A kilometre over the Moroboshi home, an hour later . . .
"DARLING IS ONE OF THEY WHO MUST NEVER BE NAMED?"
Ten nodded. "Yeah! He's Tuyuki . . . but he calls himself with the Earth translation of the name, 'Coyote!' He was one of the ones in the Mother of All Fight Scenes!"
A wide-eyed Lum stared at her cousin. After waking up in Sakura's shrine and being checked over by the nurse/miko, she had flown back up to her mobile home with her cousin. Once they were alone, Lum then got an emergency call from her father on Uru, reporting that something awful had happened to the Niphentaxians – a race she gladly wished every day would finally get a LIFE! – and that she had to stay on Earth for her own safety until things settled down. Once the link with Onishuto was cut, Ten then told her what he had seen . . . and who had instigated it. And why.
After a moment as her mind nearly crashed from THAT atomic bomb being dropped on her head, Lum then sank into the command chair in the pilotage of her ship. "Darling . . . is Tuyuki? Of the You Know Whos? How's that possible? We would've . . .!"
"The Men In Black and some magicals disguised him as a normal Terran, Lum-chan!" Ten cut in. "Even worse, they made him FORGET he was one of the Scary People!" As Lum gasped on hearing that, he added, "But he got rescued by Infinity when we tried to have your wedding in Onishuto! While we were all getting healed up, he went back to the Scary Place, got his mind put right . . . but then he found out about that moron Ōgi and those idiots on Phentax Two! And found out that they put some sort of annihilation bomb in the Tomobiki Ginza!" As Lum gargled on hearing that her own so-called "most faithful" had threatened HER with THAT, Ten hummed. "I'll bet he destroyed Phentax Twelve, too! But five million people died there!" Another hum. "Then why . . .?"
«Ten-chan, they were already dead!»
Both Oni gasped at that woman's voice echoing in their heads. "WHO'S THAT?" Lum cried out as both she and Ten looked around the pilotage.
«Soul Searcher,» an amused answer returned. «Ataru-kun helped me get my Gift when I was eight, along with my best friend; she's Warwind now.»
«Yo!» another woman – sounding a lot like Lum's best friend, Shigaten Benten of Fukunokami – then called out. «So when are you gonna get Gifted, Lum-chan?»
«Hey!» the first voice snapped back. «She's scared enough of us! Leave her be!»
Surprised that one of THEM would defend HER like that, Lum then giggled before she sobered. "So what do you mean about all the people on Phentax Twelve being dead already?" she demanded. "According to Ōgi, the whole colony was slaughtered!"
«And Ōgi's record of truthfulness is . . .?» the woman born Mizuhara Koyomi – now the Mistress of the Mind Dive, Soul Searcher – asked from her home in Nakano Ward not far from Azuma High School. «What was the bastard's excuse for Lecashuto six years ago? Much less, did he ever say anything about what just got fired into space today?»
Lum blinked, and then she moaned. "True . . . "
"So what happened?" Ten asked.
«Turns out, Grand Sorceress Zōju of the Oak Forest slammed a curse on Lum when she was just born for her not being invited to the baby shower, Ten-chan. It was to ultimately guarantee that Lum would never known true love,» Yomi replied. «The curse was processed through the Milky Way 'Curses 'R Us' Management Organisation . . . but the controlling crystal got lost on a dump on the home planet of the Galactic Mail Service. Someone from Phentax Two found it, got possessed by the curse – I don't know exactly how as magic's not my game – then eventually brought it to Phentax Twelve. By the time we got there four months ago, all the colonists were literally living zombies, their life forces being drained to feed the curse's power. Eventually, the Warlock and the Cosmic Mage Guild had to euthanize them all.» A sigh. «That sucked . . . »
«Of course, it was around that time that idiot Ōgi started calling Ataru-kun the 'Great Evil,'» Yomi's best friend Takino Tomo – now the Wild Warrior of Passion, Warwind – added. «Well, he wasn't going to tolerate that, so he had the entire Niphentaxian military-industrial complex crippled permanently. I still say we should'a sent Margo-chan out to kill the bastard!» A snort. «Well, as of now . . . »
«Lum gets an early birthday present,» Yomi finished.
Lum perked. "'An early birthday present?'"
«What's your fondest wish?» the current incarnation of Yiziba's most powerful telepath asked. «Other than to marry Ataru-kun and live with him for the rest of his life?»
The Oni warlord's daughter blinked, and then she laughed. "Tcha . . .!"
"Yeah! She's always wanted to get rid of that idiot Ōgi!" Ten said, snickering.
«So don't complain,» Yomi replied from Nakano. «We'll fill you in on the details soon enough, you two. Right now, you need time to absorb all this. Relax. Don't worry about the Ipraedies and the Seifukusu; we can keep them in line if we have to.»
"Was that why Darling helped you get your powers?" Lum asked.
A mental wink. «What do you think?»
A hum. "Good point . . . "
The Moroboshi home, that moment . . .
"I would definitely say that this poor girl's a victim of PTSD."
"Post-traumatic stress disorder," Ataru stated as he gazed on one of the lovely witches from England he had found over the years to help transform them into beings that were beyond the comprehension of the average resident of places like London's Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade in Scotland near Hogwarts. "How did it happen, 'Mione?"
Hermione Granger – the current incarnation of the Master Planner of the Cosmic Mage Guild, the Thaumaturge – took a deep breath. "Turns out that sometime very soon, Lum will learn she has an outstanding engagement over her head with a prince from the planet Yaminokuni." As Ataru nodded, remembering what Tariko had said about that, the normal-born witch-turned-magical meta from Crawley in East Sussex added, "Things happen and Tariko – when she was still Ataru – came to believe Lum finally rejected him for someone else. They broke up and Lum remained on Yaminokuni while Ataru returned to Earth. A girl from Yaminokuni named Carla came along the ride . . . and she had native Yaminokuni mushrooms that were eventually exposed to Earth's biosphere by Ran."
He chuckled. "Ah, my favourite schizoid airhead!" He then sobered. "Then again, she was almost as badly beaten by her mother as Margo was by her adopted parents. Go on."
"Well, Lum decided – as Tariko here saw it – to take advantage of an ecological disaster and force her to play a game of tag. No tag, the mushrooms would destroy Earth. Tag Lum's horns, the prince's pigs would eat the mushrooms."
A snort. "The Infinite Wave would work worlds better."
"Tariko never knew of the Yizibajohei. And she wouldn't find out about them until the fifth night of the Second Tag Race . . . after Lum threw an extra stipulation in on the Tag Race." At his prompting, she added, "If he lost, she would wipe the memories of all the people in Tomobiki of all that had happened to them since the First Tag Race."
A chuckle. "Ah! Wipe out the memories and the evidence of their previous time here on Earth, then come back and redo, hoping to do better. Typical. Go on."
She sighed as she whispered a spell to allow Tariko to fall into a restful sleep. "Later that evening, Destructo appeared in Tariko's bedroom. After getting her to calm down, he gave her a deal of his own. Allow her to go to Yiziba and gain a Gift, then Tariko could return and defeat Lum like the Rampage 250 years ago defeated Lum's ancestor. In effect, fling the whole Tag Race concept right into the Oni's collective faces and show them that Tariko had no reason whatsoever to respect the traditions Lum held sacred. Of course, Tariko didn't realise that Lum had her bedroom bugged good. Lum and her father knew right away that one of 'They Who Must Not Be Named' were now involved . . . " A shake of the head. "And that was not cricket! Benten flew down on her airbike with a gun to try to shot down the bloody 'You Know Who' . . . but given her bad aim, it doesn't surprise me that Tariko was hit instead. Destructo teleported her – remembering she was still a 'he' at the time – to the Doll House . . . "
"Battle Doll," he confirmed. At her nod, he sighed. "Ayumu hates them . . . "
"Don't blame her," Hermione mused. She didn't really care too much for pure-fight scene-type synthezoids herself. Why on Earth didn't Kasuga Ayumu destroy them, she couldn't comprehend. "When that happened, Destructo blasted the ship Lum's father commanded right back to Uru itself, then had Infinity unleash the Infinite Wave to wipe out the alien plague . . . and deliver every alien on the planet back to their home worlds at that time. As luck would have it, the annihilation bomb the Niphentaxians had buried in the Tomobiki Ginza was dropped on Lumukyō." As he winced, she breathed out, "Two billion dead . . . and an entire planet was plunged into nuclear winter."
"Damn . . .!" Ataru breathed out. He knew how frightfully destructive members of his adopted race could be. That was why he had gone out to find EARTH children – who had a veneer of civilisation in them even if the animal lusts that a Gifting could unleash with the force of a supernova were still buried deep in their hearts – to bring before the Great Crystal of Power. He himself could never conceive of killing such a large number of people, even if most of them had been effectively brainwashed into believing he himself had to be destroyed. But there were people out there who could do such a thing. Out of both malicious intent . . . and out of ignorance. "What happened then? With our counterparts in play, the alien races around Earth would have backed off."
"They did . . . but it didn't go easy for them. With the Niphentaxians, even if Ōgi himself was dead, the Church of Lum was still in charge. They launched a 'holy crusade' on Yiziba to avenge the 'defeat of their beloved Goddess.'" Hermione shook her head. "It was a total slaughter. And one the Ipraedies and the Seifukusu immediately took advantage of to double-team Uru and smash them down. After Rampage and friends decided to unleash the Mother of All Fight Scenes Mark II on them."
"News of that ever got to Earth?"
"Two months later," she noted. "After she got to Yiziba and was reborn, Tariko met up with the Academician and was given a crash-course in what the galactic situation was around her Earth." At his curious look, Hermione sighed. "The same as ours." At Ataru's nod, she then said, "Tariko was then allowed to communicate with Lum at her family home outside Onishuto. Well, in THAT case, Lum no longer had the upper hand and was quite afraid of what the 'You Know Whos' would do to her people. Tariko taunted her with that, plus also passed on the news about the deaths of so many of her 'most faithful.' Called her a liar, a monster, a betrayer, a murderess, and a few other things . . . and then, thanks to her having Lum's old horns; they fell off her head when she had been kidnapped by her other fiancé before this all began . . . "
He winced. "She effectively 'divorced' her."
A nod. "Right in front of Lum's parents and her friends. Tariko then taunted Benten with the fact that if she hadn't shot Ataru, Lum wouldn't be suffering as she was. Tariko then made sure Oyuki would behave by threatening to have the Yizibajohei take away the Neptunians' central warp chamber and eventually make Triton uninhabitable to Oyuki's people." As he nodded – it was a known fact around the galaxy that life on Triton, the largest of the moons of the eighth planet, was always on a knife's edge due to the massive levels of snow that was generated on that world; hence, the need for a space-warp system to send the access snow elsewhere – Hermione took a deep breath. "Well, with that done, Tariko's Earth was effectively safe from retaliation. No one on Uru wished to risk another Mother of All Fight Scenes – not knowing that the Ipraedies and the Seifukusu were about to attack them; Rampage's move happened about a week after Lum found herself without a 'husband' – and Lum's friends were too busy comforting her after she had her heart wrecked like that. And since Tariko had no love for her parents, she declared she would never live on Earth again. She gave Lum a parting taunt saying that if Lum had any real guts, she would face Tariko on Yiziba in lieu of being an ECOLOGICAL TERRORIST and holding a defenceless planet hostage like she had done with Earth. Which proved how dishonourable the Urusians as a people were."
He winced. "Ouch! Lum's people are a proud lot. That wouldn't have gone over well, especially with the Imperials on that planet." He then sighed. "So what happened when the Ipraedies and the Seifukusu went to war with the Urusians?"
"News of that didn't get to Earth for two months. By then, Tariko had been given the chance to adjust to what she had become thanks to a few people on Yiziba. She was given the offer to get a Gift and become organic, but was still holding off on it until she could learn how involved Lum was in Benten's attack on her." A sigh. "I guess she just wanted some closure on that part of her life given how much Lum had impacted it." At Ataru's nod, she added, "Benten was hunted down by Tolose and dragged back to Habitation One to be made to face Tariko." On hearing that, Ataru winced; the Wild Hunter of the Wilderness currently lived under the Earth name Carcajou and was a friend and ally of his in Japan. Given the nature of that Gift – atop heightened senses and an incredible healing factor, one with that Gift could literally create foot-long ENERGY CLAWS out of the fingertips that could slice through anything save any neutronium- or mesonium-derived material – it was a good bet that the Benten of that universe had gone to Yiziba short a couple limbs. "And with Windtalker filming away for transmission on Uru for Lum to see, Tariko found out that Lum – while she certainly didn't want Ataru to make a deal with the Yizibajohei – wouldn't want her 'husband' to be hurt. Of course, Benten – even if she was scared out of her mind – was playing tough girl and spitting all sorts of insults Tariko's way." As he winced, she sighed. "It got too much. Tariko blasted Benten's head off with a ki shot at point-blank range. When news of that got to Ipraedos City, Emperor Schwartz decided to have Lum publicly executed in Onishuto's Revolution Square for her 'silent support' of the Church of Lum. With the Intergalactic News Network projecting an image of that . . . "
"Don't tell me: In the skies over Tomobiki, right?"
Hermione nodded. "And all the Niphentaxian colonies still existing at the time."
He hissed out. "Oh, Fates . . .!"
The visitor from Britain took a deep breath. "Of course, no one bothered to advise Tariko this was happening. By the time a touch of homesickness prompted her to ask Infinity to take her back to Earth, al-Qā'idah had acted. They blew up a radiological bomb at Tomobiki High School in morning assembly three months after the Second Tag Race was stopped. Ninety percent of the school population eventually died. Other attacks saw Tariko's parents killed, not to mention people like Miss Sakurambō and her uncle. Few survivors from those Tariko had associated with before . . . and given how al-Qā'idah started to crow afterward over the destruction of the 'devil alien woman's worshippers from Earth,' the feelings of people outside Tomobiki turned very much anti-Oni once they were reminded of what had happened over a year before with the world's oil. Of course, given that no one seemed to care about how many had died . . . "
"People inside Tomobiki felt totally abandoned," he finished. "Without anyone around to clue them into reality, it would be easy for them to go back to default mode: Blame me – Tariko – for everything, even the stupid stuff that she never was involved in."
"Yes," she noted. "Tariko came back four months after she was reborn in the Doll House. She was horrified on seeing the destruction and the fact that no one bothered to try to come into town to fix everything up . . . but when Miyake Shinobu – she had been sick and away from school when al-Qā'idah attacked – confronted her and accused her of murdering everyone in town, Tariko . . . " A sigh. "Snapped."
Ataru winced. "As a Battle Doll, she's as strong as Warwind when she's calm," he stated. "There would have been nothing left of Miyake except a smear on the ground."
"Yeah," Hermione affirmed. "And given that Tariko still had some feelings for her, when she woke up from the battle madness and found Shinobu dead at her feet . . . "
"Suicidal ki blast? Like Hibiki Ryōga's Shin-shishihōkōdan?"
A nod. "It killed off everyone else in Tomobiki. No one beyond. Destructo guaranteed that thanks to an energy shield he had put around the town limits."
A shake of the head. "So she was alone in a sea of ruins . . . "
"And she stayed there for a couple of months. Refused any offer of charity from the Japanese government when they sent in soldiers to look in on her. She was absolved of what happened; the Kantō Magical Association got in there to question her and they got the whole story. And since the Urusians and the Niphentaxians were no longer a threat to Earth – and since the Seifukusu and the Ipraedies might decide to sweep in and conquer Earth now that their rivals were out of the way – it was decided to find some magical way to replicate the Battle Doll concept. Create an army of unstoppable warriors born ultimately of the one power that ALL aliens close to Earth feared to ensure the planet would stay free and safe." A sigh. "Tariko allowed them to take samples of her blood to be cloned, but she stayed in Tomobiki. Infinity found her two months later and she let him have it with both barrels. Blamed the Yizibajohei for Lum's death, the deaths of everyone in Tomobiki and everything else. She then broke down and cried, begging him to kill her so she could be at peace. He . . . "
"Sent her here."
"Yes."
Ataru hummed as he gazed on his sleeping "sister" nearby. What she had endured was a personal holocaust beyond comprehension to any normal person. Without the emotional and spiritual support of Yiziba, Ataru himself might have faced the same situation in a few days when Lum's other would-be fiancé came to claim her. But since the flow of history on the Yiziba of THIS universe had gone much differently than what had happened in Tariko's universe, he doubted any of the world of metahumans would have come to save Earth if what Hermione just described did happen in the near future . . .!
But would there had been a Destructo in this universe if Ayone Katabarbe still had lived to go forth to other worlds to seek out a new Coyote to be born . . .?
A sigh. How do the people in the West say it again . . .? Ah, yeah! 'There but with the Grace of God go I,' he mused to himself before he reached for his iPhone. A tap later, he called into it, "Hey, Liz! You awake over there or asleep?"
A tired groan from one of the bedrooms in a beautiful family home in a small bedroom community on the Santa Barbara Coast of California northwest of Los Angeles. "It's midnight here, Ataru," Elizabeth Wakefield – the current incarnation of the Great Sage of the Circle of Thought, the Academician – then replied. "I just went to bed."
"Any scans of any alien ship over Japan at this time?" he asked.
"I'll get back to you."
The link with Sweet Valley was cut. "So if this prince is here . . .!" Hermione began.
"We need to alert Lum so she can be forewarned," Ataru finished . . .
Sweet Valley, that moment . . .
"Hey, Liz! What's going on?"
Elizabeth sighed as she tapped controls at her computer. She was still in her bedroom, not in the hidden lab buried under the back yard of her family home where most of her equipment – that which she had not brought to Earth from Yiziba over the last five years – was located. "Ataru called," she said as Jessica closed the door behind her, thus activating privacy screens around the room to ensure their parents Ned and Alice couldn't overhear them. "There's a possible alien threat over Japan."
"You mean beyond the usual morons?" Jessica moaned as she sat down on her sister's bed, reaching over to hug the teddy bear – dressed in a black martial arts gi; Ataru had got it for Elizabeth for her fourteenth birthday – that was by her pillows.
"Possibly. Ataru decided to execute the bomb disposal with Haruhi's and Ayumu's help a little earlier than he planned originally . . . " Elizabeth then hummed as an image appeared on her computer screen. "Hello! Hello! What have we here?"
Jessica came over to look. "Where from?"
"Yaminokuni."
The younger of the Wakefield twins hummed. "Arab-like people that live on a planet in eternal darkness thanks to fungal spore clouds in the atmosphere. Orbits a blue star at the south edge of the Orion Arm. About twenty-five big ones from here."
"Yep."
"Ataru say why he wanted them gone?"
"Nope, but I'm about to ask."
A sigh. "Okay. I'll go play 'Miss Big Bad Wolf.' Be back in a few."
And with that, she walked out of the room . . .
In orbit over Japan . . .
"What was that report, Captain?"
The captain of the royal yacht bowed his head. "It was overheard coming in from Uru, Your Highness. Something that either badly damaged or destroyed the Niphentaxians' main fleet anchorage near Phentax Twenty. Nothing further at this time."
Hearing that, the great-grandson of the First Patriarch of the Kingdom of Yaminokuni smirked as he moved to slip the small pendant out from under his robes to gaze on the innocent picture within. The only hope for him to escape HER finally . . . and thanks to his own ancestor's smart thinking and luck itself, he could exploit it.
Yes, there were the problems when it came to a woman like Redet Lum. Her Terran "husband" . . . who really WASN'T her husband as there was no proper marriage tag reported performed on Lum anytime after the Tag Race the Oni launched on Earth ended. Given what Rupa had learned about Moroboshi Ataru thanks to friends on other worlds, he knew his "rival" really didn't care to reciprocate any feelings Lum expressed towards him. Making Lum see that he was honest about his claim of marriage for her . . . and that he would love and respect her where the stupid Terran skirt-chaser did not . . .!
Rupa then grinned. The other issue with Lum – the Niphentaxians – would be quite an annoyance . . . but recently, the nigh-invincible power Ōgi displayed to all around him had suffered a severe hit. Phentax Twelve – a "closed" colony to outsiders for reasons no one knew why – had been destroyed four Earth-months before with the loss of five million colonists. As to the "who" and "why" – despite Ōgi's demented claims that Moroboshi Ataru was behind it – it was a total mystery. But even with that, the fact that the seemingly "unbeatable" Niphentaxians had lost five million of their own so suddenly and so ruthlessly had been noted in halls of power on other worlds. While the "Army of Lum" was still strong – or was it? – the fact that the oxymoron called the "One True Church of Lum" had lost a considerable number of its flock . . .!
"Your Highness!"
Rupa looked over. "What is it?"
"Overhearing a communiqué from Earth – within Tomobiki itself – being transmitted to Phentax Two," the ship's secure communications officer stated. "A fellow named Hoss reporting that the Final Solution was torn away from the 'holy city' and sent through a space warp to destroy the fleet anchorage at Phentax Two." A snort. "Naturally, your fiancée's would-be 'husband' is being blamed for this . . . " He then paused before gaping. "And there was an attack on your fiancée not two hours ago in Tomobiki!"
"WHAT?" Rupa cried out.
"Cause unknown . . . " A moan. "By the Dark Grove! Can't those idiots say something straight WITHOUT blaming their 'great evil?'" As the others on the bridge smirked, he then hummed. "Miss Lum is currently aboard her ship in low orbit over Tomobiki, along with her cousin Master Jariten. No sign of Moroboshi Ataru, though he was reported to be seen at the shrine of Sakurambō Sakura an hour ago. Miss Sakura and her uncle were there, too. Nothing else to report, though . . . " A chuckle. "They're scared."
"That could be a danger, Your Highness," the ship's captain then advised. "If the Niphentaxians have lost their fleet, then the Ipraedies and the Seifukusu might move in on this system. If Miss Lum is still here at this time . . . "
Rupa grinned. "All the better to persuade her to leave this world for Yaminokuni."
"YOUR HIGHNESS!"
His head snapped over. "WHAT . . .?"
His breath then caught in his throat as his eyes locked in on the female figure FLOATING not fifty metres away from the windows of his own command bridge!
In AIRLESS SPACE!
WITHOUT any sort of life-support gear!
And she was dressed in a VERY familiar jumpsuit-like uniform.
One all Urusians had cause to know of.
The current incarnation of the man who had launched the Mother of All Fight Scenes.
The Charging Belle of the Heavens.
Rampage . . .
Lum's scoutship . . .
"Gree-tings, a-li-en crea-ture. Take me to your lea-der."
Lum gasped on hearing that robotic voice, and then she looked over. "Darling!"
Her breath then in her throat caught on her seeing the form-fitting jumpsuit he was wearing now. Like most Yizibajohei, Moroboshi Ataru wore a uniform that resembled a martial artist's gi from Japan save for it being a single-piece affair. Ataru's uniform was a light grey overall with black fur-like flecks on the arms and legs, an icon showing the head of a canine-like creature – no doubt, the Yizibajohei version of a Terran coyote – on his left chest, over his heart. A black belt and black slip-on shoes finished the ensemble. But what was making Lum drool was the sight of his chest – which was showing off some black body hair there – that was barely hidden by the V-cut of his top. And that despite the wide leggings and sleeves of his uniform, the muscles of his body and limbs – not to mention his oh-so-sexy butt! – were practically displayed for her to gaze unashamedly on. "Wow . . .!" she groaned. "Was this what Lady Danu felt like when Rampage tagged her horns and married her?"
"Probably. At least, that's what the current Rampage – a good friend of mine from southern California named Jessica Wakefield – remembers of that life." And with that, the Trickster of the Show came over to gently pull her into his embrace. "I'm sorry I never told you this earlier. Before Elle, I couldn't tell you . . . "
"And after Elle, you found out about Ōgi and that bomb in the Ginza," she finished for him as she felt herself sink into his embrace, glad to be held so close by a Darling that was all she could ever dream him to be. And so much more! "Darling, you told Ten-chan that all the people on Phentax Twelve were dead. What happened?"
A sigh. "Did your parents ever tell you of Grand Sorceress Zōju of the Oak Forest?" Ataru – Lum wasn't sure she could think of him as Coyote even if he was in the costume – then asked as he guided her onto the bed before sitting beside her.
A nod. "Very powerful magical. She was invited to the baby shower for me, but the invitation got lost in the mail. She threatened to curse me, but we never heard any more of that. She's kinda creepy, but she's okay. Why do you ask?"
He grimaced. "She did put a curse on you. She prepared a controlling orb for the Curses 'R Us people to deal with, but it got lost in the mail. Now, think of this in the bounds of space-time." As she nodded, he stated, "Two hundred years from now, a kid – a descendant of ours – finds the orb. It's been sitting on the home planet of the Galactic Mail Service all those years. And the power inside that thing's grown over that time. When he's possessed by it, he gets the urge to look in on you. So he travels back in time to when you're still alive . . . and since there are now TWO controlling curse orbs, one from the future and one in the present . . . "
She paled. "The curse activated?"
"Yeah. Because of that – this is what the Weaver; she's a friend of mine from down near Kōbe – reported: Three months ago, the timelines diverged. This kid – his name's Rū – appeared at the opening of the Tomobiki Marchenland and curse me, then kidnapped you and drew you into a pocket dimension where you would be safe and pure. It then needed me – with help from Rū's governess – to put it all right and return the timeline to normal. But because he visited you in the past, the controlling orb in our timeline absorbed all the power from his own orb . . . and all it needed was someone to find it and be possessed by it. A girl named Otako odai-Meinyak found it six years ago when she was travelling with her friends. And when she took it to Phentax Twelve, it sensed the passion all the people there felt about you . . . and spread its influence over all of them. So when we got there four months ago, all the colonists . . . " A sigh. "Well, as a friend from England who came in to check on Tariko would call them, they became inferi. Un-dead zombies. We had no choice but to euthanize them."
Lum shuddered, her eyes tearing. "Tcha . . . maybe you shouldn't have told me that."
"I had to," Ataru confessed. "I don't ever take joy in killing someone even by proxy, Lum. I'm supposed to be the Trickster of the Game. I unleash pranks on people to make them laugh and stop being so arrogant – and for the most arrogant of the lot, I got pretty crazy over them to make it stick – but I don't permanently hurt someone."
She gazed at him. "When you came back after that time . . . there were times I heard you cry in your sleep. Was it because of what you saw there?" As he nodded, she sighed. "Well, much that I understand why you did it – Ōgi sure didn't look so tough after the news got out – I'm glad that you're still human underneath it all." She giggled. "I can't believe it! You, one of They Who Must Never Be Named – your past-self was involved in the Mother of All Fight Scenes! – and you're still you underneath it all!" She then stopped. "The people here were idiots to do that to you!"
"Oh, relax, Lum," he stated. "For the most part, they didn't fully understand what was going on. For those who did understand, once I got my memories back, I asked Doctor Death to permanently deal with them. The survivors won't try to come back to hurt me anew; I intend to be long gone from Tomobiki before they get bit by THAT bug again." As she giggled, he then sighed. "As for Baka Kā-san and Baka Tō-san, they'll be left with an empty home and no means to fill it up again. Miyake . . . " A shake of the head. "I won't consider her a friend anymore, Lum. That's saying a lot from me."
"You want me to go there with you, don't you?"
He smirked. "Do you blame me?"
Lum seemed to glow with delight on hearing that admission from him. While there was still the deep fear she felt for That Place, it was now suppressed by the admission of Ataru's own concern for her . . . and her learning the truth of the story concerning her distant ancestor, Redet Danu, when she "disappeared" after the Tag Race launched by the old Urusian Empire against the people of That Place. That she had ALSO found love with her former Tag Race opponent made Lum feel happy for her kinsman from over two centuries ago. And given that Ataru – who, as Coyote, was one of the more powerful of Them – wanted her to be on That World where she would be SAFE in his eyes . . .!
"Would they like me?" she then asked. "Your friends there?"
"Well, since all my true friends are all Terran-born, they'll accept you much more than the natives. Once you get your own Gift – even if you are a technically a meta thanks to your powers – they won't blink an eye." He then gave her a wry smile. "But I can't FORCE you to take a Gift, Lum. That goes against everything I believe in. You want to know why I don't tag your horns and make it a proper marriage between us?" As she gasped, he reached down to squeeze her hand. "That's trapping you into something you may not be ready for in my mind, Lum. I can't do that to you. Never to you."
Lum's eyes teared. "Darling no baka . . .!"
She slumped into his embrace as she started to cry. He held her close as his own eyes teared, staying silent and still as she wept for joy . . .
Outside the closed door of Lum's bedroom, a misty-eyed Ten could only smile.
"Guess the Scary People aren't so scary . . . "
And with that, he headed off to his own guest bedroom to sleep . . .
Somewhere near Onishuto on Uru, ten years ago . . .
A wailing cry echoed through the Terrible Swamps.
It was the sound of a child who had her innocence taken away totally.
Someone who – at the young age of six – just learned what sort of real monsters there were in the vast Universe beyond her own world.
Someone who would never have a normal life again.
A girl who had been crippled for something she simply didn't understand.
A girl . . .
"Hey! Ayumu-chan! Can you see who's crying?"
As the shuddering Lum perked on hearing that strangely-accented voice, she then blinked on hearing a girl call back in a voice that sounded almost Urusian. "Nah! I can't see her, Ataru-chan! Hey!" she then called out. "Who's crying? Are you okay?"
Lum sniffed, and then she looked over . . .
. . . as a girl her age that looked almost Fukunokami – save for normal ears one would find on an Ellsian or a Noukiite – walked out from behind a big tree. As she looked around, she then stopped on seeing the wet-cheeked Oni warlord's child seated on the ground near another big tree, dressed in her normal tiger-striped pinafore dress. On seeing here, the newcomer then walked over to stand close to her. "Hey! You see a girl who's been crying really bad?" she then asked, and then she blinked on noting the fresh tears welling in Lum's green eyes. "Hey! How come you're crying?"
"I think she's the girl we sensed all the way back from the cabin, Ayumu-chan."
Lum turned . . . and then blinked on seeing a boy the same age as the girl who just approached her. He was also Fukunokami-like – with Noukiite-type ears – with brown hair and brown eyes on a rather plain face. Noting that the girl that had just come up to her also had brown hair and eyes, Lum then sniffed. "Are you siblings?"
"Well, we could be," the girl answered. "But Ataru-chan had to leave home because his parents were total dorks. My parents are back on Earth. So why're you crying?"
Lum blinked – thought a small part of her was surprised to realise these two children were Terrans; far as she knew, the nations of Earth couldn't send people beyond the orbit of the Moon in manned ships – and then she began to weep as she pointed at her neck. The newcomers looked . . . and then they gaped on seeing the black collar around her neck with the small power unit there, an ominous red light flashing right under the Oni's chin. "A power-dampener? Who the heck put that on you?" the boy then asked as he reached over to jab his index finger into the metal of the collar.
Lum then gasped as the collar broke into two pieces and fell off to the ground beside her. She then looked to both sides of her to see the shattered sections of the collar that had just wrecked her life on the ground. Remembering what she had learned in galactic kindergarten concerning the use of power-dampeners on an Oni child, Lum then blinked as fresh tears appeared in her eyes, and then she started to cry again.
The newcomers blinked, and then the girl peered intently for a moment as her eyes glowed slightly. After a minute, she then nodded. "Oh, I get it!" As the boy looked at her, she said, "Some real meanie put a power-dampener on Lum-chan here to take her powers away," she said in a voice that spoke of a strange level of maturity that made Lum stop as she stared in confusion at her. "'Cause her powers haven't had the chance to mature properly, she can't fly and can't hit people with electricity."
The boy hummed. "Taking a Gift away? Only Oblivion has the right to do that!" He then stared at Lum. "Hey, Lum-chan! Did some guy dressed in a black uniform like mine and having a black symbol like Ayumu-chan's got on her . . . " He then stopped. "Hey, wait a minute! Oblivion wouldn't use a power-dampener! He IS a power-dampener!"
"What do we do?" the girl asked.
"Can you zap her with an Infinite Wave?"
The girl hummed, and then she reached over to tap Lum's arm. The Oni gasped as SOMETHING powerful surged through her body from that contact, making her body then spark as just-suppressed bio-electrical powers flared back to full strength and she was able to leap into the air and float there. "I can fly!" she yelped as she started to zip around the tree as fast as a six year-old girl from Uru could go.
The two newcomers nodded in delight . . .
Lum then gasped as her eyes snapped open.
Finding herself in the darkened space of her ship's bedroom – the only light visible to her being the morning sun creeping through a porthole and the small lamp on a nearby nightstand overlooking the small shrine she had to the Maidens of Aruka, Uru's greatest heroes – she then blinked before her body started to sense anew the warm presence now sharing her bed. Turning to gaze on the sleeping face of the man she loved with all her heart and soul, Lum smiled as she felt her heart flutter on noting how innocent Ataru looked there. She then took a deep breath as she closed her own eyes as she moved to lean her head against his, allowing fatigue to take her anew.
But sleep wouldn't come now, not after THAT dream . . .
No.
It was a memory she had long forgot.
The memory of the worst day of her life.
The day some creepy old man slapped a power-dampener on her.
Had not Ataru and his friend showed up from That Place right afterward, Lum would have been crippled – in Oni eyes – for the rest of her life.
If people who couldn't walk on Earth had it bad . . .
. . . people who couldn't FLY on URU had it much worse.
But Moroboshi Ataru and Kasuga Ayumu – whom Lum realised was the current Infinity – had dealt with that. One zap of the Infinite Wave – supposedly said to be an application of the primal force that unleashed the Big Bang over thirteen billion years ago – and Lum had her powers back at the same strength she had before that creepy old guy tried to take them away. Of course, even if Lum had reacted as people normally did on realising both her rescuers were two of THEM, she couldn't really be scared of two KIDS her age . . . especially when those selfsame kids had made sure her life following that day would be as normal as possible for the daughter of a senior Oni warlord on Uru.
Why didn't I remember meeting Darling all those years ago . . .?
"Lot of things have happened in your life since that time, Lum."
She blinked, and then looked over to see Ataru gazing knowingly at her. Lum blinked before nodding. "Yeah . . . " She then hummed. "I wonder who he was . . . "
"Most likely, Ganzo dai-Louc," he noted as he moved to sit up in the bed, helping her sit up beside him. "After all, if I recall local galactic events properly, you saved Ōgi from the Terrible Swamps – not too far from where Ayumu-chan and I found you – about a half-year before we met. The Great Awakening for the 'church' named after you was underway at that time. And since he was fighting for something that he felt was more important than his own life, he was prepared to do anything to hurt his people as badly as possible. De-railing a Great Awakening would do just that."
She gazed at him. "Have you ever met him?"
"Four months ago," he answered. "Turns out a hundred years ago – just after he graduated from university – Ganzo and a bunch of his friends found a buried bioroid factory unit on Phentax Twelve. It was left there by the Sagussans – the race that was on the planet before the people you call the 'Maidens of the Eternal Voyager' went to live there – as part of some idiot social experiment." As Lum gaped, he added, "The thing could only create female bioroids – as organic as you or me – so the Niphentaxians decided to make use of them as chattel slaves, mostly in the love doll role." As a horrified gasp escaped Lum, Ataru then smirked. "Pity that in the years since that discovery, the Avalonians – that's what the bioroids call themselves as a race – were allowed to become the slave artisans of the whole Union of Phentax Two. When we took them all away four months ago after stealing their factory . . . "
Lum gaped. "You totally crippled their whole economy!"
"Right," he drawled. "Right now, they're no doubt moving from the Den'sha system – an old Sagussan starship factory satellite and some old ships had been abandoned there – to claim thirty star systems to the galactic west of Earth and five on the east side. There are over two billion Avalonians alive now, Lum. They need places to live."
The Oni blinked, and then she gave him a knowing look. "Pretty girls?"
A wink. "Didn't meet an ugly one when I helped break them free!"
She then laughed . . . and then gasped as a cry of fright echoed from the pilotage. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! LUM-CHAN! ATARU! HELP! SOMEONE'S GOT ME!"
"Ten-chan!" Lum screamed as she soared out of bed and raced out of the bedroom . . .
. . . only to stop on seeing a pretty Western girl with wavy dark brown hair reaching past her shoulders seated at the pilotage chair, her arms holding a struggling Ten in her lap. She had beautiful blue eyes on a finely sculptured face, said eyes misty as she gazed down at the squirming Oni child in her lap. On noticing her jumpsuit – a halter-top capped with a turtleneck collar, skin-tight pants flowing into buccaneer boots, the suit itself a dark grey shade with black handcuffs on her breasts, black belt around her waist and black boots on her feet – Ataru quickly realised she was the current incarnation of the Queen of Traps, Manacle. But for the life of him . . .
"I was the one who got her Gifted, Ataru," a voice tinged with guilt then declared.
Lum gazed at the doorway to the kitchenette, where a tomboyish girl had just stepped out, carrying a tray of snacks in one hand and a tray with steaming cups of liquid in the other. On seeing her, Ataru then relaxed on recognising one of the girls he had helped to get a Gift: Molly Hecht from Sweet Valley, who these days was the current incarnation of the Mistress of Pain and Pleasure, the Dominatrix. Dressed in her normal silver-trimmed black leather racing pants with a black leather vest chained down with silver chains over her bra-less cleavage and silver buccaneer boots, the beautiful girl with the centre-parted silver-blonde hair and green eyes looked ready to break down and weep now that she was standing in the presence of the man who had changed her life so much two years before. On noting that, Ataru then sighed as his own senses picked up what was emanating from Molly's soul, and then he walked over to gently take the trays from the other girl's hand, holding them out so Lum could take hold of them.
"You FORCED a GIFT on her?" he then demanded, pointing at the current Manacle.
Molly sniffed as her eyes teared. "She nearly died on me, Ataru!"
Lum gasped, though she had been able to put the trays down before she dropped them. Ataru gazed once more on the stranger, and then he sighed. "What happened?"
"Party at my place three months ago," Molly confessed. "I still hang out with people like Justin Belson and that crowd, Ataru. I won't apologise for that even if some of them are total lost causes." A sigh. "This is Regina Morrow." She waved to the current incarnation of the Queen of Traps. "She and her brother moved into the Valley about two months before you nearly got married to that Elle bitch."
"Molly, don't swear."
Molly jerked on hearing Regina's calm, quiet voice, and then she sighed. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Regina," Ataru said as he gracefully bowed to her, which made her look at him before she nodded her head in return. "The good young fellow in your arms at this time is Redet Jariten; he prefers to be called 'Ten.' And this vision of loveliness whose ship we're now standing on is Ten's cousin and the second girl listed in my Book of Pretty Girls, Redet Lum." As Lum tried not to turn as red as a cherry at that blatant compliment he just gave her, Ataru then said, "Lum, Jariten, you've just been introduced to a pretty girl of a town FULL of pretty girls named Sweet Valley; it's not too far from Los Angeles. And this one here is Molly Hecht; I saved her two years ago from becoming permanently addicted to crack cocaine." He waved to the Mistress of Pain and Pleasure in emphasis, who meekly nodded in turn.
"Ataru, please don't punish her," Regina then pleaded. "Molly's punishing herself bad enough. It was a bad judgement call on my part that got me into a party at her place with drugs and booze quite openly available at the time. I didn't react well to the cocaine when people urged me to take it and I was pretty intoxicated at the time. Molly had doped herself up on those synthetic drugs that made her seem normal to other people, so she wasn't in control of herself when she took me to the Cave of the Future."
"She was dating Bruce Patman at the time," Molly added. "He then started two-timing her with Amy Sutton. She and Justin came together on the rebound and I . . . "
She lowered her head in shame. Ataru took a deep breath. "Molly, we may be adopted members of a society that has few rules to govern it, but you crossed the one line we NEVER cross!" he said as he glared at her. "That would be something Destructo would do!" As Molly and Regina both gasped on hearing that name, he then stopped before he breathed out as he moved to draw the crying girl into his arms, kissing her forehead tenderly. "Sorry about that," he said as Molly gazed up at him. "We had something of a bad incident here yesterday afternoon. A counterpart of mine from another dimension – one who was turned into a Battle Doll by Destructo – came here."
Silence.
"Darling . . .!" Lum gasped. "Was that the girl who attacked me?"
"Yeah," he said as he stared at her. "She comes from six months ahead of us time-wise. In her universe – when she was still a man, having NEVER had any contact with Yiziba before – that Ataru found himself feeling backed into a corner thanks to a rather bad break-up between him and his Lum. A Tag Race resulted from that. Put simply, on the night of the fifth day of the race, the one member of MY adopted race we ALL fear emerging from the Crystal came to him with an offer. And because the Benten of that universe overreacted and nearly killed that Ataru, Destructo ensured he would become a Battle Doll with Infinity's help . . . and that ultimately resulted in the sequel to the Mother of All Fight Scenes. For the Urusians AND the Niphentaxians."
Lum and Ten both gulped on hearing that, and then the latter blinked. "Um, Ataru?"
"Yeah?"
"What's a Battle Doll?"
"You know Shogai Dakejinzō?"
A nod. "Yeah!"
"Think of someone like her with Rampage's powers. You'll get the idea then."
Ten gulped again as Lum nearly sank to her knees . . .
To be continued . . .
WRITER'S NOTES:
1) The Niphentaxians, a race I created for The Senior Year, are a race of mimics similar to the Iotians in the classic Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action." Their first appearance was in the TSY story "What Price for Love?" and I've used them as antagonists in various works. They're humanoid save for tapered ears. Unlike the Iotians, the Niphentaxians tend to slant their adopting of other people's cultures, technology and social customs with a very strong religious slant, hence things like the Church of Lum. This all came about because of a young Lum rescuing the future founder of the Church and later president of Phentax Two, Ōgi, from being nearly scared to death by one of the monsters living in the Terrible Swamps close to Lum's family home outside the capital city of Uru, Onishuto.
2) The story of the Old Lady of the Oak Forest, Rū and his governess Laila was depicted in the third Yatsura movie, Remember My Love. Of course, the events of this movie also played a rather large factor into events in "What Price for Love?" and the fate of the Niphentaxian colony on Phentax Twelve, where the bioroid factory (as Ataru reveals to Lum above) which creates the Avalonians was located before its liberation.
3) Lumukyō is the capital city of Phentax Two. Before the rise of the Church of Lum, it was known as "New Hollywood." The Great Lum Church – an exact replica of Tomobiki High School – is located in the very centre of town.
4) In The Senior Year, I had Oyuki's race actually inhabit Neptune's largest moon, Triton, in lieu of inhabiting Neptune itself. This was because of another race of antagonists that I created for the series, the Seifukusu (a race of blue-skinned humanoids). Due to Triton's constant absorption of various gasses from Neptune and conversion of them into lots of snow, the Central Warp Chamber (a gift from the modern Sagussans) was presented to Oyuki's people a thousand years ago. To threaten to take the Warp Chamber away from the Neptunians would be a horrible thing to do indeed.
5) The Ipraedies are the other major antagonist race in The Senior Year. My friend and the co-creator of the series, Mike Smith, created them.
6) Translation: Shin-shishihōkōdan – Perfect Lion's Roar Shot.
7) The Kantō Magical Association was introduced in Mahō Sensei Negima. It is the government body over magicals living in that part of Japan. The proper name of the organisation, as I see it, is "His Imperial Majesty's Magical Commandery of Kantō."
8) The Sweet Valley High books first came out in 1983 and ceased publication twenty years later after 152 books in the main series. Created by Francine Pascal and written by a ghost team operating under the name "Kate William," it was the first of a wave of novels specifically targeting young audiences since the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels were created by Edward Stratemeyer (written under the names "Franklin W. Dixon" and "Carolyn Keene") in the 1920s and 1930s. Having gone to a military all-boy's private school from 1980-84 (Grades 9-12) and having NEVER experienced normal high school life, I was a convert to the series, though I stopped collecting it some years later. The whole of SVH and its companion series, for those unaware of it, centres on two southern California sixteen year-old twins, Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, though a massive cast of characters was introduced over the years. Two of them were Regina Morrow (first introduced in book #14, Deceptions) and Molly Hecht (first introduced in book #39, On The Edge, where Regina herself died). The incident Molly reflects on to Ataru above is actually an altered version of the events depicted in On The Edge.
9) Ganzo dai-Louc is my take-off on John Brown, the radical American abolitionist from the 1850s that was one of the main instigators of the Civil War. He is first introduced here at the website in Phoenix From the Ashes.
10) Shogai Dakejinzō is the cat-like synthezoid bounty hunter adopted by the future president of Fukunokami that I created as an equivalent to Nassur (created by Mike Smith) for The Senior Year. She first appeared in the story "Arrive Reiko-chan."
The Book of Pretty Girls, Entry 532:
RAMPAGE
The Charging Belle of the Heavens
Generation: 27th
Age at Gifting: 11 years, 1 month
Real Name: Jessica Kathryn WAKEFIELD
Relatives: Edward Philip "Ned" WAKEFIELD (father), Alice Elaine WAKEFIELD (née LARSON) (mother), Steven Kent WAKEFIELD (older brother), Elizabeth Francine WAKEFIELD (elder twin sister; the Academician, listed in The Book of Pretty Girls, Entry 531)
Affiliation: Self, self's family, the Boosters of Sweet Valley, Coyote (see Entry 0)
Base of Operations: Town and Municipality of Sweet Valley, Santa Barbara County, State of California, United States of America
Alignment: Face/Neutral
Identity: On Yiziba, publicly known; on Earth, known resident of Sweet Valley but her being a Yizibajohei is a top secret to the general public.
Race/Culture of Birth: Terran/American
Place of Birth: Town and Municipality of Sweet Valley, Santa Barbara County, State of California, United States of America
Gender: Female
Height: 168 cm (5' 6")
Weight: 47.5 kg (105 lb)
Eyes: Blue-green
Hair: Blonde
Gifts:
Metahuman Strength, Toughness and Physical Invulnerability: Rampage is one of the top FISS-type metas of Yiziba. In Earth gravity, she can dead-lift ten thousand tonnes with one arm without any risk to the integrity of her body. Because of such power, she can resist anything up to the direct on-skin impact of either thermonuclear or anti-matter weapons up to the explosive power of 4.2 exajoules of energy (equivalent to one gigatonne of TNT exploding all at once). She has the ability to survive in all forms of atmosphere (including airless space) for hours without the need to replenish her body with oxygen. As an extension of same, she cannot be poisoned by any normal means and can ingest most forms of solids or liquids save for anything based on Grade Three mesonium ("ebony meson"). Unlike some other FISS-type metas on Yiziba, Rampage has no defence against magical or psionic attacks beyond sheer willpower alone.
Flight: Rampage has the ability to fly at hypersonic speeds in atmosphere, just above sonic speeds while in a liquid medium like water and a quarter of the speed of light in space. She has no ability to warp herself between solar systems without aide.
Enhanced Physical Senses: Rampage's physical senses are quite acute as an extension of her physical abilities. She can see with accuracy out to about ten kilometres from her person in atmosphere. She can hear even minute sounds from dozens of metres away. She can smell even faint traces of odour up to several hours since the scent was first created. Her taste buds are quite sensitive to even minute changes of flavour. And her skin is quite sensitive to the touch of even minute animals such as fleas. Thanks to the memories of her past-selves, Rampage can discipline herself to negate the input of such sensations upon her mind via a form of self-meditation.
Light Energy Photosynthesis: Rampage's whole body is a light energy collector which fuels her power. As long as she is exposed to any sort of light, even artificial sources such as a flashlight, Rampage's body can convert the energy to enhance her strength. Since she has never entered a totally-dark situation since her Gifting, Rampage has never seen any significant loss of personal power.
Personality:
About the Wakefield twins, this has often been said: Elizabeth was born four minutes before Jessica . . . but in some sense of the terms, Elizabeth is at least FOUR YEARS older emotionally! And if shows in the way they behave and how they view life.
In effect, the current Rampage is a female equivalent to Coyote: A party girl from California who lives life for the moment and doesn't care about long-term things. She is quite infamously disorganised to a degree that makes her sister pull her hair out every time things go out of control, switches interests and passions with the speed one might flip pages in a book, falls in and out of love with boys of her peer group with disturbing regularity and bends to the will of the crowd without stopping to pause and think about what her actions might do to other people. And while there have been times when Jessica has hurt other people (for example, she helped blackball schoolmate Robin Wilson from joining the Sweet Valley chapter of the Pi Beta Alpha sorority due to the latter's obesity, which drove the latter into nearly starving herself to trim down; fortunately for Robin, Coyote would later come along and help her become the current Gulfstream, see Entry 1003), she does learn from her mistakes and does move to give restitution to those she has erroneously wronged.
Usually, such normally happens when Rampage's sister shows her the truth of things.
While as the Charging Belle of the Heavens, Rampage has often hovered over the line between face and heel – as shown in her line-name – this current incarnation has done her best to do proper "superheroine" things . . . and this is from a woman who would consider it beyond embarrassing to be caught reading North American superhero comics! One of her signature moves is her "patented 'Hulk manoeuvre'" that allows her to create a concentrated sonic boom by clapping her hands at supersonic speeds, shattering anything fragile within close range of her and knocking anyone not expecting this coming right off their feet if not several metres back from her. She used this once shortly after her Gifting to literally blow down a tsunami that was racing for the coast of Indonesia that – if such ever hit – would have killed thousands. Of course, while her actions remain quite unknown to people on Earth today, Rampage got her first-ever kiss with a boy from Coyote for "doing the right thing" and saving people who didn't deserve to be hurt. Because of that, Rampage sees herself as a true face in this incarnation.
Rampage is quite protective of her family and friends. Threaten them – especially the Academician! – and the one so stupid to do something like that is on his/her way to the hurt locker once she gets her hands on them. She was quite incensed over what happened to Coyote thanks to the Men In Black; hadn't the Academician called her off, she would have flown to the MIBs' headquarters in New York City and ripped the place right out to dump them all into the mid-Atlantic for their hurting her friend like that. She – while respecting "traditional American values" like family and marriage; Jessica is quite liberal in outlook as she IS a Californian whose parents grew up during the Age of Aquarius – understands that Coyote has NOT had any sort of normal childhood since his own Gifting, so she has a special hatred for those in Tomobiki who have abused Moroboshi Ataru in the past. Fortunately for Coyote's estranged parents and former girlfriend Miyake Shinobu, it has been Ataru's own intervention on times that has kept Jessica from turning heel and permanently hurting them.
Because of the 15th Rampage's coming together with the Oni-Urusian noblewoman Redet Danu (who later became the 18th Tempest), Jessica holds a very strong fascination for Coyote's would-be wife Redet Lum (see Entry 2). While she does understand Lum's desire to spend the rest of her life with Moroboshi Ataru as her life-mate, there is a hint of the powerful love that her past-self once felt for Lum's own ancestor . . . which often ends up haunting Jessica's sleep time with very naughty dreams about having wonderful pillow scenes with both a Gifted Lum – whom Jessica hopes will become the new Tempest – and Coyote at the very same time. Due to that, Rampage was more than happy to help out in the destruction of Phentax Twelve and the liberation of the Avalonians; she learned from Soul Searcher (see Entry 337) that Lum utterly despises her "most faithful" and saw the destruction of one of their colony worlds as a way to present a better image of herself to Lum on the day they would meet; it was the 15th Rampage who had instigated the infamous "Mother of All Fight Scenes" on the old Urusian Empire 250 years ago and that incarnation of the Charging Beau of the Heavens is often the face of true terror in the eyes of many natives of that world even to this very day.
In this incarnation, Rampage is a member of the collective group of metas living in Sweet Valley; as an unofficial team, they call themselves the "Boosters of Sweet Valley" in honour of the elementary school cheerleading team that Jessica and many of her friends were a part of at the time of their mass Gifting thanks to Coyote six years ago. Even though she was never part of the original Boosters, Rampage's twin sister is seen as the leader of the group and the unofficial leader of all Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei living today in North America. Rampage herself is seen as the second-in-command of the Boosters.