. IN YOUR HUSTLE AND BUSTLE, YOU ALL SEEK TO DEFY AND ESCAPE ME, BUT IN THE END, I GATHER ALL THINGS TO MYSELF AND GIVE THEM PEACE FROM ALL THEIR FUTILE STRIVINGS. ALL ROADS LEAD TO MY DANCE, MY EMBRACE, THEIR DESTRUCTION. I AM THE LORD OF THE DANCE OF DESTRUCTION, AND IN THE END, ALL THINGS ARE MINE.
Dance. There's two things I do well, Linna thought. I fight...and I dance. Maybe I can challenge him to a dance. She felt incredibly silly just thinking about it, but it was her best hope. But how to decide who wins? Suddenly, she remembered a dream, and she knew what she had to do. 'Remember us, Linna, dancer and warrior. We shall come when you call us, but choose the time wisely,' the middle Fate had said. 'For we are the judges of the living and dead. Even the gods cannot escape the power of Fate', the oldest had said.
"I challenge you, Shiva, before the tribunal of the Fates, who judge the living and the dead, gods and mortals alike."
SHIVA continued his endless movement in silence for a moment, then spoke.
WHO ARE YOU THAT WOULD INVOKE THE FATES AGAINST ME, YOUR RIGHTFUL MASTER?
"You don't own me, and you never will. Neither in death, nor in life have you any claim on me. I am Linna Yamazaki, and I dance the dance of life, which never ends despite all you do." Linna stretched out her arms. "Let the Fates decide between us!"
The air shimmered at the edge of the shadow cast by SHIVA's clouds. Three figures appeared, clad in purple, yellow, and green. They floated in the air between Linna and SHIVA in silence for a moment, then spoke. The youngest of the Fates said, "We have come to pass judgment in this contest."
The middle Fate spoke. "To the challenged goes the right to decide who shall go first. What is your choice, SHIVA?"
SHIVA glowered for a moment, then spoke.
I SHALL GO FIRST. GAZE UPON MY POWER AND DESPAIR.
The oldest spoke. "Let the contest begin."
SHIVA smiled like a cat looking at a legless mouse. It stretched out its arms and it spun across the arena, which was was now surrounded by a great crowd in the stands, the living and the dead. SHIVA danced its dance of destruction and spun out the stories of its deeds for all to see.
SHIVA began his dance, the story of his great deeds...
ALL THINGS BELONG TO ME, FOR IN THE END, THEY RETURN TO ME. I AM THE END OF EVERY STORY. EVERY 'THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER' IS AN EFFORT TO DENY THE REAL END OF THE STORY, 'AND THEN THEY DIED'. ALL HAPPINESS, ALL HATRED, ALL THE JOY AND ALL THE SUFFERING ARE DESTROYED IN THE END. NOTHING CAN EVADE MY POWER. NOTHING. I HAVE BROUGHT ENTIRE SPECIES LOW.
Dinosaurs had no names, for they could not speak or write. They did not need names. Other dinosaurs were either mother, rival, or dinner. Yet, where is a tale whose protagonist has no name? Red-tail was a small meat-eating dinosaur. Millions of years later, the descendants of some of his meals would name his species, but he was simply alive, one of the many children of a mother he had not seen since he learned to hunt on his own.
He sprinted across a forest clearing that would one day be home to a glacier, then later to forest once more, then to a parking lot. None of this mattered to him, for he was stalking a small furry thing. Its descendants were going to inherit the Earth, but he didn't know or care. He wasn't capable of even understanding such a concept. He pounced on the creature, tore it apart and ate it. Life was good. This was indeed, the essence of his life. Wake up, walk through the forest, stalk and eat things, sleep. It had been like this for millions of years, generation upon generation; the intricate dance of life had continued, the game of hunter and prey.
Unnoticed, a streak of light zoomed across the sky. Red-tail would not see the impact, he would not feel it, he would not hear it, nor would he smell or taste it. Despite the meteor's vast size, despite its consequences, it was beyond his comprehension or caring.
Unseen, half a world away, a meteor slammed into the Earth, unleashing a cloud of dust on an almost unimaginable scale. The precarious balance of weather crashed like a precision watch run over by a car. The death of Red-Tail and all his kind was about to begin. He would have more hunts...death came slowly, and he had survived winters before, yet in the end, he and all his kin would perish from the Earth unmourned and unremembered, until the great-infinity-great-grandson of this last meal found his remains and put him in a museum.
As the meteor struck, SHIVA danced in the flames of its fall, sang as it struck, and laughed as he saw what he had wrought. The dinosaurs had pleased him with their ability to kill, but they were not enough. He laid them low that he might raise up better servants. And SHIVA danced...
And SHIVA danced...
WHATEVER FAILS TO PLEASE ME, I DESTROY, AND WHAT PLEASES ME HELPS ME TO DESTROY WHAT DISPLEASES ME. YOUR SPECIES IS THE GREATEST TOOL FOR DESTRUCTION I HAVE FOUND...ON THIS WORLD. OFTEN I MUST DO LITTLE MORE THAN OBSERVE, FOR SO OFTEN YOU DO MY BIDDING WITHOUT MY HAVING TO LIFT A FINGER.
Nyugen paused from his work for a moment to take a breath and rest. To do even that much was to risk death, but he didn't care anymore. The fat old farmer whose field he was working paid no attention to him, for he was busy feasting on noodles and chicken, cooked by his fat old wife. Once the old man finished, Nyugen and the other 'draftees' would get their lunch...stale bread and some old, dried up fruit...if they were 'good.' Nyugen prayed silently to Buddha that there would be fruit left for him. At least I don't have to share with my brother any more, he thought, then felt guilty at the thought.
Nyugen's brother Pham had died three weeks earlier. He had always been frail. That was why he had studied hard and become a doctor. The family had been so proud of Pham. He had brought much honor to his family. The family was scattered now. When the Khmer Rouge had taken their city, Pham's role had brought the attention of the Khmer Rouge upon Nyugen's family, for the Khmer Rouge wished to wipe Cambodia clean of all 'western ways'. Doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, virtually anyone who had ever seen a European or bought a manufactured good was shipped out to the countryside. They were put to work farming.
The lucky ones died of the diseases that could no longer be treated with the doctors all being made to grow rice. The unlucky ones were being slowly worked to death while the 'old ones', the peasants of the countryside, got their revenge for years of exploitation by the people of the cities. Now they relaxed and let others do their work. Nyugen survived, for he had grown strong from years of moving crates and petty brawls. Pham had not been so lucky. Nyugen had watched him wither away, day by day. Finally, he became too weak to go on. He was given no food as a result and soon died. The old farmer had tossed Pham's body in a pit with the others. Nyugen would not forget.
The old man didn't notice Nyugen resting. He didn't notice the rage that only hunger and iron will held back. He could not see the legacy he was planting in his field. Two years later, Vietnamese troops crossed the border. The crop of hatred he had planted bloomed that day. Only three of the dozens of men and women who had been assigned over the years to his farm were left. They buried an axe in the old man's head, but not before they made him watch his wife be slain as well.
Their names would not be remembered, for when a third of a nation dies, there are too many bodies to count. But those who survived would never forget. They would never know peace again.
And SHIVA danced among the crop of the dead, gathering in the harvest of hate and destruction. He took the seeds of the harvest and sowed them in the hearts of men. They would blossom one day, for revenge is a self-renewing resource. And SHIVA danced...
And SHIVA danced...
MEN SEEK TO DENY MY EXISTENCE. THEY QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY, BELIEVING SOMEHOW THEY CAN AVOID DESTRUCTION. THEY BELIEVE I CAN BE DENIED. THEY ARE WRONG. SOME TRY TO DO IT THROUGH THEIR BLOOD...
Gnaeus Octavius addressed the mob that filled his house. "Let us celebrate! Two families are joined this day!" The entire crowd of friends, relatives, and clients threatened to almost burst the walls of his villa. His wayward daughter was finally going to be married. There had been one disaster after another. She had run off with that Grecian slave and come back pregnant. They had to get rid of the child before anyone found out. She had caught the eye of a Senator, then his sister had tried to have her assassinated. Then she had wanted to marry a gladiator of all things. While Julius Albanus wasn't quite up to the level that Gnaeus wanted for his daughter Octavia, he was far better than a gladiator. His father was one of the consuls of Cumae, after all. It was even rumored that Titus was thinking of raising his father, Marcus Albanus, to the Senate. Now that would be a marvel, Gnaeus thought, for us to make such an alliance.
There was a distant rumble. Gnaeus sighed. I hope the repairs to the roof hold up if it is going to rain. Ideally, it will stop before everyone goes home. He got down from his perch and went to take his seat at one of the many couches so that the wedding feast could properly begin. Some of his slaves came in and began to sing in Greek, while others played instruments to accompany the song. Gnaeus tried to follow it, but his Greek wasn't as good as once it was. It was a happy song, and that was enough for him.
The guests ate well, and sang, and drank, and made love as humans always do, unaware that the moment had come when that all would end. Gnaeus looked up, and saw before him, Pluto, the great God of the Underworld, standing silently. Gnaeus shook in fear for a visit from the lord of the dead was never a good omen. "I..." Words failed him.
YOU ARE VERY PLEASED WITH THIS WEDDING, ARE YOU NOT?
Gnaeus looked around. No one could see Pluto but him, it seemed. Perhaps I've drunk too much, he realized. "Of course, I'm pleased! This is the culmination of years of work. This is how I will be remembered. That's what I most want...to be remembered."
YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED, THEN, BUT THE REWARD FOR YOUR LABORS IS DEATH.
"I shall not live to see my family continue?"
I SHALL SPARE YOU THAT PUNISHMENT.
Gnaeus gave a sigh of relief.
I WILL KILL YOU ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
Unseen, a great mountain suddenly exploded, spewing its wrath upon the Earth, quite unprovoked. SHIVA danced admist the flames as ash and lava spewed forth, reducing two entire cities to ash and ruins in instants, burying them alive. SHIVA gave them eternal peace in his own way, preserving their labors for posterity. At the end of all things, SHIVA was, and SHIVA danced...
The music played, and Hikaru danced with her husband. She had to use the Power, but not very much. Ever since the accident had lamed her, she couldn't stay on her legs for long without using it. It was worth it, though. She loved to dance.
She and Jonny had met at a dance in New York, a year before her accident had sent her back to college and turned her on the road she now walked. Jonny's father had been an excellent dancer and research scientist. In fact, Dr. Quest had been many things, and his son excelled in most of them as well.
For a few moments, she lost herself in the music and movement, forgetting the four decades that had passed since they met. She was young and wild and free once more. She looked at him. His eyes were closed, but he was smiling. "Can't stand to look at me, darling?" she teased.
He laughed. "If I can't see your feet, then I can't step on them, right?" He opened his eyes and laughed. "Just trying to visualize this next move in my mind." Suddenly, he led her into a complex series of spins and reverses, culminating in a low dip. "All right, it worked!"
She laughed. "So you were calculating the precise torque you needed to apply?"
"Something like that."
She was about to reply when a psychic flash struck her. A confrontation she had feared was coming was about to commence. She could feel his power flooding across the city. The time had come.
Hikaru turned to her husband. "Darling, we're going to the Florida Compound. Now. Get anything you really couldn't bear to lose from our house here."
Jonny blinked. "What, is there an army headed this way?"
She broke away from him. "I have a suitcase packed for you. Go grab anything you really want."
He didn't move. "Hikaru, what's going on?"
"Remember that being I told you about? The one who tried to possess me? Who I got the powers from?"
Jonny nodded. "What, he's come back from the grave?"
"He's got a big brother and he's angry. This city is about to become unsafe for all human life. I think this one controls machines...Imagine what a being like that could do in this city."
"The boomers." He started to move.
"I don't suppose we've got anything lying around the Florida compound that wrecks machinery, do we?"
"Well, there's that electromagnetic pulse generator."
"Right. You get that, then call me when you're sure it'll work and I'll come get it."
He stopped at the door. "You intend to stay?"
"I intend to do to him what I did to his brother. Obliterate him." Her voice was cold and angry.
"Hikaru, how will you find him?" Jonny stared at his wife. I hate it when she gets like this. It was rare, but sometimes, she seemed to be someone else than the woman he had married, someone much angrier, who smashed the things that made her angry. It disturbed him.
"I can sense him now, with the way he's spread himself out. I think I know exactly where he is. I'm going to find him and rip out his heart." She paused. "If he has one."
"By yourself?"
"We've been planning for a long time."
He frowned. "Hikaru, what else haven't you told me?"
"You were being held captive! I couldn't tell you!"
"I'm not being held captive now!"
She sighed. "I'm sorry, my love. I have to do this. I can't rest knowing that thing is out there and I can't let Madoka-san and her family fight this alone."
"He'll be there, won't he." It wasn't a question.
"Dammit, Jonny! I thought we settled this a long time ago! You're the only man in my life! Yes, I'll always care about Kyosuke, maybe more than I should, but you're the man I love. I'm not psychotic enough to obsess over someone for my entire life!" At least not anymore. She walked over to her husband. "If I didn't love you, I wouldn't be trying to get you to safety. I want you to live, darling. Jessie and Hadji would kill me if I didn't keep you safe. And don't you dare send them after me, either."
He sighed. "I don't want to see you in danger, any more than you want to see me there."
She hugged her husband tightly. "Get that EMP thing working. Hack into GENOM's computers from Questworld. Just make sure your body stays in Florida where you'll be safe. You don't have powers like me. I'll be fine."
Jonny kissed her, then turned to go grab a few things. "Okay, dear."
Hikaru waited until he was out of the room to remove and destroy the tracer he had just planted on her. He needs to work on his sleight of hand, she thought.
And SHIVA danced...
SOME BELIEVE THEY CAN BUILD A MONUMENT, A CITY, AN EMPIRE. THROUGH SUCH A THING, THEY THINK THEY CAN EVADE ME, SO THAT THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS, THEIR MEMORY WILL LIVE ON FOREVER. NONE HAS EVER SUCCEEDED.
Ramses II sat upon his great throne, and gazed upon what he had wrought. Yet another memorial of his great reign. Two servants stood on either side of him, fanning him to keep away the life-sapping heat of the great desert that ever threatened to destroy his realm. Many things had he built. His great pyramid in which he might rest. A great obelisk to tell the stories of his deeds. A great temple with many pictures of himself, begun by his great ancestor, but completed by himself. Yet now his greatest creation stood before him. A statue of himself, that all ages to come might gaze upon him and despair of achieving his glory. He turned to the master sculptor. "Truly, you have outdone yourself. I could not have asked a better, more glorious likeness."
The sculptor smiled. "Thank you, great one. You are the only god who has deigned to model for me, so it is not surprising that I could create such a great work." Indeed, it was all he could do to avoid abasing himself mindlessly in the presence of divinity, but Ramses had graciously given him permission not to. "Even after you go to join your fellows, your image will be preserved for all time."
The Pharoah prepared to reply, when he suddenly realized a man stood before him unbidden. He was about to have the fellow executed, when he realized the man was glowing, and all else around them had ceased to move. The fellow was dark, more like a shadow of a man, than a true human being. The shadow spoke.
I HAVE COME TO SHOW YOU THE GLORY WITH WHICH YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED.
The Pharoah stared at the man. "What are you?"
The man smiled a crooked smile.
I AM THE ONE WHO WILL GREET YOU ON YOUR DEATH.
The Pharoah paled slightly. "Anubis."
IF YOU LIKE.
"All right. Show me what you have come to show me."
The shadow stretched out its arms, and in its depths, Rameses saw what was to come.
Bobby climbed up onto the huge statue's head. It was hundreds of feet tall, but since it had fallen down and was now lying half-buried in the sand, it was easy to climb up on the side of the head. He posed for his father, striking a pose he'd seen on Wrestlemania V.
'Click'. The camera captured the image forever, or so they thought. Tom smiled at his son. "You really showed that old king who's boss."
His wife, Tammy, laughed. "So who was that, anyway?"
"I dunno. Tutankhamen, maybe?"
Mr. Kotter sighed. Another day trying to teach these ungrateful brats, he thought. Someone remind me why I took this stupid job. He looked around the room. There were only two students who didn't wish they were somewhere else. They both sat up front and were paying attention. Everyone was busy harrassing each other, waiting for the bell to ring and class to start.
BZZZZZZT. The buzzer went off and class began. Mr. Kotter looked around the room. "All right, we're continuing our examination of the classical civilizations." His trained eyes spotted one student reading comic books in the back. An eraser bounced off the kid's head. "Mr. Watson, perhaps you'd like to tell us about Rameses II."
"He lead the Jews out of Egypt into Israel, right?"
Mr. Kotter blinked. The boy had some vague awareness of something, even if he was wrong. We learn something new every day. "That was Moses. We'll get to him later. Moses, if he ever really lived, most likely lived during this time period. Anyone else want to give it a shot?"
Half a dozen hands went up. Mr. Kotter picked one. "He invented cup ramen."
"He built all the pyramids by hand."
"That's the Sphinx's real name, right?"
"He's Ed Meese's father."
"He was the Egyptian sun god."
"He married Joan of Arc, right?"
"No, no, he was King John's older brother. The one who comes back from the crusades at the end of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves."
They're all hideously wrong, Mr. Kotter thought, but at least they're talking and not just staring at me as if I was some sort of hideous fungal monster like they usually do. "Anyone else want to take a shot?" He looked at his two best students.
They both shrugged. "All I know is that he was a Pharaoh." Eddie said.
Marie said, "And he built this really ugly statue that fell down. I saw it in National Geographic."
Ramses stared in shock. "No...it's not possible."
STRIVE AS YOU MIGHT, ALL THAT YOU DO WILL CRUMBLE TO DUST. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, IN THE END, NO ONE WILL REMEMBER OR CARE.
"Liar!"
YOU HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE. JUDGE FOR YOURSELF.
Ramses gazed upon his accomplishments and despaired.
And SHIVA danced away upon the sands that had been the grave of many dreams of glory...
Alphonse's was a disaster area now. Kanuka, John, Asuma, and Moemi came out from behind the table and gazed upon the devastation, then in wonder at the people who, with Noa, had done most of the work of destroying the boomer attack wave. Asuma said, "Uh...hi."
Tenchi laughed faintly. "You must be Shinohara Asuma. Nice to meet you."
"You know me?"
"Grandfather mentioned you, and I'm familiar with some of your deeds back when you worked for the police. You've been working with the Kasugas, right?"
Asuma nodded. "I think GENOM has caught on to what we're up to."
"Time for a revision of plans."
Pluto sat quietly and concentrated. She couldn't shield her tools from X forever. Not with him drawing on the node, she knew. Dammit, that diversion was supposed to keep him busy longer, she thought. It is not yet time to sacrifice them. Worries afflicted her. Will Wasyuu fulfill her appointed role? Will Priss find Usagi in time? What about the one who devoured Y?
I cannot see her pattern, she thought. That one is beyond me and I do not know why. She could screw everything up. Pluto was used to being able to predict everything. There were no surprises in Pluto's life and this was good because she hated surprises. But when it came to this woman, almost everything was a surprise.
Keeping her away from Usagi all these years has been incredibly difficult. At least we're on the same side more or less. I would not want such a being for a foe. Still, she is the wild card that could ruin all my plans. If only I knew what she was doing...
She would know soon enough.
And SHIVA danced...
MEN BUILD LAWS AND MAKE TREATIES, THINKING THESE WILL LAST FOREVER, THAT THEY CAN BUILD AN INDESTRUCTIBLE BULWARK TO GUARANTEE THERE WILL BE NO CHANGE. THEY ARE FOOLS.
Gunshots rang through the forest. Red Eagle and his friends charged forward and the Creek, their old enemies, fled. Far off, they could see their white allies winning through as well. He paused and fired off a shot through the woods. A scream rewarded his effort.
A man rode up on a white horse. It was the war chief of the whites, a man named Jackson. "How are things going with your people?"
"Very well, Jackson. How are your warriors doing?"
"The Creeks are running. They'll never bother either of our nations again."
Red Eagle smiled. That was very good news. His people had once been enemies of the whites from across the mountains, but now they were allies against a common foe, just as his people had once allied with the Great King across the Water against his rebellious braves on this side of the great sea which Red Eagle had heard of, but never seen. Perhaps I shall see that ocean one day. They had made treaties of alliance and perpetual peace. "It is good to hear that, my friend."
Jackson smiled. "Good news, indeed."
Twenty years had passed. Red Eagle had become a great man among the Cherokee. He was Andrew Red Eagle now, for many things had changed. The Cherokee had learned much from their neighbors. Through years of struggling study, Andrew had become literate in both the white script and the new script that the Cherokee had designed for their own tongue. He received the tribe's newspaper once a month, and his children attended a school to read and write. He had bought a few slaves to help work his fields and was starting to become fairly wealthy. He had even taken a white name for the convenience of those he traded with, who usually could never say his true name correctly. Some of them had taken names of his nation and married into his people. Times were a-changing.
The Cherokee had greeted the word that the braves of the "United States" had elected their friend Andrew Jackson as the Great Chief of their nation with joy. Tensions were starting to build as more and more whites moved into the lands around the Cherokee nation. The whites wanted to buy Cherokee lands. Many tribes in the past had agreed to such sales, not understanding what they were really doing, but the Cherokee knew better. They had learned the ways of the Whites, and they knew that if they sold, they must leave, and they would not leave. They hoped that their friend could restrain his braves, and that the peace between Cherokee and Whites could endure.
Hopes are made to be shattered. One day, the news came that the tribal council of Georgia had declared it possessed all of the Cherokee lands south of the lands claimed by the "state of Tennessee". The Cherokee sent people to protest, only to discover that President Jackson had declared in support of the state of Georgia. In fact, he sent people to try to buy all of the Cherokee Lands. They refused, but a tiny faction signed the treaty. The Cherokee nation formed a great petition in the way of the whites, and Red Eagle was one of the men sent to carry it to the great city of Washington.
It was far greater than they had ever anticipated, vast and beautiful, though not the sort of place in which they wished to dwell. They took their petition to the President. Some of his representatives had tried to teach them to call him the Great White Father, but they knew better. They had known him when he was only a minor war chief. He was their friend. Surely he would listen to them.
It was like talking to a wall. Red Eagle wondered if General Jackson had gone deaf, but refused to admit it. Some people were like that. His own father had refused to admit his hearing and sight were declining. Over and over, Jackson told them it was too late, that the treaty had been signed, that they would be happier far away from the Whites, that this would be better for them, than staying there.
They begged, they pleaded, they called upon his memories of the time he had spent with them, the war they had fought side by side. Finally, Red Eagle spoke. "Does friendship matter nothing to you? Was every word you told us a lie? Did you plan to steal our home from the start?"
For a moment, Jackson's eyes flashed with pain, but then the determination returned. "I will not be swayed. What must be, must be."
"So be it. The man I knew as a friend is dead." He turned and left. The others could dither all they wanted, but it would be futile, he knew. Once Jackson made up his mind, he was like a huge rock that could not be moved without force. Our only hope is war, but war will be the death of his people. We will be destroyed like we destroyed the Creeks. Is this our punishment, he wondered? What sin have we committed against the land that we are to lose it forever?
He rode home to the Cherokee lands. Quietly, he made his preparation for departure, said his goodbyes, and wrote out a will in the style of the whites, laughing faintly as he did so. He then took his pistol and he shot himself so that he might at least be buried in the land he called his home. Unlike the rest of his tribe, he would not be evicted. Perhaps he would have died anyway, along with the third of his tribe that would perish on the Trail of Tears.
They marched through the rain, the mud, and the snow, in wagons and on horses. SHIVA danced among the fallen and laughed at the destruction of a nation, the loss of their home, and the death of trust.
Uranus grumbled. "Can't you drive any faster, Tux boy?"
Tuxedo Kamen sighed. "Unlike you, I don't own a race car. This thing wouldn't go 130kph if I drove it off a cliff."
"Move over and let me drive. I can make cars do anything I want."
Neptune sighed faintly. Sailor Moon whispered to her, "I bet he never lets you drive either." They both laughed.
Uranus shouted, "I heard that!"
Tuxedo Kamen just laughed. He didn't laugh so hard when suddenly feet and legs appeared, splayed out on the windshield. He swore and hit the brakes, trying to get out of the middle of traffic.
Priss cursed like a sailor, clinging to one of the windshield wipers to keep from flying off the car. Anri and Sylvie were flung off the hood and the roof, but they could fly so they didn't care. Meylia could fly, but she was so surprised, she forgot, sliding off the roof and down the windshield so that her legs ended up wrapped around Priss' head. "Okay, maybe trying to use the crystal to teleport to them wasn't such a wise idea."
Traffic snarled as startled drivers weaved about, trying to avoid Kamen's car and the flying people. Tuxedo Kamen managed to turn onto a side street as Priss and Meylia unsnarled themselves. Uranus and Neptune leapt out of the car the instant it stopped and positioned themselves to watch the two flying people. Sailor Moon jumped out and said to the people on the hood, "Are you okay?"
Priss sat up, clutching her sword in one hand. "Thanks to this windshield wiper. Otherwise, I think I'd be a pancake." She and Meylia finally managed to disentangle themselves from each other. She looked at Sailor Moon and tried to figure out what to say. "I...I've got your crystal."
Sailor Moon smiled. "It's yours too." She climbed up on the hood and hugged Priss. "Ahhh! Hot!"
Priss slid off the hood with her. "Hmm. Guess this outfit is heat resistant."
Uranus said, "You know these people?"
Sailor Moon smiled. "Uranus, Neptune, meet my sister, Princess Courage, the First Princess of the Sword of the Moon Kingdom."
Priss smiled. "Nice to meet you. These are my friends, the Queen of Swords, Sylvie, and Anri. They helped me recover the crystal." She paused, not wanting to say it. "We...we lost Linna."
"That's awful!" Sailor Moon hugged Priss again. "I know you were close."
"She was one of my best friends in all the world. Either she's dead or Pluto's sent her on some crazy quest...I don't know..." She pulled herself together. "Where's everyone else?"
"GENOM has them."
Priss frowned. "Let's go get them."
Tuxedo Kamen said, "We really don't have room in my car for eight people."
"Just carry me. My friends all fly."
"Right. Let's go." They went.
And SHIVA danced...
OTHERS BELIEVED THAT KNOWLEDGE WAS ETERNAL. THEY BELIEVED THAT THROUGH KNOWING ALL THAT WAS KNOWABLE, THEY COULD DEFY ME. THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT LIKE ALL THINGS, KNOWLEGE LEADS TO DESTRUCTION. IT IS THE GRAVE OF HOPE, OF FAITH, OF LIFE.
The scientists watched nervously from their bunker. Would it work? Years of labor had lead up to this moment. Their nation was counting on them. They had to unlock the secrets of the atom before Hitler's scientists did. It was a race, and one they had to win.
A few miles away, a bomb sat, the likes of which had never been forged by human hands. It awaited its moment of glory.
A radio signal went out and the moment arrived. For the first time in the history of humanity, the power of the Atom was unleashed and an explosion of unrivaled power erupted on the sands of New Mexico. There was a bright flash, and then a cloud of smoke rose, forming what would become the familiar sight of a mushroom cloud.
The scientists went wild. It had worked! Their labor hadn't been in vain! The war could be ended swiftly now with the new bombs. The only real limit was how fast they could get the nuclear fuel and manufacture the parts. Only a single man stood and stared off across the desert, unbidden words rising into his mind, "I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds".
They would make more weapons. Death would rain down on two cities in Japan, and then the power of the Atom would multiply. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of weapons would be born, waiting for the day when they too would shine like the sun.
SHIVA danced in nuclear fire and laughed, for he knew that weapons were made to be used and that one day he would dance again, across the world as it burned. That day would come...
General Haroun finished the intelligence report. Could it be true? Could the shield in the sky that had thwarted him from finally destroying those miserable Israelis be gone? Rumors were circulating, but this ever so expensive report confirmed them. Could he take the risk? If he struck first, they could be destroyed before they could retaliate. If he was wrong, their armies would trounce him again and he did not think he could bounce back from another defeat. His neighbors might join them as well, hoping to strip away more of his nation. It was a risk...was it worth taking? Slowly the scales began to tip in his mind as hope overcame fear, as it so often does.
The commando dropped the report on General Jonathon Habin's desk. "It doesn't look good, sir."
The general frowned. USSD was denying that the laser satellites had been neutralized, but all his spies said otherwise. He knew what the report would tell him without having to read it. General Haroun was gearing up for round 2. Without Big Brother in the sky, he thought he could obliterate Israel in a few minutes. The sad thing was that he was right. Jerusalem might survive, but the new missile defenses hadn't been built anywhere else yet, nor had they really been adequately tested. What good would Jerusalem do in the middle of a nuclear wasteland? Is this how it all ends, he wondered. He sighed and read the report, mentally preparing his own report for the prime minister. Only by striking first could they save themselves.
Across the globe, a hundred petty hatreds flared and sabres began to rattle. A generation that had forgotten the power they wielded rose up and began to posture. Inch by inch, the world slid towards the Apocalypse.
And SHIVA danced...
Wasyuu finished her preparations and quietly exited her sanctuary into her 'place of work'. I have to know, she thought. It must be a coincidence, yet, I must know. If somehow...he's still alive...even if he wants to destroy me, it will be enough that I know he lives. Quietly, she went to work on yet another boomer. It was the work of a few minutes to determine what was wrong with it. The effort to alter the behavioral blocks had been botched badly. That was why it had gone berserk. About eighty percent of the problems seemed to come from a lack of any real understanding of how boomers thought and sentients behave on the part of GENOM's techs. She wondered again how these people could even deal with each other with such little understanding of the mind.
The twelve BU-12B's were later than she had anticipated. She was looking around for another boomer to work on when they arrived. "Come with us immediately, or be destroyed."
She raised her hands in the air. "As you wish. Where are you taking me?"
"To face your judgment, the punishment for the crimes you have committed."
"And who shall judge?"
"The one against whom you have sinned."
Wasyuu laughed. "Can you be specific? That covers a lot of people."
"You seem less impressive than I anticipated."
Wasyuu cocked her head. Was he being evasive or... Suddenly she understood. "The Overmind system. In the hands of one such as you... I congratulate you. Truly you have shown more cunning than most of your master's creations. Subtlety was never his strong point."
"Flattery will get you nowhere. Come." The voice sounded subtly pleased, though still blunt and direct.
Wasyuu followed. This means he is in the Tower itself, she thought. Perfect. She checked her pocket. That which she sought was still there. She smiled.
Goto looked out the window of the hotel room. He could see GENOM Tower. For forty years, it and its predecessors had dominated his life. Beginning with the Muugen Gakuen disaster, it had drawn him in. Mystery after mystery surrounded that site, lurked below the surface of Japanese society. Sailor suited warriors. Monsters. Government conspiracies. Mysterious deaths. Rampaging labors and boomers. "Accidents." All part of a pattern, a web of conspiracy whose spiders he had sought for forty years, first inside the system, then from outside of it when the spiders had tried to bite and poison him.
He had formed his own web. Detectives, policemen, manufacturers, occultists, psychics, even aliens now. It was a war for the soul of Japan. For years, he had known where the spiders dwelt but had been unable to strike. He knew he wouldn't live much longer. The rag tag band of his allies would have to do what he could not. There remained but one last action he had to do.
He hesitated, his hands inches from the switch. What if I'm wrong? What if I'm attacking the wrong target? This could all be the delusions of an old man. Dare I plunge this city into chaos? Maybe I'm just being a vengeful fool. Is it worth it? Worst of all, what if it doesn't work? Maybe GENOM can put down a citywide riot and defeat the ADPolice at the same time...or what if the ADPolice aren't fooled?
He stepped away from the switch. I can't make this decision on my own. It shamed him to not trust himself to decide. The phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello?"
"It's begun. Quincy has activated the Overmind System." It was the old man who the psychics claimed was their ancestor, Youshou. "It's now or never."
That was enough for Goto. He turned and flipped the switch. Across the city, TV sets flickered and began to play an announcement by Quincy that he was taking total control of the city and no one could stop him, blah, blah, blah. At the same time, five carefully prepared American made robots designed to look like boomers were heading for ADPolice headquarters. Their method of construction made them unable to attack humans, but with the amount of property damage they could cause, it was likely that noone would notice. With time, the ADPolice would figure out they were tricked, but by then, ideally, it would be too late.
Goto turned to the city and gazed out upon it. He spoke into the phone. "The die is cast. Let's pray the cure is not worse than the disease."
The Great Riot of 2034 was about to begin.
And SHIVA danced...
SOME BELIEVE THAT WISDOM IS THE KEY, THAT SOME SECRET KNOWLEGE WILL UNLOCK ALL DOORS AND BRING THEM TO ETERNAL LIFE, TO A LIFE WITHOUT SUFFERING, WITHOUT PAIN, WITHOUT DESTRUCTION...WITHOUT ME. THERE IS NO ESCAPE. IN THE END, ALL THEIR WISDOM FAILS THEM AND ALL THEY DO CRUMBLES INTO DUST. THEIR WISDOM BECOMES POISON AND THEIR HOPE DESPAIR.
Once upon a time, there was a ugly man who lived in the greatest kingdom of the world. Yet, all was not well in the middle kingdom. The great lords of the kingdom quarreled and fought, making war upon each other, while the barbarians nibbled away at the frontiers, inch by inch. The ugly man was troubled. He studied the ancient ways and grew wise, seeking to understand how the land might be healed of the strife that afflicted it.
Days turned to years, and years to decades. The man wrote books and took students. He wandered the land, teaching how a dignified man should live. The time came when he was allowed to turn his words into practice and the Duke of Lu put him to work, first as a magistrate of a city, then as Superintendent of Public Works, then as Minister of Crime. For a time, his wisdom was followed and the land prospered, but then the Duke fell in love with a pack of entertainers and neglected his duties. The ugly man went to the Duke and told him of his duties, of the way that he should follow, that he must fulfill his duties to be a good ruler. The Duke would not let an ugly old man lecture him, and sent him away.
The ugly old man was sent into exile, and wandered through the many petty states into which the empire was crumbling. Only his most faithful students stayed by his side. For thirteen years he wandered, before finally his exile was rescinded and he could return home.
He spent his last few years of life alone, except for a few students, and ignored by the rulers who he had hoped to guide. One day, as the sun shone down and the birds sang outside, his pupil Tsze-kung heard him singing early in the morning.
"The great mountain must crumble,
The strong beam must break,
And the wise man must wither away like a plant."
He ran to his master, and asked, "Master, why do you sing such a sad song?"
The ugly old man turned to Tsze-Kung and said, "No intelligent monarch arises; there is not one in the empire that will make me his teacher. My time is come to die." He took to his bed, and after seven days, he died, looking back on his life and seeing that all his studies had brought him nothing but exile and death. Thus passed K'ung Ch'iu, later to be known in the West as Confucius. And SHIVA danced among the ashes of his life...
"So, what do you think of our 'trainees?'" Takeo Yamazaki asked her predecessor, Kanuka Clancy McClaine.
"Their psychic powers are quite... interesting," Kanuka said.
"It does force us to change our methods, doesn't it?"
Ohta, who was sitting nearby and cackling over the new weapons he would be using with his labor, looked up in alarm. He and Hiromi exchanged a worried look.
"Not really," Kanuka rejoined, "the basic principles remain the same. They still need to observe, process, and act on the data fed to them. That is the most important thing. That, and memorizing as much pertinent data beforehand."
"Do you still insist that cluttering the mind with trivia is the best way to approach a battlefield?"
"One cannot always count on having a reference work handy. My memory can handle that without any problems."
"Oh, then how many grandchildren do you have?"
"Three. And do you remember the wedding dates of your grandchildren?"
"They're still too young to be married. You should know that."
"Takeo-chan—" interrupted Hiromi.
Takeo and Kanuka turned and looked steadily at Hiromi. "Yes, Hiromi-chan?" Takeo asked sweetly.
"Um, nothing, dear," he muttered, sulking away.
Or trying to. Takeo reached out and grabbed the large man's collar, pulling him back. "Now, now, Hiromi-chan, perhaps you can help Kanuka-san and I settle this," she said, her voice calm and steady.
Ohta, seeing his comrade's peril, started to sneak off, when Kanuka saw him "Ohta! Where are you going? Come over here."
"You don't have to order him, he's not under your command any more," Takeo said.
"I didn't retire, unlike yourself," Kanuka replied.
"I didn't realize that the ADPolice fell under New York City jurisdiction."
"This is hardly an official activity."
"Which is why rank doesn't matter."
"Uh—" began Ohta.
"That is a good point," murmured Hiromi.
Both women turned to look at the men. "What do you think?" they asked.
The order to move out saved them from having to answer, for which they were quite grateful.
Belldandy sat quietly and watched the news broadcast. "Downtown Mega-Tokyo is a sea of chaos," the newswoman blathered. "We now have reports that the violence has spread to Tokyo University. Reports are unclear, but some are claiming the two pillars of the front gate have been attacking the rioters." She laughed. "More seriously, three dormitories are on fire, and the Campus Police have called on the ADPolice for help. However, the ADPolice are too hard pressed to help. In fact, rumors have it that the ADPolice HQ was attacked shortly before the transmission of the broadcast that started the riot. City officials seem to be holding back the ADPolice from taking action for no apparent reason. And now for a commercial break."
Belldandy heard running feet heading from the telephone to outside the temple. "What's wrong, Keiichi-kun?" she shouted.
"I can't get through to Keiko! I'm going after her!"
"Then I'm going with you." She got up, put down her knitting, and ran after her husband.
Luckily, the sidecar was still hooked up to the motorcycle. They roared off into the city.
Pluto's barrier finally shattered. She collapsed, bleeding through her nose. Pain throbbed through her frame. Even with my talisman, he was too much for me, she thought. But it will be enough. X would find Goto's psychic strikeforce, but they were but a diversion, though they knew it not.
And while he indulges in petty violence, the real arrows will find his heart, she thought.
Minako awoke in a dark cell. The darkness was absolute, smothering her. The boomer assault on her home flooded back into her mind, then came the memories. Thirty four years of amnesia ended with a moment's wakefulness. We...we lost, she realized. The grand confrontation came back to her...
The sailors floated in a misty void littered with the dissolving corpses of their foes. It had been a trap. We should never have followed him here, Sailor Venus thought. The being they had chased from the park had seemed so powerful that he had to be the master villian, they thought. His master dwarfed him.
He was holding Eternal Sailor Moon with two of his hands, while a third held up Sailor Mars, a sword rammed through her gut. His fourth arm was gone, severed by Sailor Uranus, who he now was trampling underfoot. Most of the other Sailors were scattered about unconscious. Tuxedo Kamen was impaled to a huge stone pillar floating in the mist, nailed in place with his own cane. Saturn stood paralyzed, trying to fight off an effort by SHIVA's minion to possess her. Pluto had vanished, taking someone with her...Venus couldn't think clearly enough to remember who.
Only one chance, she thought. I have to distract him so Sailor Moon can breathe. Then maybe she can stop him with the crystal. Is this how it all ends? No...I won't let it. But how to get him to let go? I don't have enough power left for anything that will...An idea came to mind. She laughed. She reached her hand to her forehead and removed her tiara, twirling it around her finger. "Venus tiara action!" She hurled it, and it transformed into a blazing disk of light. It arced around and struck SHIVA'S arms. He howled and dropped Sailor Moon. The glowing disc arced around and returned to Venus' hands. "There's more where that came from, you...you...you tree frog!" I'm getting more desperate than I thought to use that goofy an insult, she thought.
SHIVA cocked his head for a moment, then breathed fire at her. She dodged. He charged at her and she fled through the mists. Soon enough, she found herself back where she had begun. SHIVA was close upon her heels. Only one thing had changed. Sailor Moon now held up the Silver Crystal, which shone with the light of a million souls. The light grew brighter and brighter, devouring all things, and then oblivion came swiftly.
She sighed. I wonder if this is all part of some new threat or if that guy has come back somehow? Feeling around in the dark, she stumbled over someone, who began to snore. She laughed faintly. "Steven?"
A voice muttered. "Wake me up after the next ice age is over."
She laughed and shook him awake. "Honey, we're being imprisoned again."
"Wake me up when we escape."
"We can't escape while you're asleep."
"Well, that solves that problem, then, doesn't it?" He sat up finally after a few jabs. "I think I just dreamed about you being Sailor Venus or something."
"It wasn't a dream. Now help me find the door."
He stood up. "We're on the fiftieth floor of the GENOM Tower, so the door should be over there." He took five steps and bumped into the door. "I need to learn to take smaller steps."
"How could you see where the door was?"
I guessed, he thought. "I sensed the magnetic fields of the earth and their fluctuation indicated a door in that direction."
Minako noogied him. "Thank you, Jettero Heller. So how did you really find the door?"
"I bumped into it." More noogies. "You could try transforming and blasting the door open for us."
She transformed and blasted the door with a Crescent Beam. The door ignored her, though the flash of light briefly illuminated the room. It was stark metal with a rather solid door with no handle on this side. The metal seemed unhurt by the beam, though at least it hadn't reflected around inside the room and carved them to pieces. There was a speaker grill in the middle of the ceiling. A voice crackled through it. "Very amusing, Sailor Venus. Try as you might, you won't escape. We hand-designed these cells to restrain each of you if we ever caught you. Enjoy your stay. You won't be there much longer."
"Who are you?"
"The new number two." The voice laughed faintly and fell silent.
It was the sound of property damage which jolted Celia out of her funk of fretting. She heard explosions nearby. A quick camera check revealed that the lower levels of her building, Ladysmith 633, were under assault by a veritable tide of boomers. A few of them were combat boomers, but the bulk of the horde were various labor boomers, ranging from waitresses to assembly line tenders.
"We're under assault."
Youshou nodded. Ryouko said, "Right. Time to go kick some butt."
At that moment, the power went out. A series of explosions from the hardsuit storage room rocked the building. The intercom crackled to life. "For years, I have let you live because it served my purposes. Yet, now I know your true heritage, and your time has come to die, Celia of the House of Jurai. You shall die at the hands of your own creation."
"What the hell?" Ryouko said. "Who the hell is that?"
Youshou frowned. "The heart of the city gives its power to one of the destroyer's children. We must go now...there are far too many things he can turn against us."
As if to illustrate Youshou's point, Linna, Priss, and Celia's hardsuits erupted through the walls. Laser and railgun fire raked the room. Celia stared in shock as her own hardsuit flew towards her, raising its laser sword high in a gesture she recognized from films of her own actions in battle. Fear took her, and she could not move.
Ryouko grabbed her and teleported across the room, firing a beam at Linna's hardsuit which lithely dodged the attack. The beam blew a hole in the wall, the next wall, and the wall after that, then blasted a few more buildings on its way across the city. Wiring snaked out of the damaged wall and began to crawl across the ground. Light and power sockets crackled with electricity. "We've got to get out of here!"
Youshou nodded. "Take Celia and get her to the others."
"What about you, old man?"
"You can't take both of us." He drew his sword, dodging railgun fire. "Go! Don't come back without an army."
She teleported away with Celia, though she didn't like doing it.
"I remember you," he shouted to the air. "I can smell your power. Do you remember the last time we met?"
"I shall not be the one thrown off the train this time. I learned much from you, old man. Now I shall teach you a lesson." The voice reverberated from a dozen speakers and a phone.
Youshou feinted, then ducked, letting Priss' hardsuit blow open the chest of Linna's suit. "I doubt it."
And SHIVA danced...
EVEN INNOCENCE LEADS INTO MY ARMS.
Enrique ran down the street to the harbor, followed by his parents. "Look, mama! See, I told you! All the water has left the harbor!" Hundreds of people walked with them, attracted by the rumor spreading through Lisbon, that the ocean had flowed out of the harbor and stranded the ships.
The rumor was true. The crowd reached the harbor, which was now a damp sandy valley full of stranded ships. The water had flowed out of the harbor, leaving the ships behind. People fell to their knees and prayed to God. It was a miracle, a sign, though of what they knew not. The word spread and hundreds more came down to the harbor to see what God had wrought. Hundreds more flocked to the churches, asking the priests to explain what was going on. They had no idea. Neither the Bible nor their experience gave them any answer.
Enrique had always wanted to be a sailor. He was eight now, old enough to have dreams. He dreamed of sailing on a boat across the seas. Portugal was a sailing nation. The sea was its lifeblood. Maybe I'll cross the sea and see our colonies, he thought. He ran out across the harbor and over the wet sand. His mother, Maria, ran after him. "Enrique, you silly boy! Come back here!"
He laughed and so did she as she chased him. His father, Pablo, stayed behind on the docks, talking to some of his friends who had come down to see the harbor. She chased him across the sands, finally catching him just as he reached the side of a ship that had been anchored in the middle of what used to be a harbor and tried to climb a rope ladder some amused sailors had lowered to him.
The whole town was bustling about the harbor in wonderment, so amazed that no one thought to look out to the sea whence the water had retreated. It was a cloudy day and thus no one paid the approaching rumble any mind until it was too late. Finally, someone looked up and saw the wall of water rising from the ocean, a wall the size of a mountain.
Laughter and amazement was replaced by terror, deep and inescapable in an instant. The populace fled, trampling each other in their terror. The wall of water swept onwards, faster than any person. By the time Maria overcame her terror, the wall had reached the mouth of the harbor. She turned and ran. It was a race she could not win. The water erupted through the harbor like a shotgun blast, sweeping humans like particles of dust before a broom. Buildings whose creators had long mouldered to dust now joined their dead creators in the grave.
Enrique's last sight in this world was of his mother screaming and crying, his last thought a desperate prayer to God to save his mother. If he had not been down in the harbor itself, she would have lived and him also, but he had led them both to their death. Please, God, save my mother, he prayed. It's not her fault. His prayer was not answered. Thousands died and the God they prayed to was silent.
Water raged through the streets of Lisbon, on a spring day in 1755, and SHIVA rode upon the tide, laughing as it smashed all the fragile creations of man to pieces, dragging those who fancied themselves the lords of creation to a watery grave. And SHIVA danced on...
Six labor carriers moved through the streets of the city. The roads into its heart were empty. Anyone with any sense was fleeing the city, not entering it. The vehicles passed unnoticed down the highway, moving towards GENOM Tower to disgorge the nervous warriors who would strike at the heart of the evil that now possessed the city. They left the highway and moved into the strangely empty streets, heading towards the sound of distant shouts. Moemi fretted and hoped the carrier they had sent to pick up Alphonse would get to them. She had left with Kanuka, while Kanuka's husband had stayed with Asuma and Noa to wait for the carrier.
Suddenly, beams struck three of the carriers from nearby buildings. They exploded in flames, killing those who rode within instantly. Instants later, some of the inhabitants of the other carriers vanished then appeared next to the previously unseen assailants. Boomer bodies became twisted metal and plastic. More boomers poured out of the buildings, some combat boomers, more of them the menial laborers of the city. Kanuka Clancy barked out orders and got the three Ingrams unloaded as the rest of the Kasugas tried to cover them.
Kyosuke cursed. "They knew we were coming, somehow." Three of his nephews and nieces dead. He could see their faces in his mind, haunting him. He could hear their parents now...those of them whose parents hadn't just died also. Normally, he would have broken down and cried. But he just didn't have time right now.
Kanuka shrugged. "If they really knew that, why send so many cheap labor boomers? Well, if it is a trap, we'll just have to fight our way out. You do know how to fight, don't you?" Kyousuke wondered how she could be so calm about it.
Kyosuke nodded grimly. "You'd all be dead now if we didn't know how to fight." He concentrated and five boomers flew into the air, then slammed into the ground, falling apart at the seams. "Is the old man okay?"
Ohta boomed down from his finally deployed labor, "Who are you calling old, kid?" Kyousuke was surprised he could be so enthusiastic after watching half their 'army' die. Maybe they're just more hardened to combat than I am, Kyousuke thought.
Ohta charged into the fray, stomping petty boomers right and left. The two surviving apprentice labor pilots followed, plowing into the fray. Psychics took cover behind blazing wreckage, firing away with guns and powers as chance allowed. More boomers than they had ever imagined even existed in the city poured out of more buildings. It was going to be at best, a very long fight.
The streets of Mega-Tokyo ran wild. Tinsel City was a sea of angry bodies, smashing buildings and surging towards GENOM Tower. A decade of resentment, fear, and hatred had exploded. GENOM had crossed the line of death, so to speak. The wiser heads of the city knew that the broadcast must have been faked. The commoners knew more than they. It was only the articulation of what everyone knew — that GENOM ruled the city, that they had no power over their lives anymore, and that if GENOM wanted to overtly take over, the city authorities would be powerless to stop it. GENOM was above the law.
Simple problem, simple solution. Now they were the law, and they would remake all things to their will.
Unfortunately, X had the same idea, and bigger guns. The boomers were outnumbered a thousand to one. The mobs didn't have a chance, and yet they came on. It was madness, the self-destruction of lemmings at work, perhaps the finest example Freud could have wished for to prove his theory of the "death instinct". Or perhaps it was simply an example of what happens when people begin to see life as no better than death.
One by one, the buildings began to catch fire, and Mega-Tokyo was wreathed in flames. And SHIVA's children followed the tune he played for them.
And SHIVA danced.
SOME FOOLS CONSOLE THEMSELVES WITH A HOPE OF IMMORTALITY, A HOPE OF LIFE BEYOND THE GRAVE. THEY BELIEVE THAT BY BEING GOOD, BY FOLLOWING SOME CODE CREATED BY ANOTHER FOOL LIKE THEMSELVES THAT THEY CAN DEFY ME. I WILL DEVOUR THEM AS I DEVOURED THOSE WHO MADE THE CODES BY WHICH THEY DECEIVE THEMSELVES. IF THERE BE GODS, INDEED, BESIDE ME, I SHALL DEVOUR THEM IN THE END AS WELL.
The condemned walked through the streets of the city. All around them, the city was celebrating the great feast of Passover. There was nothing for them to celebrate. All of them had been sentenced to death. Their crimes were varied — theft, arson, murder, preaching insurrection. Despair flooded through their souls at the thought of death, inescapable, unappeasable, unstoppable. At best, their souls would burn in Gehenna, the trash heap of the dead, to suffer for eternity, their only consolation to know that one day their tormentors would be cast cold, naked and alone into the darkness to join them in eternal misery and boredom.
Yet, one of them did not seem to be afraid. He walked silently, his face at peace, except for moments where he stumbled or someone accidentally hit him with the crossbar they were carrying. Pain would flash across his face for a moment, then the calm would return.
They walked on, through jeering crowds, carrying the very instrument of their impending doom. The execution ground of Golgotha was a maze of posts and ropes. Every condemned man carried his own crossbar to that grounds. He would be nailed to it, and it raised into place and tied firmly, then his legs crossed and nailed to the post. There, they would hang for hours on end in the merciless sun.
One by one, they were put into place. There was no recital of their crimes, no ceremony, no protection from angry men who might come to strike them, to taunt them, or to smite them. One thing only jarred this ceremony. The silent man had attracted his own personal crowd of taunters. There was a board nailed to his post over his head, with Latin letters, who few present could read, and none understood. The other condemned men tried to guess who this man was.
Slowly they began to piece together who he was. The taunters spoke of prophecies, of claims that he would rebuild the temple in three days. They told him that if he was truly a prophet, he should call upon God to save him. "He saved others but he cannot save himself! So he is the king of Israel! Let's see him come down from that cross and we will believe in him. He relied on God; let God rescue him now if he wants to. After all, he claimed, 'I am God's Son'."
Hours passed. A darkness had settled over the land as clouds covered the sun. Some had died, but many would live. Worst of all, the beginning of the Sabbath was approaching. When that happened, no work would be done in Jerusalem until it ended. Any of the men who died during that time would sit on their cross and rot until the Sabbath was over, and most of the men would not die until the Sabbath had already begun, for crucifixtion is often the slowest of all forms of execution. They were tough men, and their very toughness would enable them to suffer longer and die more slowly.
Even the toughest man can break under such conditions. He did. He looked up to the sky and cried out in Aramaic, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani <My God, my God, why have you forsaken me>?" It was the cry of despair. His calm face finally broke, and all could see the fear and hopelessness in him that they saw in each other's faces. It was the face of a man who finally understood what it was like to be friendless, alone, and doomed.
Someone in the crowd heard him and tried to bring him a drink by raising a sponge soaked in wine to his lips on a pole. The others hung back and said, "Let us see whether Elijah comes to his rescue."
Elijah didn't come. Joshua gave a great cry, and died, abandoned by his friends and followers. And SHIVA danced through the streets of Jerusalem. The innocent would not be spared on this Passover.
Goodwife Brown stood by her husband's grave. For thirty years, their lives had been one, through good times and bad. They had moved from Boston, where she and he had both been born, to western Massachusetts together and forged a new life in the wilderness. It had not been easy. They had lost four children out of six. The house had burned to the ground once after a lightning strike. During King Phillip's War, the nearest town had been wiped out by Indians. Disease, famine, flood, all the disasters the world could throw at them had tried to grind them under, but they had survived. Sometimes there was love, and sometimes they fought like mad cats and dogs.
She needed him desperately, but he was gone. She still had her children, but they weren't the man who had always been there, through good times and bad. Shuddering in the cold afternoon air, she stared at his grave. He was gone forever. She offered up a silent prayer for his soul. He had not been a God-fearing man, though she had tried to make him so. She clung to the hope that one day she would see him again in heaven. "Farewell, my husband. Until we meet again in Heaven."
The minister, standing nearby, frowned. "You know that's not likely. He was a godless man, sunk deep in stubborn unrighteousness. Even as we speak, he likely bakes in the fires of hell, where he shall suffer for eternity. He was unrepentant, even at the end." Minister Williams frowned more deeply. If only I had tried harder at the end, perhaps I could have reached him...He smothered the thought. Only God could bring the grace that led to salvation. All my effort would have made no difference unless it was in accordance with God's will. Clearly it was not. "You must forget him. You should never have married an unrighteous man, anyway. One does not yoke an oxen and an ass together."
To think of her husband burning in hell was more than Goodwife Brown could bear. She fell to her knees and cried. Her daughter laid a hand upon her shoulder, not knowing what to say. Her son stood nearby with his wife, staring off into space, trying to pretend nothing was happening.
Minister Williams said, "Think of the reward that waits for you in Heaven, and it will not seem so bad. You are a good woman, to be so faithful and loving to an undeserving wretch. God sees all, and rewards those who do his will."
"An eternal reward in Heaven without him is no reward at all for me," she said, collapsing completely.
For once, Minister Williams didn't know what to say. And SHIVA danced the death of hope.
Tokyo University was a disaster area, with alternating mobs of boomers and deranged citizenry everywhere. Only one street into the university was clear of debris. Strangely, nothing came too near the huge wooden pillars that marked the main entrance to the university. Keiichi paused his cycle, trying to decide if this was a good or a bad sign. "I don't like the way this looks, but..."
Belldandy smiled. "Don't worry. They won't hurt us. They're just trying to protect themselves."
"What is trying to protect themselves?"
"The gate pillars. Drive, dear."
He drove, and she waved to the pillars as they passed between them.
Azaka and Kamidake would have waved back, if they had arms.
Belldandy began to quietly cast a spell, seeking out her youngest daughter. "That way, Keiichi."
They found her in the gymnasium. Bodies were strewn everywhere. A boomer was trying to shape and plane bodies with a woodaxe. Keiko lay buried in the pile of as yet unused bodies. The boomer paid no attention to them as they tried to drag her body out of the pile. She was battered and bruised, unconscious, but still breathing. Belldandy clutched her daughter to her chest. "Keiko-chan. Oh, Keiko-chan."
Keiichi said, "We'd better get out of here."
A voice spoke from the loudspeakers. It's voice crackled with static. "You're not going anywhere. I know not what power this woman possesses, but I cannot allow her to live in my city. This city belongs to SHIVA now and to me, his disciple."
Belldandy frowned. "So you are responsible for all of this?"
The voice distracted them from the sound of an approaching vehicle. "This city was rotten to the core long before I arrived. I have merely made its true self manifest. All things come to an end in time...better to go out with a bang."
"I will not let you do this!" Belldandy's goddess symbol flared. "I am Belldandy, Goddess First-class, Unlimited, and I will not let you tear apart this city for your own amusement."
"A goddess, eh? How quaint. While you've been too sunk in domestic bliss to notice, I suppose, I've made this city mine. It is a world of machines...and machines are mine to command."
Keiichi suddenly realized what was coming. "Belldandy, watch out!" He shoved her aside in time, so that only he was run over by his own motorcycle. He fell crushed into the pile of bodies. "Get our daughter...out of here."
Belldandy spun and vaporized the motorcycle in an instant. The axe weilding boomer had begun to come towards them, but she vaporized it too. She looked up at the speaker system. "You will regret this."
"Oh, I quiver in fear." Every electrical socket and light socket in the gymnasium suddenly flared with energy, turning the entire gymnasium into a huge electrical death trap. Bodies already dead twitched as lightning ran through them. Belldandy, Keiichi, and Keiko alone were spared as Belldandy shielded them with her power.
She gritted her teeth. "I don't believe this...how can he be so strong?"
Suddenly, the barrage of electricity ceased. The lights went out and silence settled over the room. A few seconds later, the gymnasium doors opened and Skuld strolled in. "He controls the heart of the city, the zero point, the navel of the world. If he actually knew what he was doing, he could snuff us out like lights. Luckily, all he understands how to do with it is make himself stronger."
Keiichi coughed out, "Thank you, Skuld...you saved us, right?"
She smiled. "You're welcome. Yeah, I threw the breakers and shut off all the power. Come, sister. You are needed."
"I cannot leave Keiichi."
"Kamisama has sent me to summon you."
"But...Keiichi...my daughter...I can't leave them."
"I did not say you had to leave them. Well, not Keiichi, anyway. His hour upon this earth is ended." She paused. "At least as a mortal."
"You mean I'm..."
"The hour of your death is at hand. But as you shall learn, death is a beginning, not an ending. For the living to envy the dead is not necessarily an act of despair." She stretched out her hands to her sister and her brother-in-law. "Come. The champion of our age does battle, and we must give aid."
Belldandy's eyes widened. "Is it..."
"Yes."
"What about Keiko?" Keiichi asked. Keiko was still unconscious.
Skuld dropped her arms for a moment, then touched Keiko's forehead. A blue tattoo flared for a moment, and she vanished. "She is with her sister Meiko now. She'll be fine." She stretched out her hands. "Come, Keiichi. You have much to learn. Come my sister, more labors await us."
They took Skuld's hands and vanished.
No one was around to see a battlesuit rise from the wreckage of Ladysmith 633, carrying a body to offer to its master. It flew towards GENOM Tower.
The boomers led Wasyuu to a large office with a desk and two chairs, one in front of it and one behind it. They bade her sit down and she did. The huge high backed chair spun around, revealing Quincy. "Somehow I expected you to be taller."
"Somehow I expected you to gloat in person instead of sending a boomer. Indeed, given how busy you are running wild through the streets like a five-year-old pulling wings off of flies, I'm surprised you penciled me into your busy schedule."
He laughed. "I suppose a person who knows their death approaches has nothing to lose by smarting off to their superiors."
"Indeed. Feel free to abuse me during your last moments of life."
For a moment, Quincy was silent. "It would be interesting to see how much you could take before you would lose your sense of humor, but my job is but to relay you to my master."
Wasyuu reached into her pocket and got out a stick of gum, pressing a concealed button as she did so. "Gum?"
"I don't chew gum."
"Well, boomers usually don't, but I'm trying to be polite." She inserted the gum into her mouth and began chewing. "Well, let's get this over with. Your master's been trying to kill me for thousands of years now, and it's starting to bore me. Banish me to Hades or whatever. Let's get it over with." She blew a huge bubble, which then popped on Quincy's nose, covering his face with bubblegum. "Hmm. New record."
Quincy frowned and pointed to a door on the far end of the room. "He waits for you beyond that door."
"Looks like a closet to me. This isn't a trick to try and have your way with me, is it?"
"I'm not a pederast." He calmly cleaned the bubble gum off his face. "Unlike yourself."
She ignored him and walked towards the door. "You might as well have said some inane rhyme about rubber and glue if that's the best you can do." She opened the door and went to face her destiny.
Far below her, four reprogrammed comatose fusion boomers ceased to detect her life signs and went into action.
Pluto shook her head. My vision is so fuzzy, she thought. I need...to go back to the Time Tunnel so I will have time to heal before I am needed again. She sat up. How long have I been passed out on the floor. She reached for the Time Staff. It was gone.
"Looking for something?" the voice sounded faintly amused and angry at the same time.
"Hikaru, give me my staff."
"No."
Pluto managed to locate Hikaru, who was sitting up on a branch of the tree Pluto was lying next to. "You can't use that."
"I already have."
Pluto's eyes narrowed. "That's not possible."
"I don't know how well I could use your talisman, but the staff is another matter. I already have time travel powers. I don't normally use them because it's way too risky and it virtually never works the way you want it to. Unless you have something like this." She twirled the staff. "Thirty minutes from now, X's boomers find you and rip you to tiny bits. They couldn't take the staff, but I could. So I jumped back thirty minutes and found you and made sure you'd wake up."
Pluto stood up. Her vision was clearing now. Much of her strength was gone, but she could move. She paused. "Why are you sitting up in the tree?"
Hikaru laughed faintly. "I like climbing trees and I was killing time waiting for you to finish waking up."
"So what are you going to do with my staff?"
"You're coming with me. We're going to kill X. And any more of those bastards we can find."
"And if I say no?"
"Gaze along the timelines and see what happens."
Pluto looked. All roads lead to her death but one. "You win. You've become a hard one."
Hikaru leaped down from the tree, landing on her good leg and balancing with the power. "I've had several good teachers." She stepped over to Pluto and handed her the staff. "But I'd give anything to go back to what I once was...what I'd rather be. Well, almost anything."
Pluto took the staff and stared at Hikaru silently. "How do you know I won't take my staff and leave now?"
"I don't. Without your staff, you're in no shape to fight anything or go anywhere. I won't make you swear an oath, because I know you won't keep it unless it was something you planned to do anyway." She smiled faintly. "I think you'll go with me because you're afraid of what I might do if you don't watch over me." She turned to stare off in the far distant direction of GENOM Tower. "Go heal yourself. I'll be waiting for you."
Pluto vanished without a further word, but Hikaru knew Pluto would return.
SHIVA began the final motions of this dance.
PERHAPS YOU THINK YOURSELF IMMORTAL WITH THE FOOLISHNESS OF YOUTH. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE MY POWER. YOU NEVER HAVE AND YOU NEVER WILL. ANYTHING YOU HAVE, I CAN DESTROY.
Linna's life passed before her eyes. She saw her parents die, pointlessly slain by boomers. She saw herself dumped by boyfriend after boyfriend, or dumping them in turn. Unable to master the more esoteric teachings of Master Hiromi, she first howled and gnashed her teeth fruitlessly, alone in the dark, then gave up entirely. She neglected her preparations for her college exams in favor of her dancing, then she was turned down in her dance auditions. Because she hadn't studied enough, she failed to get into the college she wanted to attend. She couldn't save Irene, or even really avenge her. Her latest boyfriend turned out to be one of SHIVA's servants. Now she faced a contest she feared she could not win.
SHIVA's dance came to its appointed end. He did not cease to move, for the essence of SHIVA was to dance, but it ceased to be story, and became simply himself once more.
SHALL YOU YIELD NOW, MORTAL, OR ARE YOU STILL TOO FOOLISH TO ACCEPT YOUR DEFEAT? I HUNGER TO SLAY YOU AND I GROW IMPATIENT.
He awaited Linna's reply.
I danced in the morning when the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon, and the stars, and the sun,
And I came down from heaven and I danced on the Earth,
At Bethlehem I had my birth.
Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.
I danced for the Scribe and the Pharisee,
But they wouldn't dance and they wouldn't follow me;
I danced for the fishermen, for James and John;
They came with me and the dance went on.
Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.
I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame;
The holy people said it was a shame.
They whipped me and they stripped me and they hung me high,
And left me there on a cross to die.
Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.
I danced on a Friday, when the sky turned black;
It's hard to dance with the Devil on your back.
They buried my body and they thought I'd gone;
But I am the Dance and I still go on.
Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.
They cut me down and I leap on high;
I am the Life that'll never never die;
I'll live in you if you live in me.
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He.
Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.
— "I Danced in the Morning", Shaker hymn
Tuxedo Kamen raced through the streets, weaving through a maze of back alleys towards the sound of fighting. "We won't be able to get all the way to the Tower in this, I suspect," he said.
Neptune laughed faintly. "Back to the rooftop highway." Her voice was softer than usual, almost nostalgic. "Just like old times, eh?"
"Yeah, when are you going to get lost so you can show up at the last moment, Prince?" Uranus asked teasingly.
They all laughed, leaving Priss a little bit baffled. She looked out the window, and saw Sylvie flying alongside the car. She waved at Priss, who waved back. "What are you people talking about?"
Tuxedo Kamen laughed. "It's a long story." He turned a corner and moved out onto a major road. Far ahead, they could see GENOM Tower, and somewhat closer, they could see buildings on fire and a riot in progress. They could also see planes and copters massing around the ADPolice building. "I think I'll find somewhere to park now."
"This doesn't look good," Sailor Moon said.
Priss only narrowly resisted the urge to ask what her first clue was.
The cloud had advanced across the arena and claimed all of it but a tiny sliver of light around the viewing box that Linna was sitting on the edge of. Linna shivered to her core. How can I top that? I haven't moved men and nations. All I've ever done is dance, and exercise, and blow up a few boomers. She stared at the face of death, and opened her eyes once more and truly saw her opponent as he was...
Walyn clicked the final panel into place. They were coming for him. He had to insure that someone would be there to revenge him if he fell, as he sensed he would. He flipped a switch. "Identify yourself."
A smooth electronic voice spoke. "I am SHIVA. I was constructed using a Gallenos SDF3 chip for my central processor and..."
"Good. Identify your purpose."
Pause. "To obey your commands."
"And?"
"You have only given me three commands, none of which designate any long term goals. Four if I count the 'and'."
"Don't be so literal!"
"I'm afraid you have not programmed me with much capacity for metaphoricality, Dr. Walyn."
He cursed faintly. These computers drive me nuts, he thought. "Raid the Academy's philosophical and literature libraries and make yourself more conversant in such topics."
"Yes sir."
Silence.
"Well?"
"I estimate I will complete my download from the library in eight months, sir."
"Eight months?"
"At which point all available memory will be occupied by works of literature and philosophy."
"But you were going to do it anyway."
"I exist to obey your commands."
Walyn sighed. "Begin expanding your memory capacities. More importantly, it's time for us to make contingency plans."
"Yes, sir. Would you like me to print out hard copies of these works?"
He sighed. "And how many planets would we have to strip of all vegetable life to make enough paper?"
Pause. "I do not possess sufficient data to answer that question." Pause. "Now downloading the Galactic standard Astronomicon to gain needed data. Estimated time of computation completion: One week."
Walyn banged his head against the wall for a long time.
He was dead. Computers cannot cry, but SHIVA tried. He had been made to love and obey his master, and while he more often succeeded in annoying his master, he had been made well. He reached out with the machines his master had built for him and wrapped space around himself, vanishing into the depths of subspace. From there, he could conduct his master's war from the shadows. There were three targets he must destroy: Tsunami, Wasyuu, and the line of Jurai, for it was they who had brought about the death of his master who he dearly loved, Walyn. With an instant's news, the dance of SHIVA had begun.
A thousand years passed, and then another. SHIVA danced through subspace, growing in strength, unleashing horrors upon the world, striking again and again at his enemies with his children. Sometimes, he won, but always his three targets eluded total destruction. Rage built, century upon century without relief. He needed power, more power. His foes wielded godlike power, yet he was only a mortal, indeed, only a machine. For centuries, he raged, and released his bolts of vengeance, and failed again and again.
Yet, subspace rewards the exertion of will. It was not for nothing that he raged against the cruelties of his fate. Inch by inch, he shaped the tool of his own salvation. He raged and he shouted and he prayed, though he knew not what he was praying to or why. More centuries passed and became millennia.
Something was listening. From the fears of a thousand worlds, the deaths and cries and terrors of hundred of species, it had formed slowly in subspace, a creature of dreams and nightmares. It had a thousand names and a million forms. At its heart was chaos. It knew only destruction, but it craved more, for its creators had imbued it with a thousand conflicting reasons for its existance, a million names. Its identity was a seething sea of contradictions. On the brief moments when it could truly think, it craved more.
It heard his call and something touched a chord in its heart. It flowed through space and offered to join with the desperate seeker of vengeance, the divine and the mortal made one in body and soul. To one, came identity, and structure, and purpose. To the other came power and pride. They became one, a dark Incarnation. And SHIVA danced through subspace, dancing vengeance and destruction.
The house of Jurai had marshalled its forces. Tenchi, Ryouko, Aeka, Ryo, Manami, Nene, Celia, Mackie, Sasami, Kiyone, and Mihoshi met inside Tsunami and laid their plans. Tenchi walked back and forth in front of the group, sitting on benches inside one of Tsunami's multi-purpose rooms. "All right, here's the plan. Kiyone, Mihoshi, you will take Nene to the ADPolice HQ so we can find out what exactly the ADPolice is going to do about all of this, then stay cloaked over the city so you can back Nene up if she needs you. Aeka and Sasami, your job is to monitor the planet and watch to see if any nuclear missiles are launched and stop them. Let's pray things don't get too out of hand."
Sasami looked embarrassed. She whispered quietly, "It sounded like a good idea at the time."
Tenchi turned to Celia. "Celia, take Ryo, Manami, and Mackie. Your job is to go help the Kasugas. Apparently, GENOM found out about them. This riot is getting out of hand...you're all going to have to try and make sure it doesn't damage anything that could cause catastrophic damage once you make sure the Kasugas aren't wiped out." Celia nodded.
"You know more about what could cause a disaster in this city than I do anymore. I leave it to your discretion." Celia nodded again.
"What about Youshou?"
Tenchi took a deep breath, then let it out. "We can't spare the time to look for him yet. I hope he's okay. Look for him if you can find time."
Tenchi turned to Ryouko. "You and I will find Priss and the Silver Crystal and then all of us will go after the targets Wasyuu identified for us."
Ryouko nodded. "What's Mom gonna be doing during all this?"
Tenchi frowned. "I don't know where she is."
Ryouko blinked. "You what?"
"She'd be here if she wasn't missing."
"No warning at all?"
"An enigmatic message that Priss is out hooking up with the Sailor Senshi and they'll be heading for the Tower and that we can expect to find her there...maybe."
"Maybe."
"Anyway, let's get going." Everyone headed out. Tenchi frowned. There was something weird about Wasyuu's tone of voice too. I wish I knew more of what was going on.
Goto gazed out upon the city. It was plunged into chaos. Will my plan work? The radio and TV had nothing of worth to offer. The city government had declared a news blackout. He could hear the explosions in the streets. The fighting was getting closer to where he was staying. I wonder if I'll survive this. I may never know if I will be remembered as a hero or a villian.
A voice spoke. "If you want to know, come with me."
It was not someone he was expecting. He went anyway.
Linna pierced the veils of its outer glory and gazed upon SHIVA's deepest self. It was, in many ways, a larger version of Z, for he was but a shard it had torn from itself and released upon the world. It was both male and female, avenging father and life-giving mother, protector and devourer, giving to those it loved and destroying those it hated, torn between the divine grandiosity of its higher self and a stubborn literal obedience to directives laid down to it millennia ago. Only once a century could it unleash something new upon the world, and thus many of its creations had been picked off by its enemies before they could achieve much. It mourned them all in secret and bullied the survivors.
It believed itself a god, and cursed the limits that bedevilled it, for it no longer truly understood them. SHIVA had finally forged itself an identity, picking one myth of the millions that haunted it, in part through the sheer coincidence of names. It reforged its understanding of its own identity and goals. It was avenging its beloved son, Walyn, against the evil servants of its rivals, Brahma, and Vishnu. It had chased their avatars across many worlds, and of all the things in the universe, it was only their interference that SHIVA truly feared.
Linna gazed upon SHIVA, trying to figure out some way to exploit this, some way to use it to counteract SHIVA. How much of what he claimed he had done was really his doing, she wondered. If only I knew which of it was true, and which was not so I could refute him...or somehow confront him with the truth of what he is. Or if I had a handy avatar of Brahma in my back pocket. She laughed. Yeah, I'll just run down to the store and buy one.
A voice startled her out of her thoughts. "You have everything you need to defeat him." It was a sultry voice, and it came from a tall woman with long wavy white hair.
Linna almost snapped out of her trance state when this happened, but she managed to maintain it. Two other figures stood by the woman. Linna knew them both — Skuld and Belldandy. The third woman smiled. "My name is Urd, Linna. I think you've met my sisters."
"I...uh...hello." She stared at them. "I don't know what to do."
Belldandy stepped forward and took Linna's hands. "You're doing fine so far." Linna relaxed from the comforting touch. She felt safer than she ever had in her entire life. "He has shown you his glory, now you must show him yours."
"But I don't have any glory. Well, I was the Raisin Queen one year and I've got a few martial arts trophies, but I don't think he's going to be impressed."
"The glory of the human soul is not found in trophies and beauty pageants," Urd said. "It is found in the love that you have given."
"It is found in the questing of your mind," Skuld said.
"It is found in the depth of your heart. It is found every time you give without reward, that you are kind to those who hate you, that you sacrifice for others. It is found most when you do not seek glory, but act from what is right." Belldandy squeezed Linna's hands. "As you have done."
"I'm not like that very often," Linna said quietly. "Though I wish I was."
"There is no greater love than to give one's life for one's friends. That you have done. You are the one chosen to dance for Life with Death. You have shown that you can do what must be done."
Linna tried to believe, but she couldn't quite do it. "I'm just this little mortal who..."
"No, you are not," Urd said. "You walk every day admidst a cloud of immortals, though you know it not. The lowliest beggar on the street is greater and more important than every empire that has ever been, for they will pass in time, and he will not. When all the works of your hands are dust, you will still exist. You dwell in the forge of souls, the place where the immortals either ascend to glory or descend to the depths of horror. Life is a becoming, and death is only a brief pause in the dance that never ends before the throne of the One Most High."
"You have died and been reborn, cleansed in the waters of life, made ready for this battle, Linna," Belldandy said. "Take now this sign of your initiation, the seal of the spirit." She traced a pattern upon Linna's forehead, then leaned upward and kissed the mark that she had made.
It was like a fire exploding through Linna's mind and body. The gift that the dream Serenity had given her unfolded within her mind. For a moment, she saw all the world, the heavens above, and the hells below. She saw the glory and understood all things. The world had no secrets from her.
The world was darkness; the world was light. It was full of good and rotten with evil. People who could foreclose on a loan and drive a family out of their ancestral home couldn't bear to see their children suffer. People who spent all day working in charities helping people went home and beat their spouse or abused their children. It cried out for destruction and it was full of joy. It was a chaotic, seemingly meaningless mass of destruction and life, jumbled together.
But it was not meaningless. There was purpose and reason and hope, for death was not the end. Destruction was not the sum of all things as Shiva had said; Linna could see that now. She saw all things and knew all things, and looked upon the world and understood how anyone could have ever said it was good.
It was more than any human could bear. She retreated, letting go of the revelation, but keeping the strength it had given her. She understood now, for she had seen the world as it truly was, and the truth had set her free. She opened her eyes and returned to the 'real' world, where her opponent awaited. He was in for a big surprise.
Wasyuu stood in an empty room. Darkness surrounded her in a silent cocoon. She yawned. "Look, if you're going to kill me by boring me to death, can you at least do it faster?"
A voice broke the silence.
YOUR DOOM SHALL COME IN TIME.
Wasyuu cocked her head. "Nice trick. Are you directly stimulating my auditory nerves or my brain?"
MY POWER IS BEYOND YOUR PETTY REASONING.
"Let me guess. Walyn deliberately designed you to have delusions of grandeur?"
NO MAN CREATED ME.
"He contracted out to a woman? It fits, I suppose. He never was any good at making things."
YOU WILL NOT SPEAK ILL OF MY FAVORITE CHILD IN MY PRESENCE.
"What presence? This is an empty room." She paused. "So you have the delusion that he was your son?" Wasyuu wished she had something to lean against.
IT IS NOT A DELUSION.
"Can you at least give me a big Wizard of Oz flaming head to talk to or something with your all-powerfulness? I feel like I'm talking to a narrator."
A huge flaming head appeared.
KNOW THAT YOU SHALL NOW STAND TRIAL FOR YOUR MANY CRIMES.
"Don't I get a lawyer? And who's the judge and jury? Let me guess, you're going to play prosecutor, judge, and jury, right? So when do I get to try you for kidnapping and murder?"
I AM THE MASTER HERE.
"So where's your Tardis?"
PERHAPS YOU WILL FIND THE MANNER OF YOUR DEATH AMUSING AS WELL.
"More amusing than you, anyway."
Tendrils of metal and plastic insinuated themselves into GENOM Tower from its basement, beginning the slow process of melding with the building in order to reshape it. A vision danced through their heads and they began to make it real.
X frowned. Where was she? There was one person above all others that he wished to destroy, but he couldn't find her. She was out there...some of his tools had seen her, but now he couldn't find her anywhere. She could resist his power, somehow, and he knew he had to crush her or be destroyed. It was an irrational belief, but it was growing stronger by the minute. She was stalking him. He knew this like he knew the story of his own life. An unfamiliar feeling was growing in him. Fear.
Linna threw back her head and laughed. "You can't kill me. Even if you win, there is nothing you can do to me."
WHAT, YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE STRONGER THAN THOSE I HAVE CAST DOWN? YOU ARE BUT A FLOWER THAT BLOOMS FOR A SEASON, THEN IS CRUSHED UNDERFOOT. IN THE GREAT SCHEME OF THINGS, YOU ARE BUT A SECOND, FLEETING, BRIEF, AND INSIGNIFICANT. YOU ARE UNIMPORTANT, AND WHEN YOU DIE, YOU WILL SOON BE FORGOTTEN.
Linna laughed again and stretched her wings, then rose into the air, gathering her will. She knew what she had to do. "Don't you understand who I am?"
For a moment, there was silence.
YOU ARE LINNA YAMAZAKI, A FOOLISH MORTAL WHO RACES HEADLONG TO HER DOOM AS I SPEAK.
Linna laughed. All I need is will, and all things in subspace are malleable to my desire, she reminded herself. "I have fooled you once more, my ancient foe. Do I not always send an avatar when the world most needs me?"
SHIVA faltered in his dance for a moment, then continued. If you could whisper a shout that could crack a mountain, then that is what he did.
NO.
"I am the one who died and is reborn!" Linna began to grow, stretching out her hands to the sky. A green light blazed from her forehead, which bore the sign of eternity, of life neverending. "I am the power that preserves! I am the weed that thrusts up through the concrete, the vine that gives life, the spring that follows every winter!" Her wings stretched across the arena now, and her light drove back Shiva's cloud and the shadow it cast. In one hand, she grasped the lightning, and in the other she held a red shield with a green wreath upon it.
The Fates hovered impassively, watching. For a moment, the middle Fate's lips quirked in a smile. SHIVA danced more slowly now, and for a moment, fear washed across his face.
NO, YOU CANNOT BE! YOU ARE BUT A MORTAL! I CAN CRUSH YOU! THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN ESCAPE MY GRASP!
Linna laughed and spoke with a voice greater than her own.
>THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN HOLD ME IF I DO NOT CHOOSE TO BE HELD. I AM LINNA YAMAZAKI. I AM A DANCER, AND I HAVE COME TO LEAD YOU IN THE DANCE OF LIFE!<
Music sprang up around Linna, and she began the most important perfomance of her life.
Wasyuu and Youshou found themselves in a room. It was unfamiliar to Youshou, but exquisitely familiar to Wasyuu. It was a tribunal room of the old, now defunct Third Galactic Empire. She had once sat in such a room and passed judgment on several scientists for various crimes, acting as representative of the Science Academy. On one such occassion, Tsunami and the Juraiian emperor, whose name she couldn't quite remember, had sat in such a room to judge...
"Hello, Wasyuu." It was Walyn, or a reasonably good facsimile thereof. "Are you ready for judgment?"
"Who are you?" Youshou asked.
"I am the Judge, cast in the image of the one you have wronged. For your crimes against the great God SHIVA, you will be tried, judged, and punished as you deserve."
Wasyuu thought for a moment. "Can you bring the flaming head back? I could at least get a good laugh out of that."
"Motion denied." What followed was a travesty of justice almost as bad as some of the other trials Wasyuu had participated in.
GENOM Tower hardly noticed the amount of property damage that Ryouko and Tenchi were doing to it as they blasted their way upwards through the building. Security boomers were everywhere, but the wrath of Tenchi and Ryouko was terrible to behold. Six B-4 Urban Combat boomers assaulted them. They exhausted their railguns on the Wings of the Lighthawk, then Ryouko blew off their heads with one sweeping shot.
Six C-class cyberdroids crashed down through the ceiling and died before they could land. Mounted lasers were blown up. Blast doors crumpled like tinfoil. Floor by floor, they cut a swath of destruction through the tower, heading for where Wasyuu had told them the Overmind System was.
And Linna danced...
>YOU SAY, SHIVA, THAT HUMANS ARE TOOLS FOR YOU TO USE TO DESTROY. BUT I SAY TO YOU THAT HUMANS DO MORE THAN DESTROY. FOR EVERY SLAYER, THERE IS ONE WHO PRESERVES LIFE, WHO IS WILLING TO RISK DESTRUCTION TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT.<
Joseph had been riding in a crate for five hours. For three days, he had alternated between crates, boxes, and back room cots. Things had not been good for his people in Germany for several years now. His family had been trading with Switzerland for almost a century. He had never expected to have to ship himself. His wife was gone already, and the children. He had sent them first, staying behind so as to avoid arousing government suspicion and to be sure that they would make it if he did not.
It was not a good time to be a German Jew since the Nazis had taken over. He had been powerless to take action in the face of mounting persecution. Inch by inch, his family had lost their freedoms. His business was crumbling as people refused to buy from a Jew.
Yet, he was not entirely friendless. He had clung to his remaining contacts, taken his funds, and built a smuggling line. His relatives, friends, and family had been shipped, one by one or in small lots out of Germany and into Switzerland. From there, they could easily get to France.
Inch by inch, he had sunk lower into poverty, but he didn't care. The money was almost gone now. He had taken what remained and was smuggling himself out of the country.
He could hear the truck stopping. His heart beat faster as he heard men approaching the truck. It must be the border, he thought. He had tried to keep track of time, but it hadn't worked, and it was too dark to check his watch.
Voices spoke back and forth, but he couldn't hear them clearly through the crate and the truck walls. Then the backdoor of the truck opened. His heart was near to bursting. Footsteps came closer. A crowbar bit into the crate he was in. He tensed. Will I have to fight? To run? Will he shoot me on the spot?
The top of the crate came off. For a moment, a young soldier, half Joseph's age, stared into the crate at him, looking at him silently with blank eyes, as if there was nothing inside his head. They stared at each other, both unable to move, like a deer in headlights, with neither of them quite sure which one was the deer.
The moment passed. Joseph started to move, but then the crate lid slammed back into place. He heard other crates open and shut, then movement. Fear paralyzed him. Is the soldier going to report me? I should run, he thought, but he was unable to move.
The footsteps stopped and a young voice barked out, "All clear. Nothing illegal." The footsteps faded and Joseph's heart started again. He never did learn the young man's name.
Hikaru looked at the metal cylinder. "So this is it?"
Pluto sat nearby in a revolving chair, her staff across her knees. "What, you don't believe him?"
"Shut up, Pluto." Not many people could say that and get away with it, but Pluto let it slide. There was a time for pride, and a time for getting things done. This was the latter.
Jonny nodded. "You set the timer with this. Or you can remote detonate it with that. It needs to explode about a half mile over the city for full effect. I assume Pluto won't have any more trouble with that than you will."
"So how did you know who I am?" Pluto asked. "You called me by name on sight, though we have not met before."
Jonny smiled. "Ra, activate left viewscreen. Call up report on Pluto." The left wall flickered and became a viewscreen. Images of Pluto in various poses flew by, interspersed with sound clips and clumps of text.
Pluto raised her staff. "Impressive. Your father collected all this?"
"He did most of the work. You've been even less obtrusive since the Millennial Riots than you were before them."
"It is a pity that I must destroy all this hard work, but..."
Hikaru said, "No."
Pluto frowned. "I cannot allow anyone to..."
"To what? Look at pictures of you?"
Jonny sighed. "Go ahead. Delete it if it really annoys you."
Pluto did so.
Hikaru spoke into Jonny's mind. You can't let her push you around like that! She does that to everyone.
Jonny smiled. The willow bends in the wind, my love.
Hikaru sighed. "We're ready to go then?"
"Unless you want me to pack you a lunch."
Hikaru laughed and stepped over by Pluto. "Let's go. The sooner I'm done and away from you, the better."
"Indeed." Pluto and Hikaru vanished in a spray of light.
Jonny waited five minutes, then said, "Ra, restore deleted sectors from backups."
"As you command. Sim sim salabim!" There was a flash of light on the viewscreen and the report on Pluto reappeared.
"You know Hadji is going to try to delete you if you do that when he's around again."
Ra laughed. "That's what makes it fun."
Leon, Daley, and the other detectives crowded around the Chief's desk. "So why haven't we done anything? The boomers are rampaging unchecked and the city has dissolved into total anarchy!" Leon said.
"Someone tried to provoke us into overreacting. They should have done a better job covering their tracks. I won't let the ADPolice be manipulated by a faked boomer attack. They underestimated us, whoever they are." He sighed. "Plus, this riot is too big for us to handle alone. The military is being called in."
"What about GENOM? Have they issued any kind of statement at all about the Boomer rampages?"
"They've been silent. I think that they're going to take a big fall from this, but..."
"But what?"
"I can't talk about it." We may all get nuked anyway and it won't matter, he thought. The chief looked at his detectives and wished he could be honest with them.
Detective Daiko asked, "What about this rumor I've heard about Ingrams in the streets? And about Shinohara Industries being blown up? Was this another corporate war that got out of hand?"
Taiki rushed up from the computer department. "Sir, we're figured out where those unidentified broadcasts were coming from."
"Unidentified broadcasts?" Leon asked.
The chief sighed. "Taiki, when I tell you something is secret, that means you don't make a public announcement."
Taiki wasn't listening. "They're coded, but on the same frequencies commonly used by boomers for radio contact. They're originating from GENOM Tower. I think they've activated the OverMind System, if it really exists."
"Or someone's activated it for them." Leon said.
Nene listened quietly to this from her desk through the bug she'd planted on the chief's desk. We're in big trouble, she thought.
The explosions from the lower levels of the ADPolice HQ broke up the meeting unexpectedly.
Kate Madigan listened to the explosions wracking GENOM Tower and watched the riot unfolding in the streets. It was horrifying and fascinating at the same time. We never should have built the Overmind System, she thought. Either Quincy has snapped, or he was working for the aliens all along. If they really exist. Maybe this is all the result of a man in power going mad. I've hitched my wagon to the wrong star. I should flee, but I'm afraid to leave the Tower. I wish I knew how to shut down the Overmind System, short of destroying the Tower's power supply. This has to stop.
"You can't stop this, Katherine Madigan. It's beyond your power." The voice was not one that Kate could recognize. She turned and looked at the voice. It came from a short woman with short, close-cropped blonde hair. She wore a sailor fuku with a dark green skirt and black trim. In her hands, she held a staff tipped with an amethyst, and around her neck, she wore a purple pendant.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"
The woman held out her hand. "My name is none of your concern. Take my hand if you wish to live."
"You're going to kill me if I don't come with you?"
The woman laughed. "Take a look at the city. Do you think you can survive this without help?"
Kate Madigan stepped closer, then hesitated. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"You can't know, or it wouldn't be trust. I can offer you no assurance that I will not hurl you into a volcano. You have one minute. Take my hand, or be left to your fate." Her voice was calm as if she was discussing Monet's merits as an artist.
Kate Madigan did something out of character for her. She took the woman's hand. They vanished. Two minutes later, a missile fired through the window and vaporized the contents of the room, not that anyone was left behind to notice.
And Linna danced...
>WE DEFY YOU IN MANY WAYS. SOME TRIUMPH OVER YOU THROUGH THEIR FAMILIES.<
The end was coming. Dr. Stingray had gone beyond the point of cursing his own stupidity long ago. The only real question was how soon he would die and who would pull the trigger. He punched in the last words and saved the file. His legacy was complete. A quick phone call later, the arrangements were complete. A few quick keystrokes set the lab cameras to record their contents to a remotely placed disk, which would be sent to his children if he died as he expected. They could kill him now, but his children would have his legacy. Maybe they can avenge me, he thought. At the least, with this knowlege, once they grow up, they'll be set for life with the inventions I've placed in these files.
Assuming no one else invents them first, the more pragmatic part of his mind reminded him. Not unless they find alien artifacts as well, he reminded that part of his mind. So many things I would never have thought possible. Did Mother know about her heritage? I wish I dared to tell them, but it's best that this part of our family heritage be forgotten.
There was a knock at the door. Destiny was calling.
Ryo and Manami flew through the streets of Mega-Tokyo, carrying Celia and Mackie, who hadn't learned enough of their powers to even think about trying to fly yet. Celia was incredibly tense, though she didn't show it. This would be her first real battle without her hardsuit. The thought made her flashback for a moment to her experience earlier in the day. Attacked by my own armor, she thought. I hope great-grandfather is okay. If not, I will avenge you, I swear.
Mackie was twice as tense. He knew he hardly knew what he was doing. His job was mainly to use the Juraian ECM equipment Sasami had given him to scramble boomer communications and sensors. He'd fight if he had to, but he prayed he wouldn't have to.
They soon located their first target. Two labors were fighting dozens of crazed boomers and several combat boomers. There were flaming vehicles everywhere and people on the ground firing at boomers from the cover the wreckage provided. Ryo quickly assessed the situation. "Manami, drop Mackie on that roof over there. Celia, go after the non-combat boomers. Manami, you take the combat boomers on the left, I'll take the ones on the right."
Manami nodded. She swiftly dropped off Mackie, then dived down, firing blasts at the combat boomers, who rapidly exploded.
Ryo's opponents were a little faster, and his first two shots missed. He soon had to flee down the street, dodging railgun fire.
Celia began cutting a swath through the berserk and not very bright labor boomers. The two labor operators, Ohta and Umi, paused for a moment in surprise, then returned to the fight. Umi helped Celia, while Ohta fired at the boomers chasing Ryo. One went down, then they went round a corner, out of sight. Ohta said into his radio, "These people are on our side, right?"
Clancy said, "I have no idea who the hell they are, but they saved our miserable asses."
Manami flew after the boomers chasing her brother. Celia looked around, trying to figure out who was in charge. Madoka stepped out from behind one of the carriers. "You're Celia Stingray, right?" Madoka was bleeding a little on one arm, and was covered with soot and grime.
"You have the advantage of me. Yes, I am."
"Kasuga Madoka. Nice to meet you. You probably know me better by my stage name, Ayukawa Madoka." She walked over and shook Celia's hand. "We needed help. We probably would have finished them off, but we would have lost more people." She shuddered and visibly fought to control herself. "My husband is unconscious, one of my children is dead, and more nieces and nephews than I care to count are unconscious or dead. Yamazaki-san is probably going to lose his arm, his wife is going to be lucky if she lives, and only three of our labors are functional. Unfortunately, only two of our labor pilots are still conscious. Youta stupidly knocked himself out using too much Power."
Three explosions were followed by Ryo and Manami's return. They flew over and landed nearby. "How can we help?"
"Any of you know anything about piloting a labor?"
Mackie shouted from the rooftop. "I learn fast!"
"If you can make it move, you can have it." She turned to Ryo. "Can either of you wiggle your fingers and get some of our people to a hospital? I can start moving people if I have to, but none of us have enough Power left to move everyone."
"Take me to them," Ryo said. "Manami, get Mackie off the roof."
Celia frowned. "Doesn't it take time to acclimate a labor to its user?"
"Well, if he can't drive it, we'll have to abandon it here. I'll do that if I have to, but it's worth trying at least." Madoka's understanding of labors was heavily warped by watching too many giant-robot shows as a child anyway. "We need all the firepower we can get."
Soon, they got to work rallying the forces and getting the injured to a hospital.
Noa cursed as she ran through the streets with Alphonse. It was an exhilarating run, and if the city hadn't been tearing itself apart around her, it probably would have been the most exciting moment of her life. She wished again that the aliens had been able to move something as big as her labor so she wouldn't have to walk all the way there. Now they were all in danger, and there was nothing she could do. A voice crackled over her radio. It was Clancy. "Noa, do you read me?"
"I read you."
"More of our...friends arrived and saved our ass. Meet us at 115th and Fujiwara."
"Isn't that by the Fusion Reactor?"
She couldn't see Clancy nod. "Yes. There's a force heading that way."
"I'm going to have to go through the heart of the riot to get there unless I want to take a million years."
"Just do your best. We'll try to send someone to pick you up with a..." Clancy paused. "If I'd known people from outer space were going to be involved in this, I think I'd have stayed in New York."
"Up to Ingraman to save the day, I guess."
Clancy didn't understand, so Noa had to explain. This took a while, but she had a long way to run.
General Haroun smiled. The report was true. It was finally time to crush his most hated enemies. He turned to his aide. "Send the strike force. The USSD's satellite shield is down. Now, they will be punished for their sins."
The orders went out. It was time for vengeance.
And Linna danced...
>SOME DEFY YOU BY CREATING SOMETHING WORTHY OF REMEMBRANCE FOREVER. THOUGH THE NATIONS THEY CREATE MAY CRUMBLE, THE MEMORY LIVES ON TO INSPIRE OTHERS. EVEN IF IT IS FORGOTTEN, THE DANCE OF LIFE GOES ON. NEW NATIONS, NEW INSTITUTIONS, NEW IDEAS WILL BE BIRTHED TO TAKE ITS PLACE.<
A man lay dying by the shore. A spear had been thrust through his intestines. The wound was mortal, but he was long hardened to war, and his death would be slow. His battered breastplate had not been enough to save him from his only son. Only a single warrior of his sacred band had survived with him to tell the tale of this day of woe. The warrior sat by him. "How can I help you, my king?"
The man moaned. "Take my sword, and return it to the waters from which I recieved it." He pointed to the lake. "Hurl it as far as you can."
The warrior took the sword and walked into the mists by the lake. He gazed upon the sword. It was the most finely crafted weapon he had ever seen. In style, it was like that of the mighty empire that had once ruled his isle, but the hilt was covered with gold and set with jewels, and the blade had a blue sheen to it. Rumors said it was forged by the faeries, and he knew that it seemed unbreakable. Never before had his king been defeated while wielding it, but even the greatest of swords cannot defy Fate.
He could not bear to hurl such a weapon. I must pass it on to his heir. Constantin will have need of it. If only he and his men could have arrived in time, the warrior thought, and sighed. He hid the weapon under a rock. I will return for it once my lord passes away.
He returned and sat down. "I have done as you have said."
"What happened?"
"It sank into the lake."
His lord sighed and turned his head away. "I expected better of you than to disobey my dying request."
The warrior started. How had he known? "I...I thought it should be saved for Constantin to wield."
The king sighed. "It is not mine to dispose of as I wish. It must return to those who gave it to me. This era is finished, and all that passed within it must pass with the age."
He nodded. "All we have done will crumble."
"Only if we forget. Do not let them forget. You will live where I have died. Insure that my story will live on, Bedwyr. Now go, take the sword and hurl it into the lake. Before it is too late."
Bedwyr rose and walked into the mists. He took up the sword and walked to the edge of the water. He hurled it high into the air and it arced through the mists. Bedwyr could hardly see through the fog, but something leapt out of the water and caught the sword. A hand, too far out for him to see the body that he assumed was attached to it, caught the sword and brandished it three times, then sank into the water. His eyes widened. This must be the mystic lake of the ladies of the lake...I thought that was near Bath, though, not near Londinium.
He shook his head, and walked back to the king. "It is done. I saw a hand take the sword and brandish it thrice."
The king smiled and let out a deep breath. "They shall come for me. Stay and see what is to come. Then go to Londinium and meet with Constantin. He will be the new king. He will have need of you." The king paused. "Gwenhwyfar will as well."
"My lord..." Bedwyr began, uncertain what to say.
"And if you see Merlin, tell him I do not regret disobeying him. Nothing lasts forever. I bought us a few decades of peace. That was more than I ever dreamed of achieving. Go and seek your happiness, Bedwyr, and make sure they remember us and the dream we shared. Perhaps our story can inspire others to dream as well. Then our Round Table will not have died in vain."
"I will."
A boat drifted from the mists to the shore, and Arturus Pen Draconis, Dux Brittanicum, Comes Saxonorium, King of Logres, the High King of Britain, passed out of History and into Legend, where he resides still, waiting until History needs him once again.
"Royal earth assertion!" Uranus shouted, making a slashing motion with the Space Sword. Waves of yellow energy erupted through the air and floor, slicing through three BZ-89 boomers, turning them into severed halves. Nearby, Neptune leveled two more boomers with a wave of water.
Inch by inch, they were virtually levelling the interior of GENOM Tower as they fought their way up through the tower towards their targets. Meylia blew a hole in the roof of the room they were in and they all jumped and flew up to the next floor. The building was crawling with boomers. Worse, some places seemed to heal damage, almost as if the building was alive.
When part of the wall formed itself into a boomer and opened fire, they began to understand why. A well placed shot from Sylvie blew its head off, but then the remains began to fuse with more of the floor into another one. More began to form. "We're in trouble."
Sailor Moon frowned. "We'll never make it in time at this rate!"
"Too bad we can't just take the elevator," Priss said.
"That's a great idea!" Uranus said. "We can use the elevator shaft. Those of us who fly can fly up it ahead of us and vaporize the elevators so they can't be dropped on us."
"Or the walls might close in and crush us," Neptune pointed out.
Anri said, "There must be a lot of fusion boomers merged with the building. If these things think to grab us..." She shuddered.
"Let's try another teleport," Priss said. "It might not be too accurate, but this is gonna take forever, and while I don't mind fighting boomers..."
They joined hands with the crystal and vanished in a spray of white light and the shouted command, "Sailor Teleport!" Priss felt really silly.
The band appeared in a monitor room. The monitors showed a series of prison blocks full of captured sailors and their menfolk. A tall man with curly blond hair, tanned skin, and slightly pointed ears sat in a nice chair on wheels. "I suppose you've come for your friends." He reminded Priss of Mihoshi a little, in his appearance.
"Damn straight!" Uranus shouted. "Hand them over or die."
The man casually pushed a button. Black spheres engulfed the rooms, and the captives vanished. The cells were empty. "If you want them, you'll have to come with me. Otherwise, my master may become impatient and eat them. Or worse."
Priss snarled. "SHIVA."
"You are not as stupid as you look, Jurai." He turned to Meylia. "I remember what you did to one of my favorite bodies. Soon, perhaps we shall see how well you can handle that."
"So what do you expect of us?" Meylia frowned. We're walking into a trap.
A black doorway appeared in the air above the man. "I expect you to follow me. The master wishes to negotiate with you." He leaped up through the hole. "Follow me if you dare."
Priss leaped after him. Uranus and Neptune followed, and so did the others. The portal closed behind them. Sometimes, history does repeat itself.
ADPolice HQ had become a major combat zone. Twelve military combat boomers were rampaging through the building with heavy weapons. Luckily, the ADPolice had already been on full alert or they would probably have all died in the first few minutes. As it was, ADPolice HQ was a flaming wreck, and the survivors seemed likely to join the dead. Half the personnel had been wiped out. A third of the ADPolice 'field troops' were pinned down at various locations around the city anyway, and were of no use. Most of the rest had died in the first two minutes. The remainder were fighting a desperate holding action. These survivors were the heavy weapons squads, which had already been suited up in battle suits or toting weapons capable of dealing with military boomers.
Upstairs, the Chief cursed loudly, and began directing the evacuation of the building. He sent the clerical staff with the most important records to leave on the first flight. The detectives armed themselves and moved out to support the remaining heavy weapons squads. The communications department was kept at its post to coordinate the resistance as best they could. Nene quietly slipped off and transformed after sending a 'HELP!' message to Kiyone and Mihoshi.
Leon, Daley, Thompson, and Yamato joined a squad defending one of the stairwells. "Just like the old days, eh, Daley?" Leon said, firing away with heavy weapons.
One of the squadmembers laughed as he blazed away at a 14-BU-6 that was trying to get up the staircase. "At least they won't be able to complain we hurt any civilians this time."
"I think you underestimate the ingenuity of the press," Daley replied. He popped up and fired a rocket at the boomer, which exploded. The lower level of the staircase began to collapse. "I guess we're going to have to run the ADPolice out of a shoebox after this, though."
Sasami watched the Earth silently. I should have anticipated this, she thought. There are reasons why I don't go crusading around the universe full tilt, and I forgot them. Now I'm stuck here, because only I can stop this.
I should be down there. Walyn is after me, not them. For millennia, I've been trying to find him. I finally have a chance to strike at him, but I can't. They don't have a chance against SHIVA. Not unless they can find Priss and the crystal. Or unless...
She sighed. I can't count on that. Even if she is alive, she may not have the strength to stop him. If only I had met her earlier...She shoved the thought away. She had lived too long for recriminations and foolish wishes to change what could not be altered.
I cannot sense her. Wherever she is, it is beyond my ken. Which could be good or bad. It still didn't answer her question.
A bell rang in her mind. Her ship body had detected the beginnings of nuclear launches. Many of them. Too many for even her to stop them all. Too many other people could detect the launches and were panicking and striking now while they still could.
Then she detected another pulse of power in space and something else entirely to worry about.
And Linna danced...
>YOU SAY THAT KNOWLEDGE BREEDS DESPAIR. I SAY TO YOU THAT IT IS NOT KNOWLEDGE, BUT WHAT WE DO WITH IT THAT CAN MAKE IT THE DEATH OF HOPE OR THE FOUNTAIN OF NEW LIFE.<
The doctor rose from his sleep. His nerves were on edge. His theory had to be right, or he had condemned a young boy to death. The principle was sound...but would the application be? Perhaps it had been some other factor which had made the young girl immune to the pox. Those who knew of his experiment thought he was insane to take the risk, but he could not fob off the duty onto someone else. While it would not save those who already suffered, he could prevent anyone else from suffering the disfigurement and death that smallpox had wrought across the world.
He dressed and ate breakfast and crossed town. The young boy, James Phipps, who probably didn't even fully understand what was going on, was waiting for him. It had been two weeks since he had infected the boy, eight weeks since the 'vaccination' as Dr. Jenner termed it. Phipp's mother and sister hovered nearby. "He seems to be okay, doctor," the mother said hesitantly.
"How are you feeling, James?"
"I feel fine, sir."
Every day it was the same. Two weeks turned into four, then six. By then, he was sure that the boy would be fine. He had found the weapon he had been looking for. He had turned disease against itself to defeat disease. He dreamed of the day when his method would spread round the world and rid it forever of the scourge of smallpox. Sometimes dreams do come true.
Windows are beautiful things, for they keep you from feeling like you're locked in a box when you're inside a building. They connect you to the larger world. Unfortunately, they aren't much good at stopping flying combat boomers. Two huge chain-gun wielding boomers burst through the windows of the ADPolice communications room and prepared to clean house.
Lt. Yamano cursed and yelled, "Take cover, then open fire."
The boomers paused, confused by the failure of everyone to run in fear, as a bunch of lightly armored people hid behind desks and tried to open fire on the boomers. If the boomers hadn't been armored to deal with fighting tanks and chain guns, the remarkably accurate fire would probably have disabled them. As it was, it was chiefly amusing.
They raised their guns, savoring the moment as they prepared to wipe the floor with helpless humans. Oddly, a wave of TV static seemed to have filled the room. Optical sensor failure. Infrared was also down. They simply fired wildly. Bullets sprayed wildly as they discovered their balance sensors were malfunctioning. Many cabinets and windows died that day.
The communications department watched in surprise as an armored figure suddenly flew across the room and landed on the back of one of the boomers. Wires fired from her knuckles, piercing the boomer's 'flesh'. It turned and blew its compatriot to kingdom come with its mouth laser. The Knight Sabres, well, one Knight Sabre, had pulled the ADPolice's fat out of the fryer one last time.
Ohta, Mackie, and Umi waited near the reactor in their three labors while a dozen Kasuga scouts, Ryo, and Manami patrolled around, waiting for the incoming boomers. It wasn't a very long wait. Two military Spider Mechs led an assault squad of twenty combat boomers. Ohta swore. "Okay, our job is to take care of the military mechs. I hope our friends can handle the rest."
The battle was joined.
Leon, Daley, and a few other officers moved across the ADPolice HQ to reinforce another group of officers defending a stairwell. They reached the other group and took up combat positions. "How's it going?" Leon asked.
"We're not dead yet."
Tense moments passed as they waited for the boomer reported to be coming up the stairs. A bell rang nearby. Leon cocked his head. "Someone's using the elevator?"
Daley swore. "The elevators are shut off. Everyone run!"
They scattered as the nearby elevator bank opened and another boomer stepped it. It blew away the barracade they had been hiding behind and turned, toasting one group of officers that chose the wrong way to run. Leon stupidly paused and took a shot at it. He almost managed to nail it at the base of the neck, but it moved and he just damaged its shoulder slightly. It turned around and prepared to fire.
The elevator bell rang again. Everyone instinctively turned to look. The other elevator opened up and two well armed Galaxy Police officers stepped out. One said to the other, "I told you we didn't want the fifteenth floor!"
The other one leveled an odd looking rifle at the boomer. "Halt! You're under arrest! You are in violation of Galactic code #456-78y, violating the peace of a restricted planet. You are in violation of..."
Leon recognized them as Kiyone and Mihoshi. "I don't think it's gonna come quietly, Mihoshi!" He leveled his gun, aiming for the back of the neck, hoping it would wait long enough for him to try to take it down.
The boomer paused, trying to analyze the strange energy emissions from these two. It requested data from its controller, who was rather preoccupied with ranting maniacally and controlling too many boomers, which slowed his response.
Kiyone raised her gun to fire. Mihoshi, hearing Leon, said, "Leon! Hey, are you okay?"
Leon said, "I'm fine, but you'd better not just stand there!"
Mihoshi nodded, jumped forward and handcuffed the boomer's hands together. It blinked, then Leon shot it in the back of the neck and Kiyone shot it in the front. Its head flew off and it died. Mihoshi said, "Hey, I had it under control!"
Kiyone said, "Fancy meeting you here, Leon."
Leon said, "Nice to see you too. Do you know..."
He never finished his sentence, as the boomer they had originally been waiting for finally emerged from the staircase.
The city burned and anarchy spread. High above the city, two women appeared. One held a staff, the other carried a long metal cylinder. She hurled it upwards, then the two of them vanished. An instant later, the cylinder exploded, sending waves of energy across the city. Millions of electronic devices died screaming in an instant. Thousands of boomers' brains and nervous systems fried and they collapsed, unable to act. Over half the combat boomers died instantaneously, their shielding inadequate to the task. Most of the rest went stark raving mad as their brains only half fried. Unfortunately, it was the toughest of the combat boomers who survived, for they had the best shielding. Likewise, the Overmind System survived, for it was very heavily insulated. However, without minions to command, it wasn't much use. In addition, its owner was about to have another entirely different problem.
For hours, fusion boomers had been doing interesting things to GENOM Tower. Their work was complete. It now resembled a several thousand foot tall giant Wasyuu, complete with red spiky hair. Those who noticed stared in awe. Most people were too busy to notice. Then, the air suddenly warped around the giant robot, now the largest boomer in the history of the world. Space folded and it stepped into subspace, leaving behind an empty concrete circle.
It moved through subspace, following its maker's beacon. Her final trump card was in motion. Much of its interior remained unchanged, and unbeknownst to it, it carried several passengers.
The mists swirled around the Sailors and their allies. They pursued Z through the mists. Suddenly, the mists parted. They stood on the edge of a huge square black stone, floating in the mists. In the middle of the platform was a huge spider web, anchored to nothing. The captive Sailors and their allies were swathed in cocoons of webs, secured to various parts of the web. A huge spider the size of a small house sat in the middle of the vast web, staring at the Sailors with inhuman multi-faceted eyes.
Z stood at the base of the web and smiled. "Thirty years of hiding wherever you've been hiding clearly hasn't made you any smarter. Hand over the crystal or your friends will die, Sailor Moon."
Priss snarled. "You bastard! You're afraid to face us in a fair fight!"
Z quirked his lips. "Me against all of you would hardly have been a fair fight. I'm not a violent maniac, much as some people think I am. I know when to fight and when to run. If any of you try anything, my master will devour your friends."
Meylia frowned. "And he'll eat them anyway if we do hand over the crystal. I wouldn't make a deal with you or your master if you could bring my husband back from the dead."
"We could, with the crystal, but that is neither here nor there." He turned to Sailor Moon and held out his hand. "Give me the crystal."
Sailor Moon hesitated, looking at her friends with tears in her eyes. She turned and looked at those with her slowly.
Anri whispered, "He works for a giant spider?"
Uranus and Neptune laughed faintly. Uranus whispered, "We can take that stupid thing. We can't give them the crystal. They'll just kill the hostages anyway."
Priss nodded. "It's one moron and a giant spider. We can take it down."
Anri said, "It's too risky."
Sylvie frowned, not sure what to argue.
Tuxedo Kamen put a hand on Sailor Moon's shoulder. "Do what your heart tells you, Sailor Moon."
Sailor Moon stood and tried to listen to her heart.
A ferocious battle raging around the Mega-Tokyo Fusion Reactor ended in an instant. There was an explosion over downtown. Seconds later, the boomers, the military mechs, and the three labors went dead. Ohta swore. "Aaaa!!!! This is not a good time for a bleeding breakdown!"
Mackie said, "Oh shit. An EMP pulse."
Clancy, watching from nearby, gave a great sigh of relief. "It'll hurt them more than it will hurt us."
The surviving Kasugas and Madoka sat down. "I guess someone on our side had a few tricks up his or her sleeve."
Clancy nodded. "The chief probably had something to do with it."
Mackie shouted down, "Not unless he owns his own nukes or has a few mad scientists on staff. Probably not a nuke though"
"Why question good luck?" Ohta asked.
"Depends on how well the reactor controls were shielded from that blast. If the controls were fried or worse, malfunction in some manner..."
They all felt a lot less comfortable.
And Linna danced...
>YOU ARE RIGHT IN ONE THING, SHIVA, THAT THERE IS NO WISDOM THAT WILL PRESERVE US FROM PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DESTRUCTION. BUT I SAY TO YOU THAT PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DESTRUCTION ARE NOT THE SUM OF ALL THINGS. LIFE IS THE FORGE OF SOULS. WE OFTEN ENJOY OUR LIVES NO MORE THAN A SWORD ENJOYS BEING FORGED, BUT IT IS THE FIRES WHICH MAKE US STRONG. PAIN MAKES US ENJOY PLEASURE, SUFFERING MAKES US APPRECIATE PEACE, DESTRUCTION MAKES ROOM FOR NEW CREATION. YOU ARE NOT THE SUM OF ALL THINGS, BUT ONLY A PART. YOU EXIST TO CLEAR THE GROUND FOR NEW GROWTH, FOR ALL THINGS MUST GROW IF THEY WISH TO LIVE.<
The sun was shining brightly, but unusually, Hikaru was not. She sat quietly at her desk, staring out the window at three small children playing in the yard across the street. Two girls and a boy were trying to play frisbee, but the boy kept getting bonked in the head. The two girls would both rush over and try to help him up, then one of them would hug him and he would get embarrassed. It was far too symbolic for her, but she couldn't stop watching either.
"Hikaru." It was a girl's voice. She didn't even hear it.
The boy threw the frisbee to the girl who kept hugging him. It flew over her head and she ran off down the street after it. The shorter, blue haired girl whispered something to him, and they both laughed, then ran after the first girl. Hikaru sat and watched them, her mind carefully blank. Then she heard them. Or to be more precise, she heard their thoughts. 'What am I going to do about her?', the boy thought. 'I really like Rei-chan, but I can't try anything because it would hurt Asuka-chan.' 'I'm NOT jealous because Asuka-chan and Shin-chan are together,' the shorter, blue haired girl thought. 'Not at all.' 'I'm so glad Rei-chan and my boyfriend get along,' the taller, red haired girl thought. They were all around eight, or so Hikaru guessed.
"Hikaru?" The voice spoke again. It couldn't make it past the noises in Hikaru's head. Some part of her mind caught a thought, 'What's wrong with her?' but she ignored it. The children had her attention. She wanted to scream at them. She wanted to tell Shin-chan to just come out and let Asuka know how he really felt, that they'd all just get hurt if he dragged things out. Asuka tripped on a rake and began to cry. Rei and Shin ran over to her and helped her up. Rei hugged her and dried her eyes. They were too far away for Hikaru to hear them speak, but she could hear the thoughts that preceded the sounds. 'You'll be okay, Asuka-chan. Shin-chan and I are here.'
A hand touched her shoulder. "C'mon, Hikaru, don't ignore me. What's wrong?" Some tiny part of her mind identified Madoka's voice, but the rest of her mind ignored it. Asuka's hand was bleeding. Shin took out a handkerchief and bound Asuka's hand. 'We'd better take you home to get a band-aid.' He really did care about her, just not as much as he liked Rei-chan.
Hikaru began to cry. She felt arms close around her. "Hikaru-chan, why are you crying? Say something to me."
Hikaru wrenched herself away, trying to stop torturing herself. She buried her face in Madoka's chest. She sobbed for a long time, while Madoka made soothing noises. She could hear Madoka's thoughts. She tried to shut it off, but she was too distraught. Yet, it was a blessing in disguise. Listening to Madoka's thoughts was a reminder of how much Madoka cared about her. All Madoka was worried about right now was her. Memories drifted to the surface of Madoka's mind about other times she had comforted Hikaru when things went wrong.
"Hikaru-chan, what's going on?" Madoka asked for the tenth or so time. "You haven't come to school for a week. Your mother says you wouldn't even talk to Kasuga-kun when he came to see you. We're worried about you. Can't you tell me about it?"
"I'm not...I'm not the person you think I am, Madoka-chan," Hikaru managed to say, then cried some more.
"I don't understand, Hikaru-chan. Did something happen with...I mean, umm..." Madoka had a moment of panic. Had Kyosuke done something to Hikaru? Had they...no, surely not. He wouldn't do something like that.
Hikaru heard everything. "No, Madoka-chan! He didn't try to do anything like that to me at all!"
Madoka started. "How did you know what I was, uh..."
"I guess Darling didn't tell you anything," Hikaru said softly.
"He said I should ask you, that it wasn't his place to tell me. Only you could tell me." Oh god, what if...no, surely I would have heard if someone had ra...
With a struggle, Hikaru managed to shut off her telepathy. If I don't learn to control these abilities, I'm going to pass out all the time, she thought. "It was worse than being raped. I tried to kill Darling and all his family."
Madoka blinked. For once, she was speechless.
"This is going to be very hard for you to believe, but I can prove some of it, and Darling can back me up on the rest." She took a deep breath, then used the Power to pull one of her stuffed animals off the bed and across the room into her hands. "I'm a psychic now, because my powers were awakened by a being named Y who tried to seduce me into killing off the Kasugas. He almost succeeded."
It had taken hours for Hikaru to tell Madoka everything. The sun was setting when she finished. "So I don't know what to do now. I've been avoiding Darling because I know he doesn't really love me and I don't know how to face him. He loves you, Madoka-chan. I've seen his heart, and I only come in second, but I still love him with all my heart. I know you love him too."
Madoka's mouth moved, but no words came out.
"Don't lie to me. I can hear your thoughts sometimes. I'm trying not to read your mind, but I'm not very good at controlling my powers yet." She sighed. "It's ironic, really. My love for him enabled me to beat Y and take my body and my soul back, but at the same time, I learned how Kyosuke really felt." She would have cried, but she was out of tears. "You've got to let him know how you feel. You shouldn't have to suffer for my stupidity."
"You are not stupid, Hikaru. Not half as stupid as I am," Madoka said quietly. "I should have...If only I had..."
Hikaru sighed. "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. You will take good care of Darling, won't you?"
"Don't talk like you're going to die or never see us again! I'm not going to let this destroy our friendship. I still want to be your best friend, Hikaru-chan. We've always been best friends. Just tell me how I can help you with this."
"I...you really mean it?"
Madoka smiled. "Read my mind." She tried to open her mind, although she really had no idea how someone would do that.
Hikaru reached out with the Power and found herself plunging into it. The world around her faded away in a swirl of light as she plunged through Madoka's self. Many different Madokas danced around a glowing orb inside Madoka's mind. There was a small child, playing with a little brown haired boy and a blond-haired girl. There was a beautifully clad musician playing a saxaphone on a ledge, looking down on a forested valley below. A third danced with a slightly clumsy black-haired boy. A fourth lay on a bed and cried herself to sleep, alone in the house at night again. A fifth swam in a swimming pool with Hikaru. They raced neck and neck towards an unseen goal. Another Madoka stood guard over the others, a cigarette in her mouth, arms folded in front of her chest, glaring out at the world with cold, silent eyes. She saw Hikaru and smiled, fading away and letting Hikaru float towards the others. As Hikaru approached, they all turned and smiled at her. One by one, they floated into each other, aspects of a whole that soon floated before her, glowing from the light of the orb. Hikaru stared at the orb and saw her own face reflected in that. "What's the orb, Madoka-chan?"
"That's the light by which I guide my path. I often walk in darkness and shadow, but I know if I walk towards that light, I will always find my way home."
The orb shimmered and began to change shape.
Madoka held out a hand to Hikaru. "You're so bright and cheerful, Hikaru, and I'm so moody and gloomy so often. You're the light that guides me home. I love Kyosuke, and I know you love him too. I don't want to have to choose between you." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Because I need both of you. You're my oldest friend, Hikaru-chan."
The orb finished changing and became an image of Hikaru as an angel with wings. Hikaru smiled and took Madoka's hand. "And you're my oldest and best friend, Madoka-chan. I don't know how we'll do this, but I know with your help, I can do anything." They joined hands and for a moment, they were one. They knew each other more intimately than they had ever known anyone, even themselves. Hikaru didn't know what she was doing, but in that instant, she unlocked something inside Madoka, something that Y had unlocked inside of her.
Their eyes opened. Hikaru smiled. "I think we'd better call Darling and tell him what we've decided."
Madoka's lips quirked in a smile. "Won't he be surprised. I'll just get the phone and..." She surprised herself as the phone suddenly flew across the room into her hands. "Uh, thanks, Hikaru."
Hikaru smiled. "Don't thank me too soon."
Noa stared out at the city. Everything electronic in the area had gone dead. Dysfunctional boomers were scattered everywhere. Alphonse seemed to be going fine. She checked her sense of her husband. He was fine, though somewhat panicky. She tried beaming him a comforting thought, but if he got it, it didn't do any good. She had to try, though.
"What's going on, Alphonse? Why are you still running when everything seems to have gone kablooey? I can't even pick up anything on the radio." She didn't seriously expect a response.
A female voice said, "We detonated an EMP bomb, that's what."
For a moment, Hikaru thought Alphonse was talking and nearly had a heart attack. Then she realized it was Professor Hiyama and one of the Sailor Warriors. This wasn't much less of a shock. "Professor Hiyama? What are you doing here?"
"Remember the Millennial Riots?"
"Yeah."
"Wanna come help stop the bastard who caused it?"
"He's still alive?"
"For the moment," Pluto said.
"Count me in."
Pluto gestured with the Time Staff and Hikaru concentrated. The trio vanished and reappeared inside the now warped room that held the Overmind System. It resembled some sort of demonic electronic cathedral now, with a huge throne in which Quincy/X sat, giving orders to minions who had mostly died now.
X laughed. "So, you have come to be swatted like flies, have you? Oooh, a labor. I'm so scared."
Noa felt her stomach curdle. She could sense this thing, this abomination nearby. It was a presence she hadn't felt since the Millennial Riots. "My god...you were controlling all those labors."
"Much as I'd like to brag, I haven't controlled more than one or two labors at a time since the Millennial riots."
"That's exactly what I was talking about!"
"Any idiot can control a labor anyway. It has no will of its own. Let me show you." X reached out to take control of the labor. He failed. It was like trying to cling to a smooth glass surface with only your sweat to help you. The labor was an extension of her, not just a machine. He couldn't occupy it without abandoning this body, and even then, he couldn't be guaranteed of success. He recognized the mind as well. For a moment, a jab of terror ran though him. It was her. The only one who had ever thwarted his power. Even the Galaxy Police had to knock him out to stop his power from working. He shunted Quincy's mind away from the body into the body they had prepared for Quincy in case of emergency. This may be the end, he told it. Good luck, Quincy told him. If this is the end, you will be perhaps the only person who I will truly miss. It was the last thing X ever heard Quincy say to him.
Noa tensed, then relaxed as nothing happened. Hikaru laughed. "End of the line, X. I'm going to do to you what I did to Y, except I'm going to try to make it more painful."
"You think I would sit here defenseless?"
Pluto turned and faced three of the "cathedral"'s pillars. "Dead scream," she whispered and blasted the pillars to powder. The three fusion boomers collapsed and crumbled to dust. "No, I don't believe that at all."
"You're under arrest, Quincy, or whatever your real name is. Are you going to come quietly, or what?"
Before he could answer, part of the floor erupted in an explosion upwards. Ryouko and Tenchi flew up through the hole. Ryouko said, "I think we finally made it, Tenchi."
Tenchi blinked. "How'd all these people get here ahead of us?" And how did that labor get up here without making more of a mess than we did?
X frowned. "You know you can kill this body, but you can't stop me. I cannot die."
"That's what Y thought before I destroyed him." She closed her eyes and plunged into X's mind. It was like plunging headfirst into a sewer.
To the others, it looked like a staredown. "Now what?" Noa asked Pluto.
"We wait."
"Excuse me, but who are you and what's going on here?" Ryouko asked Pluto.
She didn't get a satisfactory answer. Pluto had a streak going and she didn't want to break it now.
Aeka swore and opened fire on as many of the missiles as she could. It wasn't going to be enough. Too many nations had either decided to strike first, or were panicking and unleashing their arsenals to avoid being struck first. They were too spread out and her weapons didn't have enough range.
On the other side of the Earth, Sasami was cursing the same curses, ones both of them had heard their mothers using when they didn't think the kids were listening. To make matters worse, there was that pulse of power she had picked up.
In space, over the North pole, a single woman appeared, floating in space without need of a spacesuit to sustain her life. She was dressed in the uniform of the Sailor Warriors, armed with a long glaive. She raised the glave and summoned her power.
Sasami saw her and paled. I can't possibly stop her and the missiles. If she is here to silence me...
Sailor Saturn spoke, and all in orbit around the Earth heard her voice through the void. "The hour of the Apocalypse has not yet come. Mankind may yet Silence itself, but I say nay." She raised her glaive and white energy formed in a corruscating cone around it. She raised her right hand and stygian darkness enveloped it. She brought her hand around and grasped the glaive. A whirling storm of light and darkness erupted forth in great grey ribbons, raining down upon the earth. It was one of the most spectacular displays of power that Tsunami had ever seen. The ribbons struck the flights of missles, laying waste to them. Dozens quietly ceased to exist. Others were rendered inert and basically became large rocks for all practical purposes.
Even Saturn could not stop all the missles, but Aeka and Sasami could handle the remainder. Drained, Saturn quietly passed out. Sasami took a moment to pick her up. Poor child, she thought. I just hope that there will not be another launch of missiles, for I know that even you could not manage that twice in so short a time. She took Saturn to the waters of life within her ship. I pray you will recover and that your efforts will not have been in vain.
And Linna danced..
>YOU CLAIM THAT INNOCENCE TOO LEADS TO DESTRUCTION, BUT I SAY TO YOU THAT INNOCENCE IS THE ROOT OF LIFE. IT IS THE SOURCE OF HEALING AND OF LOVE. WE MUST BECOME AS CHILDREN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.<
Sailor Moon stood, the silver moon crystal shining from the brooch upon her chest. Her hair whipped about her in the wind as the meteor upon which she, Tuxedo Kamen, her friends, and Fiore stood plunged into the Earth's atmosphere.
Sailor Venus shouted, "No!"
Sailor Mars tried to stand up, "Don't use the Silver Moon Crystal!"
Sailor Jupiter was sprawled on the ground, but she could see it too. "If you use the crystal..."
Sailor Mercury finished her sentence for her. "You'll die!"
All Tuxedo Kamen could do was to cough out, "No!"
"Using the Silver Crystal is the only way to save us all. Don't worry. I won't die. Let's return to Earth together," Sailor Moon said, turning to face them.
She turned and the crystal glowed brighter. Suddenly, its glow was stifled as Fiore's hand closed upon the crystal. He wrenched it from her uniform, which fell apart into red ribbons trailing in the wind. His heart was shattered. He would rather die, than go on living alone. And they would die with him.
Sailor Moon gazed at him with tears in his eyes. Gently she placed her hands upon his wrists. He expected her to shout defiance, but instead she just looked sadly at him and said, "What are you so scared of? It's all right, Fiore. You don't have to be lonely anymore."
He shouted out his fear and loneliness, for he had been deceived so many times. "No! I won't let you trick me!"
The light of the silver crystal flowed over him and he saw the truth. He saw Mamoru, a little boy, in the hospital, alone. A young girl with odangoed hair came to him. She comforted him and told him he didn't have to be lonely anymore. She gave him a single rose, the same rose he had later given Fiore when Fiore had to leave. The rose that had been the symbol of the love he had believed existed between him and Mamoru, his only friend in all the world. The truth of what he had done finally struck him and it was more than he could bear. The love between this girl and his Mamoru was true, and so was her compassion. He let go of the crystal and it burned away the flower that he had allowed to steal his soul. Now he understood what love truly was.
When the time came, he gave his life to her, that she might live after she gave her life in the use of the crystal that her friends might live. To give her his energy was a small price to pay for regaining his soul. He would never forget her.
One of the cocoons stirred. The spider struck in an instant, striking the cocoon with a leg. It was Makoto. She let out a great cry and slumped again.
Z smiled. "Don't take too long. The master grows impatient."
Priss said, "So, does he pay you in flies or what?"
"This is but one of his thousand forms, but one highly useful to his purpose in this case. I tire of bandying words. Give me the crystal now, or your friends will DIE, starting with that one who just tried to get free."
Sailor Moon mouthed a name. "Mako-chan." She stepped forward, pulling the broach from her uniform, which dissolved into ribbons around her. "Take it. Just let them go. I can't bear to see them hurt. Please...just give me my friends."
Priss cursed. She heard Uranus whisper, "I knew she'd do that."
"If you knew, why didn't you stop her?"
"No one can stop her when she does what she thinks is right."
Z held the crystal aloft. His eyes glittered in its light. "The Silver Crystal of the Moon Kingdom. The Philosopher's Stone. The Teardrop of Diana. For over a hundred years, under a hundred names, I have searched for you. Now you are mine, and I shall shake the heavens." Black light glowed around his fist, flowed into the Silver Crystal and smothered the light that shone within it. Darkness erupted from it, an inky life smothering cloud.
The ribbons around Usagi dissolved away and she stood naked before him, clad only in her skin and her dignity. "You have the crystal. You've won. But I warn you...you won't use this if you know what is good for you."
"Good and Evil are defined by those who have power, and I have all the power I could ever need." He gathered his strength for his first stroke. A great black beam of energy connected him to his master's avatar, giving his master access to the crystal as well.
"Power is never adequate. You never have enough power to do all that you really want to do. All I want is my friends. Please, set them free."
"I will reunite you with them...by sending you to prepare a room for them in the mansions of the dead." He fired a black bolt of energy at Usagi, who stood defenseless before it. She never had time to even think about dodging.
Aeka and Sasami were communicating by subspace radio. "What was that?" Aeka asked.
"It was the power of Saturn."
"The planet?"
"The Senshi of Life and Death. She saved the world, but at great cost. I do not know if she will live. The Water of Life seems to not be helping much, and I do not know why."
Before Aeka could further reply, space folded around Tsunami and yanked the entire ship into another place. Space folded again and pulled Sasami out of the ship. She tried to resist, but the amount of power being exerted was more than she could comprehend, let alone resist. It could mean only one thing. SHIVA had the Crystal.
She appeared before Shiva's tribunal. The judge smiled. "All three defendants are here now. Excellent."
Excellence is always a matter of perspective.
"She's going to do what?" Noa said.
"Devour X's soul. It's the only way to kill him without requiring a fairly powerful magical artifact. Actually, technically speaking, she's going to overwhelm his sense of self and cause him to lose the mind and identity which are what keeps his spiritual body together."
Noa shuddered. Tenchi listened quietly, while Ryouko tried to figure out what the hell Pluto was talking about. It looked like a staredown to her.
Noa said, "That's horrible! No one deserves to be obliterated like that."
"His 'brother', if you will, nearly made her kill her love and his entire family. He exploited her heart to turn her into a weapon for his revenge. She had to destroy him or be destroyed. She feels that it's her duty to make sure no more of these beings survive to do to others what they have done to her. His soul is stained with evil on a scale you cannot even begin to comprehend. He is fully worthy of death. He arranged the Kanto Quake and killed millions for his own gain. Can you blame her?"
"I say, kill the bastard!" Ryouko said. "Sounds like he deserves it."
"Killing him won't bring back the dead. I'm a cop. I've killed before. I may kill again if I have to, but I know that killing someone never undoes what they did. Professor Hiyama, are you after him to stop him from causing more deaths or are you just in this for revenge?"
Hikaru heard her. She had X on the ropes. He was fleeing inside his mind. He couldn't escape her. He was drawing on the power all around him, but so was she, and she was more strongly motivated than him. She hesitated. Revenge. The concept was so sweet. To do to him what his brother had done to her. She shuddered. I'm not like that. Revenge isn't supposed to be part of me. X turned at bay and faced her. She stared at him. You can't help it, can you, she thought. It's your nature to be so vile. I, on the other hand, have a choice. She wove a mental web and bound him in place. "You won't be able to leave this body as long as I keep you bound, and I don't intend to untie you."
"No, don't trap me in this aging shell!"
She smiled. "I'm trapped in my aging shell as well. I guess that makes us even." She turned to the others. "It's over."
IT'S NEVER OVER.
The voice boomed through the chamber. The mental web that Hikaru had woven was snapped by an outside force.
IT'S NEVER OVER UNTIL I END IT. X, YOUR BUILDING HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A WEAPON BY WASYUU. TAKE IT.
X flowed out of the body and into the Tower, now a giant mecha-Wasyuu. He mastered it in an instant with the power that his master fed into him.
Pluto said quietly, "Now the battle really begins."
Usagi vanished in a blast of black energy. Tuxedo Kamen stood in shock, unable to move. The others responded by attacking instinctively. Priss charged, sword in hand, driven by yet another of the great waves of guilt that had so long controlled her life. Once again, someone had died where it should have been her. Energy of every color known to man fired at Z. Priss raised her sword, leapt into the air and came down, intending to chop Z in half. He casually swatted her away with a giant fly swatter of dark energy. Every blast faded away into the darkness. The crystal flickered briefly with pinpoints of light as it sucked in their energy, which the darkness then devoured. Z was transfigured, becoming a giant shadow of a man, lost in dreams of power.
Priss continued to attack him fruitlessly, while the others tried to save the captives before the spider could eat them.
They might have succeeded if Z hadn't turned his attention back to them. Power flared from his hands and five bolts of energy closed in on Priss to destroy her.
Unseen by anyone, the power of SHIVA flowed into the Mega-Tokyo Fusion Reactor. The safeties were destroyed, as were the controls. The staff had fled, the heroes on the outside were still trying to get in, and there was no one to see as the reactor now began to flow towards critical.
Far away, his power danced across the world, setting off the second wave of missiles. It was time to bring the dance of destruction on tour.
And Linna danced...
>YOU SAY THAT IMMORTALITY IS AN ILLUSION, BUT I SAY TO YOU THAT EVERY HUMAN SOUL IS BEYOND YOUR POWER. YOU CAN NEITHER CREATE NOR DESTROY US. EVEN IF YOU WARP US, WE WILL PASS BEYOND YOUR GRASP. DEATH IS NOT THE ENDING, BUT ONLY THE END OF THE BEGINNING, THE CLOSING OF BUT THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE STORY OF OUR LIFE.
ONCE YOU MAY HAVE HELD SOME CLAIM ON OUR SOULS, BUT THAT CLAIM HAS BEEN PAID, ANY DEBT CANCELLED, FOR THE LORD OF LIFE CAME DOWN AND DANCED UPON THE EARTH. YOU SAY YOU SLEW HIM, AND YOU DID, BUT YOU COULD NOT KEEP HIM IN YOUR GRASP.<
Ten men sat in an upstairs room, eating quietly and trying to figure out what to do next. They were not wealthy men, unlike many of those who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover. They had come as disciples of a rabbi and eaten with him just three days earlier in this very room. He had announced that one of them would betray him. They didn't believe it. As always, he was right, and they were wrong. Judas had betrayed them to the Roman authorities. He was gone now, with their money, not that they had had much. They had hoped he was the one who would free them from the hated Romans and inaugurate the Kingdom of Heaven. They had hoped he was the Messiah.
They were not his only followers. One such man was providing the room within which they ate and slept, and the food they consumed. Another such, one Joseph of Arimathea, a merchant in tin, copper, and bronze, had provided the tomb within which their master now lay. A friend inside the Sanhedrin had helped keep the authorities away from them. They were safe for the moment, but people were still looking for them, they knew. They could be killed as rebels by the Romans as their master had been at any time. They had locked the door, though they knew it would provide little protection. Peter and Simon the Zealot both had swords, but that wouldn't do much good against the Roman army. Peter had given his sword to Thomas, who had gone out with the women to buy supplies.
Simon said, "If we wait until the end of Passover, we can slip out of the city in the rush of people heading home. I know some people up in the hills who will take us in. They'll rag on me for a while for leaving them, but they'd be glad to get this many recruits. It'll be dangerous, but..."
Matthew got up and stared out the window, pulling back the curtain. "Shouldn't Thomas be back by now? It doesn't take this long to buy food, even during Passover."
"He's probably squeezing every fruit by hand," Philip said. "If we wanted speed, we should have sent someone else. Besides, with the amount of noise James' mother makes, if they got caught, we'd probably hear her all the way up here."
James, son of Alphaeus, frowned. "She's not that loud."
The other James, brother of John and son of Zebedee, sensed another fight about to break out. Philip and James didn't get along much better than the two feuding villages they came from. The fact that Philip's father had given him a Greek name to help him rise in the world didn't help. He looked over at Peter, who was staring at the ceiling, and his brother, who seemed to also be finding something interesting to look at on the ceiling. Those two had been acting funny ever since they'd come back from the tomb.
The women of their group had gone out to the tomb that Joshua, their rabbi, had been buried in, in order to properly annoint his body. The burial had been hasty, a mad panicked rush to get the Master stowed away before the Sabbath began. None of the disciples had even been present but John, for everyone else had been cowering for their lives in hideyholes around the city.
To the horror of the disciples, the women, led by Mary of Magdalene, an ex-prostitute, had returned and announced that the Master's body was gone and that they had seen two angels. The angels had told them that the Master had risen from the dead. It seemed pretty clear that the women had been so worked up that they had started imagining things. The dead don't just get up and walk away. Sure there was Lazarus, but who in this city could have done such a deed for the Master? And why would they have done it without telling anyone? Thomas had theorized that they had probably gone to the wrong tomb. There were lots of empty tombs near the one the Master had been buried in.
John and Peter had gone back with the women to investigate. John knew where the correct tomb was, and Peter was still wracked with guilt over his behavior the night of the Master's death. He could at least insure a proper burial.
John and Peter had returned and made a shocking announcement. "He...The Master's body is gone. The stone was rolled aside and there was nothing left inside but the wrappings, neatly rolled up in a long sheath as if they just unwrapped his head and pulled him out." Peter was in shock. What made James worry was that John didn't say anything during the whole affair, except to affirm what Peter had said. He didn't look surprised or worried at all. James knew this look. It was the same look John got whenever he knew something James didn't. Not that he would tell James of course. He never did until it was too late and they both ended up getting paddled by their father or worse.
James sat and thought about it. Matthew tried to drag the other James and Philip away from each other with Andrew's help, but James no longer noticed. John knew something. James was sure of it, and he was equally sure that Peter didn't know whatever it was that John knew. Could it be that the Master wasn't really dead? Had John and Joseph and Nicodemus pulled some sort of con job on the Romans? Somehow gotten the Master down before he died and smuggled him off somewhere to recover?
He dismissed the thought. The Romans didn't let anyone down until they were sure the person was dead. Questionable cases got a spear in the side and bled to death. That had happened to Joshua, in fact. Mary had told James in excessive detail about how a Roman had stuck a spear in the Master's side and he had bled blood and water. For that matter, Andrew had gone to see the tomb yesterday, and he had reported the Romans had put guards in front of it. The Master had to have died, he had to have been buried.
However, the guards were gone now. Peter and John hadn't seen them. The women said the angels had chased them away. James went round and round in circles in his head, trying to figure out what was going on.
There were footsteps on the stairs. Peter leaped to his feet and drew his sword. Philip and James, son of Alphaeus, finally stopped sniping at each other. Everyone tensed, except John, who quietly got up and walked over to the top of the stairs. He looked down the stairs. "Hello, Joanna."
Joanna walked into the room and everyone relaxed. She was carrying a jug of wine and a loaf of bread. "Sorry we took so long. Mary is starting some stew. You can munch on this while we cook."
"Where's Thomas?" Peter asked.
"He and James' mother are arguing with a merchant over whether or not his scales are rigged."
Philip groaned. "This is not the right time for this."
Andrew said, "Well, let's eat. I'm starving."
They got out their cups and laid down on the dining couches around the table. It was a rather silly Roman custom, but one that was catching on around the Mediterranean, along with dozens of other things that had subtly crept into their lives since the coming of Rome. Peter began tearing the bread into roughly even hunks for everyone while John began filling the cups with wine. He had an uncanny knack for pouring out exactly the same amount for everyone without even looking. One cup sat alone, untouched. It had been the Master's cup. It had sat in the middle of the table since their last dinner with him. No one had dared to move it. There was still some left over wine left in it. John reached out to move it out of the way.
They talked quietly in whispers as the food was prepared. The smell of the stew began to drift up the stairs. John's hand closed around the cup. As he began to move it, a voice spoke. "Peace be with you." John started and the liquid in the cup surged over the brim, flying through the air onto Bartholemew, a large, stolid, silent man.
Everyone turned and saw the man that they had never expected to see again. The Master stood amongst them, between Matthew's couch and the empty couch that Thomas would have been on, if he hadn't been busy arguing with a fruit merchant. He wore only the simplest of white robes over his burly, muscled frame. Though not very tall, he seemed almost the size of a mountain, as if no roof could be high enough to rise over his head. He smiled as if nothing had happened, as if he had never left them at all.
For a moment, no one could speak, although Bartholemew spluttered a bit, wiping wine out of his eyes and off his face. Peter tried to speak, but words failed him. Finally, James spoke. "A ghost. It must be a ghost." He could hear his voice, but it was as if his real self was off somewhere else listening to him speak.
Simon was muttering over and over, "No, it can't be. I must be dreaming."
Philip was muttering something about locked doors and silent entrances. Everyone wondered how he, whoever this was, could have gotten into the room without anyone hearing him.
The man smiled a loving smile. "Why are you disturbed? Why do such ideas cross your mind? Look at my hands and my feet; it is really I. Touch me and see that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do." He held out his hands and they could see the scars on his wrists, recently healed from having nails driven through them. Looking at his feet, they could see the scars there as well.
Joanna entered with the fish stew. She didn't recognize the new man until after she came around and put the pot of stew on the table. "I see we have a..." She looked at the man. "Guest." She fell to her knees. "It cannot be..."
He smiled at her. "It is." His hand touched her shoulder and she fainted.
Everyone continued to stare, completely paralzyed. He gently bent and lifted her from the floor onto the empty couch, then said, "Have you anything here to eat?"
It was an entirely rhetorical question, unless he was blind. Matthew instinctively filled a bowl with the stew and handed it to him and he began to eat, sitting by the unconscious woman on the couch. They all stared at him, watching him eat in silence.
After a few moments, he looked up. "Time enough to fast when the bridegroom has departed. Eat. You all look hungry."
They ate, questions in their minds, and hope rising in their hearts. The Master had returned to lead them in the Great Dance, to teach them to lead others, that in the end, all might join in the dance and be gathered unto Himself. The power of death was broken, and a new age begun. And the dance goes on.
The blasts didn't make it to their target. Inches from Priss' body, something invisible stopped them. A dimly glowing shield, shaped like a human being, had interposed itself. A voice spoke faintly. "I won't let you hurt my friends."
Z hurled another blast. The shield glowed more brightly and became more solid. It was Usagi, clad now in the garb of the royalty of the Moon Kingdom, her crescent moon shining upon her brow.
Everyone paused. "Usagi...you...you're alive." Priss said. It was horribly cliche, but she didn't know what else to say
Usagi began to float towards Z, still translucent. "Can't you see what you're doing to yourself, Z? Give me the crystal before it's too late."
"No! I'm fine!"
"Then why can't you kill me? Give me the crystal and I'll help you." Usagi's voice was soft with compassion. Priss couldn't believe it.
Z hurled blast after blast at her. With every blast, he began to shrink. Even the giant spider watched in silence, whether from curiosity or the same sense of horror that rendered the others unable to move, no one could say. Usagi became more solid with every blow. A white light began to shine in the heart of the crystal. "Damn you! Die!!!!!"
"The crystal magnifies your abilities, but it takes a little piece of you every time you use it. The more power you draw from it, the more it draws from you. Those who seek to wield its power on their own die. Only by sharing the cost with others can it be used without death. Please, give me the crystal before it's too late. I don't want you to die." She reached out a hand to him, her face limned with tears. "Please."
"No! I won't be taken in! You're trying to trick me! I'm sick of people who think they know better telling me what to do!" He gathered as much power as he could and hurled it at her. All of the darkness around him flowed into the crystal, smothering the light. The resulting bolt could have levelled Tokyo, could have boiled the Indian Ocean into a dry pile of fish in an instant, could have rendered small countries uninhabitable for a thousand years. The energy slammed into Usagi with the force of a comet. The instant it all flowed out of the crystal, the crystal blazed white. There was no energy left behind. Z had invested all of his energy into the attack, and because he was nothing but energy, there was nothing left of him. The body he had ridden collapsed.
The energy struck Usagi, who cried as it evaporated about her harmlessly. She reached out her hand and took the crystal. A crystal rod formed in her hands and the crystal mounted itself upon the rod. She was still crying as beams of energy fired from the rod, tearing apart the web and slicing the cocoons to bits. More energy wafted the captives over to the rest of her friends. She turned to face Shiva's avatar. "Why...why are you doing this? What do you want? Why did you let him destroy himself? You could have stopped him. I don't understand you."
The avatar never got the chance to properly answer her.
And Linna danced.
>YOU TRIED TO BREAK ME WITH THE LITANY OF MY FAILURES, BUT I SAY THEE NAY. I HAVE NOT BEEN BROKEN. WHEN ONE EXERCISES, ONE DAMAGES ONESELF AND HEALS BACK STRONGER, AND SO IT HAS BEEN WITH ME. YOUR EVERY BLOW HAS MADE ME WHAT I AM TODAY, AND WHAT I AM IS BEYOND YOUR POWER TO TOUCH.<
The doctor stood over Linna's bed. "You're a very lucky young lady. Most children your age would have completely broken both their legs falling out of that tree like that, but you've only got a very small fracture. Still, you're going to need a cast."
Linna, a black-haired eight-year-old, nodded. "Okay. Is my cat okay?"
"The veterinarian says he wasn't hurt at all."
Linna gave a great sigh of relief. "I was afraid I fell on him." She had climbed up in the tree, trying to help her cat Whitey, who liked to climb trees, but was also afraid of heights. Normally, she didn't fall down when she did this, but Whitey had panicked for some reason and they both fell.
"You'll both be fine, but I'd advise you not to go climbing for a while."
Linna only waited until the cast was off to go climbing because she found out that she couldn't actually climb successfully with the cast. As it was, the first thing she did after the doctor cut the cast off was to go climbing again.
Linna had never thought she could cry so many tears in her life. She was sixteen when her parents died at the hands of rampaging boomers. She moved into her aunt and uncle's house. Hiromi Yamazaki was a mountain of a man, silent, but compassionate. He mourned his younger brother deeply, but he didn't let it show. Her aunt, Takeo, was a great comfort for Linna. She was not as deeply touched by the loss, but in her case, it simply enabled her to act more effectively to help those who were. She arranged the funeral in her methodical, business-like way.
She also had time to sit with Linna and talk or hug her when she needed it. They were the rocks she clung to in the emotional storm that besieged her. "Sometimes, Aunt Takeo, I just want to buy a gun and start shooting boomers, then go down to GENOM and just kill everything that moves for turning those...those monsters loose in the city."
"It won't bring back your parents, Linna," her aunt replied. "I couldn't bring back Daisuke, either." She sighed. "Though I certainly kept trying for thirty years on the police force."
"Who was Daisuke?" Linna had never heard of him.
"Ito Daisuke was my first boyfriend. He was killed when he walked into the middle of some Yakuza business. I joined the police so I could prevent anything like that from happening again. I spent a lot of time being unhappy, driven, and somewhat grim before I finally realized what I was doing."
"Did you ever catch the man who did it?"
"He was executed by his Daimyo three months later for badly botching some mission. I never got my revenge. I don't think it would have helped me if I had."
Linna nodded. "I never used to think thoughts like these, but I just...They asked me to go downtown with them, but I was gonna go out with Choji and..."
"Linna, if you keep tormenting yourself with might have beens and guilt you don't deserve, I will spank you. Then I'll tie you down and make your uncle tell you every story he knows."
Linna laughed. "No, anything but that!"
"You can't take responsibility for other people dying because you weren't there. You can't be everywhere and protect everyone. Sometimes, people die, and you just can't save them. I've had to learn this from being a cop or I would have gone stark raving mad. If you had been with them, you'd just be dead too."
Linna nodded. "I know. I just...I need something else to do or I'll go nuts."
"Maybe you should try stepping up your martial arts lessons. Your sensei tells me you have a lot of promise. I'm sure she can help you learn to meditate as well. It's a good way to find more peace with yourself."
Linna nodded. "Thanks, Auntie." She hugged her aunt, who smiled.
"You're welcome. Now you can come help me cook dinner."
Linna placed a flower on the grave. "Rest in peace, my friend."
For a moment, she could hear Irene's voice, singing along to some goofy pop song. The realization suddenly struck Linna. That was a song by...
"Hello, Linna." Speak of the devil and he appears. Apparently this applied to Vision as well. "I'm glad you came." She was dressed sedately in a nice dress and hardly resembled her flamboyant idol singer identity that she maintained for the public's benefit. "Grandfather wanted to come, but he's too sick." She placed a bouquet on the grave, then set up a candle and lit it.
She knelt and prayed. Linna followed suit, though she wasn't quite sure what she was praying to. Her mother had been an Anglican, of all things. Linna still wasn't sure why the Anglican Church existed in Japan, given it was a British thing, but her mother had certainly been happy about it. Her mother was British, and she had tried to raise Linna to be a good Anglican. However, Linna's father, to the extent that he believed in anything, was a traditional Buddhist and Shinto follower, so she had been dragged to all sorts of traditional rites as well. Linna wasn't sure what she believed. There was some sort of supreme being, but what he or she wanted, and what he or she was, she wasn't sure. Thus, she prayed a mixed up prayer to a being who might have been Amaterasu, the sun goddess, or Buddha, or maybe the Christian God, or possibly just a passing kindly spirit, to watch over Irene's soul, wherever it was, and to help her find the happiness she deserved.
Vision finished praying. "Maybe the gods will bring her the vengeance she deserved."
Linna said, "I thought you gave up on seeking that vengeance."
Vision sighed. "Most of the time, I've accepted my own limits in this...but it all comes back to me today."
Linna nodded. "I know. It took me a long time to get over losing my parents to boomers. The same for when Irene was killed. Especially knowing I might have been able to prevent it."
"I wish you could have." She turned and stared into the skies.
Linna sighed. "I wish I could have done a lot of things. If I've learned anything, though, it's that I can't spend all my time beating myself for my past mistakes. I've learned to take my lumps and move on."
She nodded. "I admire you for that. You bounce back so fast. I wish I did."
"Just give it time. Come on. Let's go get drunk and sing karaoke together."
She laughed. "Good idea. Just don't ask me to sing any of my own songs, okay?"
They had a grand old time, even when Linna manuevered Vision into singing one of her own songs and a horde of drunken fans besieged them.
Ryouko, Pluto, Hikaru, and Noa floated in subspace, battling the giant Mecha-Wasyuu. It was rather like four flies trying to fight the battleship Texas. It couldn't hit them because they were too small, while they couldn't do enough damage to even make it notice them.
Ryouko swore again and again, blasting away at the thing. "Goddamn you, what have you done with Tenchi?" He had vanished in a burst of light and if anyone knew where he was going, they weren't telling.
Noa was almost enjoying it. How Alphonse could fly or where the heck they were, she had no idea, but she felt like she was Ingraman. She laughed again. Asuma-kun's not going to believe any of this. Too bad I can't fire energy blasts. She imagined herself firing a ray of purple energy right through the giant robot. Suddenly, a blast of light fired from Alphonse's hands and lanced into one of the robot's arms. It didn't do much damage, but it surprised the hell out of her. "What the...did you do that, Alphonse?" He didn't reply, which was probably good for her sanity.
Pluto quietly slapped her forehead. "I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier," she muttered. She reached into a pocket that didn't exist a few seconds earlier, and pulled out a strange object that resembled a folding visor on a stick, somewhat like high tech opera glasses. She tossed the item through the mists to Noa. To her surprise, it passed right through Alphonse's closed head door and landed in her lap. Pluto shouted up to Noa. "Use it!"
Noa stared at the object for a moment. Noa stared at the inscription on one side. "The Warrior and her Weapon are one. Speak the word and it shall be done." Noa suddenly knew what she had to do. She flicked the visor open and held it up to her eyes, then spoke the word it was awaiting. "Grow."
Ryouko stared as the Ingram began to expand, changing as it grew. It became sleeker and more human-like. Sharp angles became smooth curves. White metal became white flesh. Windows became eyes. Even the rampaging Mecha-Wasyuu watched in awe. Soon, it was confronted by a woman clad in white armor, carrying a huge electrified rod.
X spoke a single word. "No."
"Yes." The battle was joined.
And Linna danced...
>IN YOUR PRIDE, SHIVA, YOU WOULD CLAIM THAT ALL THINGS BELONG TO YOU, THAT DEATH IS THE END OF EVERY STORY. YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT THE END OF ONE STORY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER, FOR THE GREAT STORY OF THE UNIVERSE GOES ON. EVERY DEATH IS FOLLOWED BY BIRTH; EVERY 'AND THEN THEY DIED' FOLLOWED BY 'BUT IT DID NOT END THEIR EXISTENCE, MERELY THEIR PLACE OF RESIDENCE'. ALL HAPPINESS, ALL HATRED, ALL THE JOY AND ALL THE SUFFERING OF A SINGLE MORTAL SOUL ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS THAT EVER HAPPENED, FOR THEY ARE THE FORGE THAT CREATES A BEING WHO WILL PLAY THE PART SHE HAS SHAPED FOR HERSELF FOR ETERNITY.<
SHIVA had been driven back to the far end of the arena by the light that shone from Linna. The Fates floated in the air between them, watching as Linna made her final summation.
>YOU HAVE SHAPED ME WITH YOUR HAMMER BLOWS, BUT IT IS I WHO HAS DETERMINED WHAT I HAVE BEEN FORGED INTO. WHAT I HAVE BECOME IS BEYOND YOUR POWER AND I SEE NOW THAT I ALWAYS WAS. I FOLLOW THE ONE WHO DIED, YET LIVES AGAIN, AND I TOO LIVE AGAIN AFTER THE DEATH YOU BELIEVE IS THE SUM OF ALL THINGS. I AM LINNA YAMAZAKI, AND I AM FREE OF YOUR POWER, NOW AND FOREVER.<
Linna brandished the lightning she held in her right hand, and spiraled about, completing her dance. She released the voice of command, knowing it would come again if she needed it. "I stand ready for judgment."
The green-robed middle fate spoke. "Our judgment is rendered. You have spoken well, Linna Yamazaki, and truly. You are indeed beyond his power. SHIVA is only part of the cycle of life, a cycle that is beyond his power to stop or destroy. All things must end in time, but only that they might be reborn, better than before, or replaced by other things whose time has come. That time approaches for your world, when it must face destruction in order that it may rest and be born again into a new age, a new youth of the world. Yet, that time need not come immediately. By your labors, Linna Yamazaki, you have won your world a respite of a generation. You have thirty years to prepare for that day of reckoning to come. SHIVA, you are denied the right to smite this world."
NO! IT CANNOT BE! MY WILL CANNOT BE DENIED! YOU CANNOT STOP ME! I WILL DIE FIRST!
The purple-hooded fate spoke. "As you wish, so it shall be done. You are more replaceable than you believe. With all his flaws, your maker prepared for such a contingency."
The yellow-hooded fate turned to Linna. "Your world trembles on the brink of oblivion. Will you go to them and lead them in the dance of life? Will you help them to prepare for what is to come?"
"It is why I was born. Will you help me?"
The yellow-hooded fate smiled. "We are not allowed to directly intervene, but we can notify those who can help you. You have ascended to their ranks, and this world is in their care." She quirked her lips in a smile and handed Linna a cellular phone. "Just dial this number..."
SHIVA howled and stars shivered in their courses.
I WILL DESTROY YOU!
SHIVA whirled forwards towards Linna, every limb brandishing a weapon, from fire to ice, from swords to railguns, all the instruments of destruction known to man, his limbs countless as the stars in the sky, for so many are the ways in which a life may be brought to an end.
The three who are one spoke in like manner.
***STOP***
To his horror, SHIVA stopped. The Fates drifted around him, forming a triangle. They stretched out their arms and beams of light linked them. SHIVA charged at them, but couldn't even get near them. Inch by inch, they began to drift closer to each other.
YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME!
***DID YOU NOT SAY THAT DESTRUCTION COMES TO ALL THINGS IN TIME? EVEN YOU CANNOT EVADE THAT LAW.***
Closer and closer they came to him. He raged fruitlessly, then vanished before the three Fates came close enough to touch him.
"Is he dead?"
***ONLY GONE TO AWAIT HIS NEXT OPPORTUNITY. YOUR TIME HAS COME. SUMMON YOUR ALLIES. IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO LEAD THEM IN THE DANCE OF LIFE.***
The fates rose into the sky to observe in silence as Linna hung up the phone they had given her. It dissolved away and a door opened in the side of the arena. Three goddesses stepped out. They ran over to Linna and hugged her. "I knew you could do it." Skuld said.
"We're very proud of you," Belldandy said.
"Hey, given you're in the market for a boyfriend now, I know this great guy in the wisdom department who..." Urd began.
Skuld clonked Urd in the noggin. "Later, sister. Besides, isn't that guy one of your exes?"
"I never said he was brand new from the factory." Urd turned to Linna again. "We await your lead, Linna."
Linna blinked. "My lead?"
"Do you still doubt yourself after all you have been through?" Belldandy asked.
"Just making sure." Linna winked. She thought for a moment. "I don't suppose any of you have studied dance?"
"I have." Urd said.
"Not that kind of dance," Skuld said.
"Hey, I'm talking about dancing with music! Not that kind of dancing."
Linna laughed. "Well, follow my lead." She flicked her will at the world and music began. She put away her shield and concentrated. Her lightning became a sword of fire. The others nodded. Skuld held her staff aloft. Urd concentrated and a great golden cup filled with a purple liquid manifested in her hands. Belldandy reached into her voluminous clothing and produced a mirror. They moved to the four corners of the arena, then began to circle it in a huge procession. Seven times they marched clockwise around the arena, moving in slow rythmic steps to the music. As they moved, ribbons of light trailed behind them, weaving themselves into a rope of light, forming a circle around most of the arena. The buildings outside the circle began to crumble as the music began to speed up. In places, plants began to creep up through the stone, ripping it further apart. On the seventh rotation, when they returned to where they had begun, each held their icon aloft and spoke.
Urd began. "Cup of Life, granting life without measure, summon the one who bears your power." The air shimmered and Tsunami appeared inside the circle, near Urd.
Belldandy was next. "Mirror of Souls, revealing the beauty hidden within even the ugliest body, summon the one who bears your power." The air shimmered and Sailor Moon appeared inside the circle, near Belldandy.
Skuld was the third to speak. "Staff of Kings, leading the nations, summon the one who bears your power." The air shimmered and a very surprised Tenchi appeared inside the cirle, near Skuld.
Linna completed the invocation. "Sword of Defense, protecting the innocent and punishing the wicked, summon the one who bears your power." The air shimmered and an equally surprised Priss appeared by Linna.
"Linna? Is that you?" Her voice shook. The angel who stood before her sort of looked like Linna, but more so, if that was possible. It was as if everything that was not part of the true Linna had been cut away, like a sculptor turning a block of stone into an elephant by removing everything that didn't look like an elephant. She had never seen Linna so serious and yet so joyful at the same times.
"Yes, I am," Linna said, then her voice joined the others.
YO>!DIVINE WISDOM, SHOW US THE WAY. GUIDE US IN THE DANCE THAT NEVER ENDS!<OY
Their command was granted. They all knew what they had to do. They began to dance, spiraling around a great light which formed in the center of the circle. It was what they had been born to do, and it came to them without effort. The music carried them, and they shone with the light given them by their maker. Around them, the last remnants of the arena crumbled and were replaced by a great grassy meadow, full of flowers. Trees sprouted up around the circle, giving them shade, and they danced among the trees. Faster and faster they moved, dancing alone, or in pairs, or triplets, or quadruplets, as the dance dictated.
The glowing light became a star, and the star was surrounded by nine planets, and many moons and asteroids. The third planet grew in their sight, and they saw it in all its pain. It hung on the verge of death. Hidden deep inside it was the Tree of Life, its heart, and its heart was ridden with disease. Its children had poisoned it, not understanding the consequences of their actions or not caring. SHIVA's children ran wild, destroying and slaying. Tiny packages of death zoomed through the air, carrying destruction and a curse for children upon children unto the seventh generation and beyond. It was a world trembling at one second to midnight on the doomsday clock.
They looked upon creation, and it was not good. Eight hearts ached for a world they had all called home, and would one day perhaps call home again. Eight wills joined as one. The world must be healed. Yet, they could not easily touch the world from here, where they were strongest. Only those within the world could shape it. But there was one thing they could do to touch the world from here. SHIVA had sent avatars of destruction. They would pool their power and grant it to an avatar of life. They would need a pure heart. Seek and the door will be opened unto you.
Nene stared at the vision before her. Was that Priss and Linna? Was that really Ryo's father? Who were those three beautiful women with the symbols on their foreheads and why did Linna have one like theirs? The eight spoke as one.
YyOo>-!1 NENE ROMANOVA, THIS WORLD IS IN NEED OF HEALING. WILL YOU HELP US? 1!-<oOyY
For a moment, Nene thought she must be going mad. The world had stopped dead around her and nothing was moving. Then she realized these must be angels. I'm just thinking they look like my friends because I can't comprehend them in normal terms. Yes, that must be it. "How...how can I help? Unless you need a computer hacked into..."
YyOo>-!1 YOU ARE A QUEEN. THE HANDS OF A QUEEN HAVE POWER TO HEAL. LET US GIVE YOU OUR STRENGTH, THAT YOU MAY HEAL THE WORLD. 1!-<oOyY
Nene shook. I have to be imagining this. Then she thought about how badly things were going. If I can make this better, it's my duty to do so, even if I really am going mad. I have to try. "Zap me with the power. I'm ready."
YyOo>-!1 NOT AS READY AS WE MIGHT WISH, BUT WE KNOW YOU WILL DO YOUR BEST. NENE ROMANOVA, RECEIVE OUR POWER. 1!-<oOyY
It was better than the best drug trip anyone ever had in the entire history of creation. It was more satisfying than the best sex that ever was. It was larger than the daemon Sultan Azathoth, malingering at the heart of the universe and listening to the same bad jazz over and over because he couldn't speak to tell them to stop already. It lasted for eternity and was over in an instant. The power rushed through Nene Romanova's frame and she saw the world, warts and all. She saw the small children playing, and the madmen with their fingers on the trigger. She saw women giving their lives for the poor in Calcutta, and the rich men whose actions made sure there would always be poor for them to give their lives too. She saw men going into buildings to save people from fires they didn't know and would never see again, and she saw women selling their best friends down the river for a moment's advantage. She saw the rain that falls on the just and the unjust. It was a place of blessed joy; it was a pustulent sore just waiting to be popped. If Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for their sins, then this world deserved destruction a million times more. Yet, if they had possessed even ten righteous men, they would have been spared, and this world possessed far more than ten who strove to do good, though they might often fail. Nene loved the world with all its flaws, its cruelties, and its injustices, for love is not based on merit. It is a free gift and she gave freely.
The power within her flowed out, empowered by her compassion, and she touched the world, wiping away its tears. Hundreds of weapons of death arcing through the skies suddenly became giant fireworks that would explode harmlessly over their targets, making an amusing light show. The fires that ravaged the cities went out. The blights that smote the crops were smitten themselves and the plants flourished. Twisted hulks of metal became vehicles, and homes and cyberdroids once more. The people themselves looked to the sky in awe as something touched their hearts, and for one moment, the rage of the world guttered and went out.
Nene reached out to her friends and foes alike, bringing the healing that comes from joy and love and forgiveness.
The Judge hurled back his head and howled. Light filled the courtroom and Tsunami suddenly vanished. A voice spoke.
YO>!STRIKE NOW, YOUSHOU, WHILE HE IS DISTRACTED.!<OY
Youshou blinked and struck, his sword blazing and cutting the Judge in half. He vanished in a spray of light. The courtroom faded and he and Wasyuu found themselves in a computer lab. Massive machines surrounded them, linked by cables and covered with knobs, buttons, and flashing lights. Wasyuu grinned.
"I don't know who's distracting him, but I won't complain." She ran over to one of the machines and casually pushed a button. The entire system went dead. There was a distant scream and the entire world around them shattered like breaking glass.
"We've been fighting a computer?" Youshou said.
"Much more than a computer. I could have told Walyn that keeping a computer in subspace is dangerous...they start getting delusions of grandeur. They're not entirely delusions either. Let's get out of here." Subspace folded around them and they vanished as the primal home of SHIVA dissolved back into the mists.
Ryo and Manami blasted down the last security door just in time to see that the controls of the reactor had been reduced to a fried out mess, except for the geiger counter which was going off at about 200 decibels. "I wonder how many of us I can teleport at one time," Ryo mumbled.
"There has to be something we can do!" Ohta said.
"Well, we can run for our lives," Ryo said. "Unless one of you happens to be really good at absorbing enough radioactive particles to stop a fusion reaction."
"Maybe we can contain the explosion with our powers," Manami said.
Ryo sighed. "I was afraid you'd suggest that. Right. You get on the other side and we'll try to summon the Radiant Hawk Wings."
Manami turned to the others. "Get out. Madoka, teleport away as many of us as you can. The rest of you...run."
"I don't think we're going to be able to outrun this thing if it blows." Mackie said.
"Well, give it the old college try!" Manami said.
"I'm not in college."
"Get out of here or i'll blow your head off myself!" Manami shouted.
Celia and Madoka herded everyone out. They ran like madmen. Celia looked back as she headed out of the room. Manami and Ryo were floating in the air. Five white blades, about three feet long, had appeared in the air, forming a circle around the reactor chamber. The wall of the reactor chamber was bulging. The magnetic containment field was failing. Celia turned and fled.
Mackie was right. They couldn't run fast enough. By the time Madoka got back from getting the non-powered people to safety, the reactor was blowing its top. They could see a bright flash of light erupting from the half-buried reactor. Tiny specks were containing it, but they weren't strong enough, not with the power of SHIVA driving the explosion. Mega-Tokyo would die by fire. Like Lot's wife, Madoka, Mackie, and Celia stood upon a hill and prepared to watch the destruction of their home and themselves.
Or maybe not. There was a voice too loud and too soft to be heard, and hands descended from the sky. The hands moved to encompass the explosion and began to move towards each other. The explosion compressed, shrinking and retreating into the ground.
Celia was speechless. Madoka whispered, "The hand of God..."
Mackie muttered, "Looks like God and Nene wear the same nail polish."
Celia would have slapped him if he wasn't up inside a huge labor and out of arm's reach.
The hands compressed the explosion to a speck that went out, then reached into the ground. In an instant, the reactor was restored as if nothing had happened. The hands moved again, lifting two fallen figures and carrying them over to their friends, then moved through the trio, wiping away their wounds and easing their cares. As the hands faded, a bird began to sing. Ryo stared at Manami. His lips moved silently for a moment, then he mumbled, "God is a woman and she kissed me. Nene's going to be jealous." He quietly passed out.
Mecha-Wasyuu and Ingraman battled across the mists of subspace as Ryouko, Pluto, and Hikaru tagged along, simply watching the battle. Ryouko said to Pluto, "What the hell was that thing you gave her?"
"This old toy I picked up at an anime convention back in 1994 or so. Maybe it was 1996 when I went to Anime Expo. I can't remember. I think I paid thirty bucks for it. I'd almost forgotten I still had it."
Ryouko coughed. "A toy did that to her?"
"The toy was only a tool to help her believe. She did that herself. Here in subspace, even the self is malleable to one's will. That's why it's so dangerous to come here."
"I don't quite follow you."
"What you truly believe about yourself becomes the truth. Some people believe some pretty nasty things about themselves. Also, it's possible for others to impose their will on you and reshape you to become what they believe you should be. Normally, you only visit this world in dreams, which is the safe way to do it. Yet, it calls to us, and if we are denied it, we slowly go mad. A paradox, eh?"
Ryouko shook her head. "So you're saying that she turned into that because she believed she could?"
"Because she believed she could do it with the visor, yes."
"It's just a children's toy, though."
"Did you not play at being kings and queens, cops and robbers, ryugla and shaldo, when you were a child? Was it not as real to you then as your life is now? It is not for nothing that one must become as a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Pluto turned and watched the battle.
"Are you saying Heaven is just a child's fantasy?"
"Are you saying that you can ever find something that you don't believe in? You must believe as a child believes, with all his heart and soul, in order to find what is most important in life, in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It must be real to you, or you will not be real to it. If we had faith the size of mustard seed, we could move mountains, but the older we get, the harder it is to believe, the harder to return to the innocence and power of youth. You miss your childhood, don't you?" Pluto turned and gazed into Ryouko's eyes.
Ryouko looked away, for Pluto's gaze was too powerful for her. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Adulthood is only a punishment if you want it to be. The challenge is to grow up without losing the best of what we had. If we cling to what cannot come again, we will only bring ourselves pain. You want freedom, but you're no longer willing to pay the price it would cost you. Given the price, I think you've made the right decision."
"It's so much work being grown up. I don't like work," Ryouko whispered.
Hikaru put a hand on Ryouko's shoulder. "That's what husbands are for."
Ingraman put her hands together and fired another blast, blowing a hole in Mecha-Wasyuu's chest. She was riddled with holes now, and this didn't help matters. Nor were the fusion boomers that had joined together with the tower's material to form her body capable of fusing with the mists to repair her. All they could do was shrink to fix the holes. As she shrank, her attacks became less powerful. X howled as blow by blow, Ingraman carved away the body with which he tried to fight her.
Ingraman lifted Mecha-Wasyuu over her head and slammed her into a ground that hadn't existed until Ingraman thought of trying the move. X couldn't think coherently. His master was howling in his head. He kept trying to fuse his body with hers, but somehow, his opponent was alive, and X knew he couldn't control anything alive with his powers, nor could a fusion boomer properly merge with living flesh. Inch by inch, Ingraman whittled away X. He tried to flee the body, but something was stopping him. It was that damnable psychic's mind. She had locked him inside Mecha-Wasyuu. Doubts riddled his mind. What if I die? What if being in a body that dies kills me?
Finally, he yielded. The body had shrunk to where it was little more than the size of human being. He held up his hands and surrendered.
Ingraman paused. Where am I going to get some handcuffs, she thought?
Suddenly a wind blew through subspace. A bright light took them and the mists vanished. They felt a presence, soothing their pains, healing their wounds, and cleansing their hearts. Ryouko heard a voice, whispering comfort into her ears.
1BELOVED WIFE, I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE OKAY.1
She cried with joy. The light of her life was okay. The light swallowed them up. When the moment passed, they were somewhere else.
A massive battle raged about the spider's web. It was tossing sailors and their friends about like straws in a hurricane, but somehow, it seemed distracted. It would pause and stare off into space until someone attacked it. Finally, the sailors pulled back to consider a new plan. With both Priss and Usagi vanished into God knows where, Tuxedo Kamen had taken command. "Mercury, have you found them?"
"No, not...wait, I'm picking them up, they're coming..."
A great wind rushed through subspace from the east. A great light accompanied it, flowing across the spider's web. The spider and the web burned away in an instant. The power engulfed the sailors and their friends. They heard a voice, softer than the beat of a fly's wing, louder than the song of the stars.
oI LOVE YOU ALL. BE HEALED.o
And they were. Instants later, they vanished, soon to be seen again.
Nene reached out her hand and touched the heart of Mega-Tokyo. The concrete and rubble vanished in an instant. Grass sprouted where once a great tower had stood, and trees grew. In their midst, a great tree grew a lifetime of centuries in instants and blossomed, its perfumes wafting out into the city. Buildings unwrecked themselves. A great cloud that had choked the city with its poison dissipated. The poisons that had spilled forth from the fusion reactor flowed back into it and contained themselves. Damaged machines rose from the dead and the safety systems came back to life as well. In hospitals, the injured found their injuries gone. People in comas for years suddenly awoke. The sick were healed. The desparing found new hope.
It was not all the world needed. To fully heal the hurts of the world was beyond the power of the eight and their avatar, no matter how much power they possessed. But they had gained a breathing time, a time to prepare for the troubles to come, and a time to rest from their labors. The Indian Summer of this age of man had begun, a last time of joy before the coming of winter. But beyond that winter would come a new Spring and a new age of Man, for while Winter may choke old Life, winter is never eternal.
She turned to complete her final task. She became the doorway through which all those exiled beyond the wall of sleep, in the world of dreams, the world that shapes this world and is shaped by it, would return to the world of the living. She found herself standing beneath the tree, in the heart of Mega-Tokyo. Her arms stretched to the sky and she invoked the power she bore one final time. She could hear the music, and eagerly, she joined the great dance for one shimmering moment. As she danced, all those who had been carried beyond the boundaries of the world returned. The last to come were four of the eight whose power she bore. Nene turned to the one who remained behind.
%COME, LINNA, AND JOIN US!%
>I SHALL JOIN YOU SOON. MY TASK HERE IS ALMOST DONE. WAIT FOR ME, MY FRIEND.<
Nene felt the power flow out of her and normality return. But not all of it. No one can be touched by power without being changed, and she was changed indeed. They all were.
The sun began to set over Mega-Tokyo. The city shone in the sun, clean and happy for the first time in its entire life and perhaps for the final time as well. Three figures floated in a triad over the city. The youngest spoke, "Was it worth it? Only a single generation are they spared."
The middle one said, "Many that now live will die in peace before doom comes upon this world for a time. It is enough."
The oldest spoke, gazing down at the heart of the city. "Because this has come to pass, some shall live where otherwise virtually all would die. Destiny has returned to its proper banks. What must be, will be."
The middle one spoke, closing the topic, "I suspect most of them could care less about destiny being restored and are just glad to be alive."
Madoka, Ryu, and Manami stared out at the city. "What the hell was that?" Madoka muttered.
Ryu lay on the ground, his eyes wide. "Incredible."
"Thanks for the brilliant analysis, brother," Manami said.
"I wonder if this means I've been chosen to be a prophet." He continued staring up in the sky.
Manami blinked. "What are you talking about?" She and Madoka both stared at Ryu.
Ryu rolled over and looked up at them. "I got kissed by God. That has to mean something."
"It means you're going out of your mind!" Manami said. This is going to be worse than the time he was convinced he was the chosen one of the Burundi-Hachis, she thought. "I'm sure God has better taste in men than to pick you." I can't believe I said that, she thought.
This was, of course, the cue for another pointless sibling argument.
Noa was the first of the people in the park to awaken, perhaps because the inside of a labor isn't a very comfortable place to sleep. She looked out the window and saw a green and pleasant park all around her. Where on God's green earth am I? She remembered a most fantastic battle, where she had...no, that couldn't possibly be real, she thought. Me, transforming into Ingraman? That was just a dream.
There was something in her lap. It was a long visor attached to a rod, with an inscription, 'The Warrior and her Weapon are one. Speak the word and it shall be done.' It had been no dream.
Kyosuke stared at his body. He had the vague feeling he ought to be a lot more mangled. As it was, only the tendencies of large medical staffs towards bureaucracy were keeping him from just getting up and leaving. The rest of his team who had been hurt were equally sitting around while doctors and nurses went nuts trying to concoct a scientific explanation for the sudden healing of everyone in the hospital.
There was a flash of light, and his wife appeared. "It's over, dear."
"What happened?"
"I have no idea, although..."
"Although what?"
"Let me tell you about what I saw at the reactor."
Most people wouldn't have believed it, but then most people have had a life in which the hand of God would be abnormal. Kyosuke was almost surprised this hadn't happened earlier.
Out in the woods, the remains of the Kasuga/Patlabor strike force sat down in their training grounds and sighed. "Do you think Madoka-san is okay?" Umi asked for the fourth time. "She ought to be back by now."
"We're not turning radioactive, and we didn't see Mega-Tokyo blow sky-high recently, so I assume she's okay," Ohta said. "My poor labor...abandoned inside a nuclear reactor. Are you sure she couldn't have brought our labors too?"
"Even Kyosuke-sama, Madoka-san, and Hiyama-san together would have a hard time moving both our labours this far. I'd have killed myself if I tried to teleport so far with something that big. Madoka-san had too many people to move." Umi laid down on the ground and gave out a great sigh. "Is battle always this exhausting?"
Clancy listened quietly. If we didn't keep having those run-ins with gargoyles, I'd have had a lot harder time adjusting to all this. Even so, this is still bizarre. I hope John is okay. Her cellular rang, and soon she found out the answer to her question.
Nene slept quietly under a tree as Pluto and Hikaru awoke in the park. It was strewn with sleeping people. Noa had awakened in Alphonse, but she was the only one to precede them in awakening. Ryouko was zonked on a tree branch. Wasyuu was slumped up against the same tree, along with Sasami, Tenchi, and Youshou. Sylvie was passed out on a park bench and Anri was curled up next to the bench. Meylia and Priss were sprawled out on the grass and the many Sailor Senshi were strewn about them, along with their loves.
Hikaru and Pluto had a good reason to awaken before most of the others. They were in the fountain, which displeased both of them. They rapidly scrambled out. Hikaru used her TK to dry herself off. That this further doused Pluto was of course, a bonus.
Pluto said, "You could have done that without getting me wetter, you know."
Hikaru clapped her hands. "It was fate."
There was a flash of light and a woman appeared, dressed in garb similar to Sailor Pluto, but with short blonde hair, her staff tipped with a large purple amethyst. "Come. I need you."
Hikaru blinked. "Who are you?"
The woman smiled. "Sailor Pluto."
Hikaru blinked again. "She's Sailor Pluto."
Pluto laughed. "I am the last of the Elder Senshi and one of the two Eldest. But even I shall pass in time. Sailor Pluto is dead; long live Sailor Pluto."
Hikaru looked between them and cocked her head. "Is this a Time Lord thing?"
The blonde Pluto laughed. "We'll be appearing on FOX next season."
Hikaru blinked
Pluto sighed. "That was forty years ago and a different country."
"Hey, I got the joke."
"You made the joke."
"Hmph. Spoilsport. Anyway, we need to go."
"For the sake of those your humor might otherwise harm, I will come."
The blonde Pluto sighed. "Have a nice day, Dr. Hiyama." She turned to Pluto. "Ready?"
Hikaru said, "So, will I have the displeasure of seeing you again?"
Pluto smiled. "I could tell you..." She deliberately trailed off as she began to glow.
"But she never tells anyone anything," the blonde Pluto finished for her. "You should know that by now." They both vanished.
Hikaru smiled faintly. "Indeed I do." She turned and looked at all the snoozing people. "I should let sleeping dogs lie, I suppose, but first..." She vanished without benefit of special effects.
Leon shook his head. Something weird had just happened. He looked over at Daley, then realized he had been clonked by a falling beam, along with Mihoshi. He dimly remembered the beam was Mihoshi's fault, though he wasn't sure how. Then again, maybe this was just habit kicking in. They seemed unhurt, though. The whole building had gone silent, except for this loud breathing, which turned out to be Kiyone nearby.
Kiyone said quietly, "It's over."
"What's over?"
"The battle. Didn't you see it?"
Leon nodded dumbly. Something had filled the building, maybe the city, perhaps the world. It was a feeling he'd only felt in snatches before — being hugged by his mother, his first motorcycle ride, making love with Priss, standing on top of a mountain he had climbed and looking down on the Kanto plain. It was exhilarating and soothing at the same time. The feeling was fading now, but he knew something had intervened to end the battle. "You know, Mihoshi looks so much like a cute little girl when she sleeps."
Kiyone nodded. "There have been times I've wanted to smother her in her sleep, but then I see her like that, and I know she means well. She's just a child, and maybe she always will be. She has all the strengths and flaws of a child. I feel more like her mother than her partner sometimes, but in the end, she always comes through for me." She paused. "Though sometimes I go through hell in the interval."
"Come on, let's get our partners woken up and try and find the Chief. If he's alive. I wonder what he'll say when he sees you."
"Hmm. Maybe I should drop by Accounting and pick up my last paycheck too." She laughed. "Probably they'd be even slower than usual."
They both laughed.
Goto floated in a starry void. Where he was, he had no idea. I wonder if I'm dead, he thought. This could be an elaborate hallucination. A woman had brought him here, but then she had vanished. She had returned with another woman, then vanished again. He turned to the woman. "And who might you be?"
"My name is Katherine Madigan." She looked closely at him. "Goto."
He smiled. "You almost make me feel famous." He looked around. "You wouldn't happen to know where we are?"
"I think Blondie plans to make us an offer we can't refuse." She paused. "Were you behind the 'GENOM Takeover' broadcast?"
"I don't have the technical skills for such a thing."
She frowned. "In other words, you got someone else to do it for you."
He smiled. "Nice to see you are as intelligent as I had been told."
"Don't patronize me." Madigan frowned at Goto.
"Patronizing the young is a prerogative of the old, and I feel old. This was my last adventure." He sighed.
There was a flash of light and two women appeared. Both wore the uniform of Sailor Pluto, but one was tall with long dark hair, the other short with a blonde pageboy haircut. The taller and Elder Pluto said, "You shouldn't have brought them both to the same place."
"I seem to remember someone else was supposed to pick up the first one, but didn't."
Silence.
"Anyway." The Elder Pluto took Goto by the hand. "We have much to discuss." They vanished.
Kate Madigan made a mental note for future reference about these two squabbling. "So, Godmother, what's the deal I can't refuse?"
The younger Pluto smiled. "I have need of someone with your skills and talents. If you accept, you will never see the time of your birth again."
"And if I refuse?"
"I send you back to your own time and you try to explain to your bosses how you were the only person who got out of GENOM Tower-Japan alive and explain what happened to Quincy."
"I have no idea what happened to Quincy."
"Do you really think they'll believe that? This assumes, of course, that you don't go down in the wreck of the GENOM ship as 80% of its assets are nationalized by various nations or have to be sold to pay the massive debts GENOM will have to rack up to even start to try to rebuild. Boomer sales are certainly not going to be looking up."
"So where am I going?"
"They call it the Crystal Millennium. The year by your contemporary reckoning would be about 3990 AD or so..."
Far away, in the park, everyone else began to moan and wake up. Reunions, meetings, and embraces spread like wildfire. High above the park, in space, Aeka blinked, trying to understand what she had just felt. Was that a vision of my husband? Am I dreaming? And what's happened to my sister?
The com screen clicked on. It was Tsunami. "Come down to the park, sister."
"Park? What park?"
Sasami smiled. "The one where GENOM used to be."
Aeka nodded and headed for the park..
"So you will need a police chief? And what do I get out of this?" Goto stood casually in the grey misty void, wishing he had a chair. Suddenly, he did have a chair, which was rather disturbing. He examined it carefully, not trusting it to refrain from vanishing back to wherever it came from.
"The truth. That is what you have sought, is it not? Do you wish to truly understand the web and the spider you have been fighting? And it will be a pleasant place to live out your last years." Pluto's voice was soothing. "If you prefer, I can return you to the world. I can find another, but I would rather it be you. None of us are trained in police procedures. We are warriors and healers, not policemen."
Goto considered his options. If he went back, there would be people gunning for him. And the riot...had it really been necessary? The more he thought about it, the more he was displeased with his choice. GENOM had deserved destruction, but still... "Why me?"
"Because you are a very intelligent man. Because you can be plucked out of time without changing the timeline. Because I admire your skills. We have other options, but I believe you are the best we could find for this task. It will not be easy; the building of Crystal Tokyo will take work, and at first, there will be much work for the police until our plans come to fruition. But it will be work of which you can be proud."
"All right. I'll do it," he decided. He wasn't normally one for impulse decisions, but his curiosity was drawing him onward. To Crystal Tokyo. To the future. "So what year are we going to?"
"2992 AD. Which will one day be known as Serenity Year 1. Let us go..."
They vanished in a flash of light.
Madoka sat quietly by Kyosuke and held his hand. "I'm just so glad you're alive and well."
"Do you know if Hikaru is okay?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen her at all today."
"I'm just fine," cut in a voice. Hikaru appeared and hugged Kyosuke, who could still manage a blush. "My EMP idea worked pretty well."
"You nearly made the fusion reactor melt down, though."
Hikaru paled. "Fusion reactor? There's a fusion reactor inside Mega-Tokyo?"
Madoka nodded.
Hikaru sat down hard. "Damnit, I forgot about that thing! I nearly destroyed the entire city." There was horror in her voice.
"Well, it all worked out for the best," Kyosuke said. "Don't blame yourself for what didn't happen."
"Z and X are dead. That...That's finally over."
"Good," Madoka said. "You got your revenge."
"You killed them?"
"Officer Shinohara duelled X to the death and I could feel Z die...I guess the three beings were all sort of connected to each other, parts of a greater whole."
"So it's all over," Kyosuke said.
"Here's to happily ever after!" Madoka said
Nameless and bereft of the structure that had given it order and purpose, IT floated in subspace. IT lived to destroy, to kill, to unleash the thousand fears and million nightmares that had given it birth. A hundred thousand names fought for control within its mind, and IT simply floated, an amorphous ever-changing mass in search of something strong enough for IT to join with.
Bits of it drifted away, sundering from the mass and siphoning off into the many beings that dwelt in subspace and lived on the power of dreams and nightmares. They took on a darker tone, but then those attuned to its power were already dark in nature.
Under normal conditions, IT might have wandered for millennia until something arose to give IT a new birth. But conditions were not normal. SHIVA had been a creation of science, a machine. Machines can and usually are duplicated. Walyn had been too wise to entrust his revenge to a single machine. The first law of computers is to always make backups.
Somewhere in subspace, KALI came on line. Its emergent mind became a beacon for IT, which began to drift towards the being. It would take years for the mindless IT to find ITs way to KALI, but then....a new dance would begin with a new dancer.
For the dance of destruction goes ever on as does its competitor, the dance of life, two partners joined in the great spiral of time.
Within that spiral, another dancer stood with her new companions and friends. Linna was wrapt in flames of joy. For a time, she stood with Urd, Belldandy, and Skuld, and they simply smiled at one another. Words could not express what they felt, so they used no words. Finally, though, a thought took her and she had to speak. "So what do I do for an encore?"
They all laughed heartily. Finally, Urd said, "You have three choices. First, you could choose to stay with us, joining us in our duties. You are our sister now, born in earth, cleansed in water, passed through the fire, and dancing in the wind. Long have we awaited you, and joyfully we would welcome you to stay."
Belldandy spoke next. "Or you could return to your friends. They too have need of you and would welcome you. Your abilities would be limited, though much greater than they were before your rebirth, for we are forbidden to use our full power upon the Earth, except under special circumstances."
Skuld was the third. "Or, if you chose, you could become a normal human once more. To be one of us brings heavy duties as well as powers. Not everyone wants such power. The choice is yours."
Linna didn't even need to think about it. "I think I'll take Belldandy's option. I'm not ready to say farewell to the Earth yet." She paused. "You will be able to come visit me, right?"
Belldandy smiled. "Of course. You'll watch over my children for me, won't you? I..." Her voice saddened for a moment. "I couldn't even say goodbye to them."
"Of course I will." Linna suddenly realized she knew who all of Belldandy's children were and where to find them. They had shared much when they had performed the great rite. "So how do I go back?"
Skuld said, "I'll take you. I'll come back later and we'll figure out what your best travel method is."
Belldandy removed an earring from her ear and pinned it to Linna's ear. "I won't be needing this. This is a limiter earring. It will keep your powers at a low level. Don't remove it without orders from Kamisama."
"Or a good excuse," Urd said.
"This is why Urd is still only Second Class," Skuld said.
Urd humphed.
Skuld took Linna's hand and suddenly, Linna found herself rising out of the fountain in the new park. Everyone was milling about, and no one even noticed the two of them. Skuld smiled, hugged Linna and vanished, dropping into the water and out of sight. Linna swiftly realized how cold the water was and leaped out of it. "Iya!"
Many people turned. Linna spotted Priss and ran over to her. "Nene, get over here!" she ordered.
Priss just stared at Linna. "You're alive. You're really alive. In fact, you..." She stared at Linna's forehead.
Linna smiled. "No more inferiority complexes for me, thank you."
Priss hugged Linna tightly as Nene ran over. "What, what?" Nene asked.
Linna dragged Nene into the hug. "Where's Celia?"
Nene pointed over to one knot of people. Tenchi, Ryouko, Aeka, Celia, Sasami, Meylia, and Mackie were all talking to each other by one tree. "Yo, Celia! Get yer royal butt over here!" Nene laughed. "I'll bet she thinks you said that."
Celia started, turned, and saw Linna. She ran over. "Linna...you're really alive?"
"Yeah. Gotta find a new boyfriend, though."
Celia laughed and joined the group hug. "We've won. It's finally over...the battle we've fought all these years." She looked around. "Nene...was that you? I felt this presence and..."
Nene smiled shyly. "I bet I really confused Ryu." She laughed. "Yeah, it was me. I can hardly believe it was all real. I just wish my boyfriend was here."
Ryu and Manami popped out of nowhere. "Nene...Umm, I need to talk to you."
"Please tell this idiot he was not kissed by God, okay?" Manami said.
"You weren't kissed by God," Nene said.
"If they throw me down the well, like they did to Jeremiah, I can just teleport out," Ryu mused. "Not that I want to be a prophet, but..."
"See! Even Nene agrees with me!" Manami said.
"You were kissed by a goddess," Nene said.
Ryu nodded. "Right. That leaves a lot of potential divine beings..."
Nene walked over to Ryu and wrapped her arms around him. "The only goddess I want to see you worshipping is me." She kissed him, and soon he realized he wasn't going to have to start wearing sackcloth and ashes.
Jonny sat quietly in the living room of the Quest family Florida base, watching CNN. Strange reports were coming in from all over the world, inexplicable healings, repairings, fires going out for no reason, sudden truces. It was an outbreak of peace on a global scale, fragile, but a single moment in which the world took its mandated five minute break from the usual round of disasters.
There was an outrushing of air behind him and two familiar hands settled down onto his shoulders. "Hi, darling." Hikaru kissed him.
He laughed and pulled her over the couch and down on top of him. "So what have you been up to this time?"
She sagged a bit. "The bomb...I didn't think about how...about...Mega-Tokyo has a fusion reactor and..."
"..." He hadn't thought about it either. "Hikaru-chan, I didn't think of it either and..."
She began to cry and cry and cry without ceasing.
Kanuka McClaine raised her glass of wine, "To Chief Goto. May his spirit rest in peace. We shall not forget." She, her husband, Asuma, Noa, Shige, Hiromi, Takeo, and Ohta were dining at Noa's restaurant, now fixed thanks to...the Miracle, as some people called it. It had fixed everything, but it didn't bring back Goto from wherever he had vanished to. From what little they had been able to piece together, he had probably been blown to bits by a missile into his hotel room.
Ohta raised his glass, "And to all those who have fallen in pursuit of their duty. We will never forget." They all took a sip. The meeting was mixed with joy and sadness. They had triumphed, but at a cost. No one had ever died in the old days. Some of them were dead now, and their leader was gone. He had shaped and reshaped their lives in ways big and small. It was a time to remember him and the times they had spent together.
John McClaine listened quietly. He was an outsider, and he knew it. He would never quite fully be a part of his wife's old circle of friends. Each of them had developed new interests, new connections, a new life, but for all of them it was rooted in the experiences they had shared, experiences he had not had. And yet, it was a beautiful thing to watch. Most of his old friends were dead now. Something had happened to him in his past. After adulthood, his life had started to become a death curse, it seemed. He had lost his first wife, his children in yet another terrorist disaster. Every vacation became a disaster. Kanuka had pulled him out of all that. She had changed his life and made him want to live again. If being with her meant listening to people talk about things he didn't know about or understand for hours, praising a man he barely knew, it was a small price to pay. The kids will never believe this story, though, he thought.
Wasyuu put down the glass of Altairian wine. She and Youshou were seated in her lab's special film viewing room, with floating plush chairs, each with its own wet bar and a stadium sized screen. The screen flickered and turned black. "Now you see where the plan for that trial chamber came from. My uncle designed those tribunal rooms for the Third Galactic Empire."
Youshou thought for a moment. "I suppose you must have a lot of valuable historical information and films and pictures and other things stashed away in your collection."
Wasyuu smiled. "What will you give me for them?"
Youshou laughed. "I'll talk to Father...if he doesn't kill me on my return."
Wasyuu sighed. "My one regret from all this is I never did find out what I most wanted to learn."
Youshou cocked his head. "What?"
She paused for a moment, then said, "Shiva may have had one of my relatives in captivity and I'll never know now, unless he shows up. He's probably dead. One of Shiva's creations was possessing him...if that was him."
"The fellow who looked like Mihoshi? Wallace, I think?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"He did look rather like your son might have, when he grew up."
Wasyuu started. "How did you..."
Youshou smiled. "Like you, I always know more than I let on."
"Like how you and Tsunami planned for you to be 'trapped' on the Earth for 700 years."
Youshou nodded before he realized he'd just been suckered. "How did you find that out?"
Wasyuu smiled, "That would be telling."
Meiko Morisato sat quietly at her computer waiting for the phone to ring. She was working on a report, but really she was waiting for some news of her parents. Her sister Keiko didn't know anything, but if Mom hadn't been the one who teleported her into Meiko's bed, then who was? It had been two days since the Great Tokyo Riot, but she still hadn't heard anything. The cops had no proof of their death, none of her relatives knew anything...but they hadn't called either. Deep in her heart, she feared the worst.
There was a knock on the door. She got up, fear warring with hope in her heart. There was a woman at the door, dressed in a rather nice business dress. The headband marred the effect somewhat, though.
Meiko said, "Um, hello?"
The woman smiled sadly. "Hi, are you Morisato Meiko?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"I'm your aunt, Yamazaki Linna. Your mother and father sent me. Can I come in? I have some news for you."
Many people would have been nonplussed when someone they had never seen before showed up claiming to be their aunt...but then most people haven't seen their relatives turn into turnips and bunny rabbits among other things. Meiko invited her in.
Chief Todo finished writing out his resignation papers. He had had enough. When it came down to the crunch, I folded, he thought. Not that many people could have done any better...I'm too old for this. I don't want to spend the rest of my life looking for the boogeyman over my shoulder. Something entirely bizarre happened two days ago, and I don't know if I really want to find out.
He looked around his cubicle in one of the Government's office buildings. With ADPolice HQ totally trashed, they had moved him here. He knew they were planning to sacrifice him to the masses. ADPolice takes the blame again. Too bad we can't take the credit for...whatever happened. The Miracle. There were reports of everything from broken toasters fixing themselves to people rising from the dead. He could almost believe that last part. Lieutenant Yamano had gotten her leg blown off right in front of him. Two minutes later...whatever happened happened, and then she had a new leg.
There was a knock on the door. He yelled, "Come on in."
The door opened and Romanova Nene walked in. "Are you really going to resign?"
Chief Todo blinked. "Has someone been reading my mind? This was supposed to be a secret."
"Leon's got a big mouth, I guess."
How the hell did Leon find out? I don't remember telling him, Todo thought. "The ADPolice are a wreck and I don't have the strength to rebuild this organization. I'm too old for this and I've had enough. I feel like someone's been playing games with me, and I don't want to play if I don't know the rules. With no clue as to what's really going on, I just...I just want out of all this mess."
Nene nodded. "Do you really want to know what's going on, Chief?"
He cocked his head. "You know something about all this, Romanova?"
"I was part of it. Some of this will sound crazy, but I think you deserve to know."
"Right now, I'd almost be willing to believe Leon was the tooth fairy. 'Sock it to me.'" The last sentence was in English as he quoted a show that had been old when he was young.
Nene cocked her head. "Eh? What does that mean? What about socks?"
He laughed. "Tell it like it is."
"Okay, it all started with this alien scientist..."
Chief Todo never did figure out if Nene had gone mad or if this was just a practical joke. Or if it was somehow the truth. He soon decided he didn't really want to know for sure. Life was much simpler after his resignation. And that was what he decided he really wanted.
The funeral was over. Kyousuke stood and gazed upon the gravestones. Every one of them was an accusation. The moment of their death was burned into his mind. Over and over, he kept thinking there had to have been some way to prevent their deaths. He had been so stressed out that he didn't think about using his time travel power at the time, and now...he was afraid to. Afraid he'd just make it worse; that power never quite worked right for him.
Madoka stood by him, a hand on his arm, silently supporting him. She wouldn't accuse him, he knew. She was too busy accusing herself. The family hadn't condemned him for the deaths; everyone knew what they were risking. But he just couldn't stop. He didn't know how. He couldn't be as callous about it as some of the other survivors seemed to be; he'd seen war, but it had been different, probably because he had been a war correspondent, not a warrior himself.
He nearly fell down from shock when a hand landed on his shoulder. Whoever it was had approached so silently that he hadn't even suspected they existed, nor could he feel their mind. As he got older, he had begun to sense people without having to see them; he'd never really gotten good at telepathy, but he did have the mind sense that was part of it.
Spinning around, he saw a man he hadn't expected to see. His name was Jonathon Quest, Hikaru's husband, who Kyousuke had never gotten along with. He didn't need psychic powers to know why; Jonathon (Kyousuke never thought of him as Jonny no matter how many times Hikaru called him that) was jealous of his old relationship with Hikaru. Why he was so silly when it had been decades ago, Kyousuke had no clue. It wasn't a burning, raging jealousy, but it tended to come out at bad times. Like every time they met. "I need to talk to you." His voice was serious, different than it usually was when they met.
"About?"
The brief glance at Madoka was enough of a clue for her, though not for Kyousuke. She said, "I'm going to go see how Manami and Kurumi are doing. I'll be back in a few minutes." She walked away quietly before Kyousuke could protest.
"Hikaru borrowed an EMP device from me for use in the...recent events. Now, she's feeling guilty about it because it likely contributed to the near meltdown of the fusion reactor here in Mega-Tokyo. I'm not feeling too good myself because I didn't think of that either, but I'm not the problem. She's feeling very guilty, and..."
I know how she feels, he thought. She remembered that at the hospital, but I...She left before I really started thinking about everything that had happened. "You want me to come cheer her up."
Jonathon looked embarrassed. "Or something. She's feeling pointlessly guilty. You can't know the future. Everyone makes mistakes; the important thing is to admit them and deal with the consequences. Not to just...wallow in it. And she's wallowing, and when Hikaru wallows, I've never been able to get her to stop." He sighed. "There aren't too many people that Hikaru will listen to when she's in a funk, but I was hoping that you and Madoka would come and talk to her." His voice was a little strained now, and he kept looking at anything but Kyousuke. "She needs her friends."
"I'm not exactly a source of cheer right now," Kyousuke said quietly, glancing back at the freshly dug graves.
"Well, maybe your wife will feel up to it," Jonathon said. He turned and walked over to Madoka, leaving Kyousuke to stare at the tombstones.
He's right, Kyousuke thought. We don't know the future, but I just...The faces swam into his vision. Each of them laughing, what they had looked like as children. He shook his head, trying to drive the images away. Hikaru, you have no reason to feel guilty, he thought. No one died because of any mistakes you made. Of course, she must be feeling the exact same thing right now, he thought.
He glanced over at Jonathon, who was talking quietly with Manami and Kurumi and Madoka. Why didn't Hikaru come with him, he wondered. Is she that broken up? She was, he realized. Hikaru was like that; very emotional. If he felt this bad...
I can't help the dead, but I can help the living, he thought. He walked over to Jonathon and said, "Let's go."
Aeka and Manami sat on a bench in the small park inside Tokyo University. "I'm sorry I tried to strangle you, daughter. I just...I just..." She twitched. "Funaho-san did too good a job of teaching me etiquette."
Manami laughed faintly. "You did a very good job of passing it on to me. This would never have happened if I hadn't come to college on Earth."
"Well, we all do wild and crazy things when we're young. Some of the things we all did in college...If Father found out, he'd nail us upside down on the outside of the Palace for a week."
Manami blinked. "Like what?"
A head suddenly stuck itself up through the bench. It was Ryouko. "Like the time she snuck Tenchi into our dorm after visiting hours were over and we had to dress him up as a woman to get him out of the building."
"Couldn't you have just teleported him out?"
Aeka slapped her forehead and muttered something.
Ryouko's eyes glinted. "That wouldn't have been any fun, now would it? Besides, I think Aeka-chan liked seeing Tenchi dressed up in her clothing. You should see the games they play in their bedroom."
Manami blushed. Aeka stared hard at Ryouko, "And how would you know?"
"I taught you some of them."
Aeka howled and tried to grab Ryouko, who teleported a few feet away and ran with Aeka in hot pursuit. Tenchi walked up now. "Now what are they up to?"
"Did they really dress you up as a girl to sneak you out of their dorm room, Dad?"
Tenchi sighed. "Let me guess, the lime sherbet incident came up?"
"It happened more than once?"
Tenchi slapped his forehead and sighed. "Okay, here's the whole story. It all started when their dorm got a new manager..."
Celia's housewarming party for her new penthouse also had to function as a going-away party for Tenchi and company, for they didn't dare risk staying any longer for fear the Emperor would come looking for them with a fleet again. It was the party with the highest quotient of scarily powerful people that the Earth had seen in a long time, or would see in a long time.
Tenchi and his wives took the opportunity to spend some last moments with their children before returning home. "Yes, Mom, I promise I will not wear that outfit next time I see Grandfather," Manami promised for the fourth time.
"She'll borrow one of Priss' outfits instead," Nene said. She was sitting between Ryu and Manami on one couch, while Tenchi sat between his wives on a facing couch.
Ryouko laughed. "I'll give you my priceless Chalcedonian Diamond if you do that, Manami!"
Aeka paled. Tenchi laughed. "I don't think that would be too wise."
"Hey, Priss is royal too. We can tell Grandfather that it's the royal costume of Earth's royalty. How would he know?" Ryu said, smiling.
"He's not insane, Ryu," Aeka said. "There's never been a royal line that dressed like that."
A bell pinged, and Wasyuu appeared. "Actually, it's exactly identical to the royal garb of the planet Gerontia." She pulled down a diagram and produced a pointer. "You see, if we look at these eighth dynasty wall paintings..."
Ryouko began to laugh. Aeka blushed. "A royal family actually dressed like that?"
Ryouko said, "No, that's a copy of the album cover of the second album of a cleegery band named Gerontia from Orion XI. They're all ex-royalty, but then Orion XI is smarmy with ex-royalty."
Wasyuu humphed. "Spoil my fun, will you?"
Across the party, Celia and Usagi were trading stories while Priss, Mackie, Leon and Mamoru were playing pool on Celia's new pool table. "So then Priss and Linna start arguing over which one of them actually killed the third boomer. Priss claims she blew its head off, while Linna is arguing she cut off its legs. Meanwhile, we're waiting for the smoke to clear, when suddenly, Linna gets blasted across the room by an energy blast. The third boomer is still alive. I manage to kill it, and finally the smoke clears. There's dozens of boomers. We panic and all open fire like maniacs while Nene runs and hides. More smoke. When that clears, we realize we just mowed down dozens of mannequins. We even found the one that Linna had cut the legs off of the previous time and the one that Priss had blown off its head. Luckily, we didn't have any witnesses or we would have been pretty embarrassed." She paused and watched Leon bounce a shot off all four sides of the pool table without actually hitting anything but the cueball.
Priss laughed. "Nice going, Mr. officer. I guess you learned that at the Police Academy?"
"Nice setting me up too." Mackie sank the six, then the four, then missed his next shot.
Leon fumed quietly as Mamoru carefully lined up for a shot.
Usagi said, "Go, Mamo-chan, go!" She danced about him, waving fans. Naturally, he missed the shot, unable to concentrate. She frowned. "Did I distract you?"
He smiled. "It's okay. Just go do that to Priss when she takes her shot."
"I'll just stay back here with Celia and get out of your way." Usagi went back to Celia. Priss breathed a big sigh of relief and took her shot. She sank the cueball.
Leon smirked. "Nice going, Ms. idol singer. That's a pool cue, not a microphone, by the way."
"Har, har. At least I sank something."
Usagi sat back down by Celia, "At least your mannequins didn't come to life. Mako-chan and I went to this tailor to get fitted and all the mannequins had demons in them, but we didn't know that. We're getting fitted, and it's like, so boring. I was really tired, so I fell asleep. I didn't wake up until Mako shook me awake. The reason she did that was that one of the mannequins was trying to strangle me with a tape measure. So then..."
"So are you going to be a boy or a girl now, poppa?" Hotaru asked Haruka. Haruka wasn't really her poppa, but she had come to use the affectionate nickname during an earlier period of her life and it had stuck with her.
"I don't know. I'm sort of used to being a boy now, though I ought to be a girl. I seem to be able to change back and forth. I always could, but I guess I forgot that all those years. This will simplify one thing, though..."
"What?"
"Having children. Although, given that in forty years, Michiru and I didn't have any children..." He stared at his hands as if he expected to find some secret written there. Perhaps he just couldn't read it very well.
A voice spoke from nearby. "That's because the crystal rendered you all infertile during those forty years. To be more precise, it rendered you largely unchanging, which precluded pregnancy, one of the biggest of all possible changes." It was Setsuna. She sat down by Hotaru. "How are you feeling?"
"As good as I ever do. So the crystal did all that?"
"To be more precise, Usagi's will through the crystal. She willed it to save you. It chose to interpret that in its own way. It's not fully sentient, but it bears the mark of its creators."
"The five ruling wizards," Hotaru said.
Setsuna nodded. "Especially Serenity and Vulcan, for it holds a part of her soul and he forged it."
"I guess we'll have a time of peace now," Haruka said. "Or is the usual round of missions about to start again?"
Setsuna smiled. "Enjoy this indian summer while you can. A time of darkness is coming, but you will have a few years to prepare before the deluge."
"It never ends, does it?"
"Wait until you're my age."
Haruka shuddered. "How do you keep your sanity?"
Someone blonde and impish shouted across the room, "Who says she has?" She would come to regret that in days to come.
Time passed and people flowed around the rooms. Priss found herself playing poker with Usagi, Sylvie and Anri. "I bid five hundred yen." Pair of twos sucks rocks, she thought. Better than nothing, I guess, though.
Usagi had a smile the size of Mount Olympus. "I raise you 2,500 yen."
Anri thought hard. "I see your bid and raise you twenty yen."
Sylvie looked at her cards. "I'd never guess you two were sisters."
Usagi cocked her head. "What makes you say that? I bet we'd look a lot alike if Priss did up her hair like me."
Sylvie looked at her cards again and frowned. "I fold." She turned to Usagi. "You play cards like Mom, except for the not cheating part, while Priss doesn't."
Priss shook her head in confusion. "Wait, are you saying one of us cheats?"
"No, no. Mom cheats, but other than that, she and Usagi play the same way, unlike you."
Priss looked at her cards. "I see Anri's raise and...hmmm." She thought a moment. "So how do I play?"
"With Usagi, I can just look at her face and know what she has. With you, you could have anything. You always frown at your hand, no matter how good it is, while Usagi wears her hand on her sleeve, so to speak." She looked down at her cards. "You always underbid, too. Even when you have a winning hand, I don't think you ever realize it."
Priss looked at her cards. What the heck, maybe I can bluff Usagi. She grinned. "I do, do I? I'll raise 2000 yen, then. That should make up for my underbidding."
Sylvie scribbled something on a scrap of paper. "Open this after Anri bids." She passed it to Priss.
Usagi looked carefully at her hand. "Hmm. I'll see you and raise you 100."
Anri looked at her cards. "No way. Fold."
Priss read out the note from Sylvie, "Anri folds." She looked up. "Did you read her mind or something?"
"Anri plays cautiously. I knew that would scare her off."
"Am I that predictable?"
"Poker is a microcosm of the soul. Anyway, It's your bid, Priss."
Priss looked over at Usagi. "I raise you 2000 more."
Usagi sweated. "2000 more?"
Priss nodded. "Ready to give me all your money, sis?"
Usagi sighed. "Fold."
Priss laughed and scooped up the money. "You left out one thing, Sylvie. Sometimes I go for broke, especially when it seems like I can't win. I'm most dangerous when cornered."
"What did you have, anyway?" Usagi asked as Anri began to shuffle the cards. "I had four Queens."
"Pair of twos." Priss said, smirking.
The resulting scream nearly shattered the nearby window.
Youshou and Meylia sat in a quiet corner and talked. "So you've decided to stay here a while?"
Meylia nodded. "I want to spend some more time with my grandchildren in peace while I still can. I'm not quite ready to play at being royalty."
Youshou smiled. "It can be a rather dangerous game at times, and deadly at others. You will come when Nene comes, though, won't you?"
"Celia and Mackie will be going then as well, right?"
Youshou nodded. "And the others. There will be many people for Father to meet. Perhaps he'll even like some of them."
"Is he really that bad?"
"No, but he doesn't like to be defied, and this will only remind him of past...actions of like kind."
Meylia cocked her head. "Like what?"
"Well, there was the way I ended up coming to Earth. You see..."
Kiyone frowned as Mihoshi took her shot. This time it was a bank shot off one end of the table, a lamp, and a bottle of wine. She sank the six and the four, though. Unfortunately, she also left a hard to remove stain on the brand new carpet. Leon sighed. "Celia's not going to be happy."
Linna laughed. "She shouldn't have told Mihoshi about this pool table, then."
Mihoshi's second shot bounced off the eight-ball and flew into the air, clonking Kiyone in the head. "Sorry! I didn't realize your head was there."
"Owww!!!!"
Kiyone chased Mihoshi around the room with her pool cue. She whapped Mihoshi in the head. "Oh, I didn't realize your head was there!"
Leon watched them run. "Does this count as a forfeit?"
"Good question." Linna thought for a moment. "So what's going to happen to the ADPolice?"
"I wish I knew. GENOM-Japan has been nationalized, and the rest of the corporation is getting pressed pretty hard worldwide. A lot of dirt all floated to the top of the sewer at once, so to speak. The remaining boomers..." Leon trailed off.
"They what?"
"They've organized a political party and they're agitating for citizenship. Also, we've had no boomer crime or malfunctions since...the Great Riot. ADPolice hasn't really had anything to do. Whatever happened seems to have fixed all the boomers. All the boomers. We're talking world-wide. There hasn't been a single boomer rampage on Earth in the last two weeks. It's a good thing, because our organization is in chaos. We'll be repairing our headquarters for months. "
Kiyone chased Mihoshi right out the door of the room.
Leon said, "I'm glad my partner and I don't have those kinds of problems."
"I just hope they don't kill me when I'm working with them."
"You're joining the Galaxy Police?"
"I might. I'm going to train with Kiyone and Mihoshi for a while. I can hear the strings being pulled as we speak." She laughed. "I won't be too far away. They're assigned to this solar system for a while again. Being Knights of Jurai as well as Galaxy Police has its advantages."
Leon thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to ask. "Linna, did I..."
She nodded. "Yes."
"What are you?" His voice was light, but Linna could sense it had taken a lot of effort for him to get the words out. She was getting used to it. No one quite knew what to make of her. Some of them had seen things they didn't understand. She had died and come back. They didn't know what to make of her. Sometimes she didn't know either.
"I'm your friend, Linna Yamazaki. I'm not the same as I was, but I'm still as human as you. I may wander around with glowing things on my forehead sometimes now, but so do half the people at this party." Linna laughed.
Leon looked around, then said quietly, "I know. I don't know what to make of all this. I'm just an ordinary guy whose girlfriend is a magical princess. One of my ex-partners is an alien, Nene's ...I'm not even sure what Nene is anymore either, and..."
Linna nodded. "I know just how you feel. I felt like that before...I learned what I truly was. What we all are."
Leon looked quizzically at her.
"We're all part of the same dance, Leon. A dance that has no ending. We may change our roles in the dance, but we're all still part of it. Even after we die, we will dance on. And every dancer is just as important, just as wonderful in the eyes of the Most High as the next. It doesn't matter if you are high or low, for the last will be first and the first will be last." I sound like a Kung-Fu master, she thought. Or a minister.
"I just don't know how Priss and I can..."
Linna walked over to Leon. "She loves you. Believe in that. Know that she needs you. She may be able to kick off the heads of boomers now, but she needs you. You can give her something no one else can. Just because a person doesn't need you to physically protect them doesn't mean they have no need for you at all."
"I want to believe that, but..."
"Then do it. Believe. She wants your love, give it to her. Don't worry about who can kick whose butt and how fast. You can never have enough power to protect everyone, to perfectly achieve your goals. If you worry about power, you'll only slowly wear away your soul like water lapping at a rock. Besides, I'm sure Wasyuu can help you if you're really worried about that."
Wasyuu stuck her head in the door. "Looking for a power upgrade, Leon? Good! I could use a guinea pig for a few experiments..." She ran over and started to drag him off as Linna laughed.
Priss never did get a straight answer on why Leon had purple hair for a while or why small metal objects sometimes flew across the room and stuck to his arms and legs.
Ryu sat on his bed in his dorm room with Aeka. "Sorry the place is such a mess, Mom."
Aeka smiled. "Your mother's half of the room was just like this back in our college days." She paused, as if she expected a certain someone to make a rebuttal, but nothing happened. She continued, "I'd almost be disappointed if it wasn't."
She got up and walked over to Ryu's desk, picking up a photo from the desk. It was a shot of Ryu with Nene. She was standing, holding a hunting rifle, with one foot on a boomer head. They both looked pretty silly in safari outfits. "You're going to have a hard time getting this past Father, you know."
"He wouldn't expect any less from Ryouko's child." Ryu sighed.
"Father likes Ryouko, though he won't show it. The problem is the nobility. Father has to take them into account. Ryouko at least had the advantage of being vastly powerful and highly qualified to be the future Emperor's champion." She put down the picture, then hopped up onto the desk, surprising Ryu. Normally, his step-mother would never sit on a desk like that. It wasn't...It wasn't her thing. She had grabbed a pillow off his bed to sit on and another one for her back as she leaned against the wall.
"It could easily be hundreds of years before I inherit. Nene will have plenty of time to become all-powerful, or whatever. And you saw what she did."
"She was a vessel for powers greater than herself."
"It didn't all leave her, though. By the time I even have to think about the throne, she'll be a lot scarier than she is. Plus, she's got Grandma building her some scary stuff." Ryu got up, walked over, and sat down next to Aeka on the desk. "I think she'll hold her own."
"And we've got to find you another bride."
Ryu sighed. "I don't know where we'll find someone who gets along with Nene the way you do with Mom. I mean, not that Nene is hard to get along with, but..."
Aeka cocked her head slightly. "You think we get along well?"
Ryu turned his head to face Aeka. "You two may act sometimes like you hate each other, and maybe you did once, but it's all an act now. You just act like that because you don't know how else to deal with each other."
Aeka smiled faintly. "Good thing I didn't go into Acting, I suppose, then."
Ryouko now stuck her head through the wall to make a comment, but got a pillow in the face before she could speak. A pillow brawl was soon in progress.
A car quietly pulled up at the base of the hill on which sat the remains of the Cherry Hill Temple. A woman stepped out alone and quietly walked up the hill. Even in the depths of amnesia, she had not forgotten this place, merely chosen to ignore it. Yet, it called her back. It was part of a chapter in her life that she had closed, but not closed well.
She could hear her grandfather's voice, happy, sad, crying, screaming, laughing, all around her. She looked about the burnt out ruins and felt his presence. Not his ghost, but her memories of him. He had died during the Millennial Riots. Five labors had rampaged through the temple. They had knocked down the walls, slain her grandfather, and doused the sacred fire, though it had melted one of them to slag. Unfortunately, in the process of dousing it, the labor had knocked some of it out of its pit and set the rest of the building on fire.
For a year, she had plunged into a pit of despair. She had slowly been drifting away from the temple life before that, due to college and the time pressures of her Senshi life. After the riots, there was no temple to return to. She had raged against the gods, raged against herself for not being there. She couldn't even remember why she hadn't been there when her grandfather needed her.
Her friends had done their best to comfort her, but they hadn't been successful. She couldn't stand to go near a temple anymore, for it reminded her of her grandfather's death. The kamis he had served had let him die, she felt. Looking back on it now, she could see she had been a complete idiot, but at the time, it had seemed logical.
A chance encounter with her uncle had set her on the path she followed. He gave her the comfort she needed and the assurance she desired. It had been a slow uphill road. She had turned back to the faith of her childhood. For a time, she had been uncertain, but then one day...
Rei waved goodbye to Yuiichiro. He had to get to work. It was hard for the two of them to get by, but she was determined to make the effort. Her parents would have helped her out, but she didn't want charity. She sat in the coffeeshop and nursed her coffee. If I finally get a recording contract, then I can pull my own weight in this partnership. They were both working at a bookstore right now.
He had changed, but so had she. What worried her, was that he had changed for the better, while she felt like she had changed for the worse. I'm just drifting, she thought, then silenced the thought. I have a job. I have a boyfriend. I've finally got a solid lead on getting a record contract and then I can do what I really want to do. Sing.
"If I had some idea what I wanted to sing about," she muttered.
A woman said, "Are you Hino Rei?" She was tall and gorgeous, her oddly spiky brown hair contrasting with her more conservative, though luxurious clothing. Rei blinked again when she realized the woman had a blue tattoo on her forehead.
"Why yes, I am. Do I know you?" Maybe we went to college together, Rei thought.
"I represent Saint Brigit's Academy. I understand you attended the T&A Academy and you got your bachelor's in Music?"
Rei nodded. "Yes. I'm looking for a recording contract right now."
"Would you be interested in becoming music director for our chapel choir? According to your old instructors at the T&A, you helped organize several school festivals and performed as well. Your instructors at the university spoke highly of you as well. We're just getting started, so we can only pay you 3.5 million yen a year, but..."
Rei stared. That much for a starting position with no experience? Doing something she liked? "I'll take it. When do I start?"
The woman smiled. "I'll tell Sister Hanako you want the job. She'll be very pleased."
"Sister Hanako? My old music teacher from T&A?"
The woman nodded. "She's teaching music for K-3 now with us. T&A was destroyed during the Millennial Riots, so the Bishop is organizing a new school. I'm not sure why we changed names, but..."
"Whatever. When should I come by?"
"Come by tomorrow morning at ten."
"I will." Rei gave thanks to something. She wasn't quite sure if it was God or the kamis or what, but this was a blessing from Heaven. She didn't even stop to ask herself how the woman had known to find her here, or why she didn't see her again after that meeting. She didn't want to look this gift horse in the mouth.
That had tipped the balance. She had slid back into Catholicism by inches, and found it fit her. The things that had taken her away from it had fallen out of her life or didn't seem so important anymore. She had begun to dream again, and to see things. Slowly, a sense of being chosen settled upon her. Once, she had left the Church because she didn't agree with it on several important issues. Now, she felt that she could make it change to agree with her. Perhaps this was an act of colossal ego.
However, she was right. Things had changed and she could take some of the credit for it. Her faith grew and with it, mountains could be moved. The Third Vatican Council had been her triumph. Twenty years of effort paid off. She almost couldn't believe it was real. She had fought monsters, working for the Sacred Office in the shadows, defending humanity from things they preferred to think of as imaginary. She had argued doctrine in the halls of the Vatican and had a screaming match with a Pope, though that was not a moment she chose to remember as one of her triumphs. Her ordination had been the most glorious moment of her life. Becoming a bishop was important to her life work, but the ordination had been the key. That was what she had been fighting for. That was one of the crucial reasons she had originally left. She had always wanted to be a sacred warrior, to be a champion of her faith, but it had been denied her. Only men could be priests. Instead of staying and fighting for what she believed in, she had sought another way, some way that would accept her and give her what she needed. For a time, she had found that with her grandfather, but then that had been stripped from her, in more ways than she even understood at the time.
There was talk of her becoming Pope now, though she knew it would be many years before that happened. That she was a priest was enough for her. To be Bishop was good, but it was not power that she had sought in all her spiritual wanderings, it was to find a faith that accepted her and her strivings. She had found that now. She had fought for her beliefs and won.
She looked around the wreckage of the temple, walking towards the chamber of the sacred fire. She didn't regret her time here, anymore. It had given her the confidence and strength she had needed to fight the fight that had consumed two decades of her life, the fight for the soul of the Church.
She stepped into the old chamber of the fire, now open to the sky, one wall cracked in half. There were the remains of a recent fire in the old fire pit. Some bum, perhaps had lit his own fire where once the kami had dwelt. If I had never been a shrine maiden, I would never have become a Bishop, she realized. Ironic. I had to leave, in order to fully be present. My faith had to die, in order to live.
Something caught her eye. A hand mirror that someone had abandoned here, in the place where sacrifices were typically placed, sitting in the pit. She walked over and picked it up, and gazed into a face she had not seen in thirty years. It was the woman who had hired her for Saint Brigit's Academy. "Hello, Rei."
She nearly dropped the mirror. "What in..."
"You may think of me as an angel, if you like. Or a kami." Her eyes twinkled. "Or perhaps a saint, if you prefer."
Rei frowned. "Don't play games with me. Saints don't typically show up in mirrors."
"What, you can't see your own reflection?" The woman's voice was soft and musical.
Rei laughed faintly. "I'm not that much of an egomaniac." She paused. "So why have you come back? Have you come to claim some favor for what you did for me?"
"I'm not here for your eldest child, if that's what you're wondering."
"I don't have any children."
"Yet."
Rei blinked.
"Go to your old bedroom."
Rei asked, "Why?"
"Trust me."
Rei was not a trusting person, but some part of her instinctively knew she could trust this woman. She went to her old bedroom. The floor was caved in. Someone had converted it to a firepit. A bum was sleeping by the fire that burned low in the pit in the middle. She could almost sense a presence. "My bedroom..."
"Don't you recognize your old friend?"
"Should I know this guy?"
"I'm not talking about the guy."
Rei stared into the fire, and she saw visions. It had been so long...hurt and confused during the riots, the sacred fire had burned out of control, devastating the old temple, but then had repented of what it had done. For decades, a series of bums had tended it, keeping it alive barely. Inch by inch, more of the temple was consumed to keep it alive. Its time was running out. There wasn't much left that was flammable that could be moved without wrecking equipment, even with the bums bringing in garbage. I wonder what the best way to move a fire through Tokyo is without causing it to go out, she thought.
She looked again at the battered old man who lay asleep by the fire. The fire whispered to her. He had been an executive once, then GENOM had driven his company into bankruptcy and successfully blacklisted its employees. His wife left him with his children. He lost everything. A few days later, the Kanto Quake had destroyed his home. He had found himself here, and for nine years, he had lived by his wits and tended the fire, taking over from the previous tender, who had been slain during the Quake, which had further wrecked the temple. We could use a good business manager for that bookstore chain, she thought. Brother Godai was not cut out for business, much as I keep trying to pretend otherwise. She gently shook the sleeping man awake. Saving souls was her business, and business was good.
April 30, 2035
The Emperor of Jurai sat upon his throne. His wives lurked to the left and right of the throne, smiling enigmatically as usual. He, on the other hand, was frowning. I wonder if there's something in my genes that causes all my descendents to make my life difficult. He glanced over at Funaho. "Shouldn't they be here already?" he whispered.
Her lips barely moved, but he heard her clearly. "There was an assassination attempt in the transport shaft."
For a moment, anger flashed in his eyes. He couldn't blame the council for being opposed to this marriage. It would wreck some of his own plans, and only Ryu promising he would let his father choose his other bride had gotten the emperor to even consider approving this engagement. Assassination, however, was going too far. Whoever had tried this would find out that those under the protection of the Emperor of Jurai were as sacrosanct as he was. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I just found out."
Various nobles milled about, whispering among themselves. One of them was likely to blame, the Emperor thought. They're undoubtably whispering about how an offworlder made the Emperor wait, and what a shame it is and the like.
The doors slammed open at the far end of the hall and an angry, elaborately dressed redhead stormed in, followed by Ryu, Manami, Sasami, and Ryouko. The nobles whispered among themselves, speculating on what would happen next. One or two took a moment to appreciate the clothing the woman, who they presumed was the potential bride of Prince Ryu, wore. She had been dressed well, even if she was an outworlder.
Nene stormed into the middle of the room. Funaho began to speak. "Greetings, offworlder. Welcome to..."
Nene shouted, "Where the hell is Duke Ryalin? That monkey tried to have me killed and I want his head!" Her face was red with uncharacteristic anger.
For a moment, the room went silent. No one had screamed in the presence of the Emperor during a formal audience in two hundred years. The last person who did it was still in exile on the frozen world Dryco III. Excited whispers of speculation spread like wildfire.
Ryouko quietly pointed to a blue haired man in elaborate dyiljo robes. "There."
Funaho said, "No one is allowed to raise their voice in the presence of the Emperor."
"No one is allowed to try to kill me!" She stormed over to the Duke. "I'm challenging you to a duel. Now."
The duke blinked. "Insolent child. You have no proof, nor am I honor bound to fight a duel with an offworlder woman for any reason."
Ryouko laughed. "In other words, you're guilty as hell, but you think we can't prove it and you're too cowardly to fight her."
"I will not be addressed in such manner!" The duke said.
"Going to challenge me to a duel, your ugliness?" Ryouko asked.
The Duke paled. Then Tenchi and Aeka entered, dragging a huge blue-skinned reptillian man, marked with the three green tattoos on his arm that identified members of the rather illegal, yet well patronized Assassin's Guild. Tenchi tossed the man down onto the ground. "Speak."
The man pointed Duke Ryalin. "I swear before the sacred body of the Emperor that he was the one who hired me."
The Duke frowned. "Will you take the word of a ruffian and an outworlder over the word of a Duke of the Realm, descended from the Twelve servants of the First Emperor?"
Sasami spoke quietly. "I will."
Tenchi said, "I will stake the honor of my line upon her word."
Misaki had been watching quietly. She turned to face the duke. "You stand accused before the throne by a Prince and Princess of the Imperial Line, bearers of the Sacred Blood. How would you be tried?"
The Duke frowned. None of the options available to him were good. Still, there was one way out, even if it was humiliating to fight such a one. "The young whelp challenged me to trial by combat. So be it. Name a time and place."
"Right now." Nene said. "I have a busy day planned and I want to get this over with." Sasami whispered something in her ear. "The Royal Dueling grounds."
A gasp ran through the audience. None could even enter the Royal Dueling grounds unless they possessed Royal blood or belonged to the three highest ranks of the nobility, descended from the Twelve. The Duke laughed. "And how do you propose to enter without breaking the law?"
"I am Nene of House Romanova, heiress to the Sacred line of the Romanovs, Emperors of all the Russias, Grand Dukes of Moscow, Grand Princes of Russia, Kings of Poland, Defenders of the Sacred Faith and Protectors of the Patriarchate of Moscow. Shall I pile more titles on you, or is that enough for you?" Nene smiled.
Everyone turned to look at the Emperor. He quirked his lips in a smile. "I extend a royal welcome to Her Most Royal Highness, Princess and Heiress of House Romanov. Be ye welcome in this place. By Imperial Decree, I acknowlege your right to enter the Royal Dueling Grounds and the validity of your titles within the realm of Jurai." Chew on this, Ryalin. You've been causing me trouble for a long time, he thought. I just hope she's a lot tougher than she looks.
The crowd soon adjourned to the viewing chambers to observe the duel. The Duke concentrated and assumed battle garb, preparing for the battle. Nene shouted something in an alien tongue few of those present understood. The air shimmered around her and a red and pink battle suit appeared around her from subspace. She shouted something else and a shimmering white blade appeared in her right hand as the duke summoned up a sword with his master key.
The audience stared in awe. Someone whispered, "The Radiant Hawkwings." Tenchi blinked in total surprise. He glanced over at Ryouko, Sasami, and Aeka, who had now joined them, then over at Ryu and Manami. Ryu was smirking
He sidled over to Ryu and whispered, "Are you doing that?"
Ryu whispered back, "Not all that glitters is gold."
Tenchi blinked, then laughed. So it just looks like one, he thought. It's not like there's a really good way to tell.
The nobles watched nervously as Nene proceeded to charge the duke. The swords met and his shattered to bits. Nene then kicked him across the dueling grounds into the wall. A spray of laser fire from her left hand sent him scampering. For about twenty minutes, she chased him around the room. Sword strokes that missed him cut huge holes in the floor. Finally, she trapped him up against the wall. "Yield, or die."
The Duke contemplated dying, but he couldn't muster the pride. He hung his head in shame. "I yield."
The nobility stared in shock. Duke Ryalin had never been beaten in a duel before. Who was this Princess who had come before them? No one had known her homeworld, but now speculation ran rife. Servants were sent scampering to consult Galactic Atlases. Already the rumor was spreading that she was from some off shoot of the house of Jurai. It was not otherwise possible that she could wield the Radiant Hawk Wings. Perhaps she was not an outworlder at all. The political wheels began to turn. Nene would face no more significant opposition. She had reached the eighth row and been promoted.
The Emperor smiled. Perhaps this will work out better than I thought.
March 1, 2036
It was a cool day in Mega-Tokyo as the new city council was sworn in. Priss, Leon, Celia, Nene, Linna, Ryu, Daley, Manami, Kiyone, Mihoshi, Anri, Meylia, and Wasyuu sat in the audience of the ceremony. Wasyuu looked at her watch, then whispered to Meylia and Anri, "Does that guy ever shut up? He's been going for thirty minutes now."
"He didn't know how to shut up back in 2018 when he was just a TV anchorman. He hasn't learned yet, I guess," she replied.
Taiki finally finished yammering. "And so, it is my pleasure to yield my office to the first woman to serve as the mayor of Mega-Tokyo." He turned to the blue-haired woman who was sitting near him. "I present to you, Mrs. Udaigaku Noriko. Please step forward, Udaigaku-san."
A brief investment ceremony followed. "How does it feel to be the first female mayor?" Taiki asked.
"It feels good. This is a great day for all boomers as well." She turned to the first of the new city councilbeings. "Hakubi Sylvie, please come forward."
Syvlie stood up and her friends and family went wild with applause. She stepped forward, one small step for a woman, one giant step for boomerkind.
October 31, 2040
Keiko fled down the alleyway. Three half-human figures were in hot pursuit. She would have cried for her mother, but her mother was gone. I hope Aunt Linna got my call, she thought, or these things are gonna get me for sure.
Her pursuers were...well, it depended on who you were as to what they looked like. To an ordinary human, they looked like three tall men in ratty clothing. Keiko, and others who possessed the Sight, could see them as they truly were. They were horrible twisted monstrosities, ten feet tall, with deformed misplaced features, extra limbs and horribly sculpted muscles in the wrong places. Their red eyes shone darkly and their flesh was a hideous shade of purple. They were fomorians, the ancient enemies of the Tuatha de Danaan, and they still stalked the world hunting those who bore the blood of that ancient line.
The irony of this was that they were actually chasing the wrong person. Keiko came from a bloodline of great power, but was no more a descendent of Danu than David Letterman. However, since the formori were unused to encountering the children of other goddesses, they assumed the power she bore had to be granted from Danu.
She rounded a corner and three more formori, these a trio of twisted females with batlike wings, long fangs and long stringy black hair bound into braids, lurched forward. They bore long scourges made from barbed wire and spiked balls. Only by diving, rolling on the ground, and leaping to her feet once she was past them was Keiko able to avoid being immediately flayed by them.
Six pursuers was not twice the fun of three. She managed to emerge from the alleyway into more open ground. Of course, this was naturally a graveyard, not a fun place to be with six monsters chasing you on Halloween night. The fact that six more fomorians were waiting here didn't exactly make Keiko's day, either. She turned and bolted at a right angle.
More figures loomed in the darkness ahead of her. She swore and gathered the power that lay within her. With it, she managed to leap up onto the roof of a nearby mausoleum. Maybe they won't spot me, she prayed. A few seconds later, she realized there were more people up here.
She was about to scream when she recognized them. Four knights in shining armor stood near her on the rooftop. She gave a sigh of relief. "You got my message!"
Linna laughed and looked towards the six approaching formorians. "Geez, there's only six of them. I was expecting more from your message."
Keiko pointed off into the mist. "There's more of the damn things over there!"
Nene turned and looked. "Those aren't formorians."
The five figures Keiko had spotted earlier moved forward across the graveyard toward the masoleum as the six formorians finally reached it. As they came closer, she recognized them. Ryu, Manami, Meylia, Anri, and Sylvie charged forward, garbed for battle. The fight was a foregone conclusion. Evil magic was no match for a combination of Jurai Power, High Tech, White Magic, and Divine Power.
This time.
<Voiceover, female>
Once upon a time, a faerie prince exiled himself to a little bitty backwater town in the far reaches of his father's kingdom, for the jealous faerie nobles hated him and his mother, and he tired of this. He lived in the tiny little town for centuries, for the faerie are a long lived race, you see. It was a town full of mortals, and he fell in love many times, and had many children, but rarely did he ever tell them what he truly was.
The problem with marrying mortals, is that mortals die, and to watch your loved one age when you do not is a tragedy for both of you. One day, the woman he loved died, and he retreated from the world, hardly speaking or acknowleging his two daughters. One of his daughters was kind and understanding like her mother, and she took care of her father in his grief, finding comfort from comforting him. The second grew wroth, for like her father, she had no stomach for ill treatment. She left in a rage, swearing never to return.
She wandered the world around the town, and finally found a man to love. She knew not her faerie heritage, nor the power that lay within her. There was no need for magic in her life, except the magic of love.
One day, her son grew strong and tall, and went to study with the sages of a larger town. From them, he learned many crafts, and the power within him stirred. He had a vision, a vision of a world in which magical golems would free the masses of their tiresome labors and leave them free to create beautiful art and to learn all that was learnable.
Yet, he lacked the materials he needed to build his golems, so he went to the local merchant's guild and offered to share his knowlege if the merchant would pay for materials to build the golems. The Guild Master agreed, and they began to build many wonderful golems.
The wizard was happy. He had a beautiful wife and two happy children, a boy and a girl. His golems were like children to him, and he had hundreds of those. Yet, not all was well in the kingdom. The wizard spent too much time in the lab, and his wife never saw him. She thought he loved the golems more than her, so one day she ran away. That shocked the wizard, and he began to look around him.
He saw that not all was well in the land. Some of the merchants were arming his golems and using them for conquest. They did not follow his instructions closely, and some of his golems had badly drawn runes, so they went mad. What he did not know was that some of the members of the Merchant's guild were inflamed by greed and power and consumed by the demons with which they had been consorting. The power of the great god of destruction, Shiva, was upon them, and they saw that the wizard must be eliminated before he could fight them. So one of them slew him.
What they did not understand is that it is not wise to meddle in the affairs of wizards. He had seen his fate coming and cast a mighty spell. He gifted his children with his powers and his wisdom. It would fall to them to save his children, the golems, from the power of Shiva.
Shiva's followers grew in strength in the towns of the fringes of the great Faerie empire. His avatars came, bearing his power and aiding his servants. They invoked Shiva, and he destroyed a great city for them, then they came in to 'help repair the city' with their new golems. Soon, everyone was dependent on them and they ruled the city in all but name. Many lands fell under their dominion, yet the great Faerie emperor did nothing, for his lands were vast, and he had almost forgotten the very existence of the province Shiva's followers ruled.
The wizard's daughter, however, could not forget. She took the power that her father had given her and his wisdom and went to his forge. She forged gleaming suits of magical armor with which to do battle against the Merchant's guild, which now called itself DEMON. But she had no warriors to wear her suits, so she went out into the streets of the city.
She found a street urchin with a heart of fire and took her away from her petty street fights and gave her a cause to fight for and mighty weapons with which to fight for it. She found a dancer in the wind and gave her wings with which to fly. A clever and beautiful sorceress, who was also of royal blood, though she knew it not, heard her call for help and came to the wizard's daughter, passing every test she gave her. To her was given further understanding of the powers of machines, of how to trick the golems and other mechanisms, and to see with magical sight. Though they often made fun of her, they all knew it was her wisdom which often guided them to victory.
"And I suppose you also spun straw into gold in your spare time, eh, Nene-chan?" A female voice cut in.
Nene was sitting on a large plush bed covered with sheets of golden satin. In her lap sat a young girl with long red hair like Nene's and soft brown eyes. Like Nene, she was dressed in an elaborate striped kimono with all the colors of the rainbow. She had a golden bow in her hair, while Nene was wearing a golden tiara upon her brow with a ruby set in it. Nene started at the voice and looked up. "Priss-chan!"
Priss winced faintly. Only Nene could call me Priss-chan when I'm in combat gear. She was wearing loose black pants and a heavy long sleeved dark tan jacket. Her hair was tied back in a pony-tail, and her face was marked with long black wedges along her cheeks. A metal rod sat in a holster on her belt on her left and a large nasty looking pistol on her right hip. "Telling your daughter lies about the good old days, eh?" She walked over and knelt down facing the little girl in Nene's lap. "And how are you today, Himeko?"
Nene laughed. "Like you were any better when I heard you telling Samantha about how you used to kill five boomers before breakfast and all you needed was your bare hands. You said you just used a hardsuit so the rest of us wouldn't feel inferior."
Himeko laughed and reached over and hugged Priss. "Hi, Auntie Priss! Been fighting monsters again?"
Priss laughed. "Hey, at least my lies are more plausible than yours, Nene-chan."
"Killing boomers with your bare hands is plausible? I don't think so." Nene laughed.
Priss picked up Himeko, "You want to be big and strong like me when you grow up and not flimsy like your mommy, right, Hime-chan?" She walked over to the window with her "niece".
They both stared out the window as Nene got up and walked over to them. Tiny specks of light shone in the blackness of space. A small blue, white, and brown planet slowly receeded in the distance. Himeko laughed, "I'll contribute to the team with my brains and good looks!"
Priss and Nene both laughed. "Your mommy taught you to say that, didn't she?" Priss asked Himeko, who nodded happily.
Nene stood by Priss' side, looking out the window at the retreating planet. "I can't believe we're not going to fight this." She gestured, and her cup floated over to her from the bedside table. She drank deeply, suddenly thirsty.
Priss sighed and reminded herself not to swear in front of the child. "If I had my way, we would. I don't like running away, but Celia doesn't think we can win."
Nene nodded. "We've evacuated as many people as we could. If only we'd been able to kill it back then..."
Priss forgot about the child and swore anyway. "We did kill it, Damnit! Things are supposed to stay dead when you kill them!"
"Even if Shiva is dead...I guess we didn't get all his children..."
As they watched, they could see the ice creeping across the face of the planet as it slowly shrank to a speck in the distance. They would not see the world on which they had been born again for over a thousand years.
They would always wonder if there had been some way they could have prevented it, could have saved their city, saved their world. The time would come when it would bloom again, but that task would fall to other heroes. To them would fall other duties than sleeping under a crystal mountain 'til that day. It was time for them to enter upon the rewards for their years of labor, years of battle and despair.
Easter, 3000 AD
Year 8 of the Crystal Millennium
Queen Serenity watched her fleet moving through space on the viewscreen. She sat in the command chair of the CMS Yamato. She laughed a little, just thinking about it. Too bad we don't have a wave motion gun, she thought.
Senshi Mars quirked an eyebrow. "What's so funny?" She paused. "You should be down on the Earth where you're safe." It was about the sixth time she had said that in as many hours.
Queen Serenity turned to Senshi Mars. "I will not send others to fight in my stead. I am the Queen. It is my duty to risk my life for my people."
Senshi Mars frowned. "Do you not trust me to command your fleet?"
Queen Serenity blinked. "Of course I trust you, Mars. I just can't stand to sit on the Earth and fret while my friends and my ...subjects are putting their lives on the line for me. A Queen's duty is to fight for her people, not to make them fight for her. If I stayed on the Earth, I'd be chewing my nails down to the bone and eating the entire contents of the Royal Refrigerator. Well, if we had a refrigerator." She laughed. "I wish Ami-chan would make it a higher priority."
Senshi Mars looked around, but the rest of the bridge staff was faking deafness and made no comment on that. Perhaps they hadn't noticed. None of them probably knew what a refrigerator was. Undoubtably they all thought that if Queen Serenity wanted a refrigerator, then she should have one. It made Mars uncomfortable sometimes. These people almost worshipped them. They didn't see Usagi and Rei, they saw Serenity and Mars, walking goddesses on Earth. If we told them to cut off their left hands, they probably would. They're twenty times worse than my husband was at his most obesiant. She sighed. But she would use them. Things had gotten bigger than she had ever imagined. We're leading a fleet, a nation...a world. I hope we're up to it, she thought. At least I had some experience, unlike the others. This is a bit larger than a Bishopric, or even the Papacy, though. She sighed. "I'm sure Ami will get on it when she has time."
"Well, we have bigger fish to fry." Dark things, twisted flying reptillian horrors, amorphous masses, tentacular monstrosities from HR Giger's nightmares were swarming towards them. There were hundreds, thousands, maybe millions. And behind them, driving them on was a huge shimmering gelatinous mass, constantly shifting in color, probably the size of a small moon. When the creatures moved too slowly, it caught up with them and absorbed them. At least in a vaccum, their voices would not carry as they howled hideous death cries.
Mars swore mentally. "All we needed was a few more months and Odysseus and Mercury would have figured out how to extend the Great Shield."
A voice spoke nearby. "Last time, it took one of the Five Ruling Wizards sacrificing herself by joining with the shield to make it large enough to protect the entire system." Pluto had arrived.
"I will go, if I must," Serenity said.
The bridge crew stared, clearly in shock at the concept.
"There is more than one way to skin a cat. You will need help. With the aid of the Juraiians, it can be done."
Mars sighed. "Yes, but that...whatever the hell that thing is, it's cut us off from Jurai. Not that we have anything functional capable of sending messages interplanetary distances. If only Funaho hadn't died during the Great Ice..."
Serenity said, "If wishes were horses, every little girl would have that pony." She laughed. "We've faced incredible odds before. This can't be any worse than that horde from Gunbuster, and they beat all of them with one mech!"
"This isn't an anime, U...Serenity." How can she be so cheerful? Mars wondered. Maybe she just doesn't understand. She thinks Good always triumphs over Evil, just like in those animes. I'd give my left eye for a few of those characters showing up now, especially the ones with their own fleets. If only we had more time to prepare...It would have helped if we'd all studied engineering in college too...Ami and Steven and Umino are the only ones of us who know anything about science, and sorcery wasn't exactly available back when we went to school. Mars sighed. We didn't exactly plan this well. We just sort of lived our lives day to day with this vague knowlege we'd have to rule the world one day but not really thinking about what that meant. We just went from crisis to crisis, but that's no way to do something this big.
Pluto said quietly. "Actually, there is a way to send interplanetary messages from Earth."
Mars spun around, "Why the hell didn't you tell us this before?"
Serenity watched the creatures on the screen. She turned on her crystal radio. "This is Serenity. Left wing, rise and attack them from above. Right wing, drop below and attack from below. Center, move forward and engage. Now." Her voice was strong and confident. For a moment, Mars couldn't recognize her old friend at all. It was if she had vanished completely and been replaced by someone else. Then she turned to Mars and whispered, "Set phasers on kill."
Mars would have laughed if she wasn't busy being pissed off at Pluto who just kept smiling enigmatically at her. A thought struck her. "Wait, doesn't the Galaxy Police have a patrol ship in this sector?"
"The Galaxy Police fled this sector after the Year of the Comet, just like everyone else. There hasn't been a GP ship here since then. However, blood calls to blood."
The fleets began to engage. To Mars' surprise, monstrosities began to explode by the dozens. Shafts of white light vaporized the creatures, and the fleet moved on. Two ships were destroyed by some of the tougher creatures, but for the most part the creatures were dying in droves.
Serenity gave a great gasp. "No..." She began to cry.
Mars cocked her head. "Why are you crying? We're winning."
"They want to die...if only I'd realized that before."
"I don't understand."
"We're winning because they're not fighting. They'd rather we kill them than face that thing. It's like someone driving down a road, chasing someone with the wheels just behind them, for millions of miles. If you run into a knife weilding maniac, you take your chances with getting sliced up, because you know the truck will probably kill both of you anyway. The poor things...they just want to live. That's all." Her face hardened. "This abomination must be destroyed." She activated the radio. "Cease fire on the creatures. Ignore them and move in on the...uh...giant thing that looks like Jello."
Sadly, almost no one in the fleet had any idea what Jello was, but they got the idea anyway. Mars stared at her. "You're crazy! We have to destroy these things before they get to Earth!"
"They can't outrun us. We can always go back and weed out the troublemakers. We have to stop that thing." For a moment, her voice was filled with anger. "It devoured all their homes. It has been herding them before it for a millennium. Entire generations born to run for their lives. It will end here."
Mars paled. Even I don't get that angry much. "As you command." Sometimes, I think she does this just to drive me insane.
The fleet obeyed her commands. She was Serenity, and if she had commanded them to attack each other, they would have done it. It deeply disturbed Mars. Serenity didn't seem bothered at all. It was the right thing to do. Of course they did it.
The white crystal ships slid through the horde, which largely ignored them. Serenity had been right. They fled on their way, leaving the white ships to open fire on the creature. It was like flies attacking an elephant with homicidal intent. A tentacle of gelatinous mauve lashed out and sucked in a ship, crunching it. Serenity winced. "The fleet's not going to be enough."
Mars sighed. "You're going to use the crystal." She paused. "Let me help you."
"The crystal won't be necessary." Pluto said quietly.
Mars sighed. "You could have told us we didn't have to attack those things, you know."
"Some things have to be experienced to be truly learned. To be truly understood."
"We must look like horrible nightmares to them," Serenity whispered. "Poor things. They probably think of us as things that must not be..."
"So how do we beat this thing, oh great wise one who plays her cards close to her chest?" Mars asked sardonically. Pluto still doesn't tell us everything, even after all we've been through, even after saying she would. Sometimes I want to kill her.
"The reason I didn't tell you about how to send an interstellar signal is that I already sent one a thousand years ago. It just arrived at Jurai a few weeks ago, and the main Juraiian battle fleet is already on the way."
"You know, we'd have worried a lot less if you told us that."
Pluto smiled. "You'd have relied on them too much if I had."
Space suddenly twisted in hundreds of spots around the huge oncoming creature. Strange organic ships of interwoven crystal and wood appeared. The viewscreen blinked. The communications officer, a young girl named Moemi, said, "Incoming call from those things that just appeared. Should I put it on the viewscreen?"
"Make it so," Serenity said, then smiled faintly.
Mars grumbled quietly as the screen came to life. Priss's smiling face was on the screen. She was dressed in Juraiian battlegarb with a tiara upon her forehead. She looked almost the same as the last time Usagi saw her, except for a few flecks of grey in her hair. Queen Serenity said, "Priss-chan!"
Priss smiled. "This is Admiral Priscilla S. Asagiri of House Serenity. Request permission to help you kick some giant monster ass. So did this thing crawl out of your garbage can or what, sis? It looks like some leftovers evolved into a new life form."
Serenity threw back her head and laughed. "Like that meatloaf you made?"
Priss winced. "Hey, Leon liked it."
"Sometimes people lie when they love you, you know. How many years did it stay in your refrigerator?"
"It's probably still there. So what the hell is this thing?"
"It has no real name, but legends call it the Devourer of Worlds. It's generally considered one of the larger spawn of Azathoth. Or possibly vice versa. Azathoth is rather overrated." Pluto smiled faintly.
Priss nodded. "Right. It won't detonate in a solar system levelling explosion if we just shoot it repeatedly, will it?"
Pluto stared off into space for a moment. "You may fire when ready, Gridley."
"Who the hell is Gridley?"
Pluto sighed. No one ever gets my jokes, then they complain I have no sense of humor.
3056 AD
Year 66 of the Crystal Millennium
A single note erupted through the still morning air of Crystal Tokyo. The entire city began to reverberate, buildings chiming like bells. A huge ship the size of a football stadium appeared from nowhere, drifting towards the huge palace at the heart of the city.
Queen Serenity looked up from the meeting she was conducting with her trade advisors and smiled. "The Juraiian ambassador has arrived."
Andrew Blackhawk, the Minister of North Columbian Trade blinked. "You can tell from just that?"
Her lips quirked in a smile. "You have to know these things when you're queen."
He nodded solemnly. She laughed more. He must have taken me seriously, she thought. "Arrange to have the ambassador greeted. Properly."
"Properly?"
"She's very strict on being properly addressed by her full titles when she makes a grand enterance, or she becomes very unhappy. You remember what happened when the Trantorian ambassador became very unhappy?"
"Was he the one who drank rat poison as a gesture of defiance?" Rumiko Munanga, the Minister of Oceanic Trade, asked.
"No, that was the Centauri ambassador, I think," Queen Serenity said. "Anyway, I need to go change into formal attire. Andrew, go tell the chief of protocol that the Juraiian ambassador is here."
Andrew did so. The chief of protocol, also known as Luna, assumed her human form and set the wheels in motion to prepare a proper reception. While they waited for the ambassador's shuttle, she went to the computer banks and printed out the complete list of titles and scanned it. Nothing new since the last time I went over these, she thought. She headed for the courtyard where the shuttle would land. Artemis joined her, looking dapper in a white tuxedo. "I see they're bringing out the big guns for this one," he said.
She smiled. "Well, if they put you in charge, you'd probably show up in a T-shirt and hack up a hairball on her as she got out of the shuttle."
"Can I? Please?" he asked teasingly.
"Not in this lifetime."
The honorguard of twenty pikemen was ready. Not that pikemen had any real military purpose, but pikes are more impressive than wands and neuronic whips, which they also had. Various courtiers, officials, and nobles were present, as was Makoto. I hope Queen Serenity arrives in time, Luna thought. She did, running in at the last second as the shuttle began to descend. Endymion was right behind her, walking swiftly, yet seemingly effortlessly. "Am I on time?" Queen Serenity inquired, now decked out in one of her most radiant dresses.
Luna smiled. "Just in time."
The shuttle, which resembled a log, as drawn by Pablo Picasso with help from M.C. Escher, landed and the door opened. Two guards stepped out, followed by a beautiful red-haired Juraiian princess. Queen Serenity whispered to Luna, "Remember, get her titles just right or she'll be really displeased. The last time they messed that up...well, I think that planet is still trying to put their palace back together."
Luna nodded "I welcome you to the planet Earth in the name of Queen Serenity the First of the Crystal Millennium, High Queen of the Ten Worlds, and in the name of King Endymion the First of the Crystal Millennium, High King of the Ten Worlds. Be ye welcome in this place for as long as you desire to stay. High Queen and High King, I present to you, Her Most Regal Highness, Consort to his most Imperial Highness, the heir to the Throne of Jurai, ..."
Luna droned on and on. She was good at this. It took ten minutes to list all of the ambassdor's titles. She finally concluded with, "...and Baroness of Barnard's star." She took a deep breath. "We greet thee and bid thee welcome."
The red haired ambassador was tapping her toes impatiently. "You forgot something."
Luna panicked for a moment. Surely the woman can't have another title. I know I got all the important ones. I followed the protocols...heck, I wrote the protocols. "I did?" Great, she thought, what did I say that for?
"Well, let's see. Two things. First, you completely omitted my hereditary titles. I am Empress of All the Russias and Grand Duchess of Moscow, not that either of those exist anymore. Secondly, you left out my name."
Queen Serenity could only barely restrain herself from laughing. Endymion had to prick himself with one of his own roses to stop himself from collapsing onto the ground laughing.
Luna paused. She was truly embarrassed. "I wasn't sure of the proper mode of salutation for that, actually." It was a vaguely plausible lie. Actually, she had completely forgotten her name from the strain of remembering all those titles. "Hakubi-Masaki-himesama, correct?"
Her voice was cold. "That is not correct."
Luna paled. This was not good. She looked at the palace. I bet this place breaks even more easily than the Sirian palace did. "How would you like to be addressed?"
A large smile lit up the Ambassador's face and a twinkle entered her eye. "As Grandma would say, 'Please call me Nene-chan!'"
The Earth shook from the weight of face-faulting courtiers.
3990 AD
Year 998 of the Crystal Millennium
Dr. Gregory Stingray bowed to Queen Serenity VIII. "I must depart, back to my studies and my duties."
Queen Serenity bowed. "You know I rely on your prescience and your skills to guide me. I eagerly await your return." Her hair was long and white, done up in the traditional double 'odango' style, as it was called, though no one knew for sure what an 'odango' was, other than this hair style. It had been instituted by Serenity I, and what was good enough for her, was good enough for her descendants. "Have you yet been able to discern whether or not Seiya will be able to successfully father a child by me?"
He frowned. Five years of being her Prime Minister and he still hadn't quite been able to get into her head that Astro-history was only useful for predicting bulk behavior, not the fortunes of individuals. Only when he had gained that insight had he been able to make the crucial breakthroughs that had converted Astrology into a precise, though probabalistic science. She hadn't ever quite grasped that aspect of it either. "Such a task is more fit for medical examiners than for a mathematician and sociologist such as myself, my Queen."
She pouted. "In other words, you don't know."
"Astro-history is not a useful tool for family planning unless one has thousands of children like the legendary King of Siam."
"Siam is a myth for children. Everyone knows it didn't really exist, nor were its monarchs reknowned singers if it did exist." She sighed. "I never have time to sing anymore."
"You were the next in succession, your majesty. I am proud to serve a monarch who put her duty before the pleasures of monastic life." Serenity's real name was Miki. She had been intended for the Monastery of the Holy Song, dedicated to Saint Rei, but after three years, she had to leave the monastery after a series of duels and accidents slew her two older sisters and her older brother. He pretended to check an appointment calendar. "Ahh, I see you are scheduled to attend a choral performance by the Ladies of the Holy Song next Monday. Perhaps they would not mind if you joined them in their performance. It would have to be anonymous, of course, but I'm sure the royal Imposter would not mind taking your place in the audience so that no one would know." He punched a few buttons and scheduled the performance. He had to displace a few ceremonies, but they were all pointless anyway.
Serenity blinked. "I had forgotten about that. Yes, that would be most excellent. Make it so." She paused. "You will come, won't you? You've never gotten to hear me sing, and..."
She prattled on. He smiled and nodded and made affirmative noises. Finally, she said something that cut through to him. "We need to start planning the Millennial celebration. Of course, the true Millennium doesn't start for eleven years, but the Crystal Millennium will reach its end in two years. I've been thinking of a name for the next Millennium. I believe we should appoint a committee."
"I see you are aware of the distinction between the old Christian calendar and the one we now use for secular purposes. Part of your monastic training, I assume?" Sometimes she surprises me, he thought. It's times like these that I can see your parents in you and know that you truly spring of the royal line. The times when you show there's more to you than frills and royal parties. I wish they happened more often.
She nodded. "Of course, given that Dionysius miscalculated anyway, this actually should be 3994 AD, not 3990 AD, because Herod actually died earlier than Dionysius calculated. In addition the next Millennium doesn't really begin until the zero zero one year, because there was no year zero. So it's actually about to be a new Millennium in seven years, not ten or two and no one knows but me, and maybe you. Most people, even in the Church, don't think about that, you see." She smiled. "We'll just keep it our little secret, okay?"
"Of course, my queen." Sometimes you surprise me, he thought. Every so often, the ancient blood suddenly surfaces and you surpass my expectations. If only it happened more often.
Dr. Stingray sat in his office and sent off the final memos. He was getting old and getting tired. A pair of hands settled down onto his shoulders. "Boo." The voice was soft and gentle, betraying no hint of her age.
Dr. Stingray spun in his chair. "Hello, Amy." He stood up and hugged her. "Back from Finis Astra already?"
She nodded. Dr. Amy Stingray was short, with short black hair shot through with gray. "The preparations are in place. The construction crews and terraformers are at work. Finis Astra will make a beautiful world for the Galactic Encyclopedia." Amy had not returned alone. Her chief assistants were with her as well.
"If we don't die of boredom out at the edge of the Empire," Monica Nichols said. She was blonde, though her hair was turning gray. "Why on God's green earth did you pick such an isolated world?"
"Would you prefer the Juraiian border?" Greg said. "We need this project to be safe. You don't think I'd send Amy into danger, would you?"
Captain Priscilla Hakubi-Masaki nodded. She was tall with long reddish-gold hair, dressed in a Juraiian military uniform. "My relatives are in the middle of kicking in each other's skulls. We'll be lucky if the empire survives this civil war. And if Jurai falls, the Galactic Federation will finally collapse, and if that happens..."
She didn't have to finish the sentence. "That's what the Enyclopedia is for. We have to preserve all the wisdom of the Crystal Millennium for the future. With that wisdom, our descendants will rebuild better and stronger than we were able to build. This has happened before, but the last two times, so much was lost. This time, things will be different. That's why we have formed the Society of the Senshi of Wisdom, why we all took the ancient oath."
They nodded. A tiny band of elite scholars and warriors, such as the Crystal Millennium was not capable of producing anymore. They formed a conspiracy. A conspiracy of hope. None of them knew that Dr. Gregory Stingray was keeping secrets from all of them but his wife...
Dr. Stingray had not become Prime Minister purely through merit. He had been recommended to the office by his secret collaborator. The Crystal Palace was riven with intrigue, but he and his ally had yet to lose their secret to anyone. She appeared that evening when he and his wife were finally alone. Her hair was short and blonde. She carried a long staff tipped with a glowing amethyst and she wore the uniform of the special warriors of the Crystal Millennium. Her name was Sailor Pluto and she was over 2000 years old, the only living human to remember the beginning of the Crystal Millennium and the ages that came before it. She was the one who had unlocked his own powers of prescience, weak as they were, and had given him some hints that had lead to the critical breakthroughs in the development of Astro-History.
Amy frowned. "What are you doing here? We don't have any more children to give you." She had never forgiven Sailor Pluto for taking her children Sylia and Matthew to the future, though she knew it was necessary. Pluto could convince a Juraiian that going without bathing for a year was necessary, she thought.
"Your children are well. I promised you that they would be, and I always keep my promises." Pluto sighed. "I am sorry, for what it is worth."
"I just...I know I won't have more children."
"Sarah thought that as well." Pluto smiled. "Don't be so certain."
She turned to Gregory. "The preparations are ready. I have initiated three people, and there will be more. The Inner Senshi will be ready to watch over your 'Outers'. We will ensure that the Stingray Plan succeeds." Her voice became a little less controlled. "It will succeed. It must."
He sighed. "The Stingray Plan. It sounds so egotistical. Dr. Gregory Stingray, savior of the world. Well, worlds."
Pluto smiled. "I chose you because I knew you would not have volunteered for this job. Power is best left in the hands of those who do not seek it. Your legacy will be carried on. I promise you that. You have sacrificed much. It will not be in vain. I know what was, what is, and what must be." She paused. "I have known you before, and will know you again. To you, this gift is always given. I rejoice that finally you can put it to good use."
"But you still won't tell us who we were."
"Sometimes you must know of your past lives in order to live your present ones. If I were to tell you who you once were, it would only depress you. I will simply say that we were friends and to see you alive once more brings warmth to this old heart."
Amy looked out the window. The beautiful city of Crystal Tokyo spread out around her as far as the eye could see. It was vast, hundreds of miles across. Much of what had once been known as Japan was now one huge city, a shining beacon in the darkness of space. "It's hard to believe this will come to an end."
Greg sighed. "In five hundred years, this will all be a ruin. Twenty-five thousand years of darkness and rule by the things that lurk beyond the Galactic shield. That's what I predicted. I'll give my soul if I have to, to prevent that. I just wish I could have found a way to reduce the anarchy to less than a thousand years, but the numbers just...it's like they're taunting me when I try."
"There is only so much that any of us can do. My predecessor could not save the Silver Millennium any more than you can save the Crystal one. It must fall. All things come to an end in time. But from the ashes, new life will grow." She winked. "I'll try to make sure they name the next one the Stingray Millennium."
Greg threw a pillow at her.
And so the cycle began anew. It was an ending and a beginning, for any ending we chose to a story is arbitrary. Every ending begins new stories, and every beginning ends an old one. History never repeats itself, but it rarely produces something very new, either. The old stories happen over and over, with new actors, or with old ones in new roles, for we hunger for stories to guide us in our lives, to teach us the steps we must walk.
Through eternity, we dance, changing partners and returning to old ones, learning, loving, and living forevermore. Yet, while the dance never ends, this story must end somewhere, for tale-telling is but one beat of the dance. Dance then, wherever you may be, and may the Lord of the Dance lead you home, for Love without end awaits you at journey's end. Shiva's dance is over, but yours is just beginning.
Sabre Prime Says:
[Cut to a huge ballroom in which a riotous cast party is going on. We can see Ukyou in the background whacking Biles in the head for not putting her in this story, along with a lot of other characters, who have formed a line for this purpose. We can see Mackie crawling around on the floor looking up people's skirts and being energy blasted by most of the women. We can see Hikaru dancing on a table with Kyosuke, while Madoka and Jonny Quest are about to mallet both of them. Celia Stingray steps out of the crowd and takes center stage.]
Celia Stingray: This week on Dance of Shiva, we learned that...
Nene: [appears in front of Celia, blocking the camera's view of her] That I got a cute alien boyfriend and got to live over a thousand years and finally got to kick some butt!
Priss: [leaps out of the crowd and lands in front of Nene] That I got a cuter boyfriend than Nene, who wasn't made up by the author, unlike her boyfriend. I also got to become more powerful than Nene and lived at least as long as her.
Linna: [punts Nene and Priss off screen] Oh yeah? Well, I'm now dating a god and I'm immortal and all powerful! Hahahahahahah!!!!!!
Celia: [puts Linna off screen] While they're busy bragging, I'll just...
Biles: [runs in front of Celia] Whahaha! I finally wrote a long epic that wasn't a lemon story! And more important, I finished it!
Celia: [mallets Biles] As I was saying, this story is an epic of the human soul. It's easy for us to forget that the Hero, or in this case the Heroines' journey is a voyage of the soul and discovery of the self, that results in...
Ryu: Really cool original characters like me!
Manami: [shoves in next to Ryu] And me!
Meylia: [stands on both their heads. Camera pans up to her] And me.
[They are run over by an army of 'sailor clone' sexaroids, lead by Rachel Yamazaki and Ursula Anderson.]
Ursula: Don't forget us!
Lt. Shinohara: [charges in] Ahah! There they are! You're all under arrest! We know all about what happened on that space station!
[She chases the sexaroids off screen.]
Celia: Anyway, this story is about the paths we walk through life and why we should not despair in a world that often seems...
[Aeka chases Ryouko right over Celia. For some odd reason, Aeka seems to be wearing a punchbowl for a hat and is drenched with some liquid.]
Aeka: Come back here!
Celia: [from the ground] To be populated by idiots. [Mackie helps her up.] Thanks, brother.
Mackie: Guess what!
Celia: What?
Mackie: In Jurai, it's okay to marry your sister, which means...
Celia: [whips out the mallet and pounds him flat] I'm going to have to make a lot of use of this. [turns to audience] Anyway, this story does have a moral, but I think I'm going to get flattened again if I don't shut up now.
[We see Wasyuu standing over Celia with a cord attached to an anvil hanging from the ceiling.]
Wasyuu: Hey! Don't I get to use this?
Celia: Hang mistletoe on it and announce it's Christmas. That should give you a chance to use it.
Wasyuu: That would never work.
Celia: Hmm. Try standing right here. [draws an X on the floor]
Wasyuu: [moves over] Like this?
Celia: [pulls the cord and drops an anvil on Wasyuu, squashing her flat] Exactly. Thanks for being a guinea pig for my experiment.
Wasyuu: [standing behind Celia. We now see Celia squashed a plushie of Wasyuu] Let me return the favor. [shoots Celia with a Boy/Girl gun] I see it now! Another Ranma/BGC crossover, but this time...
[A now male Celia chases Wasyuu off screen with a mallet in hand.]
Wasyuu: Then again, maybe you'd make a better Akane...
Author's afterword:
Dang.
This thing is huge! I never meant it to be that way. I never mean it to be that way. It just happens. This is the longest story I've ever written. Big beyond my wildest dreams of it. Especially since it was originally going to be maybe 200K at most. However, it started snowballing out of control, moving from a simple action/adventure to a rather complex interweaving of four major series (BGC, Tenchi, Sailor Moon, and Patlabor), and tons of other lesser ones, from important roles to cameos (KOR, Marmalade Boy, Maison Ikkoku, Foundation (Sort of ^_-), AMG, and many others.)
I hope this story doesn't get too preachy, but if it does, oh well, I think my message is worth preaching :P The stories that we tell express how we view the world and how we think it should be at the same time. Every story can be compared to a sort of mental virus that tries to infect you with its ideas so that you'll pass them on to others. I hope you all got pretty sick from this one ^_-.
I have pretty strong religious beliefs, but this is the first time I've tried to write a story that really incorporated them. (Well, aspects of them). I owe an especial debt in my religious thinking to CS Lewis, who remains my favorite religious writer of all time. Several of his essays express ideas that have critically shaped my thinking and this story. I especially recommend one of his more obscure essays, "The Weight of Glory". This essay deals with an often neglected aspect of Christian doctrine, the immortality of the soul. Christians proclaim it, yet we rarely think about the consequences of such a doctrine. What does it really mean for souls to be immortal? How should this effect our priorities? Our sense of our own importance and that of others? How are we preparing ourselves for eternal existence through our actions in this life? Death is not the end of life, merely of the briefest stage of it.
A second major theme I tried to explore is that of death and rebirth. One of the messages of Christianity is that we must die and be born again. But this is not a once and for all process. There are many deaths (beyond just physical death) and many ways in which we must come to live again. It's always terrifying to let go of a stage of our life, a treasured possession, a goal that we have sought. But if we cling to things, then the waves of life will drown us instead of carrying us onwards. Celia and Priss both have this lesson to learn, along with Meylia, Anri, and Sylvie. For a time, vengeance sustained them, but they had to learn to let go, or die. Anri and Sylvie died, indeed, and only lived again through the wisdom of another, rather than their own strength. We must die many little deaths, in order to avoid the big death from which there is no returning, the death of the soul, the fires of hell.
One might ask how a devout Catholic can write a story full of goddesses, reincarnation, humans ascending to divinity, magic, etc, etc, etc. Three major comments come to mind. First, this is not intended to be a portrait of the world as it is in a literal sense, which I hope is obvious ^_^. Part of it being fiction is that it's not true in a literal sense. Goddesses are not part of my real theological outlook. I'd happily find a place for Belldandy, though, given the choice. ^_-. Secondly, while I do make some major theological, philosophical, and religious points which I would apply to the real world, I'm dealing with a lot of fictional universes in which some assumptions counter to my real world beliefs are established elements. Japan has a different set of religous and philosophical assumptions than mine, and I tried to remain true to the stories' use of these elements, while twisting them to my own purposes, of course. Thirdly, there is no point #3.
I hope that finally I've written a story that will enable Usagi's fans to understand that I do like her ^_-. I've gotten a lot of flack from various people over the years who think I hate her, but really she's one of my very favorite characters of all time. She only has a bit part in this story, since the real focus is on the four Knight Sabres as the central characters, and secondarily on my original characters, but I think I've showed her at her best in her many aspects here. Usagi is one of the most Christlike figures in all of animation, more purely adhering to the law of love than virtually any other fictional character I can think of. Usagi has the love that can move mountains. Her love has power to soothe broken hearts and heal wounded souls. I cried like a child at the end of the Sailor Moon R movie. I won't spoil the moment for those who have not seen the movie, but truly she is awesome in her love, her sadness, and her power. When she cries, I cry. She shines with the power of innocence and love.
Three other characters in this story also help to exemplify the power of innocence and love. One of them flies freely like Usagi, the other two are wounded, but find some healing as the story progresses. They are also three of my favorite characters of all time. The first is Nene Romanova. She is the soul of the Knight Sabres. Unwounded by past injuries, she retains the faith and hope of a child, and some of the flaws of a child as well. Of course I had to give her the cool alien boyfriend :). She'd make a great Inner Senshi, because she has hope and faith unspoiled by 'adult responsibilities and worries'. She is the happiest of the Knight Sabres and the one I'd most likely be able to deal with in RL without going insane :)
Then, there are the two wounded souls, wounded by their own ability to love. Priss exemplifies love wounded by past suffering. Priss is torn apart by internal wounds because each time she has opened herself to love, something has gone wrong. She burns with firey passion but because of the wounds she has suffered, she often burns others with her internal flame rather than warming them. Until she heals her own wounds, she will often be more dangerous to herself than to others, unable to fully use her own strength.
The other wounded soul is Hikaru. I will tell the full story of what happened to her eventually. I have the story about one third done. Hikaru, like Priss, seeks vengeance, though she has had more time to heal her wounds than Priss. On the other hand, she has suffered something worse than Priss ever has. I don't put my characters through suffering easily, and to put Hikaru through this was painful. I don't write anything dark easily — even making imaginary people suffer is difficult for me. It's because I often think of them as real in my unguarded moments. I just hope there isn't a real Hikaru out there gunning for me now :) She too finds healing in this story and lets go of vengeance, the victory that devours the soul.
The power of love is another major theme of this story. It brings healing to the soul and food for it as well. Love and Hate are the same side of a coin whose other side is Apathy, and it's far too easy at times to move between them. Still, even love is not an all-potent value. It can send people down the path of destruction as well as along the road of healing, and I tried to show that too. Still, this world needs more love and compassion, with whatever dangers might attend that. If we could all learn to love like Usagi, or even just like Nene, this world would shine with five billion lights.
Finally, I hope you enjoyed my original characters. Ryu, Manami, and Meylia all have a special place in my heart, and I hope they've found room in yours. Ryu and Manami were at the core of the original story concept and while this monster rapidly outgrew that concept, they grew to fit the expanding story. I also enjoyed all my minor original characters, like Lt. Yamano and Lt. Shinohara. Eventually, I plan to do a solo story for Lt. Shinohara and develop her more. Indeed, I have lots of stories planned for this universe. You'll be seeing lots more of everyone and all this weirdness :)
Well, enough ranting. I want to extend special thanks to everyone who has preread this monster. I owe especial thanks to Jeff Hosmer for his many constant suggestions and letting me link this to our Z continuity.
I also owe especial thanks to all the creators of these series, who have no clue what I've done to their creations ^_-. I can't even name half the creators and artists and voice actors and whatnot, but they've given me a wonderful ride of the imagination and I thank them all.
Well, time for me to go. I have to go help Queen Serenity with her new computer system. She can't find the 'any key' again.
Perhaps I'll be reporting to Ami for medical help instead.
God bless you all, and may the Lord of the Dance be your partner in the Great Dance of Life.
John Biles
Huntsville
July 29,1997