Chapter 3: The Trials And Tribulations Of Emerald
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"$*%£!!!!!" screamed Cid, dodging Emerald's massive retina destroying blast. "This $&%*£& weapon packs one helluva $&%%*%$ punch!!!"
"No kidding! Only just noticed?!?" Tifa yelled at the top of her voice, who was dodging from rock to rock, trying to avoid the huge boulders that Emerald's blasts were tossing into the air on random
"Shut the $*&% up you's foo's!! Keep fightin'!"
Barret narrowly dodged Emerald's mouth laser as it swept across the ground, drilling a split into the floor. Firing off another hundred rounds into the Weapon's nearly indestructable hide, he was knocked onto the floor by Emerald's mountain levelers for feet.
"Jeez, Cloud, how long does it take to get a $&$*£$% Limit Break these days!!!! Get yo' spikey haired ass movin' and help us kill dis' $*£%$£$ weapon!!!" The man with the gun arm cursed, as he pulled himself to his feet. "$£%*!! You stupid £*%&!! HELP US FOO'!!"
"Hold on Barret, twenty more seconds! This one will be a doozy, I promise you!" To Cloud, the world was dark, barring the thoughts of destruction in his mind. Aeris, Sephiroth, everything mattered in the end. The destruction Meteor was to bring to the planet. The deaths of so many people. It boiled within him. He was close to his ultimate strength. So very close... he had to change things for the better... but he couldn't do anything if he was dead. He had to prevent that. HE HAD TO!
Emerald turned it's attention towards the spiky haired warrior with the oversized Ultima sword. Another beam erupted from the Weapon's belly, streaking it's way towards Cloud. Cloud's eyes opened, and with a burst of speed, threw himself at the colossal beast, and began laying into it with powerful slashes with his sword. The Weapon reeled, groaning in pain. Even it's armour could only take so much punishment. The blows were lightning quick, none of the rest of the force could keep up with it barring Red XIII, who was following with his ears. One final, massive blow sent the huge Weapon to it's vast knee caps, before crashing to the floor throwing up a sweeping cloud of dust and causing an earthquake, which visibly rippled the ground. Trees were uprooted by the wind. Everyone was holding on for dear life as the air currents threatened to throw them 15 miles from the beast. Cloud was the only one who stood perfectly still, unaffected by the winds, his hair blown back by their hurricane force.
The winds died down a minute later. The dust settled. Tifa picked herself up, surveying the fallen Weapon as she brushed dust off her top. "Is it... is it dead?"
"Dunno. I $£*%£*$ hope so. That thing was too much."
"We'd better get outta here. I don't want to be around when the Planet decides to reclaim that thing." Cait Sith was still trying to unbury himself from the 5 foot high rubble he had been trapped in for the past two minutes.
"I concur. We have fought well." Vincent commented, looking with pride over the Weapon.
"Erm..... my friends..... Emerald isn't finished with us yet....." Red XIII muttered as he crouched into attack position. A low rumble was heard coming from the direction of the fallen Weapon, and Cloud was seen running as fast as he could from the feet of the monster.
A huge roar erupted from the armoured giant, and movement was seen in the knees. Rather woozily, Emerald got to it's feet.
"Oh......... $%*£....... this just got a whole lot $£*$&£* worse. Now we have an injured $&£*%& off Weapon on our hands!!! RUN!!!!!! TO THE HIGHWIND!!!!!!!"
"Right behind ya Cid, run like $£*&£$* hell!!!"
"Won't get any argument from me Barret!! Tifa! Red XIII! Vincent! Yuffie! Cait! Get moving!!!"
The group took off for their airship, pursued by a 500ft high proverbial bull that had just seen red.
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Voices came from within the bright glare of the light.
"This is certainly interesting. How pathetic these mere mortals are when it comes to warfare. I must admit though, I find their courage almost inspiring."
"Inspiring, Q? Since when did they have any impact on you?"
"They don't. I am only inspired by them because I choose to be, but-"
Q smirked.
"-they do provide comic relief from time to time. That is inspiring."
"Like your laison with Janeway?"
"Kathy? No.... not at all. That was more than just amusement. Do I detect jealousy in that voice of yours, my dear?" Q implied sarcastically.
"Jealousy? Don't even think me to be capable of it."
"I don't think you are. I know you are. That is besides the point however. Our child does need entertainment. As his father, it is my duty to provide it for him. Tenchi makes quite the effective playtoy. Just like Jean-Luc."
"Do what you think is best. Surprise me."
"I don't think I can."
"At least try. Our son might not know everything yet. This would be a healthy lesson for him."
"You never lose your sense of duty do you. Very well, let us see what chaos reigns after we insert another element into the mixture."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be worth the wait."
"What wait? I am Q, I don't make my beloved wait for anything."
Laughter echoed across dimensions, as the cosmic reshuffling continued.
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A rumbling sound, accompanied by a shaking encompassed the Masaki household. The walls shook slightly, but nothing was damaged.
"What in the name of Jurai was that?"
"Huh.... oh, just an earthquake Aeka, nothing major. Don't worry about it."
Tenchi sat, for the first time today, with his feet up. Having this Goku here was less hard work than he initially thought it would be. Goku tended to keep himself to himself, and generally kept his place tidy. He would still eat half a tonne of food every time he ate though. Problematic, but nothing they couldn't handle. Even Ryoko was helping out. Goku himself was doing everything he could, but the remarkable Saiyan was keeping his distance from Washu, so he didn't tend to be around much. Things were finally calming down again. Now... if only Aeka and Ryoko would stop fighting...
"AEKA!! TENCHI!! THERE'S SOMETHING OUTSIDE!! COME QUICK!!"
"Huh?" Tenchi jumped up and followed the screams of Sasami to their source. Aeka followed him and the pair of them lined up behind Sasami, both in total and utter shock.
Sasami stood at the front door, pointing over to the horizon, towards the sun, blacked out by a mysterious silhouette. "Tenchi, what is THAT?!"
"Lord Tenchi, you never told me about anything like this!"
"I didn't know anything like that even EXISTED!"
A light emanated from the distant black object, which lit up a certain portion of the moving monolith. Highlights of scaly armour could be seen adorning every part of it's body. The behemoth plodded it's way towards the Masaki household.
Aeka screamed. "It's heading here!!!!"
Just then, Tenchi spotted something emerging from the trees. A blonde spikey haired person was running towards them brandishing a huge sword. He took only 20 seconds to run across to the Masaki house, being pursued by an entire group. One of them, a large panther of some sorts, stopped for a second, and stammered in a panicked voice "If you value your lives, you will do as we are doing, and run. Good luck." The panther dashed off, as the huge black object moved into light for the first time. The object was clearly a creature of some sort, it looked armoured, with huge shoulder panels, which, in Tenchi's opinion, were most probably for protection. Several gems seemed to be a part of the creature's body, much like Ryoko's gems, but much larger. The armoured creature, on closer examination, looked much like a dragon. A dragon that was closing on them extremely quickly.
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Ryoko phased in besides Tenchi, trying to attract his attention, and caught sight of the dragon out of the corner of her eye. "Are you here to hurt my Tenchi?! Not today!!" The cyan haired girl lept into the air, igniting an energy sword in her hand. "Prepare to die!!!" she screamed, ignoring the yells of Tenchi telling her to get back and run away.
Ryoko closed on the dragon at high speed, the wind rushing through her hair. "Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, hurts my Tenchi.." she thought out loud, "DIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" She rushed towards the thing's head, expecting instant victory. Swinging her sword behind her back, she tensed herself to strike at the creature where it would be weakest, it's neck. Darting towards the dragon, she took her shot...
....only to have it blocked by the dragon's massive clawed hand. "SHITE.... my sword can't get through this damn thing's armour!" Pivoting around, she slammed her feet against the claws of the dragon, and propelled herself away from the beast as it fired it's mouth laser at her, slamming into the nearby forest. The huge claw of the dragon smacked into her a microsecond after and sent her tumbling a quarter of a mile. Her vision had stars around the edges after that blow, and Ryoko, as tough as she was, knew she HAD to avoid getting hit like that again.
"This thing packs a serious punch, I'd better be really careful..... HERE!!!! CATCH THIS YOU WORTHLESS ARMOURED FREAK!!!!!!!" Summoning up as much energy as she could get while fighting off the pain in her abdomen, she hurled several blasts from her hands into the dragon, and backed off for a second to survey any damage she did, from behind the mask of dust her high powered lances of energy had thrown up. Ryoko clutched her side, feeling the fabric of her clothes drenched. Probably blood. She felt the strength draining out of her body, as surely as the blood was, but she might not need it if that last attack worked. Luckily, she hadn't lost any of her body parts so far, but this beast was too much! It was strong, much stronger than even Kagato. She really did hope that she had dealt with it once and for all.
What she found was not pleasing. The thing emerged from the dust clouds caused by her bolts, with a curious light emanating from a gem in it's belly, and a somewhat peeved look on it's face. Ryoko swallowed nervously. "This is not good..." A beam of pure energy hurtled towards her from the beast. She was sure she was to die this day. Screaming Tenchi's name, she covered herself and tried to block the tremendous beam with eyes closed.
The dragon roared in pain, and tumbled. Narrowly missing Ryoko, who was waiting for her demise, it plummeted into the floor, creating a half mile wide crater as the energy from the blast it was charging up impacted on the ground. The dragon had a hole in it's chest, carved out with the brute force of a beam of ki. Ryoko permitted herself to open her eyes, and spotted Goku floating just behind where the dragon last stood, hand held out. Ryoko watched him point his hand towards the fallen giant, and fired a tiny bolt of energy towards the dead beast. A huge explosion overtook the 500ft long corpse, and in an instant, it was vapourised. Ryoko was barely conscious by this point, and was sent hurtling by the shockwaves that smashed into her battered body.
Ryoko returned her faltering, blurred gaze back towards the Saiyan, who was floating in mid air with a grin plastered on his face.
"Well... that was easy. Oh, hi Ryoko! Oh, erm..... sorry if I vapourised your training partner... I'm sure that when I get home I can wish him back with the Dragon Balls."
Ryoko floated down to the ground, exhausted and shocked. For once, she allowed herself to show weakness, and fainted in the gravel left by Weapon's demise.
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"$*£*!!! Something just $*£&$&* gutted the (*$£%($ Weapon!!!" Yelling, spitting his usual level of profanity, the battleworn airship pilot spun around the mercenary who just happened to be their leader.
"Huh? What the -!!!!!" Cloud cut himself off as he witnessed what he thought impossible. The supposedly unbeatable, and nigh on invincible Emerald Weapon was slain instantly by a beam a million times more intense than anything Emerald itself had ever tossed at them. The beam neatly blew a hole through the Weapon's belly, carving out a huge crater in it's chest, dripping with what Cloud believed to be whatever the Weapon had for internal organs. "How could anything as strong and powerful as Weapon be slain so quickly?-" he asked himself. "-And if it HAS been killed, WHO DID IT?!?"
"Jeez..... who did the Weapon $*£( off now? God?" Cait Sith said in a crudeness rivalling Cid's, as he watched the lumbering Weapon collapse to the floor throwing out a huge cloud of dust which obscured the view of the fallen giant.
"Reeve has a point," Cloud mused, "What exactly DID Weapon *$&£ off?"
"Maybe we oughta go back and see what's happening, hey? If Weapon's dead, then maybe-"
The second Cait Sith finished his sentence, Cloud spotted a light in the sky. To his Mako enhanced eyes, it signalled a tremendous energy source. That was NOT GOOD. "GET DOWN!!!!!!!!!!" Cloud yelled as a tiny bolt of energy, only detectable by his eyes, lanced from a nearly invisible source to the ground where Weapon now laid. Everyone dropped to the floor and watched as the bolt hit. For a moment, nothing happened. With an atmosphere of finality, time seemed to stop for the adventurers. Everyone ducked their heads into the ground, and then the explosion erupted with the brightness of a million suns. It consumed the ground and caused it to shake, hurling shrapnel away from it's zero point. Cloud threw up his Ultima sword, and most of the wind and debris hitting him ceased the second he planted the oversized sword in the ground and sat behind it. The sword itself cast a space black shadow behind it as the intensity of the light from the explosion was so great. Then, as soon as it had started, it was over. There was nothing left of Weapon. Nothing at all. Only a crater which both Weapon and the thing that had fired on Weapon had marked the landscape with.
Barret was the first to his feet. Staring over at the area where the Weapon formerly was, there was total silence. Everyone was simply mesmorised by the intensity of the proverbial fire that had claimed their nemesis. The atmosphere was thicker than neutronium. It took Red XIII to cut it.
"$*£&......" was all the usually calm creature could say. Frankly, Cloud couldn't blame him.
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"So, where da hell are we?"
Tenchi was flustered at the big black guy with a gun on his arm that was giving him his limited version of the Spanish Inquisition. So far, the conversation had consisted of the token black guy in this group of strange characters yelling repeatedly "Who da hell are you?" and "Who da hell blew up dat Weapon?" "Erm, you are at the Masaki shrine, or..... erm, at least, what's left of it after that fight."
"Where da hell is dat?"
"Barret, shut the *$&£ up you £*$(. Even to you, it should be obvious it ain't our $*(£&($ world!!!"
"HUH?!?!?!!"
Almost everyone at the table turned their heads towards Cid. "Well of course it is. There ain't no $(£&*£( Meteor floatin' in the $*£&(£& sky!! So, the question is, how the $*£( did we get here?" Cid laid back, taking another puff of his eternally present cigarette.
"I had come to the same conclusion Cid." Red XIII spoke up, pulling his head up from inbetween his paws, "This is clearly not our planet, that much is for sure. When I was with Grandpa, he occasionally spoke of alternate realities. Since I have no reason to conclude that this planet is any different from our planet, barring possibly it's continental structure and tectonics, then I must conclude that either we have travelled between TWO planets in one Universe, which share the exact star system, and exactly the same day length of a 24 hour period, or we have been transported between realities to a planet which occupies the same position as our planet in our reality."
"I concur. There does seem to be a correlation between the two planets in terms of atmosphere and in terms of day length. It would be interesting to see how life has evolved differently on this planet, which is nowhere near as industrialised as our planet." The man called Vincent seemed relaxed as he contemplated the meaning of these thoughts.
Tenchi, who was a little uneasy with these scientific lectures was glad to hear the closet door open. "I heard the use of the words "alternate reality" and I thought I might join in!!!" The pink haired mad scientist sprung across the room and sat down next to Barret, provoking a reaction from the rugged bruiser.
"Daym man, what's dis foo up to!"
"Barret, knock it off," Tifa said scoldingly.
"Naaaah, it's alright. My name's Little Washuuuu! Pleased to meet you, big guy!"
"Daym...."
"So, who are the theoretical physicists in here?"
Vincent raised his hand, and Red sat up.
"OK. Well, tell me what ya think, and I'll see what I can do to sort it."
Tenchi stood up upon hearing that. He had learned a long time ago that, unless you had an IQ of 150+, as the panther and the Goth had, with possibly the chain-smoking Cid as well, Washu's speeches were unintelligable. "Better go check on Ryoko" he thought to himself.
Politely excusing himself from the conversation, he left the panther called Red, Cid, the Goth, the ample chested Tifa, Barret and the strange looking mog thing talking to Washu and Aeka, with Sasami and Nobuyuki listening, although his father's gaze seemed to have settled on Tifa's assets. He was so embarrasing sometimes.
Making his way out of the living room, he headed towards the room where Ryoko was resting. Stopping outside the door, he wondered whether he should tell her how worried he was when Goku brought her to him. She meant the world to Tenchi, and he would make sure she got better, even if she didn't know it. Opening the door slowly, he peeked his head round the door so as not to awake her if she was asleep. Sure enough, she was fast asleep. Her gem was giving her the ability to heal the severe wounds inflicted by Weapon's single blow, but it was taking a lot out of her. She certainly wasn't going to be moving around much over the next day or two. As much as he hated to admit it, it would be nice to have calm around the house without the endless arguments between Aeka and Ryoko, but not at this price. He supressed the thought with a shudder of revulsion. Tenchi looked back to the injured cyan haired girl lay in the bed, fast asleep, lovingly surveying her soft features...
"Give you a tip, man, never let a woman do something like that, even if she nearly kills you for it. It's not always guarenteed that she will return to you safely."
"Huh?"
Tenchi turned around to see the blonde spikey-haired leader of the new arrivals leaning against the wall next to him. The muscular man seemed lost in thought, as if remembering a painful memory.
"What do you mean?"
"I see the way you look in there. You clearly feel something for her, but you haven't told her anything yet. I get the feeling she's the type that's headstrong and willing to go out of her way to do something."
"Yeah, Ryoko is a little like that. She means well though."
"Tell her before it's too late. I missed on the chance of a lifetime because I denied it for too long, and she was killed ruthlessly by a man called Sephiroth. Don't make the same mistake."
"What was her name?"
"Aerith. It's a crying shame how she died too. My deepest regret. Make sure the same doesn't happen to your Ryoko. Or, if you find it impossible to prevent, don't make her wait till her dying breath to tell her how you feel."
"Don't mind me saying this, but you don't seem like the kind of guy who would be that interested in love."
"You'd be surprised."
"Oh..."
Tenchi caught a glint of steel behind the leader's back. "Mr...?"
"Cloud. Cloud Strife."
"Mr Strife. I can see your sword. Maybe you would be interested in some sword fighting practice against my grandfather. He is an extremely proficient swordsman."
"Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather rest for a day or two. Fighting Weapon really takes it out of you."
"Grandpa is always there. Just ask, I'm sure he would be happy to spar for a while."
Cloud righted himself and made a move to head back downstairs.
"One other thing, Mr. Strife-"
Cloud turned his head.
"-If you need anything to eat, just ask Sasami."
"I will. Remember my advice kid. Do it soon."
With that, Cloud moved downstairs. Tenchi gazed once more into his sleeping beauty's face, and quietly slid the door shut.
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"Weapon certainly caused a disturbance."
"I was more than impressed by my handiwork there. I would give it a 7/10 at least."
"Only 7?"
"I have much bigger plans for these mere mortals. That Washu has no idea how hard it will get for her to return our playtoys to their original dimensions when I get involved. However, so far, we have had endless amounts of these heroes. As Jean Luc found out, for every hero, there is a villian."
"Are you planning what I think you are planning?"
Q smiled.
"No, I'm not. Our villians, when they make their entrance, will have such a big display regarding their arrival that even Microbrain would notice it. Such a display is not suited to a point so early in the game. Besides, I have yet to finish judging how the Universe deals with so many influences in one place."
"I see. So, what are you planning then? Will it be entertaining?"
"A rhetorical question."
Silence fell in the Continuum, undaunted by the thoughts of a billion omnipotent beings still drifted among it's infinite splendor.
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Well, for the very, very VERY few people that are still reading this (at least as far as the reviews go) I'm still continuing because it's great fun to write this. Please, if you read this, review it and let me know what I've done right and what I've done wrong. It's much more helpful to me to know, and I don't mind criticism if it helps me write :) The chapters should get longer from this point on, at the moment, I'm feeling my way through things, but I do know who the ultimate enemy (or should I say enemies, are going to be).
All characters from FF7 are property of Squaresoft, Toei Animation and Akira Toriyama own DBZ and all related characters. All characters from Tenchi Muyo are property of AIC and Pioneer.
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"$*%£!!!!!" screamed Cid, dodging Emerald's massive retina destroying blast. "This $&%*£& weapon packs one helluva $&%%*%$ punch!!!"
"No kidding! Only just noticed?!?" Tifa yelled at the top of her voice, who was dodging from rock to rock, trying to avoid the huge boulders that Emerald's blasts were tossing into the air on random
"Shut the $*&% up you's foo's!! Keep fightin'!"
Barret narrowly dodged Emerald's mouth laser as it swept across the ground, drilling a split into the floor. Firing off another hundred rounds into the Weapon's nearly indestructable hide, he was knocked onto the floor by Emerald's mountain levelers for feet.
"Jeez, Cloud, how long does it take to get a $&$*£$% Limit Break these days!!!! Get yo' spikey haired ass movin' and help us kill dis' $*£%$£$ weapon!!!" The man with the gun arm cursed, as he pulled himself to his feet. "$£%*!! You stupid £*%&!! HELP US FOO'!!"
"Hold on Barret, twenty more seconds! This one will be a doozy, I promise you!" To Cloud, the world was dark, barring the thoughts of destruction in his mind. Aeris, Sephiroth, everything mattered in the end. The destruction Meteor was to bring to the planet. The deaths of so many people. It boiled within him. He was close to his ultimate strength. So very close... he had to change things for the better... but he couldn't do anything if he was dead. He had to prevent that. HE HAD TO!
Emerald turned it's attention towards the spiky haired warrior with the oversized Ultima sword. Another beam erupted from the Weapon's belly, streaking it's way towards Cloud. Cloud's eyes opened, and with a burst of speed, threw himself at the colossal beast, and began laying into it with powerful slashes with his sword. The Weapon reeled, groaning in pain. Even it's armour could only take so much punishment. The blows were lightning quick, none of the rest of the force could keep up with it barring Red XIII, who was following with his ears. One final, massive blow sent the huge Weapon to it's vast knee caps, before crashing to the floor throwing up a sweeping cloud of dust and causing an earthquake, which visibly rippled the ground. Trees were uprooted by the wind. Everyone was holding on for dear life as the air currents threatened to throw them 15 miles from the beast. Cloud was the only one who stood perfectly still, unaffected by the winds, his hair blown back by their hurricane force.
The winds died down a minute later. The dust settled. Tifa picked herself up, surveying the fallen Weapon as she brushed dust off her top. "Is it... is it dead?"
"Dunno. I $£*%£*$ hope so. That thing was too much."
"We'd better get outta here. I don't want to be around when the Planet decides to reclaim that thing." Cait Sith was still trying to unbury himself from the 5 foot high rubble he had been trapped in for the past two minutes.
"I concur. We have fought well." Vincent commented, looking with pride over the Weapon.
"Erm..... my friends..... Emerald isn't finished with us yet....." Red XIII muttered as he crouched into attack position. A low rumble was heard coming from the direction of the fallen Weapon, and Cloud was seen running as fast as he could from the feet of the monster.
A huge roar erupted from the armoured giant, and movement was seen in the knees. Rather woozily, Emerald got to it's feet.
"Oh......... $%*£....... this just got a whole lot $£*$&£* worse. Now we have an injured $&£*%& off Weapon on our hands!!! RUN!!!!!! TO THE HIGHWIND!!!!!!!"
"Right behind ya Cid, run like $£*&£$* hell!!!"
"Won't get any argument from me Barret!! Tifa! Red XIII! Vincent! Yuffie! Cait! Get moving!!!"
The group took off for their airship, pursued by a 500ft high proverbial bull that had just seen red.
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Voices came from within the bright glare of the light.
"This is certainly interesting. How pathetic these mere mortals are when it comes to warfare. I must admit though, I find their courage almost inspiring."
"Inspiring, Q? Since when did they have any impact on you?"
"They don't. I am only inspired by them because I choose to be, but-"
Q smirked.
"-they do provide comic relief from time to time. That is inspiring."
"Like your laison with Janeway?"
"Kathy? No.... not at all. That was more than just amusement. Do I detect jealousy in that voice of yours, my dear?" Q implied sarcastically.
"Jealousy? Don't even think me to be capable of it."
"I don't think you are. I know you are. That is besides the point however. Our child does need entertainment. As his father, it is my duty to provide it for him. Tenchi makes quite the effective playtoy. Just like Jean-Luc."
"Do what you think is best. Surprise me."
"I don't think I can."
"At least try. Our son might not know everything yet. This would be a healthy lesson for him."
"You never lose your sense of duty do you. Very well, let us see what chaos reigns after we insert another element into the mixture."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be worth the wait."
"What wait? I am Q, I don't make my beloved wait for anything."
Laughter echoed across dimensions, as the cosmic reshuffling continued.
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A rumbling sound, accompanied by a shaking encompassed the Masaki household. The walls shook slightly, but nothing was damaged.
"What in the name of Jurai was that?"
"Huh.... oh, just an earthquake Aeka, nothing major. Don't worry about it."
Tenchi sat, for the first time today, with his feet up. Having this Goku here was less hard work than he initially thought it would be. Goku tended to keep himself to himself, and generally kept his place tidy. He would still eat half a tonne of food every time he ate though. Problematic, but nothing they couldn't handle. Even Ryoko was helping out. Goku himself was doing everything he could, but the remarkable Saiyan was keeping his distance from Washu, so he didn't tend to be around much. Things were finally calming down again. Now... if only Aeka and Ryoko would stop fighting...
"AEKA!! TENCHI!! THERE'S SOMETHING OUTSIDE!! COME QUICK!!"
"Huh?" Tenchi jumped up and followed the screams of Sasami to their source. Aeka followed him and the pair of them lined up behind Sasami, both in total and utter shock.
Sasami stood at the front door, pointing over to the horizon, towards the sun, blacked out by a mysterious silhouette. "Tenchi, what is THAT?!"
"Lord Tenchi, you never told me about anything like this!"
"I didn't know anything like that even EXISTED!"
A light emanated from the distant black object, which lit up a certain portion of the moving monolith. Highlights of scaly armour could be seen adorning every part of it's body. The behemoth plodded it's way towards the Masaki household.
Aeka screamed. "It's heading here!!!!"
Just then, Tenchi spotted something emerging from the trees. A blonde spikey haired person was running towards them brandishing a huge sword. He took only 20 seconds to run across to the Masaki house, being pursued by an entire group. One of them, a large panther of some sorts, stopped for a second, and stammered in a panicked voice "If you value your lives, you will do as we are doing, and run. Good luck." The panther dashed off, as the huge black object moved into light for the first time. The object was clearly a creature of some sort, it looked armoured, with huge shoulder panels, which, in Tenchi's opinion, were most probably for protection. Several gems seemed to be a part of the creature's body, much like Ryoko's gems, but much larger. The armoured creature, on closer examination, looked much like a dragon. A dragon that was closing on them extremely quickly.
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Ryoko phased in besides Tenchi, trying to attract his attention, and caught sight of the dragon out of the corner of her eye. "Are you here to hurt my Tenchi?! Not today!!" The cyan haired girl lept into the air, igniting an energy sword in her hand. "Prepare to die!!!" she screamed, ignoring the yells of Tenchi telling her to get back and run away.
Ryoko closed on the dragon at high speed, the wind rushing through her hair. "Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, hurts my Tenchi.." she thought out loud, "DIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" She rushed towards the thing's head, expecting instant victory. Swinging her sword behind her back, she tensed herself to strike at the creature where it would be weakest, it's neck. Darting towards the dragon, she took her shot...
....only to have it blocked by the dragon's massive clawed hand. "SHITE.... my sword can't get through this damn thing's armour!" Pivoting around, she slammed her feet against the claws of the dragon, and propelled herself away from the beast as it fired it's mouth laser at her, slamming into the nearby forest. The huge claw of the dragon smacked into her a microsecond after and sent her tumbling a quarter of a mile. Her vision had stars around the edges after that blow, and Ryoko, as tough as she was, knew she HAD to avoid getting hit like that again.
"This thing packs a serious punch, I'd better be really careful..... HERE!!!! CATCH THIS YOU WORTHLESS ARMOURED FREAK!!!!!!!" Summoning up as much energy as she could get while fighting off the pain in her abdomen, she hurled several blasts from her hands into the dragon, and backed off for a second to survey any damage she did, from behind the mask of dust her high powered lances of energy had thrown up. Ryoko clutched her side, feeling the fabric of her clothes drenched. Probably blood. She felt the strength draining out of her body, as surely as the blood was, but she might not need it if that last attack worked. Luckily, she hadn't lost any of her body parts so far, but this beast was too much! It was strong, much stronger than even Kagato. She really did hope that she had dealt with it once and for all.
What she found was not pleasing. The thing emerged from the dust clouds caused by her bolts, with a curious light emanating from a gem in it's belly, and a somewhat peeved look on it's face. Ryoko swallowed nervously. "This is not good..." A beam of pure energy hurtled towards her from the beast. She was sure she was to die this day. Screaming Tenchi's name, she covered herself and tried to block the tremendous beam with eyes closed.
The dragon roared in pain, and tumbled. Narrowly missing Ryoko, who was waiting for her demise, it plummeted into the floor, creating a half mile wide crater as the energy from the blast it was charging up impacted on the ground. The dragon had a hole in it's chest, carved out with the brute force of a beam of ki. Ryoko permitted herself to open her eyes, and spotted Goku floating just behind where the dragon last stood, hand held out. Ryoko watched him point his hand towards the fallen giant, and fired a tiny bolt of energy towards the dead beast. A huge explosion overtook the 500ft long corpse, and in an instant, it was vapourised. Ryoko was barely conscious by this point, and was sent hurtling by the shockwaves that smashed into her battered body.
Ryoko returned her faltering, blurred gaze back towards the Saiyan, who was floating in mid air with a grin plastered on his face.
"Well... that was easy. Oh, hi Ryoko! Oh, erm..... sorry if I vapourised your training partner... I'm sure that when I get home I can wish him back with the Dragon Balls."
Ryoko floated down to the ground, exhausted and shocked. For once, she allowed herself to show weakness, and fainted in the gravel left by Weapon's demise.
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"$*£*!!! Something just $*£&$&* gutted the (*$£%($ Weapon!!!" Yelling, spitting his usual level of profanity, the battleworn airship pilot spun around the mercenary who just happened to be their leader.
"Huh? What the -!!!!!" Cloud cut himself off as he witnessed what he thought impossible. The supposedly unbeatable, and nigh on invincible Emerald Weapon was slain instantly by a beam a million times more intense than anything Emerald itself had ever tossed at them. The beam neatly blew a hole through the Weapon's belly, carving out a huge crater in it's chest, dripping with what Cloud believed to be whatever the Weapon had for internal organs. "How could anything as strong and powerful as Weapon be slain so quickly?-" he asked himself. "-And if it HAS been killed, WHO DID IT?!?"
"Jeez..... who did the Weapon $*£( off now? God?" Cait Sith said in a crudeness rivalling Cid's, as he watched the lumbering Weapon collapse to the floor throwing out a huge cloud of dust which obscured the view of the fallen giant.
"Reeve has a point," Cloud mused, "What exactly DID Weapon *$&£ off?"
"Maybe we oughta go back and see what's happening, hey? If Weapon's dead, then maybe-"
The second Cait Sith finished his sentence, Cloud spotted a light in the sky. To his Mako enhanced eyes, it signalled a tremendous energy source. That was NOT GOOD. "GET DOWN!!!!!!!!!!" Cloud yelled as a tiny bolt of energy, only detectable by his eyes, lanced from a nearly invisible source to the ground where Weapon now laid. Everyone dropped to the floor and watched as the bolt hit. For a moment, nothing happened. With an atmosphere of finality, time seemed to stop for the adventurers. Everyone ducked their heads into the ground, and then the explosion erupted with the brightness of a million suns. It consumed the ground and caused it to shake, hurling shrapnel away from it's zero point. Cloud threw up his Ultima sword, and most of the wind and debris hitting him ceased the second he planted the oversized sword in the ground and sat behind it. The sword itself cast a space black shadow behind it as the intensity of the light from the explosion was so great. Then, as soon as it had started, it was over. There was nothing left of Weapon. Nothing at all. Only a crater which both Weapon and the thing that had fired on Weapon had marked the landscape with.
Barret was the first to his feet. Staring over at the area where the Weapon formerly was, there was total silence. Everyone was simply mesmorised by the intensity of the proverbial fire that had claimed their nemesis. The atmosphere was thicker than neutronium. It took Red XIII to cut it.
"$*£&......" was all the usually calm creature could say. Frankly, Cloud couldn't blame him.
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"So, where da hell are we?"
Tenchi was flustered at the big black guy with a gun on his arm that was giving him his limited version of the Spanish Inquisition. So far, the conversation had consisted of the token black guy in this group of strange characters yelling repeatedly "Who da hell are you?" and "Who da hell blew up dat Weapon?" "Erm, you are at the Masaki shrine, or..... erm, at least, what's left of it after that fight."
"Where da hell is dat?"
"Barret, shut the *$&£ up you £*$(. Even to you, it should be obvious it ain't our $*(£&($ world!!!"
"HUH?!?!?!!"
Almost everyone at the table turned their heads towards Cid. "Well of course it is. There ain't no $(£&*£( Meteor floatin' in the $*£&(£& sky!! So, the question is, how the $*£( did we get here?" Cid laid back, taking another puff of his eternally present cigarette.
"I had come to the same conclusion Cid." Red XIII spoke up, pulling his head up from inbetween his paws, "This is clearly not our planet, that much is for sure. When I was with Grandpa, he occasionally spoke of alternate realities. Since I have no reason to conclude that this planet is any different from our planet, barring possibly it's continental structure and tectonics, then I must conclude that either we have travelled between TWO planets in one Universe, which share the exact star system, and exactly the same day length of a 24 hour period, or we have been transported between realities to a planet which occupies the same position as our planet in our reality."
"I concur. There does seem to be a correlation between the two planets in terms of atmosphere and in terms of day length. It would be interesting to see how life has evolved differently on this planet, which is nowhere near as industrialised as our planet." The man called Vincent seemed relaxed as he contemplated the meaning of these thoughts.
Tenchi, who was a little uneasy with these scientific lectures was glad to hear the closet door open. "I heard the use of the words "alternate reality" and I thought I might join in!!!" The pink haired mad scientist sprung across the room and sat down next to Barret, provoking a reaction from the rugged bruiser.
"Daym man, what's dis foo up to!"
"Barret, knock it off," Tifa said scoldingly.
"Naaaah, it's alright. My name's Little Washuuuu! Pleased to meet you, big guy!"
"Daym...."
"So, who are the theoretical physicists in here?"
Vincent raised his hand, and Red sat up.
"OK. Well, tell me what ya think, and I'll see what I can do to sort it."
Tenchi stood up upon hearing that. He had learned a long time ago that, unless you had an IQ of 150+, as the panther and the Goth had, with possibly the chain-smoking Cid as well, Washu's speeches were unintelligable. "Better go check on Ryoko" he thought to himself.
Politely excusing himself from the conversation, he left the panther called Red, Cid, the Goth, the ample chested Tifa, Barret and the strange looking mog thing talking to Washu and Aeka, with Sasami and Nobuyuki listening, although his father's gaze seemed to have settled on Tifa's assets. He was so embarrasing sometimes.
Making his way out of the living room, he headed towards the room where Ryoko was resting. Stopping outside the door, he wondered whether he should tell her how worried he was when Goku brought her to him. She meant the world to Tenchi, and he would make sure she got better, even if she didn't know it. Opening the door slowly, he peeked his head round the door so as not to awake her if she was asleep. Sure enough, she was fast asleep. Her gem was giving her the ability to heal the severe wounds inflicted by Weapon's single blow, but it was taking a lot out of her. She certainly wasn't going to be moving around much over the next day or two. As much as he hated to admit it, it would be nice to have calm around the house without the endless arguments between Aeka and Ryoko, but not at this price. He supressed the thought with a shudder of revulsion. Tenchi looked back to the injured cyan haired girl lay in the bed, fast asleep, lovingly surveying her soft features...
"Give you a tip, man, never let a woman do something like that, even if she nearly kills you for it. It's not always guarenteed that she will return to you safely."
"Huh?"
Tenchi turned around to see the blonde spikey-haired leader of the new arrivals leaning against the wall next to him. The muscular man seemed lost in thought, as if remembering a painful memory.
"What do you mean?"
"I see the way you look in there. You clearly feel something for her, but you haven't told her anything yet. I get the feeling she's the type that's headstrong and willing to go out of her way to do something."
"Yeah, Ryoko is a little like that. She means well though."
"Tell her before it's too late. I missed on the chance of a lifetime because I denied it for too long, and she was killed ruthlessly by a man called Sephiroth. Don't make the same mistake."
"What was her name?"
"Aerith. It's a crying shame how she died too. My deepest regret. Make sure the same doesn't happen to your Ryoko. Or, if you find it impossible to prevent, don't make her wait till her dying breath to tell her how you feel."
"Don't mind me saying this, but you don't seem like the kind of guy who would be that interested in love."
"You'd be surprised."
"Oh..."
Tenchi caught a glint of steel behind the leader's back. "Mr...?"
"Cloud. Cloud Strife."
"Mr Strife. I can see your sword. Maybe you would be interested in some sword fighting practice against my grandfather. He is an extremely proficient swordsman."
"Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather rest for a day or two. Fighting Weapon really takes it out of you."
"Grandpa is always there. Just ask, I'm sure he would be happy to spar for a while."
Cloud righted himself and made a move to head back downstairs.
"One other thing, Mr. Strife-"
Cloud turned his head.
"-If you need anything to eat, just ask Sasami."
"I will. Remember my advice kid. Do it soon."
With that, Cloud moved downstairs. Tenchi gazed once more into his sleeping beauty's face, and quietly slid the door shut.
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"Weapon certainly caused a disturbance."
"I was more than impressed by my handiwork there. I would give it a 7/10 at least."
"Only 7?"
"I have much bigger plans for these mere mortals. That Washu has no idea how hard it will get for her to return our playtoys to their original dimensions when I get involved. However, so far, we have had endless amounts of these heroes. As Jean Luc found out, for every hero, there is a villian."
"Are you planning what I think you are planning?"
Q smiled.
"No, I'm not. Our villians, when they make their entrance, will have such a big display regarding their arrival that even Microbrain would notice it. Such a display is not suited to a point so early in the game. Besides, I have yet to finish judging how the Universe deals with so many influences in one place."
"I see. So, what are you planning then? Will it be entertaining?"
"A rhetorical question."
Silence fell in the Continuum, undaunted by the thoughts of a billion omnipotent beings still drifted among it's infinite splendor.
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Well, for the very, very VERY few people that are still reading this (at least as far as the reviews go) I'm still continuing because it's great fun to write this. Please, if you read this, review it and let me know what I've done right and what I've done wrong. It's much more helpful to me to know, and I don't mind criticism if it helps me write :) The chapters should get longer from this point on, at the moment, I'm feeling my way through things, but I do know who the ultimate enemy (or should I say enemies, are going to be).
All characters from FF7 are property of Squaresoft, Toei Animation and Akira Toriyama own DBZ and all related characters. All characters from Tenchi Muyo are property of AIC and Pioneer.