NASIF: Transitions
The light was brighter than a million flashbulbs, and lasted forever, before I felt someone's arm around me. The light suddenly faded to black, and I opened my eyes, the gray blankness fading slowly, until I saw the Bridge of the Jupiter's Thunder.
Standing, I realized almost immediately that something was amiss. Makoto stood beside me, and echoed my look of surprise and unease, but other than her, everyone and everything stood motionless around us.
"It's not what you think it is." A voice said from behind us. Turning quickly, I saw a rather non-descript guy standing where nobody had before. He was handsome, but his features were a bit... hard to place.
"If it's not what we think, then what's going on?" Makoto asked, frowning.
"Well... you're close..." He said, shifting his gaze to me. As he said that, I had been wondering if we were possibly in the Ah! My Goddess Universe, since we'd left Nabiki's with Mara, and the Demoness' was the only other world aside from Usagi's that we'd yet to visit.
"Right," He said, as I made the connection, " Kami-sama, God, and numerous other titles, at your service."
"Ka-Kami-Sama?" Makoto said, her voice a little more than a whisper. Kami nodded, and Makoto wobbled, though she didn't pass out. My Wife was made of sterner stuff than that.
"In the flesh, so to speak. Lets go someplace a bit more comfortable, shall we?"
I opened my mouth to agree, but before I'd uttered a sound, the three of us were in a large, Spartan office, and Kami sat above us, smiling in a friendly manner.
"So... Kami-sama... what, exactly, are we here, talking to you for?" I asked. A moment later I was rolling across the floor, having taken a rather strong punch to the arm from Makoto.
"Don't be so disrespectful to... to... KAMI-SAMA, of all people!" She screeched, amazingly doing all that while staring at the floor.
"But... he seems friendly enough!" I protested, climbing to my feet.
"It's all right, Makoto. Kyle and I, interestingly enough, share a similar origin."
"Do wha...?" Makoto and I both asked.
"I'm from the same world you're from, probably from a similar time. I know all about Anime, and the Multiverse, and... Well... you learn a lot when you become Kami."
"So.. I'm going to become...?" I asked, eyes wide.
"Heavens, no! I shudder to think how you'd handle your own world."
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." I muttered. Makoto growled softly at me under her breath.
"Sorry... your disposition is all wrong for the role of The omniscient, omnipotent being. That's not to say you won't end up in a position of some respectable power, but the "Most Powerful Being" role in your final destination is already established for another."
"Usagi?" Makoto asked, quietly.
"So quick to jump to the conclusion that your world will be your last stop, aren't you?" Makoto paled at the thought of never seeing her friends again, and Kami smiled down at her.
"Fear not, you were right in your assumption. Your guess however, is not entirely correct, as Usagi's power is eventually surpassed."
"So... What's this all about? This meeting and everything, I mean." I asked.
"Well, I wanted to meet one of the few people who share the same home world as I do." Kami turned to type away at his computer for a moment, and a screen popped up in midair, a picture of myself (A decent one, too) dominating the upper right corner.
"Lest see... Already visited Ranma... Wow... Hmm," He made thoughtful noises continually, before smiling down at me.
"You've got quite the bumpy ride ahead of you!"
"Oh? Where am I headed?"
"Can't tell you. Need to know kind of stuff. You understand." I blinked at that, then sighed.
"Can you tell me anything?"
"Like?"
"Well... are all the Anime Series from home represented in their own world?"
"Most of them are. Along with all other forms of fiction, and many variations of our world, the most popular fan-fiction and extended universe novels, and, of course, there is an eternity of fiction based upon works not of human origins."
"What? So, you mean Alien Sci-Fi?"
"Basically. Though there's plenty of Fantasy and other forms of fiction, as well."
"Keen. So... Will I be visiting any of them?"
"No... Though, due to what I need to do soon, you will be leaving the Anime sector of the Multiverse."
"Anime Sector?" Makoto asked, echoing my thoughts.
"Yes, the Multiverse aligns itself in a somewhat organized manner... The Anime Sector contains most animated series from Japan, and the few fan- fiction offshoots that grow popular enough to spawn a universe of their own. American Movies and Fiction has a sector, too, as do, of course European and Asian Fiction. Books and Movies usually populate their own sides of a sector, and, well... as you can imagine, there are more universes out there than there are grains of sand on the beach..."
"Yeah... Lots of them. Gotcha." Makoto punched me again, though it wasn't enough to send me out of my chair, like before. "So... why, exactly, will I be leaving the Anime sector?"
"Because Mara is leaving your party, and the change in spiritual energies will render the Senshi's Transport system inoperable."
"But! Kami-Sama?" Makoto said, almost a shout.
"I said you'd be going home, and I guarantee you'll be there, but in order to get there, you'll have to leap frog through a couple worlds..."
"But... wouldn't leaving the Anime sector take us away from our goal?"
"Not particularly. Sailor Moon is big in the USA, right now, so it's migrated towards the fringe, where it mingles with some of the more popular American fiction... and as a multi-universal spread, you don't really have a 'place' for things in a three-dimensional setting. So it's not going to be a straight line, no matter how you look at it."
"Sounds like something Washuu'd have a field day with." I muttered.
"Meeting her was actually a very interesting experience," Kami-said, the humor evident in his voice.
"Ohh! You went to Tenchi?" I asked, straightening up.
"Yes... among others. It seems none of us travel straight to our final destinations."
"Where else did you go?" Makoto asked, softly.
"Lets see... Inu-Yasha, Fushigi Yuugi, which, by the way, your Combat Information Center's Two Officers are modeled off of... I had a quick stopover in Biohazard, and, interestingly enough, Kirby's Dreamland. And then I got here."
"Wow..." I said, wondering what all Kami did in those worlds.
"It was fun, but in the end, my 'trip' turned out to be preparation for this, my final stop."
"So... I should be prepared to fight when I reach Makoto's home, then, right?"
"Hmm... A healthy outlook, at the least..." He said, smiling enigmatically.
"Right. Big fight ahead. Gotcha." I replied, nodding.
"So... what are you going to do that makes us take all these site trips?" Makoto asked.
"I'm removing Mara from your party." Kami said, simply.
"Oh? But... why?" I asked, frowning. I didn't really get to interact with the Demoness much, but she was part of our little group. Of course, she was also the cause of quite a few problems, so I wasn't entirely upset at having her go.
"She's served her purpose, as trivial as it might have seemed." Kami said, staring at me in a way that left little doubt that he'd known what I was thinking.
"Trivial? She didn't really do anything... what was the point of her at all?" Makoto asked, frowning.
"She was the one who found for you that genie."
"In the Ranma-verse? Ryouga would have probably found it sooner or later..." I said, rolling my eyes. Kami shrugged, before typing rapidly on the computer.
"Be that as it may, He didn't, and she did." Kami slapped a button I assumed to be the equivalent of an enter-key, and the computer beeped twice before disappearing.
"There! All done. As a final Courtesy, I'll give you this heads up: Your next destination is going to start out bumpy, if you aren't... talkative. Oh, and your crew is not going to know anything about our stop here. Just you two."
"Okay... umm... Kami-Sama?" I asked, frowning.
"Ye... Oh! That. I just made the modifications now. The Thunder will be able to jump to the next universe in the line when preset limitations are met... and no sooner."
"Riiight..."
"You can try, Kyle, but I am an ultimate power, so unless you're really lucky, you'll just have to wait until the shift happens automatically." I sighed.
"Okay," I grudgingly consented. Kami stood, smiling down at us, and suddenly we were back on the Jupiter's Thunder, the Bridge Staff looking just like they had when we'd left. The only change was Mara; she was nowhere to be seen.
"You two stay safe... your future isn't set. You can still die, but if you live, you've got a nice future ahead of you." Kami said. We turned to look at him, but he had disappeared in the instant our gazes had left him.
There was a flash of light, less intense than the one from before, and suddenly I heard the shouts from the staff, and an alarm that started blaring from hidden klaxons.
"Arigato, Kami-Sama." I heard Makoto whisper softly beside me. I gave her hand a squeeze, unaware that I'd taken it during our talk with Kami, then moved to sit down in my command chair.
The light was brighter than a million flashbulbs, and lasted forever, before I felt someone's arm around me. The light suddenly faded to black, and I opened my eyes, the gray blankness fading slowly, until I saw the Bridge of the Jupiter's Thunder.
Standing, I realized almost immediately that something was amiss. Makoto stood beside me, and echoed my look of surprise and unease, but other than her, everyone and everything stood motionless around us.
"It's not what you think it is." A voice said from behind us. Turning quickly, I saw a rather non-descript guy standing where nobody had before. He was handsome, but his features were a bit... hard to place.
"If it's not what we think, then what's going on?" Makoto asked, frowning.
"Well... you're close..." He said, shifting his gaze to me. As he said that, I had been wondering if we were possibly in the Ah! My Goddess Universe, since we'd left Nabiki's with Mara, and the Demoness' was the only other world aside from Usagi's that we'd yet to visit.
"Right," He said, as I made the connection, " Kami-sama, God, and numerous other titles, at your service."
"Ka-Kami-Sama?" Makoto said, her voice a little more than a whisper. Kami nodded, and Makoto wobbled, though she didn't pass out. My Wife was made of sterner stuff than that.
"In the flesh, so to speak. Lets go someplace a bit more comfortable, shall we?"
I opened my mouth to agree, but before I'd uttered a sound, the three of us were in a large, Spartan office, and Kami sat above us, smiling in a friendly manner.
"So... Kami-sama... what, exactly, are we here, talking to you for?" I asked. A moment later I was rolling across the floor, having taken a rather strong punch to the arm from Makoto.
"Don't be so disrespectful to... to... KAMI-SAMA, of all people!" She screeched, amazingly doing all that while staring at the floor.
"But... he seems friendly enough!" I protested, climbing to my feet.
"It's all right, Makoto. Kyle and I, interestingly enough, share a similar origin."
"Do wha...?" Makoto and I both asked.
"I'm from the same world you're from, probably from a similar time. I know all about Anime, and the Multiverse, and... Well... you learn a lot when you become Kami."
"So.. I'm going to become...?" I asked, eyes wide.
"Heavens, no! I shudder to think how you'd handle your own world."
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." I muttered. Makoto growled softly at me under her breath.
"Sorry... your disposition is all wrong for the role of The omniscient, omnipotent being. That's not to say you won't end up in a position of some respectable power, but the "Most Powerful Being" role in your final destination is already established for another."
"Usagi?" Makoto asked, quietly.
"So quick to jump to the conclusion that your world will be your last stop, aren't you?" Makoto paled at the thought of never seeing her friends again, and Kami smiled down at her.
"Fear not, you were right in your assumption. Your guess however, is not entirely correct, as Usagi's power is eventually surpassed."
"So... What's this all about? This meeting and everything, I mean." I asked.
"Well, I wanted to meet one of the few people who share the same home world as I do." Kami turned to type away at his computer for a moment, and a screen popped up in midair, a picture of myself (A decent one, too) dominating the upper right corner.
"Lest see... Already visited Ranma... Wow... Hmm," He made thoughtful noises continually, before smiling down at me.
"You've got quite the bumpy ride ahead of you!"
"Oh? Where am I headed?"
"Can't tell you. Need to know kind of stuff. You understand." I blinked at that, then sighed.
"Can you tell me anything?"
"Like?"
"Well... are all the Anime Series from home represented in their own world?"
"Most of them are. Along with all other forms of fiction, and many variations of our world, the most popular fan-fiction and extended universe novels, and, of course, there is an eternity of fiction based upon works not of human origins."
"What? So, you mean Alien Sci-Fi?"
"Basically. Though there's plenty of Fantasy and other forms of fiction, as well."
"Keen. So... Will I be visiting any of them?"
"No... Though, due to what I need to do soon, you will be leaving the Anime sector of the Multiverse."
"Anime Sector?" Makoto asked, echoing my thoughts.
"Yes, the Multiverse aligns itself in a somewhat organized manner... The Anime Sector contains most animated series from Japan, and the few fan- fiction offshoots that grow popular enough to spawn a universe of their own. American Movies and Fiction has a sector, too, as do, of course European and Asian Fiction. Books and Movies usually populate their own sides of a sector, and, well... as you can imagine, there are more universes out there than there are grains of sand on the beach..."
"Yeah... Lots of them. Gotcha." Makoto punched me again, though it wasn't enough to send me out of my chair, like before. "So... why, exactly, will I be leaving the Anime sector?"
"Because Mara is leaving your party, and the change in spiritual energies will render the Senshi's Transport system inoperable."
"But! Kami-Sama?" Makoto said, almost a shout.
"I said you'd be going home, and I guarantee you'll be there, but in order to get there, you'll have to leap frog through a couple worlds..."
"But... wouldn't leaving the Anime sector take us away from our goal?"
"Not particularly. Sailor Moon is big in the USA, right now, so it's migrated towards the fringe, where it mingles with some of the more popular American fiction... and as a multi-universal spread, you don't really have a 'place' for things in a three-dimensional setting. So it's not going to be a straight line, no matter how you look at it."
"Sounds like something Washuu'd have a field day with." I muttered.
"Meeting her was actually a very interesting experience," Kami-said, the humor evident in his voice.
"Ohh! You went to Tenchi?" I asked, straightening up.
"Yes... among others. It seems none of us travel straight to our final destinations."
"Where else did you go?" Makoto asked, softly.
"Lets see... Inu-Yasha, Fushigi Yuugi, which, by the way, your Combat Information Center's Two Officers are modeled off of... I had a quick stopover in Biohazard, and, interestingly enough, Kirby's Dreamland. And then I got here."
"Wow..." I said, wondering what all Kami did in those worlds.
"It was fun, but in the end, my 'trip' turned out to be preparation for this, my final stop."
"So... I should be prepared to fight when I reach Makoto's home, then, right?"
"Hmm... A healthy outlook, at the least..." He said, smiling enigmatically.
"Right. Big fight ahead. Gotcha." I replied, nodding.
"So... what are you going to do that makes us take all these site trips?" Makoto asked.
"I'm removing Mara from your party." Kami said, simply.
"Oh? But... why?" I asked, frowning. I didn't really get to interact with the Demoness much, but she was part of our little group. Of course, she was also the cause of quite a few problems, so I wasn't entirely upset at having her go.
"She's served her purpose, as trivial as it might have seemed." Kami said, staring at me in a way that left little doubt that he'd known what I was thinking.
"Trivial? She didn't really do anything... what was the point of her at all?" Makoto asked, frowning.
"She was the one who found for you that genie."
"In the Ranma-verse? Ryouga would have probably found it sooner or later..." I said, rolling my eyes. Kami shrugged, before typing rapidly on the computer.
"Be that as it may, He didn't, and she did." Kami slapped a button I assumed to be the equivalent of an enter-key, and the computer beeped twice before disappearing.
"There! All done. As a final Courtesy, I'll give you this heads up: Your next destination is going to start out bumpy, if you aren't... talkative. Oh, and your crew is not going to know anything about our stop here. Just you two."
"Okay... umm... Kami-Sama?" I asked, frowning.
"Ye... Oh! That. I just made the modifications now. The Thunder will be able to jump to the next universe in the line when preset limitations are met... and no sooner."
"Riiight..."
"You can try, Kyle, but I am an ultimate power, so unless you're really lucky, you'll just have to wait until the shift happens automatically." I sighed.
"Okay," I grudgingly consented. Kami stood, smiling down at us, and suddenly we were back on the Jupiter's Thunder, the Bridge Staff looking just like they had when we'd left. The only change was Mara; she was nowhere to be seen.
"You two stay safe... your future isn't set. You can still die, but if you live, you've got a nice future ahead of you." Kami said. We turned to look at him, but he had disappeared in the instant our gazes had left him.
There was a flash of light, less intense than the one from before, and suddenly I heard the shouts from the staff, and an alarm that started blaring from hidden klaxons.
"Arigato, Kami-Sama." I heard Makoto whisper softly beside me. I gave her hand a squeeze, unaware that I'd taken it during our talk with Kami, then moved to sit down in my command chair.