Slayers! Yoyutchi
by Leaf-Chan (leaf_chan@excite.com)

"..........."

Episode X: The Outer Limits

[-----]

"Aliza."

A soft, but stoic voice behind her. She turned around, and came face-to-face
with a tall, ruggedly-handsome man who appeared to be roughly the same age
as she was, with flowing black hair and eyes that seemed to resonate as one
with the smooth bodysuit that she was wearing.

The man placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you going to be fine?" he said,
more than a trace of concern in that soft, stoic voice.

"Yes." The reply was short and simple, once more leaving any hint of what
the speaker may have been feeling at the time completely aside.

"I don't want you to go into this so methodically," he said. "The Inners are
strong on their world, and even here, they may retain a portion of that
power. It would be best to avoid any unnecessary skirmishes."

Aliza didn't turn. "That is impossible," she said flatly. "The Other is all
that is here. The gods of the Inner have no power where He resides."

"Perhaps..." the man said dubiously, eyeing her once more: the smooth,
clinging bodysuit, the small, waifish body, the empty eyes--or maybe they
weren't empty, but simply... masked.

"Kikouo. I will do my best." Slowly, she lifted his hand and let it settle
at his side. "I trust in the power of the Other."

Kikouo Mezama nodded slowly, then silently made his way back into the
shadows without so much as a sound.

After he had left, Aliza turned into the barracks and flipped on a switch on
the side of the wall, turning the intercom system on.

"Gather, men," she said into the microphone, her voice echoing throughout
the base. "The emissaries of the Inner are approaching. We will meet them in
combat, and destroy them."

[-----]

"... if you *please*, Ryona Inverse, do remove your hand from my--" Emmy
Masaki began.

"Awwww... Emmy..." Ryona crooned, grinning mischievously. "You mean you
don't like it?"

"It is not my like or dislike that matters here, Ryona," Emmy sighed. "Any
measure of common decency dictates that placing a hand on someone's--"

He was fortunately cut off once more, and in the purely literary sense.
"Unhand him at once, Ryona Inverse!" yelled Aeseki Jurendahl. "Or else I'll
have to mock you into the next century!"

"Like you puny little magic could do anything," Ryona boff--er, scoffed.
"Look, *Princess*, why don't you just go off and blow yourself up into the
air? You seem to be real good at that."

Emmy smiled nervously. Situation... deteriorating... "Ladies, if you please.
An argument is the last thing we need in this situation."

"Oh yeah?" Aeseki snapped. "*You* just wanna bag both of us, don't you?"

That one was met with dead silence.

The silence was broken as an irate Nevvone Makibi took a hammer and smashed
the reality around them, trying again.

[-----]

"What the hell was that?"

Nevv sighed, and flattened the front of her robes again with a bounce and a
trounce. "Sorry, Lina. Apparently, I miscalculated and we ended up landing
in some place that wasn't the Outer."

Lina made a moue. "Are we there yet?" she said.

"Yes."

They looked around. The world wasn't as dark and grim as they'd expected it
to be; in fact, the Outer looked nothing like an apocalyptic, grim society
under the control of a tyrannical god; probably because it *wasn't* an
apocalyptic, grim society under... you get the point. Buildings, high and
sky-scraping, surrounded the landscape, lining up against each other in
tight, interwoven patterns of randomness. Here and there, carriages that ran
without the use of horses scurried about, eerily silent in their progress.
And overhead, there was the faint, but unmistakeable sound of something very
large flying by.

Kiseki grinned. "Man, this is cool," she bubbled, taking out a small
portable camera and raising it to her face. "Hey, Lina, can we go to the
merry-go-round later--ack!"

"This is *not* a time for fun and games!" Lina snapped, snatching the camera
from Kiseki's hands.

"Geez, since when have you been so serious?"

She really didn't have anything to say to that, because she hadn't thought
about it. Handing the camera back to Kiseki, Lina turned back around and
regarded the landscape once more, Raywinging up for a better view.

/Let's see.../ she mulled, taking in the sights from her vantage point of
five hundred feet or so in the air. /There's some more buildings, an army
the size of Mongolia headed straight for us, buildings--ooh, flying plane,
almost got hit by that one, what *are* those odd little carriages running
around like that...?/

"Lina Inverse!" came the faint voice of Emmanem. "Do you see anything?"

"Yeah, just an army!" she yelled back, trying to pin down the location of a
building in the distance that seemed to be made of some sort of expensive
material, like gold and obsidian from the way it was shining...

"An army?!" Nevv shouted. "How big?"

Lina swooped back down, shrugging, a familiar predatory grin spreading on
her face. "Not too big," she said, rolling up her sleeves, for it was time
to kick bubblegum and chew ass. "About a few thousand."

"What?!" Kiseki wailed. "Wh... what're we going to do?"

"Hah!" The flat young girl went into full panoramic motion. "I'll simply use
a Dragon Slave and nuke them all into oblivion. Simple as that. Then we can
go find this Other dude, and nuke him too until he glows."

"Evil villains usually have their own aura of incandescence," Emmy pointed
out.

"Whatever."

Nevv poked Lina, and not-too-gently either, in the area where it hurt most:
her ribs. "Hello! Lina, you forgot a little detail!" she said, waving one
hand in front of her face.

"Hm? And don't poke me there. Don't you have Kiseki to keep you happy?"

"ARGH." Sighing, she slapped one hand on her forehead. "Lina, no magic.
Remember? Capisce?"

Instead of the deflation of realization that she'd been expecting--sometimes
Lina really *was* all-too-predictable, but not this time--Nevv noticed a new
sparkle of mischievousness in Lina's eyes.

"Then we'll have to find some way to make our magic work, won't we?" she
said, tossing her a cryptic wink.

Nevv paused, then nearly stumbled over her own words in her haste. "Lina,
I don't know what the hell you're going to do, but it better work," she
said, looking her over curiously. Nothing. Not a sign. She was utterly
confident, and Nevv felt a cold creep of doubt from that confidence. It
wasn't as if she had ever gone up against the Other before...

"I took on ol' Shabby and kicked his ass just fine," Lina smirked. "And I
didn't have to worry about a thing back then." /Hah hah, that's a good one,
Lina.../ "C'mon! Things'll be fine, trust me!"

A rousing round of silence met her proclamation.

"You don't trust me."

"Nope." "Nuh-uh." "Most likely not, Lina Inverse."

Lina glanced over at the approaching army, which was even now kicking up a
storm of dust as it trampled along the ground towards the rip in reality
that had announced itself so obviously about a half-hour ago. "Well..." she
began. "... if you don't trust me, maybe you should deal with them instead
of having me do it?"

Point finger at troops.

Her name is Nevv. See Nevv gape. Gape, Nevv, gape.

His name is Emmanem. Watch Emmanem stare. Stare, Emmanem, stare.

Her name is Kiseki. See Kiseki chant. Chant, Kiseki... CHANT?!

"In the name of the Father..." Kiseki began, raising two fingers into the
air as the area around her began to blur with the familiar aura of magical
power.

"We're doomed," Nevv groaned, turning to face the army. How the hell did
they manage to send an army after them?! This wasn't how things were done!
It... it wasn't *tradition*! Well, then again, she did muse on how it was
damned hard to follow traditional folklore in real life...

"... the Son..."

Emmanem began twitching ever-so-slightly. "What shall w-we do, Lina
Inverse?"

"... and the Mocking Spirit, I plead of you: my guidance, my god... he who
defines lack of victory..."

"I... eugh." Lina twiddled her thumbs, hoping that something would flare to
life. Nothing did. No Fireball. No Dill Brand. No Dragon Slave. She turned.
"Nevv! DO SOMETHING!"

"That which has been restored rightfully to the heirs of the strongest
style shall be summoned forth to me once more!" Kiseki proclaimed
triumphantly, floating into the air from the wisps of faint pinkish energy
around her.

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" Nevv muttered. "Ilyuum isn't here. He's
back at the Between... and--" Stop. Wait. The Between...

Discarding the possibility that Kiseki may actually be casting a spell that
could be of help, Lina racked her brains for a solution. It didn't come.
Mental processes always had a tendency to go kaput during the most crucial
times--

"I SUMMON THE THREE DEITIES OF THAT WHICH IS UNKNOWN TO THE WORLD!" Kiseki
boomed, nearly knocking the three of them off of their feet.

Lina, Nevv, and Emmanem looked up. Kiseki was now almost as high as Lina was
a few minutes before, and not just in the locational sense, either. In one
hand was a rod of energy that had a ball of pink light swirling at one end,
the end that was aimed in front of her mouth. In the other hand was a small
rectangle of paper. All around, the power of Saikyouism flowed and ebbed of
its own accord, free of the constraints of any Inner or Outer or Between
bullshit.

"What... the... hell..." Lina drawled.

"... I suggest we take cover." Emmanem, without waiting, darted under the
safety of a large rock as per his old habits of being a Shadowy Figure.

Lina and Nevv followed suit, as...

[-----]

The fool. The posturing, pink fool was just as He had told her, except now
she was doing so in the air, her voice mumbling some words that she could
not decipher due to their distance apart.

Judging from the energy signatures, it was not a 'Slave'--a spell of random
destructive power that He had told her about in their short, but informative
conversation. Indeed, this girl... 'Kiseki'... was somewhat of a mystery
even to Him.

There was the briefest flicker of doubt. If *He* didn't know...

No matter. The energy signature was definitely not that of a Slave's, but it
was definitely weak, whatever it was. And if it did not have the destructive
or manipulative capacity to deal with the army that was now bearing down on
them, then it had little to do with her at this point. Kiseki was definitely
not capable of casting anything that would place the army under mass-
hypnosis or anything similar. So what she was doing now was little more than
a glorified light show--eh?

"ULTIMO!"

The booming voice of Kiseki rang across the distance from where the rift was
and directly into Aliza's ears in her base of operations almost a full
twenty miles away.

She didn't know what to make of it at first. Then prime commands took over,
and she walked out of the elaborate tent that passed for her usually-
palatial estate off of Bruckeheim Boulevard. She looked up, and saw a faint
dot of power off in the distance.

"KARAOKE!!"

Walking out hadn't clarified anything, so Aliza Raywinged--yes, Raywinged,
despite the Outer's position in the reality matrix, some spells were
universal--up and began speeding towards the direction of the obnoxiously-
loud yells.

"GRANDSLAAAAAAAAAAM!!!"

Below her, the troops of the Other--many just like Jukaara, before he turned
weak--continued to wend their way towards the Inners, ignoring the girl in
pink above them. Ignoring pretty well, too, until the strains of a pitch-
bending, string-plucking, knee-slapping tune began filtering across the sky,
filling the heavens with its red-necked goodness.

"It... it cannot be..." one of them said, trying to cover his ears to block
off the deadly noise, and not succeeding at all.

"No... *no*! Anything but--" another one began.

o/` YOU BREAK MY HEEEEEEART... IN TWO, YOU SILLY BOOOOOY!! BUT DON'T YOU
KNOOOOOOW IT'S TRUUUUE... THAT I LOVE YOOOOOOU!!! o/` Kiseki chimed, even
managing to maintain a syllabic inflection that was reminiscent of those who
were born in less-than-suburban areas.

"AIIIGHHHH!!" With a cry that rang in unison, a true shriek of those damned
beyond all hope of redemption, the first wave of troops fell to the ground,
clutching their heads in agony as they writhed in the sheer magnitude of
pain upon them. Gritting their teeth, the second and subsequent waves pushed
on, determined not to let a little thing like music of the hellspawn affect
them.

Guitars strummed. Fingers snapped in rhythm. Tubas blooped.

o/` OH DAAAARLIIIIN', I'VE GOT MY EYES ON YOU... SO TELL ME... D'YA LIKE MAH
DRESS IN BLUE? o/`

Another wave fell, groaning in intense suffering and untold anguish. The
remnants pushed on more... more...

/This isn't working!/ Kiseki thought to herself in panic, as lights whirled
and diddled behind her. /I need... something stronger... wait! I know!/

Lights pulsed and changed colors, as a metaphysical record was flipped over,
changing the track into that of... of...

"GYAARGH! What form of torture is this?!" a general screamed.

"It's... she's rapping..."

"NO! It's that boring new age elevator shit!"

"ARGH! Not karaoke... anything but depressing karaoke songs!"

Aliza finally arrived on the scene, and simply dispatched the complaining
troops with a wave of her hand and a flash of black. "Fools. It is all three
of these things," she said calmly, not seeing anything wrong with it.

Yet another scream of lamentation, and the army finally gave up the ghost,
running bravely away from the girl in pink. Slowly, deliberately, Kiseki
raised one forearm and began shaking it at the general fleeing populace. A
loud shout of "Yatta ze.... SENSEEEEEEEEIIII!!!!" soon followed, damn near
cracking the foundation of the ground in its decibel rating.

Aliza looked up. She wasn't irritated, because that wasn't something
warriors did. What warriors did do was take care of business.

She flew up to meet her, one hand already forming a plasmic globule of dark.

[-----]

"I feel small," Nevv said quietly. "Very small."

"... rrrgh," was all Lina could manage.

Emmanem gave no indication of being fazed, since he had taken the time to
plug his ears with Spishak Brand Earplugs (TM) before the chaos had begun.
Popping them out (and watching as they disintegrated into dust), he turned
calmly to the girls, smiling.

"I believe Kiseki has cleared the path for us," he said, gesturing to the
army. And in a lapse of persona that hasn't been used since a single-digit
chapter, he gushed: "That was so *cool*!"

Six mallets later, they regrouped and noticed a dark blur streaking directly
at the high-flying Saikyou. There was a small burst of impact, and the sound
of a spell whiffing the big one. Then Kiseki was back at their side again,
one arm curled up in the trademark gesture of honor and mockery.

"She's here!" she said nervously. "I can't hold her off!"

"Who?" Lina asked. Her one-worder was answered as a streak of power slammed
down in the ground around them, sending the four of them scattering across
the ground, skidding to regain balance.

Aliza O'Clure touched down, and noted each and every one of them (except for
Kiseki, because, y'know, she sucked). Then she decided to go after Nevv.

The now-powerless Knight of Ilyuum drew her odd sword for the second time in
the story, and leapt aside from a blast of darkness that came flying at her
from the side. Swinging around, she slashed at Aliza's face, hoping to land
a random blow that would incapacitate her. The Knight of Other managed to
weave aside, and delivered a high kick to the back of Nevv's head as she did
so. Nevv stumbled, and Aliza capitalized, sending her flying back with a
Flare Burst. Nevv crashed uneventfully into the ground, coughing slightly.

"NEVV!" Emmy shouted. The twitch increased in frequency.

"Dear boy..." Aliza cooed. "You belong with us. Jukaara."

Emmanem twitched--no, *spasmed*--again. "Do. Not. Call. Me. That."

"Is something wrong, Jukaara?" Aliza continued, not provoking him
intentionally at all; she simply didn't know he was mad. "I speak the
truth."

"... GYAAAAAARRGH!!" With a scream of anger that was highly unusual for a
man of his girth and length, Emmanem disappeared in a flash of bright blue
and black light. Behind him, Lina and Kiseki flinched as the heat of the
wave approached uncomfortably close.

... wait. Kiseki wasn't there.

Sure enough, the reliable ol' karaoke singer had taken the first second when
things looked remotely dangerous to Fatherly Flee herself to safety.

Grumbling in annoyance, Lina looked around, decided that this new chick in
a black full-body outfit--she was equally proportioned, if not less so, than
herself, which was a relief, because big-breasted villainesses in tight
suits were becoming very tiresome (although the noticeable lack of curves
made her wonder as to her creator's state of mind*SMACK*

Starting the sentence over, Lina grumbled as she glanced around, and decided
that the new chick in the black bodysuit wasn't going to be bothering her
much more. Now, she had to find a way to open up some sort of dimensional
breach so that she could freely summon upon the forces of her world, the
Inner.

Odd how that solution just seemed to come to her. Maybe it was the
experience one gained from killing demon lords all the time.

Speaking of demon lords, here was Johnny. Or rather...

The Other.

/Hello, Lina Inverse. Nice to meet you./

"GYAH!" Lina yelped, whirling around to instinctively Dill Brand the bizatch
who had sent her an instant message telepathically without her permission.
"Who the hell--oohhh, I get it. You're that Other guy, aren't you?"

/Smart girl... would you like--/

Lina sighed and flapped one hand in the motion of a quacking duck. "Would I
like to join you no thanks that's not what I do because I relieve bandits of
their treasure and beat bad asses like you now can we get on with this?" she
managed in one breath.

/... very well. My Knight has already taken the liberty of subduing your
little motley crew.../

Lina glanced over behind her. The chick in the black bodysuit was now
engaging Emmanem--no, Jukaara--in a bout of impressive and completely
unnecessary hand-to-hand combat. The former pretty boy was now a god-awful
looking demon of much ripped muscles, ripped shirt, and ripped fingernails,
taking the punches and kicks that were hailing on his body with no sense of
pain whatsoever. With a devastating right cross, he sent Aliza flying into
the air.

"Yeah, she's doing a real good job," Lina observed. "Aaaaaaanyways... let's
shake the dew off of this lily, eh?" She cracked her knuckles. "So where are
you?"

/... heh. A fool, little girl. You are n--/

"Whatever!" Lina stormed. "Geez, can't you just--"

An idea sparked into her head... one that was so radical and so weird that
it would've been something that her sis would've thought of.

An untold distance away, Luna Inverse smiled briefly as she made her way
through the magical defenses of a certain place.

Back in the Outer, back in the land of Ibun, back in the fray, back at the
standoff between Lina Inverse and an unseen force of the world, the idea
flickered... jumped... and burst into flame.

Lina smirked.

"--go on and do whatever you were about to do?" she continued, without so
much as missing a shake of a rancoor's tail. Praying to Nighty-sama that the
force that she was egging on was more human than anything else, and that
with those human attributes came blustering pride...

In an infinite moment of luck that seemed to be usually attributed to the
good guys wearing purple and yellow with fiery orange hair... the Other
seemed to smirk.

/I shall do so, Lina Inverse. And in this, you will know that it was you who
spurred on your soon-to-be god to begin the conquest of your world./

Heh. Perfect. Now let's hope this works.

That was when he chose to make himself visible. It turned out that the Other
was not a giant being of malevolent darkness, with twin crimson eyes peering
out from behind a mask of iron-faced hatred. He was not a being of such
infinite power that He deadened whatever He touched as He made its way past
the land of the Outer. In fact... He was not even something that inspired
fear in whatever and whomever laid eyes upon Him.

The Other... was a short, squatty little humanoid with scraggly hair, meaty
hands and feet (the latter being extremely hair-ridden, as if he was wading
through a dense grassland and the grass happened to like it between his
toes), and worn-out clothes. He was short. He was ugly. He was unimpressive.

Lina dropkicked Him.

Actually, no. She didn't. Because she struck a field directly in front of
his head, and fell to the ground, clutching her ankle in pain.

/Fool./ The voice returned within her head, and Lina was immediately doing
her best to try and snatch that bit of revelation she'd had and hide it
where he couldn't see... /I will go forth now./

"Yeah," Lina said under her breath, sounding more confident than she felt.
"You do that."

Back at the fight, Nevv and Emmanem/Jukaara were now simultaneously trying
to take Aliza on without hurting each other and failing miserably in both
regards. With the lack of magic--something that left Nevv completely
crippled, as she was hardly a decent hand with her sword--the girl was left
to fend for herself while Emmy took the lead, lashing out with powerful
punches and kicks that now hit nothing but air. Because Aliza was up in the
sky, charging a massive ball of power between her hands; and with no force
to draw upon, neither of them could reach her.

For the most part, Aliza didn't like to use the Quantum Slave. It reeked of
Inner magic, it was nothing but pure destruction, and that didn't appeal to
her. Too messy. And a flashy waste of perfectly good power that could have
been channelled for other usages. Still, there was no need to risk any other
magic at this point. The fact that this was also the easiest way to destroy
both of them utterly also had a hand in it.

"Darkness upon darkness..." she began, whispering the words under her breath
so softly that even she couldn't hear them over the rushing noises in her
ears.

Nevv sighed. "Oh, shit. Damn it... *damn* it! I refuse to believe that my
life can end up this way!" Glance around. Nothing but writhing soldiers
on the ground. Must be something you can use... *anything*...

Emmanem wasn't much help, given that he was currently and repeatedly lunging
at the sky like the duffer he was, trying futilely to reach the chanting
Aliza.

"Divine ichor that runs in our veins... in your great name, I succumb to
your darkness..."

Nevv began stacking soldier bodies on top of each other in an attempt to
make a pile high enough to reach Aliza in time. Granted, it was an extremely
nonsensical and probably out-of-character thing to do, but the threat of
being destroyed by a massive tactical nuke does that sort of thing to you.

"Those who oppose us shall be rendered naught by the power I bring forth
from you now..."

Aliza looked upwards at the darkening sky, where a single crack of thunder
and lightning, very very frightening, snapped for dramatic effect.

"Quantum Slave."

Nevv glanced down at the dirt. "... well, looks like I'm fucked. And not
literally, you damn pervs."

[-----]

"... NEVV!"

She glanced up, and saw, through a hazing of pink and flowers, the beatific
face of the blue-haired one known as Kiseki 'Umi' Rendahl. Slowly,
blissfully, Nevv reached out to embrace her...

"I've got some lemons for you to suck, if you're nervous!"

... and then the embrace turned into a smack.

"OW!"

[-----]

The tremblings could be felt in the Between, even though it was a place that
was supposedly detached from both worlds. Within the shrouds of darkness and
fog, two gods slowly ruminated over their decision, the outcome that was
playing itself out right now, and what they could do about it.

Ilyuum looked up first. /Perhaps we could intervene./

/No,/ Ceipheed said gravely. /Doing so would be a direct violation of what
the Sea has told us./

/The... Sea...?/

Ceipheed gestured grandiosquely at the spellchecker, then sweeped his arm in
a grandiose motion around him.

/The Sea, Ilyuum. You know of it. We all do... although She has many names.
We call Her the Lord of Nightmares./

Ilyuum remained silent.

/You call Her the Mistress of Dreams./

There was a perceptible flicker of recognition. /Yes... now I know. But how
does interfering with this game violate Her rules?/

/Ah, but you said it yourself, Ilyuum. You are truly a young god yet./ The
Dragon took time to look around him, pondering the last time that he had
truly been in this world, before he had sank after that battle with his
rival, Ruby-Eye Shaburanigdo. It was long ago, and yet every detail was
clear in his mind. One of these days, he would have to tell Luna to... no
matter now. Not until they made this situation right first. /This is but a
game, Ilyuum, and breaking the rules is strictly forbidden./

/A game.../ Ilyuum mused. A faint ripple of indignation. /I see./

/Oh, do not be fretful, young one,/ Ceipheed said, and if gods could smile
knowingly, he would have done so. /I think you will grow to like it./

/But for now.../ Ilyuum began, turning towards the scene that was now
playing itself before them--not through a scrying mirror or a portent, but
in actual reality. Relative reality.

They could feel the Other reaching... and they could feel something else:
the undercurrent of a trust so strong, a conviction so firm, that it was
purely unmistakeable. And with a dawning realization, both gods smiled
sagely.

/She is truly my Knight's sister,/ Ceipheed said.

[-----]

For the most part, no one in the Inner noticed when that desecrated patch of
land outside Scriimtu began pulsing and rippling unrealistically, as if it
was being subjected to the whims of a young, cruel child with the power of
Photoshop at his disposal. (Probably because everyone in Scriimtu was dead.
Something about too many psychotic individuals running around and there
wasn't enough room in this town for the sixteen of us.)

The rippled grew, twisted, and eventually engulfed the empty town in its
wake, then coagulated into a solid beacon of black light... no, it wasn't
light at all, because light gave energy. This was more like non-light. It
removed energy where it stood, and sent it to places never to be seen again,
places that were only vaguely hypothesized about, and usually termed with an
odd name, an apostrophe, an 's', and 'armpit'.

From forth the beacon, a slow, oozing drip of blackness seethed forth... and
as it dripped onto the ground, the dirt that was there simply... wasn't.

And then with a speed that was curiously incongrous to its size and shape,
the ooze began spreading over the patch of land, not destroying everything
in its wake, but merely rendering it not-there anymore. It was sent... to
another dimension. Sort of.

[-----]

The Other allowed Himself a cool, cold and icy smirk and beer.

"What do you say, Lina Inverse?" He said quietly, gesturing to the scene as
it played itself on a deluxe television before the two of them. Somehow, by
unknown means of time distortion, Aliza's Quantum Slave had still not hit
ground zero. Perhaps it was because Nevv and Kiseki and Emmanem were just
about to die. Time always seemed to slow down for that.

Lina groaned. Being subjected to a hypothetical pay-per-view on a strange
box that showed images in color like a perfectly-good magic mirror would had
been the last thing she'd wanted in a confrontation with a dark lord of evil
or whatever the Other prided Himself to be. She cracked her neck to relieve
the stress of boredom, then managed her usual perky smile.

"How about I just blast you and we can all go home happy?" she offered.

"Mmm... no." He was actually speaking now, given that He had gone into human
form. "I believe I shall start the scene I have just shown you... only this
time, it will be for real."

/About damn time,/ Lina thought acerbically, and prepared herself.

The Other stretched His hand forward, and it seemed to ooze like the
darkness in the video did, as a swirling portent of pure black opened up and
received His gooey mess of a hand.

Flash of insight...

Lina felt it. It was *there*. And where she was... there she is.

What the hell did that mean?

"LINA HELP!!!!!!!!!" came the frantic voices of Kiseki, Emmy, and Nevv. Ah,
the sound of Nevv begging for help... it was like music to her--

"OR SO HELP ME I'LL NEVER LET YOU HAVE PEACE IN WHATEVER HELL YOU BELIEVE
IN, LINA INVERSE!" came Nevv's voice, over the racket.

Time decided to snap back to shape, and the Quantum Slave slammed directly
into the ground where the three stood, obscuring all sight from prying eyes
and all sound from straining ears.

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