Author's note: One long chapter, coming right up! This is to make up for the lack of updates I've given this story. I'm so sorry, everyone! Enjoy!
XIV: No Need for Pandemonium!
The empty pocket of space that was known only as the Drift was in fact an area devoid of anything, save for darkness and a large planet that technically should not have existed at all.
"What the--!" blurted Washu as she caught sight of the bizarre world. "What in the universe is goin' on?! That can't be right! A planet just doesn't float in the middle of space! It has to have a star to orbit! This planet is a scientific impossibility!!!"
"And yet there it is," muttered Nanette as she too got a good look at the cold, gray world. "It doesn't have a sun or anything--it's just sitting there. I don't know much about astronomy myself, but I'd have to agree with Washu. I don't know how that thing's supporting itself."
"Harut is just one of those worlds that makes no sense," muttered Mabel lazily. "I've seen lots of other planets that would make everyone here piss in their pants, and I mean everyone. I even visited this one world where the species changes every so often."
"The whaaaaaaaaaaat???" yelled Washu. Mabel smiled faintly.
"Oh yeah. It's called Chimera. Some atmospheric disturbance about a thousand years ago affected the planet, so much so that all native beings on the world change species every hundred or so days."
"But that's literally impossible!!" screamed poor Washu. "I don't care where you're from--"
"You want proof?" Silence.
"…No. Thanks."
"I thought so. Anyway, Harut's just another one of those worlds that defies logic and explanation. It's just there. Now get over the shock and land already. The quicker we land and kill this whatever demon, the quicker we can leave."
"I'm with you, lady!" muttered Kiyone. "This doesn't exactly look like the best place to have a vacation."
"I've seen worse," muttered the one-eyed former bounty hunter. Almost everyone gave her an extremely doubtful look, especially Washu, but the dark-haired woman only laughed. "I've been around some of the weirdest places in my galaxy," she claimed. "Harut really isn't that bad--although I definitely won't enjoy myself here. Let's just land for now, all right?" Silence. Kiyone took a deep breath and hoped that she, and everyone else, knew what they were doing. As Yagami started its landing procedure, Tenchi uttered the one sentiment that had been on everyone's mind ever since the foreboding world came into view.
"…I have a very bad feeling about all this."
If a person could touch down in Hell and actually stay sane long enough to describe it, then perhaps the best comparison to such a place would be Harut. The entire planet looked something like the moon of Earth, except that its shade was considerably darker and by no means beautiful. It bore thousands of craters, many of them quite large and heavy, and was as desolate and deserted as the aforementioned satellite. There was a breathable atmosphere, and the temperature was surprisingly warm, but with no sign of life other than the persons who had emerged from Yagami, everything else seemed haunting and horrifying. The place stunk of a powerful evil.
"Never thought I'd be here again," muttered Joshua as he put some fighting gloves on. Nanette had learned that her only love interest had trained under one of the top hundred martial artists in his galaxy, which would not only account for his skill, but his strength as well. His sister was the same, except that while Joshua was a fraction stronger, she was a fraction faster. When combined, the twins were literally unstoppable, but to hear them fret over a planet like Harut made even Christina feel uneasy.
"Ugh, looks like Tenchi's house after Ayeka and I had a big fight," she muttered. Nobody made any comment, positive or negative, except for continued silence and vigilance. Tenchi's previous sentiment was repeated at least three more times in the span of a single hour.
For the most part, the large traveling party wandered through the scarred wastes of Harut with nothing to show except for some footprints in the dust. Even Sasami and the two cabbits were involved in the search, because as Mabel had commented before, "We're gonna need all the help we can get." The ship, she reasoned, was expendable, but their lives were not. Both cabbits could transform into powerful spaceships and could thus tip the scales in favor of the travelers, so even they would have a use. Not a single person stayed behind to guard Yagami, not even Mihoshi.
Though Kiyone was starting to wish that she had.
"I'm scared!!" bawled the GP officer. Eyes rolled at the pathetic young woman.
"Mihoshi, you are embarrassing me!" hissed Kiyone through clenched teeth--though even she had to admit that she knew how Mihoshi felt. Although the blonde officer was a bit on the annoying side, she was also the only person who really expressed what everyone else was feeling. Even Christina looked ready to faint, and she had seen things that would make rocks break out in a sweat.
And then…
"AAH!! Behind us!!" The screamer was unimportant; the monster wasn't. Everyone turned around and saw a vicious creature that looked like a headless Sphinx fly towards them, and the situation grew worse as another demon came in from the other side. Indescribable horrors suddenly surrounded them from all sides, and battle stations were drawn up as quickly as possible. For the first time ever, Christina and Nanette fought in cooperation and not against each other, and Ayeka and Tenchi joined them to complete the powerful quartet. However, nobody else seemed affected by the monsters.
"Help us!" screamed Ayeka. The Gentlemanly Gambler, Diamond "Ace" Spadehart, chuckled politely and removed several dice from his jacket.
"Please stand back," he said calmly. "I shall dispose of them." The three women and Tenchi each gave the gambler a look so doubtful that their faces paled, but Delilah insisted that what her fiancé said was true, so they ran and rejoined everyone else. As calmly as a spring day, Ace chucked his dice at the monsters, and to the disbelief of the four close friends, each six-sided cube exploded in a massive ball of fire!!
"Yieeeee!!!!"
"Just in case I run into any cheaters," said Ace smugly. Everyone smiled at him like he did that sort of thing all the time, which left Tenchi and his entourage all the more puzzled.
"No time for questions!" shouted Kiyone as she pointed her gun. "We've got a whole bunch of them coming in at 7:00!"
"And two big ones at eleven and one!" shouted Washu. The gang was once again surrounded by a hoard of monstrous creatures: smaller winged ones from behind, and two colossal creatures ahead. The GP officers and everyone else with projectile weapons took the flying critters, while the Fionn twins smiled at each other as they confronted the two behemoths.
"It sure has been awhile since we fought together!" remarked Joshua. His sister heartily agreed.
"For real! I only hope that these two beasts are worth our time!" Before Tenchi could turn around and demand a sanity check from the twins, they both bum-rushed each gigantic monster and slammed their powerful fists into their bellies. The beasts keeled over from such massive attacks, and together, the brother and sister duo literally threw the huge monsters at least ten meters away!!!
"Aww, that was too easy!" moaned Joshua. "Man!! I was hoping for a good fight!"
"We could sure use some help over here!!" screamed Kiyone as she continued to blast at the flying creatures. Christina was firing shot after shot from her hands and Nanette was doing the same, so between the sisters, many winged demons fell down to the ground in a dead heap--yet more came in to replace them. Washu, as always, had a plan to get rid of the pests.
"Stand back," she warned as she tucked her hand in her bag. The faint smile of a mad genius told everyone that they should run for their very lives, and run they did. Washu then pulled out what looked to be a spherical object no bigger than a pea, this time making everyone save Tenchi's friends puzzled.
"Surely the lady jests!" gawked Delilah. "I durst not judge the size of an object, but this time I may make an exception! Tis' but a marble she uses against an army!"
"That may be all she needs," muttered Tenchi dreadfully. "Remember, this is Washu we're talking about." Poor Delilah, who didn't know the redheaded maniac that well, merely gave the boy a doubtful look before ducking behind a large boulder. In the meantime, Washu had loaded the pea in a shooter, and was ready to…… "attack".
"Take THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed as she fired the tiny object. Everyone braced themselves for an inevitable explosion, but to their extreme shock, the weapon only flew and smacked up against a creature, stinging it but otherwise leaving it unharmed! As the pea flew uselessly to the floor, so too did everyone else in a faint of surprise.
"Whaaaat?" sang Washu. "It's nothing more than a pea! Did you think it was some kind of super-explosive or something?" Again, everyone fell to the floor in a horrified heap, but somehow managed to get up and express their feelings to the genius.
"YOU IDOIOT!!!!!!!! You mean to tell us that that was just a--" Before Christina could complete her tirade, a sudden wall of horrifying heat belched out of the earth, incinerating every single last flying creature within distance! The only thing remaining were ashes, a few echoing screams, and Washu's maniacal laughter.
"……Because if you did think that it was a super powerful explosion, then you'd be RIGHT!!!!!" The entire gang fell to the floor yet again in a surprised and stupefied heap…
But soon, the monsters stopped being so easy. Not only did they increase in extreme difficulty (thus sickeningly granting Joshua's wish), but also in number, so much so that even the weakest of them now became a challenge. The Fionn twins had to fight like their lives suddenly depended on it against the more difficult demons, whereas Sasami, the cabbits, and Washu each did their best against the impossible numbers. Mihoshi's dumb luck got her far, as did Kiyone's crack shot, but perhaps even a hundred GP officers would seem too little an army to fight all the demons.
Delilah's new partner, a magnificent and regal griffin she had named Arc, was partially responsible for slaying the more vicious creatures; she herself dealt with smaller beasts. Her future husband had as many tricks up his sleeve as any real gambler did, from razor-tipped throwing cards to darts infused with magical powers, and even a roulette wheel with a razor ring around it. His supply of exploding dice handled many of the groups of enemies, and when things got especially rough, Ace pulled out his dreaded One-Armed Bandit.
"Place your bets," he sneered with cruel satisfaction. The charmer of Lady Luck always got a nasty combination whenever he pulled on the lever, which was good for the team and bad for the demons. Of course, Tenchi, Christina, Nanette, and Ayeka didn't just stand by and watch either. The only male of the group had his sword that bore his name, and many a monster fell to the power of the Jurai weapon.
Ayeka, a surprising master of the naginata, slew just as many enemies as Tenchi did, and Christina had to admit that the princess looked awfully regal when she was in the midst of a battle. The loveable duo of Azaka and Kamidake used their guardian's powers to blow away any enemy that got too close, and of course, the twin sisters slashed apart many beasts. Yet for all their fighting, the large group could barely hold their own against such a massive onslaught of demons.
"I told you this was a bad idea!!" screamed Mabel over the chaos. Her brother heartily agreed and smashed the skull of a dragon with his powerful attack.
"Yeah! A little too late now!!"
"It's a shame all our other friends are absent!" remarked Ace as he dealt another deck. "Even if your sister and her friends were here, we would not have any problems!"
"Yeah?! Well, we're improvising now!" Ace pursed his lips and concentrated more on the battle and less on wishful thinking. He did, after all, have a wife-to-be to think about, and what kind of a gentleman would he be if she got hurt?
"This is insanity!" screamed Ayeka as she sliced apart another goblin. "Where are all these beasts coming from??"
"If I knew, I'd blow it up!!" swore Christina, who was manhandling a Cyclops with her sister. Ayeka agreed with her friend and returned her focus to battling. Suddenly, as Washu threw another acid-filled test tube at the enemies, she came up with an idea.
"Hey! I've got an idea! Why don't the four of you go off and find Pandemonium!!"
"What?!" screamed Tenchi (he had to, considering the melee). "We can't just leave you guys here!!"
"If you take out the source then the others will die out!" suggested the scientist. "I don't know if that's true or not but I'm willing to take a gamble!"
"I'll support you!!" volunteered Ace. Washu grinned at the sophisticated joke he made, and whacked an enemy with the back of her fist without moving anything save her arm.
"Worry not about ourselves!!" shouted Delilah. "I assure thee, mine friends, that I alone hath faced foes far worse than these present, though mayhaps not in quite so many numbers! Go, prithee! We shalt handle the lion's share of foes! Thou shouldst make haste to the king and rob him of his crown!!" A pause.
"Huh?"
"JUST GO, YOU NIMRODS!!!!!" screamed Mabel and Joshua simultaneously. The male of the two gave Nanette an assuring smile and a hearty thumbs-up.
"We'll be okay!" he said. "Mabel and I grew up in a rough neighborhood, so this is nothing for us! Remember, we helped slaughter the infamous Blackrose pirates!!" Nanette took in a deep breath, gnawed on her lower lip, and nodded fiercely.
"All right!" she shouted. "We're going! And if any of you die on us, then I'll never forgive you!" Washu agreed, somewhat.
"Right! Sure! Fine! Whatever! Go! Get! Scramble! Skidaddle!!" And just like that, the quartet of Tenchi, Ayeka, Christina, and Nanette sprinted off to where they thought the master demon was--though to be honest, they didn't have any idea as to where they were going.
"Good," sighed Washu as she saw them leaving. "Now, maybe we can fight these beasts with a little less restraint…!"
"You were holding back?!" sputtered Kiyone. Washu gave the officer an impish smile and winked her twinkling eyes.
"But of course, m'dear!" The officer rolled her eyes.
"Ho, boy……"
The run to Pandemonium's lair was quite possibly the most horrifying experience that Tenchi or anyone else had went through. Unlike the mediocre ferocity of the previous melee, the monsters and demons that sailed past the foursome were more vicious and deadly than the imagination allowed. Tenchi actually decided to fight one of the bigger ones that was blocking his way, but found the creature's skin to be so thick that even his sword could do little to penetrate it.
"Just run!!" screamed Christina as she yanked on her love's arm. Tenchi heartily agreed and sprinted as fast as humanly possible away from the giant. It seemed as if the entire planet was screaming at them, for the army of demonic creatures multiplied the further they ran. Most of them thankfully ignored the three girls and one man, as their destination was the battle, but a few of the nastier ones decided to stop on by for a little pre-battle scrap.
"You sick freak!!!" shouted Nanette as she snarled at the three-headed dragon currently blocking her way. "You wanna fight? You wanna fight??! Then you're gonna GET a fight!!!!" With a simple war-cry of Death, Nanette rushed the being and plunged her sword deep into the creature's backside, piercing its heart, spine, and everywhere else in between. The sword came out dripping with goo; Nanette snarled as she kicked the creature away.
"Who else wants some?!" she challenged. A hippogriff answered her call for bloodlust with a battle-cry of its own, but this one was dealt with by Christina's own rage. Yet even with such powerful feats of anger and strength, the hordes of monsters never stopped coming, which left the group little choice but to--
"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!" What seemed to be the granddaddy of all Horrors had emerged from the bowels of the planet as soon as the foursome thought themselves safe, and while the black monstrosity looked insanely powerful, it didn't notice the four insignificant creatures scurrying beneath it.
"Don't need to tell me twice!!" yelled Tenchi, and the four friends dashed onward, to an area where they hoped Pandemonium would be--or else just another nest of indescribable creatures. Either way, it was going to be one wild show.
After nearly killing themselves just from the frantic run, the four friends stopped near a cave to rest themselves up. Even the most physically-fit of the group was heaving like all get-out, which meant that Tenchi and Ayeka looked ready to pass out. The wounds they had received from such a mad dash were unimportant, and would probably heal by themselves within a couple of days--if they survived that long.
The cave they were resting by, meanwhile, was looking more and more suspicious by the minute. Not only did everyone present feel the chill that came out of its mouth, but they also sensed their own horror as they stared at the maw. Four throats swallowed down four wads of nervous anticipation, but it seemed as if the bulk of the planet's evil was emanating from this opening.
"Hey, guys," whispered Christina, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I daren't ask what you're thinking," muttered Ayeka.
"Ha, ha. I'm serious. How much you wanna bet that our dragon's in that cave?"
"I'd say, all the money I have," said Nanette. "All we need is a damsel in distress now, and a dashing knight to charge in and slay the beast."
"Here's the damsel," said Christina, giving Ayeka a shove. Her shove was then aimed at Tenchi. "And here's the knight." Neither the "damsel" nor the "knight" had any comment for Christina, but it was agreed that the four of them should at least investigate the cave. Even if it led to nowhere, it would be one less place that they had looked, and besides, the place was completely monster-free.
But an area lacking monsters can still be frightening, as was the case of the innards of the cave. The place was a whole new definition of dark, and it was just as cold as well. It was wet in some places and the silence was so overwhelming that the sound of their hearts beating was like listening to four bass drums going off. Light was forbidden in the place, but Nanette and Christina were always up for breaking taboos, and thus two illuminating torches came from their respective weapons. Emptiness.
"I don't want to sound like a coward, but I hope that we're the only ones in this cave," groaned Tenchi. Nobody blamed him for his fear, or for his wish. Then again, even the presence of the smallest critter would have brought some comfort, but the place was devoid of even bats--even insects! Tenchi and his female comrades were literally the only living creatures in that whole cave, and that was just another part of their fear.
So, it was quite acceptable that the four of them held each other's hands, with the girls going for Tenchi and Nanette going for her sister. Even the two former rogues had to admit that the place was creepy, and Ayeka, who had seen the bulk of the universe, was very near being petrified. Poor Earthbound Tenchi had his eyes open and ready, watching for anything that came out, but nothing emerged except the cave's own darkness.
Surprisingly, a light became visible to the four friends when they neared the end of the cave. Seeing the glowing ahead of them, the four rushed to it as quickly as possible, concluding that there was nothing in the cave except for their own selves. However, by the time they emerged from the cavernous hole, they encountered not a comforting beacon of hope, nor did they discover a radiant illumination in front of them. Instead, they met the very abomination in which they had been seeking, right there outside the cave's exit, apparently waiting for them to emerge. With but one single dull roar, Pandemonium was able to make even Christina's heart skip a terrifying beat.
Poor Tenchi, completely stupefied by the sudden appearance of the beast, gave the pure-white creature a smile so weak and watery that it was very well eligible for a record.
"…Uhh… hehehe… I think we found our dragon…" he muttered. The abominable monster before them growled again, spewing out smoke from its nostrils as it glared at the foursome. It was ten times more hideous in person than it had been on Washu's computer, and a thousand times deadlier. The monster was completely white, all over its body, even on the belly and the throat. This was not a pure sort of white, but a kind of grayish hue, suggesting an adulteration in the omnicolor.
The creature itself was actually smaller than Yagami, but it was still a large beast. It had a single ivory head with a mouth full of teeth, with four aqua eyes, long whiskers, and a foul smoke from its nostrils. It had four arms in the front and four in the back, with six dragon wings spread or folded on its back. The creature had ten horns on its head, and two massive tails, and gave off a kind of aura that had yet to gain a description. The creature was horror and terror personified--or, to be more precise, it was the living, breathing definition of pandemonium.
And it had not even moved yet.
"Is this…… the dragon?" hissed Nanette fearfully. The horror in her voice sounded unnatural, but given the scenario, it was perfectly acceptable to be scared. Not even Kagato could've stood up to the thing without soiling himself, and perhaps only the fanatical assassin Fumus Adhvanit could have really bore the monster's stare. To make things worse, the beast actually had the gift of speech, and what it said did anything but comfort the four heroes.
"What art thou, who so dareth to stain this planet with thy presence?" The creature's voice was incredibly dark and gravelly, and had a kind of slurping sound to it as well--like a gigantic cheese shredder scraping up against concrete in a very dark bass tone. Tenchi's reply, on the other hand, was anything but bold.
"………Uh…… we, uhhh……"
"Thou shalt die," addressed the monster in its dark, gravelly voice. It lumbered forward with a single step, and swiped at the four heroes with its two massive tails. The power in one of those appendages was strong enough to turn Yagami into a pile of scrap, but the four friends luckily avoided both blows. As Nanette and Christina landed from their high leap, they snarled at the dragon and found their backbone.
"Do you remember the name of Stohk, dragon?!" snarled Nanette. "What about Tg? Huh? Answer us!!"
"Those names were but insignificant tallies in mine great list of conquered worlds," growled the dragon. "Prithee, wherefore dost thou inquire about such a repulsively dull name and place?"
"We are the last two survivors of that family name!!" shouted Christina. "You destroyed our home, you sick freak!! You laid waste to the only thing we've ever really had in this life!! Our family, our home, our people…… They're all gone, thanks to you!!!"
"Thou art mistaken, woman!" grunted the dragon. "I did little but spurn the people into war. These citizens of thine home planet could have presented such destruction themselves. My own self is naught to blame, fool; rather, aim thy judgment on others, as tis' their own wrongdoings which wrought thy world asunder."
"You malevolent, spiteful, malicious worm!!" shouted Ayeka. "It is true that these people were spurned into a war, but who do you think convinced them to go through with it! You! And who was it that killed the parents of my two dear friends here?"
"Myself," admitted the dragon darkly. "Thou tellest the truth when thou accuseth me of slaughtering thine kin. Tis' also true that perhaps a war would not have occurred had mine presence not been there! Yet, tis' also not the fault of thine people that thy world is crumbled?"
"I'm getting sick of your mouth!!" shouted Nanette, igniting her weapon to its fullest power. "I don't even care about that stupid war! I'm just gonna kill you cuz' you were the one who robbed me of a decent childhood! Do you see these two other women here?! They are the closest people to me, and yet when I first met them, I was their mortal enemy! If you had not existed, then maybe I would've had the chance to really know and love them, as it should have been!!! But now……" Nanette's ferocity had accelerated beyond even what she had possessed during her long stint as Nagi, and the rage that this woman bore was equivalent to that of an erupting volcano. Christina, however, was worse.
"Don't expect me to leave you alive, either!!" she roared, igniting her own weapon. "I have lost a family, a home, and a thousand other possibilities because of one stupid event that happened when I was born! I was forced to live on the street as a beggar because my original home was destroyed, and…… and…… I ended up fighting my own sister, and over what?!?! Some stupid space pirate and bounty hunter business?!?" With a sudden animalistic cry, Fatima Christina Marcella Stohk released every last ounce of pent-up rage she had kept bubbled up, and screamed out the name of her former mortal enemy.
"Nagi!!!!!!" Tears came to her eyes as a sudden silence fell on her, and the woman formerly known as Ryoko smiled. "…I love you, Nanette…"
"And I love you, my dear sister…" Nanette's own smile was strong, but Pandemonium wasn't buying their emotional moment.
"Waste not mine time, fools! Mine own powers art far superior to anything thou canst ever conceiveth! With but a single breath, I may slay countless lives, or else use this power to rip entire worlds to ashes! Yet I choose not to utilize such terror, as it is more beneficial to enlist others to mine diabolical cause! …So, do not think that thy battle-cries shalt save thee. They that challenge Pandemonium DIE."
"Then we will most certainly be an exception!" stated Ayeka boldly. Her naginata had been replaced by a laser sword very similar to her comrades', and though on the outside she always wore the guise of a princess, inwardly she was a ferocious tigress (Christina could vouch for that easily), and her skills in battle were surprising.
"I, as Princess of Jurai, do solemnly swear, on my own royal blood if need be, that you shall not live to see another life wasted! Prepare yourself for the merciless claw of Death, old roach, and may it be a painful one!"
"I'm not one for speeches!" shouted Tenchi suddenly. "So… I say we cut this chatter and give this beast what for!"
"Well-said," smiled Nanette. "You don't say much, friend, but when you do it's to the point. Well, sis, Princess, you up for a little dragon-whoopin'?"
"I'm always ready to kick butt!" grinned Christina maliciously, and the other three people could swear that Ryoko had come back to them for one last, great fight.
"I suppose I could go along with you ladies!" stated Tenchi as he held his blade. "Who knows? This might actually be fun!"
"Fun?!" squealed Ayeka in disbelief. "Tenchi, I cannot believe what you have just said!!" A pause. Ayeka nearly exploded with giddiness. "This won't be fun! This is gonna be one hellacious shindig, ah tell you what!!!" Christina let out a cheer; Pandemonium looked about as frightened of the girls as a tiger would be scared of a worm.
"I am not the one to approach when thou desireth thine wishes granted," he grumbled. "Yet, for thine wish of Death, I shalt make exception!"
"I dare you!!" snarled Tenchi. "I just dare you!" The great white dragon turned its head to stare directly at Tenchi, and about half of the boy's courage drained out of him when the monster did.
"Thou," addressed the beast, "should be first to perish." With the power and speed of a bolt of lightning, Pandemonium shot his head towards the young boy and snapped at him with his razor-sharp teeth. But Tenchi's smaller size enabled him to leap over the gaping maw, and the boy even slashed at the dragon's head as he sailed past him. A powerful scream, mixed in with a roar of agony, came out of the dragon's mouth as the sword made contact. A mighty scar on the creature's face remained--but one of its eyes did not.
Tenchi smiled.
"Woo-hoo!" squealed Christina. "That's my man! That's my man! Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" Tenchi smiled at her cheer, but all playfulness vanished as the great white dragon glared at the young boy. The creature raised its head to the dark sky above, strained slightly, and with a mighty groan, the massive scar that Tenchi had delivered vanished completely. Needless to say, the young boy was taken aback by this sudden development.
"…What?! Huh? How did he--"
"Thou didst not expect me to have healing powers, eh?!" cried the dragon. Tenchi's face drowned in sweat, but his nervousness died quickly as his resolve only grew stronger. He held his sword like a baseball bat, and challenged his fate again.
"This could be bad," muttered Nanette. "This guy's really big, which probably means he's slow, so I don't think we'll have a problem hitting him. But if the blasted thing can heal himself, I don't know what we can do!"
"Then we shall have to just swing at him at such a speed where he cannot recover!" stated Ayeka. The quiet princess quickly turned into a strategic master in the blink of an eye, and soon she was giving orders right and left. "Nanette! You and Christina try chopping off its appendages! I doubt he'll be able to recover those so easily! Tenchi! You attack his blind side! That cut you made hit his eye, and I don't think that part was recovered! I'll come in from the rear!"
"Right!" The four friends split up and attacked the dragon from all sides, but to their sudden shock, Pandemonium shed off his slow guise and turned into a ferociously fast demon, with limbs and appendages and teeth attacking in literally every single direction. The beast was like a living hurricane, only worse, and every swipe and swish he took had the power to send a garbage truck halfway across a city. How any of the four friends were able to avoid his hits was unknown; perhaps there were a few especially close calls, in which a faint scrape was made, or a small scar, or--
WHAM!!!
With a sudden spin, Pandemonium smacked his tail right into Christina, sending her crashing to the cratered ground like a shooting star. The woman herself made an impressive dent in the planet, but the destruction was overshadowed by everyone else's screams.
"Christina!!!" Pandemonium let out a horrifying yell and opened his stinking mouth to spew out a fire of purest white, and the flames had so much power in them that they literally turned the rocks into dust. Tenchi had his clothes severely burned just by avoiding such a blaze, and Nanette had to utilize her most powerful light shield to save herself; she had been in the midst of the inferno, and just barely escaped with her clothes blackened. That one light shield was so powerful, it had the ability to block a falling meteor, yet for all its worth, it was just barely able to block the flames spewed from the terrible dragon.
Ayeka quickly ran over to her friend, hoping against all hope that Christina was still alive. The icy-haired woman would be fortunate if her bones hadn't been shattered to dust from the blow, or if her lungs had imploded from the extreme exhalation of air. That tail had power in it, and it was just one; a second was there in case its twin failed. Ayeka bent down in the dusty ground and immediately started digging out what she hoped were Christina's remains, but Nanette couldn't distract the dragon forever. Tenchi came over to help, but was quickly sent back into the battle after the dragon slapped at Nanette.
"Thou art strong," commented the creature. "And yet, thou fallest like flies. Art thou so foolish as to face me, the Demon of Conquest?" The dragon roared and grumbled a bit, then turned around to aim its fires directly at Ayeka. She let out a shriek as the blaze came forth, but some great powerful aegis emerged directly in front of her, blocking the heat of the flames. Ayeka nearly broke a blood vessel when she saw who had saved her.
"Christina!!"
"That's another one you owe me, princess!!" shouted the former pirate. Christina looked like she had been buried alive, and maybe in a wrestling match with a bear or two, but otherwise fine. Ayeka knew that her closest of all friends was tough, but unless she had some really powerful shields, there would've been no possible way to survive that hit and the crash to the ground.
"How--"
"Darned if I know!" snarled Christina as she used one of her energy shields to block the flames. "It felt like some kinda force field surrounded me before he hit me. It still hurt like Hades, though, so I'm not 100% well." Ayeka still breathed a sigh of relief, and stood back on her feet to face the monstrosity before her. She quickly made her escape as Christina's light shield died away; meanwhile, Tenchi had wisely snuck up on the dragon while his attention was aimed at the girls, and with a mighty slash, he split the dragon's body.
Another roar came from the creature, but unlike the previous attack, Tenchi had no desire to give the monster time to heal. He was already running to an exposed side--Pandemonium was just large enough to have a few of them--and found one just before the demon could recover. He rammed his blade in all the way to the hilt, and dared the beast to recover from that. Of course, the three girls refused to let Tenchi hog all the fun, and teamed up to perform a lethal triple technique on the beast.
"Let's clip this bat's wings!" shouted Nanette as she led the charge. While Tenchi buried his sword in the beast's side, the girls leaped on top of the demon's back and dashed across the short distance. With the injury occupying every second of his strategy, Pandemonium couldn't even beat his wings as a weak defense, and as quick as lightning, the girls hacked off two of them each. It would take infinitely longer for the beast to recover from that, no matter how powerful he was.
"Infidels!!" screamed the monster. "You are but mosquitoes to me! Do you not even know who I am?! I am Pandemonium, borne out of Chaos and ascended from on high to wreak disorder, chaos, confusion, and turmoil across the land!!"
"Blah, blah, blah!" spat Christina. "Listen, pal, maybe if you didn't talk so much, you might be able to--"
SMACK!!!
The dragon's massive paws slapped Christina so hard that not even the cave's wall stopped her flight, but it definitely slowed them down. As Tenchi and the other ladies rushed to their friend's aide, the dragon chortled out a sick laugh.
"Thou wast saying?" Nanette, Ayeka, and Tenchi, all of whom loved Christina and cared for her deeply, glared back at the dragon with more rage than a normal person should've possessed.
"You will die for that!!!" screamed Nanette. "NOBODY MESSES WITH MY SISTER!!!!!" The ferocious woman known as Nagi seemed to emerge yet again as Nanette dashed forth, and with her laser sword on full power, she cleaved and hacked at the monster with a fury and power unknown. Her sword moved blindingly fast, and every direct hit came with a scream or a curse from the "lovely" lady.
"Oh no, you don't!" snapped Ayeka. "I refuse to let you avenge our dear little friend all by yourself! Stand aside, woman!!" With the ferocity of a tigress, Ayeka joined her new friend, and the girls went absolutely ballistic on the demon. Meanwhile, Tenchi dedicated himself to seeing if Christina was okay, and he had to search through a great deal of rubble to find her.
Upon digging Christina out from the rocks, Tenchi actually shed a tear as he beheld her beaten frame. Unlike himself or the other two ladies, poor Christina had received Pandemonium's wrath not once, but three times in the battle. She looked genuinely busted up, poor girl, and ever-compassionate Tenchi felt compelled to do nothing else except press his own face against her mashed cheeks.
"Just give this sleeping beauty a little more time to rest," came a weak voice from her mouth. Tenchi smiled warmly as Christina's golden eyes fluttered open, and a sigh of relief came out of his mouth. He quickly removed several of the rocks that she had been buried under, and when her smashed arms were freed, she began to help.
"I'm such a masochist," muttered Christina playfully, though it was clear she was probably too injured to fight. She finally gave out after attempting to lift a big rock, but Tenchi was able to pull her out before long. He hoisted her arm over his shoulder and carried her back to the battlefield, where Nanette's and Ayeka's rage had subsided. They, too, were now receiving a beating from the dragon, but it was clear that they had not gone down without a fight. The creature was missing a few legs and had some unhealed scars all over its body. One more of his eyes had been completely slashed apart, and even a few of his teeth had been knocked away.
Unfortunately, Nanette and Ayeka looked like they were about to collapse. Thinking quickly, or maybe just not thinking at all, Tenchi shouted out to the dragon and gained his attention just long enough for the two women to limp away. The brave young man attempted to hack at the dragon's throat with his next attack, but was soundly mauled for his efforts. He flew back a few good meters and slammed into the ground, and that was it: everyone was in too poor of a shape to fight. Rage and sorrow could only carry them so far; this beast was just too powerful.
"…Man!" groaned Tenchi as he tried to get back up. "This thing's… really… powerful…!"
"More like abominable…" groaned Ayeka as she caught her breath. "We hit him… for all we were worth… and still… weren't able… to do… much damage…"
"The freak's strong, I'll give you that!" muttered Nanette as she nursed a less-serious wound. If there had been a contest to see which of the four looked the worst for wear, a winner might never have been found. Each of them had been struck down pretty hard, and it seemed as if all of the fight had left them.
Pandemonium slowly started to heal itself.
"Such is the fate of all they that standeth in opposition to mine self!" growled the monster darkly. "And as thou standeth in weakness, so thou shalt die, as millions of others hath died before thee…" The dragon then did the impossible--it actually seemed to grow even more powerful--and started storing up for what appeared to be a final attack. From the increasing seismic activity caused by such an increase in power, the attack had the potential to eat away at the entire planet--or at least the ability to turn Tenchi and every living creature on that world into powder.
In layman's terms, they were screwed.
"This sucks," snarled Christina weakly. Everyone turned to face her, and were surprised to see her struggling to stand. Considering the beating she had gotten, she technically shouldn't have even been living, let alone standing. She was a tough woman, yes--but she wasn't that tough.
"…Sis…"
"I'm bad," muttered the icy-haired woman as she limped towards her comrades, "but I'm not that bad. There ain't no way we can win against this thing, unless one of you has come up with some brilliant scheme. Princess?"
"…Sorry," moaned Ayeka. "Nothing. There's nothing we can do." A dark pause.
"Tenchi?" He merely shook his head, wishing with all his might that there was something they could do. "……Sis?"
"All we can really do now is hold each other," said Nanette in a dark but soft voice. The dejected look on Christina's face lasted only a few seconds, then the woman put on a look that told she had much more nobility than her title suggested. Slowly, Christina joined the three most cherished people in her life--her sister, her best friend, and her one true love--and together, they held hands and waited for The End.
And then, a miracle happened.
To the astonishment of everyone present, a radiating sphere of light suddenly surrounded them, blinding Pandemonium and causing everyone else to stutter in shock. But this light was warm, and friendly, and so familiar that the gang could've sworn that they had felt it before. In an instant, the wounds of the four heroes were completely healed--but that was just the beginning of the miracle.
With their hands still clasped together, the four friends mysteriously rose into the air, by no other power save for the one being generated by the light. Tenchi had Christina and Ayeka holding his hands; the princess was holding his and Nanette's hand, and the former bounty hunter held her friend's and sister's hands each. The four of them slowly rose into the air, and somehow parted ways, slowly diverging into four separate corners. Gradually, they seemed to form a perfect square surrounding the dragon, their arms still outstretched and still technically holding the other person's.
A beam of powerful light, as bright lightning, soon shot out of their hands, until there was a full, gigantic, genuine square of light surrounding the demon, with Tenchi, Ayeka, Christina, and Nanette acting as the corners. None of the four knew what this signified… but soon, they would.
"I do not believe it!" exclaimed Ayeka. "These are…… no! It's not! Augh! But, it is! They are! These are… the mythical Light Hawk Wings!!!!!"
"SAY WHAT!!!!" screamed the twins. Their broken concentration didn't affect the square in the least. "…You mean to tell us that we generated the Light Hawk Wings?!?!"
"It seems so!" concluded the princess. "Christina! You and I… the former enemies, who later became friends! And Nanette! You and Christina, the enemies who were connected by blood! And Tenchi! You are the one who drew us all together!!"
"But I don't understand!" he shouted in that same frantic tone of his. Ayeka gave off a faint smile.
"Remember that prophecy that old man Holtz showed us in that church? And remember how you all thought it referred to us? Well, it seems as if it really did! It really did! The power and strength generated from all four of us--the four who were so far apart, but now were so close together--that very energy must have created the Light Hawk Wings! It has to be why!!!!"
"So that must've been what protected me from that monster!" concluded Christina. "Man oh man, if I knew I could've done that before…"
"I don't care how it happened, as long as we can use it against big, bad, and ugly over there!!" shouted Nanette. Her sister agreed.
"Yeah! …Though I must admit, it's nice to be in possession of the legendary Light Hawk Wings!!"
"I still don't understand!" shouted a frantic Tenchi. "What the heck is a Light Hawk Wing?!" The Stohk sisters each gave him a puzzled look, as if this was information he should've known all along, but Ayeka was a little more patient with him.
"…The true power of Jurai," she whispered. Tenchi gazed into her ruby-red eyes from across the square's divide, and seemed to understand that at least. Suddenly, the lights fizzled and faded, and the four friends were dropped to the ground. But in their hands were weapons of unimaginable powers--four fragments of the Light Hawk Wings, to be exact. As the indescribably-mighty and powerful tools throbbed in their hands, sending pulse after pulse of unimaginable power through their veins, the four heroes knew exactly what they had to do.
The tables, they noted, had taken a turn.
"Light Hawk Wings…" muttered Pandemonium. Now that the dragon was surrounded by wielders of the legendary power, he no longer held an air of superiority to him. The demon almost seemed to hang his head in defeat. "…Then, I am doomed."
"Oh, yeah!" shouted Christina. "It's payback time, you sick, twisted, malevolent, no-good, evil, wicked, nasty, putrid, rotten--"
"I think that'll do it, sis!!" shouted Nanette. Christina apologized, and together, all four of the warriors held up their hands, igniting a flash of light that surrounded them. Their hearts all pulsed as one, and together, they rushed towards the demonic, doomed dragon, and uttered the name of their attack.
Four Stars
Four impossibly fast warriors sailed past the dragon, cleaving him so finely that perhaps only God Himself could've seen it. Tenchi, Ayeka, Christina, and Nanette put the entire power of the Light Hawk Wings in their attack, and as they completed it and landed on the opposite side of the vanished square, they turned around to view the fruits of their offensive.
Pandemonium took in a deep breath as he gave the girls and their male companion an icy glare. A puff of steam came out of his nostrils, and without a single word, the creature collapsed on the ground, and shattered into a billion pieces. The broken parts of the dragon then melted into fine powder, and the breezes of Harut carried and dispersed the powder until there was nothing left of the creature except for a memory.
As the breeze blew away the last of the dust, Tenchi collapsed himself and fell to the ground, too overjoyed and exhausted to do anything else. Princess Ayeka followed suit, then came Christina Stohk and her twin sister Nanette, and the four heroes laid on the ground in silent victory, and stared at the stars.
"Well," muttered Tenchi after a few minutes, "that sure was an experience!"
Next chapter: WHEW! Was that long or what? (Actually, I once wrote a chapter that was 40 pages long! It's true! This one was only 16!) Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! This may be the end of the great white dragon known as Pandemonium, but the story still has enough life left in it for a few more chapters! The conclusion is far from over, next chapter: "No Need for an Aftermath!" It's unquestionably profound!