(chapter 24)

Dragon's Homeworld, Leviathan Beach

As Clemene stood on the ...flight deck?... of the offworlders' city-ship, he and Queen Ursula could see the cliff, he and his paladins fled down, all those years ago. Just standing here, as a guest, he knew that all of the forces at his command could never hope to conquer the inhabitants of this city. It was always patrolled, day or night by at least 6 of those transforming flying machines. The deck itself had a mix of both the dragon- and knight-versions of these, also on guard duty.

On its own platform, towards the aft of the vessel, between the arcane structures they can't yet understand, sat the black shape of Lady Thunderwing. She was one of the city-ship's three rulers, an arcane fusion of demon and machine. Instead of using flames and wings, like the other machines, she spun twin clusters of sword-blades. The distinctive thundering noise of her approach was enough to panic horses, and scatter peasants.

The sea, surrounding the city-ship also had its own mechanical denizens, servants of Lady Enterprise, who the city-ship was named for. Where Thunderwing's minions were dragons and knights, Enterprise's were Sirens, and Mermaids.

However, they were here to talk with Lord Sturmdrachen, and the ...Emperor ...of ...Demise. Wasn't I supposed to meet that green-winged angel? Clemene's head hurt.

A glass of some light brown liquid, that smelled of cow's milk and honey, appeared in his field of view. Lady Enterprise, the water nymph that acted as the city-ship's guardian, was holding it. "It's chocolate milk," she said. "It will help your headache."

===/===

Japan, possibly the outskirts of Tokyo

Mizuchi was getting tired. Her magic barrier was starting to fail, she could no longer plant magic-mines, and some of the AK47 shots were starting to get past. One of them narrowly missing Mero's head.

Many of the bystanders were either running in panic, or hiding in whatever cover they could find, but the sound of approaching sirens meant that at least one of them had called the police. Mizuchi sighed in relief, as a police van pulled up in front of them, and half a dozen riot police stepped out.

"We'll take it from here," the squad sergeant called out. Mizuchi's relief turned to despair, as he drew a silenced pistol, and aimed it towards them. He fired, and the distinctive red 'feathers' of a tranq-round stuck out of Mero's neck. Mizuchi felt a sharp pain in her neck, and used the 'thumb' on her wing to pull out the dart.

"What the hell!?" she exclaimed, as Harmony appeared suddenly between them, and she could sense her older sister, Kuroko, behind her. "Smile for the news cameras, Lonnergane. You're under arrest for the kidnapping of Merone Lorelei du Neptune."

===/===

In the skies, heading for Tokyo

Hiroshi was listening to the radio-chatter between the two helicopters. Not via the headset he was wearing, he was just using his natural abilities.

"This is Delta-one to base. Package Alpha secured. En-route to rendezvous to LZ to Package Bravo coordinates."

"Negative Delta-one. Package Bravo not at -"

"Surrender quietly, Fred, and I'll pull some strings, so your wife can visit you."

"Freya? How did you get this frequency?"

"Doesn't matter how I did it. Why'd you kidnap my kids, Fred?"

"Major Caulford, sir, a giant robot just grabbed Delta-two, and there's a green-winged angel, armed with a Vulcan, in front of us. She looks pissed!"

"That would be both of my mothers," said Hiroshi. "Which one would you prefer to deal with?"

===/===

In the skies, heading towards Asaka

Mero slowly regained consciousness. Her head felt like a bad hangover. As she began to take in her surroundings, she realised she was being cradled in someone's arms.

"We're almost back to your house, Mero," said Mizuchi, flying beside them. "This is my sister, Kuroko."

Mero looked at the woman's rainbow-feathered wings, horns, and her six heterochromic eyes. "If you don't mind me asking, what species are you?"

"Too many to choose from," Kuroko replied. " I have Feathered Serpent, Deity, Arachne, and a few other things in here. The paperwork for me was an absolute nightmare. Aunt Kuroko opted to just place 'Chimera' and be done with it."

"I'll bet. She hates paperwork."

"My parents had to bribe her with ultra-rare coffee, before she would speak to them again.

===/===

Somewhere in the Pacific

The captain was staring at the business-end of a SW-Dalek's cannon. The fact it was being wielded by a girl dressed as some cosplay 'combat fairy' wasn't helping matters.

"You have several kidnapped girls in your hold," said the girl. "I know for a fact that one of them is Saikawa Riko."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he lied. "We are a legitimate transport vessel, transferring staff and materiel between divisions."

The girl lifted him up in one hand, as if he weighed no more than a rag-doll, and dragged him to the window. She pointed to a rapidly-closing silhouette in the storm-filled sky. "See that out there? That's Miss Saikawa's girlfriend. You have until she gets within range to have those girls up here, unharmed. You have until she lands on the ship to have your crew surrender," Ten humanoid figures, wearing some sort of powered armour, materialise on the bridge. "If you refuse, my friends, here will be giving all of you a free upgrade."

===/===

Antarctic Icecream, Ginza

Hiroshi and the girls are drinking chocolate milkshakes, and watching some poor Arachne in a penguin costume scare away customers, and giving kids potential psychological trauma.

"Remind me to never apply for the food-service industry until I can cook," said Renata.

"What exactly does drinking these have do with fixing our migraines?" asked Galadriel.

"It helps reduce the side effects of the paradox," said Hiroshi.

"Mizuchi died, before your mother did what she did, didn't she?" Renata whispered.

"Yes, she did," replied Hiroshi.

"Why is it affecting us?" asked Ventris.

"Probably because we're each carrying Darling's children," replied Galadriel.

"Being pregnant with a baby Timelord would partially shield you from the effects of- what did you say?"

"Uh- surprise?" Renata replied.

===/===

Tokyo

"...corp employees were arrested, by UNIT officers, for the attempted kidnapping of an ICEP trainee, and the eldest daughter of the duNeptune royal family. UNIT was originally a special anti-terrorist force, created in the 1970s, and disbanded around ten years later. Recently declassified documents have revealed they were also a precursor to ICEP, and have since been reinstated as a special division of MON. With the..."

Director Nakahara turned to Freya. "With that news report, several hundred people have suddenly become unemployed. In the current economic recession, this could lead to a financial depression."

"I'm already working on that," said Freya. "Tomorrow morning, ATRAX Engineering, Research and Development will announce they're opening a security division, and will endeavour to hire as many displaced staff as possible, subject to the usual legal checks."

"I wish I had the financial backing of the Sturmdrachen royal family," Nakahara commented.

"Technically, you do," replied Freya. "I may appear to throw money around on a whim, but it's generally because I know how economics really works. That 'trickle-down' crap doesn't work, because rich people are bigger gold-hoarders than dragons. Regular people with money in their pockets tend to either spend it on things, boosting the short-term economy, or pay-down debts, boosting the long-term economy."

===/===

Somewhere in the USA

BANG! A door bursts open, shortly followed by several people in tactical gear. "FBI!"

...the building is empty, much to the lead Agent's frustration...

"Sorry, agent Sturmdrachen. someone must have tipped him off."

()()()()()

A/N:

- I 'borrowed' a reference to Tarmo Flake's "It's not Easy Being an Arachne"

- Chocolate milk easing a time-paradox migraine is from Men in Black.