See 1st chapter for Disclaimer
READ AND REVIEW
LINKS IN PROFILE
Halloween World: No Way Home by AkatsukiDaybreak
Twisting the Hellmouth DOT ORG /Story-16199
Halloween World: World Wide Weird by Weaver
.org/Story-16467
Halloween World: Strange Bedfellows by Aesop
.org/Story-16545
Halloween World: Snapshots of the Hallow Earth
.org/Story-16635
Halloween World: Records of Chaos by Weaver Plus
.org/Story-16804
Halloween World: Crossroads by AkatsukiDaybreak Plus
.org/Story-16848
A challenge for people who want to write Halloween World side stories.
Halloween World - Side Stories in the Eternal Night
.org/Challenge-3717
NEWS
Halloween World: Twelve Years Later by Weaver
Summary: A lot can happen in twelve years
.org/Story-17407
Halloween World: Emerald Hope's Bulletin Board
Summary: Set in spaceman's "Halloween World" AU. Tips on surviving Northwest Florida under the Red Sky.
.org/Story-17792
BETA READER: WEAVER
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CHAPTER 33- HALLOWEEN WORLD WAR Part 16
- THE SECOND RETURN PART 5
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August 21, 2014
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SUNNYDALE HOSPITAL
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Xander Cho Hakkai Harris walks into the Hospital as he has for every day since its construction. Pre-Halloween '97, most people would stare at a young doctor who wears green, a headband, and multiple ear cuffs like a punk rocker, but the people of Sunnydale know the headband and ear cuffs are youkai power limiters. They suppress Xander's monstrous youki, which would kill his patients at a hundred meters from the intensity alone.
A young Nurse walks over to Xander and hands him a cup of green liquid, which Xander recognizes as Pre-Headache Medicine, a herbal mixture designed to prevent stress-related headaches while on the job.
"What's the problem, Nurse Jungle?'
"There was a Party on Bald Mountain. A loud drunken party that caused many injuries."
"I may know anatomy better than geography, but wasn't Bald Mountain relocated to Makai from Eastern Europe, since it was considered a threat to the Midlands?"
"Several of Chernobog's portal makers got plastered and opened a portal to the south of Sunnydale."
Chernobog, the Slavonic mythological equivalent of Satan, is the master of Bald Mountain. They have major parties every Halloween night, when all the demons and spirits gather, but they also have other parties since they started inviting more diverse creatures. His Kappa hanyou friend Sha Gojyo managed to get invited to the '08 Halloween Party and said "If there was any more alcohol, it would be flowing down the mountain like lava from a volcano." The red-haired hanyou isn't much of a drinker, preferring tobacco and girls, but there were hundreds of drunken youkai and hanyou girls at the party. It was like Spring Break for demons.
"Any special characters amongst them?"
Special characters refer to sentient creatures with high power levels and/or influence, the main or important secondary characters to any work of fiction.
"Other than the portal makers, they were mostly cult followers. Dionysus, Aizen Myo-o, Ishtar, Qetesh, and Kamadeva on the Divine. Some of the Succubi and Seikima's people on the Makai side," explains the Nurse. "The most notable person is that guy over there."
Xander looks where she indicates and sees a dark figure sitting in one of the waiting room chairs. He's a tall, lean muscular man of Arabic origins with dark eyes, dark skin, and long jet black hair. He's dressed in the black and dark red clothing of a Middle Eastern warrior with a curved sword at his side and a bow and quiver of arrows on his back. Xander also pays special attention to the red markings on the warrior's skin and the black lamp symbol surrounded by red on his shoulder.
"One of Jafar's men?"
Jafar was the Grand Vizier to the Sultan of Agrabah, who tried to take over Agrabah. He tried to brainwash the Sultan so he could marry the Princess Jasmine and he tried to obtain vast magical power using a magic lamp containing a Genie. In both cases, he was defeated by a cunning street boy named Aladdin. When Jafar finally managed to steal the lamp, he wished to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world and almost killed Aladdin, until the child of the streets tricked Jafar by telling him how much more powerful the Genie was than a Sorcerer. When Jafar wished to become a Genie, he was bound by the rules of the lamp and imprisoned. When Jafar was later released, he tried to get revenge, but his lamp was destroyed which destroyed him.
Jafar awoke in the world of Halloween, a fusion of powerful sorcerer and Arabian Jinn, the creatures of smokeless flame that became Genies in modern mythology. Jafar tried to establish a Middle Eastern empire, but was defeated by the heroes also created with Halloween's power. He was part of the Dark Council creating his Desert Warriors, until he was finally destroyed by the Three Prince Alliance.
"Yes. He's one of the few surviving Jafar Desert Warriors. Most of them died when Jafar did because of a magical connection he shared with them. This one, Amon Jin, survived because he was in an extremely high density magical area at the time of Jafar's destruction. It sealed the link and allowed him to survive."
"So what's the problem?'
"He slept with a girl and the link connected to her. He's worried that the link could be influencing him, her, or both of them."
A young woman with blue eyes, pale skin, and long blonde hair sits down next to the warrior. She's dressed in a simple red dress with a few pieces of jewelry. Xander notes the slightly pointed ears and dragon and thorns symbols on the jewelry.
"One of Maleficent's Princess Hunters!?"
Maleficent was a sorceress, the self-proclaimed, "mistress of all evil" and main antagonist in Walt Disney's 1959 adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. She is viewed as one of the most powerful and sinister of the Disney villains. Maleficent first appeared in King Stefan's castle by means of supernatural teleportation during the christening of Stefan's daughter, Aurora. Maleficent, upon learning she wasn't invited cursed the child to die after pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. The sorceress's time in her own world ended when the heroic prince Phillip with help of the good fairies threw his enchanted sword into her heart, mortally wounding her as she fell forwards and her heavy weight causes a cliff to collapse on top of her.
Maleficent also tried to create a magic kingdom in Northern Europe, but was defeated by the heroes. She also joined the Dark Council and created her own breed of magic warriors, until she was finally killed in a Midland battle.
The Princess Hunters are magic creatures created from the blood of fairies and based on the various Disney Princesses. Unlike Jafar's warriors who were designed to fight high war on hot desert battlegrounds, the Princess Hunters were designed for espionage and assassination. They would become close friends with heroines and lovers to heroes, and then kill them. Their loyalty was ensured by a magical link, which would kill them if severed.
"She was seducing a young mage when Maleficent was destroyed. The mage was broken by the betrayal, but he saved her life and allowed her to gain a soul of her own. Aurora, named after the Sleeping Princess, was so consumed by guilt that she transported herself to Makai, expecting to end up in hell."
"Why do I have the bad feeling that I know what the situation is going to be?"
"Because the gods of fertility have been extremely active and there were many followers at that party," replies the Nurse.
"How many?"
"Four. Six months since both engineered mature faster than normal humans," answers the Nurse.
"I thought the Council made sentient creatures sterile to prevent parenting instincts from interfering with killer instincts."
"Fertility magic."
"That's always your answer."
Xander notices a zombie reading a newspaper, which must be difficult since he's missing one eye and the other is cloudy yellow. His bony fingers also damage the edges of the paper and his head is at an odd angle. The rotting flesh on his bones is extremely soft, but clear plastic prevents it from ruining the chairs.
"One of the Horned King's."
"As in the dark council's Prydain Lich, instead of the pagan Celtic god Cernunnos," adds Xander. "Black Cauldron-born undead. He was killed and the Cauldron destroyed in the Midlands, but several undead had absorbed enough supernatural energies to remain active."
"This one regained his intelligence and is looking for a new body."
"Any more of the Disney Crowd?"
"The blonde version of Alice from Alice in Wonderland 1951 is in surgery. She got in a fight with the brunette version from American McGee's Alice. The blonde is obsessed with logic and reason, coming off as arrogant. The brunette has been unstable since she was orphaned when her parents were burned alive in an accidental fire caused by her cat Dinah. Our world of Eternal Halloween amplified those natures into madness, but the brown-haired Alice is far more dangerous."
"Who's the surgeon?"
"Black Jack. We needed someone with his skills to replace the damaged organs."
"Anything else?"
"Dr. Fran Madaraki is talking about Stitch."
"Stitch. Genetic experiment 626 created by "evil genius" Dr. Jumba Jookiba, with the genes of the galaxy's strongest and most ferocious creatures. He was sentenced to exile on a desert asteroid, but escaped and crash-landed in Kaua'i, Hawaii. Disguising himself as a dog, 626 was adopted by a little girl named Lilo, who named him "Stitch"."
"Good memory. The alien bio-weapon was deported to a small island off Hawaii after the Meat-Lover's Massacre. In that, Stitch ate over a thousand animals including six donkeys that used to spoiled children and a deer named Bambi while the sentient animal was begging for its life."
Xander remembers the recording of the Massacre. The donkeys couldn't talk because of the curse they were under, but they wore some clothing and you could see the fear in their eyes. Bambi, still a faun, was screaming in pain and begging for mercy, as he was slowly devoured by a blue furry creature. Bambi cried for his mother a few seconds before he finally died and there was a loud high pitched cry of "VENISON!"
"Why wasn't he terminated??"
"A long history of heroics on his earth and it was determined he went feral. The insanity plea," says the Nurse, "He's no longer a cute blue alien genetic creation standing three feet tall, resembling a koala with antenna and four arms. He's grown since then due to our world's unique environment and is now over six feet tall and nastier than most Halloween Horrors."
"What's the news?'
"Lillo has grown to a woman in her twenties. After the death of his girlfriend 624 Angel, he began closer to Lillo."
"Doesn't ANYONE use Condoms!!" says Xander, covering his face and grateful for the headache medicine. He then blushes when he realizes he shouted those words and everyone is looking at him, with most looking guilty.
"Madaraki says she hasn't seen bio-weapon love since one of her patients, an assassin, fell in love with another government's weapon."
"Anything else?'
"Donald Duck will arrive tomorrow. The Kingdom Hearts court wizard of Disney Castle is coming to pick up his traumatized nephews."
Xander knows how weird his life is when he's got an appointment with an anthropomorphic duck.
"Traumatized??"
"Scrooge McDuck got caught trying to sell his nephews to an Eldritch evil for an actual mountain of gold."
"What!?"
"The cosmic horror used Scrooge's sin of greed to manipulate his mind. He had already stripped the boys and painted them with blood when the Hunters arrived. He was about to disembowel them with the ceremonial dagger, when the ritual was stopped."
"I thought we got rid of most of the horrors when New England and the towns of Arkham, Dunwitch, Innsmouth and Kingsport ended up in another dimension. So how are they handling him?"
"They've removed the horror's astral tentacles and are now cleansing his body, mind, and soul. If they fail, Scrooge will be terminated. Donald mentioned something about a Keyblade, but we don't want to risk Eldritch Heartless."
"Anything else?' says Xander, drinking more of the green medicine, which is also a calming drought.
"One of your brothers has shown up with a group of women."
Xander winces. For some strange reason, there are many alternate versions of the Sunnydale Scoobies and what they call Angel's LA Fang Gang. The various versions of Alexander "Xander" Lavelle Harris started off as everyday men when some event, usually Halloween, the incident at the Zoo, or some Road Trip after Graduation resulted in him becoming a Bad Ass and/or genius.
The Nurse hands him a clipboard, which he opens. One the first page is nine pictures with names and profiles underneath them. There is one picture on top with the eight below arranged into rows of four and numbered.
On top is a version of Xander with long black hair and an eye-patch and the name Prince Alexander Harris.
The profile says he was kicked out of the Scoobies after the dusting of Angelus before Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenburg could attempt soul restoration. He finally broke all ties after the defeat of Glory and was transported into the magical world of Fantasma, a world of Fantasy turned nightmares.
His arrival in Fantasma was not chance, but the will of the world in need of a being of chaos to counter a malevolent magical warlord who had corrupted the world and forced most of citizens into another world resembling modern Earth, more than three centuries ago. The Warlord claimed the eight strongest women for a ritual that would secure his rule over Fantasma and the human realm, but Xander as a literally White Knight killed the Warlord and inadvertently bonded with the Princesses.
The first is a young woman with dark blue eyes, pale skin, red lips, and long black hair under a baseball cap and dressed like a modern New Yorker. The name reads Snow White.
Snow White of Fantasma was born the daughter of the Queen, who died in birth. Her father remarried and her cruel and vain step-mother secretly ordered the child's death. Instead the woodsman abandoned the child in the woods and she was "adopted" by the members of the Dwarven Kingdom. Unlike the storybooks, she was raised a servant and entertainer of the greedy, drunken Mithril miners.
When the evil Queen learned she was still alive, she disguised herself as an old woman and poisoned Snow White. The poisoner, also known as the Witch, was chased and killed by the Dwarves for costing them their servant. This triggered a war between the Dwarf Kingdom and Snow White's father, who had become unstable due to his second wife's poisoning of his meals.
Snow White, who was in a coma and sealed in Dwarf crystal coffin, was found by a young Prince. He delivered the antidote with his mouth, hence the famous kiss waking the beauty.
Snow White learned the art of the sword from her husband and the arts of war to survive. She personally killed all seven of the Dwarves, who had abducted more girls since her death. Peace was achieved with the death of the mad king and the crowning of the Prince and Snow White as King and Queen.
The invasion of the Warlord destroyed the united Kingdom and the Prince's infidelity resulted in an end to the marriage.
"Talk about a fractured fairy tale."
The second is a woman with blue eyes and long blonde hair dressed in a blue shirt. The name reads Cinderella "Cindy" Ashworth.
Cinderella was the daughter of an aristocrat, until his marriage to the Lady Tremaine. Lady Tremaine secretly poisoned the man, so she and her daughters could steal his money. Cinderella was reduced to a maid, until a member of the Fey race struck a deal with her. The "godmother" transformed her rags into a gown and cast a spell to attract the love of the Prince, who was holding a grand ball.
An enchanted crystal glass slipper left behind captured the Prince's heart and made him seek the wearer as his wife. The charmed Prince found and married her, freeing her from her stepmother's slavery. The stepmother and step sisters were found dead a month later, from consuming poisoned food. The Fay contract was that Cinderella would receive all she needed to become a noble woman if she would take the lives of Lady Tremaine and her daughters, whose bloodline insulted the Fey centuries ago.
The charmed Prince was killed in the Warlord invasion, which also revealed that Cinderella was part fey, a result of her own mother's contract to have a child with her elderly father.
"Cinderella a poisoner??" says Xander. He was tempted to do something similar to his abusive, alcoholic father before Halloween.
The third princess is a woman with long blonde hair and a pink top. The name reads Aurora Briar Rose.
Princess Aurora Rose was born from King Stefan and his wife, the queen and was gifted by Prince Phillip and the three good fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. The sorceress/dark fairy Maleficent cursed her to die, but was saved by the fairies' magic so she would only sleep until the Prince awoke her. In her case, the princess did live a happy life until the Warlord decimated her kingdom.
Xander blinks. The girl in the picture is now wearing a blue top, when he is positive that she was wearing pink.
The fourth is a young woman with long bright red hair and blue eyes. She's also dressed in a sleek swimsuit. The name under the picture is Ariel Triton.
She was the youngest of merfolk King Triton's seven daughters. Adventurous and curious about the world of humans, she eventually saves the life of and falls in love with a human prince named Eric. She forged a contract with the demonic sea witch Ursula to obtain a human form to claim her prince. Ursula tried many times to use the contract to claim Ariel, but in the end Ursula was defeated and Ariel won her prince.
Years later, during the Warlord's invasion, some horrific facts came to light. Ursula's contract didn't make her a true human, but transformed her into another type of mermaid that could become human. A type that needed to feed regularly to survive, which resulted in the death of an aristocrat rival for Eric's love. Eric, horrified by the inhuman act, left Ariel and was later killed by spies of the Warlord.
"Feed. You mean on human flesh?"
The fifth is a young woman with brown eyes and long dark brown hair. She's dressed in a blue and white peasant dress with a white apron. The name reads Belle Beaumont.
Belle was the daughter of a rich merchant with two cruel sisters and three brothers. One day, she asked her father to bring back a rose from a trip and by chance the man found a rose in a magic garden. He picked a rose not knowing that the place was owned by a Beast-man. This led to her sacrificing herself to the Beast to save her father's life. Belle eventually fell in love with the Beast, who has a prince under a spell, and their "love" resulted in the Beast becoming a man once again.
Beast and Belle lived a happy life after reclaiming the Prince's stolen kingdom, until the Warlord's Invasion decimated the Kingdom. The only people to escape were Belle and her visiting father Maurice. In the modern world, Maurice became a merchant and inventor, while Belle became a chief at a small French restaurant.
"We Xanders could never attract normal women."
The sixth is a beautiful Arabian woman with dark eyes and long black hair. She's dressed in blue silk in the picture like the clothing of a dancer. The name reads Jasmine Agrabah.
Princess Jasmine, the daughter of the wealthy Sultan of Agrabah married a young hero from the streets named Aladdin after many years of strange adventures. They even had a few more adventures after their marriage, but their happiness ended when Agrabah was sealed away into order to protect it from the Warlord's demonic forces. Aladdin died saving Jasmine's life
"That sucks."
The seventh is a dark-eyed Chinese beauty with long black air. She's dressed in traditional robes and has a small red Chinese dragon on her shoulder. The name below in both Chinese and English reads Fa Mulan. (Li Mulan).
Mulan started out with only the problem of finding a husband. Then her sickly father was called to war. In order to save his life, she took his place disguised as a male. This deception was discovered after she was injured saving the group from the Mongol army. It was only her heroism that prevented her from being killed and her later rescue of the Emperor from the surviving Mongol restored her honor.
Mulan is generally determined and strong-hearted for her friends and family, especially after her training in the army. Unlike most young women in her time, Mulan possesses and fails to obediently conceal many talents and qualities, such as horse-riding, being very clumsy, and most notably, being outspoken. She also has extraordinary ingenuity which enables her to solve nearly any difficulty quickly and efficiently.
"Who wrote this one?"
"Dr. Chang. He was extremely impressed by her."
"Ecchi doctors," says Xander, knowing Dr. Chang only give good comments to pretty girls.
The eighth and last woman is a Native American woman with long black hair dressed in yellow-brown clothing. The name reads Rebecca "Pocahontas" Rolfeld.
"It's blank."
"She has no knowledge of her history. Her last memories were of being on a ship, which from descriptions comes from the 16th century," explains Nurse Jungle. "Each of the Princesses gained magical abilities after the failed ritual. They also gained a link with their Alexander."
"The problem?"
"Guess?" says Nurse Jungle with a cheeky smile.
"My brother is an idiot."
Somewhere in the world of Halloween, a talking horse is beaten to death and then beaten into Orc shoe leather.
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Xander walks into a room filled with cylinder-shaped clean plastic chambers. The chambers are filled with clean and translucent liquids ranging from red to yellow. Inside each chamber is a living creature, most of them humanoid, with many wires and tubes attached to their bodies.
This is a cloning lab, where Sunnydale Hospital creates clones and bioroids using everything from accelerated growth to cell-by-cell nano-technology construction. Some of the clones are created as replacement bodies, some without brains are grown for replacement organs, and some are created as experiments to determine the effects of genetic engineering before the patients are modified.
Xander walks down the hall and stands before two chambers. In one chamber is an athletic young man with very short blond hair. The other chamber contains a thin young man with short dark brown hair and freckles. He notices that the bodies have veins pushing through their pale skins and many grey tumor-like growths on different parts of their bodies.
"The Venture Brothers. Hank and Dean Venture. In their world, they served as a parody of such boy adventurers as The Hardy Boys and Jonny Quest. They have a habit of dying on those adventures and have died more than a dozen times before they ended up in the World of Halloween. Their father brought them back to life before Halloween by cloning and possessed an entire lab filled with clone bodies. The boys once stumbled into a room containing spare clone-slugs of themselves and were traumatized until Dr. Venture, in a rare moment of quick thinking, managed to convince them that the clones were to be a gift for the boys. '
'The problem is that in this world, Hank and Dean were created as clones, so when they died their father had to use their cloned DNA to create them. The labs and storage sites were destroyed over and over again in the Colony Wars, forcing the doctor to use the previous clones. As a result, the problematic cloning process began to develop more and more errors."
Xander looks up from reading the notes. He knows that bad cloning results in a degeneration and/or mutation of the clone. With Dr. Venture's long history of bad inventions, it's possible they were cloned wrong before which would explain their decreased intelligence. The problem with the latest incarnations of Hank and Dean is that their genetic material is too unstable to survive and can't be used to create viable clones.
Xander looks at the indicators and his eyes widen for a second, then drop in sadness.
"Spiritual level at less than zero point one. The clones don't possess souls or any form of spirit. They're husks animated by what little activity is in their brains. Even if we did transfer what remains of the minds into new bodies, there wouldn't be souls to complete them."
"It's over," comes a voice behind Xander.
The voice belongs to Dr. Thaddeus S. "Rusty" Venture, a frustrated scientist with a bald head and a red goatee. He's a self-centered man who despite his ridicule and negligence, does love the boys at heart, or at least possesses a sense of responsibility for them. Now he's on his knees and crying like a child, as he has nothing left.
"Do you wish to claim the bodies for burial or cremation?" says Xander.
"No. I buried them long ago. I just didn't know it."
Xander walks over to the control panel for both tanks and inserts an electronic key. Xander places his hand on the scanner and the computer does a biometric and aura scan for a positive identification. He then uses the touch screen to declare both brothers deceased and selects the breakdown purge option.
"You may want to turn away from this."
As soon as Xander clicks yes, the machines hum and Hank and Dean begin to dissolve. Hair and layers of skin are destroyed first, followed by muscle tissue and other exposed tissues. Internal organs and other tissues follow, until only the skeletons remain. The bones then dissolve like salt in hot water and the machines begin to pump out the dissolved bodies to be processed.
The lights on the tanks fade, leaving Dr. Venture to continue to cry.
As Xander leaves the chamber, he notices two other clones. One is a young man with blond hair and other is a young woman with long red hair, both are curled into the fetal position. He thinks he recognizes them and looks at their charts.
"Jonny Quest and Jessie Bannon, clones for James and Elisabeth Quest."
Xander remembers the bizarre case. Versions of Jonathan "Jonny" Quest and his female friend Jessica Margaret Leya "Jessie" Bannon appeared in Halloween World shortly after an adventure off the coast of Nova Scotia. In that adventure, they were possessed by the spirits of Jean Leger and Lady Caroline, a couple who had murdered each other over and over again for centuries until Jessie and Jonny managed to break the cycle. The adventure made their bodies open to other possessions like a medium, which resulted in them becoming possessed by two recently deceased lovers James and Elisabeth. Jonny and Jessie spent years with the spirits trapped inside their bodies preventing them from aging and healing their injuries, so they could enjoy a more physical relationship.
Now James and Elisabeth are going to use clones of Jessie and Jonny as Gigais (faux-bodies) so they can live separately from the original Jessie and Jonny.
The relationship between the Venture Team and the Quest Team is strained. In the Venture world, Jonny became a drug addict and Jessie was never born. In the Quest World, the original Venture team died on their first mission leaving Quest in the spotlight.
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"So the Boys are gone for good this time?"
Xander turns as he exits the cloning lab and sees a woman with long red hair and a heart-shaped black eye-patch over her left eye. Her outfit consists of a very revealing, skin-tight black unitard (which barely covers her large breasts, dips below her navel in front and reveals the tops of her buttocks at the back), topped with red gloves and stiletto heel boots.
"Molotov Cocktease"
Molotov is a Russian mercenary who performs black ops-type activities for any who can afford her services. On the surface, she appears to be the female equivalent of Venture's bodyguard Brock Samson: an amazingly competent, utterly lethal cigarette smoker who is irresistible to the opposite sex and unbelievably hard to kill. However, she seems to lack Brock's sense of long-term loyalty and duty, often acting in either her own best interests or that of her client of the moment. She also differs from Brock in that she does not share his dislike for firearms.
"That's my name."
"I haven't heard anything of you since the destruction of the Midland Ammo Base."
The Ammo Base was a large factory in what was once Northern Russia that supplied Griffith's forces with cursed ammunition and modern weaponry as opposed to the forges supplying swords and medieval weaponry and the labs supplying hi-tech energy weaponry. Molotov managed to kill every dark council soldier there, including the Apostles, before setting the entire factory on fire. The Ammo Base exploded with the force of a small nuke and no one knew where she went.
"I ended up in one of those medieval fantasy towns," says Molotov. "They found me in the river and fixed me up, but unfortunately they had some old fashioned ideas. They believed that women were meant to stay at home with the children and wear dresses and only knights were supposed to be heroes. The reason is that one of the Halloween turned was a wizard who remade his town the way he liked it."
"You escaped."
"I put a dagger in the skull of the wizard and the spell broke. Every one of the colonists regained their memories and personalities, but I was still stuck with one problem," says Molotov before pulling off her unitard.
Xander's eyes widen then he notices the strange underwear. They look like silver silk panties with metallic silver bands and a heart-shaped lock near the waist.
"A chastity belt!?"
"It takes care of cleaning, wastes, and monthlies using magic, but it also ruins my relaxation," says Molotov. "I would try Magia, but they have been upset since me and Brock burnt that temple. I would be very grateful."
"I'll help you, Molotov, but I rather not have Brock angry at me. I also have many girls who drain me of all my energy already."
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Xander wipes the last of the ash from his face and his eyebrows regenerate. He walks into an examination room while complaining. The chastity belt was rigged with magic charms. The charms that keep her clean also prevented oil or lubricants from being used. The charms that dealt with monthlies also keep the body cleansed of drugs and healed the body to prevent surgical removal. It had self-repair charms to counter wear and manipulation. It also had more security charms than a leprechaun gold vault.
When the heart of the magic, the lock, was removed it converted all of its magic energy into heat, hence the explosion that charred Xander.
In the room is a man of Italian descent standing six feet two, a hundred and forty three pounds with brown eyes and long black hair.
"Jackie Estacada. Former member of the Franchetti mafia family and possessing The Darkness, an ancient unholy power that allows him to create virtually anything, including living, sentient beings, out of darkness. You are skilled as a hit man, particularly in marksmanship. Weaknesses are that light disperses darkness and transfer of power to offspring is fatal."
"That second weakness is the problem Doc," says the nervous looking man. "My powers are stronger than ever, but because of my power I can't have sex. With all the love spells hanging around this is a BIG problem Doc."
"With all the magic involved, a simple vasectomy wouldn't work with all. I doubt a castration would last."
"Not that I would want you to try. I rather die happy, then less then a man."
"I see. According to the Files, the Darkness has reproduced without killing the host. It mated with its opposite and equal, the primal force of Light, The Angelus. During that truce they became the parents of The Witchblade."
"It's crap when your weapon gets more action than you do."
"The Darkness absorbs each host into itself, so when it's passed on to the child nothing remains to keep the original host, the father, alive. If you were bonded with another form of Darkness or shadow manipulation, it could act as a replacement."
"What about my kid? Wouldn't he face the same problem in less than twenty years?"
"Not if the shadow manipulation was made part of your blood."
"Do you have any idea?"
"There is an evolution of a demonic shadow from Blue Dragon Ral Grad. It's a rare Blend form; a special fusion form where the host creature receives the flesh and blood of the shadow itself. The host can then use the abilities of the shadow."
"Wait. Why hasn't this creature bonded with someone else?" says the suspicious Jackie.
"The offspring of the legendary Blue Dragon Shadow Grad has an ego. It won't bond with a weakling and demands the most powerful of shadow users. The host of The Darkness would fit the bill. Also, the fusion with the host means the resulting children would inherit the shadow genes and develop their own shadows. The Darkness host would still be the most powerful, but the rest of the family would survive."
"Did you just come up with this!?"
"Actually, I've been working on the problem since Ral Grad showed up in our world a month ago. You were at the top of the list."
A few minutes later, there is a lot of screaming from another section of the hospital.
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A young man screams in agony as he thrashes against the restraints. He's a tall young man in his thirties with green eyes and short dark brown hair. What's important is that his skin has turned bone white and the sclera (white) of his right eye has turned pitch black. He continues to fight against the restraints around his wrist, ankles, hips, chest, and neck. The energy field around his bed also helps to control his savage movements.
Xander holds a staff with a flaming skull symbol on the tip. He places it over the young man's forehead.
"Begin soul extraction."
As the staff strikes the physical body, the man's soul is forced out. Instead of a normal looking soul with a chain going from the chest to the body, the soul continues to move in agony and is the same white color with both eyes having black sclera. The energy field prevents the semi-hollow creature from escaping.
"A Viral Hollow. Clever." says Xander, as he activates a few of the hospital's spiritual tools.
"Another of Aizen's experiments?"
"The Hollow is broken down into tiny particles which infect the soul of the victim. The victim comes to the hospital thinking they're sick, then the Hollow consumes the host's soul. What you get is a Hollow inside a corpse, a perfect spy and assassin."
"What Aizen didn't plan for was for his Hollow to be detected early."
Suddenly, the broken chain of fate glows blood red and begins to crack. Small mouths appear on each link of the chain, but instead of devouring each other, they begin to scream. As they scream, more and more cracks appear on the chain until link by link it begins to shatter. The soul begins to distort and howl as the plate in its chest shatters to reveal a hole.
Xander doesn't stop manipulating his spiritual tools, even as a white liquid flows from the man's eyes, nose, and mouth and parts of his body turn black like white paper stained with ink. The green irises of his eyes begin to glow gold and the liquid begins to harden into a bone-like material. As the man/hollow's arms explode into spiritual particles, the attending Shinigami looks ready to use his Zanpakuto, but Xander signals for more time. The arms slowly reform into their original state and there is a white flash.
As the light clears, the man is now dressed in the traditional Shikhakusho (Garment of Dead Soul) - a white shitagi, a black kosode and hakama, and a white hakama-himo. The only difference is that the arms are bare and exposed, showing pale markings on the skin. He has a Zanpakuto in katana form at his side and a white mask on his face. As the field collapses, the man reaches up and shatters the mask with the hilt of his sword, revealing a healthy face with white markings on the cheeks.
"Vizard?" asks the unnamed Shinigami attendant.
"I couldn't stop the Viral Hollow's infection, so I had the host go through the Shinigami transformation and absorb it."
"Wouldn't a cleansing have been easier?"
"I have a reason. Isn't that right, Mr. Smith?"
"Correct," says the new Vizard. "All of the Hollow's knowledge is mine. I have Intel on Aizen."
"You're always ahead of the rest of us," says the Nurse
"Not always," says Xander with a frown.
There was a caravan that was infected with Warhol Fever. Named because at its peak, gives the victim fifteen minutes of feral superpowers and berserk rage before they explode and spread the infection even more. Since most of the colonists already possessed superhuman abilities, they didn't determine the disease until after the fact. Thirty six people died in the hospital including three nurses, when the exploding patients managed to get past the medical protection.
There was an outbreak of Hate Plague in an Eastern Colony, which resulted in the deaths over five thousand people in an orgy of violence. The three survivors were cured of the disease, but the guilt over the crimes they committed during the infection drove them to suicide. He was going to talk to the youngest, when he found her hanging from the ceiling by a fiber optic cable.
There were three mecha pilots that he wasn't able to cure. They used machines called Fafners to fight silicon-based aliens known as the Festum, but they died of Crystallization sickness. Their bodies were slowly paralyzed, consumed by crystals, then shattered into dissolving fragments.
He even watched Mickey, Donald, and Goofy fade away into nothing after being exposed to Aizen's experimental soul weaponry. They faded from existence, not even leaving a soul behind.
"Doctor? Doctor??"
Xander learned that if a Cutie is broken completely, there is a risk of suicide. A version of Ruki Makino slit her wrists after she was raped by IceDevimon and a version of Juri Katou never recovered from D-Reaper's mind rape. There was a girl whose family was devoured by Chimera Ants and a woman who was used as a plaything by Yoma. He wasn't able to help those girls as they destroyed themselves. It's one of the reasons he began to approve memory manipulation and other mind manipulation techniques to deal with trauma.
Xander remembers a comatose version of Usagi Tsukino, also known as Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon. In her world, a sorceress from the future traveled back in time to prevent the cleansing of Crystal Tokyo. The sorceress hated Neo-Queen Serenity's sterile passionless world and cast a spell that increased Usagi's empathy to the point she could feel all the hatred, fear, pain, and suffering of the entire world. He wasn't able to help her because of how the magic bonded with her own.
Xander remembers one of the Hospital staff, Dr. Tofu Ono mourning the death of his wife Kasumi. One of the gentlest nurses in the hospital was killed when the Dark Council converted one of the patients into a living bomb. When the patient felt positive emotions, the countdown was triggered and when the human bomb went off two doctors and three nurses died along with two patients.
"Not always."
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Xander and a member of Soul Society (12th Division) stand in front of a tank filled with clear liquid.
Inside, floating in the fetal position is a man in his mid-twenties. He stands six feet tall, a hundred seventy pounds with blue eyes and shoulder-length wavy golden blond hair. Small wires monitor the man's body, while tubes extract waste and inject nutrients and drugs.
"Rau Le Creuset. Wasn't he one of the Dark Council's Mecha Pilots?"
"He's a clone who was created using DNA from his father Al Da Flaga and enhanced to be superior to Al's true son Mu La Flaga in every way. However due to being genetically engineered with short telomeres he ages at an accelerated rate. This was done by Al so that Rau could catch up to his sort of brother physically."
"That's not good. If you clone an animal with old cells, the clone will always be older and have a shortened life span. It's the reason Pre-Halloween cloning had so many failures."
"He took medicine to stabilize his aging or else he experiences great pain. Due to the truth of his origins and his accelerated aging issues he is mentally unstable and in the anime decides that neither humans nor co-coordinators deserve to exist causing him to strive to wipe out both sides"
"After Halloween '97?"
"The Mecha Pilot you're thinking of was killed six years ago above Nihon, when his Gundam was destroyed by the Neo-Tokyo Mecha Corps. That version didn't live very long. He continued to age an accelerated rate and was in such intense pain, he never had any chance to commit crimes in that life. As a result, instead of ending up in Hell, he ended up in the Soul Society."
"If he's here, then his death didn't go smoothly."
"He continued to age at an accelerated rate even as a spirit. Imagine being born, growing up at a rapid pace, dying, going to Soul Society aging at a rapid pace there to the point where he is reborn much quicker than other souls and then the process starts all over again."
"The liquid is slowing his biology and spiritual flow," says Xander looking at the clear liquid Rau is floating in.
"Yes. There is also another problem, the rapid aging and movement of the soul is causing it to decay. In a normal life span, a soul has time to adjust and regrow, but with the accelerated deaths the soul is breaking down. It reached the point where the mind of the original soul is constantly fighting Rau's mind creating a nasty case of Dissociative identity disorder (DID), except both minds are real."
Xander reaches into his coat and pulls out a Twinkie. He slowly begins to eat the sweet goodness as he works out the problem in his mind. He took this case on the request of a past patient, Alexandra Elana Zala, a female version of Gundam hero Athrun Zala. The green-eyed black-haired genetically enhanced human fell in love with her world's version of Rau and was able to prevent his fall into madness and allowed him a peaceful death.
Xander finishes his Twinkie and turns to the Shinigami scientist.
"Call Mayuri. Tell him I need two Blanks."
Blanks are the name given to new souls that haven't entered the cycle of reincarnation. They have no past memories or personalities, they are as they were created. They are almost holy in their pure nature and manipulating them is a taboo in the Soul Society.
"Why do...?"
"The nature of Rau's soul is Entropy, the decaying force in the universe. It won't stop until the soul is destroyed. If I separate the soul and graft it to Blanks, the original soul will technically be destroyed. This should allow the souls to grow into separate entities."
"What about the body?"
"A healthy soul exists in a healthy mind and a healthy body. The inverse is also true. Mind over body, soul over mind. If the soul is decaying and/or diseased, the body will also follow it into destruction. We'll create new bodies using the genetic samples and modified to have the correct telemeters. The latest body follows the old soul into oblivion, while the new souls are born"
"What about the memory problem?"
Having half your soul would mess up your memories severely.
"Mayuri's Memory Extractor. He developed that machine to extract souls from prisoners into Gigai. They have been using it for espionage. They kill the Dark Council agent, extract the memory from the soul, then send out a shinigami or other agent inside the Gigai with the DC agent's memories to guide them," explains Xander, noticing the Shinigami's confused look. "We could use a modified process to download the combined memories, separate them, then download into the new bodies. When they enter the bodies, the memories of the body will become part of the souls.
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"Kenshin Himura. You may come in now."
A young man in his thirties walks into Xander's office. He stands five feet two with lavender eyes and long red hair tied into a ponytail. He's dressed in dark pink and white kimono with sandals like a samurai. He has many bandages on his arms, neck, and chest.
"According to the Files, you're a former legendary assassin known as Hitokiri Battosai. At the end of the Bakumatsu, you becomes a wandering samurai, now wielding a sakabato, a katana that has the cutting edge on the inwardly curved side of the sword, thus being nearly incapable of killing. You and your wife Kaoru died of an unknown leprosy-like disease '
'You're now infected with another disease contracted while helping refugees fleeing an area under attack from the Dark Council. The refugees were deliberately infected and allowed to escape. A bio-weapon created by the Dark Council's mad scientists, designed to stay hidden or low profile long enough to reach a major population center. It has been rendered non-transmittable by medication after the colonists showed symptoms. The disease accelerates if the person over exerts themselves, so it's the most active fighters that succumb first."
"That is correct. My body is already weak from the overuse of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu. The Flying Heaven Honorable Sword Style is only suitable to a wide-framed muscular build and my body deteriorated with each use. The disease has only accelerated my deterioration and I fear my family will soon mourn my death."
"I got some good news and some bad news. You'll need daily doses of medicine and are forbidden from engaging in anything more stressful than light sparring with a bokkan, but you can live to old age. The disease prevents any form of accelerated healing, but medicine can prevent it from taking away a normal civilian life."
"I never intended to teach Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu, nor take another human life. Perhaps I should lay down my sword and spend more time with my family."
"I'm sorry I can't offer a cure or a new body. The disease is semi-demonic and bonded to the Battosai portion of your spirit. If I were to remove your soul, there is a real risk of you becoming a dangerous evil spirit. We had enough problems with Arrancar Shishio."
"I understand and I thank you."
Some days you're a victorious hero, some days you're a foolish failure, other times you're trapped in stalemate.
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BOOM!
Xander runs down a hallway dodging purple energy blasts. The blasts are powerful enough to destroy equipment and food carts, but the special construction seals prevent damage to the floors, walls, or ceilings. Xander moves at an extremely high speed with his lab coat blowing behind him like cape. He avoids colliding with a Jedi, an Elf, a Spiderman, a Golem, and a Samurai, as his opponent continues to chase him.
BOOM!
Xander finally reaches the end of the hallway, but he doesn't stop. Instead he fires an energy blast that disrupts the seals on the window and then dives straight through the window. As he exits the hospital window, he produces a pulse of energy and propels himself to another building, where he clings to the surface with his feet. While using a Ninja technique to stick to the wall, Xander continues to run as more energy blasts strike the wall he's running on.
The source of the energy blasts is a humanoid girl looking around ten years old in terms of human maturation. She's a small girl with red eyes, pale skin, and short dark purple hair. She's dressed in a dark red leotard with black bat imagery on her legs, and odd boots. Her non-human traits are small fangs, claw-like nails, elaborate body markings, and sharp bat-like wings coming out of her forehead and back like blades. She is an Aesland-type Succubus, a type of youkai that draws its energy from physical and/or mental excitement.
"Would you listen to me!?" yells Xander, as he continues to avoid blast after blast of demonic power.
"You made big sister cry!" yells the young succubus.
"You don't even know why she was crying!"
"Making her cry is bad enough!" yells the little succubus as she releases a far more powerful purple-white blast.
Xander jumps off the side of the hospital building, as the beam go through the place where he was. The beam continues into the sky where it explodes across the red sky. Xander on the other hand drops at terminal velocity and rams his feet into the young succubus on the way down. They both tumble as they continue to fall from the skyscraper sized hospital building.
They are literally seconds from making a crater into the concrete below, when Xander grabs the little demon girl with one arm and fires a chi blast with the other. The blast propels the two towards one of the walls, where Xander's feet collide with the surface and begin to run. As Xander reattaches himself to the wall, he continues to run at high speed, but begins to slow. When they reach the ground, Xander does the impossible and does a ninety degree turn at that speed. He runs for several meters and comes to a sliding halt in front of a food stand.
The little succubus in Xander's arms looks up with wide eyes. While the little demoness is distracted, Xander decides to quickly explain the tears.
"Your sister found out she's going to have a brood of her own. She didn't think she could have children after she was injured badly during a battle with the Dark Council. Those were tears of happiness."
The girl's eyes widen and an embarrassed blush spreads across her body then, her purple eyes fill with tears and she begins to cry on his shoulder.
"I'm in trouble. (Sniff) Big Sister will be upset because of the m...mess. (Tears) She'll be upset I attacked someone innocent," says the little sister, nearly bawling.
"Don't worry. I'll tell her we were having a game of tag that got out of control," says Xander.
"Do you think Big Sis will believe that??"
"Sunnydale is a very weird place." says Xander with a goofy smile, "I heard about a squad of demon soldiers being wiped out in Indianapolis, when two ten year old meta-humans decided to have a race."
"THANK YOU DR. HARRIS!"
Xander is glad he's a youkai, if he was a human, the little demon girl's hug would have crushed his skull like an egg.
"Dr. Harris?"
"Call me Xander."
"Xander, what's the strangest monster you fought?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I'm curious. You said how weird Sunnydale is."
"It would have to the Twinkie Demon Assassin."
"Twinkie Demon Assassin?!?"
"Someone on the Dark Council wanted me dead, so he decided to use my favorite snack against me. They took one of those Tau Ceti daimon eggs, modified it, and hide it inside a sealed Twinkie. They then went to the trouble of hiding it in a private shipment from the Hostess Factory. When I opened the wrapper, the Twinkie became a demon."
"What did it look like?"
"A six feet woman with gold eyes, yellow skin, and long white hair. She was dressed in a dark yellow/brown jumpsuit with twinkie-shaped armored plates and could fire jets of toxic, corrosive liquid," says Xander "Worst thing was she could regenerate, regrowing limbs in seconds. She chased me for ten minutes before I was able to destroy all of her completely with one strike."
"Wow! You're so cool!"
He notices the girl is smiling at him. He also hopes she doesn't develop a crush on him. Succubi tend to see childhood promises as future engagements.
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Sunnydale's most popular male doctor, Dr. Xander Cho Hakkai Harris is heading for one of the more dangerous parts of the complex, the Psych Ward. The world of Halloween is a world of strange dreams and twisted nightmares made reality. A world of death and rebirth, of constant combat for survival and fear of the new battles. The most "normal" humans of the world that have survived have descended into madness unable to deal with the stress and the unreality. There are people with the memories of villains unable to deal with the crimes they committed and an endless number of victims who fear the world. There are heroes that can't handle a world that doesn't work the same way as their own world. People who once saw the world as black and white are drowning in sea of grey shades.
The patient he's come to see also has other visitors.
The first is Counselor Deanna Troi. A human/betazoid (alien) hybrid, she has the empathic ability to sense emotions. She served as the ship's counselor on the Galaxy-Class USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), Sovereign-Class USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), and Luna-class star ship USS Titan (NCC-80102). She's a former patient of the Sunnydale Psych Ward, as her enhanced empathic abilities drove her to madness during the first years after October 31, 1997. Constantly sensing the fear and pain of the post-apocalyptic world corroded her mind like a statue under daily showers of acid rain. She was able to develop psychic shields and filters with the help of more powerful psychics including the legendary Australian Esper Maximilian Locke.
The second is Professor X. Professor Charles Francis Xavier, also known as Professor X, is known as the leader and founder of the X-Men in his world. He's also a leader with the current incarnations, which were originally the X-Babies taken to the Machine City of Machina. He's also established X Academies, schools for mutants, metahumans, espers, and other super humans in Sunnydale, Magia, Machina, New York, Albion, Australia, and Nihon
Xavier is paraplegic, but his body houses one of the world's most powerful mutant minds. As a high-level telepath, Xavier can read, control and influence human minds. A scientific genius, he is also a leading authority on genetics, mutation, and psionic powers.
Professor X originally appeared in the world of Halloween as a sentient psionic entity created from the consciousness of two mutants - Professor Charles Xavier, telepathic founder of the heroic X-Men, and Magneto, self-styled Master of Magnetism. During a battle between the X-Men and Magneto's Acolytes, Xavier uses his telepathic powers to shut down Magneto's mind, rendering him catatonic. During the psionic contact, Magneto's anger, grief and lust for vengeance enters Xavier's consciousness, combining with every long-suppressed negative feeling Xavier had endured during the last 30 years. This aggregation results in the being known as Onslaught.
Onslaught was destroyed when a heroine used an enhanced anti-Mazoku spell. The powerful spirit magic spell was designed to destroy even a pure Mazoku with a single hit. Since a Mazoku is a creature of black magic and negative emotions existing on the psychic astral plane, the Ra Tilt was able to destroy the massive Onslaught leaving behind its clean core, Xavier, to be retrieved by other psychics.
The fourth is Dubbilex from Project Cadmus. He is a so-called DNAlien — a human clone whose DNA was modified to create an alien-looking creature with paranormal abilities. He was created by Dabney Donovan, an eccentric scientist and former head and co-founder of the Cadmus Project. Created as an agent of Cadmus Labs, Dubbilex grew close to Superboy. Once Kon-El left the Labs for Hawaii, Dubbilex accompanied him to report his status to Cadmus. Although their relationship started off somewhat rocky, they became great friends. Superboy taught Dubbilex about many things of the modern world.
Dubbilex died due to wounds sustained in battle with a super-villain known as Codename: Assassin. He awoke on his feet in the world of Halloween and spent years running, using his limited telepathy and telekinesis to stay alive. He was eventually captured by the Dark Council and spent five years as a lab rat. He was rescued and restored by the people of Sunnydale
The fifth is Psi Corp officer Lyta Alexander. Lyta Alexander is a telepath that was assigned to the Babylon 5 space station by the Psi Corps, an organization in her dimension providing support to telepaths and monitoring their activity. She was killed in the explosion of Psi Corps Headquarters in a major battle of what was known as the Telepath War. She appeared in the world of Halloween as an Astral Ghost, a mind/spirit existing on the astral plane without a physical body. She was finally given a body with the help of Sunnydale Clone labs and another version of her
The sixth and final doctor is a woman known as Voodoo. Priscilla Kitaen was an exotic dancer before being rescued by the WildC. from the Daemonites, a race of reptilian aliens who are capable of possessing host bodies. Voodoo had a gift called the "Sight", allowing her to perceive if a person was possessed by a Daemonite, and being able to separate daemonites from the bodies they were possessing which made her very important to both the WildC.A.T.s and the Daemonites. Voodoo joined the WildC.A.T.S and revealed even greater powers, such as telepathy and the ability to develop animal-like traits, such as sprouting claws from her fingertips. She later left the WildC.A.T.s when she became disgusted at the racism of Khera against those of Daemonite blood like herself.
She survived the harshness of Halloween World, even using her Daemonite powers of regeneration and time manipulation to regrow her limbs more than once. In the end she became a student of Sunnydale Psi Corps and earned her psychology degree.
"The patient?"
"Azula of the Fire Nation," says Troi
"Azula is a gifted Firebending master and highly favored princess of the Fire Nation, a race of people with the ability to create and manipulate fire. She was initially bent on retrieving her exiled brother, Prince Zuko, and delivering him to their father, Fire Lord Ozai while accompanied by her childhood friends, Mai and Ty Lee. Eventually her focus became more directed toward capturing the Avatar and aiding in the war to help secure her nation's victory," explains Dubbilex
"Azula is a complex young woman. Ever since she was born, she was raised by her father to be a cruel, ruthless firebender and to manipulate people by controlling them through fear. She is a dedicated nationalist, relentlessly drilling herself towards perfection and will settle for nothing less. Even as a child she was seen to react with hostility when outdone, "explains Professor Xavier. "She is rather vain and believes that power and domination are what makes a person strong. She is known for being one of the cruelest characters in the fictional series."
"I know all of that," says Xander. "Cordy told me all about her character. Sadistic aggression and lack of remorse. Lack of compassion. Lack of social skills. I'm guessing she had a breakdown like in Canon."
"A deep-rooted fear and inability to trust others. From a young age, she believed her mother favored Zuko and thought Azula monstrous. This shaped Azula's fears that she would be unable to rely on anyone for affection," explains Xavier. "After she was defeated by her brother Zuko and his waterbending friend Katara, she went completely insane."
"Solution?" asks Xander.
"Not really a solution, but a slow process," says Xavier pointing to the observation window.
Inside the padded and charmed chamber, there are three women.
One is a young woman with gold eyes and long wild black hair. She's dressed in a soft-looking red jumpsuit that covers everything like a blanket except for her head and hands. There are also gold bands around her neck, wrists, and ankles. It's a typical containment suit, a combination of magic and science that keeps the wearer clean, healthy, and warm, while preventing the person for taking violent or counterproductive actions. The suit currently stops Azula from using her Firebending or physically attacking the two other people in the room. All she can do is scream and cry, which can't be heard through the sound-proof observation window. Finally, Azula collapses and cries while the other two hug her.
The second woman could pass for a twin sister, but is refined and is dressed in the red-and-black clothing of a royal Firebending warrior. Cordelia Azula Chase holds her analogue sister and comforts her. After many years on the battle fields of Halloween World, she's had to face all of her problems and the problems of her character to survive. Now she wants to help someone with the same problems recover. She lets her inner spiritual flame talks to Azula's spiritual spark, letting the warmth grow.
"Azula sees what she wants to become in Cordelia. She has all the strength she used to possess, but also has trust in others. She has the love of her mother, love of a man, and loves her children. It's something with all the power she possessed in her previous life, she could never attain."
The third woman is older (middle aged) and resembles the girls with long black hair. She's dressed in the red and gold clothing of Royalty. She is Princess Ursa, former wife of Fire Lord Ozai, mother of Prince Zuko and Princess Azula, and granddaughter of Avatar Roku and Ta Min. She was a kind and gentle mother to her offspring, though Azula believed she favored Zuko. Upon learning Ozai was ordered to kill Zuko by his father Azulon, she made a plan to ensure her son's life was spared. This resulted in the death of Azulon and her husband assuming the title of Fire Lord. Ursa was banished from the Fire Nation for treason.
"Cordelia found her in Thousand Kingdoms while hunting down one of Naraku's Ningenkai (Human World) Bases. Since the Chase family disappeared during Halloween, Cordy considers Ursa her mother. After learning what happened to other versions of Cordelia Chase from her analogues, she wouldn't accept her original parents even if they reappeared now."
She holds her daughters, who continue to cry.
"Healing is a matter of time, but sometimes it is a matter of opportunity," says Xander, quoting Hippocrates. "Sometimes you can help others. Sometimes they need to can help themselves. "
Xander turns and slowly walks away.
"I have other patients. You have things handled."
There are many other patients in the psych ward.
In one cell is another version of the infamous Vampire Twins.
Identical twins, Hansel and Gretel come from the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, where they were abandoned at a state-run orphanage at an early age. While there, they were forced to star in various pedophiliac films, often ones in which they raped and killed other children. Eventually this rather brutal upbringing destroyed their minds, resulting in them becoming complete and utter psycho/sociopaths, who feel that by killing they extend their own lives, and as long as they kill, they will remain alive.
After they both died in their own world, they were reborn in two mentally ill children. The children were physically and sexually abused by their guardians and forced to dress like dolls, before Halloween. The fusion of the warped minds was something out of Lovecraft horror. The Vampire Twins' belief also granted the children a supernatural power that heals them and extends their life spans with the life spans of those they kill. They cannot suffocate, die of thirst or starvation, or die of old age, but they thirst for blood and death like true vampires.
The near-white-haired twins were captured after they tried to kill a member of the Psi Corps under the orders of the Dark Council. The dying Psychic left his body in astral form and attached himself to the twins, before detonating his energies in a psionic kamikaze. The psychic blast annihilated the Hansel and Gretel personas, but left two scared children behind with horrific memories and endless nightmares.
In another chamber is Gilbert Durandal, the former chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council. He was obsessed with ending all conflicts between humans, especially the chasm between the Naturals and the Coordinators, i.e. the Earth and PLANT. His final plan would be to implement a new world order where every human is given the role for which they are best genetically suited at birth, and this would fulfill Durandal's ideal of perfect genetic determinism, as this should be the ultimate goal of all Coordinators. Under this theory humans will no longer fight against others for things that they wish, since each person's destiny is predetermined at birth. In this New World, genes would be the King, and Durandal would be the High Priest (in terms of chess).
Gilbert died on the last day of Second Bloody Valentine War, shot by Rey Za Burrel, formerly his most faithful follower. His lover, Minerva's captain Talia Gladys, stayed behind in the crumbling fortress to accompany him right till the end. He awoke in the world of Halloween after being crushed by falling debris and acted as a leader to his colony. Gilbert sank into a deep life-consuming depression after his colony was wiped out by the Dark Council leaving only him and five other survivors out of a population of over nine hundred.
In yet another chamber is Quatre Raberba Winner. The blue-eyed platinum blonde lies on his bed in the fetal position. He used to be a typical version of the fifteen-year-old pilot of the mobile suit Gundam Sandrock. He was a kind hearted gentle man who fought to protect others, but he did have a dark past. He once piloted the Wing Gundam Zero, a powerful mobile suit based on the original Gundam blueprints, which he intended to use to bring about an end to the war. However, he was unprepared for the mental stress caused by the Wing Zero's neural interface; it drove him to the point of insanity and caused him to destroy an OZ-occupied mining station and a civilian colony.
The same neural interface damaged the mind of this version. It left him with a heightened spacial awareness that causes insomnia and severe migraines. It left him with enhanced memory, which forces him to remember his sins, especially the civilian colonists, over and over again. It also left him with high amounts of stress that is slowly destroying his body, even with nano-medicine.
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Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat. While they may be studied for various reasons, martial arts share a single objective: to physically defeat other persons and to defend oneself or others from physical threat. In addition, some martial arts are linked to beliefs such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism or Shinto while others follow a particular code of honor. Many arts are also practiced competitively, most commonly as combat sports, but may also take the form of dance.
In the world of Halloween, martial arts have become important to everyone as they have helped them survive. During the first few years, those with martial arts skills survived the Halloween Horrors easier than those that didn't. Martial arts also helped those that developed powers, helping them learn to control their powers and grow stronger.
Most of the superhuman fighters and martial artists don't possess any superhuman abilities beyond healing factors and the ability to channel immense amounts of spiritual energy (ki, chi, cosmos, etc....). Their martial arts allow them to focus the energy to enhance their bodies and perform special techniques. Chi sorcery involves manipulating energy with martial arts to create magical effects and some warriors like Juken Sentai Gekirangers and their US incarnations Power Rangers Jungle Fury can channel their spirit energy to summon armor, weapons, and giant transforming mecha (giant robots)!
Humans that possess superhuman, supernatural, or paranormal abilities known as superpowers learn martial arts to control those powers. A person with the ability to take on the abilities of certain animals would learn animal style martial arts like various forms of kung fu and train his animal forms to create a fighting style. A person with an ability to create physical duplicates of oneself learns a hand-to-hand style that suits team combos. Every those that possess mental abilities learn meditation and inner arts.
There is a psychic school in Sunnydale that teaches Astral dancing, a martial art meant to be used on the astral plane. Since the astral plane lacks gravity and ground, but lets sentient beings "fall" in any direction they choose, it allows very different techniques from those suitable to earth-like environments to be used. The street term for it is "kicking butt with your mind."
The most powerful of the Youkai and Hanyou don't depend on power and animal instinct, but have trained to master their abilities and gain even more abilities. As the Reikai Tantei (Spirit World Detectives) learn to manipulate their reiki (spirit energy) with martial arts, youkai learn to manipulate youki (demon energy) the same way. In the most civilized areas of Makai, martial arts are taught in schools along with the other subjects with major tournaments for Mixed Martial Arts, Kyudo (archery), and Kenjutsu (Swordsmanship). The three pillars of power - strength, speed, and skill - are known to every cultured child of Makai.
The Ninja are training in various styles of Taijutsu (hand to hand combat), which condition their bodies. There ninjutsu (elemental techniques), genjutsu (illusion techniques), Hijutsu (secret techniques) and kekkai genkai (bloodline limits/special powers) are all fueled by chakra, which is a combination of physical and spiritual energy. The more martial arts training a ninja learns, the greater his chakra can become.
The Shinigami/Soul Reapers possess longevity, enhanced endurance, and Reiryoku: - Spiritual Power by nature, but they train to gain other abilities. They are trained in their own style of martial arts known as Hakudo and agility training known Hoho, which allows Shinigami to move at high speed and walk on air. The most powerful of movement techniques is Shunpo (Flash Steps), which allow a person to move faster than the eye can follow. Some of the most skilled fighters in the Soul Society can even combine their Kido (demon arts/spiritual techniques) with their high speed hand to hand into a technique known as Shunko (Flash Cry).
The rivals of the Shinigami also have similar techniques. The Arrancar possess instinctive fighting styles which combined with their immense strength and iron hard skin makes them brutal fighters. While Shinigami have Shunpo, named for the flash it creates, the Arrancar possess a high speed technique known as Sonido named for the sound it makes. Similar to Shinigami Flash Steps and the Arrancar Sonido, the Quincy Hirenkyaku allows the user to move quickly over short distances and they are trained extensively in archery.
Even the Shokunin (Meisters) and Buki (Weapons) at the Shinigami Weapon Meister Vocational School / Shinigami Buki Shokunin Senmon Gakko or Shibusen are trained in martial arts to improve the connection between Buki and Shokunin, and to increase their success rate.
Those people that possess summoned creatures (Summons) or partner monsters (Mon) have trained in martial arts for two reasons. The more dedication and willingness to train there is one the part of the master, the more dedicated and stronger the monster will become. The second reason is that the connection between partners means that if one becomes stronger the other also becomes stronger. As a result the masters need martial arts to improve their monsters and to control powers that have begun to develop because of their bonds.
Originally, most of the magic users and mad scientists had weak bodies, but many of them died during the early conflicts. Many magical girls died because they stood still to fire their attacks and the enemy monster proved to have far superior speed and agility.
Xander looks at his PDA - Personal digital assistant, and notices the large number of martial artists that are patients.
There is a soldier from the Desert Kingdoms who is a master of Tahtib - Egyptian Stick Fencing. Ancient Egyptians performed stick fencing or stick fighting as a form of entertainment. Stick fencing continued to be practiced in modern times by Egyptians, particularly during festivals and the month of Ramadan. Stick fighting and stick dancing is also performed during marriage ceremonies. The man's shamanistic power allows him to channel his guardian spirit into the four foot Asa stick to create an Oversoul that can destroy a mountain.
"He used too much Furyoku stopping an assassination at the Embassy. He's now suffering from extreme exhaustion and is recovering after having a dozen deep wounds healed."
There is a group of people that recently returned from the Brazilian sector of the Jungle who are experts in Capoeira - an Afro-Brazilian art form that involves movements from martial arts, games, and dance. The strange group includes amphibian mutant Todd Tolansky also known as Toad and his wife Althea, a skilled street fighter named Bob Makihara, the feared Homunculus Envy, a pirate chef named Sanji and a Café owner and fighter named Richard Meyer.
"Mr. Meyer opened a new Pao Pao Café in Jungle City. Impressive since there are others in the Big Three -Sunnydale, Magia, and Machina -, in the Colony of Southtown and New York, and in the countries of Nihon and Albion. The one in Jungle City will make eight," says Nurse Jungle
"Those people who journey into the Jungle either die quickly or return forever changed," quotes Xander.
"Correct. Tolansky can now transform into actual amphibian and his powers have increased. He's hoping the scientists can create a counter to his toxins, so his wife will be protected. His wife, a water-manipulating mutant, can now transform into a real mermaid-like youkai. Makihara is worried about his new feline abilities and Envy can no longer transform into humans, only animals."
"What about Sanji and Mr. Meyer?" asks Xander
"You know the old saying is Don't Drink the Water. With so many supernatural animals and magical plants, the saying is truer than ever. The effects should reverse themselves in a couple days, but until then we have two angry green monkeys."
"Next on the list is Mr. Uchiha," says Xander. "Let me guess a Sharingan user?"
"He was a Japanese-American master of Jeet Kune Do. He idolized Bruce Lee and dressed like him for Halloween '97, but a couple years ago he developed the Sharingan doujutsu. The Sharingan's ability to predict the movements of any opponent worked well with the Way of the Intercepting Fist, and prevented him from becoming a victim to illusions. Unlike most Uchiha, he never became dependent on the Sharingan keeping it as a trump card during his numerous battles. "
"The problem?"
"His best friend was possessed by one of the Dark Council's demon assassins and he was forced to kill him. As a result he's developed the Mangekyo Sharingan and he's worried about losing his eyesight."
"An enhancement process should allow him to evolve his Sharingan to prevent the blindness common in the lesser version," says Xander, writing on the screen. "Have him talk to Itachi, he's our Sharingan expert."
"Next on the list is Mr. Zhang from The Thousand Kingdoms, an expert in Baguazhang, one of the major "internal" Chinese martial arts. His clan of pacifist wanderers has developed the ability to manipulate wind and air for defensive techniques over the past few years. He's wondering if you know who could help improve the clan."
"Baguazhang? Air manipulation? Doesn't anyone read the Files!? He's an Airbender. Have him contact the Bending Schools," says Xander. "How many others?"
"A ki manipulating Jujutsu expert from Nihon has youki poisoning. A Korean Hapkido user is having problems with his Reflex/Speed implants and his Taekwondo using brother wants to upgrade his genetically enhanced body. He wants more feline traits and further enhanced speed. Two half-brothers, one a master of Muay Thai and the other an expert in Muay Lao, are suffering injuries from fighting super Muay Thai masters Sagat and Adon."
"Muay Thai. Thailand Kickboxing. Muay Lao - Laos Kickboxing. I thought Jaguar Adon abandoned Tiger Sagat"
"The only other major kick boxer is Apachai Hopachai. Muay Thai 'God of Death' and member of the Ryozanpaku Dojo." says Nurse Jungle, causing Xander's eyebrow to twitch, "There is a man from the Philippines who was injured in a Daikaiju attack. He's an expert in Eskrima (Kali) and Espada y Daga. There is a group that used to be part of Russian Military, trained in Sambo and Systema. They all possess organic steel skin and immense superhuman strength like the mutant hero Colossus. They have joint problems and need to talk to a chiropractor and oncologist."
Beep
There is a beep from the PDA and a new file pops up.
"There's a new one. An Israeli soldier code named Gorgeous, extremely skilled in Krav Maga, an eclectic hand-to-hand combat system developed in Israel. He's also an expert marksmen and demolition expert from before Halloween '97. He's recently developed a doujutsu (eye technique)."
"What does it do?" says Nurse Jungle
"Night Vision. Telescopic Vision. Enhanced Spacial Awareness. Enhanced Reflexes. The reason he's in Sunnydale is to have it tested and Sunnydale has the most users of special eyes."
Beep
"White Dragon Lee Bailong. Lee Bailong was a kung fu movie star who was murdered by the Tao clan to be Jun's
Jiang-si bodyguard. He is a thinly-veiled reference to Bruce Lee, who died under suspicious circumstances. Technically, he is not a spirit, but a living corpse reanimated using Tao Jun's ofuda."
"Horrible. Isn't that slavery!?"
"Jun and Bailong became partners after Bailong was freed from slavery by shaman Yoh Asakura. They understand each other and according to the Files only a fear of necrophilia keeps them from being intimate."
"Gross."
"He's a master of Daodàn-do, but was damaged during a competition with.... Ryozanpaku."
Beep
"Tiffany Target'Gia Diggers, Daughter of Brittany Diggers & Stryyp'Gia. A hybrid of were-cheetah mother and an alien father who possessed powerful nano-artifacts. Recently became s student of the Shun Leep.'
'It's a style originating from the fantasy realm of Jade. The style was originally created by Senadra, an elvish orphan raised by dwarves, and combines fighting arts developed independently by the two races. Shun Leep depends on the practitioner's ability to read their opponent's intentions and improvise. The greatest risk a talented student of this style faces is that they will develop skill and power at the expense of control, and wield a "murder fist"- a state where their reflexes are so honed that they are unable to stop themselves from killing opponents."
"Like the Satsui no Hado (Surge of Murderous Intent) of the Ansatsuken (Assassin Fist)?"
"Similar. She was recently injured in battle in a manner her healing factor can't undo. She was having a match with ... Ryozanpaku."
Beep
"Brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee known as the Double Dragons. They are practitioners of Sosetsuken - Intercepting Twin Fists. It's a martial art which combines techniques from numerous Eastern and Western fighting styles such as Karate, Shorinji Kempo, Tai Chi Chuan, Savate, Muay Thai and Boxing. Loosely based on Bruce Lee's fighting method Jeet Kune Do (the name "Sosetsuken" is derived from Sekkendo, the Japanese name for Jeet Kune Do). Both are severely injured after making a pass at ~Miu Furinji."
Beep
"Drunken bar fight. Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, and Yuri Sakazaki of the Kyokugen style of Karate. Mugen of Champuru Kendo."
"Champuru??"
"It's a made-up martial arts style employed by Mugen. Champloo is a type of stir-fry, and relates to the mix of styles Mugen put together into a single fighting system. This style is a literal mish-mash of various styles and movements, combining everything from Capoeira to Zui Quan to Aikido to break-dancing into a single form that is difficult to defend against and impossible to predict. What's strange is there are people willing to learn it, the same way they want to learn Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. It's a martial arts mixing pot.'
'Back to the List. Jurai Royal Family Sword Forms? The Juraians have become more active."
The Jurain Tree Ships were completed several years ago and are some of the few ships that can fly without being destroyed by the Red Sky phenomenon. Even with their divine barriers - the Lighthawk Wings - they can't pierce the red sky and reach the space beyond the Earth Sphere, but they can fly far above the ground and sea. The restoration of the Tree Ships has been a boost to the egos of the non-Earth royals.
"Karin Zanjutsu? Gamma Akutabi and his brood must be in town. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu? Kenshin and his family. I know he refuses to teach Hiten."
BEEP
"A young cyborg is coming in badly damaged. She was abducted by a pedophile computer expert. The agents sent to rescue her couldn't get past the defenses without destroying the hideout. Their crazy solution was to transmit a program into the girl using the shield. The program was Panzer Kuns - Armored Arts, a martial art for cyborgs used by Gally and Alita type cyborgs. The program allowed the girl to kill the pedophile and escape, but because she didn't have the correct body for a Künstler, she developed stress damage."
Beep!
"Fifteen people incoming. Wounds consistent with Senjutsu and Shinmeiryuu."
Senjutsu is a martial art used by Tao magicians. Tao magicians of the Chinese guild use mystical forces to cast spells. They also train more combat-capable in the art of combining Tao magic with advanced martial arts. This combination of fluid fighting and mystical force is difficult to defend against. Tao magicians and senjutsu masters chant the mystic litany "pa-gua-sun-fa" to summon spirit energy to cast their spells.
Most of the Tao Magicians worked for the Dark Council, until Aizen, Madara, Naraku, Griffith, and Mum-Ra took control. The Tao Magicians of the Thousand Kingdom campaign were abandoned and without support fell to colony forces. The few survivors work for mercenaries, colony governments, or as members of the Pirate Guilds.
Shinmeiryuu is the sword fighting style used by characters created by Akamatsu Ken. Most of the Shinmeiryuu's attacks are sword skills infused with ki. They are also several non-sword based attacks. Shinmeiryuu specializes in exorcisms and is able to destroy demons possessing people without harming the person.
According to reports, there has been conflict between the Tao Magicians and the Shinmeiryuu Dojo.
Beep!
"Don't these people know martial arts are about discipline!!? Some idiot from the Nihon Alliance got into a fight with one of Logan's lot. He's a master of Fung Ku, a Scottish martial art which consists mostly of head-butts and kicking the opponent while they're on the ground! The problem is the brat he picked the fight with has an Adamantium-laced skull. He has a cracked skull and a severe concussion with possible post-impact brain damage. I say possible post–impact because we don't know how much brain damage this guy had to pick a fight with one of Wolverine's kids."
Beep! Xander's eye twitches.
"Injured Cipher Pol agents? Files. The Cipher Pols are a secret service-like organization under the World Government. The same world as Akuma no Mi (Devil Fruit). They use Rokushiki (six powers), an assassination art. The six methods are: Soru allows the user to move at super-human speeds; Shigan allows the user to stab the opponent with their fingers, the resulting wound appears to be caused by a bullet; Tekkai allows the user to harden their muscles into a suit of armor, effectively protecting them from most attacks; Kami-e allows the user to make their body paper thin to dodge attacks; Rankyaku allows the user to kick hard enough to send a cutting wave of energy in the direction they kicked; and Geppou is similar to double jumps in video games and flying, allows the user to repeatedly kick off the air."
"How did they get injured??" asks Nurse Jungle.
"A fight with.... Ryozanpaku."
It's a fact that the Masters of Ryozanpaku use some rather unusual and potential harmful teaching methods to help their disciple Shirahama Kenichi learn their various forms of martial arts. With the new dojo in Sunnydale, the number of powerful martial arts masters who employ unusual or potentially lethal training methods has increased by a massive amount.
Xander loses his cool because of how many patients come from that dojo. Ranma's Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu (School of Indiscriminate Grappling/Anything Goes Martial Arts) comes in a close second, but Ryozanpaku makes their profits on dojo destroyers and other challengers. People who want to destroy their dojo are the ones who pay for most of it and the ones that usually end up in the hospital.
Jujutsu Master Akisame and Chinese Kenpo Master Ma Kensei are members of the hospital staff. Koetsuji runs an orthopedic clinic and Ma Kensei runs an Acupuncture clinic.
Xander gets on Kensei's case because the man is a swindler and a pervert. He charges outrageous prices for dojo admission fees and only goes down to more reasonable ones if it is made clear that the person applying can't or won't pay it no matter what he does. There are also rumors of hidden cameras in clinics to get hentai pictures of the female patients.
You would think people would learn when Grandmaster Happosai of Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu was executed by the Sunnydale Women's Association. Xander still has nightmares about Happosai's horrific death, and he works in a post-apocalyptic trauma center filled with unholy abominations.
Despite the fear, he hides beneath floorboards or in the ceiling with a camera only to be exposed by one of the ladies at just the right time. This usually results in his camera getting destroyed or at least a throwing star in the lens.
Suddenly, Xander tenses then does a spinning kick. His foot strikes the ceiling and shatters the board causing Kensei to fall out. Xander and Nurse Jungle glare at the Chinese man.
"Morning. Busy day?"
Nurse Jungle's foot comes down on Kinsei's digital camera hard enough to create a small explosion. The floor is undamaged, but microscopic fragments of the camera are sent in all directions. What's left under her shoe is molten metal and plastic.
"Nurse Jungle. I remember you, you're also known as Nurse Haruna Rokudo. The descendent of Natsumi Rokudo, avatar of the spirit of flowers Mii, Ongo god of wood and destruction, and Rongo, the water spirit. You're also known for some of largest breasts in Sunnydale."
Kensei barely avoids being stomped into Chinese goo.
"Well I got to go! Jiraiya just released Icha Icha Enten (Come Come Blazing Sun)," says Kinsei running away from the monstrously strong Nurse. "I'm one of his biggest fans!"
Kinsei wouldn't have said that he liked Jiraiya's books if he knew around the corner was Joyce 'Tsunade' Summers.
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Xander slides into a chair outside an operating room.
The day has been getting worse and worse.
One of his wives, Elizabeth Chandra, was brought in badly injured from the field of battle with the Dark Council. She was injured by some of Griffith's monsters and also ended up raped and beaten by them. She was rescued, but not before the poisonous claws of one of the Apostles sliced open her stomach. The doctors, including his friend Black Jack, were able to remove the poison, demon taint, and most of the damage, but she'll never be able to have any more children. He's also extremely angry with one of the younger doctors who tried to feel her up while she was asleep. If he didn't know about his wife's ability to appear as the physically ideal woman to whoever is looking at her, he would have torn the fool's head clean off.
The teenager in surgery was one of first children he delivered. Sixteen years old Jason was a born fighter and he grew-up to have the same sense of humor as him. Even though he wasn't one of his children, he treated the boy like his son especially after Jason's father and mother died in the opening days of the Colony Wars. Jason was hoping to see the end of the Dark Council and with only Griffith and Aizen remaining, victory appeared to be close. Then he got too close to one of Naraku's surviving youkai soldiers and was impaled by the toxic blade. Xander and the doctors worked for hours trying to stop the viral agent that was spreading through the boy's being and corroding his body and soul. They were finally forced to separate the soul from the body, which shattered into dust, only for the soul to decay. True death isn't the death of the body, but when the soul loses its memories during reincarnation. The person that existed in that life, no longer exists beyond the soul's instincts.
The simple fact is that Jason is dead and there was nothing he could do about it. No matter how powerful or skilled he becomes, he'll still lose people. It's still hard to accept.
"Papa!"
Xander looks up to see his sixteen year old daughter Akane. She the daughter of Fumio Usui, a young mother who became a type of vampire in Halloween World. She is a cunning vampiress with a love of supernatural creatures and a taste for fear. She drains the fear from her victims causing them to loss their various fears.
She has helped him many times dealing with the scared patients. She devoured a woman's Tomophobia - fear or anxiety of surgeries/surgical operations - so her father could save the woman's life. She devoured a mercenarie's Hydrophobia - Fear of Water- so he could join the Pirate Guilds. She even devoured her own father's Coulrophobia - fear of clowns - after it was awakened by a fear demon.
"What is it, Akane?"
"I want to visit Jack. Can I go?" says the young woman in a child-like tone.
Jack is the name of boy Akane encountered in Albion. He rescued her from one of the Dark Council soldiers and Akane developed a serious crush on him. Jack also suffers from severe case of Panphobia, a medical condition known as a "non-specific fear" or "the fear of everything" and is described as "a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil". Xander was able to determine that the fear was caused by Jack's small amount of demon blood reacting to the spiritually-charged atmosphere. It's fear that Akane can't completely drain away, which is the reason she is so drawn.
"What did Fumio say?"
"Mama won't let me go see Jack, but Albion hasn't faced the Dark Council in months."
"You're sixteen Akane. It's your choice according to the new laws."
"Thank you, Papa!" says Fumio, giving her father a kiss on the cheek before taking off.
"Fumio is not going to be happy," says Xander with a sigh. "I'm letting my sixteen year old daughter go see an eighteen year old boy named Jack Ripper the 13th. I am such a sucker."
"Dr. Harris!" calls a Chinese woman in a nurse's uniform,
"Yes, Nurse Chow," says Xander as she hands him a PDA.
"Forms and Paperwork for this week's patients."
Xander looks at the screen filled with tiny text and indicators that says Document 01 of 70. Pg 001 of 140.
"Sweet God of Twinkies."
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Xander stands in the observation room looking down at two people in the training arena. Madara and Naraku conducted thousands of human experiments trying to create the ultimate soldiers for their armies. Even after the destruction of the Dark Council members, more labs are being located and more victims/test subjects are being rescued for their living hells.
In the training arena, there are two form experiments.
One is a young man standing five feet four, a hundred and twenty pounds with a lean build, brown eyes, light skin, and short black hair. He's dressed in a loose black shirt, dark grey cargo pants, and black sandal sneakers.
The other is a young woman standing five feet five, a hundred and fifteen pounds, with green eyes and long black hair. She's dressed in a black shirt with a yellow outline of a bat on the front, a black utility belt, tight black pants, and black shoes
As they fight using martial arts, the woman proves to be a master. She predicts the boy's movements and counters before he can react. The fight would have been over for a "normal" human within the first few seconds, but the boy is extremely durable and heals even severe injuries in seconds.
As they continue to fight, the boy's irises turn blood red as his stress level increases. As the boy lets out a cry of rage, crimson spreads from the irises staining the sclera, as the irises are filled with flashes of gold like fire. Soon the red sclera darken to pitch black and the irises become solid glowing gold. As the boy's eyes change, his body also changes at an alarming rate. The skin darkens to a shade of brown with black markings, as the muscles beneath it increase in size. Bones also lengthen increasing his height from five feet four to six feet four, straining his once loose clothing. His long black hair lengthens into a mass of spikes reaching his waist and patches of black fur appear on his forearms and sides of his face like sideburns. The boy's nails darken and lengthen into claws, and his canine teeth lengthen into those of a large predatory animal.
The Beast Child was a child found by Madara's forces after they destroyed a colony. The boy survived because he was born a mutant with a regenerative healing factor. The healing factor allowed the infant to survive third degree burns to over eighty percent of its small body and even regrow a lost arm. The soldiers took the infant to one of Madara's labs where he spent years as a test subject for different processes.
The processes granted the boy the ability to transform into a larger, more powerful, and feral creature. The form grants enhanced strength, speed, stamina, and durability, with claws that can slice through hardened steel. The form also fights instinctively and has no guilt or remorse, a savage killing machine made flesh. The form also has no sense of pain, which combined with the healing factor makes him nearly unstoppable.
Xander isn't worried.
The daughter of David Cain and Sandra Wu-San (Lady Shiva), Cassandra Cain was conceived and trained from birth with the intention of creating the perfect bodyguard for Ra's al Ghul. Cassandra wasn't taught how to speak from an early age by her father Cain and over time the parts of her brain that usually would be devoted to speech became occupied by learning body language instead. As a result she has great difficulty speaking or understanding the written word. It's a sort of dyslexia arranged to maximize her fighting potential.
She possessed Peak Human Conditioning, Martial Arts Mastery, and the skills of a Master Assassin before she was captured by Madara's special forces. Madara conducted many experiments on the former Batgirl, including one that preventing her from aging for several years, before implanting her with the famed Uchiha kekkai genkai (advance bloodline limit) the Sharingan. Her advanced ability to read body language, enabling her to anticipate what a person is thinking, was already boosted by the Halloween Event to supernatural levels equal to the Sharingan. The implantation boosted her abilities even further, turning her into the perfect fighter.
Madara's scientists and sorcerers managed to add Jounin-level ninjutsu and genjutsu training to the Princess of War, but the colony forces managed to rescue her before they could go beyond simple conditioning to total memory manipulation.
As Cassandra's green eyes turn dark red-purple with three black tomoe around each pupil, the world around her slows down. She can predict every movement of her opponent and each movement comes at an extremely slow pace. Cassandra moves forward and strikes her opponent, and in real time she appears to become a blur motion. The Beast Child is struck many times before being sent into one of the walls. Cassandra appears next to him as he hits the wall and strikes him hard, rendering him unconscious.
As the boy loses consciousness, he reverts to his more human form and all the energy is channeled into his healing factor. The healing factor even forces the blood from the boy's lungs, which was causing him to slowly suffocate.
Cassandra eyes shift back to their normal green and she turns to see Xander in the window and smiles.
Xander has been trying to undo the horrible things that Madara did to her or at least make it so that she can live something close to a normal life. She's catatonic one moment and a berserker the next in her behavior, but unlike other berserkers she still possesses a tactical mind loaded with martial arts training, which makes her extremely dangerous. She conditioned to defeat any perceived threat with efficiency and lethality. The training with the other former Madara soldiers brings her out of her shell, but if her opponents didn't have healing factors they would all be dead.
The Sharingan also complicates things as it acts like a high speed camera feeding large amounts of data directly into the brain. When it's activated the world around her slows down as her mind speeds up, but this disrupts her communication and causes large amounts of confusion and stress outside the body. Several times her brain has almost developed acute autism due to the data overload and she still works in routines.
Xander is also reminded of his friend Dawn Summers, before she merged with Rachel Roth, the half-demon sorceress Raven during Halloween of 1997. Cassandra has developed a crush/fixation on him and secretly follows him around the hospital complex, even through the most severe security. He was first worried it was part of her conditioning, as many conditioned assassins have handlers to control them. An example is the cybernetic child assassins known as the Gunslinger Girls, each of which had a fratello (brother). Instead, it turned out to be a typical teenage crush with stalker-like tendencies. Considering her skills, the Sharingan, and implanted ninja training, she is extremely good at keeping her eyes on her "prey". Most of the time, even Xander with his honed youkai senses can't detect her during work. Most of the time, he only spots her during the breaks because she lets her guard down.
Recently, she has become more dedicated and Xander suspects that Lady Cassandra, the energy vampire analogue/older sister to Cassandra, told her little sister about the polygamy laws. Sunnydale, like the other major colonies, allows the people to have multiple partners for several reasons. One, it increases the chance of a bloodline surviving in the chaotic world. Two, with various love/lust spells like the Valentine Events, it helps with the new generation. Three, the larger a clan is, the more potential for power it possesses.
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Xander looks at the young woman floating in tank before him. She's a beautiful Asian woman with light green/pale grey eyes which are closed and long black hair.
The chamber is two meters long, one meter deep and oval shaped. It's made of white metal with a circular window showing the face of the woman. Xander knows the tank is filled with an oxygenated fluid mixed with a chemical that numbs the skin and the window is magical, so that you can only look in, while the inside of the chamber is pitch black. The entire machine rests on a special base surrounded by a vibration shield, meaning that no vibrations can enter the chamber. It's a sensory deprivation tank constructed for people with dangerously enhanced senses.
"Toph was born blind and was treated as if helpless for many years, but she developed her own style of earthbending and became her world's strongest earthbender, being able to bend metal as well. Toph's earthbending ability depends greatly on her ability to sense things through her feet in order for her to walk around or do anything. It's like an earth based sonar," says Nurse Jungle. "The problem is that the ability became too sensitive to the point where her ability to perceive every vibration in the ground became like standing between four large speakers on full blast even when she was the only person in the room. It's also made her skin so sensitive that normal rain feels like falling needles and falling needles sound like falling pipes."
"Dark Council Feral Hunters??"
"Correct. Madara's Feral Hunters also known as the Wolverine Stalkers."
Madara created the Feral Hunters with Naraku's cooperation. They are warriors designed to hunt down the most common and practical of super-powered individuals, those that possess healing factors. Those with healing factors usually possess animal-level senses, so each hunter is armed with sensory weapons. Flash bombs designed to blind, chemical gases designed to blind and blister the skin, smoke designed to burn the lungs and destroy the sense of smell, and sonic techniques designed to destroy the hearing.
The name Wolverine Stalkers comes from the fact that the most common targets are versions of James Howlett, better known as Logan or Wolverine, and his family. That is also the reason they are nearly completely wiped out.
One of the most dangerous weapons is T-Gas based off the mutagenic Terrigan Mist, which can restore and boost superhuman abilities to dangerous levels, but removes all forms of control. It boosts the heightened senses of "Feral Humans" to the point where everything causes mind-burning pain.
"It's a variant of T-Gas, an odorless liquid toxin that can be absorbed through the skin," says Nurse Jungle. "The soles of her feet have minor chemical burns from overexposure. The Hunter must have dived through the soil using a Doton (earth release) technique and poisoned the ground before she could crush him. She passed out from her own hyper-sensitive geo-sonar ability, but the Medic recognized the symptoms and got her into the iso tank."
"Thankfully, the toxin's effects are not permanent. It's meant to disable the targets, so the Hunter can uses their specialized weapons to kill them. The chemical is breaking down and will be purged from her system in about a month," says Xander. "Keep track of the numbing agent. Overexposure to that drug can cause congenital insensitivity to pain."
"You mean like Doctor Otoha?"
The Nihon yakuza enforcer turned youkai herbalist doesn't feel pain. People born with this condition are injured often because they lack the early warning system and can cut off their own fingers without noticing until they see the blood. The condition lent to Otoha's merciless reputation as his brother's enforcer. It also helped him when he became the warrior Karas to defend his city against the mechanical youkai known as the Mikuras.
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"It's destiny!"
"It's garbage!"
Xander is walking down the hall to his next patient when he hears a rather loud argument. Thinking he recognizes the voices, he walks around the corner and sees two people arguing near the Magic Removal Sector.
The first is a bishonen nineteen year old standing six feet with red-brown eyes and short dark red hair. He's dressed in a red shirt, black pants, and black shoes. He also wears tinted glasses, a black jacket and black gloves, and carries an odd Fantasy-style sword on his back. Around his neck is a black choker with an odd silver charm in the center. His name tag reads "Alexander Heron the Third."
In his world, many years ago, King Alexander I of the magical realm of Heron rescued his people from a demonic invader, allowing them to cross dimensions into modern day earth. As they awoke in the new world, the Prophetess gave her last prophecy. A child would be born from four great magical bloodlines, a hero that would slay the demonic invader and return the people to their native Heron.
Alexander Heron the Third was a combination of two magical bloodlines. His father was the Prince, son of Alexander the First, and his mother was an extremely powerful sorceress. The problem was that Alexander the Third never had any interest in magic, growing up in a modern world. He went to the best schools and spent his time studying business and law, instead of magic spells and swordsmanship. He eventually abandoned his parents' magical teachings completely.
The one he's arguing with is a beautiful fifteen year old woman standing five feet three with emerald green eyes, dark skin with dark markings around the sides of her face and arms, and long dark green hair. She's dressed in black shirt and dark green shorts with black sneakers and black fingerless gloves. She also wears a black leather jacket with a green sigil on the back. Around her neck is a black choker with an odd silver charm in the center.
Alexandra Stork is a combination of the other two magical bloodlines and unlike Alexander, was interested in magic and swordsmanship. She became a powerful warrior and sorceress who could defeat a dozen dragons at the same time. The one mission she is failing in is being the arranged fiancée to Alexander. She has been trained since childhood to be the wife of the grandson of the Legendary King with the purpose of giving birth to the destined hero.
When they finally encountered each other at a private school, the arguments began. Alexandra's father was finally forced to use the magic chokers around their necks to keep them close together.
"SHUT UP!"
Alexandra protests stop leaving her wide eyed and crying.
"I don't believe in destiny. I don't believe in prophecy! I don't believe in you!" he says making her cry, "I don't love you! I'll never love you! When these collars are gone, I never want to see you again!!"
Xander winces at the volume and venom in the voice. He remembers the case because of their names. If the two had spent years together, fighting against the demonic invaders, they might have fallen in love with each other. Instead, they ended up in the World of Halloween less than a year ago through a chaotic portal. If their destined story was a ten volume manga, then they entered the world of Halloween after only the first couple chapters.
The breaking of the chokers is like a severe magical divorce.
Xander looks at the other patients in the room.
There is an extremely beautiful fifteen year old girl standing five feet two with blue eyes, pale skin, and long golden blond hair reaching her waist. She also has a large bust and is dressed in black and dark pink/purple clothing with a black robe and a large black staff. The black metal staff is topped by an odd-shaped head piece holding a golden orb. She also has gold armbands and a black choker with a purple gem.
"Jean Noel Mallory. Magical Girl Starsong"
Jean Mallory was an average little boy with four elder sisters. The sisters had a mean sense of humor and on Halloween '97, dressed their little twelve year old brother as a magical girl like those found in Japanese anime and manga. Jean managed to steal a dark cloak from a boy dressed as a vampire, after the bloodsucking idiot started making fun of him When the Halloween Event occurred; the chaotic magic transformed the boy into a dark magical girl with a still male mind.
It's ironic that his four elder sisters became mindless MOTD (Monster of the Day) like the Youma, Droids, Daimons, Lemures, and Phages of the Sailor Moon Metaseries. They were the first monsters ever destroyed by Jean, which left the magical girl alone in the world. In the seventeen years since Halloween, Jean has only aged three years due to her magical nature.
Jean want to remove parts of the magical girl transformation, but the Nihon Mahou Senshi Doumei (Japan Magical Warrior Alliance) refused to modify his traits. The Alliance fears the magical abilities could be destroyed, but Jean doesn't care as long as she doesn't have to give those stupid speeches and charge into every dangerous battle. She never wanted to be a colony defender and would be happier working in a Library or even the HolyForge. She also doesn't like the Princess program, which tries to manipulate her mind into acting like lady and searching for a Prince. Even after seventeen years, Jean still has a male self-image and has avoided every single love/lust spell used against her. Jean would have had herself sterilized if the magical girl transformation didn't heal all damage.
Xander walks away from the room, knowing he can't help in this case. He passes several other offices and sees analogues of familiar faces. The word Deconstruction comes to mind, because each of the patients deconstructs the genre they come from.
A version of Shinji Ikari is curled on the Psychiatrist's bed. A former teenage mecha pilot whose long-absent father designed the mecha, Shinji is dealing with severe abandonment issues, combat trauma, and an inability to trust others. The young man is also worried about his guardian, bottle fairy and scarily hyper-competent military officer Misato Katsuragi She is having a nano-medical procedure to regenerate her alcohol ravaged system and the damage done by exposure to Angels and the Second Impact.
In another room, a young man with black hair and glasses is sitting against the wall. He's missing his right arm a couple of inches below the shoulder, with the stump sealed by bandages. In his hands is the severed limb held in a clear plastic case filled with a translucent blue liquid. Next to him is a young woman with red eyes and long dark pink hair. She also has two small horns on her head resembling cat ears and looks like she has been crying.
"It's OK. It was an accident."
The girl begins to cry again.
As he walks, Xander watches as a young girl with long black hair is pushed down the hall on a medical bed. On her chest is a star-shaped red animal with two large eyes, which Xander recognizes as a Dragonet, a baby Shadow Dragon. Xander would guess that the girl collapsed under the stress of the psychic link she shares with her partner. The link used to control the dragons weakens their bodies and minds. Some crack under the pressure and temptation and begin to abuse there dragon's power, some even becoming mass murderers.
Xander also sees a woman standing near the office, not visible to most people. She's a very tall and elegant woman with purple eyes, pale skin, purple lips, and long purple and black hair reaching the floor. She also has pointed ears, several mystical markings on the sides of her face and arms, and small animal-like canines. She also wears a black dress with purple silks.
"A Dark Fairy?'
"You can see me?" says the woman.
"Not many could."
"You must not see me as a threat," says the woman with a bell-like laughter. "Most people put a Dark Fairy in the same category as low level Mazoku because we feed on negative emotions."
"I know Dark Fairies aren't like those Nihilists. You act like an anti-depressant and don't cause misery, you're just drawn to it on an instinctive level. People see you and associate you with the tragedy, not the help you're giving."
"Aren't you the cute and understanding man?"
"Ehh."
"Nervousness is also tasty."
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"Hey! Knock it off!"
"I'll knock your head off!"
"Can't we talk about it?"
"Talk is cheap!"
In the world of Halloween, there are three known people with the name Kenpachi Zaraki. One is the current Captain of the Eleventh Division within the Gotei 13 and has a lieutenant named Yachiru Kusajishi. Among the current captains of Gotei 13, he is the only one to have obtained his position by defeating and killing the previous Captain of the division. He is well-known for his fanatical love for the carnage of combat and for being the only Shinigami captain who does not know the name of his Zanpakuto.
The second is a warlord from the world of ninja. He was once an adventurous soul until he was betrayed by the ones he trusted. The innocent boy died and a savage, demonic warrior was born. One who rose from the ranks of the missing nin and became a feared bloodthirsty warrior. The man who founded the village hidden in death (Shigakure no Sato) filled with analogues of various Shinigami and their allies and the man who slaughtered the village hidden in the leaves (Konohagakure no Sato). Since he appeared in the world of Halloween, he has become the leader of the largest mercenary group in the world and has done something thought impossible. He married the former Spetznaz/VDV (Russian Airborne) trooper and ruthless Russian mob lady Balalaika.
The third version of Kenpachi Zaraki is a freelance Shinigami. He appeared in the world of Halloween at the same as the other Shinigami Kenpachi, but instead of becoming part of Gotei 13 again, he continued to wander the world looking for bloody battles. He fought the old Dark Council, wiping out base after base. He killed Naraku's youkai and Aizen's Arrancar. He killed Madara's ninja and Griffith's demonic followers. As he continued to slaughter any enemy he could find, he amassed a personal fortune in bounties from the colonies. After one extremely powerful Valentine Event after a long, brutal battle, this Kenpachi found mates in a Claymore girl named Regina and a dark priestess known as Miyako.
Children were born from those unions, each possessing the ability to become feared blood knights like the rest of the Zaraki Clan. Even when Regina became an Awakened Being and Miyako lost her humanity and became a youkai, they continued as husband and wives, slaughtering and spawning like the savage warriors they are.
The third Zaraki just learned from Dr. Xander Cho Hakkai Harris, that his sixteen year old daughter Michaela Tsukiko Zaraki is pregnant. The doctors drew lots to determine who would break the news to the surprisingly overprotective father. The man will let his daughter slaughter an army of vicious demons naked with only a dagger as a weapon, but when it comes to boys he goes more psycho that usual.
Xander avoids a slash that cuts a heart monitor clean in half. He avoids another slash that tears a medical bed apart. He also avoids the slash that leaves an intern sprawled on the ground holding his intestines in. There's one thing Xander can take advantage of, is while Zaraki is extremely skilled when he's enjoying a fight, his sword skills deteriorate when he's angry. Xander jumps away from the ceiling as the Zanpakuto creates a shower of sparks
"Kenny! Kenny!"
"What Yachiru!?' says Zaraki, as Xander holds his sword arm back with a length of surgical tubing.
"Xan-Man isn't Daddy to Michaela's baby."
"But you said...??? A pretty boy in green!?"
"I looked the wrong way."
"..."
"...."
"Then who is the real father?"
"Hello."
Zaraki releases Xander and turns to the man who spoke.
He's a Bishounen teenager of Chinese descent standing five feet eight, a hundred sixty pounds with jade green eyes, flawless pale skin, and shoulder-length black hair. He's dressed in a loose green silk shirt, black pants tied at ankles, a green sash around the waist, and black tai-chi shoes
"My name is Mao Chan," says the Chinese boy, his voice shaking with fear.
Xander stares at the young man. There are many attractive members of Zaraki's extended family, but they are the female members. The males are scarred with wild hair and savage grins, even the ones who married into the family. The boy in front of them looks like a male model and lacks the savage blood knight look in his eyes.
Suddenly, Xander's memory clicks and he remembers who the boy is. Mao Chan is the son of versions of the famed archaeologist, Jackie Chan and expert thief Viper.
Jackie was famous in his world for defeating the legendary Demon Sorcerers, the Dark Chi Forces lead by Dark Chi Wizard Daolon Wong, and the Oni king Tarakudo and his armies of Shadowkhan. They even fought Dragon Sorcerer Shendu's son Drago in a battle that sealed away demons and the magic zodiac talismans for all time.
In Halloween World, they helped retrieve mystical items and stolen goods from the Halloween Horrors and Dark Council Forces. In the end they were killed by Madara's forces, but left their son to be raised by friends in the Thousand Kingdoms
"So, you got my little girl pregnant."
The amount of spiritual pressure released by Zaraki causes the people in the hallway to collapse to the ground. Only Xander has enough power to resistant the crushing energy. He's also the only one that doesn't envision his own death from the monstrous amount of killing intent generated by the angry Zaraki.
"You don't look like a fighter boy! Not even one of those Xian."
Xian s a Chinese word for an enlightened person, translatable in English as wizard, magician, or shaman, in Chinese mythology. They are martial arts masters who can cast spells using their chi.
"I'm not a fighter," says the man, struggling to his feet under the pressure. "I'm a healer."
"A Healer?!? Where would my daughter find a healer??"
"Australia. I moved there after a few years in the Thousand Kingdoms."
Zaraki's eyes widen at the name Australia. There is one thing he hates about that continent. When his daughters returned from a trip to that place they brought with them a collection of small animals. Those animals caused him annoyance and trouble but he put up with them until one destroyed a collection of trophies during a move. He slaughtered each one, spraying their insides across the walls of the trailer, then blamed a Halloween horror.
A small red-and-white ball falls from the sash on Mao Chan's waist. The ball grows in size, and then pops open releasing a red-white light. The light forms a shape, which then becomes a solid creature as the light dissipates.
"Blissey!"
The creature stands four feet eleven, a hundred and three pounds with a round body covered fluffy coat of pink fur and tiny eyes and mouth. It has two pink-ears curled near it "head", white arms that are spread like feathered wings, and a white bottom with a pouch that holds a white egg.
Zaraki's eye fills with malice as he looks at the Medic Pokémon. He remembers when one of his late friends tricked him into eating a Lucky egg. Anyone who takes even one bite becomes unfailingly caring and pleasant to everyone. After he recovered his true murderous bloodthirsty nature, his former friend ended up sliced into human sashimi.
Zaraki raises his sword to slice the frightened Pokémon clean in two, but Mao catches the blade with his hands. He holds the blade in a praying grip and looks directly into Zaraki's one angry eye.
"Don't touch the Pink."
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"Patient?"
"Kira Yamato. Genetically Enhanced Human known as a Coordinator."
"The problem?"
"Activated SEED mode, while inside a mobile suit armed with the Zero system."
SEED factor stands for Superior Evolutionary Element Destined-factor, a controversial and as yet unproven theory about the continuation of human evolution. Both Coordinators and Naturals can possess "the SEED", and those who do are thought by some to be the next stage of human development.
SEED mode represents the ability for an individual with the SEED factor to enter into a state of enhanced awareness and peak physical ability. While in this state, the person (usually a mobile suit pilot, but not necessarily) demonstrates heightened reflexes and extremely quick information processing.
This ability is usually triggered by extreme situations or from recalling significant traumas, often arising out of a need to protect someone else in a critical situation. Now this is a temporary state that takes a toll on the person and it has been likened to moments during emergencies where people exhibit a strength level superior to what they're capable of under normal conditions.
The ZERO (Zoning & Emotional Range Omitted) System is a technology for interfacing the brain of the pilot with the mobile suit's computer. In its home universe, only two known mobile suits were ever equipped with this system, the XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero and the OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon, two of the most feared mobile suits ever created in their universe.
The ZERO system decreases the pilot's reaction times as there is no need for traditional visual interfaces. Furthermore, thanks to the advanced computations performed by the computer, the pilot can become aware of future outcomes and possible courses of action that can be taken to achieve total victory or total defeat. However, due to this direct brain interface, as the human brain cannot process the raw data, the system will cause the pilot to vividly "hallucinate" the possible paths that they can take; as the pilot tries to figure out what is going on, the system can overload the brain with too many statistics and estimated values, causing temporary insanity.
"So Kira's brain was gathering information at an extremely accelerated rate, faster than either system was intended. The monitors built into the suit registered an extremely high stress level, followed by a sudden drop before he entered this vegetative state. There are signs of neurological or psychological issues."
"It reminds me of a case of street fighter who overdosed on Bloody Eye."
Bloody Eye (aka Red Eye) is a drug developed by an illegal syndicate in the world of Cowboy Bebop. Bloody Eye is similar to a very powerful steroid and stimulant combined into one. It makes the user extremely hyper and aware. They perceive time at a very rapid rate, causing everything around them to appear to move in slow motion.
"If my theory is correct, Kira is still very aware. His mind accelerated to the point where everything to him is moving at an extremely slow speed. One second to us becomes one minute or even one hour to Kira. He can't move because his body cannot long keep up with the speed of his mind and has become disconnected. The strange metabolism reading indicates his nervous system is operating faster than the rest of his body."
"Treatment, Doctor Harris?"
"Sensory deprivation and sedatives. We'll try to slow his brain down enough for it to reconnect with his body. We will also have to watch out for autism and other mental conditions."
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On an extra large medical bed is a young man with green eyes and short dark brown hair. He's pale and looks extremely weak like a cancer patient. The most noticeable problem is that his left arm is thicker and three times longer than his right arm. It's a swollen organic mass with large veins pulsating through the purple-grey skin and tendrils of red-purple flesh weaving through the tissue. In the center of the mass is what looks like a wristwatch, primarily black and grey in color, with a green dial in the middle which has a shape like 4 triangles with their point-ends facing each other and joined. The inside of the two vertical triangles glow in different colors. It shifts green, red, and purple, while emitting electrical discharges.
"His immune system is breaking down. T-cell count is dropping below ten percent."
Ben Tennyson was a normal boy until he discovered the Omnitrix. The Omnitrix is an alien device which is attached to Ben's wrist in the series, and is the device that the series revolves around. It was revealed that the Omnitrix was supposed to be given to Ben's grandfather Max, but ended up in the hands of Ben by mistake (due to Ben's DNA being similar to Max's, which it was locked on to). According to bad guy Vilgax, the Omnitrix is supposed to be the ultimate weapon.
"Nanoprobes have located malignant cells and are eliminating them. Metastasis halted. "
The purpose of the Omnitrix is to let life forms experience how other life forms live. Azmuth created the Omnitrix with the objective of developing better understanding between all species in the universe and establishing peace and harmony among them. It does so by making the original life form (Ben) that the omnitrix is attached to walk a mile into another species shoes. Its secondary purpose is as a countermeasure against the Highbreed - a species of aliens that are racist to the extent that they believe that their DNA is the purest of all alien species and seek to cleanse the galaxy of "lower life forms". The Omnitrix has the DNA of all sentient life forms and serves as a means to repopulate the species that are destroyed by the Highbreed.
"Ben has been using the Omnitrix far more often than was recommended, doing a life time's worth of shape shifting in only a month. After so many transformations into different alien races, Ben's natural genetic integrity is breaking down," says Nurse Jungle. "It makes sense since rearranging the DNA strands almost on a weekly basis from human to something that is most definitely not can't be good in a more realistic world."
"There is also the Halloween Factor," says Xander. "The safety precautions incorporated into the Omnitrix could have failed, which is why we have a techno-mage and nano-engineer coming in to help us on the case. There is also the fact that many of species in Halloween world are dangerous even on a genetic level."
Xander goes over to a computer console, which is connected to the Omnitrix by half a dozen extremely thin cables. He types in a few commands and gets a complete list of DNA on the Omnitrix.
Heatblast - Pyronite
Wildmutt - Vulpin
Diamondhead - Petrosapien
XLR8 - Kineceleran
Fourarms - Tetramand
Grey Matter - Galvan
Stinkfly - Lepidopterran
Ripjaws - Pisccis Volann
Ghostfreak - Ectonurite
Upgrade - Galvanic Mechomorph
Xander scans down past additional aliens like Cannonball - Arburian Pelarota and Benwolf - Loboan, until he reaches the latest additions.
Inu - Inugami Yokai
Roberta - Yoma Hybrid
Aptom - Zoanoid Battle Creature
"Oh shit!"
"What did he do this time?"
Xander turns to see Ben's friend and cousin Gwendolyn "Gwen" Tennyson. She's a gymnast, martial artist, and master magician, who is Ben's partner in many of his adventures. She looks annoyed at her cousin, but you can see the worry in her eyes.
"The creatures of our world are not the same as aliens," explains Xander pointing at the screen.
"Youkai are separate from humans in that mortals are creatures with spirits limited by their bodies, while youkai are bodies limited by their spirits. On a basic level, a youkai's DNA can shift while they change state. An Inugami can shift from near human at one moment to pure canine in another, which makes it unstable.'
'There is a reason the Claymore Yoma hybrids are female, since there is an extreme risk of awakening with males. The massive amounts of youki generated can also convert a normal human into a youkai.'
'Aptom was an out of control zoanoid experiment created by Chronos. He's essentially a human virus able to absorb other species, gaining traits and abilities. He can also regenerate from a single cell and is called a Lost number because he can't be recreated by nature."
"Which means?"
"Garbage in, garbage out. The Omintrix doesn't understand the inputted data and is developing errors. It's like a virus degrading the system. I'm also detecting enhancements to all of his previous alien forms, which counts as tampering by the Halloween Event."
Suddenly, Ben fully awakens and his arm expands further, developing spikes. His hair changes from brown to pale blond, his skin turns white and green/black markings spread across his skin.
"You idiot!" yells Gwen. "I told you about using the Omnitrix too much!"
"I'll be fine, Gwen," says Ben, his voice rough.
"Fine?! Fine!? You look like a freak, you idiot!" yells Gwen, starting to cry
"Aha!"
Ben and Gwen turn at Xander's shout. Xander is smiling at the screen.
"Nurse Jungle, tell the mage and the engineer to hurry, and also call a computer expert."
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Xander holds his wrist as energy begins to gather in his palm. Around him, doctors and nurses fight a small army of demonic creatures.
In front of him is a horrific sight. It's a dark portal releasing demons into the hospital. A portal whose three meter radius circular rim is composed of bone and red-purple flesh, with a human face on the top. Xander was coming into the room to check on some of the younger patients, when he heard a ten year old girl screaming. He was then forced to watch as the little girl's flesh, blood, and bone were changed and shaped into a living portal device to allow the demons to enter the hospital. Xander can sense the girl's soul burning as the fuel for the bio-mechanical portal and can hear both her physical and spiritual screams.
There are parts of the job Xander loves and there are parts of the job Xander hates. One thing he hates is having to kill a patient to end their suffering and/or save the lives of others. He's especially hates it when the patient is a child.
There is no way to describe how much he hates the Dark Council.
Xander opens his palm and white mist-like energy gathers into a small pulsating sphere. The sphere, which is the size of soccer ball, contracts into a shining light the size of a marble, before becoming a beam of light. The beam of energy tears through a dozen defending demons and lances through the forehead of the human face on the portal, instantly killing the girl.
The Nightmare Portal shakes as its supply of energy is destroyed, then the entire ring is covered in small explosions and arcs of energy resembling electricity. The dark portal, resembling a pool of shining water, ripples and swirls tearing demons coming through it to pieces, while alternating between drawing in air and expelling it. Glowing cracks spread from the dead child's face and cover the entire ring, as the portal collapses on itself. As the portal collapses with a rippling energy shockwave, the ring shatters into a thousand pieces and disintegrates.
Xander's spiritually aware eyes see the little girl's soul also disintegrate, reverting to the blank soul it was before its first incarnation before joining the flow of souls in the cycle of reincarnation.
The last of the remaining demons are slaughtered by the Hospital personal.
The sole survivor is the leader. He's a massive eight feet tall grotesquely muscular humanoid demon with four arms. It has four sclera-less yellow eyes, thick dark green scaly skin covered in clear toxic slime, and sharp antlers instead of hair. The massive creature has a wide mouth filled with sharp shark-like teeth and a long forked tongue, long limbs ending in black claws, and sharp bony spines going down the sides of its arms and legs, and down the spine to the tip of a long muscular tail. It also has thick eyebrow ridges covered in spines, no nose, and two long horns like you would find on an ox on its elongated skull. The most disturbing feature is the upper half of a child's face melded onto its forehead and protected by the antlers.
It would be an extremely intimidating creature to most people, but Xander walks towards the creature with a slow even pace. The demon throws a punch with one of its arms, one powerful enough to create a hole in six inch thick hardened steel plate, but Xander blocks the blow with casual ease. The demon then pulls back its arm to find a section of burnt scales where it came in contact with Xander's bare skin. Xander continues to walk towards the leader, who is now backing away from the youkai doctor. The air in the room is thick with murderous intent and the demon leader begins to hallucinate its own violent death over and over again, each time more violent and painful.
Final, as the demon is backed into a wall, Xander stops within a foot of the foul creature. Xander raises his hand, which has a soft blue glow, the rams it deep into the demon's chest. The demon cries out in pain and toxic blood sprays from its oversized mouth. The creature continues to roar in pain as it feels energy surge from Xander's hand and burn through its insides. The demon's skin inflates as its blood boils and organs rupture. Thin beams of blue-white light emerge from different points of the swelling, darkening skin, as the layer of slime boils and evaporates. Steam bursts from the mouth as the yellow eyes rupture, then the entire body swells like a balloon as bones break and muscles tear apart. The entire demon violently explodes into millions of millions of pieces, which disintegrate in less than a second.
Some of the doctors and nurses are shivering in fear. A doctor can be a dangerous opponent. A youkai doctor can be an extremely dangerous opponent. An angry Xander Cho Hakkai Harris would make Godzilla lose bladder control.
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"DIE YOU CENSORED!!!!!"
"Hey cutie! Want to do the Max!!"
"Waah! Don't hurt me!"
"You'll ruin my new outfit."
"Oops!"
CRASH!
Xander looks down at the man in the wheel chair. The brown-haired man's body strains against the restraints and switches from personality to personality, going through the complete range of emotions
"Josh McGrath, better known by his alter ego's name of Max Steel, was a nineteen year old fictional extreme sports teen star, whose parents died some time ago, his mother Molly when he was a toddler, in a shipwreck; his father Jim under mysterious circumstances when he was a young boy. He was later adopted by his father's best friend and partner, Jefferson Smith, who works in an extreme sports articles manufacturing company which was in reality a facade for a secret counter-intelligence agency known as N-Tek.'
'Due to a less than spectacular attempt to stop the mercenary Psycho from stealing some experimental nanoprobes, Josh winds up getting bathed in them. This results in the nanoscopic robots bonding with his body and while they do give him superpowers and the ability to change his appearance there is a down side. He needs to be recharged by sitting in a transphasic energy chamber and being bombarded by the energy. If he isn't recharged on a regular basis the nanoprobes begin to shut down and this will result in his demise."
"Powers the probes gave him include the ability to alter his appearance, turn invisible and become super-strong?" says Xander, looking at the report and the near-indestructible adamantium wheelchair and binding straps. "Halloween boosted those abilities as well and most likely changed the nanomachines so they could absorb other forms of ambient energy."
"Correct on all three!" says Nurse Jungle, holding up three fingers. "The problem is that overexposure to different types of metaphysical energy is causing errors and personality shifts."
Ki is the name given to the energy of living creatures, the power of the soul within the body. Reiki is the energy of the spirit, power of the soul separate from the body. Youki is the energy of Youkai and demons, the energy of a dark soul free of the body's limits. Elemental energy is the energy the worlds, of the spirits that maintain the natural laws of the physical world. Magical energy is the spiritual energy used to manipulate the astral realm to alter the physical realm, the spirits of the souls resonating. Psychic energy is the energy of the mind, which can manipulate physical matter through the astral plane. Quantum energy is the basic energy of the universe, existing outside the normal laws of the universe.
"Youki absorption causes surges in the id portion of his personality. It causes extreme hunger, rage, and lust, causing Max to act in a primitive, feral manner. It's a property of youki, which is why most demons and wild youkai are hedonists. Magical energy causes severe damage to technology with the exception of magitek and pure mechanical devices. It modifies the physical laws, which the technology operates on, causing surges like electromagnetic pulses. Psychic energy causes unshielded non-psychic minds to become unstable, boosting the most dominant emotion to extremes. All together and you get an extreme mess."
"According the charts, there are also problems with his physical health. The emotional stress caused by the severe emotional shifts is breaking him down and the energy surges are destroying the nanoprobes at an accelerated rate. His body is breaking down with the machines and there are clots forming where the debris is collecting," says Xander
"Adamantium chair. Like Wolverine's bones, but the wheelchair is more Professor X's thing. It would have been a cool idea, if Magneto wouldn't have been able to control it. The master of magnetism could...:"
"Waaah! I'm sorry, Doctor! I'll be good!"
"This is disturbing."
Xander sweat drops at Max's last three personalities. One was an extreme comic book geek, the second was a panicky ditz like the annoying TV version of Mihoshi Kuramitsu (as opposed to the dedicated and competent OAV version), and the third version is cold and logical with Spock's raised eyebrow.
"The problem is that the N-Tek nanomachines were never designed to operate outside the limits of the physical world and were designed to be recharged by transphasic energy, not ambient energy fields," says Xander. "Call a Nano-Engineer and have him or her create replacements using the data we have on the originals. Also tell the Engineer to program the new nanoprobes to destroy the remaining old ones."
"Transmitted Doctor," says Nurse Jungle with the PDA.
"It's raining men, Hallejulah!"
The doctor and nurse move away from the crazy man in the wheelchair.
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"Nano-construction of bio-synthetic amygdale," says Xander looking at holographic image of a humanoid brain. "Using nanotechnology to construct neurons and neuroglia based on the patient's DNA, then reconstructing the damaged part of the brain cell by cell."
"River Tam. A gifted prodigy girl who received an invitation to an elite academy that turned out to be a government project to create the perfect assassin. She was experimented on and had most of her amygdala removed which normally acts as a filter for her emotions," says Nurse Jungle reading the profile. "As a result River can't control her emotions whether it be to restrain them or let them fly freely. This causes her to eventually descend into madness but does produce the side effect of giving her psychic and intuitive powers that eventually become full blow telepathy at least as far as receiving broadcasted thoughts from people who don't know how to mentally shield themselves or have a techno device that can protect their thoughts from telepaths.'
'The Halloween Event boosted her abilities, but the emotional problems have forced others to keep her sedated or in stasis for the past few years. Her brother would have trusted Machina, since he doesn't trust magic, but Sunnydale has superior medical facilities."
"With the artificial amygdala, she should regain at least part of her emotional control as well as some semblance of sanity."
The black-haired woman in question is wheeled by in a wheelchair. Her head is wrapped in bandages with special seals designed to stop psionic energy. The suppression is designed to protect her until her raw psychic center has had time to readjust and lower her stress level since she no longer has the psychic static of others.
River signals the Nurse droid to stop and motions Xander to come closer. Xander leans down and River whispers something into his ear, which makes Xander look very confused. River then continues on to her room.
"Cryptic prediction?" asks Nurse Jungle
"As clear as a Wolfram & Hart Insurance plan."
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Xander is drinking his coffee, while looking down the corridor. At the end, two tall and skinny red-haired boys in the clothing / robes of Albion Wizards are being lead by a pair of nurses.
The twin nurses have silver eyes, pale skin, and pale blue-silver hair reaching their waists. They have cute fangs, claw-like silver nails, and pointed ears. They also have white bat-like wings coming out of their backs and their temples, which mark them as Makai-class succubi. They are dressed in tight uniforms which show off their large busts, small waists, and round rears.
Fred and George Weasley are characters from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. They are twins and brothers of Harry Potter's best friend Ron Weasley. They are pranksters through and through, who have become even worse since their resurrection in Halloween World. With their enhanced magical power, they've been kicked out of or 'persuaded' to leave various other magical communities due to their antics, causing them to settle in Sunnydale. Interesting enough, they have managed to open franchises of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes joke shops in those colonies despite having been banned or restricted in each one.
Naturally they were warned by the people in charge to behave themselves or ELSE but a suspicious event landed them in the hospital. The event involved a pound a candy, a ton of feather pillows, and twenty liters of non-toxic liquid adhesive. It also involved thirty two people including members of the Lagoon Company, which is why Fred and George had to have twenty seven magic-resistant bullets removed and six organs replaced.
The succubus sisters Gabriella and Isabella Silver-Aesland are two of Xander's most loyal nurses. They are extremely skilled nurses possessing superhuman speed and the ability to manipulate their wings into various medical tools to assist them. They have expert timing and teamwork skills. They are also the best manipulators on staff, able to seduce any man or woman.
Last week, Fred and George managed to mess with Xander's Twinkies. They made it so Xander's skin would become iridescent, changing every color imaginable for seventy two hours and he wouldn't be able to taste anything but leafy greens for the same amount of time.
Xander gives an evil smile as the Weasley Twins, both with flushed and goofy looks on their faces, are pulled into a room for a checkup. They don't even notice the name of the doctor on the door. Dr. Fran Madaraki.
No one messes with the Twinkies.
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Xander takes the elevator to another floor after dealing with two odd cases.
The first was twisted version of Peter Pan and Wendy.
In that world, vampire pirate Captain James Hook escaped death at the hands of hunters by traveling to the time-displaced fairy island of Neverland. Captain Hook and his crew used orphaned children and the people of a nearby native village as a food source, while trying to conquer the island from its fairy rulers.
Peter Pan was an experiment created by the vampire pirate Captain James Hook using the blood of a fey princess. Captain fed the boy his blood, but it was mixed with fairy blood causing a unique transformation. The resulting Netherworld Vampire, Peter, was a boy who never grew up and could fly like a winged fairy. The boy couldn't be controlled, slaying many of Hook's clan, before slicing off the Captain's hand in a dual. Because the blade contained a mixture of vampire and fairy magic, Hook was unable to regrow the hand.
Peter created the Lost Boys out of orphans from the human world and created queens out of young girls. Peter's original girl was a mortal named Wendy, but he created others such Jane and Margaret. They are infected when they are children and when they die they are reborn the same age as when they were bitten.
Xander had to help two vampire children deal with one being pregnant. Children having children is disturbing even in this insane age of Halloween. The two fey/vampire hybrids may have been thirty-six and twenty-five when they died and have both spent a hundred and ninety years as vampires, but they both have the bodies of fourteen year olds and the same maturity. Sometimes having eternal youth can be extremely distressing to others.
The other case was a near suicide by the latest member of the NMSD - Nihon Mahou Senshi Doumei (Japan Magical Warrior Alliance). He was originally a young man with a talent for machines, when his convoy was destroyed by a Dark Council bombing. He was the sole survivor of the convoy and searched the wreckage for supplies in order to survive. What he found was the Sapphire Harmony Gem - a magic jewel belonging to a late magical girl, a broken morpher belonging to one of the incarnations of the super sentai power rangers, and a damaged Kamen Rider belt.
The desperate young man managed to combine the three items during another attack. He used the gem as a power source for the morpher and loaded the morpher into the belt. When the fusion of magic and technology transformed him into a masked magical warrior dressed in magitek armor.
He was a muscular, athletic thirty year old man standing six feet with brown eyes, tanned skin, and buzz cut dark brown hair. Now she's an athletic teenage girl standing five feet with red-brown eyes, pale skin, and long sugar pink hair reaching her waist. She's also trapped wearing either pink-and-black armor with a dark pink cape and mask, or pink girl clothing, as any unisex clothing she tries to put on is transformed.
Today, Xander had to inform the young woman that she would never be a man again. The magical transformation was so extensive it bonded with her soul, meaning even her ghost would be female. Even transferring her soul to a male clone wouldn't work as the boy would eventually transform with the magic level reached a certain level.
Xander walks into the next room and sees a familiar face and not so familiar one.
The not so familiar face is a cute young woman standing five feet four with brown eyes and short dark brown hair.
Annalee Call was the newest member of the Betty pirate/mercenary crew, and had a secret mission to destroy the alien hybrid Ripley before the military scientists could remove the queen embryo from her. Unbeknown to her crew, Call was actually a "second generation" android; a robot designed and built by other robots. Although no one else knew this, Ripley probably sensed it, saying "no human being is that humane." The humans who created the first generation androids panicked when they discovered that their creations had built new android designs of their own, and initiated a "recall", which was in truth a massacre which wiped out almost all of the second generation androids, although a handful of second generation androids, such as Call, managed to escape.
After wiping out the Alien colony, Ripley and Call traveled together and were reunited in the world of Halloween, a few years after the Event. Now, the Android (or Synth) is in the Hospital due to a bandit attack. Annalee's fake skin and pseudo-flesh is breaking down and there is a danger to her internal systems. Call's lower stomach is a mushy mess of translucent white material and milky fluid held in by a clear plastic bandage. The skin around the wound is white and blistering.
I'm going to kill you, Dr. House, then resurrect you in the body of a dumb blond, thinks Xander, while saying, "How are you feeling?"
Dr. Xander Cho Hakkai Harris is doing clinic duty because he lost a bet with Dr. Gregory House. Dr. Harris is extremely lucky at gambling and has won over ninety nine percent of the bets he had and every bet with Joyce Tsunade Summers. The problem is that Dr. House likes to stack the deck in his favor and is a devious bastard.
Xander puts on a set of goggles and lowers the lights in the room. He then uses a scanner to shine different spectrums of light over the wound. The first few wavelengths show nothing, but then the patch lights up. There is a large area of illuminated skin.
"Describe what the bandit used as a delivery system?"
"It wasn't much of system. It was a steel soup can filled with yellow liquid. I thought it was urine from the ammonia smell, but my side burst open," says Call, as Xander swabs the wound. He turns the lights back on, places the swab tip above a small container and sprays water over the swab into the container. He then loads the tiny container into a machine and types on the attached keyboard.
"Mass spectrometer. Narrowing Scan to UV-limits and Odor."
Beep
"Machina Machine Cleaner 6. It's an industrial cleaner used to remove organic traces from machines, to sterilize cybernetic implants and clean terminator endo-skeletons. I'll send you to the CRIB. They'll surgically remove the contaminated areas and then replace the pseudo-flesh. You might want to get a new body from Machina, since your current body is obsolete and becoming difficult to repair."
"You make me sound like an old computer," says Call
"Maybe the new model will be more durable," says Ripley 8.
This causes Call to blush a deep red, something that would be difficult with the original design specs.
Xander notices the odd look in Ripley's eyes and feels like he's being stalked. Youki is a basic, primal energy generated by demons and youkai. It's a power dominated by primitive emotions like hunger, hatred, and lust, and evokes similar emotions in other animals.
The parasitoid extraterrestrial species known as the Xenomorphs are very instinctive by nature. Unlike many other recurring extraterrestrial races in science fiction, aliens are not an intelligent civilization, but predatory creatures with no higher goals than the propagation of their species and the destruction of life that could pose a threat. Like wasps or termites, aliens are eusocial, with one fertile queen and a caste of sterile warriors.
The part-alien hybrid Ripley has proven to be sensitive to youki, which has allowed her to survive thousands of demon and youkai attacks. She can sense Xander's power, even with it suppressed by some of the most powerful power limiters in the world.
Another factor which has recently become important is that Xenomorphs can go through further changes later in their life cycle. When a Drone becomes a Praetorian, they start to grow a harder exoskeleton and give off a pheromone that causes the rest of the hive to attack them. If they can escape and survive long enough, their exoskeleton will become bullet-proof, and they return to the hive as guardians of the Queen. The Queens on the other hand can evolve into Queen Mothers, which rule the entire species.
In Ripley's case, she secreted a pheromone which caused both colony and Dark Council forces to attack her. The only ones not affected were those possessing advanced healing factors, those who were part machine, and those protected by magic or technology. When that period ended, Ripley 8 returned to the Colonies, stronger, more durable, and possessing a strong form of telepathic tracking. She also began to take interest in the male species again.
Unfortunately, Xander has become a prime target for any human, youkai, or humanoid alien with a libido. What's worse is that there are no deterrents, as his wives are willing to add new members as long as they're the dominant queens and the laws support polygamy.
"You want me to do another blood toxicity test?" asks Xander, inside very suspicious.
"Alien blood is an extremely potent acid and is capable of corroding on contact almost any substance with alarming speed. I'm worried that my transformation into a stronger form means my blood has changed."
To illustrate the point, Ripley grabs an adamantium-trinium needle from a nearby table and pricks her finger. Instead of her usually crimson blood, a dull yellowish-green liquid rises to the surface. The tiny wound heals almost instantly, but the tiny drop of fluid runs off her finger and hits the table, burning a small hole in it.
"In other words, if I get all fucked up, the people around me will also get fucked up."
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Xander has finished his break and is looking at the newspaper waiting for his next patient.
Mr. E and Nanashi stop Tzimisce Cult Robbery
The Tzimisce are a clan of vampires from the world of the White Wolf games. The Tzimisce are known for their body altering technique, called Vicissitude or, less formally, "fleshcrafting". Tzimisce can supernaturally alter the bodies of living and undead organisms, even to the point of melting them.
For this clan, body alteration is an art and a philosophy. In the modern ages, most Tzimisce are simultaneously radical transhumanists, posthumanists, and prescriptive social Darwinists. Sooner or later, many Tzimisce become totally lost in this detached and inhuman way of thinking, often losing all contact with the concepts of mercy, compassion, or moral or ethical values as understood by the human mind.
Xander knows about them because of a priest of Tzeentch - God of Change, Lies, Hope, Ambition, Manipulation, Scheming and Sorcery and a few Tzeentch doctors that use their flesh craft in medicine, especially cosmetic surgery.
The news article talks about a cult who follow the path of physical and spiritual purification and perfection with this path only having one goal: to become so powerful that the whole world becomes part of themselves — Azhi Dahaka, when the world becomes a part of yourself, a sort of inverted Nirvana.
Super Ninja Nanashi and Wizard Detective Mr. Noman Enigma prevented the cult from stealing a train shipment loaded with dangerous mutagenic substances.
Birth of a Queen, Exile of a Princess
Midland royal families were shocked when Princess Regina, daughter of Queen Arianna Sophia Charlotte Mariana of Astiskold was rejected in favor of Suzanne the Affectionate, daughter of Concubine Fleur the Patient. It was revealed that Regina lacked the magical power found in the Astiskold, but the young Suzanne possessed great magical power and potential.
The Viser was later arrested for conspiracy and was exiled with Queen Arianna and Princess Regina to an unknown magical fortress. They avoided execution due to lack of connections to dark forces and years of noble work.
Xander doesn't know much about politics, but from what he can remember; Astiskold was founded by a wizard conqueror, a kingdom in which those with magic are the nobles. They only started to marry non-magical people to reduce the dangers of inbreeding and because of politics.
Congratulations to Pope Alessandro XVIII
Alessandro XVIII, the 399th Pope of Rome, son of the former pope, Gregorio XXX of the 31st century, and 1st Pope of Sunnydale celebrated the birth of his son Gregorio XXXI, his first daughter Noélle, and second daughter Mary.
The old marriage laws preventing priests from marrying have been dissolved since the Halloween Event. The massive number of Valentine Events have lead to many holy men starting large families. The people of the HolyForge managed to protect Alessandro for many years, but he was finally caught in the last V Event. They actually traveled to the Holy City Vatican to get married by The Pope.
"Doctor!" says Nurse Jungle, running up to him and causing him to drop his paper.
"What's the emergency?"
"Terror Dog!"
The Terror Dogs are horned dog-like demonic monsters with blazing red eyes and powerful dark-colored bodies. The two best known versions are Zuul the Gatekeeper and Vinz Clortho the Keymaster, loyal minions of Gozer the Gozerian. In the world of Ghostbusters, Zuul and Vinz took possession of the bodies of both Dana Barrett and Louis Tully, transforming them both into their true demonic form in order to secure the arrival of The Destructor.
The Terror Dogs are a species of hell hound that serve high level demons. They possess immense strength, durability, and speed in their natural form, but also grant enhanced physical abilities to those they posses. The possessed also have telekinetic abilities including the ability to levitate, pyrokinesis, and immunity to lightning-level electrical surges. They are vicious animals that can cause massive damage and open dimensional gates.
Xander pauses at the door as he feels a pulse from his inner hyena. Long before Halloween, Xander was possessed by the Alpha Matriarch of the Primal Hyena Spirits. When his friends managed to remove the possession, some of the hyena remained behind with the memories. Since Xander was possessed by the strongest spirit, the largest fragment remained in him. When Halloween of 1997 transformed him into a youkai, the fragment was absorbed into him further enhancing his abilities. Recently, the hyena has reemerged as a summoned creature. The Hyena Beasts are similar to Alucard's hell hounds in that they are familiars born from his own power and flesh.
Xander's inner hyena is detecting a primal spirit, which is also detecting him. There is a sensation of recognition, and then the wooden door explodes into splinters as a red-haired woman smashes through it. She smashes Xander into the wall and then molds her body into his. Xander looks into the woman's gold-red eyes, then the woman licks his face.
"Demon Blood. Primal Spirit. A sin of passion. A history drenched in blood," says the woman purring. "I am Shiara of Black Gate, blood-drinker. Will you become my Key?"
"I am already married to many women," says Xander, trying to break the woman's insanely strong grip without hurting her. "Many children as well."
"Good. A strong Alpha needs many mates to produce strong children. It is the true nature," says the woman, holding Xander closer. Then her voice changes to deep double voice, "Alpha of the Primal Spirits. A Key is found. A New Generation of Terror and Salvation, born from the Demon Hearts."
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A Couple Hours later
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The Terror Dog possessed woman is resting in the bed and Xander is grateful that Nurse Jungle is skilled with sleep spells. The woman looks more human with her red eyes fading to red-brown, her dark skin fading to a normal tan, and her long red hair now obeying gravity.
"I'm sorry for being so aggressive with you, Doctor Harris."
"It's OK. It happens... a lot... especially to me," says Xander with an embarrassed look. "It appears both the demon and yourself were in the most fertile part of your cycles."
"I avoided all of those Valentine Events by narrow margins," says the woman. "What nearly gets me knocked up is a demon bitch in heat!"
"Don't worry. There are people you can talk to about possession. They'll help you improve your defense so you're less vulnerable to further possession and perhaps stop future possessions all together."
"Do you think they can help?"
"After their training, the only people more resistant to possession are the naturally immune," says Xander. "Most of the Naruto analogues are immune to possession because the Kyubi no Kitsune devours the invading spirit and vampire badass Alucard is already possessed by his thousands of victims, who he repeatedly kills to renew himself"
"Cool," says the redhead. "I have enough problems making up my own mind without others crowding me."
Xander turns and leaves the room. Just as he exits the room, the woman calls out.
"Will you be free for a thank you dinner, after I get discharged?"
"I guess. I'll have to check the schedule. As long as we don't spend too much."
"I'll be waiting," says the woman, as Xander leaves. She then whispers, "The Terror Dogs and other primal spirits have been talking about you. Nice talk."
Click
Xander's youkai hearing allows him to hear the whispered words and warning bells go off in Xander's head.
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Two figures stand on the ruins of a concrete building in the desert of the Los Angeles wasteland.
One is tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose. He has the long red hair of an Albion native, and protective goggles covering his eyes. He's dressed in dark clothing covered by a long coat that resembles a wizard's robe. He carries a wooden wand in his right hand and has numerous ninja storage scrolls strapped to his belt and vest. On the back of the coat is a symbol resembling a black knight chess piece with a "W" above it.
The other is a wraith-like humanoid that's short and skinny with a thin face, long dark hair, and green eyes. He wears the tattered, worn robes of a wizard who has seen a thousand brutal battles. This is covered by an invisible hooded cloak that flows around him like a living creature. It can only be seen as it moves rapidly, as whenever it slows slightly the part it covers vanishes completely. The robe makes him appear to be a spirit, but it's his right arm that makes him look like a demon. It's a long limb made of wood with long spidery fingers ending in sharp tips making it resemble claws. The last feature is a white mask that hides his features. A mask that has a dark gemstone embedded in the forehead surrounded by snake biting its own tail, the symbol of the Ouroboros. .
The first is Ronald Bilius "Ron" Weasley. He is known as the best friend of the hero Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. He is a member of the Weasley family, a pure blood wizard family and along with Harry and Hermione he was a member of the Gryffindor house of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This version of Ron never applied himself in school, spending his time thinking about chess and Quidditch instead of studying, being a sidekick and following Harry's fame instead of trying to earn a name for himself.
When he awoke in the World of Halloween, he found himself lacking the skills to survive and spent years on the run, drifting from colony to colony. Finally, in one small colony in Albion, he watched an episode of an animated American sci-fi sitcom known as Futurama. In that episode, he saw little chess men attack a man. It reminded him of his first year at Hogwarts, when he fought a giant chess set with Harry and Hermione.
He developed two powers based on those memories. One is an army of giant chessmen he carries in ninja scrolls, powerful stone golems possessing great strength and surprising speed. Golems which repair themselves an hour after returning to their scrolls. The second is a Kekkai (Barrier) technique, which traps the target or targets and the chessmen inside a square barrier. As long as the target or chessmen are active inside the barrier, it can't be broken.
The second is Harry James Potter. He's the title character and the main protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series. The books cover seven years in the life of the lonely orphan who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn magic. Under the guidance /manipulation of the kind headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Harry discovered that he was already famous throughout the wizarding world, and that his fate was tied with that of Lord Voldemort, the universally feared Dark wizard who killed Harry's father and mother.
In his world, after having been betrayed by everyone and finally defeating the dark lord, Harry died a lonely death. A death he welcomed as it would reunite him with his loved ones. Instead, he awoke in the nightmarish world of Halloween and was transformed by the chaos into a master of death. The Deathly Hallows, three powerful magical artifacts given to wizards by Death itself, merged with Harry's body and changed him into a creature not alive, but untouchable by death. The invisible cloak that could hide him from death has become a living cloak bonded to his soul and acting like an extension or extra limb. The Elder Wand, the near invincible wand once owned by both Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald and Light Lord Albus Dumbledore, has fused with his right arm to create an even more powerful magical tool and weapon. Finally, the Resurrection Stone, which allows the user to summon and communicate with the souls of the dead, has fused with his head, allowing him to hear and see both the physical and spiritual realms. He has tried to kill himself many times to end his existence and he has allowed many creatures, even soul-eating monsters like Arrancar, to attack him, but he still exists. Every time he is crushed, he reforms. Every time he is dismembered, the pieces reattach. Every time he is reduced to ashes, he's reborn from the ashes.
Now, the odd duo are looking for a group of demon hunters to travel to the Midlands and help fight Griffith's demonic army. A few people might wonder what happened to Hermione Granger, the third member of the Golden Trio. The Hermione Granger that appeared with Chess Master Ron and Master of Death Harry didn't live very long after her arrival. In her world, she betrayed Harry because Dumbledore promised her access to the Potter library and family grimoire. She realized her mistake too late after Harry's death and began a descent into madness. She started taking alcohol and illegal potions after she couldn't find any work, since light wizards rejected her for her betrayal and dark wizards rejected her for being a mudblood, and she lacked the education to get a job in the muggle world. She even started to have sex with the wizard society outcasts and finally died from practicing magical bestiality.
In the world of Halloween, like the person who wore her costume, she was still drunk and high on drugs/potions, and ended up trying to have sex with one of the Halloween Horrors.
Suddenly, Ron and Harry tense as they sense a group of powerful warriors. What they see is a manipulation of time and space by an unknown sentience, a resurrection of future and past.
Thousands of years ago, a young woman was infused with the essence of a demon granting her the power to fight vampires and demons. When she died, the power was passed on to another woman. These women, who fought against vampires, demons, and the forces of evil, became known as the Slayers.
Now, those past Slayers stand before them resurrected and super-enhanced, a combination of chaos magic and a higher being hoping to create an army to fight evil and the chaos that has consumed the world.
The first is dark skinned African woman with long wild black hair. She covered in white tribal markings, but she also wears primitive battle wear composed of leather and bones. She moves like a predator and carries a long scythe/spear combination.
Sineya, also known as "the Primitive", was taken by the Shadow Men against her will, chained to the earth and imbued with the spirit of a demon. She is more demonic than the subsequent Slayers would be. Sineya was rejected by her village and instructed to fight alone. She claimed to have no name, no Watcher, no friends and no family.
Halloween resurrected her with her incredible supernatural powers enhanced to new levels and something was returned to her that was thought to be lost forever: her humanity. She was a powerful yet pitiful creature in her first life, now she is a primal creature with hope in this one. Where she was once caught between sanity and madness, she is now caught between instinct and intelligence.
The second is a woman with long dark hair dressed in the clothing and armor of a Spartan warrior including a sword at her side, a spear in one hand, and the famous shield in the other.
Artemia was a Slayer from ancient Greece. She was the mother of Alexandra. She was named in honor of the goddess Artemis. She was tortured and killed by Kakistos, the Father - an ancient vampire master. Her daughter, Alexandra, went mad and became a vengeance demon, and granted her mother's dying wish to come back, so she could kill Kakistos.
In another timeline, she would have possessed the slayer Faith Lehane, whose watcher Linda would have been murdered by the cloven vampire. In this time line, Kakistos died in November 1997, the first month after the Halloween Event. He died when Artemia's spear, propelled by enhanced slayer strength, pierced his chest and heart. The spear, sword, shield, and armor were not part of her host's original costume. Instead, she took them from a warrior who fell after killing a hundred demons and are endowed by magical protection due to his heroic sacrifice.
The third is a young woman with dark blue eyes and long golden blonde hair. She's dressed in a distinctive uniform consisting of a white, close fitting shirt and pants. Over this she wears some pieces of armor: shin high, slightly high heeled metal boots (Sabatons); large wrist guards (Vambraces); large shoulder pieces (Spaulders); and a partial skirt (Fauld). It is the armor of a Claymore half-yoma warrior, but this woman is lacks the silver eyes and she carries a different type of long sword. She also wears the dark hooded cloak of a medieval knight.
Ethel, the Righteous Slayer, saved a walled, medieval town from the vampire St. Just, easily slaying him and his horde. The entire town bore witness to the fight including young girls who admired her and were inspired to stand up for themselves. The men did not like this, so as the righteous Slayer slept, men broke into her house and grabbed her from her bed. They dubbed her a witch, because only a witch could have defeated the vampires so easily and burned her at the stake. Her Watcher, a monk, could do nothing but watch, but later avenged her death by opening the town gates, allowing legions of vampires to feast on the whole town.
When she was reborn in the world of Halloween, she thought she had descended into Hell, but then she rescued travelers from Halloween Horrors. She made friends with a powerful Claymore, a fellow demon hunter also possessing a demonic side. She traveled with the Claymore woman for many years, until they were forced to separate. In that time, the Claymore arranged for Ethel to receive Claymore-style armor to replace her white dress.
The fourth is a Chinese woman dressed in dark Chinese clothing and holding a shining sword.
Xin Rong was active as the Slayer in the year 1900. She was a skilled Slayer who was very close to her family, and knew of her destiny. On June 18, 1900, the vampires Angelus, Darla, Spike, and Drusilla came to Peking (now transcribed in English as Beijing), China during the Boxer Rebellion. The Slayer fought Spike in a Buddhist temple and scarred him for the rest of his life by cutting him over his left eye with her sword. The enchanted sword was a gift given to her after rescuing a man from a dragon.
She was killed by Spike, but was reborn during the Halloween Event. She was reborn in the body of a distant member of the Rong family, whose knowledge and skill combined with the 19th century Slayer. This helped her survive, as while the other past slayers lacked memories of the modern pre-apocalyptic world, she possessed many skills and knowledge of science and technology.
The fifth is a young woman with blue eyes and long blonde hair tied in a braid. She is dressed in a modern military uniform and protective armor. She carries wooden daggers on her belt with blessed silver plated grenades. She also carries a machine gun rifle with a special bayonet on the end. The bayonet, like most of the gun, is made of blessed metal from one of the colony forges and joined with ironwood.
Anni Sonnenblume lived with her mother and brother, Karl, in Nuremberg, Germany. Anni was the Slayer during 1938. She was a member of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), the female branch of the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth). As part of Hitler's Youth, she needed to learn what real evil is: vampires or racism. She decided to fight the Nazis as well as vampires and demons.
Anni awoke in Halloween World surrounded by Nazis and Halloween Horrors. Despite the odds, she survived with the Nazis being devoured by the demons and she killing the demons. She learned that nearly sixty years had passed since her time as a slayer, but the innocent still needed to be protected from evil. She salvaged what gear and weaponry she could find and travelled with the refugees, protecting them and eventually becoming part of a colony's defenses. After abandoning one small colony after they showed prejudice to those of supernatural blood, she found the other slayers near New York.
The sixth Slayer is an African-American woman with dark eyes and a small afro. She's dressed in a pink shirt, pants, and shoes from the seventies. She also wears a black leather duster. She's armed with special alloy sword batons, a pair of handguns, and ironwood stakes. The seventies slayers is now armed to the teeth to survive the 21st century.
Nikki Wood was a New York-based Slayer in the 1970s. Nikki's boyfriend, an N.Y.P.D. policeman named Li, was killed and Nikki was pregnant during her Cruciamentum (torture test) in 1973. Slayers were not intended to have children, so it was kept a secret between Nikki and her Watcher, and she has a little boy named Robin. Nikki met her match when she fought the vampire named Spike and was killed on the N.Y.C. subway. Nikki's neck was snapped and he took her black leather coat. Robin Wood was raised by Bernard Crowley in Beverly Hills, California. A man who became the current incarnation of Hachibi Jinchuriki Kirabi after the Halloween Event.
When she was reborn, she began to search for her son and was shocked to learn how much time had passed since her death. She fought many Halloween Horrors, including destroying an undead Nazi scientist named Karl Ruprecht Kroenen and taking his tonfa-style swords and having them blessed.
The seventh and final member of the Slayer Group is a young woman with dark eyes and dark hair reaching her shoulders and dyed purple near the ends. She wears a black shirt that exposes her stomach, dark green pants, and black shoes with black fingerless gloves. She also carries a scythe that is half red battle axe and half wooden stake.
Melaka Fray is a Slayer, activated in the future. Melaka Fray and her brother, Harth, are twins, and thus the Slayer powers are somehow split between them. Unlike other Slayers she has had no prophetic dreams of her destiny or of the Slayers before her. She holds herself responsible for the death of her brother and was trying to figure out what her destiny as the Slayer entailed. Harth had the prophetic dreams, while Melaka has the strength and agility of Slayers. Melaka was a thief and carries the scythe used to activate all of the Potential Slayers and close the Sunnydale Hellmouth back in 2003.
She now finds herself in the past of an alternate time line. A world that diverged from her history on the night she appeared. Halloween, October 31, 1997.
"You are the Slayers?" asks Harry, Master of Death.
"We are some of them," says Nikki
"You have a mission."
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In the wastelands of the world of Halloween, a strange sound fills the air. There are many strange sounds what with the numerous zombies, demons, and other Horrors that escaped destruction by not getting close to the colonies. They live in the dark, filthy regions of the new world, the ruins of the old world. They live in the moldy flooded buildings, in the burnt out buildings, and the rotting farm lands.
Now, they see the source of the noise. They are small creatures two to three feet tall with spindly arms and legs and over-sized heads and eyes. They also have pointed, bat-like ears and high, squeaky voices. They are all dressed in white robes with different socks on their feet.
A house-elf is a magical creature which is devoted and loyal to the one designated as their master. They serve wizards, and must do everything that they command until they are freed by their masters. House-elves have powerful magic, which allows them to perform tasks, such as Apparating, where wizards cannot. More than just a mere housekeeper, a house-elf is a ruthless protector of the master, and will attack threats with great fury and strength.
The same way a chicken farm produced phoenixes, which are now as prolific as pigeons; the House Elves of Halloween World were born from a puppy farm that produced chihuahuas, the world's smallest breed of dog. A single puppy was dressed in an elf costume by a breeder's son dressed as a wizard and the entire farm was mutated by Halloween into a House Elf breeding farm. In the years since Halloween '97, their numbers have grown.
There are tens of millions of them.
They have also found a leader in one crazy house elf named Dobby.
Dobby was a house elf who served the cruel Malfoy family. During Harry Potter's second year at Hogwarts, he tried to warn the boy of the plot to have the Chamber of Secrets reopened. The same year, Harry freed Dobby from the Malfoy's by tricking the family head Lucius into giving Dobby clothing. Dobby went on to work in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry kitchens, working without the Malfoys' excess cruelty. He went on to save the lives of Harry and his friends Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Mr. Ollivander, and Griphook from Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor, though he was killed in the process.
Dobby was a brave, loyal house-elf, willing to put himself into dangerous situations when he knew it to be the right thing to do. He was also very loyal to the few friends he had. He considered himself to be a good house-elf, though other house elves seemed to find his desires and proclamations of being a free house-elf to be shameful. He may not have had much success in his early attempts to help Harry Potter, but in the end he died free and a hero.
In the World of Halloween, he has found many versions of Harry Potter and has become far stronger than most House Elves due to his independence and loyalty to the Wizard and his friends. He shares a magical link with the others, which unites them as one force with a common goal.
"CLEANSE THE WORLD FOR HARRY POTTER SIR!"
The Dementors, Skeletons, Zombies, Mud Monsters, and Blobs pause as the House-Elves run down the hill, shaking the earth. Then they are reduced to dust and dirt, tossed into magical bins, and used as compost.
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END of CHAPTER 33 - HALLOWEEN WORLD WAR Part 16
- THE SECOND RETURN Part 5
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Author's Note:
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I need Encounter Characters
The people the scoobies and neo-scoobies encounter
Subject Name:
Type: What is he/she/it
Origin: What series
Encounter:
Example:
Subject Name: Mirai Trunks
Type: ½ Saiyan ½ Human
Origin: Dragonball Z
Encounter:
Willow's group find him fighting Gero's new Dark Council androids. They help him win because the dumbass Dr. Gero didn't make them magic resistant. Kido Kamehameha!
I need Patients
What are your ideas for Xander's patients. OC and Crossovers.
Subject Name
Type: What is he/she/it
Origin: What series
Reason: What's the medical reason.
Example: 1
Subject Name: Motoko Aoyama
Type: Human- Martial Artist
Origin: Ken Akamatsu's Love Hina
Reason: Bitten by Rabid Plot Bunny and been writing trashy romance tales 24/7. Insomnia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Example: 2
Subject Name: Aayla Secura
Type: Twi-lek - Jedi
Origin: Star Wars
Reason: Multiple blaster wounds. Comatose. Recommended: Multiple Organ Replacement
NOTE
All Characters may be used If not used for Costumes of there assigned characters. Which ones are selected will determine the story, as the plot is driven by the characters not the other way around.
Halloween World: Twelve Years Later by Weaver
Summary: A lot can happen in twelve years
..org/Story-17407
Halloween World: Emerald Hope's Bulletin Board
Summary: Set in spaceman's "Halloween World" AU.
Tips on surviving Northwest Florida under the Red Sky.
//Story-17792
I HAVE BETA!
I WAS NOMINATED
COA Best Unfinished Multiple Crossover!!
I NOW HAVE A NEW COMPUTER!!
I NOW HAVE WORDPERFECT X3!
I HAVE HIGH SPEED!!
I WILL NEVER GIVE UP!!