AN: For those wondering, Borneo is the island Kota Kinabalu is on, so the 'Borneo event' is Usagi's memory-affecting spellbomb.
((()))
"Alright girls," Lynette said as she studied the five Japanese schoolgirls standing in front of her, "Now where are you from?"
"Sussex," Minako replied immediately, the (concealed) spell upon her person allowing her to speak in near flawless Korean, the blonde managing to inflict a slight British accent upon her words.
"Amsterdam," Makoto said, "And I miss all the pastries."
"Japan!" Usagi said with a huge smile, "Nerima Ward in Tokyo!"
"East Timor," Rei said quietly, "Please do not accuse me of being Indonesian."
"Dubai," Ami said with a small smile, "in the United Arab Emirates."
"Right," Lyn said as she studied the modified features of the five girls, "We'll take each of you to visit your 'old home' once we've got a bit more time. Jaeger will probably handle that one each per afternoon after school, though I will if needed. We've checked, and there aren't any nationals from any of those countries but Japan at the school, so there shouldn't be anyone able to spot any holes in your stories. Just remember that before this, you all spent one year in Tokyo together. Keep your dates correct."
((()))
The Pentagon was a large building, and that space served many purposes. For the Minutemen, it also served the purpose of keeping a specific meeting room 'lost in the clutter,' and available for joint use when necessary.
"And with that," The Chief of Naval Operations declared, pinning three stars to the other man's uniform, "You're no longer just a member of a 'civlian militia.' Welcome to the service, Paul."
"Good to be on board," 'Paul Revere,' said as he saluted the other man, than seated himself at the table the rest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were already waiting at, "Can't say I wouldn't prefer it be under other circumstances, but needs must."
"Well then," The Chairman said, "Let's start with the current strength of the Minutemen, before we move on to the issues we're looking to deal with."
"There were roughly fifteen thousand active members of the Minutemen spread throughout the Union," Revere said, snapping his fingers to conjure an illusionary map of the USA, on which several red stars glowed, "These are our major bases, all heavily fortified via both mundane and supernatural means. After the Borneo event, we're down to barely two thousand actives, though our Telepaths are working on unlocking the memories of those who lost them. We estimate recovering to full strength will take three to six months. We can effectively field around a thousand men now, and should be adding in at least five hundred a week starting in a fortnight. Two of ours were already in the Secret Service, and I've already got a list of three score volunteers, about half of which I'd say are likely to pass vetting, to reinforce security in Washington."
"How many paranaturals are already in conventional military service?" The Vice-chairman asked.
"About fifty scattered through the various special forces teams," Revere said, "One man on Delta Force, and a couple hundred in more conventional roles. Ten of the men in the Rangers and Force Recon haven't made contact since the Borneo event, and about ninety percent of those in conventional roles, likewise. Simply ordering them to report for a meeting where we can send one of our Telepaths should get them their memories back in a few hours. I'll note we do have prepared training plans and doctrines for how to rapidly harden conventional military units against magical assault, in part by embedding Minutemen into units as Warrant Officers. Some have already trained for the role."
"How many?" The Commandant of the Marine Corps asked.
"Only a few score," Revere said with a slight grimace, "Not enough to work through the entire military anytime soon, but enough to handle the ballistic missile subs, key air defense assets, and start working through the crews of our Carriers. Just shuffling around personnel in the special forces units should secure those, due to Minutemen already amongst their ranks, and for the rest, we'll just have to wait."
"Is hiring outside experts to speed up doctrine and training rates feasible?" The Commandant pressed.
"Not right now," Revere said, shaking his head, "If not for the Borneo event, one of my lieutenants could probably give you the names of a few score private citizens and foreign professionals that we could trust, but as things are, getting in contact with, or even knowing if any of them remember the skills we need, it's just not feasible. We'll probably still see a handful of private citizens showing up to volunteer, but that won't make much difference on the scale we need."
"In short," the Chairman said, "We have enough to cover our essential bases, but little more. Now, all of us here have seen the reports from around the world, but you should be able to tell us what all these messes actually mean. What the hell is going on out there?"
"We're not sure whether this 'Black Moon Clan' is behind the Borneo event or not," Revere said with another grimace, "But at the least, they're competent opportunists. They've hit every continent except Antarctica, and whatever it is they're trying to accomplish with their attacks, most haven't been able to stop them. They're only hitting magical sites, but they're hitting at least four of them a day, possibly as many as twelve. We soundly repulsed them, though we took some losses in the process, and from what they've said, the Praetorians did likewise, though they'd never admit to anything else if they hadn't. The Order of Merlin bugged out rather than fight, which-"
"Excuse me," The Chief of Staff of the Army said, "But we're not familiar with those organizations. I assume they're the Romans and the Brits?"
"Yes sir," Revere said, shaking his head briefly, "Sorry about that. The Brits retreated, which given they're more an alliance of near-hermits than an actual structured organization, isn't surprising. They don't keep anything worth protecting in their meeting hall anyways. None of the other European magical societies have really had much teeth since '45, though nobody picks fights with the Scandinavians. In the one attack to hit Norway, the Skalds dropped an avalanche on the golem-swarm the Black Moon makes use of.
"If you're not familiar with the concept of a Golem, basically think of a magical robot. Usually too expensive to make in any number, the Black Moon Clan has deployed thousands of them over the last few days, and they comprise almost the entirety of their known forces. The rest would be the single mage, usually female, that accompanies each attack.
"Africa, as it pretty much always has been, is too much of a mess to have much intelligence out of. There's definitely been attacks there, and I'd tentatively say there's some actual truth to the rumors in mundane media about someone killing Mobutu and declaring themselves 'Wizard-King' of Congo, but that's not really something I think we need to worry about anytime soon. Native African practitioners generally stayed out of tribal politics, more loyal to their own associations than their tribes, and that hasn't changed much through the Colonial and Modern eras.
"South America's practitioners are a mixed bag, some following the old-school native traditions, some picking up the more utilitarian European styles; neither have fared well against the Black Moon attacks, as their local magical politics are so fractious that there aren't any real concentrations of power. About the only good thing to come out of that is a lot of the drug trade was hit hard in the attacks, destroying about half of the current network we know about, which probably means about a quarter of what there actually is.
"Australia, we don't even know if it's been hit. None of the major cities have any serious concentrations of mages, and their enclaves are so far in the outback, and so damn well hidden, that we'd have to send at least a Company's worth of detection-trained practitioners, which would seriously piss the aussies off.
"Asia… Asia is a mess. Most of the Russian magical community went into deep hiding during Stalin's regime, and what few converted to his cause died off. Either being killed when they found hidden magical settlements in the wild, or killed by Stalin for failing to do so. They keep diplomatic channels open with us, but would react even worse than the aussies if someone tried to locate their hidden settlements. 'Keep it secret, keep it safe' is a watchword over there.
"The Japanese and Chinese magical communities killed a lot of each other off during the Japanese occupation of China prior to World War Two, there were more Chinese practitioners, but the Japanese had more support from conventional forces. Hong Kong and Taiwan were both hit by the Black Moon clan, which really leads to possibly the largest problem created by all of this."
Revere paused, and took a deep breath before continuing.
"Both of those cities are very high population density, and the fighting spilled out onto the streets. Hundreds of civilians died, and tens of thousands directly witnessed a supernatural battle being fought, in each city. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, the 'veil of secrecy' has been broken, and with modern mass-media, the attacks continuing, and more than eighty percent of the magical community having lost their memory of all things supernatural, the cat's coming out of the bag. Ironically enough, the spell that made most forget about magic, is looking to be what will ultimately reveal it all to the world."
((()))
"What, you scared of a high school?" Caitlyn asked with a smirk, glancing over at the cat sitting in the tree beside her.
"A little bit," Jaeger replied as he stared out of the tree's foliage, towards Wild's High School, "Lynette's cover story for me is excellent, as usual, but it's sort of bait for bullies. Unless someone comes to school packing a tactical nuke, I doubt they'd actually be able to do anything to me, but it's still a whole lot of hassle I don't need."
"Boss," Caitlyn said, rolling her eyes, "You're going to be one of two boys in the entire school, and the other is a freshman, while you'll be a senior. You aren't going to have problems with being bully-bait, you're going to have problems with being estrogen-bait. Especially once some of them actually get to know you."
"...Well," Jaeger said, "That won't be so bad, I guess. I've dealt with interested girls before."
"Pushy interested girls?" Caitlyn asked.
"You," Jaeger replied flatly.
Caitlyn laughed so hard she nearly fell out of the tree before she managed to respond.
"I'm not pushy," she eventually said, "I'm persistent. If at least one of those girls doesn't try to grab you by the shoulders and kiss you, with no invitation, I'd be shocked."
"...Thanks for the warning?" Jaeger half-said, half-asked, "I suppose I should be glad I'm still decent in a grapple."
"Come on then," Caitlyn said, sweeping the cat up into her arms, before hopping down out of the tree, "Let's go watch this tournament of theirs."
((()))
"What a thug," Makoto growled as they watched a tanned boy with white hair pound a judo practitioner rather ruthlessly into the floor.
"Ugh," Minako said, "Well I'm glad he's not a student."
"Why aren't they stopping him?" Usagi asked, shivering in her seat.
"It is a martial arts tournament," Makoto said, "She knew she was risking that when she entered the ring. Until she taps out or-okay, she's tapped out now-" Makoto winced as several more blows rained down before the boy stopped and the referee nearly disqualified the boy for it."
In the second ring, a pretty green-haired Wushu user began a highly acrobatic match with a shorter brunette Tae Kwon Do user. It occupied the five disguised Japanese schoolgirls' attention, until the next contestant for the first ring came out.
"Dibs!" Minako half-shouted as a tall, shirtless boxer wearing a knit hat walked out into the ring.
He had very well defined musculature
"That's Lee Mi Nam," Makoto said after a quick glance over at the electronic scoreboard, "He's a nationally-ranked boxer for his age group… I want to fight him."
Rei rolled her eyes but said nothing; Usagi started to day dream, and Ami realized that her odds of getting a date while hanging out with the two more extroverted girls were probably around nil.
Then the 'fight' started, and Minako groaned as the thug who'd won the prior match began landing blow after blow on the taller boxer.
"I thought you said he was a good boxer?" Minako complained, glancing over at Makoto.
"He is," the taller Senshi said, "He's holding back, I can see it in his moves. I'm not sure why he's letting that thug hit him, but-"
Makoto cut off, and all five of the girls strained their ears and tried to pick up what was being said by the two boys in the ring, but the crowd noise was too loud, and they didn't exactly have the closest seats in the first place. Perhaps half a minute of chatter passed between the two fighters, then Mi Nam moved.
Moments later, the tanned thug was unconscious on the edge of the ring.
"I'm going to go find a date!" Minako declared, jumping out of her seat and running down to lay an ambush in the boys locker room.
"Too soon!" Makoto said with a smile, "He's not done fighting yet. I'll arrange a da- I mean a spar with him once he's done..."
"Where was Minako off to?" Caitlyn asked as she walked up, looking back over her shoulder at the entrance the blonde had rushed out of.
"Trying to arrange her first date in Korea," Rei said with a hint of sarcasm as she turned to look at the older woman, and found, to some surprise, that there was a young man who appeared to be a teenager of mixed asian/islander ethnicity walking beside Caitlyn.
He could have passed for a Filipino, but he was about six inches too tall for that.
"Jaeger?" Ami asked quietly as Caitlyn took Minako's former seat, and the boy sat next to her.
"Yeah," He said, offering her an awkward smile, "Hope the shape isn't too confusing. How's the tournament been so far?"
"You should ask Makoto," Ami said with a faint shrug, "She understands what is happening much better than I."
The older boy leveled a thoughtful gaze at her for several long moments, before turning his attention back to the rings below, where Jae-Gu Song was walking out to face Lee Mi Nam.
"I could," Jaeger said, "If I wanted a technical evaluation. I'd like your impression of it though, skilled observer or not."
Ami looked over at Jaeger, not entirely sure what was motivating his question, but ultimately seeing no reason not to answer.
"It's… different," she started hesitantly, turning her eyes back down to the ring as she spoke, "Exciting, and impressive to see how skilled some of them are, but also frightening. Some of them get hit very hard."
"Have you noticed how they take the hits?" Jaeger asked watching as the Wushu student, Go Seul, soundly defeated her opponent, and intimidated the rest of the hopefuls in her bracket into dropping out.
"...Very well, I think," Ami said after a moment's thought, "They all seem to ignore physical pain. Words seem to affect them more than bruises or bleeding. Is that normal for martial artists?"
"Amongst those who take their pursuit of the art seriously," Jaeger replied, "Physical pain is, ultimately, your body informing you something is wrong. We shy away from it instinctively as a means of self-protection, but training, both physical and psychological, can change the way a person reacts to pain. We develop a higher 'pain threshold,' or even just learn to ignore it altogether. Neither is an easy or fun thing to learn, but can be very valuable in adverse circumstances. Part of why most skilled martial artists tend to do well in other parts of life, is because they've learned that unpleasant experiences are to be overcome, rather than avoided, if the objective is worth it. Not something many young adults learn in this day and age in modern cultures."
Ami looked at Jaeger oddly for a moment, but said nothing. The unusual goings-on in ring below soon distracted both of them anyways; Lee Mi Nam withdrew from the fight with Jae-Gu Song, in spite of very clearly outclassing him. Ami had no idea why he'd done such a thing, but once the next fighter, a shorter redhead, entered the ring, the why became entirely clear to Jaeger.
"This is something of a grudge match," Jaeger said as he studied the fight intensely, eyes focusing in with borderline-supernatural acuity.
"How do you know?" Ami asked quietly, voice so soft natural hearing would scarcely have been able to pick her voice up.
"How hard they're going at each other, and body language," Jaeger said, "They aren't fighting like they're trying to win a contest, the redhead is fighting like he's trying to dominate Jae-Gu, and Jae-Gu is fighting like he's got something to prove."
A loud 'crack' cut through the air, and the audience briefly quieted.
"...and that blow was both deliberate and illegal," Jaeger concluded with a wince, eyes widening slightly in surprise, "It's not doing much for my opinion of the refs, that they didn't disqualify him for that."
"Why are elbows illegal?" Ami asked.
"Because it's an unpadded blow," Jaeger said, "And it hits with most of the force of a fist. It's like the difference between banging your knee into the padded armrest of a couch, and banging it into the corner of a table. Higher-level competitions allow it, but rookies come to fights like this."
The fight began again, the two combatants, both quite clearly novices with just enough training to have a decent idea what they were doing, if not necessarily do it well, trying to beat the snot out of each other. The redhead had gained something of an advantage over Jae-Gu, who apparently had been slowed down by the elbow blow (not to mention blood seeping down from his forehead to cover a good third of his face). Jae-Gu, however, would not go down, and the redhead began heaping abuse on his opponent, shouting loud enough to be heard even over the crowd, which quieted a bit in sheer shock at the things he was saying.
"And now," Jaeger said grimly, "He shows his true colors."
"'Slave?'" Ami said, more than a little horror in her voice, "How can he call someone such things?"
"I know it's lonely," Jaeger said with a sigh, "But he's just more openly showing the attitude a lot of people subscribe to in life, and particularly in high school. 'I know how important I am, by how much I put you down.' Ask the other girls if you don't believe me-"
A thundering right cross knocked the redhead out cold.
"I think I need to go talk with some of my underclassmen."
Ami watched for a moment as Jaeger stood and left, then turned to look over at the other girls.
"There's a reason I got into so many fights," Makoto said grimly.
"It's usually less physically violent for girls," Caitlyn said quietly, "But I saw that sort of thing all the time in high school."
"It was less tolerated at the Catholic school I attended," Rei said quietly, "But it was certainly present. There is a reason I have no friends in that institution."
The fourth said nothing, and after a few moments, Ami poked Usagi in the shoulder, and the blonde finally looked away from the arena below.
"That was so sad," Usagi said as she turned to look at the others, "But also so manly! I don't know how to react!"
((()))
I caught the redhead as he was backing out of one of the locker rooms, trying to bluster past his obvious fear; I caught a glimpse of a furious Jae-Gu staring him down, and waited beore the kid closed the door before grabbing him. Specifically, grabbing him by the collar, and hoisting him off his feet.
"Nice to see the freshman getting some self-respect back," I said as I idly ignored the redhead's thrashing attempts to break free of my grip, "He handled your bullshit pretty well, all said and done."
"What the hell-" he snarled, but I cut him off by shaking him up and down a little, then spinning him around to face me.
I hadn't made this body as tall as I had originally been, but it was still tall enough to intimidate the hell out of him, if the fact I was holding him up with a single hand hadn't already been.
"Jae-Gu back there is the first male student at Wilds'," I informed him flatly, "I'm the second, and I'm a senior, not a freshman. I'm still recovering from an injury-" I paused a moment to hoist him up until his eyes were even with mine, "So my strength isn't quite what it used to be, but I still think it's more than enough to teach a foolish young man like you a thing or two. Two lessons:
"First, if you try to pull crap like this around here again, I'll hit you where it really hurts. I'll pass video and audio of the crap you get up to to your parents, to the police, and to the media. You think you're hot shit because you can push around someone who life has already taken a shit on? Wait until you see what happens when society at large decides your a thug, or possibly a 'deserving target.'
"Second, it may give you a thrill, make you feel like a 'big man' when you put down someone else, but it's not doing you any favors-"
He landed a punch on my nose; I glared at him for a moment before continuing.
"-It's just messing your head up. Abusing power is like a drug, it's addicting, it feeds into the desire for itself, and it ultimately shits your life up. Do you know anyone who you'd trust to have your back if, say, Lee Mi Nam decided to beat the shit out of you? Do you know anyone who, if you became a 'loser,' would actually still spend time with you? Basing your self-worth on how you can piss on other people might be degrading to them, but it's even more degrading to you, because you know what it says about you?"
He replied with another blow, this time trying to kick me in the nuts; he hit the thigh instead, but I gave him a good shake to dissuade him from trying again.
"It says that you need them in order to feel like you're worth anything. And you know what? I can tell you that Jae-Gu Song? He needs you about as much as a dog needs fleas, and you matter about as much to him."
I dropped him.
"Now get lost, and try to un-screw your life."
He ran; I turned and entered the locker room. It was time to meet my sole underclassman.
((()))
The Moon is not generally a place where people should be living; it's either brutally cold or lethally hot, depending on if you're on the day or night side, the gravity is unhealthily low, and most of all, there's no atmosphere. Generally, it's best to avoid such environments unless one is capable of cheating death outrageously.
Nephrite was thoroughly enjoying his stroll on the surface of the moon; while he no longer had the Metallia-fueled irrational hatred of the Silver Millenium that he once had, as a noble, he still appreciated seeing that his historic rivals had most certainly lost the 'game of houses.' He'd have preferred their downfall be less brutally horrific, of course, but that was thousands of years past, and he had little emotional energy left for focusing on such things.
After all, Metallia had been just as hard on the Golden Kingdom.
Finding the Black Moon Clan's base of operations hadn't been particularly hard; there wasn't much in the way of magical activity on the Moon, and the colonials reeked of Darkness magic, much like Metallia, though they didn't share that particular parasite's obsession with Destruction magic. They did share Metallia's lax understanding of that arcane concept known as 'Security' however, and Nephrite was able to enter their base by the simple expedient of walking through the magical field that held into an atmosphere, then opening one of the rather elaborately-engraved doors, and stepping into the carved-stone structure.
"Not bad," Nephrite mused as he studied the décor, a plush gray carpet covering the floor of a double-wide hallway, the walls etched with modern Japanese katakana, "Could use some color though."
Wandering about the base eventually lead to him making contact with one of its residents, though he did have a 'false start' when he ran into one of their golems, which had apparently been assigned to cleaning detail. Given that it didn't react to his presence, Nephrite decided to take the opportunity to study the thing, examining the spell matrices and materials which comprised its construction. In the end , there was nothing particularly impressive about their capabilities, though the manner of their creation was somewhat surprising. Rather than being actual enchanted objects, they were crafted of conjured materials, and maintained via a surprisingly small amount of magical energy.
"Marvelously efficient," Nephrite remarked as an actual human being approached him, "For Colonials."
"Who are you?" demanded a dark-haired, pale-skinned young man with a black crescent tattooed upside down onto his forehead, "And how did you get in here?"
"I am an emissary of the Golden Kingdom," Nephrite said with a smile as he turned to face the other man, "I arrived via walking, and I wish to speak with your leader."
"...Walking," the other man said with some amusement, "You are aware, perhaps, that we are currently on the moon?"
"That certainly would appear to be the case," Nephrite said with a faint smile, "I do hope I haven't come such a long way to be disappointed. I did try to send a message ahead, but none of the current delivery services reach this far into orbit."
"I see," the other man said, "Well, I suppose I may as well take you to speak with my brother. After all, if you were able to arrive without our knowledge, we can hardly expect to keep you from doing so again, can we?"
"Entirely possible," Nephrite replied.
((()))
When Jaeger stepped into the locker room to meet his underclassman, he found a very strange sight. Jae-Gu had apparently fallen asleep on the bare floor, and two of the Wilds' female students had fallen asleep on either side of them. Not only that, but he was apparently the second person to find them like that, a tall blonde girl, accompanied by two young children, was staring down at the odd site, and with ill-concealed displeasure.
"Hello," Jaeger said, "I'm J. Gates, and I'm just transferring in. I was hoping to meet the only other male student here, but it looks like he's out cold. Who might you be?"
The blonde turned to look at him, her expression sliding into an indifferent mask, she didn't speak immediately, and the the children with her took the opportunity to speak on her behalf.
"She's Queen!" The girl said, "She's the best!"
"Ah," Jaeger replied with a nod, "Ingui Yoon; how do you prefer to be addressed?"
"Queen is appropriate from one such as you," She replied, her voice not disdainful, but certainly not implying in any way that she held him in any particular regard either.
"Right then," Jaeger said with a nod, "Nice to meet you, Queen; who are you two?"
He directed the last at the pair of children with Queen.
"I'm Hyung!" The boy said.
"I'm Som!" The girl said.
Jaeger studied the two for a long moment before speaking.
"Song's younger siblings?" He half-stated, half-guessed.
The twins nodded synchronously.
"You must be a friend of the family then," Jaeger said, turning his attention back to Ingui, "Where are the rest of the family?"
It was subtle, but Queen's facial expression abruptly became much more hostile; Jaeger reacted swiftly.
"I guess they're all heavily involved with family business?" Jaeger asked, "I know how that can be, I guess. Are you fighting today?"
Queen shook her head slowly.
"I've heard you're the best in your age group," Jaeger said with a nod of respect, "I know a few girls who will be interested in testing that out at some point. Me too, at some point, of course, but that'll have to wait until I've finished recovering."
Queen tilted her head slightly, studying Jaeger's body up and down for a moment before returning her gaze to meet his.
"You do not look like you've been injured recently," She said.
"Head injury," Jaeger said with a depreciating smile, "Got clipped by a bullet; no permanent damage, but it had me down for a while."
Ever so slightly, Queen's expression shifted again, and she opened her mouth slightly, before glancing down at the children still holding her hands.
"Yeah, we can talk about it later," Jaeger said with a faint smile, "If you spend much time around the kid," he nodded towards the sleeping Song on the floor, "You'll be seeing me around. Anyways, I should get going, the rest of my group is probably looking for me."
So saying, he turned and left.
((()))
"I can't say I've ever heard of a 'Golden Kingdom,'" 'Prince' Demande, the apparent leader of the Black Moon Clan said, "And see little reason why I should treat you as a foreign dignitary, rather than a particularly prolific vagabond."
"You would do well to study your history then," Nephrite said with a faint smile, one that came just short of mocking, "The Golden Kingdom was so-named because it was the first to rule a unified Earth, though this is ancient history to most, it is still important history. We were, after all the ones to found the colonies that you are descended from."
Nephrite stood in a grand throne room, one which gave a strong impression of vast emptiness, due to being occupied by scarcely more than a half-dozen individuals. Saphir, the young man who had found Nephrite, stood between Demande and Nephrite; an un-named individual in a hooded robe stood beside the throne in the traditional position of an advisor, and three women stood against one of the chamber's walls.
All of them were mages, and none of them of inconsequential power, though only Demande could potentially rival Nephrite himself, and none of them were a patch on Beryl. All of them reeked of Darkness magic, though none more than the advisor, and none less than Saphir.
"...You speak of the Earth Kingdom," Saphir said thoughtfully, "The ancient rival of the Silver Millenium?"
"...The Earth Kingdom?" Nephrite said in genuine surprise, and no small amount of disgust, "That's what they call it in your history books? The Earth Kingdom? I might as well call you lot the 'Moon and Planets Queendom!' Do your historians have no respect?!"
"I suspect it is more a matter of lacking information," Saphir said hastily, "Very little survives from a kingdom eleven thousand years gone."
"Eleven thousand years," Nephrite said sharply, "So you are time travelers. It appears more than your historians are lacking; the Silver Millenium I knew would never have permitted such incompetence."
"You think you have the right to judge us?" Demande replied, his voice just as sharp, "You know nothing of our reasons for coming to the past, and nothing of what we intend to accomplish when we return-"
"There will BE no return!" Nephrite shouted, uncharacteristic anger coloring his face, "You cannot change the past without undoing the future you come from! Did they teach nothing of temporal mechanics to mages in your time?"
"That is no affair of yours," Demande said coldly, "We are here, and we have our purpose. What is your purpose here?"
"To more direct business then," Nephrite said, his countenance calming once more, "Which is quite simple. You will cease your attacks upon Earth, or I shall put an end to them for you. Earth is under the protection of the Golden Kingdom, even if we have not yet reasserted full control."
Demande opened his mouth, fire in his eyes, but then hesitated, glancing over his shoulder at his advisor.
"Wiseman?" He called, and the figure stepped forward, studying Nephrite carefully.
"He is skilled," Wiseman said, his voice a quiet rasp, "Tell me, emissary of the 'Golden Kingdom,' what do you know of Metallia?"
"She became more trouble than she was worth," Nephrite said smoothly, "So she was disposed of. Permanently."
A rasping, croaking laughter emerged from Wiseman's hood, and he retreated back behind the throne.
"He bluffs, my prince," Wiseman said, "Only the ignorant or foolish would claim to have slain Metallia."
Demande opened his mouth to speak again, but then hesitated one moment more.
Nephrite was smiling. It was a smile of satisfaction, it was a smile of amusement, but more than anything else, it was a smile of confidence. Demande mentally shook himself, assured in the counsel of Wiseman, and pressed on.
"Your demands are rejected," Demande said flatly, "I will not be cowed by a single man, competent though he may be. You would do well not to attempt interference in our interests, or you will suffer our wrath."
"Ah," Nephrite said whimsically, stepping back and allowing his cape to furl around him, taking the right edge in hand as he spoke, "The voice of ignorance. Once, child, I was a healer; now I am a king, but between the two, I was a General, and I learned the ways of war."
His smile turned predatory.
"And henceforth child," Nephrite continued, sweeping his cape back, "I shall educate you in the ways of war. Pay attention, for few survive making the same mistake twice."
So saying, he swept his cape forward around himself, and disappeared from the face of the Moon.
((()))
"So what is this child's name?" The officer asked patiently.
"I'm not sure," Mamoru said, mostly succeeding in holding on to his patience, "'Nelly' is all I've been able to get out of her."
"Nelly is Dimi's Aunt!" the girl said 'helpfully,' and Mamoru rolled his eyes.
"Is that true?" The officer asked.
"...I've never met her before," Mamoru said cautiously, "But my parents died when I was quite young. I never knew my mother's parents, so it's possible. Not very likely though."
"Well," The officer said, "Leave your contact information with the officer at the front desk; we'll get ahold of you if it turns out to be true."
((()))
After the briefing had been completed, and some degree of socialization thereafter petered out, Revere was left to speak with the Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs alone, on a more specific subject.
"The politicians tried to force someone to join up," The Chief said, gesturing for Revere to follow him to his office, "It took some finagling for me to get the Secretary to show me the footage of what actually happened, but it looked like someone got heavy-handed trying to pull a PR coup. What do you know about parallel dimensions?"
"They exist," Revere said, some distaste in his voice, "And generally you don't want to mess with them. They're not inherently nasty, but every incident we've got records on, ended bittersweet at best."
"So," The Chief said, "If a man claims to be from a parallel version of America?"
"Could very well be true," Revere replied, "This was one of the individuals involved with the Borneo event?"
"The leader of the team that was working with the Japanese after the event," the Chief said as they entered his office, "He made contact with the Forrestal's carrier group just off the coast, and arranged for a more intentional meeting on Okinawa. That's where they essentially tried to conscript him; he reacted poorly."
"Not surprising," Revere said, shaking his head as he took a seat in front of the Chief's desk, "His team took on a Praetorian Strike Team, outnumbered if what I've heard is right, and won. He was basically fighting the equivalent of magical Navy Seals; if he really is from another plane, then he was either one of the major movers present there, or a pretty serious Hermit."
"Hermit?" the Chief asked.
"A common term in the magical world for someone who is basically a private practitioner," Revere said, shaking his head, "Part of the nature of the personal power that being a practitioner grants, is that people with it tend more towards independence and self-reliance, or in extremes, megalomania. Hermits are practitioners who care little for the politics or social structures of the magical world, they simply want to pursue their practice in private. Given how much concealment magic there is out there, some of them can be damned hard to find, and a very few of them can be very powerful."
Paul paused for a moment to sigh.
"Once every century or two, one of the more powerful Hermits will choose to throw their lot into politics, or a war in progress, and it's a bit like someone walking up to a chess game in progress, and sticking a purple queen onto the what happened in Borneo, I'm not surprised one of them decided it was worth looking into."
"What kind of threat level are we looking at here?" the Chief asked, "He claimed to be able to fabricate nuclear weapons on-demand."
Revere winced.
"That's possible," He said cautiously, "Transmutation of elements is possible, though very difficult. I'd be surprised if more than a hundred people on the planet could manage it, before the Borneo event. They'd have to understand what Uranium actually is in order to make it, which is why so few would be capable, but it is possible. That's one of the things that the magical community heavily self-polices on, and sane organizations have agreed no practitioners in the muslim world are allowed to know.
"Honestly, the fact that he could be capable of that worries me less than the fact that he had a team. A team of Hermits working together, each powerful enough to survive a clash with a Praetorian Strike Team, that's managed to stay below the radar this far? The real danger there is that they know how to hide groups of people, and the fact that if whatever caused the Borneo Event was still there, they're the ones who walked away with it."
((()))
Beryl's scream woke Kimiko, who came tearing out of the guest-room, head full of half-formed thoughts of magical ninja attacking her friend. What she found, however, was Beryl, terror in her eyes, bedding soaked with sweat, and nothing else readily visible in her room.
Oh kami, I hope this isn't PTSD, Kimiko thought furiously as she skirted around the bed to take Beryl's hands in her own. She cringed inside when Beryl flinched at being touched, but it did draw the taller woman's attention on to her, breaking the thousand-yard stare she'd been displaying thus far.
"What was it?" Kimiko asked, before shaking her head, "Whatever it was, it was a dream; you're safe at home now."
Beryl panted heavily, eyes flickering around the room; Kimiko retrieved one of her hands to flip on the overhead light, before returning it to hold both of her friend's again.
"I," Beryl eventually said, "I don't remember."
((()))
"...Is there a reason you haven't already healed her?" Lynette asked as she examined the catatonic child's body in front of her.
"There's no soul in the body," Jaeger said with a wince, before lifting up the half-melted TV he'd taken from Makoto's apartment, "She was a victim of possession, and when I tried to get the possessing soul out, I accidentally got both.I don't know why exactly, so if I try to stick her soul back in, odds are decent that the possessor will be returned as well, and if it comes to be in control of a healthy body, that'll be trouble."
"Or," Lynette said, a small smile in her voice and on her lips, "You could try to split the souls into two different inanimate objects, and keep trying until you succeed, then put the poor girl's soul back into her own body when you've succeeded at that."
"...Right," Jaeger said, reaching up to rub his face with the palm of his hand, "Or the obvious solution, yeah. There's also the issue that her father is willingly possessed and plotting an invasion of this dimension by a being along the lines of Cthulu, but we can deal with that after we're no longer carrying around the literal soul-devouring TV.
"Quite," Lynette said with a smile, "I'll take care of healing the body, you work on getting her soul back where it belongs.
((()))
It took my construct three attempts to get one soul, but not the other out of an inanimate object. I moved them first from the slagged TV into a Tomato, then into a Bowling Pin, before finally getting Mistress 9 Soul into an Ukelele. It took three days of recharging Zeon to finally manage the split, then put Hotaru back into her own body; Lynette repaired her body (including regrowing non-cybernetic arms and legs) in about twenty seconds.
Made me feel like a rather severe underachiever.
Still, I eventually did get her soul back into her restored body, which just left me two issues to deal with on that front The soul of an eldritch horror stuck in an Ukelele, and what to do with a traumatized thirteen-year-old I'd sort-of kidnapped.
((()))
When Hotaru woke up, she immediately felt different. It wasn't a painful, or even particularly intense thing at first, but it was pervasive. She felt different in her head, in her chest, in her arms, in her legs, in her…
Hotaru snapped upright, throwing off the bedding covering her, and looked down at her hands. Two hands made of flesh. The left was a perfect mirror to the right, at least until she brought it close enough to look at her fingerprints; those were different, but nothing else that she could tell was, including the amount of control and muscle in each. She knew, from looking into what people in normal physical therapy went through, that usually it took weeks or months to recover full control and strength after a major accident.
Something that, apparently, she wouldn't have to suffer through. A wiggling of toes proved that, as best could be without a visual inspection, her leg and foot had been restored as well; she left off checking on that for having a look at the room around her though.
She was in a small western-style bedroom, with a bed, dresser, bedside table, and a plushly padded chair. The chair was currently occupied by an older woman with Filipino features, who had a book in one hand, while the other stroked the enormous cat laid across her lap. Seeing the cat brought back a rush of memory, reminding her what had happened the last time she had seen it.
"Good morning Hotaru," the woman said warmly in flawless Japanese, "Are you feeling well?"
Hotaru nodded worldessly.
"Good," the woman said with a smile, "I am the primary healer for our organization, and I'm happy to inform you that the exorcism, though complicated a bit, has been successful. You shouldn't have any more problems with blackouts. I decided to deal with some older health issues you had while we had you, I assume you don't mind?"
Hotaru shook her head numbly.
"Good," the woman said, "Now, I'm sure you'll have other questions you'd like to ask, but I'll leave those to our mutual friend here."
So saying, she (with some effort) lifted the cat off of the chair and her lap, plunked it down on Hotaru's bed, then left the room.
Hotaru and the cat stared at each other for a while.
"What happened?" Hotaru eventually asked, more than a little confused.
"The exorcism didn't take right the first time," The cat said, "I had to stick your soul in a bowling pin for a while, and the eldritch horror's soul ended up in an Ukelele. You want a souvenir?"
Hotaru was no less confused.
((()))
