Ares Denetsu
*****
Broken Dolls and Darkened Evils
Puar was cradled in Jupiter's arms, half-asleep, his blue tail lazily drifting from side to side as the immensely tall Senshi strode confidently down the corridors, her red-brown hair pulled up in a thick ponytail. The cat creature had put up a struggle at first when she insisted on carrying him, but he eventually surrendered and was happily dozing in her embrace.
Yamucha, needless to say, looked fit to kill his best friend.
"So, I figure, what the hell, might as well do it, right?" the Senshi of Jupiter chattered, her ankle boots, sturdy and compact, clicking faintly on the marble floor. "I mean, I've already died - what, thirty times? Heck if I care about dying thirty-one times. So, that's why I'm here. In the dark. Talking to a sleeping blue furball." She sighed to herself, shaking her head ruefully. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm sane."
"Sometimes I do, too!" Venus cracked and Ginzishou fwapped the woman on the back of her head, causing her to slam into Juunanagou. "Aw, lighten up, Ginzishou-ryuu! I was only joking! Crud, did I hit a metal implant or somethin'?, 'cause I think I broke my nose…"
"Good," he said with an innocent smile and a flutter of his eyelashes, to which she stuck her tongue out and pulled his raven hair cheerfully.
"You two are absolutely incurable," Mercury sighed, depositing her computer into the subspace pocket the Senshi toted around unintentionally, "and I'm afraid there's little will left in me to try and help you both."
"Where there's a will, there's a dead man!" Venus chirped happily and Juunanagou slapped himself in the face, groaning.
Jupiter smiled and shook her head at the blonde's unique way of saying old adages. She shifted Puar, glancing across at Yamucha, then taking a step toward where her friends were, casually looking up at them.
There was a wall right in front of her.
"What the hell?!" she shrieked, jerking back as she almost walked into the marble wall, accidentally tossing Puar over her shoulder.
"Well…," Yamucha stated awkwardly, "I think it's a wall."
//bingo, crap-for-brains. wow, you must have hurt your brain thinking of that//
Jupiter blinked. Was that…Mars' voice? In her head?
//by the by…i'll fight you lot if you don't step to the left//
Not trusting anything mystical in the alternate dimension's palace, Yamucha glared around the general vicinity of where he and his two companions were standing. "You're trying to trick us. You want us to step right, don't you?" That said, he deliberately took a step left…and three corpses promptly erupted from the floor, slashing and hacking at him with deadly, sharply honed blades.
//git. well, looks like i'll need a new group…//
Puar found himself thrown into the air again as Jupiter charged the corpses.
"SUPREME THUNDER!!"
One corpse imploded, smearing into itself with a vaporous odor. One of the other two was blown into smaller pieces, each one shivering and trembling as the walls, yet again, absorbed the grisly remains.
The third remained standing, plunging its sword into Yamucha's left shoulder repeatedly.
"SPARKLING…"
Lightning fairly crackled about her hands and tiara, the golden rod slipping out of the decorative emerald.
"WIDE…"
The corpse turned slightly, empty eye sockets gaping emptily at her.
"PRESSURE!!!!"
It vanished, vaporize completely, and Jupiter lunged forward, catching a falling, knocked out Yamucha in her outstretched arms. "Oh, Yamucha," she breathed, her face near his blood-streaked one, "why couldn't you wait?"
(*)
Trunks pushed back strands of hair from Mercury's face; a deep gouge decorated her jawline and neck where the wall had scraped across her as it came down. She was unconscious; that was understandable due to the bleeding and the pain as the wall had shattered parts of her lower jaw.
"Come now, Mercury-chan," he urged gently, holding her up so her bleeding head rested on his broad shoulder. He could feel, even through his jean-jacket, the warm stickiness of sickly sweet blood and he felt another stab of worry pierce his stomach. "Ami-chan, wake up…"
She moaned, stirred, and fell silent once more.
"Shit," he cursed softly, cradling her limp, fuku-covered body lovingly.
//cute. now, if you're done playing coochie-coo, i have a little something to tell you. you and your little girlie aren't going anywhere. you got in the way, so, since you're both pretty much useless in a fight what with her being banged up and you being all tragic-hero-like, you lost. the only way out is one you have to find. if venus-bitch and android-what-the-hell manage to defeat koibito and i, you'll make it out alive…maybe. if they lose…you're screwed//
"Who are you?" Trunks snarled, wildly twisting his head around, trying to see who was there.
//not particularly bright, are you? i'm metallia, dimwit, and i'm doing something semi-nice, so shut the hell up and don't you ever dare say anything to anyone about this//
"You're going to kill us, aren't you, the instant we move?" he raised an eyebrow, looking eerily like his father.
The feminine voice paused and shrugged. //yeah, pretty much. at least you didn't think I'd actually let you and your bitch live. can't say the same for jupiter and the morons with her//
"What have you done to Rei-san?" His voice had grown quiet and forcibly calm.
//possessed her, separated her from the entity of mars, and what else? oh, yes, i'm going to kill her. have a nice day!//
"WAIT! KUSO!"
Mercury's hand touched his face, her glove cool, if sticky, against his tanned skin. "I'm sorry, Trunks-kun," she murmured drowsily, "I should have been faster…"
Panic welled up in his chest and he held her tighter. "Don't go all dead on me, Ami-chan," he joked weakly, ignoring her Senshi title.
She smiled and laughed even weaker than he had joked, struggling to keep her eyes open.
With a certain degree of horror, he realized she was also bleeding from her torso and thighs. "What in…"
Mercury grimaced, hissing involuntarily as her muscles seized up in a reaction to the slightest of movements. "There was a corpse…behind us…I didn't want you to get hit, so…I…I blocked it…and I suppose I didn't noticed the wall coming down…" She whimpered, tears leaping to her eyes.
"You did that for me…?" he whispered, eyes strangely unfocused and watery.
"Hai, Trunks-kun…" Her breathing was labored and she reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck to stabilize herself. "Trunks-kun…tell me about you and Rei-san and your Gohan-sensei…tell me so I can feel for you…tell me so I can live for you…"
Tears threatened to come down his face as he held another wounded loved one to his body. Voice strained and cracked, he began slowly, telling her everything.
She listened.
(*)
"Shitdamn! Stupid wall!"
Venus clutched her bleeding nose and struck the wall-that-she-could've-sworn-wasn't-there-a-moment-before with her fist, chanting 'stupid wall' repetitively.
"I get," Juunanagou spoke calmly, gently prying her hand away from her nose and pulling off his orange bandanna, pressing it to the blood flow as she slowly blushed, "the idea, Venus-chan."
"Fine," she grumbled, keeping the bandanna up to her nose, "but what the heck's going on?"
"Heck if I know," her pale skinned companion shrugged and Ginzishou rolled her feline eyes, perching on Venus' shoulder.
//hello, my little contestants. nice to see at least someone didn't do anything incredibly stupid like getting stuck under a descending wall or stepping right into a youma nest// The feminine voice paused and chuckled to itself. //anywho, lucky you, you get to come instantly to the battlefield, where i smear you across the marble floor. so, let's go! i wanna kill you slowly and i can't do it here, there's no audience…//
"NANI?!" the three cried at the same time, faces contorted in shock.
And then, in a blinding flash of sick red light, they were gone from the newly formed maze-within-a-maze.
(*)
Kuririn carefully finished making the poultice he had Juuhachigou tie to Chichi's broken wrist with pure white bandages. "There, that should do it."
Gokuu- -or, rather, the shell of Gokuu- -was still unconscious and, not wanting to take chances, he was bound up and kept inside a makeshift force-field boundary Buruma had constructed swiftly and on the spot while Vejiita had to, yet again, hold a gurgling, laughing infant Trunks. There didn't seem to be any likely chance he would be able to break the bonds; according to what they'd witnessed and what Buruma had scanned, the soulless shell had absolutely no ki and had a curiously similar mind-frame to that of an ant drone.
The former monk sighed, running a hand through his newly grown, short black hair.
They never seemed to get a day off.
(*)
"Relax, Gokuu-san," Selenity pleaded; both she and Goten were having to forcefully hold the frantic Saiya-jin- -she wasn't sure how, exactly, he'd managed to go Super Saiya-jin- -back from trying to find a way out, to get to his wife.
"Otousan," Goten finally barked, dropping his normal goofiness like a hot potato, "stop squirming for God's sake! You can't do anything to help okaasan!"
Slowly, Gokuu stopped struggling, shoulders dropping in defeat. "It can't stop me from wanting to," he whispered.
"I understand your pain," Selenity interjected softly, "I have lost my koibito Endymion for the last time…and it hurts to know that our love still exists even without him." Seeing the horrified expression on Gokuu's face, she hastily added, "Not that I'm saying Chichi-san is dead, mind you, I'm just saying I know the kind of helpless pain when a loved one is hurt…"
Goten smiled at her, relieved, and looked up at his father's defeated, lonely face. "Hey, otousan, don't worry. Everything will get better…you'll see. It won't be too long."
"That's right," the petite woman grinned, "because Setsuna-san has sent out a sleep sending that should reach my Senshi and your Senshi in about a day's time."
"And," Goten added on to her words, "they'll come find us."
"See?" the two chimed together, irrepressible in their beaming smiles.
(*)
Metallia landed right behind Rei.
Gohan was staring in horror at a smirking Cell, his Super Saiya-jin power levels leaping, hovering around Super Saiya-jin 2, which he had only reached once before…during the Cell Games…
Rei spun around and Metallia smiled evilly, her round fingernails suddenly ripping out of the silken gloves' cloth, sharp like daggers.
Raising her arm, Metallia sneered coldly. "Sayonara, you little bitch," she crowed and her arm plummeted to Rei's chest.
Gohan turned too late and he saw his newest- -and closest- -friend fall limply to the ground, slipping in pools of her own crimson blood.
A sharp, enraged scream exploded from a corner of the immense chamber and Super Sailor Venus, cause of the scream, leapt forth, Chain Wink Sword held in her hands. Juunanagou and Ginzishou shared one glance and chased after her, hindered down by the wells of dark magic.
Gohan's chest heaved and he surged swiftly into Super Saiya-jin 2, turning to Cell with a final, insane glimmer to his eyes. "Die," he hissed. That one word held more sincerity in it than anything he had said before, more truth than anything he had sworn before.
He threw himself into battle.
Whoa.
Okay, there's two more side stories before the last actual chapter (the big finale…and I think it's an R-rated one, too), and after the last chapter, there will be about three epilogues- -a very emotional Rei one that I won't say anything about, a Minako-and-Juunanagou scented one that has significance, and one that leads into "Shellshocked".
Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.
[PS~ Thanks, my wonderful faithful reviewers! That's all the Mars gals, from Chibi Mars to Mars Zero, 90%DevilChild, jupiterschild, SpookeyFyre, and all the rest of ya…you know who you are! Oh, and to the person who admits to liking Gohan-torture stuff…well, barbo-chan, the last chapter is stuffed full of it. But happy endings are my lifeblood, soooo… Review, people! It doesn't take long!]
DISCLAIMER:
The Sailor Senshi are © to Takeuchi Naoko-san, Kodansha, DiC, Cloverway, Toei Animation, Mixx Entertainment, etc.
The Dragonball characters are © to Toriyama Akira-san, Shogakun (?), FUNimation, Toei Animation, Viz Entertainment, etc.
"Ares Denetsu" in its entirety, all situations and plot devices thus far, is © to myself, referred to on-line as PallaPlease or Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.
*****
Broken Dolls and Darkened Evils
Puar was cradled in Jupiter's arms, half-asleep, his blue tail lazily drifting from side to side as the immensely tall Senshi strode confidently down the corridors, her red-brown hair pulled up in a thick ponytail. The cat creature had put up a struggle at first when she insisted on carrying him, but he eventually surrendered and was happily dozing in her embrace.
Yamucha, needless to say, looked fit to kill his best friend.
"So, I figure, what the hell, might as well do it, right?" the Senshi of Jupiter chattered, her ankle boots, sturdy and compact, clicking faintly on the marble floor. "I mean, I've already died - what, thirty times? Heck if I care about dying thirty-one times. So, that's why I'm here. In the dark. Talking to a sleeping blue furball." She sighed to herself, shaking her head ruefully. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm sane."
"Sometimes I do, too!" Venus cracked and Ginzishou fwapped the woman on the back of her head, causing her to slam into Juunanagou. "Aw, lighten up, Ginzishou-ryuu! I was only joking! Crud, did I hit a metal implant or somethin'?, 'cause I think I broke my nose…"
"Good," he said with an innocent smile and a flutter of his eyelashes, to which she stuck her tongue out and pulled his raven hair cheerfully.
"You two are absolutely incurable," Mercury sighed, depositing her computer into the subspace pocket the Senshi toted around unintentionally, "and I'm afraid there's little will left in me to try and help you both."
"Where there's a will, there's a dead man!" Venus chirped happily and Juunanagou slapped himself in the face, groaning.
Jupiter smiled and shook her head at the blonde's unique way of saying old adages. She shifted Puar, glancing across at Yamucha, then taking a step toward where her friends were, casually looking up at them.
There was a wall right in front of her.
"What the hell?!" she shrieked, jerking back as she almost walked into the marble wall, accidentally tossing Puar over her shoulder.
"Well…," Yamucha stated awkwardly, "I think it's a wall."
//bingo, crap-for-brains. wow, you must have hurt your brain thinking of that//
Jupiter blinked. Was that…Mars' voice? In her head?
//by the by…i'll fight you lot if you don't step to the left//
Not trusting anything mystical in the alternate dimension's palace, Yamucha glared around the general vicinity of where he and his two companions were standing. "You're trying to trick us. You want us to step right, don't you?" That said, he deliberately took a step left…and three corpses promptly erupted from the floor, slashing and hacking at him with deadly, sharply honed blades.
//git. well, looks like i'll need a new group…//
Puar found himself thrown into the air again as Jupiter charged the corpses.
"SUPREME THUNDER!!"
One corpse imploded, smearing into itself with a vaporous odor. One of the other two was blown into smaller pieces, each one shivering and trembling as the walls, yet again, absorbed the grisly remains.
The third remained standing, plunging its sword into Yamucha's left shoulder repeatedly.
"SPARKLING…"
Lightning fairly crackled about her hands and tiara, the golden rod slipping out of the decorative emerald.
"WIDE…"
The corpse turned slightly, empty eye sockets gaping emptily at her.
"PRESSURE!!!!"
It vanished, vaporize completely, and Jupiter lunged forward, catching a falling, knocked out Yamucha in her outstretched arms. "Oh, Yamucha," she breathed, her face near his blood-streaked one, "why couldn't you wait?"
(*)
Trunks pushed back strands of hair from Mercury's face; a deep gouge decorated her jawline and neck where the wall had scraped across her as it came down. She was unconscious; that was understandable due to the bleeding and the pain as the wall had shattered parts of her lower jaw.
"Come now, Mercury-chan," he urged gently, holding her up so her bleeding head rested on his broad shoulder. He could feel, even through his jean-jacket, the warm stickiness of sickly sweet blood and he felt another stab of worry pierce his stomach. "Ami-chan, wake up…"
She moaned, stirred, and fell silent once more.
"Shit," he cursed softly, cradling her limp, fuku-covered body lovingly.
//cute. now, if you're done playing coochie-coo, i have a little something to tell you. you and your little girlie aren't going anywhere. you got in the way, so, since you're both pretty much useless in a fight what with her being banged up and you being all tragic-hero-like, you lost. the only way out is one you have to find. if venus-bitch and android-what-the-hell manage to defeat koibito and i, you'll make it out alive…maybe. if they lose…you're screwed//
"Who are you?" Trunks snarled, wildly twisting his head around, trying to see who was there.
//not particularly bright, are you? i'm metallia, dimwit, and i'm doing something semi-nice, so shut the hell up and don't you ever dare say anything to anyone about this//
"You're going to kill us, aren't you, the instant we move?" he raised an eyebrow, looking eerily like his father.
The feminine voice paused and shrugged. //yeah, pretty much. at least you didn't think I'd actually let you and your bitch live. can't say the same for jupiter and the morons with her//
"What have you done to Rei-san?" His voice had grown quiet and forcibly calm.
//possessed her, separated her from the entity of mars, and what else? oh, yes, i'm going to kill her. have a nice day!//
"WAIT! KUSO!"
Mercury's hand touched his face, her glove cool, if sticky, against his tanned skin. "I'm sorry, Trunks-kun," she murmured drowsily, "I should have been faster…"
Panic welled up in his chest and he held her tighter. "Don't go all dead on me, Ami-chan," he joked weakly, ignoring her Senshi title.
She smiled and laughed even weaker than he had joked, struggling to keep her eyes open.
With a certain degree of horror, he realized she was also bleeding from her torso and thighs. "What in…"
Mercury grimaced, hissing involuntarily as her muscles seized up in a reaction to the slightest of movements. "There was a corpse…behind us…I didn't want you to get hit, so…I…I blocked it…and I suppose I didn't noticed the wall coming down…" She whimpered, tears leaping to her eyes.
"You did that for me…?" he whispered, eyes strangely unfocused and watery.
"Hai, Trunks-kun…" Her breathing was labored and she reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck to stabilize herself. "Trunks-kun…tell me about you and Rei-san and your Gohan-sensei…tell me so I can feel for you…tell me so I can live for you…"
Tears threatened to come down his face as he held another wounded loved one to his body. Voice strained and cracked, he began slowly, telling her everything.
She listened.
(*)
"Shitdamn! Stupid wall!"
Venus clutched her bleeding nose and struck the wall-that-she-could've-sworn-wasn't-there-a-moment-before with her fist, chanting 'stupid wall' repetitively.
"I get," Juunanagou spoke calmly, gently prying her hand away from her nose and pulling off his orange bandanna, pressing it to the blood flow as she slowly blushed, "the idea, Venus-chan."
"Fine," she grumbled, keeping the bandanna up to her nose, "but what the heck's going on?"
"Heck if I know," her pale skinned companion shrugged and Ginzishou rolled her feline eyes, perching on Venus' shoulder.
//hello, my little contestants. nice to see at least someone didn't do anything incredibly stupid like getting stuck under a descending wall or stepping right into a youma nest// The feminine voice paused and chuckled to itself. //anywho, lucky you, you get to come instantly to the battlefield, where i smear you across the marble floor. so, let's go! i wanna kill you slowly and i can't do it here, there's no audience…//
"NANI?!" the three cried at the same time, faces contorted in shock.
And then, in a blinding flash of sick red light, they were gone from the newly formed maze-within-a-maze.
(*)
Kuririn carefully finished making the poultice he had Juuhachigou tie to Chichi's broken wrist with pure white bandages. "There, that should do it."
Gokuu- -or, rather, the shell of Gokuu- -was still unconscious and, not wanting to take chances, he was bound up and kept inside a makeshift force-field boundary Buruma had constructed swiftly and on the spot while Vejiita had to, yet again, hold a gurgling, laughing infant Trunks. There didn't seem to be any likely chance he would be able to break the bonds; according to what they'd witnessed and what Buruma had scanned, the soulless shell had absolutely no ki and had a curiously similar mind-frame to that of an ant drone.
The former monk sighed, running a hand through his newly grown, short black hair.
They never seemed to get a day off.
(*)
"Relax, Gokuu-san," Selenity pleaded; both she and Goten were having to forcefully hold the frantic Saiya-jin- -she wasn't sure how, exactly, he'd managed to go Super Saiya-jin- -back from trying to find a way out, to get to his wife.
"Otousan," Goten finally barked, dropping his normal goofiness like a hot potato, "stop squirming for God's sake! You can't do anything to help okaasan!"
Slowly, Gokuu stopped struggling, shoulders dropping in defeat. "It can't stop me from wanting to," he whispered.
"I understand your pain," Selenity interjected softly, "I have lost my koibito Endymion for the last time…and it hurts to know that our love still exists even without him." Seeing the horrified expression on Gokuu's face, she hastily added, "Not that I'm saying Chichi-san is dead, mind you, I'm just saying I know the kind of helpless pain when a loved one is hurt…"
Goten smiled at her, relieved, and looked up at his father's defeated, lonely face. "Hey, otousan, don't worry. Everything will get better…you'll see. It won't be too long."
"That's right," the petite woman grinned, "because Setsuna-san has sent out a sleep sending that should reach my Senshi and your Senshi in about a day's time."
"And," Goten added on to her words, "they'll come find us."
"See?" the two chimed together, irrepressible in their beaming smiles.
(*)
Metallia landed right behind Rei.
Gohan was staring in horror at a smirking Cell, his Super Saiya-jin power levels leaping, hovering around Super Saiya-jin 2, which he had only reached once before…during the Cell Games…
Rei spun around and Metallia smiled evilly, her round fingernails suddenly ripping out of the silken gloves' cloth, sharp like daggers.
Raising her arm, Metallia sneered coldly. "Sayonara, you little bitch," she crowed and her arm plummeted to Rei's chest.
Gohan turned too late and he saw his newest- -and closest- -friend fall limply to the ground, slipping in pools of her own crimson blood.
A sharp, enraged scream exploded from a corner of the immense chamber and Super Sailor Venus, cause of the scream, leapt forth, Chain Wink Sword held in her hands. Juunanagou and Ginzishou shared one glance and chased after her, hindered down by the wells of dark magic.
Gohan's chest heaved and he surged swiftly into Super Saiya-jin 2, turning to Cell with a final, insane glimmer to his eyes. "Die," he hissed. That one word held more sincerity in it than anything he had said before, more truth than anything he had sworn before.
He threw himself into battle.
Whoa.
Okay, there's two more side stories before the last actual chapter (the big finale…and I think it's an R-rated one, too), and after the last chapter, there will be about three epilogues- -a very emotional Rei one that I won't say anything about, a Minako-and-Juunanagou scented one that has significance, and one that leads into "Shellshocked".
Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.
[PS~ Thanks, my wonderful faithful reviewers! That's all the Mars gals, from Chibi Mars to Mars Zero, 90%DevilChild, jupiterschild, SpookeyFyre, and all the rest of ya…you know who you are! Oh, and to the person who admits to liking Gohan-torture stuff…well, barbo-chan, the last chapter is stuffed full of it. But happy endings are my lifeblood, soooo… Review, people! It doesn't take long!]
DISCLAIMER:
The Sailor Senshi are © to Takeuchi Naoko-san, Kodansha, DiC, Cloverway, Toei Animation, Mixx Entertainment, etc.
The Dragonball characters are © to Toriyama Akira-san, Shogakun (?), FUNimation, Toei Animation, Viz Entertainment, etc.
"Ares Denetsu" in its entirety, all situations and plot devices thus far, is © to myself, referred to on-line as PallaPlease or Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.