Discord's Bet (Third Labor)
chapter five: Full House, Marionettes Wild
DISCLAIMER: many series crossed over or fusioned. self insert.
---Program 2---
--Blueberry--
-----START-----
The marionette awoke to a kiss that was hesitant and tender. Her virgin circuit kickstarted with glee.
Then the kisser collapsed, coughing weakly.
"I'm injured, can you get us out of here?"
Blueberry looked towards the source. Another marionette, much as herself. Her battle computer indicated that this other had a high potential combat rating, however she was currently damaged in one knee and one shoulder. Blueberry set her Master down and scanned the surroundings. "Affirmative. There is a secret passageway *here*."
Apple blinked as the new unit opened a section of wall.
"First priority. Getting him to clear air. Second priority treat for smoke inhalation." Blueberry lifted the weakened fixit man. "Are you mobile?"
"Mobility reduced but effective." Apple glanced at the other units. "What of these?"
"Will return and connect power." Blueberry vanished into the opening, returning without Mamoru.
"Oh," said Apple, limping through the opening.
------
Another timeline:
The Dewclaw approached the planet, roaring past a thin asteroid belt in a manner that would have given Ami cause for complaint. (You can't have engines roaring in space, you can't do high speed aerobatics manuevers in a vaccuum, you can't zip in and out of an asteroid field, and many other things that Ami would have found objectionable.)
Meria guided the ship past the multiton moonlets without a hitch. Which impressed the heck out of Moom and Mareya.
"Dantooine, eh?" Mareya tried to look like she knew what she was doing. "Rebel base of some kind?"
"No," Vena answered. "It started out with a small native population, who got about to Bronze Age equivelants until the breakup of their moon and a plague wiped them out. The Rebels found a vanished civilization and used the buildings for their own base. Then they cleared out, following their 'constantly on the move' policy, a few years prior to the Empire arriving and setting up camp in the same area. The Empire made it a resupply base for their Death Star, and when that went up, they abandoned this place 'temporarily' - it's been six months since the last soldiers left to return home during the riots."
Mareya made a warding gesture. "How did you know that? The Force?"
Vena shook her head. "Nah, I read the astrogater entry on the way here and just finished accessing the base's computers. Place is emptier than a stormtrooper's credit account after a two week furlough. Bad news: they took a LOT of stuff with them when they bugged out. Good news: that still leaves a lot of stuff."
Ed nodded, visions of TIE fighters and other goodies dancing in his head.
Kiyone, current captain of the Dewclaw, settled back into her chair. "Take us down, Meria-san!"
--------
An SMJ Timeline:
The others stood nearby, their eyes the usual unfocused look of marionettes.
"Current situation requires a better safety margin than presently obtained. Additional reinforcements required." Blueberry lifted the weakened Mamoru, and brought his lips up to one of them.
---Program 3---
----Grape----
-----START-----
Grape's violet eyes blinked in confusion. "What?!"
Apple glanced at the other two. "What about them? Apple doesn't recognize them at all"
Blueberry considered briefly. "Apparently common Aya and Kotono models."
"Sempai said something about having some experimental virgin circuits," said Apple.
Mamoru recovered enough to look around at his rescuers. "Request designations."
"Blueberry," said the one in a blue kimono, "Analysis and data retrieval. Sabre Marionette Special."
"Grape," indicated the younger-looking one. "Combat unit. Specialty: naginata. Sabre Marionette Special."
"Identification: Ginseng," came an unfamiliar voice, as another marionette dropped down out of a tree. "Statement: You are late, Mamoru Tengoku. This unit is here to escort you to Doctor Lorelei."
"There they is! I sees 'em. I sees 'em."
Ginseng looked briefly towards the approaching trio, activated a beam-saber and moved to a guard position. "Statement: attempting to proceed will result in immediate death for criminal elements. Statement: I have confirmation of permission to kill from the Palace."
Hammer hesitated, seeing his target so close. "You're bluffing."
Ginseng's expression didn't alter in the slightest. "Declaration: this unit never bluffs."
"Yeah, right!" Hammer motioned his two henchmen forward.
*SHUMMMM! VISSSHHH! THUD THUD.*
Hammer stared. "Uhm, Chisel?"
Drill looked at the two halves of Chisel. "Y'know, Hammer, maybe it ain't bluffing."
Hammer pursed his lips. "Maybe. We'll be back!"
Ginseng considered the possibility likely, but assigned a low probability that they would be more successful. "Reminder: Tengoku, Castle. Query: Do you require assistance?"
"That might be good," agreed Mamoru, still not feeling too well.
"That might be necessary," added Apple.
---------
Goddess Relief Office:
"Lock on!" Amaterasu said. "Just as suspected, he reincarnated in that Sabre Marionette timeline."
"Oh, dear," said Belle. "Several of those androids are in the shape of various fiancees, aren't they?"
"Looks like the seals on his memory from that Silver Millenium incarnation are coming undone," Celeste's voice was wry. She'd never approved of this "blocked memory" stuff anyway. "Oh well. Stuff happens."
"Looks like Makoto's already awakening, though her native incarnation is dominant." Amaterasu frowned. "Where'd Akane go? She didn't go THERE did she?"
"Looks like she merged with Scarlet over in that timeline the Pheonix Mage has been playing around in." Belle began bringing up displays. "Ami and Minako joined Makoto and Hotaru in merging with their native selves. He's currently met up with Makoto, Hotaru, and Ami."
Amaterasu checked a few displays. "Set up a Recall on all of them. As soon as he reunites with Minako, activate."
Celeste urked at that. "What?! What about the translation factor? If we bring them back without regaining memories or full function..."
"Doesn't matter, there are two Greys in that timeline." Amaterasu clicked a display. "Even though one is a soulless automaton, it's setting up a bug-port."
Celeste groaned. "We've got a transtemporal dislocation through an SM access. Enters the Third Labor line in its history. Tracking."
--------
Eyecatch #11:
Grey in a framed picture. With a click, it flips over revealing a Triax Manhunter cyborg (though with the missile tubes removed). Click/flip: the sexangel. Click/flip: Mamoru Tengoku. Click/flip: a young man dressed sort of like Ranma Saotome. Click/flip: Ranko. Click/flip: the marionette Ginseng. click/flip: a silver dragon who seems to be fleeing from Queen Serenity.
Eyecatch #12:
Kasumi Tendo in a framed picture. With a click, it flips over revealing Kasumi as Sailor Angel (Featherbrite's Tale). Click/flip: Kasumi, heir to the Tendo style of naginata use. Click/flip: nurse Kasumi. Click/flip: djinni Kasumi. Click/flip: three nearly identical Kasumis examining each other...
-----------
Third Labor timeline:
April, 211 AD:
A tiny little area in a flyspeck corner of the Unified Chinese Empire. One where will-o-wisps formed in the late afternoon dimness and gathered into a single mass in a canyon near a well tramped trail.
One young warmaiden watched silently, her hand over the wound in her side. Whatever the spirits did here could be as nothing compared to the battles that had occurred on the plains below that morning. And now she, Mei Yan, was to die of a spear wound without reporting to her village that the Armies of Zhong Dhou now approached!
The mass of white twisting cloud abruptly opened and formed a tunnel.
Whatever Mei Yan had expected, this was not it.
"Diamond Beach at last! Yeeeehhaaaaa! Last one in the water is a..." The Pheonix Mage lowered his surfboard, looking around and not seeing the injured maiden. "Aw nuts. I *knew* I should'a taken a left turn at Albuquerque!"
A male wielding such powers meant that he *had* to be of the forces of Evil now sweeping towards the last pocket of resistance. Mei Yan tried to pick herself up. Maybe she could get one last spearthrow before she met her ancestors!
--------
Jared took out a large object that seemed to twist and turn in all of the wrong dimensions so that it warped the eye to look at it. "Let me take a look at this map. You'd think after all this time someone would have at least come up with a way to make these easy to read..." He looked up in the most curious way.
"Jay-chan?" Asked a small horde of females in bikinis wielding picnic baskets and beach umbrellas.
"No, wait. I'm trying to identify the sensation... Aha! That was it. I was just struck with a spear in the back of the head. I should have tested this new defensive spell before putting it into use, it feels so funny. But that archangel *did* recommend it so highly." He turned around to look at the mountainside, lifting a globe of fire in his off hand.
Mei Yan had just watched as her spear had converted into a harmless spray of light as it struck the back of the man's scalp, little wisps and sparks spraying about like streamers as the good wood and steel weapon ceased to be. Rather than close her eyes and wait for death, the maiden released a blood soaked hand from her side and tried scrabbling for a rock to throw at the infernal thing.
Thus it was that she was rather surprised to find herself suddenly whisked off of her feet, placed upon a soft surface of pristine silk sheets, and being fussed over by a core of about fifteen women now wearing white robes and masks over the lower parts of their faces.
"Diagnosis?" The male asked, with his back to the party, scanning the hillsides for danger.
One of the women with short blue hair and kind eyes had looked over Mei Yan's wound and reported while another with yellow hair in an odd, dumpling style with twin ponytails held her hands over the gash and applied healing energy. "She's taken a deep spear wound, but she'll be
alright. It's only punctured one lung and a few ribs, nothing we can't take care of in a sec. But there are some infernal traces."
"Taken care of already." Reported a woman with long, green hair.
"Infernal?" The man said with evident glee in his voice. "Oh goody! Target time! Do you know how many?"
"Light entertainment or a full evening's workout, you mean?"
"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. I haven't killed anything evil in... why, it seems like minutes!"
Several of the women cooed appreciatively.
"Aw, Jay-chan, it couldn't have been *that* long, could it?" One of the prettier ones said, taking him comfortingly by the shoulders.
Mei Yan's head was spinning.
"You can't know what it's like." The man became all theatrical, though Mei Yan sensed somehow that he was joking, and that the tears weren't real. Certainly the reaction of the women was one of humor. "Why, for a moment there I was almost afraid of not being attacked by hordes of tentacled monstrosities yearning to slurp our brains out. To never again face down an endless stream of gibbering spirits or ravening ghouls! I don't know what I would have done with myself."
Mei Yan would have slipped away but their words were sparking such confusion she couldn't see straight to leave the bed they'd placed her on.
The pretty ladies all shook their heads in commiseration, tinged with laughter. The one holding him made concerned sounds. "Oh, don't you worry. We'll get something up here right away for you to defeat in glorious single combat, then we'll go off to the beach."
The warrior maiden was suddenly the object of everyone's attention.
"Excuse me." One of the blondes asked. "Is there a place one can fight evil around here?"
------------
An SMJ Timeline:
The reactions of the groups meeting each other were intriguing to both Ginseng and Doctor Lorelei. The Shogun Ieyasu was also interested, but had been rather nervous about Lime being present and chosen not to attend. At least until some way to return him to a more normal size had been found.
Cherry was fairly friendly and becoming fast friends with Apple. Bloodberry viewed the whole group suspiciously. Lime kept trying to play with the others.
Apple was chatting amiably with Cherry. Blueberry was examining the various machines. Grape was the only one interested in playing with Lime, a game of cat's cradle from the look of it.
Otaru was telling Mamoru about some of the problems he'd had with his marionettes as they developed. Mamoru was taking notes.
The two normal marionettes were being fitted with Mamoru's "Ishi Kairo" by Gennai, even though it had been amply proven that it had nothing to do with Apple's development.
"Observation: those involved with the assault did not appear of sufficient mental acuity to have developed long range motivations or plans." Ginseng swept her hair back with one hand, seeming to consider her fellow marionettes for a moment.
"Huh?!" Lime exclaimed, looking up from her game of cat's cradle with Grape. Grape was currently tangled up in a web. Hers or Lime's was unclear.
Gennai snorted and continued work. "Ginseng means that the ones who attacked Mamoru's group weren't intelligent enough to be operating on their own. They were stooges or flunkies, most likely. From the sound of it, they're even worse than the 'Japonesse Hell Crew'."
"That bad?!" Cherry was startled. Worse than those wannabe-bad guys who had adopted her as their boss? Was that even possible?
------------
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch... err, Nichieju 211 AD:
"Is your countryside infested with demonic hordes? Have you any bloodthirsty neighbors making pacts with unclean forces? Are there gates from hell appearing at local garden parties? Well then, call the professionals!"
Mei Yan STARED at the young man as he stood in the square of their village with a large sign proclaiming him to be a Champion of Light for hire.
"Massed incursions of darkness? No problem. We are on call 24 hours a day to serve all of your infernal elimination needs. Budget rates for teeming throngs of mutants. Demons exterminated while you wait. Supernatural enemies of all types are a specialty. Ask now for our low monthly rate."
One of the elders manifested enough to courage to ask him. "What do you charge, young man?"
He acted supremely startled, or at least amused. "Money? Why, I give it to *YOU*, of course! How else could I obtain the honor of defeating a few hundred atrocities on what are rightfully your hunting grounds? No, I insist. Would two chests of gold be enough? How about I throw in a basket of polished jewels? Okay, you drive a hard bargain. How about three?"
It was then, when just about the entire village was about to give him up for a lunatic, when one of the young ladies held forth a hand and a glorious panorama opened up before their eyes, granting them a vision of this youth in combat moving at a speed their best warriors could only
approximate by being flung from catapults (young Lo Yang had tried that once and never expected to live it down even if he had a city named after him), slaughtering fiends and infernal creatures with single blows too swift for most eyes to follow.
It was very impressive, that they should treat the magic to do it so casually, even should everything it showed them prove a fraud.
Mei Yan wouldn't have taken him to the village but had honestly nothing to do with it. They'd either read her mind or already knew, and both options were as disturbing. But then, they didn't seem *dangerous*, only insane. Insane, that is, unless they were actually *capable* of
doing those things!
In which case they were a direct gift from the Gods. Remembering back to a certain spear transforming into light, the warrior wasn't sure what she believed.
---------
Another Timeline altogether:
Genma did what Genma did well. He hid. He lived off theft and the land and by any methods he could. Transformed into a panda, he could do that even easier in some areas. But he remained a man, and so silently checked in on his family and Soun's after ten years had passed on his timeline. And so, in the fall of 2002, a man who had been portly many lean years ago snuck about Tokyo and its environs.
Nodoka had married Soun. Well, at least the two families had been united at last, no thanks to that weak and ungrateful son of his. They had apparently had another child and were expecting another.
Both Kasumi and Nabiki were living elsewhere from what Genma had been able to overhear. Nabiki had gone to an American business college and was apparently now living in that country. Kasumi had relocated to Juuban and was managing a shrine after Rei's grandfather had passed on.
Akane had broken up with her high school sweetheart, gone through a series of long and tawdry affairs, then decided none of those were for her. She'd had a boob job and was now an actress in daytime soap operas.
As for the remainder of his old family: Makoto and Ukyo. The two had opened a small restaurant. Ukyo handled the meals- okonomiyaki her specialty as always. Cakes and pies for dessert, prepared by Makoto. It was struggling with neighborhood competition, but otherwise doing well. Often the sound of music and laughter could be heard from within.
The old home had fallen into disrepair, including the dojo where he had spent so much time training Ranma and his fiancees. As it was an ancestral home, it was not for sale, and the outer wall concealed much of the problem. Still, it brought a sad glint to Genma's eyes as he moved like a wraith through the rooms. Here was where Ranma had played with fingerpaints and signed a contract. Here was where Nodoka had fixed her sliced daikon and smiled at her adopted children. Here were the marks on the floor where Akane the lion had been dragged protesting towards the furo. Here the patch he'd made when Ukyo and Rei had come to blows over who would scrub Ranma's back...
Of Rei Hino or Akane Saotome, Genma's best efforts had produced no trace. Akane had been the vibrantly alive extension of the Art, the Heir he'd wanted Ranma to be. Rei had been the passionate one, energetic and emotional. Now both were gone. Everyone had given them up for dead, though in Rei's case some supernatural entity was thought responsible.
Genma wiped a tear as he took one last look around the house he'd repaired so often, seeing the useless memories and broken dreams. It must have been dust. Neither men nor pandas cried.
---------
"So, how many veritech squadrons do you think we'll need?"
"NO!" An image wavered to life over the field. Celeste had traced an interference track. "Pheonix Mage, you are in that timeline by accident. In a little over 1500 years, Grey has to complete a Labor in that timeline. The timeline is stable and has been mapped. You may *not* alter history!"
"But there are so *many* hordes. Are you sure they need them all? We could have a *few* couldn't we? Would they really miss a few thousand demons here or there?"
"No..." Celeste began.
"Oh, of course, not, sugar." A shimmer of air and darkness walked forward with a sultry but dangerous air.
"Edema," warned Sakyo to her Master, "a powerful mage..."
"...and maker of ice cream novelties," finished Jared. "What do you here, drow?"
There was a flash of irritation in the drow elf's manner, but she shrugged it off. "Why, look right here, sugar. This here's a history of this China. You see where you can't change it, right?"
Jared glanced at the book, noting that the passage indicated by one of the drow's long nail indicated that the Fourth Infernal Host was slain and the Amazon Village was found empty. Also found evacuated were the prefectures of Nan Hai (1080 people), Jiao Zhi (1930 people), and Gui Yang (1600 people). They were thought to have fled until they turned up in...
Jared glanced back up at where some of his girls were glaring daggers at the drow who was glaring back. All were outlying areas, away from the capital. It *could* be that these were areas just tipped off by refugees from elsewhere. Except for where and when those villages turned back up again.
"Well, I don't have to take this hostility!" Edema hissed. "I've got more than enough to occupy my time with work!"
Edema vanished. Celeste shook her head. "Why you two continue to have racial hostilities..."
Jared slipped the book into a sash. "Celeste, you wouldn't understand. I've killed a couple of hundred drow personally and a few million indirectly, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The bad blood between Drow and other elves can't be put aside easily, and it doesn't help any that on my world there's a ceremony for elves who've joined the other side. Drow become High Elves when they forsake darkness and High Elves become Drow when they embrace darkness, so seeing her triggers fighting reflexes undimmed by meeting many light hearts under Drow skins. I'll tell you what, though. At the end of this I *promise* to drop in her ice cream parlor and even have a good time. How's that?"
All those who realized what it meant for him to have those God marks and make a promise blinked in unison.
Celeste cocked her head. "What you said about enjoying killing Drow...?"
Jared actually chuckled in surprise. "Uh, no. That's *not* what I'd meant. I was planning on eating a Potion of Good Humor before I went. In that state I couldn't hate Genma." He met the eyes of the Goddess of J-pop. "Well, anyway, it will take me a little while to relocate. I'll
try to avoid the main forces then. No point in destroying the very people I'd rather see rescued."
Celeste nodded. "Your word that you won't violate history? This timeline gets messed up enough on its own!"
Jared nodded. "I'll preserve its history as best I can." ~Especially if what I read is correct, in which case, I'm already in here!~
---------
--Program 4--
----Honey----
----Start----
The blonde in the red kimono opened her eyes. "Master?"
---Program 5---
-----Melon-----
-----Start-----
The raven haired marionette dressed as a shrine maiden blinked as if coming awake. "Master?!"
Mamoru took more than one step back. "Huh?!"
Gennai chuckled. "I'll trade the Aya and Kotono units for this one. I had a feeling..." Actually he'd known about the link between Grape, Apple, Blueberry, Melon, and Honey for some time. They had all turned up positive for that odd dimensional disturbance at one time or another. Now they had something else in common: their Master.
Ginseng cocked her head. There was something familiar about Mamoru. She started forward, curious to determine if closer proximity would resolve the odd indication.
-------------
Heaven:
"Okay, we've got to intervene!" Celeste noted the bugport indicator flashing in the SMJ timeline, drawing her attention from the Third Labor timeline. "Get everything ready, we've got to do this carefully to avoid a crossrip or template contamination."
"Okay dokey!"
Those present were goddesses, with a spark of the divine. That divine blood ran cold at the unexpected chipper-vacuous voice.
Sif, Celeste, Belle, and Diane (along with some unidentified man in a bathrobe with a fish in his ear) all looked up with sickened expressions to see that *Kitchiri*, goddess of bimbo, had somehow appeared in the control room and was hovering near some controls.
"STOP!"
"GET AWAY FROM THERE!"
"So this is it, we're going to die."
"DON'T!"
Kitchiri jumped, startled, her posterior coming down on a set of buttons.
Among other things, the lights went out.
Sif's voice interrupted the silence in the pitch black room. "You know, there's times when that girl is tolerable. This is not one of them."
"Can we engage her to the Pheonix Mage? He might be able to make something useful out of her..." Diane was thinking lamps, statues, rugs, etc.
"Let me see," Celeste brought the power back up. "Oh dear."
"How long before we can at least monitor a timeline?" Sif frowned, looking around for Kitchiri but the bimbo had already fled.
"Five minutes to bring everything back up from an improper shutdown. Another couple of hours to monitor. A day or two to stabilize things." Celeste's bangs hid her eyes as she slumped at the keyboard. "Looks like the grab worked, but it'll take us a week to find out where they ended up with the transport interrupted. Together probably, though more than that I can't even guess. With the bookmarks wiped it'll take longer just to track what the Mage is doing."
---------
The alarms continued to ring until the third time Lorelei requested they stop.
Baiko and Tamasaburo continued to prowl the grounds, though everyone pretty much thought it would be futile.
"Statement: Dimensional disturbance has ceased. No indication of further activity. Analysis: Mamoru Tengoku and his marionettes were pulled through the same sort of dimensional rift that had appeared around the marionettes. Conclusion: without a means to travel inter-dimensionally we will be unable to track further."
Gennai sat sadly, his two new marionettes unsure of what to do. "I've known Mamoru for years. What do you suppose happened?"
"Observation: the marionettes bore expressions of surprise." Ginseng looked around, cocking her head in a pose evocative of a wary bird. "Conclusion: this was unexpected even by the agency that modified them or placed them here. Hypothesis: Sakyo is commonly believed to be the originator of the templates for units Apple, Melon, Grape, Blueberry, as well as several others. Extrapolation: these units were attacked or removed by the Enemies mentioned by the self-styled Mage during his visit. Extrapolation: if the preceding is correct - said Enemies are removing potential impediments to our destruction."
"We're not ready, we're not *nearly* ready," Lorelei groaned. "One decent hit on the capitals and the backup hidden cloning facilities would still require months to be ready to run. Our ability to fight longrange is terrible at present."
"Castle Japonesse could be ready to transform, but with the fist-rockets that's only two shots." Cherry hovered protectively near Otaru. Yes, they'd beaten Faust's best, but against something that could lay waste to a planet? She didn't have terribly high hopes. She (like the others) were hoping that the Mage had been exaggerating but afraid he wasn't.
--------
Third Labor timeline:
Looked like a normal Chinese army, circa 211 AD.
That is, until one looked with magic or got close enough to recognize the pallid sores covering flesh, the glowing red eyes, the forked tongues flicking in and out of fanged mouths.
That was the footsoldiers. The commanders looked even more human. Appearances were definitely deceiving in this case.
The commander of this force of 1200 warriors looked up and sniffed. "WHAT?!"
"What issss, Captain?" The hiss of a sublieutenant indicated the Captain's alarm had not gone unnoticed.
"Magic users." The captain sniffed again and grinned. "Looks like we may have a fight ahead of us. Good. This was getting boring."
An invisibility field winked out as spell energy overwhelmed it.
"Thee who travel starlit void,
In my hand thy power's employed,
Missile of iron and heavenly fire,
Conjured to smite my enemies dire,
Wrath of the heavens, fiery storm,
I name thee now: METEOR SWARM!"
**KA-BLAM!**
The hovering Pheonix Mage watched as the explosions swirled through the center of the army. As it only did a fixed (and not terribly impressive) amount of damage for a ninth level spell, it had only been used for wiping out a fair amount of the cannon fodder ghouls.
He wasn't unhappy to see that the impact on the army was minimal, as well as the glimmer of personal protection shields. The ground around them was superheated, so...
Shan floated alongside him and whipped her Powerkey Staff through a quick loop, firing off quick bursts of energy to keep the fliers down. "At least that threw off the disguises."
"Ice and snow,
storm and blow,
Temperature plummet at rapid pace,
Ice Storm from my hands now race!"
As the Ice Storm spell settled over the battle field, figures broke the cover to rise to meet the Mage. The battle was joined in earnest.
-----------
Minako Aino awoke, groaned and stretched. Then screamed loud and hard and long until a hand slapped over her mouth.
"i *do* wish you'd all stop doing that." Grey sighed.
"But... I..." Minako stared at her hands. "I'm incomplete! My flesh is..."
"Oh that's right. You're Shinto, though less so than Rei." Grey nodded. One of the curious bits about Japan that'd struck him many times. To have any loss of body parts marked one as unclean somehow, yet they were fond of the whole cyborg concept in their mass media. This apparent conflict was typically Japanese... "It's not that bad."
"Not that bad?!" Minako's voice was going up into the upper registers. "I'm a robot!"
"Yeah? And i'm a full conversion cyborg." Grey shook his head. "Look all of us need some time to settle things down. Right now i've got several people in my head all screaming they're the real me. Until we've all settled this down, we can't get much done."
Minako winced. Or was she Honey or Vena? It was all so confusing. "Who?"
"Mamoru Tengoku. Sometimes Ranma Saotome, though definitely not a canon version. Or the Moon Kingdom Knight known as Nebula. Or Grey, cyborg and agent of Asgard's Rival Relief Office. Or Kei Ling, peasant soldier under Cao Cao's flag. Or Frostbite, a silver dragon priest of Etragar the Healer. Or..." Grey stopped as he saw a look in Minako's eyes.
"Master?" Honey asked, shoving aside the Minako personality. Then another personality came forth. "Cousin?" Venus asked of Nebula. "Orion? Grey?" Minako reasserted herself as she searched the metal man before her.
It nodded. Or he nodded. They nodded? Minako thought it confusing but essayed a smile in return.
Minako relaxed and started drifting off again, the various personas knowing a measure of peace. Her Master/boyfriend/favorite cousin/husband was here with her. She was in an unknown situation in an unknown place, facing who knows what, but she was with someone she could trust. Honey loved and trusted her Master, and if it were a line of programming code did that make it less real? Venus remembered her stuffy old cousin Nebula, who quietly endured her teasing for years and was as dependable as anything. Orion her pet cat who'd been her late night confidante from when she'd been a child, then her transforming boyfriend Grey, finally revealed as a 'Ranma' who had been a dragon that could assume the form of a cat or a human at will. One part of herself whispered to another part of herself that some of her lives had been more complicated than others.
=================
Well, i had a request to term the SMJ xover. So i did.
Oh well.
And to keep track of the lumped lives: (most dominant aspect listed first)
Apple (marionette) = Makoto Kino = Princess Jupiter
Honey (marionette) = Minako Aino = Princess Venus
Blueberry (marionette) = Ami Mizuno = Princess Mercury
Grape (marionette) = Hotaru Tomoe = Princess Saturn
Rei Hino (two versions) = Melon (marionette) = Princess Mars
Grey = Mamoru Tengoku = Frostbite (dragon) = Nebula = Orion (cat/dragon/Ranma) = "Ranma (brother of Akane) Saotome" = ???
===============
Third Labor (Discord's Bet) chapter six
"What do ya do with a drunken sploogie?"
Disclaimer: multiple universes, various timelines, and a self insert (at this point a sort-of self insert as Grey's gone through several very different lives and decades of experience). Some characters are tm other people.
-----
Princess Venus swept into the Moon Palace, graceful and poised. "Bennu!" She nodded happily to the flame-haired mage. Friendly fellow, though he tended to lose himself in research and go off to that tower of his for extended period. Bennu waved back.
"Have you seen Nebula?" Venus had decided her cousin was due for some good natured teasing, just like old times. Cousin Nebula had been sent off on so many duties lately, she hardly ever got to see him.
"You didn't hear?" Bennu blinked at that. "It's usually *me* who's the last to know about the Court goings on... Nebula's been sent away from Court."
The Princess stumbled as her graceful gliding missed a step. "Say what?! What happened?"
Bennu leaned against the railing and regarded Venus for a moment. "Do you want the scuttlebut or the Official Version?"
"Both," Venus answered promptly. "He's Serena's father, how could he just be tossed out like that?"
"You know how he'd been sent off on quests a lot lately?" Bennu made a gesture that left a sparkling trail in midair. "Well, the Queen decided she was getting too reliant on having him about and..."
Venus winced. "So, just like the last three Consorts, she decided that having personal feelings for any one of her paramours was detracting from her efficiency as the Queen. Think they'll reconcile like the last time she did that?"
Bennu shook his head. "He's been forbidden to even attend the Court or enter the Palace grounds this time."
All thoughts of teasing her favorite cousin was shelved. Though she was a Princess of the Royal House of Venus, and Nebula a minor noble of a bastard line of the same family, twice removed, the Princess had long considered Nebula a dependable friend. "How's he taking it?"
"Pretty badly," Bennu confirmed. "He was forbidden from seeing his daughter again, and per the Queen's orders, nobody's told Princess Serenity about it, but he was always gratified to be able to catch glimpses and hear of her development. Now he might as well be on a distant world, he'll never see her again that much."
Venus winced again. Both understood that Queen Serenity had wanted her daughter to grow up without unwanted dependency upon anyone besides herself, and that Nebula was the doting sort who would have been able to refuse his daughter nothing. It had been hard though, very hard on the Knight Of Duty.
Bennu excused himself, grateful that at least Venus wasn't following him around with hearts in her eyes as usual.
---------
Minako/Honey moaned in her sleep, remembering how she'd found Nebula. He didn't drink, which was a pity as running across him drunk would have been less of a shock than finding the crushed individual she'd found on the outskirts of the Silver Palace.
Then she'd introduced Nebula to her friend Princess Jupiter, who was trying to get over a loss herself. It had gone well, briefly, but then another disaster had occurred.
Nearby, Apple dreamed. This time it was not of the Princess Jupiter.
---------
"So it's true," Makoto said, stepping out of the shadows and causing a series of squeaks and yelps from her friends. Minako, Usagi, Ami and Rei looked a combination of guilty and shocked. "How could you keep something like this from me!"
"You're not scared or disgusted?" The cat on the floor inquired.
"No," Makoto insisted.
Orion couldn't help but make an observation. "Then why is your ponytail still sticking straight up?"
"Heh heh!" Makoto reached up and smoothed her hair back down. "So, Mina-chan, you've been keeping this boyfriend of yours hidden?"
"No, he's not really my boyfriend," Minako said truthfully at the moment. It would take her another year before she could overcome the image of Orion just being a talking cat. She'd had him since she was a child, and he'd only remembered how to transform last year. "We're just friends. Besides, we're too young for THAT."
Makoto's eyes gleamed. She'd thought Grey a fairly exotic looking boy. Not as cute as her ideal, for certain. Maybe they were only in 1st year Junior High but Makoto Kino was ready for love! And an enchanted prince would do until someone who fit the profile a bit more came along!
----------
Apple groaned and shifted in her sleep. No, she wouldn't do that. Not again. Never again. The image of Nebula sparring with his favored weapon - a manriki gusari called the Chain Of Duty held in his hands while the long knife Sundererer was tucked in his belt. Followed by the broken man whom she had glimpsed walking away from Princess Jupiter and Narcisssus. Another image of Grey, seen from the doorway to the roof of an embassy, explaining to Minako that he understood why they would all abandon him again. The level of anguish in his that had made her want to break out of the shadows and hug him. Only to have the merger of timelines seperate them once again.
Blueberry whimpered in HER sleep. Which was filled with dreams of a Moon Palace, and of finding a soulmate in the researcher Bennu. Only Bennu had had so many other admirers, some prettier, some smarter, some with more "talent" or more raw power. And there were her duties as the Mercury Princess which kept her away from research or study much of the time, much less fraternizing with an independent spirit who had once composed a song about the fickleness of Queen Serenity (devastatingly accurate and an underground hit with lower caste people snickering the lyrics where the nobles weren't expected to hear them). The song and composer had been banned from the Moon, which had suited Bennu quite well. Dubbing himself the Pheonixi, he'd developed a tower on Deimos - a moon of Mars and one of those who rumors linked as interested in him was no less than the Princess of Mars herself!
Blueberry dreamed of watching the Knight Of Love, a mysterious figure indeed, and speculating on his identity. The same with the Knight Of Duty until it was publicly revealed that it was Nebula, who had been a consort of the Queen decades ago. Still, with the lifespans of the Silver Millenium, the difference in ages of a mere span of decades was of little consequence. Princess Mercury had watched the Knight grow cold and distant, dedicating himself to the Art Of Combat in a method similar to Bennu's love of research. And as for her, she'd had few consorts.
Rei mumbled something about a "baka" a few times and dreamed of being the Princess Mars and her odd relation with the outcast and outspoken researcher Bennu. Of viewing her friend Jupiter's failure to remain constant to Nebula and seeing something of herself and her relation with Bennu reflected there. She rooted for her friend, saw her lose, and then saw the winner defeated. By duty ironically enough. She also dreamed of two lives growing up with her sometimes-best friend/confidante/fiancee sometimes known as Ranma with fellow fiancees/friends/almost-sisters.
Grey had fallen asleep on watch, lulled by the gentle snoring of more than one of the other dreamers. He dreamed of a life where he flitted like a ghost, always there but rarely touching another, more unseen than not. Adrift and alone, caring but not cared about. Able to love, but not loved himself, surviving on dreams and false hopes. And then...
---------
"Suicide?" He shook his head. "No, it's against my faith. Else i would have done it long ago." Depreciating gesture. "Which would have made a few online people happier if the FFML is any indication, i think."
The black cat regarded him briefly. "Perhaps. Yet the predictors show that you'll throw your life away trying to rescue a child tomorrow at 9am. And fail, of course, you simply don't care enough about continued living to struggle back from major bodily harm."
"So, i know i haven't taken any of those weird anti-depression pills my Doctor prescribed, precisely because of weird effects like this, so why am i dreaming you?" The man regarded the cat with a curious stare. "Toltiir, Elder god of mischief, a being of near-infinite power and not even vaguely infinite wisdom?"
"Curiosity and mischief *are* my motivation," admitted the sometimes-feline being. "I'm here to grant you a wish."
The man gave a snort and scratched thinning gray hair. "Yeah right. Toltiir the Wishbringer, who got the position because the agendas of the various other deities in the Aramarian pantheon wouldn't let any of the others had it and they all assumed it was just another of your whims of the moment. i know the mythos, i dreamed the whole thing up."
"A thousand chimps," Toltiir said, beginning to lick a paw. "Ideas have long been your bag. Let me put it to you this way, what have you got to lose?"
"If this were real. A LOT." The man shook his head again. "The reason the gods left the position with you was that you're tricky and mischievous. Any wish granted beyond the most simple was twisted into something that would amuse you and cause no great or lasting changes in the Nine Worlds you mainly concerned yourself with. So any wish that *i* made would have to be careful indeed."
"True," Toltiir said, not even looking up from his current task. "Again, what have you got to lose?"
"A wish, huh." The man thought for a moment. "Okay... since i *know* you won't go away until i do something..."
"Also true," said Toltiir, now using a hind leg to scratch behind an ear. "And you also know that I'm easily bored and so stalling will just make me make the wish for you."
Wincing, the man considered the probability of something beneficial resulting from THAT being a null set. "In that case, i wish i was completely healthy, with my mind and sense of identity being unaltered, that i could continue to learn and develop new skills, ..." He continued on, adding provisions and clauses as he went until he had to draw breath again.
"Done!" The being said before any further provisos could be added.
-------------
Grey came awake, remembering that. It had been that wish that had gotten the Binding woven over him and he had been transformed into something to suit Toltiir's sense of irony. An incubus, a male sex-demon who had refused to take advantage of his abilities and had therefore never gotten to the fullness of the powers of that form. He'd taken the name Grey as he had neither been truly of the Light or Dark, but a mix of both.
He had been transported to Asgard, and had run into Ares on his first day there. Literally. Ares had been taking a wager from Loki and had been sneaking out of Thor's house WITH the thunder god's belt of might. The resultant quarrel between himself (unsure of who this was other than a thief) and the disguised Greek god of war had lasted just long enough to attract the attention of the house's occupants. The resultant beating had given Greek an excuse to continue getting even with the "little punk mortal" and Grey (caught in the blast radius) his first experience with the painful resurrection-through-flame that the Binding gave him.
Thor had turned out to be gruff, tempramental, and a bit slow upstairs. Okay guy though, especially with his wife running herd on his crazier impulses. Sif had turned out to be nice, though with a temper than made even her husband quail.
Looking out into the night, Grey adjusted his vision down to the infrared, a simple enough trick now that he was a cyborg again. Oddly enough it was the modified Triax Manhunter form he'd had on the first part of his First Labor. Until the Pheonix Mage's spell had rebuilt him. As what he couldn't remember, which usually meant that things had gotten pretty nasty.
Little glowing dots were interpreted into bats, a slightly larger blur was an owl, and the big shambling shape was a...
IDENTIFICATION: Tigerclaw Raptor WARNING: pack predator
Grey extended his laser rod and watched the creature warily. The blasted ruin of the apartment complex he had brought the girls to was intact away from the opening he was currently at. He was sure he could kill this one with four or five bursts, but that would alert the others to his presence. Scanning the forest, Grey could make out five other blobs. A hunting pack. Best to let them move on. One advantage of his cyborg body was that it smelled like a machine to most predators. Inedible.
More concerning was what this meant. A forest covering the mounds of fallen buildings. The gaping wreck of a hotel across from a largely intact apartment complex. Tigerclaw Raptors. Tentative identification: Scottsdale Forest, RIFTS Earth.
This could be bad.
One of the girls sleeping in the hunter's camp screamed in her sleep. The raptors immediately oriented on the sound and began running.
Yup. This was bad.
----------
Another timeline:
Gendo Ikari stepped forward. It was ready and now he could seize the moment. "...the Silver Millenium crystal..." With it, he could bring Yui back. With it, he could have everything and anything he wanted. With it, all of his plans would end in triumph!
*BANG*
Gendo stumbled and clutched his chest then stared down at the bloody hole in his chest.
"I told you, dumpling head. A little .22 has insufficient knockdown and damage!"
There came the sound of an asthmatic sewing machine.
"An UZI on the other hand has some slight problems with inaccuracy but makes up for it by being a sort of traditional weapon."
Gendo tried to stand from where he had fallen, looking back in surprise. "Katsuragi? But..."
Misato leveled the submachinegun with a grin at the NERV Commander, flanked by the GUTS units on both sides. "Ami, you've wanted this for awhile."
Ami nodded and walked past Gendo, not even sparing a glance at He Who Would Be God as he fell back down and drowned in the lake of LCL beneath NERV HQ. Then she looked back at her friends. "Guys. We should all do this. We've all suffered at HIS hands."
Ami, Minako, Usagi, Makoto, and Rei all formed a circle around the rose-shaped crystal for a moment. As one they reached forward, each focussing on their own vision of what they held dear.
*CONTACT*
----------------
Ami finished her breakfast, but then paused. What an odd daydream. And her husband transformed into a dragon and dead? Maybe she was coming down with something.
"Something wrong, honey?" Shinji asked from where he was washing the breakfast dishes. He was concerned about her, medical school was tough and took a lot of her time. He'd taken over the housewife role mainly (despite her protests) due to her increasing load of schoolwork and thought this looked like a good time for his special sugar cookies. That usually cheered her up. "Looked like you were out of it there for a moment."
"No, it's nothing..." Ami essayed a smile, still shaken by the odd dream.
"Tell you what, it's been some time since we had some time to ourselves. Let's just schedule a little trip and there's that hot springs up in the mountains..."
Ami blushed, ducked her head, and agreed that that *did* sound like a good idea.
--------------
China, 211 AD, Elsewhere:
Jared brought his right hand up to his forehead, first two fingers extended.
"Holy power, purest light,
Come ye and cleanse this blight,
Strike this evil from my sight!
HOLY!"
Bringing his right hand down to point it like a gun at the enemy, Jared proved he'd learned his lesson the last time he'd cast this spell from that Aramarian spellbook. THIS time he braced his arm so it wouldn't bend the joint from the force of the beam. As it had before, the white corkscrew of energy sped forth, drilling through yoma and consuming them.
The land forces were getting into their own positions.
"MERCURY COMET STORM!"
Uranus and Mars linked attacks in a combo that had served them well in the past. "SHAKE AND BAKE!"
Jared smiled as the large batwinged Thing From Another World rose up to meet him, a sword in one hand and a barbed cat-o-nine-tails in the other. It grinned in reply.
"At last, a challenge!" That they had spoken simultaneously and said the same thing concerned a few of the onlookers. On both sides.
The demon blurred and vanished. So did Jared. The two reappeared in each others places. More blurring and vanishing as the two jockeyed for position via Dimension Door and teleports.
The demon roared. Jared yelled. "FIREBALL!" The fireballs met in midair and exploded.
"FREEZE ARROW!"
"FIRE ARROW!"
Again the attacks met and cancelled out. By mutual unspoken agreement, the two faced each other with grins and started more "heavy artillery" pieces.
The balrog made a set of passes with his sword.
"Darkness beyond twilight,
Crimson beyond blood that flows,"
The Pheonix cupped hands in front of him.
"Brightness beyond daylight,
Coil of creation's spring,"
The two reached the ends of their spells simultaneously.
"DRAGON SLAVE!"
"GODSFIRE!"
The reddish corkscrew burst was sundered, the white beam of light racing past and narrowly missing the demon as he dodged.
"Impressive," said the balrog, "but now that the prelimaries are out of the way..." The dread evil thing shot a beam of blackness out, which Jared simply sidestepped, allowing it to eat out a few hundred tons of cliff face instead of impact on anything living. With a confident smirk the Pheonix mage replied by taking out a sword whose blade seemed to radiate a holy light.
"Do you recognize this? I've been dying to use this ever since I pried it from the cold grasp of the dead abomination that had eaten the original owner. This is a Fell Blade, a Demon Slayer, called in some cultures a Bane of Fiends. One touch from this weapon and your unholy kind are in
danger of ceasing to exist, and if one of your unholy breed should be struck down by this you are irrevocably destroyed, no matter where it is you've hidden your lifeforce or what you've done to preserve it." The smirk grew wider. "And no magic of any kind would bring you back."
The fiend chuckled warmly in cruel delight, drawing forth a blade of dead black iron, with squigly runes engraved all over its surface. The fiend had no sooner drawn it forth than the weapon began howling like a chorus of damned infernal spirits. "I've fought those kind of blades before, hero. None yet has slain me. Meet *my* partner in this battle: The Blade of Howling Souls. Over a dozen angels and heroes of light are bound within it, suffering endless torment for all eternity." The batwinged demon licked a forked tongue across its fanged chops. "And I've decided you're worthy of joining them."
The Pheonix Mage's brow bent low in seriousness. "I hold no fear of rune weapons, they hold no power to steal or bind my spirit. I'll just have to spend enough time to free them after I've destroyed you." His smirk returned. "And I imagine neither task will take long."
The Mage raised his blade high above his head and cried out. "Triforce Crown!" Bathing himself in a ten yard wide aura of brilliant light, yet constantly radiating waves of destructive force over the entire spectrum of electricity, fire, cold and so on. For demonic and foul creatures he
became well nigh unbearable to look upon, and his close presense would scour their foul hides with energies that, while not the most destructive of powers he could weild, were guaranteed not to do his foes any good.
And yet, uncommonly genuine feelings of peace and love and hope filled the breasts of any good being who looked upon him, and his aura of cascading destructions would sweep away the evil and yet leave all good beings or creatures unharmed.
The batwinged general of the demonic army spoke a single word in a dread and abominable tongue and was instantly cloaked in inky blackness, a hungry, devouring sort of coldness that didn't apply to heat, but to the energy of one's soul, leeching and sucking out at one's very essence.
The two forces sped together and met in a resounding crash. The howling of the demon blade met the shaft of holy light and the twin auras of light and darkness thrashed and crashed about as they met.
There came an explosion and the body of the dark general went sprawling, propelled through the air by massive destructive force, to impact and shatter, bones and gristle flying apart and falling like shrapnel among the demonic army.
"Man, what a pushover *you* were!" Jared exclaimed, floating in mid air without a touch or a mark on him. He stopped when something strange began happening within the demonic army. The host was dissolving, eaten apart by the shreds of their general's body where it had struck them. Hundreds upon hundreds of demons were dissolving down into icky goo, and just as the mage was about to make some quip about it, the dissolved bodies drew together into a single amorphous blob, which had no sooner assembled than it shot forth arms and limbs and grew into a single demonic being two hundred feet tall.
The reformed demon general laughed heartily, and though the appearance was off the voice was dead on. It was the same guy. With sudden inspiration the Mage realized that the demon had never been touched by a Fell Blade because it was never *itself* it was risking! Through some means it magically usurped control of whatever body came to hand, there was not the link for a Fell Blade to work on because the flesh it struck was in no way connected to the infernal spirit that drove it. The true bad guy was basically imposing its will over others, and if its pawns were at risk doing it so what? There were replacements to hand.
The real bad guy was doing this whole battle by remote control. The Fell Blade would never endanger him because it would never hit him, just servants under magical control and remotely empowered.
Clever. That was an angle the Pheonix Mage hadn't ever thought of a demon using. He cocked his head at the giant monstrosity. "Fancy that, I hardly expected to meet a demon lord slumming on such a routine assignment. Haven't you rivals that you have to watch out for? Hardly worth a little entertainment if your enemies steal all of your power behind your back."
The monstrosity responded by sending out thousands of tentacles from its breast, hoping to catch the Mage within their squirming masses.
"Analyzing: Remote Operation Technique, Acquired. Tracing to source. There!!" Shan flew by and shot a bolt of power into a ring worn by one of the gawking footsoldier demons. The resulting explosion cratered the area and caused the evil artifact to split, releasing its cargo even as Jared finished blasting the artificial, two hundred foot tall composite demon into dust.
"Shan, get clear!" Jared started building power between his hands. This would take care of ONE problem.
The blackness formed and summoned its sword, swatting the bothersome insect that was annoying it with microbursts of energy.
Shan didn't listen to her Master, using her Powerkey Staff to harmlessly block a strike by the demon's sword. He made a mistake, trying to absorb Shan's soul. Shan was a cyborg (and often annoyed by her Master mistaking her for an android) but one crafted to be an Ifurita upgrade. Therefore she did have a soul to absorb, but it wasn't that easy to defeat her. Use a technique against her or where she could analyze it, and she could absorb it and adapt the attack - adding it to her personal arsenal. No one had ever learned the Breaking Point as easily as she had.
"Analyzing: Soul Drinker. Technique Acquired. Reversing." Shan blocked another strike, then brought her staff up and struck the sword. "SOUL FREER!"
The explosion was immense as an "indestructible" weapon was shattered and the souls within freed all in one massive rush.
"Chain Lightning!" Jared threw the spell into the massed ghouls, then returned his attention to the opponent facing him. The Pheonix Mage noted the unconscious and badly drained body of the cyborg falling to the ground below, and released tears yet didn't even turn to watch it fall. He had allies who would take care of her, do everything that could be done, and this guy was only growing as a threat. Though without that sword, he was perhaps less threat than he had been.
The inky blackness that was the true creature stormed the Mage in such an amazing burst of speed that he barely had time to react as it engulfed him in utter chaos, tearing apart the local fabric of the universe around him as a means of indirectly destroying the well-defended Mage.
The blackness roared. "You face a balrog prince, mortal!!"
The Mage responded, his own god marks flaring with inner light. "And you a hero! Let God support the Right!" And with that, his god marks blazed alight, rebuilding the universe as fast or faster than the demon could destroy it.
Unfortunately, as he was the God of Crossovers, that meant that when he'd rebuilt it they were no longer in the same place.
------------
Jared appeared in a blink of light and watched his enemy fade into existence. All of his senses were tightly focused on his foe so he barely even noted their surroundings: some kind of city somewhere.
"If you want to escape, now's your chance." He told the demon, gloating as he appraised its weakness over the last attack.
The balrog prince replied with a curling jet of fire that boiled the very air surrounding it, causing minor heat flashes and scorching walls not even struck by it. The jet washed over the Pheonix Mage, who had to laugh. "Hah! No effect at all!" Drawing together both his hands he
brought them high and did the *quick* version of a powerful spell.
"Archangel Sword!!"
The demon intercepted the scarcely visible shearing attack with a flick of its nine-tailed whip, and bellowed with laughter in turn.
The Mage's eyes narrowed in calculation. A tiny flick of that weapon had totally disrupted a spell akin to an armor-piercing Dragon Slave. With a gasp of recognition he saw the golden links that made up the chains of each of those nine lashes.
The demon prince chuckled again, a truly nasty sound. "Yes, I see you recognize my TRUE weapon of power. The sword was useful. I'll make another with the last energy from the final beating of your heart. But so long as I have Spellbreaker incorporated into my whip you are already as
good as finished! Just like a dozen angels before you!"
~This was not good.~
*****
Whimper. Cry.
Scores of young married females: Androids, amazons, cyborgs, Sailor Scouts, and at least one more, alternated between laboring feverishly and watching helplessly.
"The local disturbance around that demon lord is just too strong!" Amy declared, working at the head of a team armed with Scout Planetary computers. "I doubt that we'd be able to breach that dimension even with a Scout Teleport."
"So what you're saying is?"
"For right now, Jay-chan's all on his own!"
More gazes turned mournfully to the great picture that had formed in the absence of the rift that had taken Jared away. Seeing their beloved and unable to help him was sheer torture to most.
Makoto Jupiter was ready to breach the field anyway. As a Sailorjin, this sort of fight was just too good for her to pass up. Danger? All the better. The only problem was that she blocked from it by two of her other selves. Vanishing like a soap bubble or merging with her local analogue wouldn't do her a lot of good.
Seeing Belldandy work with others to help recuperate the injured Shan, Urd stepped carefully to the side and took out a cell phone.
It was about time she made this particular call.
Women of the amazon village, watching from a safe distance away on a local hillside, were both locked in awe and concerned. The battle had started with such fell magics on both sides as to totally humble the proud warrior culture, yet it was also clear that this was only one such
demon army. If their protectors went away their village was as good as dust, and from what they could see these women, ALL of them, were intending to leave after their husband as quickly as they could find means enough to follow him.
*****
If the alarms had blared for the disappearance of Mamoru Tengoku, then the discordance visited upon Lorelei's sensitive ears now was indescribable.
"CUT THOSE BLOODY THINGS OFF!"
Ginseng's normal calm had slipped just slightly in her expression. "Statement: the Mage has returned. Request: run full scanning mode. Statement: we have met the enemy, and he's a big sucker."
The statement was so incongruous that everyone briefly stared at Ginseng before returning their attention to the monster stomping the Kuno mansion into kindling.
Otaru whistled. "That thing must be four hundred feet tall!"
"Three hundred forty seven and seven eighths," corrected Cherry. "Slightly larger than Ponta-kun."
"Don't worry, Otaru!" Bloodberry made a muscle gesture though she wasn't feeling nearly that confident. "With the new powerarmor we can..."
Bloodberry's voice trailed off as the demonic being spat a stream of black lightning that ripped a ragged line of destruction that extended past the city limits.
"..." Bloodberry continued to stare at the monitor.
Cherry hesitated for a moment. "Uhm, what about the rocket cannon?"
"Statement: Neither the rocket cannon nor the prototype marionette enhancing power armor would make an appreciable difference in this battle." Ginseng almost frowned. "Analysis: this does however seem to be the perfect chance to field test the armor under the conditions for which it was designed."
"You're not suggesting..." Otaru stared at the marionette.
"Statement: this unit is the only marionette which does not have a place or function within the greater society." Ginseng paused. "Analysis: this unit will not be missed and data obtained will prove of value to further series."
"That's crazy!" Lorelei broke her silence. "You're..." Lorelei's voice trailed off. There really wasn't much use for the marionette. Nobody felt that comfortable around her and she'd already made available what data she had felt was safe into marionettes that *she* had built.
Ginseng regarded them all, and not one met her gaze. "Statement: you know I'm right on this."
------------
Rifts Earth: edge of the Scottsdale Forest, about four miles from New Tempe.
Grey had realized that the beings attacking were not easily discouraged. Therefore he'd used exceptional methods to argue that there was easier prey elsewhere. He started off by using his laser rod, even though in the game he was familiar with it only did 2d6 MD and was silent.
Superheated air crackled behind each blast and the first raptor struck by the beam let out a steam whistle screech.
Grey got two more shots while the pack leapt and climbed their way up what had been an apartment complex facade a few centuries ago. Then he switched to another weapon that he'd gotten a long time ago and in a galaxy far far away.
*Vshhhhhtttt. Vum vummmmm.*
These were not intelligent dinosaurs. One charged forward, drawing attention for the two flankers to attack from the sides. The lightsaber skidded slightly but then was inserted through an open mouth to exit the raptor's skull. The cyborg then grabbed the thing's neck, crushed it with an Anything Goes manuever, and threw it into the nearest of the two other attackers. Holding the sword forward as if to stab it, Grey then used a iaijitsu manuever to sheathe his sword in the one sneaking up on him.
Grey clicked on his anti-Juicer protocols. These were fast attackers, strong, and he wasn't too sure what would happen if they got past him. He simply filled the doorway into the shelter and sliced and diced anything that came near. The raptors were too tough to carve through in a single swipe, but the damage inflicted was much heavier than the laser rod had managed.
The raptors were wary now, clicking to themselves as they watched him for any sign of weakness.
Grey was using IR to track them by body heat as well as by tricorder. He noticed them bunching up at an angle and spared a glance at the battery charge on the saber.
The raptors attacked en masse.
--------
Jared made a gesture and spoke a phrase of power, surrounding himself with a Fire Shield.
The demon cast Acid Armor upon itself.
The rattle of a machine gun firing announced a third player, this one shooting towards the massive demon via some kind of jetpack.
Both sides ignored the relatively low power marionette, who quickly ran out of ammunition anyway.
Jared eyed the golden whip that had a 100% magic resistance. Any spell impinging upon that would immediately be sundered, which cut his options considerably. Chi attacks would work, but like his Devilhunter sword or his martial arts, they would only serve to whittle at an enemy this size.
If Shan could recover her reserves, her ability to circumvent dimensions would bring the others here. Then they could use wolf pack tactics, striking from different directions so that the giant demon couldn't block all of their attacks. Just Shan by herself could probably generate enough raw power to take out the Spellbreaker, followed by his spells ravaging the creature. However, whenever Shan learned a technique and first duplicated it, it tended to exhaust her energy reserves. Having learned two techniques, employing them, and then being caught by the explosion - Shan would be out for awhile. Unless, of course, Belldandy could do that recharge thing...
Ginseng's performance was closely monitored, that was why she was there after all. So the computers recorded that the machine guns and grenade launcher had produced no injury in the target. A flame thrower from Ginseng had absolutely no effect on the demon. A vibrational knife, stabbed into the demon's forehead, finally brought a response. The demon slapped its forehead, then scraped marionette bits off onto one of the buildings.
The demon sprayed black and purple lightning towards its' opponent. Jared responded with a Force Wall while he planned. Magic items? Nothing effective that wouldn't be overwhelmed by Spellbreaker. Maybe...
"Twist and turn the magic flows,
Disrupt the spell from order's rows,
Confound ye now the magic's function,
I invoke ye now: Mordenkainen's Disjunction!"
The demon was stunned as the conflicting energies sparked and sizzled around its' frame.
Jared's eyes narrowed, then widened.
If Shan could do it, he could.
Doing something immediately dangerous, that had gotten more than one mage exploding into fiery, flying bits when it went wrong, the Pheonix Mage committed the Ultimate No No of the school of magic he'd been trained on. The fact that it had never worked before in all recorded knowledge did not deter him. Fortunately, he'd studied some schools where such things weren't entirely impossible, at least in theory.
He invented a spell on the fly.
The Mage brought a hand above him and pointed a hand below, using the slipstream effect of his flying ability to momentarily stay out of reach of the much slower demon. In fact the particles stirring in the air from his passage would soon trigger a plasma storm and *that* ought to help
this out immensely.
Now that he recognized the place, he knew that this was Terra Two. Terra Two, the Sailor Marionette world, where the air had a layer of charged particles. Three or four times a day, a Plasma Cloud would break out because of vortices in the air causing one particle to bump up against another and start an avalanche. Really tall buildings, aircraft, longrange missiles, all of these were made difficult to impossible by the plasma layer. Even the species of birds remaining from the colonization had been weeded down to those who only flew at low altitudes. Otherwise a Plasma Cloud formed and hundreds of thousands of volts would be pumped into the offending object.
"Power of Water, Wind and Earth
wrest thy energies from their berth
Electricity, now lend thy might
to aid us now in Heaven's fight!
By the powers that I have named
be now lifeforce unashamed
The core of life in man's pure heart
Energy to darkness part!"
The demon's glowing eyeslits grew thin, then burst wide in mocking laughter as the entire city below them grew still, lights went out, computers shut down and marionettes grew silent as their battery powers (or in some cases their converters) were exhausted down to trickles. Even the wind grew still and the growing plasma storm sputtered and died.
The demon Prince roared in laughter at the puny mortal's failure.
Jared's reasoning was simple: Shan had an electricity to chi converter, why couldn't a spell do the same? Enough electricity to run all of Japoness, along with plasma energy for miles around, now converted and gathered into chi in his hands. Regardless of if he survived the plasma
storms would be a hefty bit quieter around here for a while. He brought his hands down and shouted. Oddly enough, he'd intended to say "DevilHunter Chi Strike" but it came out a bit different.
"DENKI BALL!"
Caught in mid-gloat, the balrog prince got speared through the heart by many mighty megawatts of chi in a blazing spear of holy destruction that vaporized many large segments of its infernal structure.
Many, but not all.
(Of course, the beam continued on. Destroying the fifth floor of the tallest building in Japonesse, wrecking four observation towers outside the city, and converting a section of the Stormspire Mountains to the Stormspire Bay.)
In the perverse way those things had of surviving long after they ought to be rightfully deceased, the balrog swept down its whip and spat out a ball of blackened fire, consuming an entire fifty story apartment complex in one mighty explosion.
Tendrils of energy from the deaths that caused trickled out and began to rebuild the demon.
Jared didn't know what he was going to do. That attack took everything he'd had and everything the city could spare also, if he drew any more electricity marionettes would die as their programs got erased from total power outage. That this guy could heal itself from near death by killing others seemed unfair when they were in the middle of a huge pool of innocents that could be made to suffer in order to repair the infernal thing.
"Oh, no you don't." The Mage said between gritted teeth. "There's no way I'm going to let you win."
"And he's not going to!" A comet streaked up and resolved itself into the image of Makoto Jupiter. "Try THIS on! RAGING JUPITER THUNDER DRAGON!"
The demon staggered back but seemed not particularly injured.
"KAME..." Makoto brought her hands cupped back. Sometimes the basics were best. "HAME..." To live in battle, to die in battle, and spend as much of the time in between snuggling- this was the fate of a Sailorjin. "HA!"
The demon braced itself as if Makoto were spraying him with a fire hose.
Tears stinging his eyes, the floating Mage called forth his crystal mirror that was his concealed spellbook, and without a glance from the demon he was fighting he calmly and simply broke it, taking from the precious object a blue gemstone he'd once called the Pheonix Eye. The
recovering demon took a slash at him from a ridiculously elongated arm, which the mage dodged with difficulty.
Makoto got slammed to the ground by a huge misshapen foot, then stepped on.
"FOOL! He's used a similar attack already! My power allows me to adapt to such tactics once they've been used." The demon made a grinding gesture with the foot pinning the Sailorjin down.
Inhaling, Jared shouted. "Knight of Duty, heed! As a duly ordained Prince of the Silver Millennium I summon thee to battle this evil!"
Among the wreckage of Ginseng, a spirit warrior firmed into place and looked up, and up, and up. "You've *got* to be kidding."
In that moment Jared knew a great deal more than he'd like what Queen Serenity had been through, sending beloved friends in to sacrifice themselves to buy time while you lost what dear things you possessed, building up the power to crush the enemy that had caused this. He steadied his voice with effort, and in that moment, he finally understood the Silver Millennium power. "Nebula, Knight of Duty, link your energy to mine."
Reluctantly, the spirit figure dressed like a Musketeer began skipping across rooftops toward the Mage, who was wordlessly concentrating all his power into the blue eyeball sized crystal, while falling back from the enraged demon. By this time the balrog was too infuriated to speak, and extended an arm that stretched impossibly long to lash with its whip at the Mage.
Jared's eyes came up, and he thrust forward the fist that held the gemstone.
"Cosmic Moon Power!" Jared's jaw grew firm. "Fight this evil!"
An impossible shield of light sprang up and intercepted the descending whip, stopping the magic destroying artifact with effort.
The Silver Imperial Crystal magnified chi, but he'd used that up. It would also use magic, but he had exhausted all that creating this new crystal. When those were gone several times Serena had used her life force, killing herself to accomplish a deed. The Pheonix Mage lifted his blue crystal high and called upon his last reserves of everything.
Then other presences began to appear. To his left, Shan flipped her Powerkey Staff around like a bo staff and repeated "Cosmic Moon Power. ENHANCE!"
Makoto Jupiter lifted the Knight Of Duty up to where Jared floated, adding her own chi to the glow of energies as soon as Jared manifested a platform the single non-flyer could stand on.
"aaaaaa HA!" BOOM! Makoto's hair turned golden and she was surrounded by a fiery aura as she went from normal to Super
Sailorjin and finally to Super Sailorjin II mode.
Shan had observed this twice now. She emulated it. "aaaaa HA!" BOOM!
Now that his opponent was flanked by two the equivelant of two Super Sailorjin (a blonde Makoto and a blonde cyborg
Shampoo), and the Knight Of Duty, the demon took a faltering step back in alarm. THIS might actually be tough. The power level he was facing had just gone up by a considerable factor.
Jared cast a glance to his side, catching a glimpse of Makoto Jupiter's transformation to Super Sailorjin II, gasping ahold of her shoulder he diverted a portion of his growing power into another spell invented off the cuff from observing Shan close by for months. "Emulate!"
"aaaaaa HA!" BOOM! Power rippled up around the Mage as his fiery hair acquired a golden cast to it. As with Shan and Makoto, he was quickly surrounded by waves of golden chi and sparks as the air itself became charged as it contacted him. His clothes altered, becoming a red gi-like garment edged with golden flames. His eyes altered to a glacial blue that matched the eyes of the girls flanking him.
Makoto Jupiter noted the surprise transformation and fought the nigh-overwhelming urge to glomp him then and there for intense and frantic snuggling. He made her so proud!
"This can't be!!!" The balrog prince roared, opening wide its mouth and shouting while belching a horizontal column of acid and black fire at its target. Jared stood unflinching as both acid and fire split and parted, evaporating rather than pierce his blue shield. The whip started lashing it again but the Pheonix Mage's gaze only grew more cold, if that were even possible.
~After the fight, after the fight...~ The two maidens hanging by his side were inwardly chanting to themselves, fighting the urge to glomp him and carry him off to find privacy. Even privacy was vanishing as a consideration as they struggled against the urge to reward his behavior then and there. ~Let's kill the bad guy and...~ Vision of torrid lemon scenes went dancing in their heads, varying only in the detail of who got to him first.
"I'm NOT letting you win this fight, you wretch! My friends are counting on me!"
Casting a nervous glance to where two super-powerful females were gritting their teeth and clamping their legs together to fight the urge for a glomp.
The Knight of Duty placed a hand upon the fist wherein the Mage held his new crystal, transferring parts of his energy. As if that opened up a bridge (it had) suddenly Jared felt transference of power from a whole *host* of Sailor Scouts. Portals opened up and the projected spirits of Serena, Rae, the rest of the Inners, the Outers, the Sailors Gemini and all the rest of the Scouts he'd helped in creating, combined into a burst of fiery blue radiance that gathered at the end of his arm as each and every one shouted her (or his- something that would have surprised the Mage if he could spare any attention at the moment) power phrase, contributing to the buildup.
The Mage concluded it all by shouting again. "Cosmic Moon Power!! Moon Healing Purification!"
A ball of brilliant blue energy that could be clearly seen from New Texas and Geltland shot forth from the Mage's hand, expanding as it went along, effortlessly consuming buildings that were unfortunate enough to be in its way (lucky, by now they'd all been mainly evacuated) and slapping into the balrog prince with a force that dissolved the magic whip (and its body) into tiny moon dust particles, before carving a deep trench so wide and deep that forever after Japoness would have bordering it a rather oddly shaped lake, before the ball of energy continued on, leaving the globe of Terra Two and causing that entire hemisphere to be bathed in bluish light.
The Knight of Duty's spirit fought the urge, then gave in to it. "He's dead, Jim." ~Well, so am i but that's the way things go.~
The Mage grimly nodded his head. "Yes, but that thing's fell master remains. I'll have to..." The redhead stood triumphantly for a moment before slumping into two girls' arms. Shan and Makoto looked at each other, nodded, then flew off with the Mage.
The Knight of Duty watched them fly off, then waited around for a few minutes, growing steadily more agitated. "Hey? um..." he finally asked. "Aren't I supposed to disperse or something? Hello?"
He looked down at the street far below. "Uhm, anybody? This form can't fly. Errr. Oh dear."
A few more minutes went by and the Knight Of Duty sat down on his floating platform. "Great. i'm dead (i think), sitting down, no ladders, and i'm four hundred feet above a crater full of broken rocks. They look spiky too. i'm REALLY not having a good day."
The duration of the spell expired, and the platform abruptly vanished.
***
In castle Japoness, power was finally coming back on, and Otaru already had his special marionettes hooked up to outlets. Cherry stirred first, having somehow been drained the least of them. As she came to wakefulness, her nose sniffed and she groggily asked.
"What is that smell, Otaru-sama?"
She was temporarily ignored for the moment, as the humans stared in awe at the sight of what had just happened.
Gennai cleared his throat and nervously toyed with his beard. "And that's just our friends, imagine what our enemies can do."
Lorelei excused herself to head for the Ladies room at all due speed.
"Actually," corrected Cherry, hooking herself into the Castle Japonesse security network (one of Ginseng's ideas that had panned out), "it appears that the big trench and that gap in the mountains are the result of Mage-san. The buildings that have crumpled or disintegrated are from the big ugly thingie he was fighting."
"Oooooo. Daisy, daisy, give me your answer do..." Bloodberry seemed to have stirred herself, though there may have been some residual damage.
"Cherry-chan, what are the estimates?" Gennai kept his eyes on the monitors. "AH! Tamasaburo and Baiko collapsed there, camera four in the outer compound!"
"Estimating over five hundred dead," Cherry said, her voice showing pain. "All those people..."
Shogun Smurf, err, Ieyasu's image flicked on to one of the monitors. "All that from just ONE of those enemies appearing. It appears that we cannot survive much more attention from either our allies or our enemies. Otaru..."
"Yes, your Majesty!" Otaru was a simple man, he'd gotten mixed up in a lot of big things but at heart he was a simple unassuming fellow who just went with what his heart told him was right. Though short and blue, this was his majesty - the ruler of Japonesse. Someone who had sacrificed his life and his happiness for his country, and who had privately agonized over the need to sacrifice the three marionettes for the return of the human woman. And for it all had been returned to life- as a smurf.
"Otaru. A strong leader is needed in the times ahead. Due to my current form, I cannot be that leader. My clone child, " the smurf winced as he spoke, "was at the springs of Ravas Mountain in the Stormspires."
Everyone's gaze went unbidden to the monitor showing the boiling water and gap in the Stormspire Mountains.
"Shogun-sama, your wisdom is needed more than ever," Otaru began.
"No, it is not, Otaru." The blue head of the Shogun sagged forward. "I shall leave as soon as possible. If it becomes public knowledge that I am in this deformed body, Japonesse will become a laughingstock. There is only one thing I can do. There is only one person who has the support of the people enough that he can take my place."
Otaru's eyes widened. "Shogun-sama! No, I couldn't! I don't know anything about governing people!"
"Otaru! There is simply no one else left."
-----------
Elsewhere:
Ami was frantic as she contacted her friends. So frantic that it took them a considerable amount of time to understand what she was babbling about.
"Shinji just up and vanished?" Rei frowned. "That's strange. Do you suppose because we rewove the timeline, his death was still in there somehow? Or maybe we just tried to do too much at once?"
Ami startled and sat down. "It wasn't a dream? I..."
"Our husband's been stolen, so we can't be slow, it's hip hip hip and away we go!"
Rei groaned. "Minako. You have GOT to stop watching old American cartoons. Besides, he's Ami's husband. We're just engaged to him per our earlier agreement, until such time as we either find other loves or Ami graduates. And Ami is doing everything she can to hurry that along as it is."
"You're right! We'll rescue him!" Ami stood up, a fire burning in her heart. "And I'll get him back and I'll let him know how upset he's made me worrying about him! That he... I... I'll... I'll... I'll hug him for hours and kiss him for days and..."
Several envious sighs interrupted Ami before a Lime flag could be dropped.
"But, Ami-chan, how exactly are we going to find him? All we know is that he vanished." Makoto felt that *someone* had to be the Voice Of Reason. Who'd have thought that role would end up in *her* area?
-----------
RIFTS Earth, Scottsdale Forest, January 107 PA
"Aw crap!" Grey said when numbers finally overwhelmed him. The lightsaber had gone out abruptly, why was something to puzzle over later, and he was stuck punching and kicking. Which didn't seem to phase the raptors much at all. And so, once again, he was struck with one of the great truths of living on RIFTS Earth.
If you fought alone, you died alone. Also fairly quickly and violently.
One of the Raptors knocked him over then started shredding outer body armor.
*KLIK-KLAK VUMMMMM SCHNICKT VSSSHHH!*
Grape had pulled a large knife-like device out of the folds of her kimono, extended the hilt into a three foot pole, then activated the vibroblade. The naginata swept through the large reptile on top of Grey, sliced a neat little furrow into the one behind it, and then split the head of a third in an efficient set of manuevers.
Now that their numbers had been pruned to less than half of what they'd started with, the raptors decided to flee.
Grey ran a quick systems diagnosis. BAD. Major internal damage, systems leaking, power failing. "Dang it, this body keeps falling apart on me."
"Master..." Grape knelt in concern, the others coming forward to examine him.
"Uhm, this body is shutting down. We'll meet again in four hours or when you leave this timeline. Keep clear of the body in case the Binding resurrects me. i'm..."
Everything faded out and went black. Grey knew what this meant. His *biological* physical organs- his brain and a chunk of spinal cord, had life support for a couple of hours as the emergency measures cut in. Since the only ones who knew where and who he was were some marionettes who did *not* have cyberdoc experience, that meant that he had total sensory deprivation for the next few hours at the end of which he simultaneously suffocated and starved to death. If the Binding was active he might resurrect, but likely wouldn't be in this timeline again. If the Binding was NOT active, he'd die and stay dead, going on to an Afterlife where he'd be judged for a lifetime of failure and incompetence. ~This sucks.~
---------
SMJ Timeline:
The Knight Of Duty had fallen a mere three hundred feet. When he landed, his Knight Armor had proved to be capable of withstanding jagged rocks and protecting him from most of the force of the fall.
The twisted spike of rebar, however, had been a different story. The Knight faded, leaving (to the consternation of those who came after) an albino boy of about fourteen years age.
Cameras had recorded the Knight being formed from Ginseng, and it was well known by certain viewers of those recordings that Ginseng had been the marionette created from memory tapes of a dimension travelling cyborg named Grey. The young albino had been neither, but Gennai suggested a theory that the albino had been the human who had become the cyborg. As there were no other rationales offered, this was accepted. What *really* got people going was that other than the pink eyes, white hair and skin, was the resemblence of the corpse to a fellow named Mamoru Tengoku.
The Mage and his girls had vanished, presumably back to the universe they had hailed from.
Otaru had absolutely no clue as to what to do about any of this, was ignored by almost everyone who didn't like what he had to say, and was singularly unequipped to run a country. Neither, for that matter, was Doctor Lorelei. New Texas was not the only country looking to snap up the leaderless country of Japonesse, and various factions within Japonesse were moving to further sunder the country into complete anarchy.
And then, two weeks after the Mage had left, the six year old clone-son of Ieyasu was found alive. Unfortunately, at this point, it was rather like lighting a match in a gas-filled room.
============
Oh my. Hardly the superpowered can-do-anything of the regular SI, is he? He is?! Oh...
Next chapter: the Pheonix Mage discovers that good intentions don't always pan out, Grey finds himself in an SI personal nightmare, and Celeste sweatdrops a lot.
