Shellshocked

*****

The Situation's Awfully Dim


"Die, damn you!" Lamour snarled cruelly, trying her hardest to snap the annoying man's neck in half. A sickening creaking sound screeched through the malignant air before, sharply, the spine cracked neatly into two pieces, and the man went limp, eyes rolling back in his head, eyelids peeled back, the front half of his tongue falling out of his bloodied mouth. Apparently, he had snapped his jaw shut from the pain, slicing through his tongue, rather like a seizure victim. With an impersonal shrug, the blonde woman tossed the ragdoll-like body over her shoulder effortlessly, listening for the wet thump to echo behind her.

"Lamour," Lytae drawled, arms crossed over her chest as she leaned carelessly against the wall, "do you have to kill all the slaves whenever you get pissed?"

Lamour shrugged informally, kicking another sprawled carcass out of her way, uninterested as she sloshed through pools of crimson blood and unraveled intestines spilling forth from the sliced open gut. Sheathing the Mace Sword in the holster tied to her waist, she stretched her arms, smirking as Rune glanced up from her meal of still bloody raw meat; Sirenu was skinning a rat in her boredom, curious as to how long she could peel layers of skin off the mammal before it died.

"Where the goddamn hell is Aimee?" Sirenu asked irritatedly.

"Other timeline," Rune mumbled, slurping a piece of stringy, bloody meat into her mouth, using one long blood red fingernail to pick out what appeared to be a tendon from between her molars. "Gero-sama sent her to kill Trunks' mother in this timeline, then go and kill Trunks in that timeline." She paused, biting and savoring the meat that oddly resembled human muscle. "Dunno what's taking so long."

"You gonna share that with anyone else, bitch?" questioned Lytae, grasping the nape of a rat's neck, absently crushing the spinal cord and zapping the creature with enough voltage to char it beyond recognition, dropping the dead body to the floor. "I'm hungry as hell."

"This is mine, whore," snarled Rune protectively, shielding the mound of blood and meat from Lytae's hungry gaze. "I had to find the right blood type and all before I could kill the stupid mortal woman. If you want some, then go bloody well kill your own prey!"

Lamour yawned lazily, shuffling past a lung decorating the floor, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder to point toward the slave carcasses. "There's two dead bodies if you all wanna eat anytime soon," she grinned evilly.

With a whoop, Sirenu tossed the almost completely skinned rat into a grisly wall, its body splattering hither and thither. "Food!" she crowed and Rune leaned over to the dead rat, dipping her finger in into its heart, pulling out her bare fingers, covered in blood, and placing them in her mouth, licking off the crimson fluid. "Not bad," she admitted, returning to her human meal.

Sirenu was too busy carving up one of the bodies to notice, using her dirk to shovel pieces of flesh and muscle into her waiting, gaping mouth, sharp teeth glittering and blood-stained. "This is good," she giggled around her mouthful.

Lytae licked her lips eagerly, joining her pigtailed sister. "Leave some for me!"

Sirenu mumbled an obscenity aimed at everyone in general and Lamour flipped her middle finger up at her affectionately.

It was into this melee that Aimee appeared.

Cradled clumsily in her arms was a slumbering bundle, her face forcibly cold. "My, my, my," she droned sarcastically, "what a lovely spread we have here."

"Whatever," Lytae grunted, and Sirenu nodded in fervent agreement.

"What've you got?" Rune asked, curious, finishing her gruesome meal reflectively.

"Nothing," Aimee defended reflexively. "Nothing important."

"I smell human blood," Lamour narrowed her blue eyes dangerously. "Why do you have a," she broke off momentarily, sniffing the bundle, "baby human?"

"No reason," lied the bluenette.

In reply, Lamour hooked her long orange fingernails under a lapel of the cloth, ripping it aside to reveal a small lavender-haired boy. "You bitch!" she cried. "You didn't kill the infant! You kept him!"

"Oooo," squealed Rune, eyes lighting up in a predatorial manner, "can we eat him?" Sirenu and Lytae stopped their eating of the fresh corpse, chewing slowly as they stared threateningly at Aimee.

"No," snapped she, "you can't!"

"And," Sirenu glared daggers.

"Why not?" finished Lytae dangerously.

"Because I'm going to try and-"

"And what?" Lamour circled her, almost amused.

"Screw off, you bitches!" Aimee burst, shoving past them into her chambers, slamming the door shut behind her and hexing it shut with a curse.

Flopping down on her spacious waterbed, the now-awake Trunks gurgled happily, stretching his tiny, chubby arms up to pat her cheeks. She rested on her stomach, content to watch her newly adopted charge roll along the bubbling waterbed on his back, laughing. "In this place," she whispered softly, "you will remain an infant for merely a day or two. By the draw of this week's end, you will be five years in body and mind. That is your curse…a mortal dwelling in this castle will perish in a year."

Trunks only giggled and reached for her hair.

"But why," Aimee asked him gently, "do I not just kill you now?"

*

"Youma!" Super Sailor Mercury cried and Trunks, in his Super Saiya-jin form, took off, slicing the demon-like creature in half with his glistening blade. Another one popped up in front of her and, startled, she slammed her gloved hand into its face, crying, "Aqua Rhapsody!" It screamed and was blown away in a cloud of ice particles. "They must be getting weak," she mused, turning to Trunks, who was busy finishing off a trio of canine demons. "Any sign of that Dark Sailor Mercurius character?" she asked.

"No," he grunted, face and eyes devoid of emotion; his mother had been dead for three days now. Her own face softened sympathetically. How long, Mercury wondered; how long had it been since her own mother had died at the age of ninety-three, when Ami still looked like she was only twenty-two? At least she had all those years with her mother to remember…he only had precious few compared to the ones she had.

"Looking for me?" called the husky voice of the dark Mercury. She was perched on top of a half-decimated church steeple, a small lavender-haired toddler watching them curiously.

"Oh, my God," Mercury breathed. That was the other Trunks, only…older.

As if reading her thoughts, Dark Sailor Mercurius bent her neck so her head was level with the younger Trunks'. She was whispering instructions and he nodded eagerly, climbing around onto her shoulders and standing on them, hands woven into her dark blue locks. "I am Trunks," he spoke clearly in a youthful voice, fixing his pretty blue eyes on the two blood-streaked, shocked figures. "Mirai and Mercury, you two are threats to Gero-sama's plan to control both worlds and as such you will be destroyed. Mercurius-chan has told me the truth - it is Gero-sama's destiny to rule all and I have been shown the…," his voice trailed off as he recalled the words. "I have been shown," he retried, "the true path and the Dark Sailor Senshi will annihilate the defenders of both timelines." Proudly, he smiled cherubically down at a softly smiling Mercurius.

A brilliant flash of ocean blue light streamed through the sky and the two vanished from the church steeple. From over a large hill, tenfold youma and assorted soldiers poured into the open, weapons and claws brandished.

Mirai roared, enraged beyond comprehensible thought.

"No!" Mercury screamed.

She followed him into battle.




Eheheheh! That's where it ends! ;}

Okay, you know the previous chapter when they were arguing about a frog and a dog? They were watching clouds - just to clear that up. Also, I am going to refer to Mirai no Trunks as Mirai simply because it's going to be confusing with two Trunks.

Did the Dark Sailor Senshi freak you out as much as the Cell -x- Metallia stuff did in "Ares Denetsu?" *shrugs* I wouldn't know unless you told me!

Next chapter is coming out VERY soon!

And if you're wondering about what's happening in the other timeline, wait until "Shellshocked" is over and I can write "A Thousand Leaves" - my Yamucha -x- Jupiter/Makoto series. "ATL" will be set parallel to "SS," though in the other timeline, of course. You'll see soon enough…

School got out on May 24 here in New Mexico, so expect me to finish "SS," "ATL," the Juunanagou -x- Venus/Minako series "Broken Hell," and the Goten -x- Moon/Neo-Queen Selenity/Usagi series "Only Wistful Thinking" by the end of summer! (Maybe by the end of July - who knows?)

As always…

Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.

[PS~ REVIEWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! I want as many as "Ares Denetsu" - 67 - when I finish "SS!"]

[PSS~ Expect Ami/Mirai-ness next chapter, as well as an update on Gokuu, Goten, and Usagi, okay? Okay!]

[PSSS~ The title of this chapter comes from the song by a Christian band called DCTalk - the song is "My Friend (So Long)," in case you're wondering.]

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.
"Shellshocked" in its entirety, all situations and plot devices thus far, is © to myself, referred to on-line as PallaPlease or Purple Mongoose/PallaPlease.