Buds was a heavy sleeper. Ever since his mutation, his body seem to expend so much energy that eating dinner was like eating a feast. Not that Lina cared. She had lots of money and didn't seem to eat that much bio-solids. For her, it was either sex or blood, and she still and enough energy to last her a few months.

Now back to Buds, who was sleeping peacefully in his futon. When the sun will rise, it would be school day again.

The door slid open and someone sneaked in the room. The figure tiptoed and slid down beside Buds. The heavy sleeper didn't seem to be bothered and continued to sleep.

-| Omega X Present |-

-| Omega |-

-| Chapter 06: Agent of the Dark Order |-

"Please... have mercy..." a woman said. She had blood everywhere and was on her knees. "Kill me and spare my daughter..."

Buds narrowed his eyes. "Mercy? Hah! Mercy is for the weak. I have come here not practice mercy. I came here to finish you all." And he raised his hands, tentacles sprouting. The tentacles suddenly changed shape into sharp objects and Buds woke up before those tentacles hit the woman.

POW!

Buds flew away and crashed towards the wall. That shocked him too much and soon he was standing wide awake. The punch didn't hurt him that much, just felt it. It was like being punched hard but not feeling the pain. What surprised him was that no one he knew was able to do that. And in front of him was...

"Lina?" Buds asked as his vision cleared. "What hell... Why'd you hit me?" he asked, rubbing his cheek only as an instinct.

"You're a hypocrite, you know that?" Lina seethed, her tone was shaking. Buds gave him the Saotome 'What did I do?' look. She pointed to her bottom left, to Buds' futon.

Buds' eyes widened when he saw Felicia, in her hybrid form, sleeping peacefully, clutching his pillow. Buds turned to Lina and was about to speak when she cut him off.

"Oh, sure, separate bedrooms. You cannot sleep unless you are alone, you said..." Lina said sarcastically.

"I was alone," Buds muttered. "I don't know how she got there. Ask her when she wakes up..." and he walked towards the door, grumbling about women and jealousy. Before he reached the door, he looked at Lina and gave a weak smile. "Thanks for making me up anyway."

Lina tried to cover her blush and Buds smirked. Sure, she could control him just by breathing down his neck, but she was so easily flustered that it almost became a game to them. What Buds didn't know was that Lina didn't think it was a game.

Buds dressed up quickly and used the furo since Felicia was still in his room. Putting up his pants and shoes, he went to the sink and brushed his teeth before putting his dark blue shirt. He left it unbuttoned as usual.

He walked towards the kitchen, and saw a Lina cooking up a storm. Normally, rice and fried fish and some soup was the average breakfast of average Japanese families. Lina cooked up blueberry pancakes. There were some cubes of butter in one plate and a bottle of maple syrup. The plates were ready and there was a cup of coffee in Lina's plate.

"YAAAAAWWWNN!" Felicia said going down. She rubbed her eyes and rubbed a few kinks off her body. She still looked sleepy eyed, and saw Buds. "Good morning..." she said droopily.

Buds raised up his eyebrows. Her 'R' in morning didn't linger. He shrugged about it and stood up. He went to the refrigerator and took some milk. He poured it in the glass and gave it to Felicia. She murmured her thanks and drank it all in one gulp. She sighed, refreshed.

"Thanks Buds! That was rrefrrreshing!" Felicia purred.

Lina walked towards the table with a plate of pancakes. She rolled her eyes as Felicia was purring again. "Alright, stop flirting with each other. Eat."

=Juuban Streets=

After breakfast, the three figures left the house. Felicia was on her cat form and Lina had grey jeans and white polo shirt, the one Morrigan uses, and Buds had his uniform, his shirt still unbuttoned.

Try as he might, he complained constantly, asking why he needed an escort. He knew the way to school. Inside, though, he was very happy about their company. In this world, he only had a few friends, and his first two were walking besides him.

Tai Yo High appeared and he buttoned his shirt. He was still early, not wanting to piss of Miss Kyoko, and there were some students on the grounds. He saw his other friends.

"See you guys!" Buds said as he walked inside. He waved at Lina and Felicia. Felicia meowed and Lina waved back, still glaring at Hinata.

"Hey, Kyosuke, Batsu, Hinata," Buds said, smiling. "How was the week-end?"

"Not bad..." Kyosuke said. He looked at Lina and smirked. Batsu followed suit.

"Seems you're girlfriend is still jealous of Hinata..." Batsu said.

Buds waved his hand a bit. "Ah, she's always like that. So, how are you, Hinata?"

Hinata smiled. "I'm fine. You know Sakura, the friend you didn't meet at the cake store?"

"How couldn't I forget?" Buds sighed. "She kept on following me for days..." Buds remembered the way she tried to jump on him when him and Lina were eating in a sushi restaurant, blabbing about a challenge. She ended up smelling the food and her mouth watering, and joined them. Buds paid for her.

"Well, she says you keep on delaying her challenge, so she would meet you here at the grounds, dismissal..." Hinata said. "And nice hair..."

Buds had his hair cut since the mutation. It was getting longer, and he asked Lina to cut it for him. She cut the bangs and side, making them spikier and the back of his head is made into a pigtail.

Hinata gave him a piece of paper. Buds unfolded it and read. It was sloppy handwriting, maybe because she was in a hurry. It read 'I challenge you. Meet me at Taiyo High Grounds, and don't run away!'.

Buds sighed. "Run away? Me?" and with that, he put his two arms around Batsu's and Kyosuke's shoulders. The four friends walked away going towards class. "Like when do I run away?" he said as he walked towards class, giving a last wave to Lina and Felicia.

=Time Gates=

Setsuna pondered over what she gathered during the last Senshi meeting.

| Flashback |

"Did you see him?" Makoto asked excitedly. It was during the weekend where the Senshi finally called a meeting about what happened during their battle. They were fighting a particularly tough youma. They were losing at the last moment, but then, he comes, jumping and appearing out of the air.

"Did you see how he took care of the youma?" Minako asked. "He used whips that came out of his hands!"

Setsuna looked up. "Whips? Out of his hands?"

"Yeah. They looked metallic, but the thing is," Rei began, "they disappear. It's like he wills them to appear and disappear."

"Hmmm..." Setsuna murmured.

"Setsuna," Haruka began. "Do you know something?"

"Nothing much," Setsuna said. "There is something wrong with the time gates. It becomes a funk, always showing the omega sign. It kinda sucks that I don't know what is going on."

"New youmas... I thought our last battle would be the last battle..." Minako said.

"New boy, funk in the Time Gates..." Setsuna murmured. "I need to do some things." And she quickly vanished, leaving the other Senshis alone.

| End of Flashback |

In front of the Senshi of Time was a book; an ancient book of legends, talking about all known demons from the Negaverse, Makai, Neihlfam and others. The one in Makai caught her attention. It was opened in the page where the name was simply stated as 'Omega'.

(Tentacles, whips, metallic whips, omega signs in the time gates...) Setsuna thought. (All seem to fit. The Legend of Omega, the Destroyer, Symb- Demon, Class Unknown; it is him. He is a danger to the world. Humanity wont survive him. He must be killed.)

Setsuna stood up and walked towards the Time Gates. It was time, no pun intended, to search for him.

=Taiyo High=

Buds yawned again. History was not boring, but listening the teacher seems to cut from Evangelion. Imagine a teacher making the Meiji Restoration so boring. It was like he was drawling about Second Impact over and over again.

Buds yawned quietly, unless he liked to have chalk over his new hair. Kyosuke was still beside him, trying not to laugh. Normally, a guy like him from the disciplinary committee would abhor such actions. It's such that it's so funny to watch Buds trying to stifle a yawn.

The rest of the day was so much the same. Buds was much more active during English classes. After all, his talent in English speaking made him the unofficial helper of the teacher.

The rest of the day is as usual, an average day for Buds. Oh, he did have a fight later on, but that was just added spice to his day. He began to actually wonder briefly if his life would eventually be so normal. Nothing very special happened in his whole stay, well, maybe except the accidental meeting with the Senshi.

Buds cringed. He wanted to forget that. No, scratch, he wanted to go back in time, and made it never happen. Now with the Sailor Senshi in the world where he resides in, he began to see himself looking at Pluto.

"You are an evil creature!" "You must be destroyed!" For the good of Crystal Tokyo!"

"BUDS KINTARO!" shouted someone in front of him. Buds seem to snap out of it.

"Huh?" he asked, bewildered. He looked forward and saw Sakura in front of him. She had her hands in position. "Oh..."

"Buds Kintaro, I challenge you!" Sakura exclaimed.

Buds took a while to register what she said, but when he finally got it, he smiled. "Sure," he said, and cracked his knuckles. "I, Buds Kintaro, accept your challenge, Sakura Kasugano," he said, and went to a stance.

"Wow, did you hear that?" one of the boys asked.

"The new kid is challenging the 'Fighting School Girl' Sakura!" another kid said.

"Is she going to kick his ass badly?"

The other murmurs were not heard as Sakura and Buds tried to size each other up, hiding their potentials and trying to probe each others skills.

Suddenly, with an unknown signal, the two figures charged towards each other. Sakura took imitative and launched a punch at buds, who casually ducked and brought up his foot to kick her. She jumped in the air and lashed out a viscious kick which hit home at Buds' head.

Buds was at shock. He actually felt it! It was not very painful, but feeling small amounts of pain with a blunt object amazed him. Sakura had a lot of power in her.

Sakura landed painfully in the ground after kicking him. She almost limped. She fought people with hard heads, but that was a really hard head!

Buds took action now, and launched punches and kicks, which were easily dodged by Sakura. Impressed, Buds finally unleashed his own fighting style. Arnis.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and began to move faster as Buds began to feint and move faster and faster. Sakura cursed. Her opponent seemed to have tricked her by showing her that he had no skills. Now, she had to fight back.

Sakura turned around and gave him her spinning kick, which Buds blocked easily, and she launched her dashing uppercut, but Buds just got back, waited until she landed, and punched her.

Sakura's lungs evacuated it's air as the punch registered, and Sakura flew away a couple of meters before she landed. Sakura took a few moments to gather air. She watched as Buds waited for her.

(Damn...) she thought. (That punch was a punch! I never felt so much power in one punch!)

Buds waited for the girl to come to her senses. He knew that his punch packed power, and training in Makai helped him control his strength.

Sakura suddenly stood up and charged, and did a different combination of combos which pressed Buds back. Buds blocked, dodged and tried to counter her attacks. Sakura suddenly smiled as she found an opening and exploited it.

She charged to do another shouou-ken and when Buds blocked it, she cancelled it to Midare-Zakura [think of it as Sakura's own version of Ken's Shoryuu Reppa], hitting Buds directly five times, each hit Sakura augmented her fist with her ki to add more power, and to protect herself. She learned from her mistake that kicking Buds was painful.

Buds actually felt pain in his body and he almost screamed as Sakura landed each hit on his chest and chin area. The last hit took him in the air, and he had no room to dodge the next attack.

"SHINKU-HADOUKEN!" Sakura used her built up ki from her hands to build up a big ki ball which she released in the air, right into Buds.

Buds screamed as the ki energy ball flew towards him and washed over his body. His senses flared and his skin felt like it was burning. Something inside Buds awakened. Something he never felt since his first transformation. He felt alive...

Buds smiled as he flew away from Sakura, in the air, sailing through like he was on ice. No friction, no weight. He just flew towards the wall, and slammed into it.

Hinata was in the crowd and was a bit shocked by the way Sakura had gone full out. She usually holds back, but now, she saw that her friend used every ounce of her knowledge and skill. Her respect for Buds went up by a lot.

Sakura went down on her knees. She exhausted herself with the Midare Zakura and her Shinkuu Hadouken. At least she won... or so she thought.

Buds slowly stood from where he was, breathing like he was breathing new oxygen. His eyes opened and seemed to see in a different perspective. He finally realized that he was, even if only a little, a mortal, a human being. He could still feel pain, and for that, he realized how thankful he was to Sakura. No one can truly be alive without pain.

Sakura was lost for words when she saw Buds stand there, looking at her. He had a neutral face, a mask someone would say. Sakura staggered to stand, and faced him. This was it, her last desperate attempt.

Calling forth her ki, she readily built it to her hands. The energy ball growing bigger and bigger.

"SHINKU!" Sakura shouted, with more intensity than before. "HADOUKEN!"

She launched the energy ball towards Buds.

Buds didn't seem to be fazed as the ball approached him. Suddenly, his eyes grew red and he let his hand out and the tentacle sprouted out for it. Then, suddenly, it changed form and the singular tentacle split suddenly into five smaller tentacles, charged towards the ki ball. When the five tentacles hit the ball, the ball seemed to grow smaller and smaller, until it finally disappeared.

The tentacles merged to make the original one and went back to Buds. Buds cupped his hands in his side, and Sakura's eyes widened as she recognized the stand.

"SHINKUU HADOUKEN!" Buds shouted and released the same ki ball towards Sakura like what she did to him. The ball flew towards her, and only her instincts made her take initiative and block the incoming projectile.

BOOM!

=Juuban Streets=

Sailor Pluto was standing in one of the tall buildings, on the look out. She wanted to be wrong. She wanted to look at herself in the mirror and say: 'I am wrong,' because if she was right, then it meant that there was a symb-demon in the world. And according to the legend of Makai, it's worse than Beryl and Metallia combined.

Pluto sighed. Wherever it was, it was close. She can feel it. She would find it and see it.

=Tai Yo High=

"Thank you very much," Sakura said, bowing. She was knocked out after Buds sent her own hadouken to her. Buds, Hinata, Kyosuke, and Batsu waited for Sakura to wake up and when she did, she broke to a smile.

"Nah, it's nothing. Accident, really," Buds said, waving his hand. He had no idea how he did it. It was like his body came alive, unlocked the move, and showed him the technique. Buds wouldn't forget it. It came handy. He could absorb the energy and use the same type of energy to throw it back to his enemies.

"Now I really know why Hinata was blabbing on how great you were," Sakura said. "It's been an honor challenging you... I do hope I have a chance to rematch..."

"I'll be honored," Buds replied. He gave a bow and Sakura returned it.

Sakura turned around and began to run away. She waved good bye to the four friends, who waved back.

"She likes you," Batsu teased.

"I know," buds replied neutrally. "I'll look forward to our next match..."

"Yeah. Next time, you'll hit the sack," Batsu said, and started to giggle. "Oh, mwahahaha... OW!"

Hinata just bashed her fist in Batsu's head. Batsu grumbled and scratched behind his head. "Anyway, we have to go. Thanks for challenging her, Buds! It was entertaining."

Buds waved it off. "Thanks for waiting for me guys. Guess this is it," he said, and ran towards the corner of the wall, did a triangle jump and left his three friends behind.

Kyosuke looked at Buds' figure fade away. "Impressive. He gets more skilled each day..."

=Juuban Streets=

Buds jumped from roof top to roof top, not with the same grace as Ranma, mind you, but for him able to do such is amazing for him.

Suddenly, a shadow figure rushed up to him, and Buds, still tired from the battle, barely dodged it. Buds felt a tingle in his arm as he jumped back. Taking a quick look, he saw that blood was pouring out of his arm. The shadowed figure had a knife!

The shadowed figure suddenly lunged at him, and then... tripped.

Buds watched in horror as the figure accidentally tripped, and since he didn't expect that, Buds didn't have enough time to move, and they both collided, and fell down the building. Buds felt something wrong...

(Oh... she has breasts...) Buds thought neutrally. Buds' eyes suddenly widened as the new information suddenly went to his brain...

The two figures landed awfully close, and Buds impacted the ground while the hooded girl had Buds as a cushion.

"Ouch..." Buds said.

The hooded girl shook her head, and faced him. Buds suddenly recognized her.

"Dema?" he asked.

She screamed and lunged the knife towards him.

Up in the ceiling, Pluto finally found the source of dark powers. She landed in a building over looking downwards. She saw two figures fighting. A boy with a school uniform and a girl with a knife.

Buds panted as he settled a down. Dema was still in front of him, and she was panting as well. "What the hell is wrong with you, and what are you doing here?"

"Hehe, Buds," Dema said. "Finally found you. It took me a good week to really know where you were."

"Why are you trying to kill me Dema?" Buds asked. "If you think this is a joke, you must be sick. You cut me!"

"You think this is a joke?" Dema said. "I'm going to revive the Omega, and you will help me! YAHHH!" and she lunged towards Buds, cutting her knife through the air, trying to stab him.

Buds barely dodged it and as Dema began slicing the air around him, Buds noticed how slow he acted and how his visions were clouded. Buds feinted a bit on the left, and when Dema fell for it, he shot his foot out and kicked her hard.

Dema grunted as she felt intense pain in her stomach as she landed butt first in the ground. She glared at Buds.

Buds took a moment to watch her and he brought his arm gently towards his mouth. Without taking his eyes off Dema, he tasted his wound. It was sour.

"Yes," Dema said, chuckling. "It is poisoned. It's going to slow your reaction rate and dim your vision, and then, you lose consciousness."

"What the hell do you want?" Buds asked. "And what are you?"

"I'm one of the agents of the Dark Order. I have come to pick up the Omega and return him to his rightful place," Dema said, and then smirked. "Have you ever wondered why I even wanted to fuck you? I knew what you were, what you would become. I wanted to experience first hand who was much better in bed. You, or the Omega."

Buds staggered back. "I am the Omega."

"You're wrong," Dema said. "You are part of him, and all I need is to awaken you, and you'll be ready. DIE!" and she charged towards Buds.

"DEAD SCREAM!" a voice shouted which echoed around the place. Dema's eyes widened as she saw the magical projectile coming towards him and she moved back right away.

Buds saw Dema move, and without thinking, he let his tentacles out, grabbed Dema and started taking her energy. Dema screamed as she felt her energy leave her body and Buds' vision began to clear. When Buds felt strong enough, he used his arm and threw Dema hard towards the wall.

"Damn... you..." she said, gritting her teeth.

Buds stood up at full height, and glared at Dema. "I'm going to be nice, now Dema. I haven't actually killed anyone, and you might be the first. Get out of my sight and don't ever bother me again."

"Bastard," Dema said. "I'll get you for this." Shadows came around her, covering her body, and then, she vanished without a trace.

Buds watched neutrally as the shadow faded away, leaving the wall with only a crater where Buds threw Dema. He sighed.

Someone jumped down towards him in his left, and Buds looked at the figure. She had a very mature body in her fuku with long green hair and red eyes.

"Thanks for the help," Buds said.

Sailor Pluto looked at the boy in front of her. He had tentacles, and he even admitted that he is the Omega. Her cold facial expression took over as she replied, "You're welcome, Omega. DEAD SCREAM!"

Buds' eyes widened as Pluto flung her attack towards him...

To Be Continued...

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NEXT: Buds and Pluto face, and Dema's alternate plan!

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