Chapter 7- Fighting and Mischief
BGMaster pulled out the Necrowombicon and flipped to a seemingly random page. Letters briefly glowed red for a second.
"Alright, Alek. You check out in The Book. As for the top brass assigning you to keep me alive, I most certainly do have a reason. I'm one of them."
Seeing his surprised look, BGMaster smiled. "Yes, that's right. Executive Officer of Convertees and Special Operations. I delegate most of the Convertee office to subordinates. We have plenty of new disciples to keep them busy. The fact is, I'm the best operative in MegaTokyo. The council has a fair amount of backstabbing, which I have been involved in. I am extremely loyal to Miho-sama - and I support those council members who are too, not the ones simply wishing to gain more power. Somebody wants me out of the way - I'm too powerful. I have the ear of Miho herself. I have also been involved in enough of the fanwar stuff that's been going on that my reputation is pretty much untouchable. And people know not to mess with me in combat. Whoever betrayed me had to be pretty high up to be able to pull the drug placement they did. I've been dead once, and Miho herself brought me back, so they had to get me with something that knocked me out cold for a while but didn't kill me. Luckily, they made two mistakes. They allowed the others to find out where I'd been taken, and the people they got to take me were the Anti-Church of Miho - a very stupid bunch. The council members allied with me sent you to help me, so I'll assume you're both a loyal Cultist and rather skilled. And as you can see, I've escaped now. Whoever betrayed me is going to pay.
"Enough with the background shit. I need to find out what they have out tracking me - they surely have somebody."
Alek received the information BGMaster had dumped on him well. He barely gaped at all. "So, what's the plan then?"
BGMaster smirked, then spoke a few words and gestured. He was outfitted in a black trenchcoat. He opened it to reveal an array of weaponry that would put Neo's lobby arsenal to shame. Now Alek did gape. "How did you do that?"
BGMaster hefted the Necrowombicon. "With this, and special training from Miho herself, I can manipulate just about anything in an Anime based area. MegaTokyo is one. The abilities of creating things, speeding up or slowing down time, and other manipulations of the Laws of Anime are mine to control and use as I see fit. Plus, I have the added bonus of being immune to normal weaponry - though that ability belongs to me alone. Those abilities are what I used to sneak up on you. Anyway, the plan. I'm heading for the docks, and I'm doing it along as public a route as I can find. I'll certainly stand out in this outfit. I will locate and deal with those tracking me at close range - you deal with the ones further out. To take me on in combat and win, you need roughly a level of power with which to start the apocalypse, so I'm not worried. You look like you can handle yourself well, despite the fact that I snuck up on you. Your cybernetic implants will come in handy." BGMaster shrugged. "Before you ask, no, I don't really care where you came from. The MihoCult takes all kinds."
"How am I to deal with them?"
BGMaster handed him a sniper rifle. "You know how to use one of these, right?" He grinned.
BGMaster turned to go, opting for a leap off the rooftops rather than the silent path he'd taken up. He did a very stylish three-point landing in the street, and straightened up. It was time to root out corruption in the Council of Miho. But they couldn't do it without style.
*******
After quite a while, AC, Na-chan and T-ko finally managed to get something to eat and find a place to stay for the time being.
That, and AC somehow managed to get a hold of a laptop.
"Ah, feels good to have some Author Omnipotence again..."
"What?" T-ko looked confused.
"It's when the author does whatever they want because they're the author," Na-chan explained.
AC cracked her knuckles. "This is gonna be fun."
Now, not only does AC write both fanfiction and original work, but she also practices the art of using Author Omnipotence in such a way that it's all but undetectable. In other words, once she starts screwing with a story, no one realizes it until it's much too late.
"Now, who should I mess up first?"
Checking sources via the internet, she quickly noticed the commotion at the docks.
"Perfect..."
She rapidly typed an extension of the story, skillfully manipulating the existing elements into something completely different. She finished and hit "enter", then sat back to wait for the inevitable explosion....
*******
Tanetris saw the other werewolf finally noticing his predicament. When he scooped up the cat, it was obvious enough that the plan was escape, and Tanetris for one couldn't blame the guy. Taking a quick appraisal of the weak point of the guards surrounding the werewolf and cat, Tanetris stepped just far enough out into the street that he would bump against the guy as he went past. When he did so, Tanetris managed the grab a few blood-spattered loose hairs from the cat. Perfect, I'll be able to track them as soon as I deal with this, he thought to himself.
Tanetris looked up at the horde rushing towards him with blood in its eyes. The officer had said self-defense was perfectly acceptable, and certainly this counted. Snapping a quick polaroid for evidence later, Tanetris pulled out his sword and charged. A lightning-fast blur, Tanetris quickly cut throw the first line of guards, all of his blows directed to be disabling rather than deadly. Unfortunately, there was something he hadn't counted on. As the sword sliced into one guard's arm, the guard howled in pain and fell to the ground, spasmed there briefly, and became still, then slowly reverted to a furrier form.
Oh damn, Tanetris thought, Of course there had to be werewolf guards, and of course I cut them with a silver-edged sword. Thank god it was a scratch, or he'd be dead instead of unconscious, then I'd be dead...
The entire band of guards fell back, 20 of them looking a lot more worried than the rest. Those must be the other werewolves, more than he cared to take on, but few enough that they wouldn't want to take on another werewolf with a silver sword either, and the human guards seemed to be deferring to the werewolves' judgment.
Glancing to his right, Tanetris saw that same six-tail grinning at him. He knew she could easily intervene with her magic to help him, but she was a kitsune, the only way she would do so would be if she thought he could provide more entertainment unharmed. On the other side of the building from her, a rather heavily armed gaijin he had taken earlier to be among the corporate spies. Whether that assessment was accurate or not, he seemed to be neutral in this encounter.
If I attack, I run the risk of killing one of those werewolves and having at least 100 more after me by the end of the day. If I retreat, I turn my back on 20 werewolves probably just as fast as me, and those humans might have silver bullets, he considered.
Well, it couldn't be helped. Focusing briefly, Tanetris shifted form into full-wolf for better speed. The guards didn't attack yet, and the other werewolves didn't shift form, both good signs. They were probably waiting for him to turn his back to shoot him with silver bullets. Instead, Tanetris ran straight for them at full-speed, shocking the humans into momentary inactivity (you'd take a minute too if a wolf bigger than you ran full-speed toward you), and drawing curses from the werewolves still on their feet. Tanetris leaped over the whole group and took off running down a side street as the other werewolves shifted form to pursue. Too late for them, a few seconds head start was all he needed. Weaving through side streets and alleys, Tanetris charged into the nearest train station, showed his rail pass, and leaped into a train just as it was departing. Of course, he had been followed, but he had lost the werewolves. All he had to worry about was the gaijin in the car ahead of him, and the kitsune in the car behind. Yes, he thought, all I have to worry about is a heavily armed man who can keep up with a running werewolf, and a six-tailed kitsune. How do you get yourself into these messes, baka?
*******
Looking down the train at the werewolf and kitsune. Gorion tries to bring up a file on them in his sunglasses.
"Dam that werewolves fast I had to teleport twice just to keep up." He slowly opens up the door and cautiously starts walking towards the werewolf.
"Hi I am inspector Gorion. I saw you back there at that weird scene and I thought you and the kitsune might have something to do with it. Or am I completely off? By the way nice sword."
*******
Wizard of Kitty was happily skipping through the streets with a small bag of skittles in her pocket from BG Master. Apparently, she still hadn't finished them all yet. She was on a break with using her wizardy powers and now just enjoying the day in her j00 d34d f00 t-shirt and black pants.
As she looked on, she saw BGMaster. She ran up to him, who knows if it had style.
"Hilo BGMaster! How are you?"
*******
"Crap," AC said, "I missed."
Instead of the desired effect of blowing up something on or near the ship with its precious cargo, she'd only managed to hit another one further out to sea.
"Okay, this time I'm going to take my time, and find a better target..."
*******
And what about Na-chan and T-ko? Well, T-ko had found some Gundam Wing videos, which she was currently watching and drooling over Duo. As for Na-chan, she was happily munching pocky and trying to put her favorite picture of Shinji on the ceiling in just the right place so that he'd be the last thing she saw when she went to bed, and the first thing when she got up in the morning.
Anyway, enough weirdness, let's see what AC's up to.
*******
AC had succeeded in finding another target. Or to be exact, two targets. An interesting pair- a werewolf and a human on a train discussing something, and therefore rather unaware of potential author interference.
"And to top it all off," she muttered to herself, "there's a kitsune present as well, so all I'll have to do is start some trouble and watch the fun begin..."
After carefully reviewing the situation (she wasn't going to mess up this time) she started typing.
"Let's see here..."
A few tweaks, and aha! She finished editing her work, carefully looked it over, and pressed "enter".
*******
On the train, a passenger carrying a load of baked goods suddenly tripped on a beer can someone had carelessly left there. One particularly whipped-cream filled pie went flying and hit the werewolf in the face, while the human got a cake in the head. The remaining foodstuffs scattered in a mess all over the floor, but with a hidden message written out for anyone clever enough to see it:
"Mwahaha! I'm just getting warmed up! Signed AC, the master of Author Omnipotence!"
BGMaster pulled out the Necrowombicon and flipped to a seemingly random page. Letters briefly glowed red for a second.
"Alright, Alek. You check out in The Book. As for the top brass assigning you to keep me alive, I most certainly do have a reason. I'm one of them."
Seeing his surprised look, BGMaster smiled. "Yes, that's right. Executive Officer of Convertees and Special Operations. I delegate most of the Convertee office to subordinates. We have plenty of new disciples to keep them busy. The fact is, I'm the best operative in MegaTokyo. The council has a fair amount of backstabbing, which I have been involved in. I am extremely loyal to Miho-sama - and I support those council members who are too, not the ones simply wishing to gain more power. Somebody wants me out of the way - I'm too powerful. I have the ear of Miho herself. I have also been involved in enough of the fanwar stuff that's been going on that my reputation is pretty much untouchable. And people know not to mess with me in combat. Whoever betrayed me had to be pretty high up to be able to pull the drug placement they did. I've been dead once, and Miho herself brought me back, so they had to get me with something that knocked me out cold for a while but didn't kill me. Luckily, they made two mistakes. They allowed the others to find out where I'd been taken, and the people they got to take me were the Anti-Church of Miho - a very stupid bunch. The council members allied with me sent you to help me, so I'll assume you're both a loyal Cultist and rather skilled. And as you can see, I've escaped now. Whoever betrayed me is going to pay.
"Enough with the background shit. I need to find out what they have out tracking me - they surely have somebody."
Alek received the information BGMaster had dumped on him well. He barely gaped at all. "So, what's the plan then?"
BGMaster smirked, then spoke a few words and gestured. He was outfitted in a black trenchcoat. He opened it to reveal an array of weaponry that would put Neo's lobby arsenal to shame. Now Alek did gape. "How did you do that?"
BGMaster hefted the Necrowombicon. "With this, and special training from Miho herself, I can manipulate just about anything in an Anime based area. MegaTokyo is one. The abilities of creating things, speeding up or slowing down time, and other manipulations of the Laws of Anime are mine to control and use as I see fit. Plus, I have the added bonus of being immune to normal weaponry - though that ability belongs to me alone. Those abilities are what I used to sneak up on you. Anyway, the plan. I'm heading for the docks, and I'm doing it along as public a route as I can find. I'll certainly stand out in this outfit. I will locate and deal with those tracking me at close range - you deal with the ones further out. To take me on in combat and win, you need roughly a level of power with which to start the apocalypse, so I'm not worried. You look like you can handle yourself well, despite the fact that I snuck up on you. Your cybernetic implants will come in handy." BGMaster shrugged. "Before you ask, no, I don't really care where you came from. The MihoCult takes all kinds."
"How am I to deal with them?"
BGMaster handed him a sniper rifle. "You know how to use one of these, right?" He grinned.
BGMaster turned to go, opting for a leap off the rooftops rather than the silent path he'd taken up. He did a very stylish three-point landing in the street, and straightened up. It was time to root out corruption in the Council of Miho. But they couldn't do it without style.
That, and AC somehow managed to get a hold of a laptop.
"Ah, feels good to have some Author Omnipotence again..."
"What?" T-ko looked confused.
"It's when the author does whatever they want because they're the author," Na-chan explained.
AC cracked her knuckles. "This is gonna be fun."
Now, not only does AC write both fanfiction and original work, but she also practices the art of using Author Omnipotence in such a way that it's all but undetectable. In other words, once she starts screwing with a story, no one realizes it until it's much too late.
"Now, who should I mess up first?"
Checking sources via the internet, she quickly noticed the commotion at the docks.
"Perfect..."
She rapidly typed an extension of the story, skillfully manipulating the existing elements into something completely different. She finished and hit "enter", then sat back to wait for the inevitable explosion....
Tanetris looked up at the horde rushing towards him with blood in its eyes. The officer had said self-defense was perfectly acceptable, and certainly this counted. Snapping a quick polaroid for evidence later, Tanetris pulled out his sword and charged. A lightning-fast blur, Tanetris quickly cut throw the first line of guards, all of his blows directed to be disabling rather than deadly. Unfortunately, there was something he hadn't counted on. As the sword sliced into one guard's arm, the guard howled in pain and fell to the ground, spasmed there briefly, and became still, then slowly reverted to a furrier form.
Oh damn, Tanetris thought, Of course there had to be werewolf guards, and of course I cut them with a silver-edged sword. Thank god it was a scratch, or he'd be dead instead of unconscious, then I'd be dead...
The entire band of guards fell back, 20 of them looking a lot more worried than the rest. Those must be the other werewolves, more than he cared to take on, but few enough that they wouldn't want to take on another werewolf with a silver sword either, and the human guards seemed to be deferring to the werewolves' judgment.
Glancing to his right, Tanetris saw that same six-tail grinning at him. He knew she could easily intervene with her magic to help him, but she was a kitsune, the only way she would do so would be if she thought he could provide more entertainment unharmed. On the other side of the building from her, a rather heavily armed gaijin he had taken earlier to be among the corporate spies. Whether that assessment was accurate or not, he seemed to be neutral in this encounter.
If I attack, I run the risk of killing one of those werewolves and having at least 100 more after me by the end of the day. If I retreat, I turn my back on 20 werewolves probably just as fast as me, and those humans might have silver bullets, he considered.
Well, it couldn't be helped. Focusing briefly, Tanetris shifted form into full-wolf for better speed. The guards didn't attack yet, and the other werewolves didn't shift form, both good signs. They were probably waiting for him to turn his back to shoot him with silver bullets. Instead, Tanetris ran straight for them at full-speed, shocking the humans into momentary inactivity (you'd take a minute too if a wolf bigger than you ran full-speed toward you), and drawing curses from the werewolves still on their feet. Tanetris leaped over the whole group and took off running down a side street as the other werewolves shifted form to pursue. Too late for them, a few seconds head start was all he needed. Weaving through side streets and alleys, Tanetris charged into the nearest train station, showed his rail pass, and leaped into a train just as it was departing. Of course, he had been followed, but he had lost the werewolves. All he had to worry about was the gaijin in the car ahead of him, and the kitsune in the car behind. Yes, he thought, all I have to worry about is a heavily armed man who can keep up with a running werewolf, and a six-tailed kitsune. How do you get yourself into these messes, baka?
"Dam that werewolves fast I had to teleport twice just to keep up." He slowly opens up the door and cautiously starts walking towards the werewolf.
"Hi I am inspector Gorion. I saw you back there at that weird scene and I thought you and the kitsune might have something to do with it. Or am I completely off? By the way nice sword."
As she looked on, she saw BGMaster. She ran up to him, who knows if it had style.
"Hilo BGMaster! How are you?"
Instead of the desired effect of blowing up something on or near the ship with its precious cargo, she'd only managed to hit another one further out to sea.
"Okay, this time I'm going to take my time, and find a better target..."
Anyway, enough weirdness, let's see what AC's up to.
"And to top it all off," she muttered to herself, "there's a kitsune present as well, so all I'll have to do is start some trouble and watch the fun begin..."
After carefully reviewing the situation (she wasn't going to mess up this time) she started typing.
"Let's see here..."
A few tweaks, and aha! She finished editing her work, carefully looked it over, and pressed "enter".
"Mwahaha! I'm just getting warmed up! Signed AC, the master of Author Omnipotence!"