(A/N: My battle scenes are very graphic, so if you're squeamish about such things, you probably shouldn't be reading this ^^;;)

Fuu stood thunderstruck amidst a gathering crowd of curious onlookers and attempted to make sense of the miracle which had just occurred. *My armor . . . my powers.* She summoned her gigantic claymore almost unconsciously to her hands, the familiar sensation of nerve-tingling magic flowing swiftly through her veins. *My sword.*

The circled masses of people surrounding the Magic Knight gasped almost in unison at this extraordinary display.

"Holy - look at the size of that sword!"

"What is that girl?"

"Halloween was a week ago, why is she dressed in that silly costume?"

The whispers and speculations turned rapidly to shrieks of terror when a seven-foot greatsword sheared violently blade-first into the pavement with a startling *CLANG!* a mere foot from the armored woman. There was a rumbling thunder of stampeding feet as the spectators suddenly decided that a front row seat was not desirable at all events . . . .

Fuu's gaze jerked up to the window from which she had just plummeted, where the three giant beasts were glowering at her in intense hatred, teeth bared in rage. Her brow lowered ominously over heated green eyes as she stared back at the creatures which had invaded her home. She glanced once more at the large sword in her hands, the silent blade at once beautiful and deadly. *I do not know how this happened, but I am not going to question such good fortune.* Ignoring the enemy's weapon quivering in the ground beside her, she lifted her left hand above her head, yelling confidently, "Imashime no KAZEEEEE!!!!!" Gusts of wind instantly swirled up and circled 'round her at the command, sending her blonde hair whipping wildly about her face, then swiftly blew into the sixth-floor window. The winds eagerly latched onto one of the three brutes, binding the beast's limbs as effectively as would the unyielding grip of steel bands. The demonic being howled in anger and fear, its arms locked to its sides, unable to move.

The other two monsters wasted no time attempting to aid their comrade and forcefully smashed through the brick outer wall of the apartment building, ignoring the debris raining down onto the newly-emptied street. They fell rapidly to the ground, landing in crouched readiness several meters in front of Fuu without any visible damage from the drop. Fuu moved back a few small steps and raised her sword to a one-handed guard position while holding the trussed enemy high above her with her wind magic. The brutes grinned malevolently at her apparent vulnerability and advanced towards their prey, swords ready to strike; but the green Knight smirked humorlessly and yanked her hand back, forcing the constricted beast to hover in the open air on its tether. The monsters glanced up in unison, eyes widening at the sight of their partner hanging motionless six stories above the ground. Fuu then mercilessly released her spell, sending the creature tumbling down onto the pavement behind its comrades, where it laid stunned, dazed sulfurous eyes staring vacantly.

The Wind Knight did not waste time congratulating herself. The beasts still standing dismissed their cohort with a glance as weak and useless then charged at her together, roaring a strident challenge. She raised her elegant hand once more and cried, "Midori no Zenpuu!!!" A cyclone of green- glowing winds rose at her demand and engulfed the suddenly panicked monster to her left, drawing it into a mighty vortex. The other giant flinched back from the display of power, raising its hand in front of its grimacing face protectively. The fierce tornado imprisoned its victim for several moments before slamming it onto the ground in a final rush of mystic energy, flinging white powder and chunks of rock into the air as the magical force created a jagged hole in the sidewalk cement using the beast's twisted body.

Fuu now gripped the sword hilt with both hands, confident in her ability to defeat a single enemy in combat. "YAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" she screamed as she charged forward, claymore glinting sharply in the bright city streetlights. The gargantuan snarled at the woman rushing it and swung its own weapon in a heavy arc. *CLANG!* Fuu easily countered the clumsy blow, her magical sword swallowing most of the force. She dealt her own offensive strike on the rebound, swinging around the mammoth beast's roughly-forged weapon and deftly stepping inside its long reach, close to the furious heat of its massive, heaving chest. Once inside the pocket of its over-long arms, she effortlessly sliced her claymore into the creature's unprotected side, sending a spurting shower of dark, viscous blood onto the pale concrete. The giant raised its huge maw to the sky and bellowed its agony to the indifferent stars as the sword sliced cruelly through its skin. It dropped its sword in a blind rage, preparing to gather Fuu into a deadly embrace against its damaged torso. The alert woman would have none of that, however, and speedily took advantage of the Escudo-derived powers of her sword by thrusting her weight into the cut she had initiated until the edge kissed open air on the creature's opposite side. The demonic beast's eyes swiftly went blank as its top half slid wetly off its pelvic girdle. Fuu jumped back before the legs - left standing like tree stumps after the ax has hewn - could tip forward and fall onto her.

The victorious woman turned her back quickly on the mangled wreck she had created, heaving in air desperately and wiping away the sweat beads forming on her forehead. *I do not remember battle being so . . . ghastly,* she thought, glancing swiftly at the inert bodies of her other opponents, trying to dismiss the images of the black gore and dismembered body . . . . She swallowed. *I will NOT be sick . . . Magic Knights do not get sick . . . .*

She stanchly choked back the impending nausea and lifted her sword once more, approaching the remaining monstrous forms with determination, a lone soldier in a vacant, frigid battlefield. *I must be sure they are truly dead,* she thought, tucking her squeamishness behind a solid wall of her courage. The first creature she drew near to was deathly still, and did not appear to be breathing. Nonetheless, Fuu poked it once or twice with the point of her sword, raising small clouds of powdered cement off the brute's cold skin, until she was satisfied that it would move no more. She left the corpse where it laid and began walking to the last strange beast, when a rush of strong winds abruptly came from behind her, throwing her uncontrollably forward several steps. She frantically skidded her feet against the pavement until they planted firmly against a convenient curb, then concentrated solely on trying to keep her balance in the windstorm.

*POOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!* An explosion blasted nearby, sounding simultaneously with the termination of the hurricane-like gales. The noise nearly deafened Fuu, but she resolutely whipped her head around and returned to her defensive posture on slightly shaky legs, searching grimly for the arrival of new foes. Her eyes widened when they unexpectedly landed on the metallic sheen of a colossal being, kneeling no more than fifty meters away . . . .

"Hail, Magic Knight of Wind," Windom intoned dispassionately in his deeply echoing voice, golden eyes flashing as the leviathan gazed upon its chosen Knight. "I summon thee now to thy duty. Cephiro is in need." Fuu opened her mouth in blank astonishment, unable to respond in the face of the evening's newest wonder. She was allowed no time to salvage her scattered thoughts, however, for well before she had overcome her amazement, a blinding flare of light suddenly blazed in close proximity to the kneeling mashin. Fuu glanced away automatically in an instinctive desire to protect her eyes from the intense radiance. "Windom!" she cried helplessly, unable to interpret this latest phenomenon. When the brightness she could detect even behind her closed eyelids darkened, she looked back at the mashin hastily, then gaped to see not just one, but two huge mechas in the empty street, kneeling impassively side by side.

The new mashin was a beautiful, fiery red that reflected the street lights aggressively, the white and gold elements in its armor shimmering in breathtaking complement. It could be none other than the mystic mecha Fuu knew as Rayearth. She held her breath, hoping against hope . . . . *Hikaru . . . is it . . . are you . . . .* A small distortion of light appeared beside the newly arrived mashin as she watched, and Hikaru, costumed as the Magic Knight of Fire, materialized beside her robotic counterpart.

"HIKARU!!" Fuu cried in relief, dropping her sword to the pavement and sprinting to her friend. The red-haired Knight's eyes lit with joy and she rushed into Fuu's embrace with arms wide open. The two women squeezed each other closely, not speaking, drawing strength from each other's nearness. Identical tears flowed down their faces as they felt the intensity of the reunion, their powers meeting in the aethyr and interweaving subtly. Hikaru was the first to pull back, although she would not loose her grip on her friend's arms. She quickly looked the Wind Knight over, alert for any sign of wounds. "You're OK?" Hikaru asked, meeting Fuu's eyes anxiously. Fuu nodded, glancing past her once more at the silent leviathans waiting patiently together. "Hikaru, what's happening?" she asked, a worried, tense expression adorning her face. "Were you attacked as well? By those - those monsters?"

Hikaru nodded soberly and replied, "Yeah, they attacked just after the gig. My friends - they were right in the middle of everything." She closed her eyes in remembered pain. "If my powers hadn't come to me . . . ." she left the sentence unfinished, the unspoken words abundantly clear. Fuu shook her head and lifted her left hand, gazing at the magical emerald inset on the back of the glove in awe. "How did this happen?" she wondered aloud. Hikaru seized the raised hand, immediately regaining her friend's attention. "We have to get to Umi," she said urgently. "We weren't the only ones attacked." Fuu's eyes widened in frightened realization of the danger the final member of their trio was undoubtedly in. "Explanations will obviously have to wait, then," Fuu said, and ran to retrieve her sword.

Just as she was grasping the green-lacquered hilt, she heard a weak snarl coming from the shadows close by. She glanced up quickly to witness the monster she had ensnared early in the battle with her magic stiffly crawling from its prone position. It appeared to have broken its left leg when she'd allowed it to fall, but it doggedly hobbled towards its target, growling and baring its natural weapons as it shuffled closer. Fuu sighed sadly; she loathed the idea of slaughtering a helpless being, enemy or not. However, she realized that the evil beast would most likely wreak havoc throughout the city of Tokyo if she left it be. So she lifted her sword once more and stepped forward, ready to carry out her self-imposed responsibility . . . .

"Hono no YAAAAAAAA!"

Fuu's ears picked up the commanding cry just as a hotly-flaming arrow streaked past her and slammed unerringly into a malevolent, sulfurous eye, executing the crippled creature instantaneously. The Magic Knight of Wind glanced over her shoulder to see Hikaru standing with hands outstretched, and gently smiled in thanks for her understanding. "Let's get to Umi," Fuu said firmly, returning her sword to its interdimensional resting place.

The two girls' forms dissipated as they merged with their mashins, and the kneeling mechas then disappeared in a bright blaze of light and thunderous sound.

Unbeknownst to the Magic Knights, a video camera's blinking red light flashed steadily in a nearby protected alleyway as it had through the entire battle, taping the extraordinary women as they vanished with their enormous robot-like beings . . . .

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Thursday, November 6: Tokyo, 6 PM

". . . and in latest news, the United Nations is still debating the United States' request to declare war on Iraq . . . ."

Kuu Hououji yawned tiredly as she half-watched the news on her parents' television, struggling to remain alert after a long day of research, her exhausted brain spinning with codons and anticodons. As one of the head geneticists on the National Police Agency's payroll, it wasn't often she could steal a long weekend to spend with her parents in Tokyo. However, she had been adamant about coming home in time to wish her mother a happy birthday in person, gladly trading a few days-off with her contemporaries to make it possible.

*When Fuu gets here tomorrow, we'll have to make sure those reservations we made are still set,* she thought absently, feeling a contented warmth at the idea of seeing her little sister once more. They had kept in fairly close contact over the past few years via phone and computer, but it had been months since they had been able to get time off concurrently. She smiled a little smugly to herself as she reviewed her latest plan to introduce Fuu to a single friend of hers; a pleasant, intellectual man she had been working with for several years. *Little sister, you're going to develop a nice relationship with a male of the species if I have to spend the rest of my life arranging it!*

Satisfied with her scheme, Kuu returned her wandering attention to the television, frowning slightly as her mind settled on the worldwide terrorist hunt that had been conducted for a bit over a year now. *What is up with those religious fanatics? Why can't they just let people believe what they believe? Hey - what's this?* her thoughts were diverted from global hostilities with the sudden arrival of a fresh news update.

"This just in," the newscaster said automatically as she was handed a set of papers from off screen. She paused momentarily, eyes widening and jaw dropping slightly in shock. Then recalling she was still on a live broadcast, she reddened faintly and hastily reported, "Uh, apparently there was . . . somewhat of a miraculous event here in Tokyo; we have an amateur video clip of a girl who had fallen from a high window in an apartment complex . . . hovering in the air before she hit the ground . . . then proceeding to procure a sword and battle what appear to be a trio of . . . demons?" Her voice rose in disbelief before she finished shakily, "Natsu, roll the clip, please."

Kuu kept watching, fascinated, as the story unfolded. The video appeared on the screen, and through the shaky film she could see the silhouette of a body trapped in a whirligig of verdant winds, indeed appearing to hover a meter or two above the sidewalk. Then the winds subsided, and the figure was deposited gently onto its feet. The video panned closer to the small person's face . . . and Kuu inhaled sharply, jumping unconsciously to her feet. "FUU??!!" she yelped in panicked denial.

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