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.

14. Doubt Where Doubt Is Due

HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION

Chapter 14

Doubt Where Doubt Is Due

By R. A. Stott

Hiding in the bushes in an expensive Armani suit gave the man a rather out-of-place feel. But there was little anyone could do until the stranger at the entrance to the grove moved along. Thido checked his watch and grunted.

"Ten minutes," he noted in a hushed whisper. "Not the quickest gestation period in the world…"

Bloodeagle stared at the readings she was seeing through her Mono-eye mask. They were the same as she had seen when examining Koni earlier – the draining hole pouring into nothingness, and the Phoenix nesting into it. She watched it curl up like a kitten would against the fur of its mother.

"This is too weird," she commented. She drew a light tap on her shoulder from Thido. She looked under her mask at him as he was gesturing to her that her note had been just a bit too loud. She winced as she peeked at the man from under the mask.

He remained still and vacant of expression.

"I think we're safe," Thido again whispered. "He probably can't sense either of us while he's in that state, though I'm not too sure about him." She noticed he was pointing a thumb at their unexpected guest behind the bushes with them. Amethyst gave him a sneering grunt but continued to play along.

"Why would he be able to sense him and not us?" she asked as she hunkered in and played with some of the controls on the side of the mask.

"You're a local vessel," Thido pointed out, "and I'm wearing one of these." He pulled one of the strange Doorknob devices out from under his collar. "But you," he said to the man across from them, "I wouldn't get much closer to him right now."

"You know something human?" Amethyst growled. Thido gave him a curt look before ducking down further. They watched as the man across from them seemed to wake from his daze. He turned away, took two steps and then gave a small jump into the air, to which he then promptly vanished in a streak of light and a slight pop of thunder.

"Whoa, what did he just do?" Bloodeagle asked as she studied the readings she had snatched just then. Unlike the naked eye, where it seemed the man had simply vanished, she was seeing a trail left in his wake streaming off towards the falls near the Renmei Temple. When there was nothing else to see, she removed her mask and looked at Thido in puzzlement. But he was watching Amethyst, and for some reason he had a strange smirk on his face as he did so.

"Cat got your tongue?" he asked the suit.

"He… how? He should not be able…" Amethyst stumbled through his words.

"Very coherent," Thido noted. "Which way did he go?" he asked Bloodeagle.

"Um, that way," she pointed. Thido nodded. "What was that he did?"

"Ah, the high ground," he said first. "Not surprising. As for what Mr. Furgesson did was a teleport move. What your mask showed you was the ion trail he left behind as he went." As he stood up, in what seemed to be a painful way, he brushed himself off and looked back. He found Amethyst in his face.

"YOU WILL tell me what he did, and just HOW he did that!" he shouted at Thido. The fake Haibane waved a hand over his face.

"You've been eating something with garlic in it again, haven't you?" he complained. "Settle down, son. We're on the same team." He walked over to a large log next to Sinner's Rock and sat down. "Now, from what you just saw, what can you conclude?"

Amethyst and Bloodeagle stared at Thido. "What?" he asked.

"You just watched what looks like a human male teleport off into the wild blue yonder after sucking up a Phoenix into his belly, and not just ANY only Phoenix, but the leader of the Phoenix Guild itself… what is your conclusion?" Thido leaned towards him, knowing he knew the answer. But Amethyst could only look back and forth between him and the distant waterfall in disbelief.

"B-but that's impossible!" he stammered. "That can't BE!"

"What can't be?" Bloodeagle asked. She saw Thido twiddle his own mask at her.

"Try using the same settings on our friend here that you used on our recently departed target," he suggested.

"I can't – it's too bright."

Thido waved his Mono-eye at her as he drew it to his face. "Set your filter to level twelve. You'll see what I mean."

She looked at her mask. "Umm, twelve… that's black," she said.

"Not for him," Thido told her from behind his face shield.

She shrugged and adjusted it as advised. When she placed it to her face, she was amazed to see the same cascading image of a soul with a hole in it standing right beside her.

"That's incredible," she said in awe. "Why?" was her obvious next question.

"Mr. Amethyst here is a Celestial, the guardians of the Phoenix Guild," he explained to her. "What better way to transport a dignitary than within one's own soul? Better yet, within the body of your bodyguard?"

Bloodeagle scratched her head. "It wouldn't be so great if he were to be killed!" she bluntly stated. "Nothing personal, mind you," she added to the suit.

Her brief moment of 'concern' brought Amethyst out of his stupor. He reached up and yanked on his lapels as he straightened himself out. "Hardly – If that were to occur, my life may be forfeit, but the Phoenix would go on."

"Huh?" was all she could muster, much to the Celestial's disdain. She looked over at Thido hoping for more than a snide expression and found him almost giddy.

"An escape clause," he told her. "Actually, it would be more physics than anything else. It takes energy to maintain a hole in a soul, since technically, there should never BE a hole in a soul, even though we've now seen three examples. But if he were killed, he would no longer be able to maintain that energy, and since the two are incompatible with each other, the one would be shot out of the other like a pilot being ejected from an aircraft – FWOOSH!"

Bloodeagle shook her head. If she had not been given back her memory of the life she had before coming to Glie, Thido's description of eject-able birds would have made no sense to her. She glanced in the direction of the northern falls. "So what is so impossible?" she asked of the departed man and his contents. "So far today, I've seen way too many impossible things."

Thido just leaned forwards and watched as Amethyst stewed. "Well?" he asked him. Getting no response, he sat up and crossed his legs and arms. "Well, if you're going to be suddenly quiet about it, I won't."

Amethyst snapped a glare at the man on the stump. "You will speak NOT…" He stopped as he saw Thido's hand facing him, and a small ball of energy gathering in it that he had sent attempting to silence him.

"I'll say anything I damn well feel like, son. Don't try me." The nearly jovial expression Thido had been displaying vanished, replaced with a grim stare in his direction. He turned the palm over and tossed the sphere away dissipating it.

"What are you?" Amethyst asked with a slight step back, shocked that his power was so easily tossed aside.

"Greater than you think, but lesser for it," he replied. "I am but the messenger with limited time and patience. Now, the answer to the question of what is so impossible is that we just witnessed another person showing the tell-tale signs of being a Celestial, though probably not so full of himself I would think."

Bloodeagle snickered. Thido had always been a bit blunt with his criticisms in the past. It was good to see that nothing had changed.

"Wait… are you saying that that guy was another Celestial?" she asked, again peeking through her mask over at the waterfalls to see if any glowing signs were still present.

Thido nodded as he looked in that direction as well. "Oh yes, and as I'm sure our friend here would state that this is impossible, as he is supposed to be the last of his kind."

"It IS impossible!" Amethyst complained. He found a finger waving at him from the older man on the stump.

"Ah ah," he chided him. "Not so, and you know it. A Celestial like you might be impossible, but a Celestial in general is not. Just look at what was being done to the Haibane baby in Mr. Kinza's care."

"Like him?" Bloodeagle asked. "What's so special about him, other than being the last of his kind?" She added quotation marks with her fingers for the "last of his kind" remark, with a sneer from the man in question for added effect.

Thido pointed with both hands and mask at the direction the departed man had taken. "Well, obviously, 'last of his kind' is partly wrong," he stated. "Let us call him more correctly 'last of his type' instead."

"Type," Amethyst snorted. "What will you call me next? Breed? Race?"

"I'm only stating the facts, sir," Thido interjected. "And the fact is that you were born a Celestial – an extremely rare and unique individual. Meanwhile, that man," he added with a nod towards the far away waterfall, "is not. He was created."

Amethyst gritted his teeth. "What?" he snarled at him. Thido only nodded again.

"It is the primary difference between your brethren and those of the Denivan. A Celestial can be created artificially if the proper vessel is found. After all, it takes an awful lot of energy and control to create a hole in one's own soul."

Amethyst stomped about. "Impossible," he grumbled to himself. "To achieve that, he would have already had to have possessed some power of his own."

Thido shook his head in agreement. "He did, and he still does. In my time-line, he is a very good friend of mine. It is vitally important that he survives this."

That statement caused both Amethyst and Bloodeagle to look down at the man on the stump. "This?" they both asked. Thido looked between the two of them and laughed as he slapped his knees and slowly rose off the dead tree.

"Another friend of mine would say something like 'spoilers' about now," he chuckled. "But yes, a cataclysm is coming, and its creator just flew off with that man out there." He turned and looked the Celestial directly in his eyes.

"You sir need to keep an eye on your boss," he told him. "And I would suggest that you seek assistance with those around you.

Amethyst yanked on his lapels and huffed. "I will NOT seek help from Strom or his kind!"

"No one ever said you had to," Thido noted as he started to head for the opening between the trees. "There are plenty of people around here who can assist you, as long as you don't put them off mind you. You might even want to seek out one of the guilds or legions for assistance."

"Thido, wait," Bloodeagle called out. "What would the Phoenix want with Koni? She's only a baby. How did he expect her to maintain a hole in her soul?"

The man stopped. They could see by his shoulders bobbing that he was chuckling to himself. "Maia, there is nothing more powerful than a newborn's energy. Combine that with the vessel of a Haibane, the strongest, most durable body created, and you found the ultimate armor for a bird like that. You, of all people, should know what that's like."

She took a slight step back. "You mean because I tried to kill myself twice?" she asked. He nodded.

"Resilient, aren't they?" he said as he continued on. "I'd hardly want to think what would happen if one of those became a Celestial." His form reverted to that of the man in a long dark blue Naval jacket with its collar turned up as if against at gale. He glanced back at the pair. There was a large blue-black cap on his head, which he tipped.

"Where the hell does he think he's going? I have questions…" Amethyst barked as he jogged out of the Sinner's Rock clearing. He found no one on the path where he had seen the man just moments before. He looked about.

"No teleport move," he said aloud. "And I don't sense a transmat or transporter in use." He glared up at the starship hovering over the town center. "Where the hell did he go?"

The Admiral actually was only a few yards further down the path. He had ducked into the junk yard beside Sinner's Rock and had turned his Doorknob device up to full power. He found an old rusty personnel mover and climbed on board.

"You think you told him enough?" a girl asked as he sat down in a swing-down chair in the back. He lifted his hat off his head and hung it on a hook nearby. He then popped open the jacket and leaned back, panting.

"It's freaking August, and I'm wearing this blasted P-Jacket!" he moaned rather than answer her directly which only made her rap her heel against the deck plate with a loud clang. "Hey, hey! Careful there! I just ducked out on your target. We don't need him finding us here!"

"Sorry," she shimmied as she examined the dent she made in the steel. "I'm still not used to this body I'm in."

The Admiral took her hand and sat her down beside himself. "Being a free spirit in an android frame will take some getting used to, especially since we needed to shield your signal so much to put you in there. Remember, our service is to the Basement and Attic of the future, not the here and now. If they were to find your signal, all… something… would break loose."

"Mutual stupidity would break out," the girl snidely remarked. The Admiral laughed.

"Charm, honey, remember, you're my ace in the hole here," he told her. "If Amethyst is lost during any of this, and we know there will be many times that could happen, the future we know of will be lost."

"Ah, no pressure then." He smiled and mussed up her red hair.

"You're still in base mode I see." She was dressed in her old blacks, a wardrobe she had given up in her previous life. She looked over the loose fitting top over leather pants and grunted.

"Why did you choose these as my base attire?" she asked. "I'm not that into black anymore."

"It's not by choice," he told her as he gestured her to the middle of the small room. "The transformational habit of the mech-cloth it's made of makes it that color. It's kind of like a TV – when it's off, it's black, though in reality, it works on a subtractive nature, much like an ink jet printer. When you adjust the amount of the three colors used, you get different hues and shades. When you use them all at once, you get black."

She reached over and patted him on the cheek. "Oh, it's good to see that you haven't lost your habit of going all technogeek!"

"Smart ass," he chided her. "Okay, let's go over the mission one more time… let's see your other transformations first."

Charm stood tall before him and held out her arms. The fabric of her clothes seemed to retract into her body form, leaving her looking as if it had only been painted on. White lines appeared over the black surface and her form started to change. She grew slightly, her hair changed length and color, her face grew narrow, and she suddenly had a pair of glasses. A brown sweater covered her chest with a white blouse underneath, and a red and green plaid skirt sprung from her waist. Once finished, the white lines vanished and she lowered her arms. She looked beside herself at a metal surface that just managed to reflect her image and winced.

"Oh god, mode four… the dweeb." She looked back at her mentor hoping to get some support, only to find him snickering.

"And she is?" he asked, knowing full well who she had become, but wanting her to tell him.

Charm sighed. "Her name is Rachel… she is from the farms near the northwest wall. She will be working at a new stall at the marketplace selling poultry products."

The Admiral pulled out a PADD unit and started tapping notes into it. "Good… I have to remind myself to thank Millie for all those eggs she's providing us from the Source… [1] Next?"

'Rachel' looked nervously at her body. "Are you sure? Did anyone work on the kinks that were in that mode yet?"

The Admiral swiped the PADD and looked at the readout. "It says that maintenance was downloaded last night while you were asleep. Let's see what they did."

She gave him a grumpy look. "You know it still annoys me that they can do things like that without informing me."

"Did you ever get mad at your body for growing up?" the Admiral asked, which he then quickly thought about that. "Umm… I guess you did, didn't you?"

"Yes I did!" she snapped.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to bring up painful memories." [2]

She huffed. Again she raised her arms. The current attire withdrew into the body frame and the white lines on a black silhouette reappeared. This time, the body size shot up, making for a tall woman. Blonde hair unfurled and draped across her shoulders. An off-pink cap sprouted on top of it all as the rest of her body was wrapped in a set of hospital scrubs that seemed one size too tight.

The Admiral dropped a stylus he had been tapping on his PADD with.

Charm looked at her reflection and grew infuriated. "THAT is EMBARRASSING!" she shouted. She whirled about and glared at the man seated in the back.

"Honestly," he sheepishly said, "S.A.M. chose the model for that!"

She glanced down at her over-produced cleavage and snorted. "Did he? And just WHO programmed it?"

"Wasn't me," he mumbled as he retrieved his stylus and started tinkering with his PADD. "Honestly, you're supposed to blend in, not stand out like a character from Animaniacs." She noticed her hair revert to a tied up wrap and her body become more natural in shape and less like a novelty doll. He sighed and tapped his temple. "Okay… name?"

Charm first examined the refreshed image of a more appropriate design and nodded. "Kankoshi," she said. She then noticed a sound the Admiral made and looked back at him. "Ea?"

"Someone's being cute," he stated. "That's 'nurse' in Japanese."

"So, I'm Nurse Nurse?"

He nodded. "Pretty much. Background?"

Charm tapped her forehead, a habit she seemed to be picking up from her mentor. "I was recently transferred in via Corporation Services group to upgrade the hospital's staff." She noticed that the Admiral was waving his stylus at her. "And?" she asked, seeing she was forgetting something.

"You were brought in through which group?" he asked.

Then it dawned on her. "Oh, I was brought in by the Observers!"

He wrote on his PADD in satisfaction. "Right! We wouldn't want to have to make a new body every thirty hours if we were to have you as one of the actual Corporation staff."

"Doesn't that mean we risk someone from the Observers of this time noticing?" The Admiral shrugged slightly.

"Possibly, but our S.A.M. has already informed the S.A.M. of this time and place to cover for you using a Historic Override command."

"Does it do that often?"

"All the time," the Admiral admitted with a sigh.

She shook her head. "I'm not sure I'd want a computer around that knows my future and isn't willing to tell me about it."

"That's our S.A.M., and that's his job," the Admiral bluntly pointed out. "Let's see your primary."

Once again, Charm raised her arms and retracted her form. This time, the body reverted to her petite shape of its soul's owner, though, the face became round, the hair short and brown with a single long strand dangling down her left cheek and clipped with an X shaped hair braid. Her clothes became plain and worn. A pair of gray wings popped out of her back, and a halo appeared over her head. The Admiral stood up and glared at it. Charm looked at her reflection.

"I look like that Lain girl we dealt with," she remarked as she noticed the scrutiny the Admiral was giving the ring over her head. "Something wrong?"

"They still haven't fixed that problem with the halo," he said as he started in on his PADD again. "It's still too bright and artificial looking." He tapped a few times, each one replacing the ring with another model. "There we go – that looks like it was made with the halo-mold."

She reached up and twanged it with her finger. "It's dull," she noted. He agreed.

"It's not supposed to stand out. Haibane halos tend to only illuminate slightly. So what's this one's story?"

Charm turned and presented the form to him. "My name if Chamu, and I was a resent arrival at the home in woods in the northwest."

He nodded. "Your cover is that you're part of this Rainfall event that's happening right now. You'll have to go to the house right away, as there will be others there soon, as they did divert a few seedlings up there. I've got a few of our Observer crews working there now undercover. They're also setting up your Rachel's stall in the marketplace."

"Isn't it a bit dangerous having both Rachel and Chamu coming from the same area?" she asked. He shook his head.

"Actually it works out for the best," he pointed out. "Rachel will start out the business, and Chamu will be a Haibane she hires to run it on her days off. It gives her a reason not to be there all the time, and gives your Haibane character as job, as required by the Renmei."

"What if they need to be seen together?" she asked.

"You mean like this?" he asked back with a tap to the PADD. Instantly an image of 'Rachel' appeared beside Chamu. "The same holographic projectors that run your final forms can also create a buddy. Mind you, they can't be too far away, or they loose the advantage of the deflector field that creates them mimicking someone touching them."

She looked at the still form of her farm-girl dweeb self. "What if someone talks to her?" she asked.

"S.A.M. will speak for her." Charm looked at him like he was mad.

"The computer will speak for her…"

The Admiral folded his arms. "Well, unless you've become a world-class ventriloquist… now, the last two covers are part of that belt you're wearing."

The Chamu form reverted to the Charm body as the image of 'Rachel' vanished. She touched the buckle of the belt, which in her base transformation mode, stood out like some super hero's utility belt. "I tried it out earlier," she noted. "It's a bit… weird."

"Yes, but this time, it's been programmed," the Admiral told her as he did a few more tweaks to his PADD. "Before, all you saw was what it looked like while inside the 'blank' projection."

She looked about as if seeing it again. "Mmm, it was like being inside a tennis ball."

The Admiral stopped and looked at her curiously. "I won't ask how you'd know what it's like being inside a tennis ball," he muttered. "This will be a bit more like wearing a football uniform."

"I've never worn a football…" was all she got out when the holographic outer shell popped up around her. It felt as if someone had just slammed a helmet on her head, much like the times in the past when she bore the ShadowFlare Armor that had been provided by the mystical Black Katana of Yariga-Take, though in a much less friendly way, though, even in those times, it had been anything but subtle. It took a moment to adjust to the proportions that had been augmented to her body.

"Ugh! You said that Mr. Kinza used to wear something like… uh… this?" she moaned. It felt like she was holding up two bodies until she saw the Admiral tap the PADD again, and everything became lighter.

"The Ed and Thomas suits, yes," he reminisced. "He was part of the crew that wore those units."

"Crew? You mean there were more than one?"

He sat back and gave her a slightly quirky look. "That mission lasted nearly ninety years. There was no way he'd be running that suit that long, even being off his time line. I seem to remember there being at least four others who were inside that pair of suits at one time or the other. Even Shadsie wore one."

"I bet she didn't like it," Charm remarked as she turned to look at herself in the fuzzy reflection. She stopped and gawked for a moment.

"DAMN! I'm HUGE!" she yelped. "And… who the hell is that?"

The Admiral snickered. "Umm, yea, the tech guys did warn me that it might look a bit… dumpy. You've got to remember, this is a projected overlay, which means it would add a few centimeters to the depth of your features. Then add on the random characteristics of the samples taken…"

Charm ran her fingers over her cheeks to see if she could make it look any better. "Random samples? You mean this isn't anyone I should know?"

"Well, yes and no," the Admiral said as he looked at the readings on his PADD. "What the system does is takes an image sample from as many people around you at the time as possible, and creates a mosaic picture that forms the basis of any exposed skin on your hologram."

Charm shook her head trying to decipher all that. "Why?" she asked.

"Psychological," he replied. "It's been found that if you share features of those around you, you tend to blend in more and arouse less suspicion, which is vital when using that function, since you should only need it if you're attempting to escape or leave an area unnoticed."

"So I wind up looking like I've got a gland condition?"

"Think of your thin little self under all that added poundage," he suggested. "Humm, since you're in what they call Dumpy Sister, you're currently showing the results of the last mélange of any girls that had been near the suit when last active, which were Agnes and Brittany from the security department. Normally, it would take all those around it, but since it was only those two, well, this is what you get."

Charm smirked. "So, since you're the only male around, if I reset this to, I'll assume its called Dumpy Brother, we get this…"

The girl vanished, only to be replaced by a short and overly stout version of the Admiral, which did not help seeing that he was already fat.

"How do you walk?" Charm asked.

The Admiral grunted. "If you think that's bad, don't try using the Dumpy Twins when you're in 'Kankoshi' mode. With her height, you'd scare everyone to death!"

"Uhhh, here comes Blobzilla!" the fatter and shorter than normal Admiral trundled. It stopped and juggled the PADD unit the real Admiral tossed at it. Once it had it under control, the form reverted to that of its host.

"That's your itinerary," the Admiral told her as he stood up and moved towards the hatch and peeked around. He pulled a scanning rod out and gave the surrounding area a quick swipe. "It looks like my admirers have moved off, so now is the best time for us to part ways. Any questions?"

Charm swiped through the long paragraphs that made up her list of duties. "This will certainly keep me busy for a while," she said. She smiled and morphed into the 'Rachel' form, making the PADD look like a normal book in the process. The Admiral noticed and nodded his approval.

"Then I think you should be heading off to your farm, young lady. You've got some chickens to feed!"

She nodded and started for the door. "You do know that I'm not a fan of the lady who we're doing this for," she said as she stopped by the opening.

"You had no problems with her daughter," he suggested back. Charm huffed.

"Her daughter isn't as holier-than-thou as her mother," she pointed out.

"Yet… and that just might only be the influence of her aunt you know. Besides, just wait until you've met her grandmother."

"Which one?" Charm asked. "I met them both when they removed the Ryuujin from me." [3] She sighed. "You know, this basement and attic of yours is a pain in my butt!"

The Admiral shook her by the shoulders. "I know this will be a hard one on you," he told her, "but remember, without her, our dealings with the Black Lugia would have gone tragically wrong, for us and all the known universes."

"Yea yea, I know," she grumbled. "He would have jumped dimensions and eaten all life. I don't care about all that… I'm doing this for Meghan, not her mother."

"Whatever gets the job done, kiddo," he told her with a fatherly hug and shake. "Now you run along and get set up."

She took a few steps out and then turned back waving the book she held at him. "Is this the only remote for my body?" she asked.

"No, there is another, but its back on Exeter," he told her. "She's not due to be in this space anytime soon. Try not to leave it, since without that vessel, you're a free spirit, and you might get drawn into Sinner's Rock. We might not be able to get you back out."

"Peachy," she remarked. She leapt up into the huge oak tree that dominated the center of the junk yard and surveyed the area. High up in the branches, she could see nearly all points inside the wall. To her south in the far distance was a solitary set of large buildings, some of which were spewing either smoke or dust – she could not tell which. She checked her 'book' and saw it marked as 'Old Home'. Lines indicating incoming energy were still showing heading in its direction, but were now also shifting towards another set of sites, including another building she could see to the northeast. That was her current target. She leapt gracefully, flipping once and arcing onto a lower branch, which then sprung back, launching her over the ivy-covered fence and into the trees on the other side of the path heading for the Gideon Span.

"This would be so much faster if I still had my Shadow Disk," she grumbled as she touched the ground and dashed for the bridge.

---

"Mr. Kinza, I can not allow access to those files!" a Yeoman was complaining to the security officer. "Only a person of command rank may authorize the use of these, and honestly, you're only a visitor."

The light gray fur around his face took on a slightly red sheen as the anger swelled inside. "Visitor?" he snarled. "Computer, inform this person, what is my rank on board this ship?"

"Lieutenant," it replied from his chest patch.

"What is my position?"

"Chief of Security."

"Am I of command rank?"

"Affirmative…"

He leaned down and glared at the girl behind the check out desk at the Scanning Disk Library. "Now give me those scraggin' files!"

She nervously keyed a button on the desk before her.

"Command protocol override… authorization to these scanning disks denied per Treaty of Set." She winced, expecting a sudden explosion from across the table. When it did not come, she opened her eyes and peeked over.

Kinza stood in shock as he spun a screen to face him so that he could read the reason for the denial again. He tapped in a security override, but was given the same response as before.

"S.A.M., explain please," he growled. "These are simple Haibane, not political leaders. Why this denial?"

"The Treaty of Set requires that those who are sent to the Holy Sites as Haibane are there in judgment, and shall be sorted by their lives there. This means that all cases are judged by their actions while in said Holy Sites."

"Now you know what I have to deal with," he heard. He looked back to see Doc McManus standing at the doorway. She was splattered with crimson spots from her work over in sick bay across the hall. "Even at the hospital in Glie, I'm limited on what I'm allowed to do, simply because if I correct anything too far, I'd be in violation of that treaty."

"Meaning that any actions that they do to themselves is held against themselves upon their so called 'Day of Flight'," Kinza grunted. "A bloody building fell on them! How can they be held against that?"

"It is just the way of the treaty," Katherine said from behind the doctor. "They shall be judged by their actions and lives within the Holy Sites."

"Scraggin' Tok, I'll be damned if I'll allow that in this case," Kinza said. "And since I have the power, I'm going to use it! Computer, I'm under jurisdiction of Observer's Rule One One Zero One. You will override and provide the requested information."

"Warning," it replied. "Doing this action will put a permanent mark on your record, and you will be held responsible for this action."

"WRITE A SCRAGGIN' BOOK FOR ALL I CARE!" he yelled. "GIVE ME THE DAMN INFORMATION!"

After a brief moment of silence, a disk popped out of the desk. The Yeoman gingerly picked it up and handed it to Kinza.

"Be careful sir," she told him in a breathless tone.

"I've been in worse situations, kid. Don't worry about me," he said with a smile as he took the disk.

She looked at him with wet eyes, which caught him aback. "Not like this, sir. Not like this." She stood up and moved to a back room where he could hear her starting to weep.

"Scragg, you'd think I just asked to die," he mumbled.

"To a degree, you just did," he heard Gabrella state in the hallway. "You're in violation of the treaty – that means you've got both sides angry at you."

"Well bully for them," he snorted as he thundered past them. "Maybe I should be angry at them writing a treaty so poorly worded." His last words were heard by Rakka, Koi and the children as he entered the observation lounge outside the operating room. They were all staring at him. He quickly gave them a slightly friendlier face as he turned to enter the second door.

"You kids doing okay?" he asked before proceeding through. They all gave him a slight nod.

"Is Nemu going to be okay?" the boy Young Feather asked. Rakka clutched him as he seemed to be flinching towards following the Tomassamassa.

Kinza looked at the disk in his paw. "Hopefully, this will cure all," he told him. He gave him a wink then proceeded through with the Doctor and the two deities close behind.

"Mr. Marshall, give me some good news," he called to his com unit as the smile left his face.

There were some noises and a few sounds of tools dropping that only added to the noise in the operating room. "We're adjusting the transmats to what you're planning now," the gruff voice of the Chief Engineer said from his chest patch. "We've managed to get a positive lock on the first three targets, but we're having trouble with the adult."

"First three?" Kinza asked. He then noticed another bed had been brought into the already crowded operating room, and that a very smashed form was being held in stasis on it. "Scragg, where was that one found?"

"North end of the collapse," the foreman who had been transmatted up with him replied as all the other doctors and nurses were busy. "She was found when we requested a final sweep."

Kinza looked at the disk in his paw. "S.A.M., was she within the two hundred yard radius of this disk?"

"Affirmative," it drolly replied. Kinza sighed.

"Good. I didn't really want to go further into violation by having to request more scan data." He stepped over to Nemu's table to examine the work.

"Speaking of violations," he heard over his come unit, "even those we have t-mat lock on keep getting a violation warning from the computer."

He grunted as McManus started prepping Nemu for the reconstruction the security officer was planning. "Understood," Kinza answered Marshall. "S.A.M., we're under a code One – One – Zero – One. Why are the transmat buffers harping about violations?"

"Even under Observer's rule One – One – Zero – One, violating a treaty or law will be noted and warned under the understanding that those who do said violations will be held responsible for same said violation. This is to prevent anyone simply stating that they are exonerated as they were under the One – One – Zero – One rule when they did their violation, and thus should be not accountable for their actions."

"Okay S.A.M., I dig," Kinza told it. "For the time being though, unless a violation is done outside of the One – One – Zero – One situation we are currently in, stop all warnings – its annoying enough as it is right now."

"Understood…"

"Right, how's that Marshall?"

The engineer looked over his controls and saw green lights. "Yea, that did the trick on the three kids," he said, "but the adult is still not locking on."

They looked over the battered body before them in confusion. "Does it say why it can't get a lock?" Kinza asked.

Marshall localized his board to just the one table and ran his scans again. "Its not that we can't lock onto the body," he told them over his com. "That's simple. What we've got is a Heisenberg Filter block associated with reading a scanning disk with a pattern overlay."

"What the hell does that mean?" McManus groused as she continued to work as if whatever they were talking about would not fix this situation.

"We're trying to take the bodies we have here, and use them via the captured patterns we have from the scanning disks to recreate them as they were the second before they were crushed by the collapse," Kinza explained to her. "Marshall, can it be more specific? Is it saying just why it can't do this?"

He ran through the diagnostics of the problem. He tapped the readout when it replied. "It's saying insufficient mass."

"Insufficient mass?" Kinza and McManus asked as they looked over the girl again and again.

"Is it because of blood loss?" Kinza asked.

"No, that gets replaced during the transmat process," the doctor replied. "All fluids and chemicals are screened during the process."

"Oh, right – the salt filter," the security officer remembered. "It's not her clothes – they're right here." He moved her head slightly and checked her wings that were splayed behind her. Then he stopped and turned around. He quickly scrutinized the three children on the other tables.

"Where is her halo?" he asked coming back to the patient in front of himself.

Everyone around him shrugged and looked about.

"I don't remember one being there when we put her on the table," a nurse stated.

"That's not good," Kinza grumbled. "You said that it's a means of communication, did you not?" he asked Katherine.

"In a way, yes," she agreed. "It's more a beacon."

"Oh come now, you can tell him more than that," Gabrella snorted. Katherine snapped a glare at her, but nodded that she was probably right.

"Come on, spill it," Kinza told them. "Since they're artificial, I can just have Marshall create a new one…"

"NO!" was yelled at him, which surprised him, as it had come from both ladies.

"Okay, that was rather vehement," he noted. "Why can't I just make a halo? Especially you," he added with a nod towards the Demon Goddess.

"I hate those things," Gabrella admitted with a shiver. "They're just such an invasion of privacy…"

Kinza stepped around the table and stood before them. "What?" he asked as McManus kept and eye on the women while she continued to work on her patient.

Katherine squirmed a bit. "The disk is more than just a beacon," she told them. "The composition of the light-leaf halo determines many things in the term of a soul as a Haibane."

"Term?" Kinza asked. "What do you mean by 'term'?"

She now swallowed. "The ring is more than just a halo… it's a recording device, much like your scanning disks."

Kinza's jaw dropped. "You're kidding," he gasped. She shook her head no.

"It is the primary reason why a Haibane's time is so limited in the Holy Sites. It is why they must understand their entry dream and the meaning of their names before their time runs out. It does so when the halo can no longer hold any more data."

Kinza pointed over his head. "You're telling me those rings are nothing more than a clock?"

"Essentially, yes," Gabrella huffed as she crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. "They do have some variables, like density, rotation speed, the purity of the light-leaves…"

Kinza began parading back and forth a bit. "They rotate?" he asked.

"Well of course they rotate," Gabrella laughed. "Unless you want to spin the head underneath the thing, they have to spin to record. Some are slow… some are fast. The fast ones tend to fill up quicker."

"And they record the events of a Haibane's life while inside the sites for playback on their Day of Flight," he surmised while pacing back and forth. "What happens if she looses the ring?"

Katherine and Gabrella looked at one another and shrugged. "I'm assuming that the same thing would happen to her that afflicts your charge," the Goddess suggested. "Like Koni, she would become a blank."

Kinza looked at her with wide angry eyes. "Blank? As in a sin-less soul like hers?"

"Blank also means a Haibane without record," Gabrella interjected. "More likely, it would mean she would become a scar."

"A scar?" McManus asked. She checked over Nemu's wings and noticed a few loose feathers.

"Well you noted it before," the demon said towards the security officer. "That ring does more than just sit on her head, it caps the flow of energy escaping the body - Yet another function. It's usually the first thing lost after a failed flight. Soon after, they loose their wings."

"Energy depletion!" Kinza expounded. "We've got to get that ring back! Marshall, did you hear all of this?"

The engineer was rolling over the scanners on the transmat's controls. "Yea, I did," he groused, "but I'm not seeing anything that looks like light-leaf particles down there. There's just too much debris in the area, and ta tell ya the truth, it probably got pulverized."

"Then we'll just have to make a transmat replacement," Kinza stated, only to get two sets of eyes howling in his direction.

"That is in violation of the treaty!" Katherine yelled.

"Agreed!" Gabrella added. "It MUST be a light-leaf ring, and it MUST be made in the… ugh… halo mold!"

Kinza stepped back and looked at the two ladies. "My, you two certainly have buddied up all of a sudden! Okay, we can't substitute a halo by our means – is there any rule stating we can't just get her a new proper ring?"

Katherine gulped air. "Ah… there's never been anything like this done before that I know of. The Heavenly Mainframe informs me that no one has ever replaced a halo lost before." She stepped around a bit as she seemed downloading information as she spun. "And even if it was done, there would be a lack of acquired data lost up to the point of replacement."

"Unless you want to start from square one again," Gabrella added.

"Well, we might be able to help with that," Kinza said while tapping his lip with a scanning rod he picked up. "Hang on a moment – I'll be right back." He headed out into the waiting area, leaving the two deities and doctor behind in confusion.

"Rakka, just the lady I need right now," he said to the waiting Haibane.

"M-Mr. Kinza?" she asked as she suddenly had him right in front of her. He was waving the rod over her head. He then brought in down to her forehead.

"S.A.M.," he said seemingly to himself, "release scanning disk Excel two seven six niner Charlie Bravo Victor eight Alpha one seven nine."

A disk appeared and disappeared on Rakka's forehead. He smiled at her and turned towards the second door out into the hallway.

"Be right back," he told her and left.

"What was that all about?" Koi asked.

Kinza keyed the outside door controls so no one would follow him. He tapped his patch.

"S.A.M., I need a compatibility check between these two formats of data recording," he told the ship's computer. "I need to know if I needed to take data from a scanning disk, we could successfully transfer it to a light-leaf ring."

"Computing," it replied. There was a brief moment of silence that seemed to take forever to pass. "Affirmative – the recording the light-leaf ring is simply a POV image with no other data. A scanning disk has this available as well. The POV is from eye level, so the data transfer would need to be first set for the proper angle, adjusting for both growth and location of the optic nerve of the host. It would then need to be converted into black and white…"

He scratched his ear. "Black and white? What for?" he asked in puzzlement.

"The image on the test subject's ring is in black and white," it stated. "This is common in a recording system that wishes to pack as much visual data as possible into a limited amount of data space."

"The Basement and the Attic are on economy drives," he commented to himself. "Huh!" He unlocked the door and walked back into the observation lounge.

"Rakka, I have a mission for you," he said as he gestured her to follow him.

"Me?" she squeaked. She found her hand being taken by his paw, and before either Koi or the children could say anything, they were both out the door and up the hallway.

"Mr. Kinza, sir," Rakka yelped as they trotted along the long straight corridor, "What's going on? How is Nemu?"

"Rakka, I need you to be brave," he said – something no one ever wants to hear someone say, as it always means the worst. "Nemu is badly hurt."

"Is she going to die?" He felt her steps falter as he dragged her along.

"No, she will survive," he told her knowing that was certain – but not knowing what the quality of that life would be. "All of her injuries are repairable to our doctors. But she lost something that only you can get for us."

He felt her stop in her tracks, and he lost grasp of her hand. He looked back at the shocked expression of the girl.

"Oh god… she lost her halo?"

Kinza stared at her. "You… you understand?"

Rakka numbly nodded her head. "I… I could feel it," she said in a whisper. "When I caught a glimpse of her… she was missing something. Do… do you know where it is?"

He shook his head. "It's gone," he told her as he retook her hand and started hauling her along. "We need to make a replacement."

Rakka drew in a deep breath. "The Halo Mold! You want me to get the Halo Mold and light-leaf paste!"

Kinza glanced at her. "Paste? What, it needs to set in the mold?"

"No, it needs to be baked!"

Now he stopped. "Baked. Scragg, now we'll need an oven. Mr. Marshall, do you have any industrial ovens on board?" he asked his communicator.

The engineer pondered that request. "We do so much forming and molding with transmats these days, we only have small ones on board at the moment. How large would you say you need?"

Rakka raised her hands to an approximate size of the ring that made up the head of the mold. "About twenty inches wide to accommodate a round flat mold."

Marshall scribbled some notes on a PADD he had. "I can probably have one res'd up in about an hour. Where do you want it?"

"Sick bay," Kinza said as he took Rakka's hand again and started down the hall. "We'll explain when we get down there with you."

"What? You're coming down to the transmat room? Why for?"

"We need to transmat somewhere," Kinza snidely replied with the obvious answer. "We'll be there shortly… out." He then tapped the patch again with his free paw.

"Marcie, you up there darlin'?" he asked, the tone of which caught Rakka.

"Marcie's off Kinza," a response came. "This is Connie."

"Connie, sweetheart," the Tomassamassa swooned, "I need to talk to either Professor Ptolemy or Director Plato of the Corporation, stat. Could you contact them for me please?"

The communications officer looked up at the commanding officer on the bridge. Button nodded his okay for the linkup.

"I'm making the connection, Kinzy," she cooed. "Stand by."

"Kinzy?" Tolefson the helmsman asked.

"You get soft fur all over your body, and I'll call you Tolly," she replied to the giggles of the girls on the scanning deck.

Ptolemy pinched his eyes as he tried to rest them from the rapid scrutiny he had put them through in the last hour. He felt the cell phone in his pocket vibrate. Having already smashed one phone, having another casually start wanting his attention so soon afterwards was probably not conducive to its health. He flipped it open and looked at its small screen.

"ForCom1?" he puzzled. "Do we know anyone from ForCom1?"

Janice was still busy redirecting incoming apogees. "Who?" she asked.

"That's Forrestal's command com," they heard. Ptolemy looked across the room at his director, who was busy on the other still working phone. He was covering over the mouthpiece. "Take it," he ordered.

The professor sighed and pressed the accept button. "Ptolemy," he grunted.

"Professor, Kinza here," he heard, which lightened his mood a bit. A bit of sanity was needed at that point – possibly it could come from an alien outside source.

"Mr. Kinza – good to hear from you," he said aloud allowing those around him to know who he was talking to. "Where are you and what's your situation?" He switched the phone to speaker when Plato pointed at his ear.

The security chief drew in a breath to ready his report. "I'm on board Forrestal. We managed to evacuate nine souls after the collapse of the center section of the main dorms at Old Home. We are working on four critically injured Haibane under supervision of the Attic and Basement representatives…"

Ptolemy looked at the phone. "You have Katherine and Gabrella on board the ship right now?"

"That is affirmative," was the reply.

"Well, at least we know where those two are," Janice commented.

Plato stepped towards him. "Mr. Kinza, are you saying you have Haibane ABOVE the walls right now?"

Kinza tapped on a wall readout in the transmat room and displayed the current ship stats. "We have rescued Haibane on board, yes, but we are still within the Glie sphere of influence. We are not in treaty violation."

"Thank god for that," Plato said, which got a caw from Mabel in her cage above him.

"Those critical Haibane," Ptolemy asked, "how bad are they?"

There was a brief pause. "We have been… counseled… by our representatives," was the reply. "All four victims are dealing with severe crush trauma, and as we now know, in a Haibane, that is not a fatal issue."

Ptolemy winced and closed his eyes. He heard his wife gasp. When he opened them again, he found her with her hands to her face, and Director Plato leaning hard against the desk his phone was on.

"What procedures are you taking?" the old man asked in a slightly quivering voice.

"With permission of our visiting deities, we are using our transmats to restore their bodies," Kinza replied, which drew both Plato's and Janice's faces up.

"I want a transmat," they heard from the doorway. Doc Hipp had stepped in when he heard the cell phone conversation. "I want one now."

"They… they didn't say it's a violation?" Ptolemy asked with a slight scowl towards the doctor.

"One – one – zero – one," was the reply. Ptolemy's face turned stony. It was a violation of the treaty.

"I withdraw my request," Hipp grumbled.

"Um… Kinza, who is taking… who is taking responsibility?" Ptolemy nervously asked.

He drew in a deep breath as Rakka watched him in worry. "I am," Kinza stated.

The old scientist staggered back a step. "Mr. Kinza, you're a visitor," Ptolemy told his phone. "You… you don't have to do this…"

"I am not about to leave these kids in this condition that was not their doing," snapped the phone. "We've got their readings from a second prior to the collapse, which we will use to restore their bodies."

Ptolemy pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face. "I… I appreciate… what you're doing for my children… the Haibane, Kinza… thank you."

"My pleasure," the chief briefly smiled. "But this is where we get to the reason for this phone call… we need a bit of assistance."

Ptolemy looked at the phone in his hand as if it had become volcanic. "In what way?" he asked it.

Kinza started walking in circles again. "As I said, we have four victims – this event happened directly over the nursery at Old Home, and we didn't have enough time to evacuate quickly enough before the place started falling. Three are young feathers. We have good reading on them, so restoring their bodies should be easy enough. The forth… the forth was Nemu…"

Ptolemy kicked a chair as he staggered to sit down and managed instead to slide down the wall behind it to the floor. "N-Nemu?" he asked. "H-how badly…"

Kinza shook his head. It was like trying to explain to a father about a child's condition. "She's going to be okay, Prof. Take it easy. We just have one snag."

Ptolemy was being comforted by his wife who rolled her chair over to him. He was crouched over with his hand to his forehead. "What do you need?" he asked with his head between his knees.

"Nemu lost her halo."

Ptolemy raised his head. "She lost her halo?" he asked in wide-eyed shock. "Completely?"

Kinza looked over at his chief engineer. "Scan readings show that all remains are intermixed with dirt, cinder blocks and timbers… it has been pulverized."

He thought for a moment at what that involved. "All her history… lost…" he whispered.

"No, we have a way to restore that too," his phone replied. He gave it a puzzled look.

"Gabby told you too much again," Ptolemy stated.

"So did Katherine," Kinza added. "It was extremely bipartisan."

Ptolemy readjusted himself as he crossed his legs. "Okay, what do you need?"

"I have Rakka with me," Kinza said as he patted her on the shoulder. "I'd like to transmat down to the Renmei Temple and get the Halo Mold and… uhh…"

"The light-leaf paste," she reminded him.

"…The light-leaf paste so that we can make Nemu a new halo, since Kat and Gabby overwhelmingly stated that we couldn't make our own… with your permission of course."

"That would be in violation of the treaty," Plato stated, which drew all eyes on him. "IF they made one themselves that is," he finished. He then noticed that Ptolemy was looking at the incoming map.

"All those plantings," he mumbled. "We're never going to have enough material for all that."

Plato examined the map as well. "We'll have to import light-leafs from the other sites," he said. "Just like the first time, we'll have to reduce the thickness and longevity of the rings."

Ptolemy snapped his fingers at a tech behind his wife. He came over.

"I need a printout of Nemu's ring density and specs," he told him. The man nodded and moved off to get the requested information. He saw the expression he was getting from the director and sighed.

"What is it?" Plato asked.

Ptolemy muted the phone. "We know what happens to a Haibane who looses their halo. So, do we save the soul of a senior over that of those who are arriving in this deluge?"

"We save who we can, when we can," he heard Hipp state. "That's our duty. Nemu is here now. The others won't be here for a few more days."

Ptolemy gave his friend a slight smile. He un-muted the phone. "Mr. Kinza, you have a go. I'll let my brother know you're coming, and we'll have the measurements of the paste mix ready by the time you get there."

Kinza looked about a bit puzzled. "Uh, Professor, you make it sound like it's going to take some time. I can transmat in and out in less than thirty seconds."

"I wouldn't recommend that," Ptolemy told him as he climbed up off the floor. "With the Reblessing Station at the top of the falls up there, you'll probably find your transmat field's a bit scrambled. You'll need to walk in from a safe distance."

Marshall looked over the readings in the area they wanted to deposit them and nodded in agreement. "He's right – the closest I can put you two is here." He pointed at a line about a mile south of the waterfalls.

"I think that's the Gideon Span," Rakka noted at the location.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather take a shuttle up there?" the engineer asked.

Kinza snorted. "Normally, I'd say yes, but I don't know if they have a suitable landing site there, and I don't think the Captain would like any further flying things darting about over Glie. We're large enough as it is. Okay Professor, we're on our way."

"Make it quick, son," he heard. "From what I'm told, this situation we're in is only going to get worse."

Kinza and Rakka stared at the com unit they had been using. "How so?" the officer asked.

Ptolemy held his breath for a moment. "This rainfall event was caused by a series of terrorist attacks. We have it on good word that they're not over."

Kinza got a worried look on his face and stepped over to a small console in the wall next to the transmat controls. He rattled the keyboard a bit. But then he stopped and stepped back as he read the information he had requested.

"You humans are nuts!" he barked. "Of all the idiotic… useless… SCRAGGIN' things to do to your own kind!"

"What?" Rakka asked. Kinza's patched chimed, which made him smack it.

"It's no use, S.A.M.," he yelled at the computer that was about to say something stupid about breaching the information wall. "In less than thirty clicks, everyone's going to know what happened!"

"Wait, you already knew when it's going to happen?" he heard over his com unit. He smacked his forehead.

"I thought S.A.M. was going to warn me about Rakka's question," he grumbled. "I know because I just looked it up on our data banks. Remember, we're a bit from your future."

"But you knew!" the voice insisted.

"What part of 'I just looked it up' did you not understand?" the security chief yelled. "It's not like I sit around reading up on human history, and especially THIS particular branch!"

"Oh my god. Is this true?" he heard, and saw Rakka staring at the screen he had just been yelling at. "And just what is a 'dirty' bomb?"

Kinza rubbed his face. "Normally, they're considered nothing more than a radiological terrorist device. Take some radioactive material, strap it to a bomb and blow it up. The result is an area of contamination, and that's pretty much it. It depends on the type of radioactive material used on just how long-term and how bad the fallout is."

"Fallout?" she gasped. "I know that word." She watched as he reached over her shoulder to tap the screen in front of her. The text vanished and was replaced by a huge tractor-trailer parked near what looked like a glass pyramid.

"The vehicle has arrived at its planned location," he warned everyone. "Ten clicks. Scans show the trailer is packed to the roof with an oil and fertilizer mix with what looks like a large shrapnel load of screws and nails… there are also two hundred fifty puck-shaped packs surrounding a pair of explosive cores. Scragg! I'm reading cobalt-60!"

Rakka had no time to ask what that was. The view widened to show a large palace that the pyramid stood in front of. Police were running towards the truck. Civilians were running away. Neither stood a chance. The strange unattached way scanning disks recorded meant that the image they witnessed was smooth and un-shaking, which actually made the horror worse. The truck vaporized in an oval that expanded out, spreading a fireball that actually was slower than a shockwave that flattened all upright things and blew the water out of the basins and fountains. The glass of the glazed structures that had been beside the vehicle did not shatter; they had simply turned to dust. The surrounding building, because of its design, contained the outward thrust only briefly. It was then pummeled and speared by the added projectiles, many of which were no longer sharp pointy things, but molten splats of metal, as they passed through the stone and marble walls as they crumbled. Statues that had lined its façade launched themselves and added to the flotsam that was being ejected from the area.

Kinza spun a ball on the unit, drawing the image back further. A red shape started to overlay the image as the destruction widened. Arrows blinked over top the scarlet blob.

"Radioactive contamination is spreading rapidly," he noted. "There's a southeasterly flow along the Seine. The material was atomized in the explosion."

Janice sat in disbelief as she watched a solid white line launch itself from her map of Paris – no single lines were evident, only a broad massively thick stroke that shot up heading for what was known as 'The Apogee Mark' – a thin red dotted line that hung over her holographic image of the planet. She held her breath as she awaited the deluge of reports that were about to strike.

The line shot through the mark and continued on off the visual.

"What?" she asked, stunned by what she just witnessed. She dropped her hand to her console and started querying the results. Ptolemy leaned over her shoulder and tapped on the image.

"It was such a massive launch, that the weak signals were boosted by the strong," he told her in a whisper. "They're no longer in our hands, but in those of the main weigh station."

She looked up at his face, the features of which were now deep and sorrowful. A cough from across the room drew her gaze onto that of the director.

"Prepare for the rejects," Plato ordered. "They'll be coming hard and fast."

She returned to her console. "Reverse image," she commanded her crew. "Give me a second map. Their incoming trajectories will be all over the planet now, so make sure we spread them out. We need to give Glie relief from the rainfall. Call in the second team and put them in auxiliary control and have them monitor outbounds. When they're ready, give them the first map and switch us to this new one only. Alert all stations in the sites to prepare for new arrivals."

Kinza patted Rakka on the shoulder. "We haven't much time," he advised her. He then guided her away from the screen that had caught her attention to a large flat platform. "Put us down, Mr. Marshall," he then told the man behind a control desk.

The tingling sensation she had felt earlier returned, though this time, when the world switched from the interior of some technobable-filled ship to a dirt path near the northern waterfall, she found herself an inch or so off the ground, which caused her to stumble slightly when finally released by the transmat.

"Ooh!" she squeaked as she took a few oddly placed steps towards the ravine the river flowed through. She felt the furry paw of Mr. Kinza grab her hand and yank her back.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, making sure all parts had made it through the transference. Seeing she was fine, he tapped his patch and said, "Transmat complete. We're heading towards the temple."

Rakka held her head and took a few precarious steps with him. "Oh, I feel strange," she complained.

Kinza pulled out his trusty scanning rod and gave her a quick look. "You're probably just over oxygenated… yea, that's what I'm reading. Are you feeling a bit euphoric?"

Rakka gave him a strange grinning half smile and a look like she was a bit crazed as she nodded. He snorted as he guided her to a log and sat her down.

"It's the effects of being transmatted," he told her. "And you just did it twice in less than an hour for your very first time. During transport, your molecules suck in the air in the location you're teleporting into, otherwise, there would be a clap of thunder as your body would displace it instead."

"Is that a baaaaad thing?" she asked in a nearly drunk stupor. Kinza pushed her upright again, as she had leaned into him as she had asked her question.

"Yes, since that clap of thunder would happen right next to your skin!" he explained. "It would have been like being slapped all over your body at once!"

"Owww," she grumbled at the thought and covered her head, which was now hurting slightly. "Will this go away?" she then pleaded while holding the top of her head as she put it between her knees.

"Eventually," he told her with a short back rub. "Exercise helps… come on, let's get going."

"You're mean," she bluntly stated as she slowly rose off the log. They started up the path to the temple. "So, why did it… umm… what was that… transmat… uh…" He looked back to see her making small leaps into the air.

"Why did it materialize us an inch off the ground?" he guessed by her tiny jumps.

"Yea, right! That's it… why did it maternalize us like that?"

Kinza gave her a skewed eye and ran his scanner over her again. "I have never seen someone react so drunkenly after being over saturated in oxygen," he grumbled. "You need to breathe into a bag for a bit. As for why we transmatted a few centimeters off the turf is because who wants their shoes permanently mounted to the ground? Having a little buffer between us and the dirt is preferable to what would happen the other way."

Rakka swayed and nodded slightly. She looked as if she were about to fall asleep. She reached for her belt and pulled a small pouch she had tied to it with her note book and other trinkets she carried with her when out and about. But rather than take anything out, she placed the open end over her nose and started dragging air through it.

"Good girl," Kinza told her as he sat her down again. "It's good to see that even zapped like this, you can think clearly enough to listen to what I said to do. Now don't force it, or you'll hyperventilate yourself. Just breathe normally, and your head should clear up momentarily."

---

Toki had not slept the entire night – how could she, after what Washi had told her? A baby? Are Haibane even capable of having such things? And her husband? Why did he have the wings of her sisters, a halo like her brother's, yet still be only a mere human – worst yet, not realizing that it was not normal for him to have such?

Deprivation was starting to catch up with her, and she had finally started to nod off, when all sorts of clanging started outside in the courtyard. She wearily trudged over to the window and peeked out.

Below her was one of the silent Toga standing next to what she had thought were only decorative tubes that were hung within the inner gardens of the Temple. As it turned out, these were long tubular bells, and he was whacking away on it with a small wooden mallet. She could see two others being struck as well on the other side of the grove.

"Oh, what is going on?" she moaned. She then noticed that she could see out the open gates on the other end of the courtyard, which gave her a view of the valley below them and part of the town center. Beyond that, far to the south, what looked like smoke or dust was rising from beyond the windmills.

"Is that a fire?" she pondered. It was strange that the Toga would be reacting this way if it were, since that would be handled by the fire fighters in town. It seemed strange to see them running around as if they should be screaming, and yet they remained silent. Rapid hand gestures were the only evidence that they were indeed yelling, in at least their own unique way. She then noticed a few had gathered on the far end of the garden. They were all looking at the ground.

---

"What is that? WHAT IS THAT?" Janice yelped, still waiting for the oncoming rejects. She has looking at her landings map, and noticed the blinking red spot – make that now three spots – up at the north end of Glie.

"It couldn't be helped, ma'am," the technician across from her said sheepishly. "When we caught the downdraft that had been heading for Old Home from the first wave, the swing towards Abandoned Factory caused those to overshoot."

She pinched her eyes. "What are the Toga going to do with a Haibane?" she asked.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and found Hipp there pointing at a few other spots.

"You could very well ask the baker, clockmaker and, umm… the editor of the newspaper that as well it would seem," he noted.

The editor looked at his stalled Number One press. It had made a sneezing and gasping sound behind him as he and Sato had watched the arrival of the starship overhead. By the time they stepped back into the room, the machinery had seized, and a roll of paper had spun to a halt after unwinding itself a few yards. A pressman had finally managed to shut off its power before the motors had burned out.

On top of it, squarely over the ink tray, and now entwining itself over the litho-plate drum was a rapidly growing powdery gray ball. Vine-like lines whipped up to the rafters above and steadied it as it surrounded the print head of the machine.

"Take a picture, Sato," he grunted.

"Huh?" the boy asked in confusion.

"Go ahead… you'll need it for your portfolio anyway." The old man pulled up a stool and lit a cigarette. "That way, you'll complete your picture collection – your shot of a Day of Flight bookended by the arrival of a Haibane."

"Hey, you're right!" Sato excitedly agreed and changed plates on the old graphics camera.

"It'll be one hell of a legacy," the editor snorted as he dragged on the burning weed.

"Umm, boss?" Sato asked cautiously after taking the shot. "You do know we have another problem here."

"Um?" he replied as he was glancing out the window at the ship above. "What's that?"

"Well, I'm sure this is the first cocoon you've ever seen…"

He nodded. "Yea, I've heard plenty about them though…"

Sato smirked as he rubbed his head. "Well, you do know how this thing's made up, right?"

He looked past the Haibane boy at the ball, which blossomed slightly to one side, causing a small cascade of gray dust. "No… no not really. Just that it's gonna have a person in it. Any idea what sex it's gonna be?"

Sato gave his boss a glancing glare as he looked back and forth between him and the cocoon. "Um, ah, I mean… NO! No, there's no way to determine who or what is inside this. But the one thing that is certain is it's full of fluid."

The editor sat up to this point. "Fluid?" he asked.

"Fluid," Sato replied. "And it's leaning towards the Number Two press. When it bursts, its going to flood this whole press room."

The old man looked about at his main source of output, and the menace that had just sprouted on his primary printer.

"Damn it, I hate it when WE turn out to be the news!" he cursed. "Right, Sato, keep taking pictures of that thing – document it as much as you can. Eddie, we need to protect the Number Two press… see about getting some plywood and rolls of plastic in here… Sato, how long do we have?"

The boy looked at the growing sphere. "Gestation is normally four or five days – sometimes a week, depending on how logy the person is inside."

"Right," the editor snorted as he rolled up his sleeves and took another drag on the cigarette. "Eddie, this is what we need to do… we need to redirect that flow out this door." He stepped outside onto the balcony and looked down at the town square below. "Hey, Gustav!" he then called down to a Town Watchman. "Come up here for a moment!"

"What do you need Gustav for boss?" Sato asked as the officer started to climb a fire escape ladder to the balcony.

"When that lets go, it's gonna go out here," he told his apprentice. "We'll need to keep those under this window safe, right? If we're gonna be news, I don't want it to be BAD news." He then looked around.

"Has anyone seen Koi?" he asked.

---

"I'm bored!" the girl complained.

"I'm hungry!" the boy added.

Koi sat between them contemplating the window. The children had finally tired of the unexpected view they had been granted, and were now starting to grouse over their lack of anything else to do. Being stuck in a rather sterile waiting room was the pits, even if it had a stunning view. He rocked his head back and forth, wishing he had gone with Rakka.

"Ooh! Where are we?" he then heard.

He looked at the two children with him. They were groaning and moaning, but that certainly had not been either of their voices.

"Oh, I've never been this high up before!" the voice exclaimed. Koi looked around the room and saw only the kids there – and they seemed not to hear what he was hearing. He saw a speaker grill and stepped over to it – silence greeted him.

"I want to see outside again!" the voice cried. "Why can't I get you to move to the window?"

That really bothered Koi. "Because my feet are mine?" he thought.

"OOP!" It was a petite little chirp. He almost laughed at the cute mild way it exclaimed surprise. But it still bothered him that it was coming from inside his head, and that it certainly was not his own voice. He glanced at the kids and made sure they were not noticing their 'big brother' having a mental moment. He walked over to the large window and leaned against it.

"There, is that better?" he asked the unseen person.

"Domo arigatogozaimashita!" Koi shook his head at the compliment.

"This is different," he thought. "Why do I have a gremlin in my head?"

"Guremurin?" The voice was so soft and sweet, Koi needed to stifle a laugh, as the children were starting to notice his slightly odd behavior. But then, behind them, the door to the operating room slid open, and Katherine poked her head in, looking about as if she were a cat searching for a strange sound. It became odder when Gabrella followed closely behind with the same weird face. It almost seemed like they were sniffing the air.

"Do you sense that?" Katherine asked the demon-goddess. "Do you feel what I'm feeling?"

She snorted, but continued to look around the room. "Honey, I sense all sorts of strange things whenever I'm on board this ship!" She then suddenly stopped glancing about and brought her stare directly down upon the older boy before her. "Humm, but this one isn't part of this ship, is it?"

"Oooh, I must be going!" the tiny voice inside Koi's head squeaked. There was a decided sound of a slamming door which made him flinch. Gabrella looked him closely in the eye, and then stood back and crossed her arms and shook her head.

"She really is a lonely little girl," she sighed. Katherine glared at her, but finally broke into the same stance as her partner as she had to agree with her assessment.

"Who?" was a blunt and sharply pointed retort from the boy. "Who was that just now?"

The demon touched her finger against his forehead. "You've been wondering about your lapses?" she asked back. "Well, there was your answer."

Koi stood in shock at that comment. "What is a little girl doing in my head? And what did she mean by 'why can't I make him move'?"

Gabrella looked at Katherine. "That's a good question," she noted. She looked about and tapped a very metal wall. "Blasted stuff Roy made this ship of his from is probably doing it again."

"Most likely," Katherine agreed. "She probably can't get a proper signal through."

Gabrella considered this. She then smirked at her fellow deity. "You seem unconcerned that I know more about her than you do…"

Katherine smiled and bowed slightly. "Even though it is against the treaty, at least you have been keeping her company from time to time. I can tell from your tone before that you worry about her."

"A demon with feelings?" Gabrella quibbled. "Don't be silly."

"Tell that to your brother," Katherine ribbed back.

The demon-goddess looked at her in a huff, but then shrugged and nodded. "Well, anyway, Bloodeagle tends to be with her more than I do."

"Which she should, being that at least she belongs in Glie." That off-the-cuff comment got a glare from Gabrella.

"Ahem!" The ladies looked over at Koi as he loudly cleared his throat.

"Yes?" they asked.

"Not to break up the mutual admiration society, and knowing how you two love to hold things to yourselves, I would appreciate knowing WHO was INSIDE MY HEAD!" The ladies looked at one another and sighed.

"She is Miho," Gabrella told him. "She is a free soul that lives here in Glie in a place that you," she pointed with a jab to his chest, "are forbidden to go to."

"And why is that?" he asked, allowing his journalistic curiosity to venture forth.

Gabrella leaned down and again jabbed him in the chest with each word. "Too - many - spoilers."

"It is safe to say," Katherine added, "that she can communicate with you, as you are special."

Koi leaned against the window and crossed his arms. "Special?" he questioned. The way he asked it got him a swipe from the demon up the side of his head which twanged his halo.

"Don't be rude, boy," Gabrella scolded him. "Special means you have a sensitivity to outside sources. And you know what we mean by that, or do you think it's normal to see spirits and converse with things in your head that shouldn't be there? That's why you're a demon hunter." She flicked his forehead with her finger and stood back. He rubbed where she had smacked him. It surprised him that she had not cut him with those long fingernails she bore.

"Gabrella," he heard coming from the goddess. "How would he have known that? As a Haibane, he would have come here without any memory of that, and I doubt he would have known that even in his previous life." The reminder of the fact that this was not his original existence made a shiver run up his spine.

"What exactly is a demon hunter, and why does that make me so special?" he asked.

"A demon hunter is only a title," Katherine told him. "Humans name people who are sensitive like you demon hunters, as they can sense out hidden demons. Actually, your strengths can also sense beings like myself as well."

Koi noticed that the boy and girl who were in the room with them were cowering in a corner. He moved over to allow them to gather around their big brother's legs. "So… you're telling me that I can sense beings like yourselves… beings of power?"

Gabrella looked at the ceiling and nodded. "Yea, that would be a good way to look at it," she noted, and then glowered down on him, making the children grab his pants tighter. "That was why people like you persecuted my people. You could sense that we didn't fit into your human society."

Katherine coughed. "It wasn't like your side didn't start it first," she whispered loud enough for Gabrella to catch it.

"UHH! ONE PARTY GONE BAD!" she bellowed. "You guys always fall back on that ONE incident!"

"You wrecked their homes…"

"We had insurance!"

"You flooded their world!"

"They had boats… er, boat… a BIG boat…"

"LADIES!" Koi expounded to cull the bickering. "I understand that I have… some sort of feelings that allow me to sense spirits and such… the incident with that ghost up at the construction site for instance [4]… but that doesn't explain why one is using me like her personal vehicle!" He was surprised when it was Gabrella who raised her hands to calm him down.

"Unintentionally," she pointed out. "Miho is just a scared little girl who is unwillingly trapped here."

"Trapped here?" he asked. "How so? I was told that Haibane will continue on depending on their time here in Glie."

Katherine bowed her head. "But first, they must become a Haibane," she told him. "Miho did not get that chance."

Koi looked between the two of them. "Did not get the chance? Wait… what do you mean by that?"

Gabrella sighed. "She was one of those who never made it out of her cocoon."

Koi held the children a bit tighter. "She… she drowned in her cocoon! She did what Claudius almost did when his leaked from the top."

She nodded in agreement. "She lost her body, but her soul survived. So it was drawn into a place that draws all lost souls when they land in Glie…"

"Sinner's Rock!" Koi expounded. "She must be in Sinner's Rock!" This announcement caused both deities to stand back and look at him with worried expressions.

"How do you know about Sinner's Rock?" the both asked.

Koi snorted. "I work at a newspaper?" he pointed out. "There are stories and legends about this Sinner's Rock in it all the time. Besides, it helps when another Haibane working there is a conspiracy theory nut."

"Sato," Gabrella grumbled. "I should'a plucked his feathers when I had the chance!"

"That would have been a violation of the treaty," Katherine reminded her. The scowl she gave her in response almost made the goddess laugh, but she stifled it. "Besides," she whispered to her, "his actions become part of his judgment upon his day of flight."

Gabrella looked at her with a slightly shocked expression, but then gave her a decidedly wicked grin. "Revenge!" the demon goddess snickered.

Katherine sighed. "Penance," she corrected her. A cough nearby drew their attention back to the teenage boy.

"So, you're telling me that this lost soul can somehow enter my body?" he asked them. He saw the expression on Gabrella grow darker and much colder. The children clutched his legs tighter.

"You are a sensitive… a demon hunter," she snarled. "It would have been like a moth to a flame to her, seeing that you could allow her a brief moment of escape from her world of repetitive memories. Even I find it inappropriate a fate for her, seeing that she merely died of drowning in her previous life – to do so again while in her cocoon was unfortunate. But her momentary flights of freedom trigger your ancestral birthright, and you become a danger to the both of us."

"My birthright?" he asked. Gabrella bent down and glared at him with a fury burning in her eyes.

"You were born with sin, sonny-boy," she huffed. "It's run through your family for generations, a bigotry towards those like us – a hazard for angel or demon, but of course, more towards the latter. Your family alone has been responsible for twenty or more violations of the Treaty of Set to our side, but was countered by the fact that they treated those of her side the same way." Katherine stood and stared at her partner in shock. When Gabrella noticed, she stepped back and turned away. "Most of it happened while you were contained within the wall," the demon told her while clutching her elbows. "You were not told of this?"

"It was not mentioned in my debriefing, no," Katherine quietly stated. "Would that not also create an issue with the Haibane as well?"

Gabrella pointed at Koi. "A Haibane hunting a Haibane? That would be a new one!" She felt a hand touch her arm. She looked at it and back to the boy who was attached to it.

"What can I do to help her?" he asked the demon.

"Help her?" she replied.

"Yes, help her," he bluntly said. "She's in pain and suffering, and you obviously care for her. If we can give her a release without setting whatever this is off inside me, don't you think that would be better than being stuck in a rock somewhere for eternity?"

---

Charm darted across the bridge she had found. A mist had shrouded the center of the span, and she was not able to see the far shore briefly. As she neared the other side, she discerned two figures on a path to her right near a fork that lead away from the Renmei Temple her map told her about. She slowed her steps to accommodate a more normal approach, but then stopped as she recognized one of the people sitting on the log.

"Scrap! It's Kinza!" she peeped [5]. "What's he doing here?" She opened the 'book' she was carrying and tapped the hidden screen.

"When was this…? When was this…?" she mumbled as she tried to ascertain what time point this was. "Does he know me yet…? Does he know me yet…?"

"Charm, get over here and give me a hand!"

She swallowed. Had he actually said that? She looked over at the pair, who still seemed unaware she was there, or at least were not looking her way at that moment. She shook her head, figuring that she had only imagined her old friend saying something like that. She slowly closed the 'book' and continued towards the end of the bridge.

She then pondered the reason why the girl beside the Tomassamassa was heaving hard into a small leather sack.

"You're going to hyperventilate if you keep breathing like that into that bag," she said as she stepped off the last plank.

Kinza looked at the girl beside himself. "Ooh, she's right," he told her. "Gentle on the breathing. Just breathe normally."

"I think I already did," Rakka said with dizzy looking eyes. "But we've got to get going if we're going to get the light-leaf paste and the halo mold."

"Good girl," he said to her with a light tap to her shoulder. "Come on, you can lean on me."

Rakka smiled and reached up to place her hand on his forearm. As she hoisted herself up though, Kinza dropped to one knee and growled in pain.

"Acht!" he groused. "Maybe you can't lean on me… Blasted leg just gave out."

Mr. Kinza hurt? Charm jumped over to his side to help him up.

"Are you okay?" she asked. He nodded, though Rakka seemed unimpressed.

"Mr. Kinza, you know you're still recovering from your crash landing," she scolded him, which caught Charm's attention. "You've been running around like a mad man for the last couple of days. I'm sure Dr. McManus would be all over you right now if she knew you were in this much pain."

"Honestly Rakka, up until the point you lifted yourself up with my arm, I wasn't IN this much pain!" he griped back. He gestured the two girls to let him stand freely to test his legs and gimped along a few steps. Charm shook her head at the sight.

"I'm not sure your leg is supposed to bend that way," she suggested, noticing the slight odd angle he was giving the right knee. She grabbed his left arm and guided him back to the log they had been sitting on.

"Of all the blasted times not to have my wound healer with me," Kinza groused. "Of course, what with the ionization going on, I'm not sure it would work yet anyway…" He looked up at Rakka and sighed.

"They know that I'm coming, right?" she asked him. He smiled.

"I'll only hold you back, and time is short," he told her.

Rakka sighed. "That's an awful lot of supplies… normally when I have to get the equipment I take Kana or Hikari with me…"

"I can help," she heard. She looked back at the girl who had come off the bridge only moments before.

"And you are?" she asked. She then found a hand being held out to her to shake.

"The name's Rachel," the girl replied. "I'm opening a shop in town this week."

"Ooh!" Rakka exclaimed. "In the Market Square?"

'Rachel' nodded. "Yup! Fresh eggs and poultry, fresh off the farm!"

Rakka's eyes lit up. "Oh, you're taking over for Mr. Moffat?"

Charm thought quickly. Was she? That had not been explained to her.

"Moffat?" she heard Kinza ask.

"Umm," Rakka answered him. "Mr. Moffat was our chicken and eggs man, but when he passed away a few months ago, we've been getting our eggs from the visiting Toga. They never seemed as fresh though."

Charm sighed. Mr. Kinza's question answered many of hers, as now the backstory was making more sense. "Right… the Renmei council has been prepping me to do just that. They assigned me to the old farm up over the rise there." She pointed up the trail that would have sent her to her new home.

"That's the old Moffat Farm," Rakka confirmed. Charm felt lighter now that she had verified her story.

"What were you doing on the other side of the bridge?" Kinza then asked, bringing her happy thoughts down with a thud. First he's helping, then he's probing… damn you Tomassamassa!

"From up there," she said pointing at the top of the hill, "I could see there is a junk yard on the other side, and I found a few pieces of equipment I need working needing repair. I was over there looking for parts."

Noticing a lack of extras on her, Kinza then asked, "You didn't find anything that would work?"

Stop it Kinza! Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!

'Rachel' gave him a slightly ditzy grin. "I forgot to bring my tools!" with a tap of her fist to the side of her head.

"Ah," he said. "Well, if you're willing to help out…"

'Rachel' excitedly clasped her hands together while clutching her book to her chest. "Certainly! Anything for our honored Haibane." She noticed Kinza giving her a quirky eye… maybe 'honored' was a bit overboard.

"It would help out immensely, please!" Rakka replied taking their new friend's hand and dragging her along up the trail. She seemed to have forgotten about nearly hyperventilating.

Kinza shrugged and watched them go. "Okay, I'll just wait here until you get back," he yelled.

"Okay!" he heard Rakka yell back as they headed for the northern falls crossing.

Seeing them now out of sight, he stood up and tromped his leg. He looked up the path they had followed and shook his head.

"Charm, what are you doing here?" he asked himself and he now climbed up the hill path the girl had been heading for. At the top he could see a farm house off in the distance. He pulled out his scanning rod and took a reading.

"Two humans… one short, one tall, both male…"

He laughed to himself. "Dickinson and Foley… don't those two ever get a break?" He tapped on the patch on his shirt.

"And who do you think you're calling?" the com unit called back before he could ask it anything.

Kinza glanced down at it and smirked. "Admiral… okay, how about Rob?" he asked.

"And how would you know it was me?" it replied back.

"Well, I just met up with Charm," the security chief noted, "though I'm pretty sure she still thinks she's under cover…"

"She IS still under cover, as long as you KEEP it that way," the Admiral stated.

Kinza nodded to himself. "And, the fact that your favorite duo are busy assembling your local hangout, I will assume that you're setting up shop here."

"Actually, we're setting up in two locations… the farm and a cabin to the northwest. So, how did you figure out it was Charm?"

Kinza smirked. "I watched her step off the bridge… it was the same way she would get off one of those Shadow Disks she used to use [2]."

"Only you would remember something like that," the Admiral laughed.

Kinza joined him in the guffaw. "Also, if she were really a local, wouldn't the sight of someone like me be a bit odd?"

"Point noted," the Admiral agreed. "I'll let her know to keep an eye on that in the future."

"So, is this a joint operation, or separate?" Kinza asked.

"Separate," his com replied. "Charm has her own mission to fulfill. That is all that I can tell you at this time."

Kinza grunted as he watched clouds pass over the farmhouse. Out back he could hear the sounds of the two men cursing as a small puff of dust rose from a lopsided hutch-like building that seemed to be collapsing around them.

"One – one – zero – one?" he asked.

"One – one – zero – one," the patch answered. "You're not the only one doing one of these."

Kinza huffed. "Peachy."

---

Work crews were scrambling over the wreckage of the main building at Old Home. Even with the verification that all were now accounted for, the shock of suddenly loosing their home was starting to fall on the Haibane and the housemother. The senior's dorms were still habitable, but only until whenever this giant cocoon did whatever it was going to do. Would it burst, leak or simply fail? There was no knowing, seeing no one had ever seen such a mass before.

Through it all, Koni had slept in the bunk room in the guard house at the main gate. The housemother had left the other young feathers in there as well with strict instructions to their most senior member, the seven year old Sota, to keep calm and stay put.

Koni opened her eyes and looked about.

"Where am I?" she asked.

She blinked.

"This is odd… I… I just spoke… I didn't speak like this when I was in Koi…"

"Hey look!" she then heard. "That new kid is sitting up!"

She looked beside herself and saw faces looking back at her.

"Wow, she grew up fast," one of the kids said.

"That's not fair!" another quipped. "Wasn't she just a baby yesterday?"

"I wanna grow up like that too!"

Miho looked about. "This is different, not like before," she said through a toddler's mouth. "I feel like I'm inside a cocoon again. It's so… comfortable here."

"That is because, you are in a vessel that was being made ready for my master," a man in a dark business suit advised her. His sudden appearance had caught the children in stupefied shock.

There was only a brief moment of silence.

The shrieks of frightened children caught those digging through the rubble by surprise.

The housemother was the first to the door. She found the children pouring out.

"Seto! SETO!" she shouted over the din. "What happened?"

He pointed at a window that had been opened for ventilation. "He took Koni! HE TOOK KONI!"

oOo

---

[1] See TRIGUN: Moon Child – The Oklahoma Years here on FFN

[2] See TLC - AFTER CHRONICLES – The RPG-S here on FFN

[3] See TLC - AFTER CHRONICLES – The RPG-S - Chapter Twenty Eight – Afterglow here on FFN

[4] See HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION – Chapter Four – N D E here on FFN

[5] Charm worked with Kinza throughout THE LUGIA CHRONICLES - AFTER CHRONICLES - THE RPG-S here on FFN

Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! – eMail or Google for the address

Join the Renmei – Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!

Captain Roy Strom, Doctor Abigail McManus, Commander Button, Lieutenant Shaun Tolefson, Admiral Robert North (Thido), The Observers, Nightwatch, Gather Damon, Elb Kinza Farley, Koni, Scanning Rods, GENUINE Doorknobs, U.N.S. FORRESTAL, U.N.S. EXETER, S.A.M. & S.A.M. System ©2015, 18 Denivan Media Services – Used With Permission

"After Chronicles – YEAR OF THE CAT" ©2015, 18 The Lugia Project II/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

Lady Bloodeagle, Shadsie (Shadowcat) ©2015, 18 S. E. Nordwall – Used with Permission

Gabrella, Meghan, Puruu, Xuru, Mauvais the Black Lugia, Dickinson & Foley ©2015, 18 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission

Charm, Shadow Disk ©2015, 18 Charm

Android Charm ©2015, 18 Charm/R. A. Stott/DMS

Shadow Armor, Black Katana of Yariga-Take ©2015, 18 R. A. Stott/DMS/Charm – Used with Permission

The Source ©2015, 18 The MOON CHILD Project/DMS – Used with Permission

Millie Saverem (nee Thompson) from TRIGUN ©2015, 18 Yashuhiro Nightow

Hello Nurse and Animaniacs ©2015, 18 Amblin Entertainment/Warner Bros. Inc.

Characters from Haibane-Renmei & Serial Experiments Lain ©2015, 18 Yoshitoshi ABe

Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION ©2015, 18 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edited 1805.08

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