Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz, Sailor Moon, Trigun, Evangelion, Lupin the Third, Outlaw Star, Rurouni Kenshin, G-Gundam, any other Gundam Series, Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, any movies, books, or any songs that are used in this story. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Notice to Readers: To understand certain parts of this story, you'll have to read the other stories before this one. It is recommended by not required.
The DarkTower
Anime's Unite
Chapter 17: The Northern Group
Barret's Wall
It had been only a few minutes since Draco the Beast Master had already led a small piece of the army there. He had led the Sailor Senshi and the Evangelions there hoping that the keeper of the wall, a wizard name Carolinas would be there to let them through. Unfortunately they had found out that it was occupied by forced of the Obsessed, the Frenchmen who taunted them so much with their acid tongues. Though when the Frenchmen had launched a cow at them, that was the last straw, even though Draco (in his dragon form) had eaten the cow whole, he swore that they would free the tower.
The battle at Barret's wall in the northern lands of Mydar had already begun. Draco began to flap his wings above the parapets and turrets of the wall and began to breath fire down upon the Frenchman who tried to fire livestock at him.
Down below, the Senshi and Starlights had already transformed and were ready to storm the wall. They had their sights set upon the great wooden door of the wall. The first to step up to the challenge was Sailor Mars who had called forth her power to conjure and control fire. She held out her hand and the flame appeared like a faerie being commanded by its master. She wrapped her fingers around the flame and watched as the flame began to burn hotter and bright until it had become a fireball in her hand. She brought over her other hand for support of the flame and with two hands the fireball burned even brighter and grew to the size of a basketball. Mars knew that it would do and with one hand she threw the fireball as if it were a stone at the wooden door.
The fireball exploded on contact with the door and within a matter of seconds the wood collapsed from the intense flames. The doorway into the wall was only a large hole with flaming pieces of wood blocking the way. That was until Sailor Neptune stepped up. She brought her hands together interlocking the fingers and from the little crevices between each finger spouted water. It came out much in the same way that water spurts from a facet with a garden hose attached to it. Then Neptune opened her hands and out flowed gallons upon gallons of water unto the fire as if her hands were hoses from a fire truck.
The flowing water had quenced the fire at the gates and seeing their open path the Senshi and the Evangelions took it. They dodged their way into Barret's wall as Draco in his dragon form continued his barrage on the parapets.
They came to a great room beyond the threshold where the wooden door was. It was just an enormous room, all stone for the floors and walls and the ceiling was made of thick wooden beams. The stone walls were covered with tapestries depicting wars almost like historical murals. On both sides of the Great Hall, there were two doors, for of them in all. Each containing a set of stairs that went upward. Coming into the Great Hall the Senshi and Evangelions encountered a great deal of resistance. All of them facing men dressed in light armor and helmets much like the Frenchman who taunted them. Each wave that came at them was just an opportunity to test their new powers.
First up were Sailor Neptune and Mercury, Neptune had done the same trick she used upon the wooden door when it was in flames. Clasping her hands together and allowing the water to flow from them. Its force h ad knocked down the first wave of men coming for them, sending them flat upon their backs then Mercury stepped up. She brought her hand down to the water that pooled upon the stone floor.
Sailor Mercury (Ami) was always the science type, in one class she had (probably chemistry) there was a demonstration of the effects of liquid nitrogen. Ami already knew about its effects but her classmates had to see it themselves. They watched as they froze all kinds of things, erasers, rubber balls, and whatever else that they could freeze (within reason that was). It was like that, as if Ami's hand was made of liquid nitrogen when she froze the water that pooled on the floor and where the enemies were knocked over. The water froze and crystallized into ice as it reached the enemy army, but the ever cautious Ami controlled her new found powers. With control, the enemy was frozen to the flood, hands stuck to the frozen water, armor fused to it, and bound to the ice.
"Incredible." Ami thought to herself about these new powers.
With the next wave of soldiers coming at them, the Senshi and Evangelions saw how outnumbered they were. At least to most of them except for the battle ready Uranus. She stepped up to the challenge like a baseball batter stepping up to the plate at a major game. She raised her hand in the same way that she would do if it were a regular "world shaking" attack. Except she too felt different about her powers, she brought her hand down with the palm facing the oncoming enemy that came at them like a train on a collision course for the Senshi and Evangelions. The palm of her hand faced them as if she were a traffic cop stopping rush hour traffic. Then as if something had flipped the switch, a great wind came from Uranus' hand. The very force was so much that she had to replant her feet upon the stone floor for better support against the wind of her hand. On the other side, the force felt like a great storm that knocked the soldiers over.
With another set of soldiers down they knew collectively that a plan of attack was needed if they were to come out the other side in one piece. That duty fell squarely upon the shoulders of Misato Katsuragi. She assumed command of the cadre of magic users.
"Alright." She said, "Here's the plan."
"Wait." Uranus stopped, "Who put you in charge?"
Misato definitely knew that kind of tone, she had dealt with it several times from Ritsuko as well as Asuka whenever she didn't get her way. Misato looked into the eyes of Sailor Uranus and enforced her level of authority. She approached Uranus and looked at her squarely in the eye. In the animal kingdom amongst alpha males there's always a test of dominance. The first one to look away in that contest of staring each other down is considered the weaker one. That was the contest going on between Major Misato Katsuragi and Sailor Uranus.
"Look, kid." She said as she stared down at her, "Do you want to get out of this alive or not? Then, I suggest you go along with me on battle plans."
Uranus wouldn't back down, "Why should we listen to you?"
Misato raised her finger and shoved it against Uranus' yellow bow and down into her soft flesh, "I'm the only certified military trained officer here, so if you want to live I suggest you do as I say."
Uranus' eye narrowed straight at Misato. She wouldn't be seen as weaker but she was going to have to compromise. In the end she knew that Misato was right.
"What do we do then?" Uranus asked still with that dominance tone in her voice.
"We'll divide into two teams." Misato instructed as the Senshi and Evangelions listened intently to both Misato's instructions and for footsteps of oncoming soldiers, "Shinji, Asuka, Mercury, Venus, the Starlights and I will go look for the keeper of this wall. If he's alive there's a good chance he may know how to take back the wall, while the rest of your keep fighting the soldiers. Agreed?"
"Agreed." The Senshi and Evangelions said in unison
With the agreement made the strange fellowship had split themselves into two parties and each went their separate ways. At least they did that after a few minutes of trying to figure out where to go.
"Which way do we go?" Shinji asked in hurried panic
"Well, you're the great Third Child, you do something!" Asuka said in her usual high and mighty tone.
Shinji took a deep breath and held out his hand with his palm face down. IN same manuals about psychic practices, what Shinji was trying to do, would be known as dowsing. In that he would have to reach about with his mind to find something that is missing or cannot be seen. It was like that time in the cave when Rei had shown her new talent as well as when they had seen the other Senshi display their talents.
Shinji also felt like there was something extra there within him, something saying, "I'm here" and he was listening. In his minds eye everything was dark, but all that changed when he focused hard enough like arriving at an answer to a math problem. With his concentration going full force, all other sounds were blocked out until he could hear the beating of his heart.
With each beat of his heart, Shinji could "see" even clearer, he could see a cell. A dungeon cell with an old man in a green robe trapped inside it.
"Where is it?" Shinji demanded of his new gift
His vision became crystal clear with that demand his mind's eye could see right through the walls as if there was only him and the prisoner. He looked only a little to the left and there was the prisoner waiting to be released, the vision was definite to him. Shinji opened his eyes and looked to the left staircase nearest to the door.
"That way!" Shinji pointed, then dashed up the stairs.
With that direction, the rest of the Evangelions, along with Sailor Mercury, Venus, Fighter, Healer, and Maker followed him. It was rather odd to those who knew Shinji the best to be so assertive. Normally, Shinji would just go along with whatever anyone told him. He truly has changed ever since they came to the lands of Mydar. To Misato she almost felt like a parent being proud of her child for their great achievement. Asuka on the other hand felt a little floored by the changes within Shinji.
The hallway that the stairs led to was populated by doors on both sides, much like the hallways of a hotel. The only difference was that there were no numbers or symbols of any kind. The hallway was long and thin, until they saw a small crossing, seeing it coming, Shinji stopped.
"What is it, Third Child?" Asuka asked
"I sense someone's coming" Shinji reported, "But I can't tell how many."
In the back, Sailor Venus had that same small moment to herself. Just like the rest of the Senshi as well as Shinji Ikari. Except for her it wasn't anything eye opening about her powers. It was more about what she was carrying.
The Ring.
Venus looked at the ring and just like the others before her, instincts started to take over. She took the ring in her hand and she spoke up to the others.
"I'll scout ahead." She said
"How do you plan to do that?" Misato asked curiously
Sailor Venus took the ring and displayed it to the others like a magician showing a soft foam ball that he was going to do a trick with. She slipped the ring over her left gloved hand onto her ring finger, and just like a magicians trick, Sailor Venus vanished in the blink of an eye.;
"Where did she go?" Star Maker asked
"I'm right here." Venus' voice called out, "I'm going to go ahead."
Even though the others couldn't see, Venus was on her way down the hallway. Even though Venus was invisible she still felt that hot and sweaty nervous tension. The same kind that a child gets when sneaking out of bed to get some late night snacks or watch late night television that the parents don't want the kids to see. So, Venus was cautious as she turned the corner and found what she set out to find. Just a few feet around the corner were a group of soldiers talking amongst themselves. Venus kept reminding herself that she was invisible by looking down at herself and seeing only the floor. No shoes, legs, skirt, fuku, or gloves, nothing was there.
She took careful steps towards the soldiers. Despite all the reminders of her being invisible she was still careful in approaching. Until she came within listening distance of them, but it seemed pointless once she started to listen to the language they used. Venus herself had a hard time grasping some foreign languages but the one she was hearing the soldiers speak was so bizarre to her ears that she couldn't make heads or tails of it. Again, she reminded herself why she was there; she looked at them and counted them.
One…two…three…
"Eight." She thought to herself, as she turned around and stepped away, until she turned that same corner and she felt relieved and completely in the clear. Back in bed with the late night snacks and the parents never knew that the kids had done the deed. With a breath of relief, Venus took off the magic ring and dashed her way back to the others to report what she had found around the corner.
"How many?" Misato asked
"Eight of them." Venus reported, "They didn't suspect a thing that I was there."
"Good." Misato nodded, "Now, Maker, Fighter, and Healer. You three will be the first attack wave. Surprise will be in our favor. The second wave will be Mercury, Venus, Shinji, and Asuka. Got it?"
"Got it." They said in unison
"Let's move." Misato signaled and so Misato's team moved down the hall with the Starlights in the front, as the first attack wave. It was safe to say that no one within that group was new to battle or war. Every single person has dealt with war on one level or another.
They had turned around that same corner that Venus went around with such nervous tension, but this time all of them were going forward and never looking back. The Starlights charged full force against the soldiers, they came down the halls, the sound of their boots alerting the soldiers, and they too came at the Starlights shouting in their own language. All eight of them drawing out their swords just ready as could be but not for what was going to happen next.
"Star Serious Laser!" Star Fighter shouted
"Star Gentle Uterus!" Star Maker shouted
"Star Sensitive Inferno!" Star Healer shouted
All three attacks had knocked down all eight of the oncoming soldiers. The Starlights stood together shoulder to shoulder seeing how they had won with the rest of their comrades catching up to them.
"Well, so much for the second attack wave." Mercury assessed.
The barrage upon and within Barret's Wall had continued on and on through the hours of the day. For Draco raining fire upon the soldiers on the parapets, and the Sailor Senshi with the Evangelions fighting the enemy, the day seemed so short that all those hours seemed just like a split slice in the day. Every member discovering their new found powers; Mercury over ice, Venus over the hearts of the enemy, Sailor Moon with her ability to heal those who were injured, Mars' fire conjuring, Jupiter's control of lightning, Saturn and her destructive powers of matter and energy, Uranus over the winds, Neptune over the waters, and Pluto with time. The Evangelions also were slowly discovering their own unique gifts, despite how similar they were to the Senshi, but still had their own uniqueness. Shinji being able to do the dowsing technique, he also found out that like Neptune he had the power to control water. Asuka on the other hand found out that she could conjure and control fire, which was ironic that she could control fire but she couldn't control her temper. At least t hat's what the Senshi had discovered so far about her, she reminded them of one very vocal member, but they never said who it was aloud. Those were the gifts that the Senshi and Evangelions had discovered so far, but who knows what other gifts that they had locked away?
Misato's team had followed Shinji's directions, every-so-often they would stop so that Shinji could keep track of which direction that they were going. To Shinji each time that he closed his eyes it was like putting on X-ray glasses. The kind that supposedly say allow the wearer to see what was underneath the surface. That was simply a trick, what Shinji did was a true talent. Closing his eyes all the walls would vanish and the old man in the green robes was clearer and much closer.
Shinji opened his eyes and saw that he was standing at a door.
"This is it." He said as he reached out and turned the knob and opened the door. When the door opened, Shinji looked in and saw only darkness there. The others came up behind him.
"Asuka." Misato ordered, "A little light."
Asuka clenched her fist, and then opened it up again, and there in her hand was a little dancing flame. She came to Shinji' side and she had brought light into the darkness. Within the darkened place beyond the door they saw a set of stairs.
"I should go first." Asuka said snobbishly, "I'm the fire bearer."
"Go right ahead." Star Fighter said but then whispered to Maker, "Better her than us."
"What was that?" Asuka shouted
"Nothing." Star Fighter immediately putting on her innocent looking face
"Enough." Misato stepped in, being the adult of the situation, "Go first, Asuka."
With a narrow very leery look in her eye at Star Fighter, Asuka went ahead. Then again, Asuka at first wanted to hit on Seiya when they first met back at that gave, but not after finding out that he could change genders. But Asuka was always picky about those kinds of things, but with Kaji she would have torn her clothes off and gladly bent over for him.
Asuka took her steps down into the darkness, which was only a few steps before she came to stable ground. With the flame in her hand, she intensified it and looked around. She as well as the rest of Misato's team found the place to be very dark and dank indeed. It's naturally stone mason floors, walls, and ceiling. The floor strewn with draw, iron bars covering doors to each cell, and shackles bolted to the stone walls in each cell.
"Definitely the dungeon." Star Fighter whispered
"Hey, someone's there!" A voice called out from one of the many cells down the narrow passage way. "Hey! Let us out you French speaking motherfuckas!"
"Quite a mouth that one has." Star Maker had assessed
The group moved forward with Asuka giving the light and they came to a set of cells where the first thing they saw was a man right at the bars. He looked quite raggedy in the light of Asuka's flame. He had long dirty blonde hair under and equally dirty snow cap, a long coat, and very messy looking clothes. While sitting on the far side of the cell was a bearded man with a backwards baseball hat, long hair, long coat, all tattered and dirty.
"Hey, what's up baby?" The blonde hair man said, his voice very raspy, "What's up, sluts?"
"Well, I never!" Star Healer shouted
"Hey, mind gettin' us out?" The blonde hair man asked, "I don't know how long its been since I've had a blunt and I'm ready to kill a motherfucka for one."
"He really does have quite a mouth." Sailor Venus observed
"Don't mind him." An old and very gentle voice said
Misato's team turned around and found another jailed man. He was just as dirty as the first two that they ahd discovered. Except this man was very old, he had a very long gray beard that reached down to the hem of his green robe. On top of his head was a green skull cap with designs of stars and crescent moons on them. He came up to the bars wrapping his long old fingers around the bars.
"Who are you?" Mercury asked
"I am Carolinas the Green Wizard and Keeper of Barret's Wall." He introduced, "And the one with the mouth is my nephew Jay and behind him is his friend Silent Bob."
"We've come with Draco the Beast Master." Shinji interjected
"Holy shit!" Jay shouted, "Draco's here, then that means we'll be free to score some fatties!"
"Please, sir." Mercury said, "Stand back."
Carolinas did so, and Mercury brought her hand over the key hole of the jail cell. With Asuka's light they saw ice starting to crystallize around Mercury's hand. Creeping all around the lock and coming up to the bars. At that point she stopped, stepped back, and gave the door a really good hard kick. The lock cracked and split into pieces and then shattered even more upon the stony floor and the door banged against the iron bars as it came fully open.
Carolinas stepped out with such a great smile on his face that he looked a lot like Santa Claus. Mercury then brought her attention to the cell with Jay and Silent Bob in it. She did the same thing, froze the door lock and kicked the door open.
"That was cool." Jay smiled, "Now, let's go get my stash, bitch!"
"Not yet, young Jay." Carolinas said, "First, I'd like to thank all of you for freeing us all."
"Let's get out of this dungeon already!" Jay shouted
"Please, forgive Jay." Carolinas apologized, "He just gets crotchety sometimes."
"Remind you of anyone?" Star Fighter had asked Shinji in a very rhetorical tone
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Asuka asked with her tempter making the flame burn brighter in her hand.
"Yo, calm the fuck down, bitch." Jay suggested crudely, "What you need is a fatty boom batty blunt and a little honey in your hive, you under sexed bitch."
"How dar you talk to me like that!" Asuka screamed as she tried to smack Jay but since Jay was so much taller than Asuka her attempts were really futile.
"Alright! Alright!" Jay tried to calm down the fiery tempered Asuka, then turned to his silent compatriot and whispered, "Jesus, this bitch is bitchy. Whole fuckin' worlds against us Silent Bob, swear to God."
As the sun began to set, the battle had died down and was won by Draco, the Sailor Senshi and the Evangelions. Barret's Wall had been taken back from the forces of the Obsessed. It seemed that a battle had been won in the name of a good fight…a good cause.
After the battle was over, all of them, Draco, Carolinas, Jay, Silent Bob, the Sailor Senshi, and the Evangelions met in the library. It seemed that Carolinas' Library had been untouched by the ones who had taken over the wall.
"At least they had some decency." Carolinas said as he looked over to cheek and make sure every single book was still there.
The library was located on the second level of the castle within Barret's Wall. The room where the library was situated was tall to accommodate for the exposed extra two floors that had their own elegant wooden catwalks, along with the cast iron spiral staircases at select points to access the higher levels. Far above them all was a circular stain glass window for a ceiling with all kinds of colors and patterns in its design.
All around there were hundreds and hundreds of books upon the shelves that reached up to that stain glass ceiling. While on the ground floor there was a large work table wthat had class containers and pieces that looked like they were part of a chemistry set; beakers, test tubes, graduated cylinders, and so on. Upon the work table there were papers and notebooks strewn all over it as if the Green Wizard had been working on something before the wall was taken.
"Let's see, I'm sure it's here somewhere." Carolinas said as he went about his search.
While in the rest of the library were all kinds of chairs, couches, as well as love seats where the Evangelions and Senshi sat. For a few who had allowed curiosity to come over them, such as Minako (Sailor Venus, who, like the other Senshi had transformed back to their original state) was looking around at the different books. All of them were hard back editions each of them written in languages she had never laid eyes upon.
Ami Mizuno (Sailor Mercury) on the other hand was looking at the various items upon Carolinas' work table. She looked at the loose pieces of paper using her own intellect and knowledge that she had. Some of the pieces of paper seemed to be about some kind of machine with the illustrations she saw but the language was so strange she couldn't read it.
"Ah! Here it is." Carolinas called out, as he held a rolled up scroll in his hand.
"What were you looking for?" Misato asked as the Green Wizard came down the stairs
"The map to the Lands of Mydar." Carolinas explained as he rolled out the scroll in his hand onto the work table, over the books, papers, glass chemistry containers, and notebooks. On the map with the Senshi and Evangelions gathering around it they saw a land filled with rivers, mountains, forests, and towns with the word Mydar written at the bottom right corner. Carolinas had laid his old long finger down upon the map in the upper section with the name "Barret's Wall" near it.
"Here we are." Carolinas said, "And you need to go south of Barret's Wall to the town of Hiker's point from there you follow the road to the City of Nash."
"Why can't we fly there?" Asuka asked, "Draco got us here like that."
"The Obsessed may spot you." Carolinas explained, "There's a bus here at our garage that you can take to Nash."
"Let's go then." Draco said
"Can't we rest first?" Usagi whined
"Time's against us." Draco said with a quick tone, "We must keep moving."
"Very well then." Carolinas said, "We'll pack up the bus and send you on your way."
The Sailor Senshi, Evangelions, and with Draco at the wheel they headed southward. The small bus that they were given wasn't exactly anything like what they had seen before. It was large and yellow, the seats were covered in plastic leather, and the divers seat was bouncy each time it was sat upon, but there was room enough for everyone.
They had gone past the small town of Hiker's Point where they picked up some supplies and continued to head down to the road as the stars began to fill up the sky and to the direct south they could see they very thing that they were questing for…the Dark Tower that seemed to be blacker than the night sky itself. It sat upon a small island out in the middle of a lake that was larger than anything that they had seen in their lives. Even the tower itself seemed so much larger than any building in any major city that they had been to. It seemed like a sharp void in the beautiful array of stars above.
As the night came upon them, the Senshi and Evangelions fell asleep. The only ones that were still awake were Draco at the wheel and Shinji Ikari who kept looking out the window at the Dark Tower in the distance. So much had happened in only the course of one day, Shinji had discovered new powers within himself like all the others. Even with his new powers he could still feel something out there, something familiar like a scent that would bring back the fondest of memories.
Shinji had closed his eyes and tried to view what it was that he could vaguely sense. All went dark in his minds eye as he sped forward across the lands of Mydar as if he were traveling on a beam of light. At last something was within his vision. He could see the back of someone, he could see their cloths but not the back of their head. Shinji tried to go closer, but as he reached out to the persons shoulder, the vision stopped.
Shinji opened his eyes as if he had awakened from a dream. He looked back at the Dark Tower.
"I will find out." He thought to himself as he fell asleep with Asuka at his side, and the bus going ever onward to the City of Nash at the foot of the Dark Tower.
To be continued…