Can It Get Any Worse?: Chapter 18
After the senshis' outburst, I began to do some damage control."Don't
look at me like that. I'm serious. Someone with some serious magic
power is going to be making a bid for global domination in..." I
looked to Mousse.
"Two weeks," he added helpfully.
"In two weeks. He's gonna be able to kill the world's technology with
some kind of ancient spell or something. If we get in on this, once
the world is really conquered, with lots of oppression and all the
other crap associated with someone getting their ass kicked, we can
come in with pokemon and magic blazing, take over for ourselves, and
put Usagi in power. But the clincher is that we make it look like
Usagi is liberating the world from the bad guys. That way you come
into power centuries before you're supposed to and all of Setsuna's
plans get screwed as a side bonus." I think I presented the case
rather well.
Katya laughed."Oh I just love you," she said fondly, earning a glare
from Ami. That comment was just the right catalyst to get things
moving in the proper direction.
"Who is going to try to take over the world, Ranma?" Ami asked."And
how is he going to 'kill' the world's technology?" This couldn't have
gone better if it had been scripted.
"A phoenix, a kind of really strong fire elemental really, over in
China who has the backing of the most powerful martial artists and
naturally powerful people in the world. I wouldn't say he's actually
gonna kill technology. From what Mousse says, Saffron has found some
really old artifact, probably from the Silver Millenium now that I
think about it, and that it will render all modern technology and
weapons useless." Now all I needed was for someone to ask why we
shouldn't fight against Saffron and try to stop him from disabling
technology.
Rei was kind enough to do that for me, and I didn't even have to ask.
Heh."Simple. Once Saffron is eliminated, Usagi, and the rest of us,
will have our very own army of super warriors. That can come in handy
for all kinds of things. I know with absolute certainty that about
eighty-five years from now this planet is going to be invaded by an
army of demons, demons that don't like me anymore than they do any
other human. Well, it may be ninety years. I'm not too sure, the
scrolls were badly weathered and my Chinese isn't all that great." I
wasn't even lying. An army of blood-thirsty demons really was going
to be invading. I didn't actually find out from a scroll, but you
can't go around letting people know that the Dark Prince is giving you
hints about the future.
"Wouldn't Setsuna have told us about something like that?" Minako
asked. Better and better.
Katya answered this one."My younger sister has been a bit short
sighted in a long term way. She has worried far too much about
manipulating the past in order to achieve a goal much farther into the
future than she should have strived for. The strain of that and a few
recent events have been too much for her and I'm sorry to say that
I've had to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital. With
electroshock treatments, the doctors think she'll make a full
recovery, in about a decade." Oh that was smooth, very smooth. Isn't
sisterly love wonderful?
"See, if we help take over the world now, we'll be helping to save it
and humanity in the long run. So, who's in?" I wasn't going to give
them too much time to think too carefully about this. We needed to
get to the Amazon village and consolidate our power as quickly as
possible. To top the deal off, I said,"It'd be safer for your parents
too. If they stayed here in Japan while the war is going on, they
would be in lots of danger, from starving people that can't function
without the internet and microwaves, to Jusendo death squads. If
they're in Jusendo where no one but the people on our side can go,
they'd be as safe as anyone can possibly be." Ah ha ha ha, way to go
me.
"You say that they're martial artists?" Makoto asked. She had that
look in her eye that sorta says 'I'm determined to get my way and
you'd better not try to stop me'.
I nodded."Oh yes, every single person is a martial artist of at least
world class proficiency. Shampoo, she's sorta like the princess of a
tribe of Amazon warriors. They're led by women and a lot of the
advanced martial arts I learned is Amazon in origin." Well, Sailor
Jupiter was sold.
"Jusendo is too too beautiful," Shampoo added."Always like spring
time. And womens very respected in tribe, especially sorceresses.
Sorry Shampoo's Japanese so bad," she finished with a grin.
I think that one pulled in Minako and Rei, two very strong-willed, if
a bit flightly young women."And there's lots of room for our pokemon
to roam around, too," I added. And Usagi's eyes lit up like
headlights.
Ami could read my face and feel my emotions too well for me to even
attempt to manipulate her, not to mention how smart she is. I
probably couldn't really have manipulated her no matter what our
relationship was. So, I just said to her,"This really is for the
best. Your mother being a fully trained doctor would be enough to get
her a seat on the Council of Elders. That's the women in charge." Not
that I intended to let any of them tell me what to do.
Katya once again chose to be helpful, saying,"Why don't we let the
girls talk it over amongst themselves and you and I can discuss some
business that we need to take care of?" I nodded and we left the girls
in a tight little group to convince each other that they should join
up. I gathered up Shampoo and Mousse as we headed to the kitchen.
"Ranma, we weren't really supposed to pick up anyone but you," Mousse
said, a little overwhelmed by the last few minutes of conversation and
events. I don't think either of the Amazons even noticed that their
war was being stolen right out from under them.
I shrugged."Don't worry about it, Mousse. The Council definitely
won't be displeased with you or Shampoo if you come back with not only
me, but a whole squad of sorceresses. Oh, and lots of pokemon." He
looked at me funny and I remembered that no one else even knew what
the creatures were. I guess I'd just gotten so used to them being
around that I forgot that no one else on Earth had any of
them."Pokemon are really powerful animals," I told him."I have one
that's over a hundred meters tall and breathes fire, another that can
cause earthquakes at will and is nearly indestructible, and a dragon
pokemon that I've trained to control the elements of nature. The
girls in there each have there own, none as strong as mine, but they
have more of them. Usagi has hundreds. If we really wanted to, the
senshi and I could conquer the world with just the pokemon we have."
Mousse's eyes had glazed over some and a tiny line of drool was
leaking from Shampoo's mouth. For effect, I continued,"Usagi's
pokemon are almost steadily producing eggs, so think, we could have
every Amazon in Jusendo equipped with his or her very own living
weapon." Any objections to bringing the senshi and anyone they wanted
to accompany them went right out the window with that last one. I'm
getting pretty good at this.
"There are three other senshi to consider," Katya added."Uranus and
Neptune aren't as powerful as the Inner Senshi are thanks to your
instruction, but they are a force to be reckoned with. Poor Saturn
doesn't have long to live, I fear."
Damn, I'd forgotten about those three completely."About Saturn, Katya,
I believe I can stop her health from detereorating further, but she'll
lose most of her power." I'd come up with a way to break the link
between Saturn and Silence before the incident at the mountain had
thrown us through the multiverse. Just got a little side-tracked is
all.
The Senshi of Space looked at me in confusion."Every incarnation of
Saturn always dies of a wasting sickness. How could you stop a cycle
that has continued for untold eons?" She didn't sound scornful or
unsure, just suprised and hopeful.
"You didn't know that Saturn gains her power from being directly
combined with Silence?" She shook her head dumbly."Silence is a really
powerful Infernal entity that used to go around destroying worlds, a
really, really long time ago. He disappeared, though, and then Sailor
Saturn, the Bringer of Silence appeared shortly thereafter." I had
pieced this all together on a rainy day shortly after learning of the
existance of the Outer Senshi."If I broke the link, she wouldn't be
any stronger than any of the other Outer Senshi, but she wouldn't die,
and as much as I hate to say it, if I had to choose between a year of
absolute power or a couple millenia of some power and a normal life, I
would get rid of absolute power in a heart beat."
"Well then, we'll be making a stop, you and I, by young Hotaru's home
after this meeting." Katya's voice brooked no argument.
"That's fine with me. We are probably gonna have a bunch of family
members and friends tagging along with us to China, so we should
figure out how to get them there. We could probably use the pokemon,
though it would badly exhaust them, to make the trip, but you have
that nice teleportation spell, and I only need to see it a few more
times before I can do it myself. Feel like being a mystic taxi
service?" I asked. Katya's teleportation spell wasn't just a way to
get around from place to place. If used properly, you could remove
someone's heart before they could blink or just as easily cut someone
in half with a thought and without any evidence that you caused the
death. Very versatile spell.
****
"I'm free! I'm free!" Ryoga exclaimed in joy. He wasn't wearing
anything but a tiny pair of leather briefs and a rubber hood, but he
was free."Now, Ranma and Genma Saotome, for making my life hell and
leading me into the life of a sex slave, you shall die!!!"
What Ryoga didn't know was that he was standing on the launch platform
for the Wizard of Gates' newest series of orbital laser cannons. This
one even included its very own nuclear ballistic missles. Because of
this added weight, the rocket thrusters on cargo vessel were
exceptionally large.
'5..4..3..2..1, and launch is a go!' came the voice over the
Microsoft(once known as Apple Headquarters) Space Center's speaker
system.
Ryoga looked around, finally ripping the hood from his head to
increase his periphreal vision. He seemed to notice just how unusual
his surroundings were when he felt an inordinate amount of heat coming
from above. He looked up just as the rocket engines ignited.
"I'll get yu for this, Raaannnnmm-" the scream of rage was cut off by
its source being severely overcooked.
****
Ami, being the closest to me, was chosen to act as emissary. Yeah,
way corny, but their words, not mine."We all agree that fighting with
you and Saffron, with the later intent of supplanting Saffron as ruler
would be the most beneficial for the world in general."I nodded,
grinning at her knowingly. They had all been ready to jump in a boat
and paddle to China before their little meeting."We all want to bring
our families and friends with us, though," she added. All in all, not
a very long list of demands.
"Sure, no problem. You'd all better start rounding them up. I
imagine that the friends will want to bring their families also, and
so on and so forth. If you girls want to pull this off, you'd better
get busy. Katya and I need to see about the other senshi." We were
probably going to end up with a few hundred, if not more, useless
people, but those relatively few people were being backed by serious
power. The Council would see that and not bitch or moan too much.
After some grumbling at the work ahead of them, the senshi, except for
Ami, all went to do as I had told them. I hope they didn't botch it
and get us all in trouble. My fiance(sounds nice doesn't it?) pulled
me back into the kitchen and asked,"You and that girl, Shampoo, you
two have been together, haven't you?"
That came faster than I'd expected."Yeah, but it was years ago, and
I've already made it clear to her that you and me are inseperable.
She understands. You're not jealous, are you?" Of course she was
jealous, I could feel it in her, despite her efforts to bottle the
emotion up.
She paused for a few moments and eventually nodded."I can't help it.
She's so beautiful and a powerful warrior like you." She shrugged."I
guess I'm being silly. I know that you wouldn't cheat on me, I can
'feel' it in my bones, but I still worry."
I hugged her reassuringly and whispered,"Don't worry, you're the only
one for me. Besides, Shampoo may not know it yet, but she's in love
with Mousse." I'm not sure how long I let the embrace last, but I
missed the warmth of Ami's body pressed against mine when we
separated."You should probably go and break the news to your mom.
Please try to convince her that I'm not evil." I just knew that Ms.
Mizuno was going to blame this on me, even if it was my fault.
"I should give her some time to gather any medical supplies she might
need."
I wonder how all those adults are going to feel about being railroaded
into such a drastic change of life by their children.
****
I let Katya ring the door bell at the Ten'ou home. This, apparently,
was where the rug-munching(not that I have anything against this
particular hobby, as long as the muncher and munchee are both in the
mega-attractive category) senshi, with their ward Hotaru, lived.
After a few more buzzez from the bell, the door was opened by a blue-
haired young woman who, from descriptions given by the other senshi, I
recognized as Michiru, a.k.a. Sailor Neptune.
She first saw Katya and stepped back in suprise. When she saw me she
reached her arm into another one of those spatial pockets and pulled
out a henshin rod. Damn Setsuna and her crazy, paranoid, dogfucking-
self.
Katya reached out and grabbed Michiru's arm."Hold it right there,
young lady. I don't know what my sister has told you about Ranma, but
he's on our side. Setsuna is just slightly bonkers right now and I'm
filling in for her. Won't you invite us in?"
Warily, Michiru stepped back, not turning her back to us. Once we
were in the house, I said,"I've come to cure Hotaru. She'll die
without my help." I've been playing hero a lot lately. The feeling of
accomplishment can grow on you after a while.
Hearing my claim, the Senshi of Neptune blinked and jumped slightly as
if startled by something. She still didn't look ready to trust me,
though.
"Where is the girl?" Katya asked. I have a feeling that she knew
exactly where Hotaru was, but for the life of me I can't figure out
why she asked. I sure could feel the virtual bleeding off of power
from Silence. There was a very faint undertone of another life force
going with that power. Hotaru must be fading extraordinarily fast if
I could feel her life leaving her bodily that easily.
Michiru remained silent, but she led us down a wide hallway with some
expensive looking paintings on the walls and up a spiral flight of
stairs. From the top of them we went down a dimly lit hallway to a
room located at the end of the corridor. Quietly, Michiru opened the
door and we walked into an even more dimly lit bedroom. A small, very
frail looking girl with short black hair laid in the bed, sleeping.
Her breathing was irregular and I could feel the uneven flows of
energy throughout her body. Talk about cutting it close.
"What are you going to do?" Michiru asked, breaking her silence. She
glanced worriedly at the small figure who was covered up to her neck
in thick blankets."Please don't let her die."
For all spells with patterns more complicated than the mind can safely
coordinate, what do we use? That's right, our trusty athame. In a
single motion too fast to be seen by either senshi, I drew the demon
forged blade. Michiru gasped and Katya raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Dont't worry, I'm not going to hurt her. This will help me cast the
spell that will separate her from Silence."
Katya walked Michiru over to a small couch set in the corner of the
room and firmly planted the worried woman. I began drawing symbols in
the air, some gold and some silver. All of them contained as much
power as I could concentrate through my crystals without giving any of
the senshi or Hotaru brain damage. As I continued to draw the
extremely complicated spell, forming a net of overlapping words of
power, I began chanting. The chant held no power in itself, this
spell was my own creation and I don't really like binding power into
words for it is too easy to make a costly and dangerous mistake that
way, but the chant allowed my mind to focus sharply enough to finish
the last few passes of the spell. When I had it completely patterned,
there were no distinguishable lines, just a solid mass of gold and
silver energy floating before me. This spell would have absolutely
exhausted me before aquiring my lens crystal, now though, I was only
slightly winded, and that was mostly mental fatigue.
A slight tendril of energy connecting Hotaru's soul with the spell was
all that was required to activate it. As the amassed energy, enough
to decimate Tokyo if properly used, hit the girl, she convulsed once
and was still. Michiru screamed in the background. I ignored her,
keeping my attention on my subject and making sure she didn't have an
unforseen reaction.
A minute passed, then five, ten, twenty, an hour. Then, when I was
about to give up and cancel the spell, Hotaru convulsed once more, and
from her sweat covered brow, rose a three inch high little amalgam of
insect, mud, and mucus. It floated into the air and was held tightly
in place by the containment portion of my spell.
"Release me at once, puny mortal!!!" Silence roared in a squeak barely
worthy of a mouse. Heh, life hadn't been too good for it lately,
either.
"Hey, I'm Ranma. You should really thank me for releasing you from
your prison. I believe you, too, would have died with this latest
Saturn." That was true. From the power I'd felt leaking from the
girl, I'd thought Silence was still going strong, but that obviously
had been the entity's death throws. Thirty thousand years and
numerous reincarnations had not been kind to Silence. Now free, he
was already starting to regain his power. The process would probably
take a few centuries, but I wasn't about to leave a creature like this
around that most likely held grudges and would eventually be able to
destroy the planet I lived on.
"Ha! Your primitive mind can't even begin to grasp my power! Release
me or I shall destroy you!!!" Silence squeaked again. Obnoxious
little bastard. I reached out and thumped it on the forehead. It
squeak/roared again and lashed out with a finger-sized bolt of energy
that fizzled out a foot from my face. That effort left Silence barely
substantial enough to exist.
I briefly wondered if I should keep him as a pet. A magically
modified pokeball and a few years of study and I would be able to
control the entity. That's a lot of trouble, though, so I just used
all the energy from my recently completed spell to form a barrier much
like the one I'd used to confine Setsuna when she had attacked me. I
compressed it as much as possible and fed enough raw energy into it to
keep Silence fed for a few years. When I was done there was a snow
globe sized force bubble containing what had once been one of the
deadliest beings in existance. I attached a kind of mystic note to
the sphere and chunked it through a small tear in reality that led
directly to Hell. Nicky would get a kick out of the little guy.
Teary-eyed, Michiru and Katya approached me at Hotaru's bedside. The
little girl's complextion had already improved and I could sense that
her body, as tired and worn out as it was, would make a full recovery
in time."I have the skill to fix actual injuries and cure diseases,
but Usagi is the only person I know with enough skill in white magic
to speed up the recovery process from something like this. We can
bring her by tomorrow."
Michiru nodded, looked at the floor, then rushed me. She gave me a
crushing hug of gratitude and got my shirt all wet with tears."Thank
you, oh thank you!" she cried softly. I'm not one for great big
emotional scenes, Kamis know that I have enough trouble dealing with
Ami, so I just nodded and tried out my new teleportation spell for the
first time. The hole in space deposited me in my bathtub instead of
my living room. Pretty good for a first try.
****
Author's Notes: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I managed to get this whole
chapter done in a little more than two hours! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I'm
proud of myself. Anyway, this was supposed to be posted in the morning,
also being the last chapter until thursday night at the earliest. That
changed when I came down stairs this morning and it was raining outside.
Now that my truck has been taken away from me by my bastard father, my
mother(a.k.a. supreme high super bitch) was going to drive me to my grandma's.
Well, she didn't want to get out in the rain, so I'll be stuck here. She's
made me drive to the store when there was a tropical storm floating over
the entire state and she couldn't drive me forty miles to see my old, most
likely not going to live for too many more years grandmother. It'll come
back on her one day, though, when I put her in the dirtiest, most disrepu-
table nursing home I can find(the kind that doesn't turn the old person
over but once every six months). I'm sure that no one really wants to hear
about my fucked up family, so I'll just drop the matter. All the
suggestions I get now, with the story in its present state, will help me
a bunch. Like always, send C&C to
dark_phoneix@hotmail.com