Can It Get Any Worse?: Chapter 19
I don't know how they managed to pull it off, but somehow, the senshi
convinced their parents, a large number of family members, and lots of
friends along with their families. The Outer Senshi, all orphans, and
not the most sociable of people didn't invite any friends, bringing
the number of travellers up to two hundred and sixty seven. It's an
absolute wonder that those government agent guys hadn't caught on to
the little exodus. The senshi had even kept their identities secret.
Good thing they're finally learning to do these things on their own.
The crowd milling around the Cherry Hill Park were beginning to get
anxious. I think they were told that the war would be breaking out at
any time. If Mousse's report was accurate, though, a little under a
week remained until Saffron destroyed nearly a thousand years of
civilization. A large truck, one of several that Ms. Mizuno had
bringing in all kinds of medical supplies, pulled up onto the grass
and Ami's mother stepped out of driver's cab. Where does a doctor
learn to drive a big rig?
"Ranma, if this is some practical joke, I just want you to know that
I'm going to skin you alive," Ms. Mizuno told me."Four missing
shipments of medicine and medical supplies tend to upset people.
Shouldn't we be leaving?" She's nice, in a take charge and bull your
way through everything kind of way.
"If this is a joke, you're gonna have to stand in line to take your
turn murdering me. All these people are getting restless and I can
feel the fear radiating from them. It wouldn't take much to turn them
into a lynch mob." If everything went to schedule, Katya, with
assistance from me as a power source, would be making a mass-teleport
to Shampoo's village in an hour.
Ms. Mizuno nodded and went to see about getting her stuff unloaded. I
quickly 'ported back to my apartment to see how Ami was progressing
with her computer."Well, how's it going?" I asked. She had found
information on the likely artifact that Saffron planned to use. It
was some kind alien egg modified both technologically and mystically
to hold amazingly complex and highly specific spell patterns.
Saffron's was a population control model, designed to limit the
resistance that a planet would be able to offer if a conflict ever
broke out.
"I've been able to find plans for a generator that derives a usable
electric charge from raw magic and a type of view screen that utilizes
water and refracted light over long distances. That's all in the
database from the Silver Millenium that I can build with today's level
of technical sophistication. The information from the Enterprise I
downloaded may be able to be used to work out some rudimentary energy
shields and a laser-like weapon called a phaser. I'd need to talk to
Katya about helping me locate the parts for them, though, since most
of the important components are in high security laboratories around
the globe." Wow, and all I'd wanted was a way to get controllable
electricity to power all of Ms. Mizuno's doctor crap. She'd bitched
at me about using magic, so I'd turned to her daughter for help.
I shook my head."You always do so much," I said."Come on, we'll get
you everything you need before the deadline." Ami flushed at the light
praise. I grinned at her, and arm in arm, I 'ported us to the park,
careful not to be seen by the crowd. Appearing before them out of
mid-air would be a quick way to light a short fuse.
****
"Luna, I don't think this is very wise," cautioned Artemis. The two
cats were creeping through the mists that led to the Gates of Time and
Space.
"Quit being such a scaredy cat, Artemis," Luna hissed at her
companion. "We have to find Sailor Pluto, the Time one, not that
slutty sister of hers, and get rid of Ranma. He's going to ruin
everything!" Luna could barely even bring herself to think about what
her senshi were going to help accomplish. World domination. The
phrase left a bad taste in the moon cat's mouth. She should have seen
through that girl disguise. This was all her fault. She had to fix
it.
"I know that, Luna," snapped Artemis."I'm not a total fool. I just
don't think we should try to use the Gate. Neither one of us has the
proper magic or expertise to do it, so why even try? What happens if
we get sent into sapce, or back into a past where dinosaurs still
lived? The mosquitos back then were bigger than we are now. The
mosquitos! Think about the giant reptiles that could step on us!"
Luna smacked Artemis in the face with her tail and proceeded to ignore
his babbling. She'd been around Usagi long enough to be able to
completely blank her mind from such annoying chatter."How hard can it
be? I'll figure it out and send you through to rescue Setsuna."
Artemis looked at Luna like she was insane."No," he said firmly."I am
not going to let 'you' play with the controls and have 'me' end up
with the consequences. You figure out how to work it and I'll send
you through."
"Fine then, if you want to be such a pussy, I won't stop you."
****
"No," I repeated, not intending to do so again,"you can not take your
car, Mrs. Tsuniko. I know that it was expensive and that you love it.
I also know that it will be a useless scrap of metal in less than a
week. Don't you have some furniture or family heirlooms you would
rather take? Tools would be good. You should spend any money that
you have saved up, too. It won't be good any longer than the car
will." I didn't leave the woman any room to object.
People had sold property, liquidated assets, and cleaned out bank
accounts, using the money to buy all kinds of things, from crates of
toilet paper to truck loads of food. Every time I think about it, I
can't figure out how the senshi managed to convince so many people to
come with us. Oh well, with five minutes till departure, there wasn't
time for anyone to back out and get their stuff back. I had
reluctantly agreed to bring back anyone that changed their mind once
we were in China. Then those that still had unfinished business
wanted to come. Before I knew it, I had three short trips back to
Japan scheduled in the next few days.
Usagi's mom walked over to where her family, sans Usagi, had made
themselves comfortable. Mr. Tsuniko had taken my words to heart and
purchased some high quality hand tools and lots of lumber. There was
also a very large manually powered ice cream churn in their
belongings. Usagi's influence, without a doubt.
Shingo, Usagi's little brother, was having a quiet conversation with
the baby Charmander that the White Sorcerress had given him. Unless
you looked closely, it would look like he was talking to a doll. I
was already starting preliminary plans to begin teaming up the younger
children with pokemon. That way, by the time they were old enough to
fight, they would be able to go into battle with the powerful
creatures.
I felt Katya's presence appear next to me suddenly and refrained from
spinning around to confront her. Damnit, if someone saw her do that,
we would have a riot on our hands."Don't worry, Ranma, I made sure no
one was looking in this direction," she said.
"You ready?" I asked her. I was beginning to grasp the more intricate
levels of the teleportation spell I'd picked up from the Space Senshi,
but my control wasn't good enough that I would trust myself with so
many people and material over such a long distance. Katya was going
to be getting a lot of energy crammed into her for this, though, and I
didn't want her to lose control either.
She shrugged."Sure. I've already scouted the area out. I'm just
going to pull the whole park area out and replace it with a section of
open ground near the east end of the village. That place isn't really
a village, you know," she said, referring to the Amazon village."There
are several thousand people staying there and it has grown noticeably
since last week. It's more of a city."
The village never had been much of a village, but now with war
preparations being made, I imagine the place would be swelling up
pretty quickly. Good thing we were marking out our little piece
early. "Wouldn't it be easier to just move the people and stuff?" I
asked. I certainly wouldn't want to attempt to move that much matter.
Katya grinned at me."You just stick to your side of the job and I'll
worry about mine. I've been manipulating space for thousands of
years. With you to back me, I could probably move the moon." I don't
want to think about what kind of trouble 'that' action would cause.
After a few placating gestures, I said,"Whatever. I'm gonna go make
sure the senshi are in place." I was worried more about the Outer
Senshi. Haruka was a belligerent bitch that needed her ass kicked,
and I'm sure I'll be doing the honors sometime in the next few days.
She would disobey orders meant for the safety of others just to
aggravate me. Michiru and Hotaru were much too happy with me to be
anything but perfectly agreeable.
Hotaru was a real suprise. Though her power was nowhere near what it
had been when she had imprisoned Silence, for a mana-bound individual,
the girl was extraordinary. When she fully matured, she would be
nearly as strong as my senshi, and she hasn't got a bit of the Talent
for magic in her. I'd also took the time and effort to study her
glaive. It acted like a very weak version of my lens crystal,
amplifying the senshi's power by about fifteen percent, but the main
enchantment was something I suspect Katya was responsible for. The
blade of the glaive encased slightly warped space, giving it a cutting
edge that would shear through all but the most powerful of barrier
spells. The girl would need proper training from the Amazons to use
it effectively. She's young, she'll learn.
"Hey, Ranma!" Hotaru called to me, waving enthusiastically. She was
already in her altered senshi state. I couldn't stand to leave the
Outers looking like they did while my senshi looked so much cooler.
No one seemed to realize that a senshi stood in their midst, assuming
she was just a little girl dressed up like her favorite heroes.
"Hey, Hotaru. Do you remember what you're supposed to do?" Her and
the other senshi would form a protective ring around the entire park
once it was transported. They'd keep any overzealous Amazons from
harming anyone while I explained the situation to the Elders. I
probably should have done so earlier, but I didn't want to give them
even the smallest chance to object. With nearly three hundred people
on your door step, most of them loaded down with supplies and other
useful items, it can be hard to turn them away.
"Uh huh," she said, nodding to emphasize her response."I'm supposed to
keep any Amazons from hurting anyone here. I shouldn't kill anyone
either, right?" Hotaru was of the same mindset as me on the subject of
killing. If you've gotta do it, do it and don't regret it, but if it
can be avoided, do that. An extreme view for a twelve year old kid, I
know, yet a useful rule to live by.
"That's right," I answered."And try not to hurt any of the Amazons in
a fight or they may try to kill you, no matter what." Oh...shit!"Um,
gotta go, Hotaru. I'm counting on you." How could I have neglected
that little fact. It would be just like Haruka to get a few score
Amazons after her head.
****
Kasumi glanced up from washing the dishes as the overhead fluorescent
lights in the kitchen momentarily flickered and dimmed."Oh my," she
said to herself. Akane must be trying to hardwire her mechanical bull
directly into the Nerima electrical grid again.
Kasumi was about to search out her youngest sister when Nabiki walked
into the kitchen, She was wearing a pair of shades and had her purse
slung negligently over her shoulder."Hey, Kasumi, I'm going to take a
quick trip to the store to pick up a few cases of emergency batteries
encase Akane screws the transformers up again. Are there any
particular sizes that you need?"
Kasumi frowned in concentration."Well, a few of the twelve volts
wouldn't hurt and we never did get the large car battery recharged for
'Big Paul' after Akane's last power outage." She couldn't think of
anything at first."You are going to get plenty of D cells?"
Nabiki nodded and looked at her sister like she was stupid."The
charger is out in the tool shed. You should probably take care of
'Big Paul' before Akane shorts out the entire district."
Akane hadn't been the same since Ryoga's unfortunate misplacement,
none of them had, but the youngest Tendo had taken the absence of her
playmate especially hard. The electric bill had more than trippled in
the last two weeks. Nabiki was already whoring herself out to three
of the richest men in Tokyo. If things kept up at their present rate,
she would soon be working for a couple women too.
****
The sense of disorientation was stronger with this 'port. Must have
something to do with the size of the load. I didn't wait for anyone
to get themselves killed, taking to the air and heading straight for
the Council building. Amazons were already beginning to notice the
new Jusendo Park and the outcry soon went out for the warriors to
assemble. News travels fast.
The 'village' had indeed grown. It had done more than grown. The
Amazons now occupied about ten times more space than during my
previous visit nearly three years earlier. The Council building
hadn't moved, though, and I slipped through its wards easily, wards
that I myself had placed to protect the building. No one had even
looked up, so excited were the Amazons by the park appearing, so my
arrival went unnoticed.
Heavy wooden doors swung open easily and I stepped into the single
roomed building. Back against the far wall, a large, slightly
concave, polished ebony wood table supported by three stone pedestals.
Behind the table, where normally a dozen ancient Amazon women, and in
time of trouble twice that many, were fifteen young women no younger
than Ami and no older than me. Um, I don't know all the Amazon laws
of etiquet, but I do know that these ladies would be in major trouble
if they were caught in here.
Being such a kind gentleman, I cautioned,"If the Elders catch you in
here, heads are going to roll." If they didn't understand Japanese
that was their problem, at least I was taking the trouble to warn
them.
"Has it been so long that you don't recognize me, Ranma?" the black-
haired, attractive Amazon sitting in Cologne's Matriarchal position
asked. There was a strong resembalance to Shampoo. Her Japanese was
excellant. Cousin, maybe?
I shook my head. I don't think I slept with her, no, I know I didn't.
There was only Shampoo and that Lotion chick."I'm afraid that you have
me at a disadvantage..." I prompted. They were all grinning at me
mischeviously. Sigh. Ami isn't going to like it here, I'm afraid,
even if women are in charge.
"Why, Ranma, I'm your old friend Cologne," the girl demurred.
"Damnit, quit fooling around," I snapped."I need to speak with the
Elders before some friends I brought with me start blasting Amazons
into atoms." I hadn't heard any explosions or screams of pain, yet.
The senshi were completely capable of killing silently, so you see,
that wasn't much of a reassurance.
The girl claiming to be Cologne sat up straighter in her chair and her
eyes narrowed."Ranma, what are you talking about?" she asked, her tone
commanding.
Screw it. I walked over to the table and teleported, switching myself
into the girl's place and setting her, chair and all, on the other
side of the table. I ignored the gasps and looked at the black-haired
girl. "Little girl, if any of my friends are hurt because you're
trying to have some fun, there won't be enough of you left for the
real Cologne to get her hands on." The other girls were trying to move
now, trying but not succeeding. By force of will, I was holding them
in their padded stone chairs. I had to increase the force, though, as
they began applying impressive amounts of chi force. These weren't
average Amazons, that's for sure.
Cologne-wannabe sighed and said,"I really am Cologne, you fool. These
other ladies are the Coucil of Elders. We used the water from
Jusenkyo to regain our youth in order to better lead our tribe in the
coming war." That 'was' possible, but I knew that using Jusenkyo in
such a way was terribly taboo for the Amazons. She sounded sincere.
Not about to take any chances, I scanned the so-called Elders with chi
and mystical senses. Oops.
When next I spoke it was from the original side of the table, with
Cologne in her proper place and the other Elders not glued to their
seat."Sorry. How was I supposed to know? By the way, Cologne, you're
pretty hot." Dumb look."That means you're very attractive. Now that
the formalities are over, get your unwrinkled ass out here and help me
calm everyone down."
I didn't wait to see if I was followed. By the time the not so old
Elders piled through the double doors of the Council building, I was
hovering twenty feet in the air with my arms crossed. I said,"I hope
you ladies can keep up with me." I could have levitated them with me.
I didn't because I figured that the Elders should get to use the
bodies they had traded in their old ones for.
****
Much to my suprise, not so much as a punch or fireball had been thrown
in my absence. I found Shampoo, a broad smile plastered across her
pretty face, introducing the senshi to her fellow warriors. The
Elders had made good time and arrived, panting, less than a minute
after me.
"It seems that your fears were unfounded," Cologne said. She was the
only one of the Elders that showed no visible strain. All of them
were used to bodies that required less energy and weren't properly
managing their chi flows to enhance them. Cologne was the exception,
not that I expected anything less from the ancient troll.
"Yeah, I guess." Better to be safe than sorry, or so the saying goes.
People were wandering around the edges of the teleported park, clearly
afraid to go much farther, but still curious about their new
surroundings. Katya, bless her heart(that's just a saying, I don't
give blessings), had volunteered to get the refugees situated
properly. I never have been much of a people person.
"They are not fighters," Colonge said bluntly. After a pause she
continued,"Oh, I see. Fellow sorceresses?" For someone with none of
the Talent, Cologne was amazingly sensitive to it.
"Yep, my students actually. They're each class-bound, white, fire,
air, etc...One of them is even the future ruler of the world." I was
saving Ami for when the eventual attempted seduction came, as I knew
it would.
Cologne looked at me blankly, a gesture copied by the other
Elders."Oh, I didn't tell you?" They all shook their heads."Well, it
goes like this. Saffron doesn't sound like the kind of guy I could be
around without gutting, so I'm just gonna kill him when this is all
over and put Princess Usagi on the throne as ruler of the world.
She's a reincarnated princess from the Silver Millenium, that was a
long time ago, and really easy to maniuplate, if you know how." Ice
cream."Isn't that great?"
****
Author's Notes: I know I skipped a lot of stuff involved with getting
everyone together, but I'm eager to get to the actual taking over of
the world part of the story, and I'm sure you all are too, so don't
get too uspet with this chapter. How should the Elders react to
Ranma's little announcement? Better yet, how many of them will have
to be eliminated to get the point across? Next chapter Cologne is
gonna find out who the senshi are, too, and we might even see Saffron,
not that I'm going to let him know about the senshi yet.
I want to have lots of supernatural resistance from around the world,
but I don't know most of the good comics or animes that I could use
characters from. I'd greatly appreciate suggestions for these people.
Please include the series they're from, a short personality
description, and a bio with powers listed and stuff. Like I did with
Power and Responsibility(I really do plan on continuing that,
eventually) I'll even accept original characters if they're good. It
doesn't matter wether they're good or evil, demonic or angelic, just
which side they fight on. Thanks!
Everyone who contributes stuff I use will get full credit for it.
Send them and C&C to dark_phoneix@hotmail.com