Haibane Renmei: C O R P O R A T I O N

by ArkNorth

Chapter Sixteen - Circumstances Beyond Their Control - How can a child not want to meet their father they never knew? Puruu seeks to find him. Rakka must deal with someone stuck where they can't seem to get out of. Nemu must face her new reality. Kinza must deal with the results of what he committed to.

8. Observers, Overseers and Aliens

2011 REVISION

HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION

Chapter Eight

Observers, Overseers and Aliens

By R. A. Stott

"Commander on deck!"

"Report!"

A young Ensign trotted up to the base of the Captain's Loft as the second in command of the ship climbed to the top, two half floors above the bridge's flight deck. The junior officer flipped a clipboard device out from under his arm and started reciting to his senior from it.

"Sir, we have six ships out mapping the outer edges of the shielded areas of the sub-dimensional levels. Since these sub-levels are so close to the primary level that supports it, determination on just where the shields start and end for each is being difficult. The Astrometrics lab and the chief programmer are still working on a solution to automatically rotate the scanner harmonics…"

The Commander nodded. "Have we figured out the actual entry level frequency modulation to pass through them yet?" he asked as he punched up readouts on his control boards that surrounded the Captain's seat.

The Ensign shook his head. "No sir, not yet," he said. "And technically, The Corporation is not allowed to tell us the codes either. We could try a wide spectrum signal, but it would alert everyone that we were here."

"Which would kind of ruin our observations, now wouldn't it?" the Commander pointed out with a smirk. "Though it's not like they don't already know that we're up here… so much for the low-keyed approach. How many Widgets do we have available?"

The Ensign tapped on the board in his hands. "We have six available, with the seventh and eighth under construction. Are you considering using one, sir?"

He tapped on his lip with his thumb. "They take weeks to build new ones," he murmured to himself. "But, it would get us those frequencies without letting our location be known."

"And the Captain has made it clear that they're only for special occasions where the ship or the mission would be in jeopardy if they weren't used," the Ensign added. The Commander looked down at him.

"Well, it's good to hear you've been listening to your teachers, cadet," he told him. "Have the pod-gang ready one, but only up to stage one, okay?"

"Yes sir," the Ensign replied with a series of additional taps to his PADD. "We haven't been told exactly what a Widget fully does, sir… only that they're only to be used as a last resort."

The Commander leaned back. "Well, I wouldn't make it sound like it's such a desperate thing… they're just so difficult and touchy to make and keep that you need to choose your uses wisely."

The Ensign scratched his head with his PADD. "So just what does it do?" he asked.

The Commander looked at the ceiling. "Well, you do understand that everything emits a frequency, right?"

The Ensign nodded. "If it has mass, it has a frequency," he recited from his text.

"Right, even if that mass is energy, gas, solid, liquid, what have you," the Commander continued. "A Widget is designed to take a snap-shot of every frequency within a given universe, and then decipher them."

"Isn't that kind of… impossible?" he asked.

"No… not really," the Commander replied. "There's been devices to read frequencies like that for a very long time, just not as accurate, precise, and thorough. It can also calculate and predict variable frequencies."

The Ensign thought about that for a moment. "Wouldn't that overload it quickly though? I mean, that sounds like a burn out waiting to happen."

"That's why S.A.M. has that great huge memory bank that you're standing on, Ensign," the man at the helm station said. "Widgets fry themselves almost as soon as they're released."

"Right, without the S.A.M. System, a Widget is useless," the Commander finished. "When they are set loose, they take their readings and flash-download into S.A.M., who then is capable of slowly digesting it as needed."

"Yes, but didn't I hear something about loosing all the data that the previous Widget did?" the Ensign asked while looking at all the readout stations on the second tier on the loft. On a busy mission day, each post would have been manned by a crewperson. But at the moment, only one girl was at the post at the far end of the row.

"Only if we don't do a data-dump to the S.A.M. Master Core on Deniva," the Commander noted, "which we haven't as of yet, which is another reason why we only want to use one of them as a last resort, otherwise, we'll need to go back to our last mission and redo those readings."

"Which, I would also assume, is why we are using these old-styled sensor probes around these zones here to try and detect their shield frequencies?" the Ensign surmised with a gesture towards a monitor showing the pod launchers deploying large round orbs that, once clear of the ship, extended a bristling array of antennas. They then moved into groups as they awaited commands.

"That would be why," the Commander agreed as he tapped on some of his monitor's controls to see what was going on outside the ship. "Make sure the P-Gang understands that I want ONLY stage one, okay? Any higher would start activating things that could ruin the Widget, or worse, start a download purge of S.A.M.'s data banks. Got that?"

"Yes sir," the Ensign snapped to. "In the mean time, I would assume that our flight will be watching over the deployment of the sensor probes?"

The Commander lifted his large glasses and rubbed his right eye. "That would be correct. Who's on the watch then?"

"Mr. Kinza, sir…" the young officer said as he looked down his PADD. "He's in ship number twelve."

The Commander raised an eyebrow. "What's he doing in my Scat-Back?" he jokingly pondered seeing he was the one who had told him to use that particular small one-man fighter. He punched up a monitor next to himself.

"Forrestal to Scat-Back Twelve… You got me Kinza?" the Commander asked the screen.

"Mr. Button! What got you out of bed at this god-awful hour in the morning?" the pilot mockingly asked.

The Commander looked at the normal Captain's chair and swapped it with his custom unit from his normal post at the science station, which fit his round orb-shaped body better. "Duty, diligence and service," he mumbled through weeping eyes. "Serves me right, getting the late-night shift after I spent the last twenty hours helping set all the probes with the P-Gangs for this run."

There was a laugh over the comm. "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."

Mr. Button planted himself in his chair and now rubbed both eyes and smiled. "Great. I'm getting philosophy from someone whose probably shedding all over my ship's controls."

"Hey, I combed out all my knots this morning," the furry officer at the helm of the small fighter craft stated as he swept his right paw over his left arm in a mock attempt to scatter some of his hair on the equipment. This bemused Mr. Button.

"What's your status, Mr. Kinza?" he asked.

He looked out of the small ship's canopy at the assembling of probes. "We'll be ready to do our scans as soon as you get that big boat of yours out of the way," he cracked.

"A boat?" the Commander laughed. "You'd better not let the Captain hear you call her that!" He nodded to the man at the helm station below him. "Bring us up Mr. Tolefson."

"Leaving lower scanning field – Z plus fifteen thousand meters," the helmsman replied to the command as he drew back on his controls.

Thrusters below the massive starship rumbled to life as it lifted out of the area the six smaller ships were about to work in. Below them sat seven suspended lands, each with their own unique ecologies and terrains. They in turn were anchored to locations scattered across the planet they served, yet, in this transient space they dwell in between the universes, they remain clustered together in a chain of seven, the land below them only a ghostly reminder to them that they once were part of the surface.

"This is a very different place that we will be observing on this mission," the captain had explained to his crew. "We have been brought in to do our normal duties by my superior commander, but it will also be our job to investigate him, as well as well his rival. This is a unique universe, especially since it is only one dimensional level below our own. When things occur here, they tend to transgress into our world in one form or the other. The Holy Sites have dimensional shields that are designed to allow some foreign objects through such as birds, water, oxygen and those things required to allow the sites to remain constant with their original earthly homes. These same shields will play havoc with our instruments, and are designed to keep object like this ship out. So stay vigilant and be ready for almost anything."

Dante looked up from his desk at the tall dark-haired stranger with the piercing blue eyes and a scowl that would make men's spines quiver. He was holding out a simple business card and had a slight smile on his lips which seemed strangely out of place.

"O-overseer?" the communications rep asked from his seat. He took the card and looked it over.

"Amethyst," it read. "Phoenix Guild," was under it in gold letters.

"The Phoenix Guild?" Dante yelped as he stood up with the card clenched to his face. "Yes! Yes sir! How may I help a Phoenix?"

The man shook his head. "No - no, you have me wrong," he said. "I am simply the advanced lead. I am the protector to the Phoenix."

Dante's eyes drew smaller. "A… a Celestial?" he asked with a near whimper in his voice. "W-what is a Celestial doing here in the Corporation building? You need clearance, don't you?"

The man shook his head again with a look of simple, yet arrogant denial on his face. "Not at all… I only need permission to visit the Seven Jewels," he explained as he straightened his business suit. "Now, may I see your director?"

Plato scowled at his copy of the business card. "Corporate overseers, ea?" he grumbled. "Why have the Phoenix Guild decided that this is now in their jurisdiction? We were expecting the Denivan, not you."

The man straightened himself in the office chair across from the director. "The Phoenix feels that this is a near breech of the Treaty of Set that was ratified by both sides nearly two thousand years ago," he replied smugly. "The Denivan may be able to moderate, but they are not the protector of the Treaty – the Guild is."

"Yet still," Plato snorted, "the Guild decided only to come in after the death of the Saint, and the announcement of moderators. Besides, I thought that the Guild said that the situation here was unique and that they would allow local management to handle it."

"And have you?" the man asked. "Your chief scientist is now within the Haibane… An angel and a demon are openly defying your own rules by being present at the same time in the Jewels… and a SAINT died… The two sides of this… squabble are nearly at blows, and as you pointed out, it required the bringing in of… heh… moderators."

Plato sat back but never took his eyes off the man. "It's still under our control," he said defiantly, "unless the Phoenix intends to step in, so to speak."

The man grinned and brushed his knee. "Not at all," he said. "Phoenix is only concerned about the upset that this has brought between the two sides. Order must be maintained. This circumstance was quite upsetting to them, especially since it seems that the basement was partly responsible for the loss of the Saint, since it was their powers that was used to shove him out of his prison… a rather forcible way to come out, wasn't it?"

"It was an even loss," Plato replied. "The basement lost the demon that came from Stryker as well. Both sides regret what happened. Besides, we don't know whether the demon that came out with Stryker was really responsible for his death."

Amethyst sat up. "Really? And where did you get this information? Phoenix had not been told of this."

Plato smiled and leaned forwards with his hands crossed under his chin. "It does have its advantages to have someone on the inside," he said with a smirk.

Ptolemy sneezed.

"Bless you," Rakka said in an almost catatonic state. The loss of the Saint was playing hard on her. Was it going to bring a war to them? Could she have done something about it? Was there anything anybody could have done to prevent it?

"Blast it all…" she heard, popping her thoughts. She looked at the young man beside her and at the litany of papers he had strewn across the guest room table with notes and equations he had scribbled across them. "This doesn't make sense," he harrumphed. "By my calculations, Striker Aries should be alive and kicking right now – the closing of the shield should not have prevented his rising."

"Could something have drained his energy?" Nemu asked as she nibbled on a scone at the other end of the table.

Ptolemy rubbed the temporary reading glasses he had been given by Dr. McManus and shrugged. "Has to have been," he said. "Why else would it have taken all our energy and more to pull a perfectly normal archangel out of the demon form? He hadn't been corrupted from what I'm seeing in my readings. Even the demon should have simply repaired its wounds and stood up. Something else is involved here, and I need to find out what it is… ow…"

Rakka watched him grab his shoulder. "Are you all right Claudius?" she asked as she stood up.

He shook his head. "It's just a twinge… probably those wings they said I had." He then found her rubbing his shoulder blades. "Ohhh yea… that feels nice," he cooed.

"Oh, there you are, already in the arms of another woman I see," he heard. He looked up and saw his wife smirking at him from the doorway.

"Oh, hey honey," the boy said with a twinge of red streaking across his face. "What are you doing here? Aren't you close to your thirty hours?"

She laughed as she pulled a chair up and sat next to Nemu. "I have a few hours left," she said as she placed a small power pack on the table. "I thought you could use this, just in case."

"Ah, the cell phone charger - thanks," he said taking the small brick-like unit and plugging the dying battery-driven device into it. It was then he noticed how few receptacles there were around. The first two did not work. He finally found one in the bathroom in the lowly and dim fluorescent fixture over the sink that worked, but only just. The shape of the socket and the form of the plug made for an odd fit.

"Well, that might just work," he noted as he left the bathroom. But when he turned towards the others in the guestroom, he found them all looking out towards the balcony. "What? Did I miss something?"

"Umm… Sol just came in here with a boy Haibane that I've never seen before," Rakka answered him. "When we told them you were in the bathroom, they said that they'd wait out there for you."

"Sol?" he asked. He looked at the guest bed and saw the two wing-forms sitting there. He stepped over to the open doors and looked out. The two of them were sitting on the edge of the wall holding hands and simply looking out at the courtyard. He examined the boy and drew a big sigh.

He pinched his eyes and did a few small circles inside the doorway. "Oh great," he mumbled and stepped out. "Jester, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked the boy.

Janice was beside Ptolemy in an instant. "Jester? Where? I thought something was odd when I didn't see him in the services-way earlier!"

Sol sat in disbelief as the others looked around for the little green demon as Ptolemy stood staring at the boy. "How? How did you know?" she asked him.

The young-old man scoffed. "Sol dear, I know all my 'children'," he explained. "Besides, this is not a Haibane… the wings are too large, and the halo is tinged red!" He then stepped up to Jester and examined the ring over his head much closer.

"Jester… that isn't what I think that is, is it?" he whispered to him.

"Ahem…" the boy coughed and grinned. "It called me… use me it said… keep can I?"

He glanced up at the ring and shook his head. "I bet Reki's got an itch up there right now…"

What Reki had at that moment was twelve proto-angels diving down and teasing her while she swatted at them with a broom.

"ATCHOO!" she sneezed.

Ptolemy looked at the Haibane from Tripoli and smirked. "When did he arrive?" he asked.

Sol looked at the deck as she drew a circle with her toe. "Yesterday," she said. "He claims that Plato let him in."

Ptolemy slapped his hand over his eyes. "Left the gate open again, didn't he?" he noted mostly to himself. He looked up and saw the girl nod. "I knew it," he grumbled as he looked back at his wife. She was just standing with a look of disbelief on her face. The others looked simply confused trying to figure out just who the strange boy was.

"So what exactly are you doing here?" he asked the demon again.

"He wants to stay with me while I'm here in Glie," Sol explained for him as he simply nodded to what she was saying. "I told him that only you could give him that permission."

Ptolemy looked back at Janice. She was shaking her head.

"We haven't figured out just how we were going to get her back to Tripoli yet," she said with some trepidation in her voice. She noticed the look on her young husband's face and knew that wasn't what he was looking for.

Ptolemy looked up at the sky above them and sighed. "Gabrella!" he yelled out. "I know you're watching this!"

"I always said that we needed representation here in the holy sites," she laughed as she appeared over them. "I have been watching, ever since they were frolicking about in the field yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful!" She batted her eyes in a mocking way. She looked down and saw the expression she was getting from the scientist and nearly broke out laughing. "What?" she asked.

Ptolemy walked over and took Jester by the arm and moved him a few feet away. He whispered something into his ear that no one could hear. Jester looked at him, looked away at a bird that flew by, then stared at his feet.

"Yes," he said.

Ptolemy rubbed his chin as he made another few short spinning turns on the deck. He then returned Jester to Sol's side and looked up at Gabrella, who was still floating over them.

"You know, I think I'm going to allow this," he said. "Jester has been a help already, even though he's partly responsible for my being here like this…"

The boy grimaced and looked over the edge of the balcony as if he needed a possible escape route in a hurry.

"Me sorry," he said quietly. "Me want Sol to with be."

"Does he talk that way normally?" Rakka asked.

"He fell on his head numerous times as an imp," his sister snorted as she lighted on the edge of the balcony with her clawed toes.

"Then again," Ptolemy said with a harrumph, "he is still illegally here… Let me think about it…" He turned and walked back into the guest room leaving everyone looking back at him.

"Absolutely not!" Dr. McManus said as she took his temperature.

"What do you mean?" Ptolemy asked while clutching the thermometer between his teeth as she took his blood pressure. "Jester is here without permission!"

The doctor, who had arrived shortly afterwards, scowled at him and pointed out the doorway to the two on the balcony. "Did you see her wings?" she asked. "You couldn't ask for better medication! When I looked at them yesterday, they were almost as bad as the day those wing forms were put on them. Now look at them! They're practically renewed!"

Ptolemy looked at the newly created feathers on the back of the girl from Tripoli. They were indeed a better sight than what was there just the day before. "So you're saying that his being here is good for her?"

"It's a rather obvious conclusion, isn't it?" the doctor noted. The scientist had to shrug and agree. "Now, as for you…"

Ptolemy looked at her. "What about me?" he asked.

She slipped the scanning rod back into its holder and sat back in her chair. "You're about two hours away from your thirty hour limit," she pointed out. "Given the amount of energy you spent on those wings yesterday…"

"I still don't remember having them," he said while shaking his head and running his hand through his full batch of youthful hair. He then was presented with a small scanner reader with a still playback of him with the appendages dangling on his back.

"You did look a little odd without the halo," McManus laughed. "But, those are the wings of a Haibane."

"Are they?" Ptolemy asked. "Look at them – they're huge… almost flight worthy. How the hell did I not feel those on my back?"

The doctor shrugged. "Post traumatic syndrome maybe?"

Ptolemy shook his head. "No, I've been examining my presence here as well. Even my cocoon is different. Look at this, it's still here," he said as he drew the box of fragmented parts out from under the table. "See? It should have dissolved by now, yet here it is as hard as… a rock?"

The shell suddenly crumbled in his hands as if it were a simple foam block. He looked up at her in near shock.

"I've spent my energy! I've got to get out, quickly!"

It was a mad scrambled dash out the door and down the path from Old Home.

"Doctor! Doctor!" Rakka yelled as she followed behind her as they ran up the road towards the center of town. "What is wrong?"

"We have to catch up to his wife…" the doctor said nearly out of breath as she continually ran her scanner over him. "…before he looses all his energy!"

Sol was on one of Ptolemy's arms, Rakka was on the other while Jester carried his legs. Claudius had gone from a slightly-panicked teenager to nearly limp in just a few moments after leaving the buildings behind them. The two Haibane and the Demon had to pick him up and were now jogging up the road towards town. The Doctor was beside them taking readings and injecting Ptolemy with stimulants.

"Where did she go?" Rakka asked as she nearly tripped while looking for Janice.

McManus looked at her reader as she brought up the entry point The Corporation officer had used. "Door two seven nine – the back of the bakery!"

"Hikari should be there," Rakka said as they stopped for a moment to catch their breaths. She looked at the boy that they were carrying and saw an odd sight. He looked older, but in a more diminished way – as if the life energy was being sucked out of him.

"Pops, what is happening to you?" she asked him as they lifted him up again.

"I told you before," he wheezed. "I'm not allowed in Glie for very long… it's the reason why I can't come through the gate. I have a time-limit on how long I can be here… otherwise I simply shrivel up."

"But you came out of a cocoon!" Sol cried. "How can you have a limit still?"

He shook his head. "This is god's reminder that I still have a job to do – it's not finished," he coughed.

"We've got to get him to that doorway," McManus said. "It's the only one open at this time!"

"Only one?" Rakka asked as they made a lopsided turn towards the town proper. "Why only one?"

"Security of course," a voice from over top them said. It was Gabrella as she appeared once again from above. She then lighted on the ground nearby with a stern look on her face. "To keep those unwanted in here out."

"I'm not here to quibble, Madam Secretary," the doctor interjected, "but you do know that isn't the whole truth."

"It still serves that purpose," the demon snorted as she stepped up to the trio carrying Ptolemy. "You'll never get there in time… I will take him."

Before anyone could say anything to the contrary, she had gathered his body up in her arms and was stroking the air hard with her wings heading for town.

Janice stared at the large open door to the walk-in starting oven. Why did they have to choose this portal that day?

"It's not really an oven," Hikari explained with a slight bow. "It's just the room we let the fresh loaves rise in, and it gets a bit warm because of it."

"Would you mind going through already?" one of the bakers quipped at Janice. "I need to transfer my stock to the main ovens!"

She blinked and replied, "Oh, yes… I'm sorry…" as she awoke from her momentary stupor. She took a step towards the swirling green portal that was temporarily in the oven's doorway.

"Hold on that!" she heard and felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to find Katherine there.

"Oh, hello!" she said with a start. "Hold? Why? What's wrong?"

The goddess pointed behind them out the doorway. The backlit silhouette of her rival and Ptolemy stood there waiting room to enter, which quickly came when the bakers saw who it was.

"You must take him with you," Katherine told Janice as Gabrella looked at the emerald opening to the transfer portal. "His time here in Glie is over for now."

Janice looked at her husband in the arms of the Demon-Goddess. He was indeed showing advanced signs of age decay, the process they would go through if they did stay too long in one of the Holy Sites. She looked back at the doorway and gasped.

"I need to carry him through to the other side of that?" she asked. When she turned back, she caught a nasty expression from Gabrella.

"For a supposed greater being, you sure are chicken," she remarked as she stepped up to the doorway. She then gave what sounded like a bird-call into the green atmosphere. An imp appeared from the mist to her cry.

"Gather your comrades," Gabrella told it. "Assist in carrying Ptolemy home. I expect NO problems, understand?"

The imp seemed to flinch when she pointed out that it was to give safe passage to the human side of the wall. It clapped its hands together and held them up. Then thousands of hands appeared in a trail that vanished into the distance. Gabrella placed Ptolemy's body on them and they started to pass him along.

The demon looked down on the human woman beside her. "Follow him," she said to her. "If there are any problems, let me know." With that she vanished, as did Katherine.

"Umm… did I miss something?" Hikari asked. "Isn't Mr. Ptolemy a Haibane now?"

Janice entered the void without answering her. As she did, the green zone faded and only unbaked bread remained, leaving only the confused bakers and Haibane behind.

"Koi… Jester… must tell Koi about Jester…"

"Yes? Yes? Go on…"

"Demon hunter… Koi is a demon hunter… he will attack Jester… could injure Sol… Must tell Koi…"

"Indeed, you must… but will you?"

"Must… Must… Must…"

There was a rustling of feathers, and then silence.

Ptolemy sat upright. He was now in an old familiar bed in a modern apartment. He looked around and saw all the items he and his wife had collected and displayed over the years… he was home.

He drew in a sigh and held it. An old rattle ran through him – one he hadn't heard for a few days. He looked at his hands and saw old fingers. He tossed his bed-sheets aside and stood before the mirror over the dresser.

His old face greeted him. It may even be a slight bit older in fact… he couldn't be sure. It could have been just the reaction of being in Glie for too long. The last few days now seemed only to be a blur to him now. He would need to check any replays he could find to refresh himself.

"Try this," he heard. He looked across the room and found a uniformed man sitting in the chair beside his tie rack. The man stood up and handed Ptolemy a small box with a series of disks that could be inserted into it to play back on a screen at its top.

Ptolemy took the device from the man. "Roy Strom… what are you doing here?" he asked him with a cockeyed smile and a hand out to shake his.

"We were called in for Observation duty," he said after greeting his old friend. He sat back down. Ptolemy did the same on the edge of his bed as he looked at a bit of the replay the player-device was showing.

"That's not what I meant," the old scientist said. "As a Denivan Supreme, you shouldn't be in the same timeline as your predecessor."

The Captain waved his concerns off. "It's not like we will short each other out," he stated. "And it's not like Gather Damon does much time-traveling."

Ptolemy switched the reader off and plunked it onto the bed. "Calling you in for simple observation seems unlikely, sir," he said as he straightened his pajama top. "What with the building tensions between the basement and the attic, I would say you were here for a bit more."

The Captain smirked. "You know that we only have observation duty," he said as he crossed his arms and legs. "Anything else at this time is covered by the Phoenix Guild."

"Oh cut the crap," the old man said as he mimicked the position the Captain sat in. "You and I both know about the differences between your observation duties with your Federation, and your other duty as leader of the Denivan. And you yourself have mentioned many times how you didn't like the wording of the Treaty of Set."

"Too many loopholes," the Captain nodded in agreement. "Even those in the Phoenix Guild have mentioned that it lacks in total coverage in key areas, and in most, simply says that the Guild Leader shall prevail in all judgments."

"As per the Treaty of Set, to which it is the Phoenix Guild that shall be the final enforcing body of said treaty and all judgments therein," Ptolemy pointed out as he recited a section of the document from memory. "Remember, I was there for the last amendment it went through."

"I've seen the recording," Roy nodded. "But it does allow for the Denivan to act as mediators, at least. Why did you all have to do it in Set's kitchen?"

"His brother insisted, as did the Guild Leader," Ptolemy reminisced while rubbing the back of his head. "Something about watching his knives…"

Roy made a laughing snort. "That didn't help Osiris in the long run – Set still butchered him, and the Guild Leader hardly batted a feather. It is one of the reasons why Gather is not a particular fan of the treaty, and neither am I. It puts the stewardship of its rules into some possible unwatchful hands."

"In your opinion," Ptolemy added.

Roy shook his head. "In OUR opinion, yes," he agreed. "And as an Observer, I would very much like to know just what he sees in you?"

Ptolemy looked around. "Who does?" he asked in confusion.

"The Guild Leader," Roy stated.

"In me?" the old man asked. "What do you mean in me?"

"I mean, when I arrived, I found the Guild Leader sitting on your headboard," the Captain noted as he gestured to some small claw marks in the wood of the bed, "and he seemed to be in quite a psychic trance. When he saw that I was near he departed. He was rather snippy about it as well…"

Ptolemy examined the scratches left by bird claws on his bed's headboard. "What in blazes did he want?" he pondered. "I remember something about Koi… and Jester…"

Roy nodded. "I'll see about getting a message to Katherine, since she seems to be the one jaunting back and forth between the attic and Glie the most."

"Umm… not to be rude or anything," the scientist coughed, "but are you allowed to even talk with her? The treaty…"

The captain glared at him. "The treaty be damned," he growled. "As leader of the Denivan, I have to report to her father anyway. If I happen to run into her along the way, then it will be just a simple happenstance."

"Happenstance?" Ptolemy almost laughed. "That will be interesting to explain to the Guild if they were to find out. You're not supposed to have any communications with either side's lower ranked officials. Bouncing into Katherine will be tricky, to say the least."

"She's also the new commandant of the Seventh Realm," Roy noted. "As a leader of one of the military arms, I can communicate with her legally. Technically, it should just be about movements of her forces, and not a disclosure that a member of the other side is in the house." He stood up and gestured to the device he had handed the scientist. "Get a good look at that before heading back to work, but don't delay too much. Things aren't running quite as smoothly as they were before."

"You mean to tell me that they were working smoothly at all lately?" Ptolemy barked. He looked back and saw that the Captain was now gone.

"Blasted Roy Strom… you'll give me an ulcer someday," he grumbled as he turned the device back on. "As will those other officers of yours that will no doubt start showing up unannounced."

---

"Steady! Steady!" the pilot of the number Twelve ship called out to his fellow craft. "Watch those flares… watch it… watch it…"

"Sir, what is it with this shield?" his wingman complained.

"Damn if I know," the gravelly voiced flight leader grumbled as he watched six of the dozen satellites they had laid out burn from the slightest touch of the energy wall that surrounded the protected 'Holy Sites'. "It certainly doesn't follow normal energy output procedures."

"Well I'll tell you, it does remind me of one thing," another voice said over his com.

"What's that B-A?" he asked the young lady pilot off his port side.

"Remember when we were mapping solar flares on Deneb Proxima?" she pointed out.

"Yea, but at least with those, you could see them coming!" Kinza noted just as another satellite was swiped by a band of energy that extruded itself from the shield. This time though, unlike the others which simply fizzled, this one blew up.

"Scragg!" he grumbled as he held his ship's position through the buffeting he was taking.

Rakka looked up. There had been a flash of light in the sky as she trudged home from the Temple. Cleanup there had taken the place of scrubbing tags the last few days. She did not know which was worse – the damage repairs, or the living conditions of some of the Toga.

"What is that?" she asked of the glow from the northeast that was casting a new shadow before her. "Lightning?" It was hot and humid, and evening thunderstorms had been occurring lately, but this light was not vanishing like a static bolt's burst normally would – besides, there were too few clouds for a storm.

She looked over her shoulder and found it - A wavering spot high over the wall shone brightly in the dusk sky. To prove that it was not a natural occurrence, it flashed a second time, though this time it seemed to break up into many smaller glowing sections, until they all finally vanished.

She stood for a moment to see if anything else would happen in the twilight sky. To her surprise, it was not something she saw, but heard. A thump rattled around her. It was not loud, and unless you were standing around heightening your senses for something else, you would have probably missed it, but there was definitely a sound attributed to the flash that had finally made it to Rakka's position, and it startled her. It was as if someone had taken heavy boxes and dropped them to the ground some distance away.

"Something blew up," she told herself as a second thump rolled by. She assumed that it belonged to the second flash she had seen. But now the sky only showed the deep red azure of the muggy evening of a midsummer. If she failed to press on, it would be fully dark by the time she got back to Old Home.

"Need someone to walk with you?" she heard as she approached the curve in the path off the Renmei Road near the Hill of Winds. She saw Koi jogging down the path from the southern end of town towards her. He was returning from his job at the newspaper. She gave him a weary smile as he joined up with her.

"Wild few days we've had, haven't we?" he asked as they started down the southern road.

"Uh huh," she said as she watched her feet shuffle along. "Almost sensory overload…" She stopped and looked at the boy beside her. "Now where do you suppose that came from?" she asked about the phrase she had just uttered.

Koi scratched the back of his head and laughed. "Almost sounded like something old man Ptolemy would have said," he chuckled as they continued on. "I hope he's okay."

She glanced at him. "You heard then?" she asked him. "About Mr. Ptolemy going back home?"

He nodded. "I saw Hikari at lunch time," he explained. "Drat… I had wanted to interview him for the next week's edition…"

"Always the reporter!" Rakka kidded him. "Well maybe you can do it when he comes back."

Koi shrugged. "You mean if he comes back… at least while we are here," he corrected her. "I was told by my editor that Mr. Ptolemy is a Corporation leader – he's not really supposed to be here quite as often as he has been, or at least as often as of late that is…"

"You mean because of his thirty hour limit and all?" she conjectured.

"Partly," Koi said with another shrug. "Do you know it was nearly ten years since the last time he was here last?"

"Oh, that," she noted finally getting what he was referring to. "You mean, it's just not normal that he's here so often… even if it was because he arrived by cocoon this time…"

He nearly laughed. "That's just the latest. He's been in Glie at least three or four time in the last few months. The last time that happened was nearly a decade ago during the Haibane Molestation Trial where he acted as chief investigator."

Rakka glared at him in shock. "Molestation?" she asked. "What do you mean? How did you find that out?"

Koi gestured back the way they had come. "There's a room back at the paper called a morgue, where they store all the back-issues. I read about it… it's open to the public, with permission of the editor that is…"

"So what happened?" Rakka asked, now interested in the gossip she was hearing.

Koi smirked at her reaction. "Well, it seems that one of our Haibane from Old Home was being molested by her employer. He was brought to trial under direct order of The Corporation, as he had broken their directive about the treatment of the Haibane."

"The Corporation? Not the Haibane-Renmei?" Rakka asked.

"No," Koi answered her almost sternly. "It was one of the questions I wanted to ask him."

"So you're telling me that the people here not only have the Renmei to follow, but The Corporation as well?" Rakka scratched her head as she tried to figure that all out.

"Actually, the Corporation rules supersede the Renmei rules, or in most cases, the Renmei rules ARE the Corporation rules." Koi shook his head. "When I saw that, all that kept running through my mind was something called 'Big Brother' for some reason, and I can't figure out why."

Rakka looked up into the darkening skies and at the first few stars that were appearing. "Like a big brother watching over us?" she whimsically said. "That sounds nice."

Koi grunted. "Somehow that wasn't the feeling I got when that phrase came to me… For some reason I feel I read that somewhere, and it wasn't warm and cuddly…"

"I wonder if that flash of light I saw earlier was something to do with them?" Rakka pondered as she looked back behind them.

"Flash of light?" Koi asked. As he did, the side of his face was illuminated by a glow from over the northern wall.

"There's another one!" Rakka exclaimed.

"Mr. Kinza, we're loosing the third set here, and the Tripoli satellites are starting to take a beating!" the wingman called out as his ship was buffeted again.

He frantically ran his furry fingers over the controls of his ship. "B-A, take over here – get the remaining satellites to a higher orbit," Kinza ordered. "I'm heading for the Tripoli series to reset those… got it?"

"Yes sir!" was her smart reply as he pulled his small ship up and over the rest of his wing as they worked on saving what was left of the scanning satellites.

"You guys don't pay me enough for this!" he grumbled.

"Oh, you mean we pay you at all?" he heard from the starship above them. He smirked and flew on.

"Not like I'm looking for an advance or anything," he commented, "but have you guys figured out just why these shields are flaring like this?"

A static crackle rattled over the speakers as the energy rose again for a moment. "We think it has something to do with the approach of souls," was the reply. "The Corporation calls it an Apogee Report, and they causes the highest eruptions it seems… or at least we think that's what's happening. One way or the other, we need to get these sats stabilized so we can get our frequency readings."

"Oh, such confidence!" Kinza barbed. His ship jumped over a surge as the power of his own ship's shields reflected off the field below it. He adjusted his approach and came over top the Tripoli satellites as they clanked together like bells. The energy currents had gathered them together.

"Uh, this isn't good," he mumbled to himself. Satellites that were designed to work independent of each other in a nearly technological anti-social way were being slammed together like basketballs in a bucket by the eddies and flows created by the energy field that had come up and snagged them. It was not going to be long before one or more power-packs breached and blew the mess sky-high.

"The Tripoli mains are all shot," he reported as he launched a cable-snare and caught one of the outer units and started hauling it out of the pack. "I'm starting to pull some away to minimize any detonations…"

"You be careful there with my Scat-Back, Mr. Kinza," the Commander kidded him. "Those satellites are ready to blow and I just had her repainted!"

Kinza snorted over the joke. "Mr. Button, I will not scratch your precious paint job!" he barked back. "I've done this work before – the trick is to get as many away as quickly and gently as possible…"

"SIR!" the helmsman on the bridge of Forrestal yelled. "Incoming fire!"

The smile left the Commander's face as he looked up from his conversation with his friend in his personal Scat-Back and peered over the edge of the Captain's Loft to the Command Deck below. "Fire? Where? Who's firing on us?" he asked.

"No, Mr. Button… Fire!" the helmsman corrected him. "There's a spreading wall of fire coming around the Tripoli shield, sir!"

The Commander spun a scanner screen about and brought up the reported mass of flames. It indeed seemed to be heading for the Scat-Back. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"I don't know," Kinza replied as he too read the report and pulled up the scans. "It looks like its coming from the area of the lower satellite groups down there, but they're all still there – I've got telemetry coming in from all of them." He fired off another cable snare from his service bay and caught another damaged orb. "It doesn't look like its advancing fast though… I should be able to get at least two more out of here before it gets here."

"Monitor him, Mr. Tolefson," the Commander ordered.

The young man darted across his controls. "It's difficult, sir," he reported. "The fire isn't advancing evenly… it bursts about a lot."

The Commander looked down on the two recruits working in his Science Station. "Get me the readings from the satellites where this fire started from, stat!" he ordered.

The Scat-Back now had four orbs hanging below it in tandem, looking like bent up pearls on a string. It left three more to be gathered or abandoned if the flames got too close.

"I've got my first load – backing away," Kinza reported as he pulled up on his control yolk. He watched the wall of fire advance slowly towards his position. "Best I get out of here with these… Hope three blowing up won't do any harm…"

"We had three blow already over Lucerne," the starship replied to his comment. "The shield hardly noticed it."

"Okay, then why am I collecting these?" Kinza asked jokingly.

No one had a chance to answer him. A bolt of fire shot away from the main conflagration and struck the core of the three remaining satellites. All three burst like balloons pricked by a red hot needle and added their own flames to the swelling explosion.

"Belkar's beard!" Kinza barked as he yanked hard at his flight stick and maximized out his underbelly engines. The ship rose safely away from the firestorm with the four orbs he had snared dangling below it.

But then, the fiery bolt seemed to see the missing four satellites and leapt for the first one it could reach.

"Oh, SCRAGG!" Kinza yelped as the first one blew under him and smashed a shockwave through his own shields. Then a second, a third, and a forth tore the bottom out of the Scat-Back and hurtled it away.

"KINZA! KINZA, REPORT!" the Commander shouted into the com unit. All he could see on his monitor was a ball of flames where the Scat-Back had once been. Then his own ship shook from the shockwave of the explosions.

"Scragg, that'll leave a mark," he then heard.

Out of the fire shot the Scat-Back, its engines seemingly pressing hard to escape the cataclysm behind it. But to the trained eye of the Commander, he knew that was not a normal flight pattern it was doing.

"Kinza, can you cut back on your thrusters?" he asked.

The pilot was busy avoiding sparking instruments and bursting panels. "I'm trying!" he shouted as the ship now seemed to have a mind of its own. It whirled and darted about as if no one was holding onto the flight yolk. As it was, Kinza had it tight in his paw and was attempting everything he knew to get her back under control.

"Scat-Back Twelve will be into the Tripoli shield in twenty seconds!" the helmsman reported.

"Kinza… not to put much pressure on you…" Button told him.

He looked out his scorched canopy's window. "Well, we wanted to know what would happen if we took one of these right through the field," he yelled. "Someone get me a frequency to that shield, QUICK! All I need is close, not accurate!"

Button moved over his scanner readings as fast as he could. Little data had been received from the probes before the wild gyrations in the Holy Site's shields had started. But he managed to find a little information.

"Ten two fifty!" he shouted into the microphone, hoping his friend had heard that.

Slamming into bricks would have felt less harsh than the electro-jolt he took coming through the Tripoli shields with his own shields only moderately near to their frequency. 'Rule Number One' flashed through his mind, 'of entering an energy field with deflectors up of your own – always match your frequency to that of the surrounding field you are attempting to enter.' He was as close as a rapid scan-reading could have given him, which was no where near perfect. If he had a better match to it, the energy would have possibly only scorched the outside of his ship. As it was, more inner circuits were now bursting and shrill-fully frying throughout the Scat-Back.

The Market Fair in Tripoli stopped for a moment to look up. The townsfolk, the Haibane, even the Toga, alerted by a loud explosion overhead, all watched as a fiery ball crossed the sky as it headed south. Some noted that it had not come over the wall - that it had simply appeared over the skies of the desert town with the thunderous roar that scared animals and babies.

To the pilot, the only advantage found by punching through the energy shield was that it had restored some of his flight controls, if not bounced him around his cabin a bit. He cursed and swore to himself in his native tongue as he struggled to get his crippled ship to respond. He was going to attempt an emergency landing, but found that the far end of the shield was approaching much too fast.

"Ooh, scragg! I hope this thing can take that without its own shields!" he gritted as he careened into it.

The jolt itself was survivable, but not for any remaining circuits running aboard ship. The craft was in a slow tumble, and it would not be long until he would hit the outer shield of the next Jewel in line - the Glie barrier.

"Gotta eject my core before going in there," he grunted as he reached down below his chair. "Can't let this blow while I'm in there…"

"He's come out the far side sir!" Tolefson reported as he pointed at the scanner array that was tracking a metallic object between the shields.

"Transmats?" the Commander asked knowing the response.

"No way sir!" a science station Ensign yelped. "We'd never get a lock in all that interference!"

"BING-BONG!" all the speakers on the bridge suddenly harmonized. "This is the automatic-safety system! Ship's computer – S.A.M. System One - reports arming of a pseudo-matter power pod's launch controls… risk of detonation… risk of detonation!"

Mr. Button grimaced as he removed his hands from the sides of his face. "Blasted auto-safety," he grumbled. "Who turned THAT thing back on?"

Kinza looked up from his crouched position and watched the rotation of the ship. He wanted to fire the pod off while facing away from either shield. He waited a moment then pulled hard on a lanyard that was between his legs. Five pins on the back of his ship burst and a cylinder-like pod shot away with a whoosh. All remaining power in the Scat-Back shut down, as the batteries had fried when they had first gone through the shields earlier.

"Kinza!" B-A called out from her Scat-Back as she saw the crippled ship below hers. Its power-core shot by her as its retro-rockets thrust it away. She spun her own Scat-Back about and dove after her flight-leader's craft.

"Beth Ann Hanover, don't you even think it!" she then heard over the crackle of her com unit. "We don't need two of us in trouble… stabilize that power pod I just launched… that's an order!"

There was little she or the others could do. He was too far below them to be rescued without possibly dragging another ship into the shields as well. She watched as the damaged Scat-Back got smaller and…

"Incoming fire!" barked across the communication system again. B-A looked back and saw a streamer of flames arcing over the top of the Tripoli shield.

"BING-BONG! This is the automatic-safety system! An energy burst is heading for the pseudo-matter pod launched from Scat-Back Twelve… contact in ten… nine… eight…"

"ALL SHIPS SCATTER!" Mr. Button yelled. "RAISE SHIELDS – BRING US UP TWO SEVEN FOUR SEVEN MARK THIRTEEN! SHOW THE POD OUR BOW, MR. TOLEFSON!"

"ALL HANDS, PREPARE FOR EXPLOSIVE SHOCKWAVE!" the helm replied. "ALL ENGINES REVERSE, BOW DOWN FIFTY DEGREES, SHIELDS DOUBLE FRONT!"

Rakka and Koi spun about as the dusk vanished. To the north a sun had appeared, illuminating everything in a strange light as if it was suddenly mid morning. The odd place that it had come from gave an eerie image to things – shadows appeared on sides of objects that rarely had them, and things that never saw light were now illuminated brightly, like lichen and moss on the north sides of trees and buildings. They shimmered from the unexpected glow.

"That was the biggest one yet!" Rakka exclaimed.

Koi was cupping his eyes. "Biggest one? What do you mean?" he asked her.

This time, the ground shook with a violent thud. Nearby, a transformer on a power pole coming from the Hill of Winds generation station burst, sending out a shower of sparks and dropping the town center into dark. A number of the turbines whined and spat as a surge ran through them. Finally the light in the sky started to dim as all in the town peered out windows and doorways at the pulse of energy that had struck them.

"There were a few smaller ones like that earlier," Rakka explained as the twilight again returned to the Glie skies. "But this one seemed quite more violent…"

"Shh!" Koi hissed. "Listen! Do you hear that?"

Rakka stopped and turned. She could hear a whistling sound approaching. She looked up the road towards the north again and saw something hugging the tree line… JUST OVER TOP the tree line…

"Scragg, I hate belly landings," Kinza growled as he found his manual landing gear release welded shut. He was working a dead stick on a craft that barely glided. Even with its short stubby wings, they were more for the placement of the engines than atmospheric flight. Without the underbelly thrusters, the Scat-Back was more a stone with arrow feathers – it would impinge quite nicely without proper handling of its controls. It did have small wing flaps and moving surfaces to assist in powered flight, but without thrust, they did little to keep it in the air.

"It's a good thing the belly's pretty flat in this thing," he grimaced as the ship got closer to the ground. "Of course, that's if I still HAVE a belly on this thing..." What little guidance he had he found was by physically moving himself in the cabin from side to side. He had found a relatively straight road to follow and was attempting a landing on it, when he saw two people coming up fast. He yanked hard on the stick, slammed himself into the seat's back, and shoved the floor pedals hard to the floor, which brought the nose up ever so slightly. He managed to skip over them barely. But with that movement, all lift was lost. The ship vanished over the rise of the hill, dropping like the rock it had become.

"What was that?" Koi and Rakka both asked aloud as they now could hear the nasty sounds of something metallic grinding along the road ahead. They began to run.

The Scat-Back was loosing parts fast as it pounded the dirt and gravel road. It did not help much that this was really a path with a grassy mid-section meant for tractors and wagons. The nose of the craft kept digging into it as the pilot struggled with what he could, which was now extremely little. He was only along for the ride now. It finally dug in too far, and caused the craft to flip up into the air again and over the small rocky wall beside the road. It tumbled down into the farmer's field just north of Old Home.

"Wow! Something just wrecked BIG TIME!" Kana yelled from the clock tower. She had climbed up it to see why the power had gone out and to watch the light show that had lit up the skies a few minutes earlier.

"Where?" Hikari asked. "Rakka and Koi are still out there!"

Kana was now leaning out the window with her binoculars. "I see them! They're coming over the hill now. Wow, it looks like whatever that was nearly hit them!"

"What?" Hikari squeaked as she darted out through the entry tunnel and down the path down towards the road. Kana was quickly behind her with a flashlight.

Koi and Rakka stood on top of the wall looking down on the wreckage. There were no flames, but it seemed hot. Parts were strewn all over the corn field, but a large boxy section seemed still pretty much intact. Throughout all the tumbling, the canopy still held tight to the body of the craft.

"What is this thing?" Rakka asked as she watched Koi step down through the steaming wreckage.

"I don't know," he said then pointed at a large box-like structure that had torn off the left side of the craft. "Look, English!"

Rakka examined the bent port-side engine pod where the words 'United Nations' were written. She looked up at another unit like it that still hung over the top of the craft.

"Look, there's more," she pointed out. Koi stepped up to it and read it aloud.

"F2-662/12," he said. "Sounds like a serial number of sorts."

"Hey!" they then heard as they saw the flickering of Kana's flashlight approaching. "Are you two alright?"

"We're fine!" Rakka yelled back. "We almost got hit by whatever this thing is though!"

"Oh, Mr. McGreevy isn't going to be happy about this!" Kana said as she looked around at the strewn wreckage. "Look at what it did to his corn!" But she was shortly less concerned with the plants and was now collecting small parts.

Rakka touched the side of the craft. It was cooler now, and the closer she could get, the more she could read on the metallic sides… No Step… Push Here… Emergency Release… there was a handle beside that sign.

"Rakka, what are you…" Koi asked as she yanked the arm of the latch. There was the sound of something sneezing and a rush of air blew her hair and halo back. Then the cracked and battered canopy ejected off the front of the craft and smashed into more of Mr. McGreevy's corn.

Hikari, who was next to the front of the ship, and who had nearly received the canopy in the face, had the best view into the craft and gasped. "Oh my god, there's someone in there!"

Kana's flashlight bounded about and landed with her climbing the opposite site of the ship from Rakka. She shown the light into the cabin and both she and Rakka held their breaths.

"M-my god…" Kana gasped. "What is it?"

---

Smoke was pouring out of the control center as Janice and Virgil ran down the corridor. Hip's bag was outside the room and the door was being held open by fire hoses. Janice looked in and found the room charred, as if a jet flame had come through the floor and out the roof. The doctor was working on a body to the left of the control console. Mabel's cage was a twisted mess sitting on top of what used to be the main panels. Firefighters were hosing down small flare-points around the lever that directed which corridor to take into the Jewels. But what caught her attention especially was the man in an expensive suit gassing away on a cell phone.

"Yes sir," he said while parading back and forth over the fire hoses. "The Holy Sites control center is a total loss… yes sir… rupture of the main injector assembly… yes sir… two dead… no sir… incompetence? Possibly sir… they were rookies… from what I'm told the overnight staff usually are, sir… yes sir… oh, very good sir… yes sir… I look forward to your visit, sir… Thank you, sir." He slowly closed his phone and looked at the fiery stare he was getting from Janice.

"Who the hell are you, and what the hell do you mean INCOMPETENCE?" she shouted as her emotions swelled up her spine.

"This is the high and mighty Amethyst," Hypocrites sarcastically commented as he laid a covering over the body he was next to. "He's a Celestial here for the Phoenix Guild."

"Well I don't care if he's god himself!" she snapped as she got into his face. "Sabrina and Brock were not rookies, and they certainly were NOT INCOMPETENT! This would have only happened if it was a sudden breech… the journal tapes will tell us."

Amethyst reached into his jacket and pulled out a disk. "I've already seen them…" he smugly said as he twirled the metallic recording. "If they weren't rookies, then they were poorly trained on breech procedures. Either way, it will be interesting to see how this plays at the inquisition."

"How DARE YOU TAKE OUR RECORDS!" Janice screamed at him as she attempted to take the disk. But she then found herself unable to move.

"I will take what I please, Madam Coordinator," the Celestial sneered as he tapped the disk off her nose. "I am in charge of the protection of the Guild Leader, and I will determine what I deem needed to fulfill that duty. Huh?"

Amethyst found that someone had reached over his shoulder and taken the disk from his grasp. It was now being rapped off the back of his head. "You're out of bounds, son. Release her immediately."

He turned and found a uniformed officer standing behind him. He also now found him rapping the disk off his forehead.

"I guess you didn't hear me," the man now began to thunder. "RELEASE HER NOW!"

Amethyst smirked and gave a slight wave of his hand releasing Janice. "Captain Strom," he snidely remarked. "I had heard that you were floating about… you are severely out of time… err… am I using that right? I mean to say that you're not in your normal time stream."

"As an Observer, I may be wherever I please, Mr. Amethyst," the Captain made clear to him. "And as leader of the Denivan…"

"Ah ah," Amethyst said with a waving finger. "Not at this time… Unless dear old Gather Damon has decided to abdicate his throne."

"Hardly," Strom smirked. "And he's definitely not a senile old bird like your Guild Leader. He's what… almost five hundred years overdue with his regeneration?"

Amethyst straightened his tie and coughed/cleared his throat as Strom handed the disk over to Janice. "He's only deferring it until the crisis is over with."

Strom nearly burst out laughing. "Crisis? Which crisis? The first one that I remember he considered a crisis was The Great Hangnail of his seven hundredth thirty second year! It is not healthy for a Phoenix to not regenerate! Don't forget we Denivan Supremes know a thing or two about firebirds."

"Ah, that's right," Hip said as he stood up from his work. "The Sorcerer Supremes… the heart of the Denivan hierarchy… you all have a transformational creature that you use to bring out your full powers, am I right?"

"Our Changelings, yes," Strom nodded as he kept his eyes locked on the Celestial, "which of course, makes us an ever so slightly stronger force than the members of the Phoenix Guild."

"And you wonder why the Treaty of Set bans your group from interfering with the Guild's handling of the relations between heaven and hell," Amethyst smirked. "You can't even guarantee that any of the sixteen members of your core leadership won't turn out, how should I say, warped? You actually have a member of your inner council who worships the devil!"

"It's not like we had any choice in the matter," Strom grumbled. "Nature takes its course on these things – besides, it's not like the Guild hasn't had it's fill of 'bad' types."

Janice and Virgil stared at the officer. Hip lit a cigarette and laughed to himself. "How is old Bartok anyway?" the doctor tossed into the debate. The Captain smiled.

"Placated and inert," he replied. "He may be officially a council member, but he's ranked sixteenth out of sixteen so his powers are relatively low, and his lifetime house arrest keeps him under constant observation…"

"Unless he manages to ditch them… again," Amethyst ground in.

Strom smiled. "That's what makes him fun to deal with!" he snidely retorted. "Besides, how are we supposed to know about the ambivalence of the current Guild and its members? We don't hide our flaws… do you?"

Amethyst looked as if he couldn't answer that. He only straightened out his jacket and spun about on his heels. "Ask him when he gets here then," was his reply.

"Oh, I intend to," the Captain retorted with his arms crossed. "And I intend to ask him why one of his Guild just attacked my ship and my crew, resulting in the deaths of two Corporation employees and the possible loss of one of mine."

Amethyst glared back at him. "What are you saying? You think the Guild is responsible for this?"

Strom stepped up to him and poked him on the shoulder. "You can't hide firebird things from another firebird…" the Captain growled. "And I know a guided trajectory when I see one. That fireball knew just where to strike!" He then snapped his fingers. The room switched from a burned out shell to a sparkling clean white room with all controls restored. The bodies were still on the floor though.

"I can restore this room… let's see your Guild Leader restore their lives." Strom then walked around him and stood in the hallway. He turned and gestured to his left. "You may now leave this building," he ordered.

"Pardon me?" Amethyst asked. "I'm in the middle of overseeing this…"

"YOU were out of line, sir," the Captain stated. "You crossed that line when you removed one of MY scanning disks, and when you held Janice Ptolemy in near-stasis. I have invited you to leave the building… don't make me REMOVE you."

Amethyst's eyes were blood red as he straightened his tie and brushed his jacket. "Denivan scum…" he mumbled as he slinked out the doorway and down the hall. He knew the Captain probably could back his threat up if necessary. "This isn't finished, just you wait!"

"I'll put my Battle Phoenix up against anything YOUR Guild Leader could dish out any day!" Strom laughed as he watched the man depart. He then nodded to The Corporation personnel and followed.

"What the hell was all that about?" Virgil finally asked aloud.

---

"Kinza… Kinza, wake up! Elb Kinza Farley, get out of bed! Your ship is arriving soon!"

"Koni? Koni, what are you doing here? Where's my brother?"

"Hee hee… back at the palace, silly! Tending to your father as usual… the old codger is fishing in the moat again!"

"Chasing political sharks is he?"

"Personally, I think it's more like just drowning. He still sinks like a brick."

"Heh… what's he think he'll catch? Angel fish?"

"They just fly away when you get close… and they're so fragile that they shouldn't be caught – they should be protected."

"What is it? I've never seen anything like him…"

"Are you sure it's a he?"

"Trust me, it's a he… I saw when we removed his…"

"OH! Don't tell me that!"

"He looks so cuddly… like a giant teddy bear… or cat… something… his fur is so soft…"

"Did you see those teeth? I wouldn't call those cuddly!"

"Koni? Koni, why are these angels here in the palace, and why am I missing my clothes?"

"The doctors needed to check your Slyznics… are you sure you have to go?"

"Its terminal, you know that… they say that the remission is because I won't be in this universe… odd how it still itches from time to time…"

"This is your baptism Mr. Kinza… take the controls and bring us out of this."

"Don't just throw me to the wind, you old scraggart! I've been here before!"

"What's your name son?"

"Damn this itch…"

"That's a strange name…"

"CAWW! CAWW!"

"Will someone shut that bloody bird up?"

"What's your name son?"

"CAWWW!"

"Can I quote you on that?"

"CAWW!"

"Bird, you bother me…"

"SKIAWWWW!"

"Phoenix!"

The ceiling blurred about. It was not dirty, but it obviously had not been painted in quite a while. Something was banging some distance away, as if someone was building somewhere near, but it still managed to pound a bit in his head.

"Who is that guy with Sol?" he heard. "There's something about him that's disturbing…"

He rocked his head slightly to the right. A boy and a girl were seated at a table eating a roll or muffin… he could not tell. Maybe it was a doughnut… no, that was what was over their heads…

"His name is Jester," the girl said. "He's the demon that came with her down the river."

"You know, with all that's happened lately, those secrets we promised to keep about the river slues seemed to have been blown wide open," another person said entering the room. "I mean, just listening to the chattering in town you hear folks yammering about the 'strange Haibane' down at Old Home."

Huh… that one's got a doughnut too…

"I think we're garnering a reputation here," the boy said. Just then he heard the sound of an electric saw whir as the hammering continued – his head throbbed. "Didn't she say that Jester was a small demon? That was a male Haibane I saw with her."

Damn strange doughnuts… they glow…

"He seemed to have changed his shape," the girl across from him said. "I think he's taken by Sol…"

What are they wearing on their backs? Wings?

"You're kidding… Are you sure that's a wise thing?" the boy asked. "I get this strange feeling each time I see him…"

"Claudius said he'd allow it, for the time being that is," the first girl said.

"CAWWW!"

What the scragg is with that bird over my head?

"Mabel! I thought I said I'd allow you in here only if you'd… oh… sorry, you're awake…"

"Did you say he's awake, Kana?" another person yelped from the other room as the drapes flew open and a blond girl with glasses darted in. "Ohhh! Look at him! He's looking at me!"

"And that's a bad thing?" Kinza asked with a groggy raspy voice. "Oooh, my head…"

"He speaks!" Kana gasped.

"Umm, the controls were all in English, as were the markings on the outside of that ship of his," the boy noted. "I'd think he'd know to speak."

"Smart lad… give him a goodie point," Kinza snorted. It was then that he noticed that he was bare-chested. "Okay… where is my uniform?" he asked.

The blond girl suddenly looked shyly to her side towards the room she had entered from. "Umm, we were trying to clean it," she said as she blushed. "It kind of dissolved when we tried to wash it… all that was left was the patch on your chest."

He rolled his head back. "Ah, yes… the com unit… well at least I'll be able to report in… if I WANT to after trashing my ship…" He looked down at his feet, which were also out of their shoes. He wiggled his toes. "And at least I understand you… don't need the translator…" he added as he dropped back and nearly fell asleep again from that simple exertion.

"What are you?" the blond girl asked as she stepped up to the side of the guest bed he was in. "I never imagined a creature like you before…"

Kinza woke up a bit more with that. "Creature?" he asked a bit curtly as he saw the girl cover her mouth in shock. "Ah," he noted with a bit more calmness in his tone, "blurted that out, did you doughnut head?"

The boy and the girl at the table both snickered loudly at the reference to the blonde's halo.

Kinza looked up at the ceiling as the world spun a bit. "Well, I'll answer your questions if you'll do me the service and tell me where I am?"

"You're in Old Home," the girl at the table spoke up. "You're in Glie… we are Haibane who found you after your… thing… crashed nearby."

Kinza slowly nodded. "Well… I guess you don't get Tomassamassas in here often then…"

"Tomassamassa?" Hikari asked as she gently leaned over the side of the bed and ran her hand over his furry head and instinctively started to scratch him behind his large round bear-like ears. He seemed not to mind it – as a matter of fact, he seemed to start enjoying it.

"Mmm… that feels good…" he grumbled in a cat-like purr. "Wait a minute… did you say Haibane? I'm in a holy sector?"

"Holy sector?" Kana coughed.

"Uh huh," the girl at the table answered him. "That's Hikari," she noted as she pointed towards the girl scratching him. "That's Kana, he's Koi and I'm Rakka…"

"Ah," he nodded as he closed his eyes and grimaced. "Pleased to meet you… though I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to… My name is Elb Kinza Farley…"

"Elb?" Hikari smile. "That's an interesting name."

He grinned and shook his head, which started the room swaying. "Naa… that's my rank… you can call me Kinza…"

"And I'm Doctor McManus," a woman said as she entered the room. "You can call me Doctor."

Kinza snickered. "Hey Doc," he laughed. "I guess I chose the right sector to crash in, ea?"

The woman shook her head as she dropped her bag at the foot of the bed. "You've been a naughty boy, Mr. Kinza…" she said in a nearly exasperated tone. "From what I saw of Mr. Button's Scat-Back, you're also a very lucky one."

"Bad, ea?" he moaned as she pulled a scanning rod out and began using it over his body.

"A pretzel has fewer twists," she commented. "And we're stuck here too because of it."

He raised his head, which only made the room spin more. "Stuck? Why for?" he asked as he painfully dropped it back down onto Hikari's hand.

"When your power core blew, it ionized the shields," the doctor said as she started in on a nasty lump on his forehead. "You've got a concussion here… flying without your helmet again, ea?"

"The manual doesn't say anything about wearing helmets," he said in a near drunken stupor as the doctor placed a device on his forehead that was blinking. "Besides, my ears don't fit in those buckets made for you humans… no offence, mind you…"

"None taken, I think," Hikari said with a puzzled look. Rakka nearly giggled.

"So, a Tomm… Tomassamassa you said?" Kana asked as Koi pulled a pad of paper out. "Just what is a Tomassamassa?"

"Felis Bera Capra!" he shouted, making them jump, save the doctor, who simply shook her head. He then looked down at his toes.

"You said you had the patch from my shirt?" he asked the girl cradling his head.

Hikari looked about. "Umm… yes… it's in the kitchen…" she sheepishly said.

"Could you get it for me?" he wearily asked. "If I'm allowed to answer your questions, it will tell me."

"Umm, sure," she said as she darted into the other room.

The doctor looked at her patient skeptically. "Are you sure? With the ionization… you think you'd get a signal?"

Kinza gave a painful laugh. "What? The omnipresent S.A.M. System letting a minor thing like an over zapped force field stop his scrutiny of our every move? I think not! …ow…"

Hikari returned with the patch – it was a stylized galaxy logo in blue and gold with a few tattered remains of his tan uniform's fabric dangling from it.

"I still can't figure out why it dissolved like that," she pondered as she handed it to him.

"There's a reason why the label says 'T-Mat Clean Only,' kiddo!" he said as he laid it on his chest and tapped on the center of the galaxy.

"S.A.M. System active," it replied.

"Told ya," he smugly said to the doctor. "Okay, shoot…" he then said laying his head back into the pillow to allow the room to stop rotating around his world.

"Felis Bera whatsis?" Koi asked tapping his pad while trying to figure out what it had been the strange furry man had blurted out earlier.

Kinza burst out laughing, which changed to hurtful moaning. "Ooh… that smarts," he grumbled to himself. "When I joined this crew I'm with, a human in charge of some sort of categorizing life forms decided to give my race that moniker… Latin I believe she called it… Supposedly it means beard of a goat, ears of a bear and face of a cat… But, still a Tomassamassa by any other name should smell so sweet! – Shakeyweird…"

"So what the heck is a Tomassamassa?" Kana interjected. She stood back at the semi-glare she got from Kinza.

"What the heck is a Haibane?" he shot back. "Tomassamassas are another race of beings, that's all. There are more than just humans you know."

"BING!" the patch chimed.

"Whoops! I've been naughty!" he smirked. "S.A.M., explain to me just how knowing that there are more life forms that humans and Haibane in this universe is going to effect them?"

"It is knowledge that they are not supposed to know," the patch replied.

"BUT I'M LAYING HERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!" he shouted back then regretted every syllable of it as his head pounded.

"Ah… that is correct… I stand adjusted to this fact now…" it chirped.

"Stupid computer… Always jumping in before thinking…" he growled as he rubbed his throbbing temple. He settled further when Hikari took over for him. "Ahhh… what an angel," he sighed. He looked over at all the eyes staring at him and grunted. "Waiting for a story, aren't ya?" he asked.

A bunch of the chairs moved from the table to around the bed. Doctor McManus shook her head and continued working on her patient as the Haibane gathered, now with one more.

"You put him in my bed?" Sol asked as she entered the room out of breath.

"We were going to put him in the boy's dorms," Rakka noted, "but there was just too much noise up there right now… and we needed to keep an eye on him overnight…"

"Besides," Koi added, "where were you last night anyway?"

All eyes turned towards the visiting Haibane as she turned scarlet.

"Hey-hey, don't jump all over her…" they heard. They all looked back at Kinza and found him shaking his head. "Where she was and who she was with is not our business, now is it?"

A few murmured slightly. "I guess not," Kana said.

"You mean just because her boyfriend is a filthy demon?" Koi voiced in a less-than-sympathetic tone. Sol stepped back in shock over the way he had said it, and Rakka sat dumbfounded as well.

"Koi! Apologize!" she demanded. She then noticed the amazed expression on the boy's face – a realization of what had just blurted out of himself.

"Did… did I just say that?" he asked with an almost pained look on his face. He looked up at Sol and saw the tears streaming down her face. "Sol… Sol, I'm sorry…"

"Damn straight you should apologize," Kinza said with a bit tipsy tone to himself. "The Demon Guild wouldn't be happy to hear you call them that!"

"Happy more Guild here not now!" a boy behind Sol said as he too entered the room. "Sister show her face bad enough!"

Kinza waved to McManus to come closer. "And this would be…" he asked.

"Gabrella's brother," she answered.

Kinza made a motion of his two paws to indicate something rather small. "Little Greenie?" he asked. He looked back over at the boy after the Doctor nodded a yes. "Jester, you've grown!" he then cracked.

"Ah, Mr. Farley, indeed!" Jester said while blushing and scratching the back of his head. "I grow Sol for as say you eye to eye."

Kinza pinched his face while trying to decipher that last line. "You grew to look her in the eyes, ea?" he groused. "That makes sense."

"Mr. Farley," McManus snickered.

"Abby…" the Tomassamassa growled, a bit more alert and angered now. Hikari nearly jumped back as he flashed a row of teeth that looked a bit vicious. "I've asked Jester more than a few times NOT to call me by my family's honored warrior name…" A squeak by Sol made everyone look at her, only to see that she had Jester crouching behind her on his knees bowing towards the bedridden officer.

"Sorry - sorry I sorry so am, please!" he begged.

Kinza scowled at him, then crossed his eyes and fell back on his pillow again. "Doc, would you use that wound healer already?" he complained.

She shook her head. "It's not working because of the ionization," she noted. "You're just going to have to mend au natural."

"Swell," he grunted. He looked at all the faces looking back at him and coughed. "Okay… what's your question?"

"What's a Tomassamassa?"

"Why did your shirt dissolve?"

"Honored Warrior Name?"

"What was that thing you were in and why are you here?"

"What is Sam and where does he come from?"

"Demon Guild?"

"How do you know Jester?"

Kinza rolled his eyes and looked up at the Doctor. "Knock me out, please?" he asked her.

"That is not a bad idea, though I would actually want to keep you under observation," she said as she looked over her readouts of her scanning rod. "You're a bit elevated on your blood pressure, and your concussion is showing a slight swelling. I would recommend rest rather than questions and answers though."

"What is this?" Nemu asked as she walked in.

"Hi! Come join the party!" Kinza exclaimed. "Will someone deal her in?"

Doctor McManus returned to the hospital an hour later after instructing Rakka and Hikari on what they needed to watch for in her patient. The rest were escorted out of the guest quarters. Sol was given a new room using a bed provided from the nearly restored boy's wing of Old Home. The rest of the afternoon dozed by in relative peace and quiet.

Hikari awoke from a nap she had fallen into while reading in the rocking chair by the sound of a toilet flushing. She looked over and found the bed empty, though some of the blankets were missing. Kinza then swayed around the corner looking a bit bedraggled and hung-over with the bed linen half-wrapped around himself - half dragging along behind him. He gave it a tug as it snagged something.

"Should you be out of bed?" she worriedly scolded him. It surprised her just how small this odd alien was. He was only a few inches taller than herself and hunched over the way he was only made him look shorter.

He gave her a rather grumpy look. "I do still have to go to the bathroom," he rumbled as he shuffled to the bed and fell into it. "And I didn't see any bedpans… By the way, I do hope you didn't also wash my pants."

Hikari glanced over at the kitchen. "No," she said. "When your shirt melted, I didn't toss the pants in."

He nodded as he settled back into the pillow. "Good… thank you…" he said as he closed his eyes from the stinging afternoon light. "Any idea what they did with my ship?" he asked her as he plopped his arm over his forehead.

"I saw Mr. Virgil and some of the men from the building crew collecting parts earlier," Hikari noted, "though I'm pretty sure it's still mostly in the field. Kana might know more though… she's really into that sort of stuff, you know…"

Kinza peeked out from under his arm. "A gadget geek is she?" he asked causing Hikari to start giggling which swelled to full laughter.

"Oh! I must remember that!" she cried. "That describes her exactly!"

The clock in the bell tower struck three - Three tolls that caused Kinza to wrap his head in pillows, blankets and a bird feather or two.

"Oh great Belkar's beard… I didn't need that!" he grumbled.

"You slept through all the others chimes," Hikari said as she wiped a tear away. "I'm surprised you made it through twelve o'clock."

"Probably some of the doctor's magic elixir doing its trick then," he said as he slowly removed the layers he had gathered. "Did she leave anything?"

Hikari reached behind herself to a dresser where two small bottles sat. She picked them up and rattled them at the Tomassamassa. "This one's if you feel any discomfort," she said. "You can take them every three hours with a maximum of four a day… This one's for your meals… By the way, what do you eat?"

"TKLs," he weakly laughed to himself. "Sorry… I eat what you eat… nothing special… the joys of working with many other life forms – you get an appreciation for other's ideas of what food is."

"What's a TKL then?" Hikari asked.

Kinza now laughed outright, which looked a bit painful to Hikari. "It's a military food bar… I have no idea what the T K and L mean, but I've heard it referred to as Tasteless Kitchen Leftovers… and of course other phrases that I shouldn't use in present company."

Hikari burst out in a giggling fit again. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Mr. Kinza! You're making me hurt!"

"No taking any of my medications, young lady!" he smirked as he managed to come out from under his arm. The light was getting easier to look at. "So, you're a Haibane, ea?"

She settled down to a snicker as she wiped her eyes and straightened herself. "Yes I am… You've never seen one before?"

He cocked his head slightly. "Well, I can't say I haven't…" he noted. "I've seen scans of Haibane… but you're the first I've actually met face to face… But then again, I wasn't supposed to meet you anyway, so this is a bonus."

"You weren't supposed to meet me?" Hikari asked. "Why was that? What were you doing that brought you here?" Just then the patch, which was now under Kinza, dinged.

"Information is prohibited!" it said. "S.A.M. System One!"

Kinza covered his face again. "S.A.M., do you understand the concept of being a pain in the butt?" The patch chirped as if it wasn't going to get any further into that question, but understood what it meant. He sighed and looked at the girl beside him.

"Let's just say, I wasn't supposed to crash land inside the walls," he said, then waited a moment to see the patch's reaction. He let go a breath of relief as it remained silent. "As a matter of fact," he continued, "the walls should have kept me outside your community."

"The walls do keep everyone inside in and those outside out," Hikari agreed. "The only ones allowed in and out are the birds, the Toga and members of The Corporation it would seem. Though Rakka told me that Claudius said that there is another group… and that the Doctor is a member of this group… I would assume you're a member of that group as well… Observers she called them?"

"BIP!" the patch went. Kinza smirked then laughed.

"Heh, that was the 'oh you guessed it' sound," he said as he sat up in the bed. "The United Nations Special Historical Records and Documentations Group… also known as The Observers… It is their duty to chronicle the history of the worlds in their universe, and in universes they can reach using a few unique starships they have." He looked at the girl and found a wide-eyed slack-jawed expression on her face and snorted. "Yea, I'd find that story a bit hokey as well…"

"No… no, I believe it," she said. "I mean, you're here now, aren't you?"

He brought his paw down on his belly with a resounding pop. "Last I could tell I was," he said with a grin.

"And you're from this ship?" she asked, the wonder still exuding from her eyes.

"Umm…" he said as he sucked on the nail of one of his fingers as he glanced at the patch. "Actually, I'm a visitor… an exchange between my fleet and theirs. You see, back home I was ill… I had a nasty little disease called Slyznics. It's a rather unique one though, as it's a bio-unimonic…"

Hikari's eyes nearly crossed. "Bio-uni… huh?" she asked.

"Bio – uni - monic…" he spoke it out for her. "Translated, it means a disease that is dependent on the universe it came from… which meant that by joining up with these guys and traveling to different dimensions, I'd put it into remission… or at least that's the theory, such as it is…"

"I take it this Slyz… thing came back?"

He rubbed his arm a bit. "Oh, it never goes away completely… it makes me itch a bit. But while I'm outside my own universe, it is inert… As a matter of fact, I can barely feel it now."

Hikari looked at her hands. "This disease isn't… you know…" she asked with a bit of worry on her face.

Kinza looked at her with a start then smiled. "No… it's not a transmitted disease. You can't get it by contact, even in my universe. Besides, I don't think you're unimonic."

Hikari sat back and cocked her head. "I'm not what?" she asked.

Kinza chuckled. "Haibane, at least in this universe, are based on the humanoid life form," he explained. "Much to the chagrin of some other life forms though, humanoids have this tendency for being quite omnipresent. Tomassamassas on the other hand are only found, so far, in my own universe, making them unimonic. And Slyznics only attacks unimonic life forms. Something about unique DNA or something…"

Hikari pulled a chair up beside the bed and began to rub Kinza's shoulder. "I'm sorry to hear that," she told him.

"Ea, it's okay," he said. "It's not like I'm going to croak or anything, not while I'm here that is…"

"Actually, I meant I'm sorry that you'll never be able to see your friends or family again," she corrected herself.

He shook his head. "It's not like I can't see them either," he said. "I just can't hang around for long when I do drop in on them." He looked at her directly. "It's not like I have a wall barring me from going there."

Hikari blinked. "Gee… maybe you're lucky instead," she said with a slight smile.

Kinza nodded. "Could be… it's sometimes hard to tell." He laid back and sighed. "So anyway… I'm awake now… the cobwebs seem to be clearing, and S.A.M. is eager to bleep us, so let me have it! What questions would you like answered?"

---

"WHAT DO YOU WANT? WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

The shouting had caught her by surprise. Rakka came around the corner of the newspaper building to see two boys rolling in the dirt, their halos bouncing about as they struggled with each other.

"Rakka! Rakka! Help please!"

She looked to the side and saw Sol standing there with her hands to her face as she watched the two boys create a cloud of dust. The fight was also starting to bring others. This was bad.

Rakka looked across the square and headed for the fountain. She grabbed a bucket that was sitting nearby and quickly filled it. She then ran back and doused the two with the ice-cold water.

"Stop it you two! STOP IT!" she screamed as they broke away from each other, now muddied and wet. "Koi! What in the world do you think you're doing?"

Koi heaved and panted like an angry dog that had just been pulled off an attack. He glared at Jester, who had taken that moment to scamper away and was now hugging the nearby wall. "Demon," he spat. "How DARE you touch a Haibane!"

The look on his face nearly caused Rakka to wonder if this was truly the boy from Old Home she knew. He was messed up, angry with a hateful look in his eyes – an expression of total contempt for the creature he was staring at. She attempted to place her hand on his shoulder, but he swatted it away.

"Enough of this," she growled. She reared back and slapped his face as hard as she could, letting her fury at his indiscretion command her strike. Koi fell back with a bright pink welt on his cheek.

"R-Rakka?" he asked. "What… why did… what am I doing on the ground? Why am I wet? What did you hit me for?" He then noticed Jester sitting against the wall and the condition he was in. "What happened to you?" he blurted.

"Me?" Jester asked planting his hands on his chest. "Attack me did you walking by Sol with! Minding business we were when crash down you did!"

Rakka saw an expression of confusion rolling over Koi's face. She looked up the side of the newspaper building and saw a man looking down at them.

"He jumped out of this window right on them," the man said.

"I did what chief editor?" Koi asked, now completely bewildered.

Rakka was about to ask him what he was thinking when she felt a tapping on her shoulder. She looked back and found Dr. McManus standing there.

"You four, come with me before the town watch get here!" she ordered while gesturing to follow her to the hospital.

"Did I hear there was a fight?" Kana yelled as she came running around the corner with Nemu. They saw the doctor ushering the four of them towards the front entry of the hospital.

"This looks serious," Nemu said as she took Kana's arm. "Come on!"

"Hey! Hey! Wait!" Kana complained as she found herself being dragged. She looked up at the elder Haibane and was about to give her a piece of her mind, but something stopped her.

"Where's your…" she started then stopped.

The halo reappeared over Nemu. Kana shook her head.

"That was weird…" she commented as Nemu opened the hospital's doors and tossed her in.

Katherine stood on the tip of the clock tower watching. She grumbled to herself.

"Something is wrong," she huffed. "It is not time… hers or any of the others…" She looked around at places where the Haibane linger – Old Home, Abandoned Factory, even the old log home out in the central western woods then back to the square below her – halos were acting as if the days of flights had come to so many.

"Are you sure?" she heard. She threw her gaze away from the heart of the town and to a simple rock out in the wood near the Scar's Village.

"Are you quite sure, goddess?" Bloodeagle asked her again. "I hear that the Phoenix says otherwise. I hear that the Phoenix says that the time is growing ever so much shorter. And as you know… the Phoenix never lies."

oOo

Play the RPG "Sadako's Well" on AnimeMangaWorld! – email for address

Join the Renmei – Visit the C2 Community "Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories"

Gabrella ©2005-2011, 18 The Lugia Project/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

Celestials, The Phoenix Guild ©2005-2011, 18 C. Ruester/TiredGamer/Brightblade Productions – Used with Permission

Doctor Abigail McManus, Captain Roy Strom, Tolefson, Elb Kinza Farley, Koni, Slyznics, Scanning Rods, The Observers, UNS Forrestal, Scat-Backs, The Denivan ©2005-2011, 18 Denivan Media Services – Used with permission

Bloodeagle ©2005-2011, 18 S. E. Nordwall – Used with permission

T-K-L Ration ©2005-2011, 18 CBS/Paramount Television

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2005-2011, 18 Yoshitoshi ABe

Story & Characters created for Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION ©2005-2011, 18 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Remastering 1106.19

Edited 1804.28

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