AN: This should be the penultimate chapter. The next will be a long one though.
((()))
Nephrite slept while the cat did, though when he awakened to track it again the next day, he discovered to his considerable surprise, that it had already been traveling for some tim. And its pace had more than doubled. Further, it looked to have healed from the damage it had taken during its escape uncommonly fast, for a creature barred from magic (though that curse seemed more and more irrelevant as each hour passed), and its puppet swarm had regained its lost members.
The Queen must know of this at once, Nephrite decided.
((()))
"My aides tell me there is something you want to tell me, Urawa-kun?" Natsuna said as the junior-higher entered her rather luxurious office late the evening after she'd brought the jewel-bearers in for protection.
"Yes, Sakurada-sama," Ryo said, "It is regarding the things I have been able to foresee with my talents."
"I'd assumed as much," Natsuna said, gesturing for the boy to seat himself, "Though I am surprised you've come to see me without your parents present."
"Their presence would only make things more difficult," Ryo said somewhat sadly, "So I slipped away from them. There was a third cat, much larger than the other two, wasn't there Sakurada-sama?"
"There was," Natsuna said, nodding slowly, her eyes locked onto the younger boy's, "I assume you have foreseen something relating to this?"
"Yes," Ryo said, nodding decisively, "If he was taken by the Dark Kingdom, then that means that they will have their hands full trying to keep him from escaping for the next few days, and you should be free to move while they aren't using divination to search for you or those of us reincarnated from the time before."
"How certain of this are you?" Natsuna asked, allowing a sliver of the authority she could bring to bear into her voice.
"Every future I've seen that doesn't involve everybody dying," Ryo said, his voice cracking slightly, "The big cat escapes, and we meet with him somewhere in Malaysia."
"In Malaysia?" Natsuna asked, curious at the sudden and unexpected turn the conversation had taken, "Why would 'we' meet with him there, and who all does 'we' include?"
"You, some of your men, I don't know which, all of the Senshi, all of us jewel-bearers, and there will be at least some of the Malaysian police, some JSDF, and some USJF there. And a giant metal cat."
"I see," Natsuna said quietly raising an eyebrow at the final mention, "Do you know when or why we meet him there?"
"No," Ryo said, shaking his head a bit nervously, "I just know that it's evening, sometime this month, and that I can't see anything after it one way or another. I think that someone there will know how to reunite the jewels, and I think the Dark Kingdom shows up as well, but I'm not sure. My visions can vary a lot, and I usually have to pick out what's common across all of them."
"Just how much do your visions about this visit to Malaysia vary?" Natsuna asked, reaching down under her desk to pull her shoes on.
"In some," Ryo said cautiously, "There's no fighting, you meet with the cat, and I can't really see beyond that. In some, there's a lot of fighting, including a naval battle sometimes, with an entire aircraft carrier involved, or sometimes just a torpedo boat."
"That's a great deal of variance," Natsuna said thoughtfully, standing up as she did so, "If I were to show you some faces of people who might be there, do you think you'd be able to recognize them."
"Maybe," Ryo said, more nervous as the beautiful older woman moved around her desk, "It depends on how important they are, or likely to be there. Sometimes I see faces clearly, sometimes just the shape of a person."
"Well then, Ryo-kun," Natsuna said, a gentle smile slipping into place on her face, "Come and let me show you something that may be relevant to your visions.'
"Hai, Sakurada-sama," Ryo said, standing and nodding respectfully, "What is it?"
"I'll let that be a surprise," Natsuna said as she opened the door, and led the junior-higher into the outer office, glancing at her secretary as they passed through, "Eika-chan, please lean on Burkhalter's aide some more, I may need to meet with him very soon."
"Hai, Natsuna-san," Eika replied, nodding dutifully as she began paging through her phone book for the requisite number.
Natsuna began humming a happy tune as they departed her office, a pair of TMPD officers in plainclothes who'd been sitting in the break-room immediately outside of it standing and falling in to flank her as she departed, leading Ryo towards the nearest elevator. Several times as they rode down, Ryo tried to work up the courage to ask where they were going, but even though Natsuna certainly had never been hostile, her sheer presence, beauty, and social authority still intimidated the hell out of him.
Fortunately for his nerves, the ride didn't take long, and they only traversed a moderate length of corridor once they reached the basement, ending up in a secondary garage near the building's vehicle bay. The secondary garage wasn't very large, only intended to host perhaps ten or twelve vehicles, but when Ryo entered it he only found two within, because the rest of the space was taken up by an enormous, hulking shape, covered by a large beige tarp.
"Does this look familiar?" Natsuna asked as she pulled a tarp down, revealing an enormous steel construct in the shape of a cat.
"Yes," Ryo breathed out, staring up at the construct's head, his eyes wide with awe, "I hadn't realized it was so big though."
"That's what I thought," Natsuna said, just a hint of smugness in her smile and voice.
((()))
"We have been made fools of," Beryl snarled as she stared at Nephrite's divination sphere, showing the cat blazing southward through the Arctic at forty miles (or sixty-four kilometers) per hour.
"So it would seem," Zoicite ground out, his face a stony mask as he watched the cat's limbs blur across the ice, "If the creature had utilized this speed, we never would have been able to capture it in the first place, much less the discorporation and teleportation abilities it apparently possesses."
"A well-laid trap," Nephrite said coolly, "Placing such powerful curses on the creature purely to establish a cover story was a level of deceit only the Moon Kingdom would be capable of carrying out."
"Serenity," Beryl spat out, "Must have awakened. Only she could dream up such treachery, and further, have the hubris to think it would succeed."
Neither of the generals dare suggest that with Kunzite's death, it had, at least in part, succeeded already.
"Zoicite," Beryl snapped out harshly, "You will immediately begin to awaken as many Youma as possible. Once you have expended all available energy reserves, begin raiding the primitive settlements that are spread throughout the nearest of these icy wastes."
"By your command, my queen," Zoicite immediately replied, bowing as he spoke, before disappearing in a flash of teleportation.
"Nephrite," Beryl continued, turning towards her other surviving subordinate, "As soon as this 'Jaeger' reaches a settlement of note, you will stage an assault with the remaining six flying Youma, and two dozen common Youma. You will push him, and push him hard, but allow him to think he has won, and make use of your shadow to let him think that he has defeated and slain you. I want him to think that he has escaped our attentions."
"Of course, my queen," Nephrite replied with a sharp salute.
"And then," Beryl hissed, turning her attention back to the Maine Coon as it streaked across the Arctic Ice, "You will lead us right back to your mistress, little wretch, that I may slay her."
((()))
A knock sounded on the door of the Senshi's 'room,' attracting the attention of all five of the girls. Rei had been attempting to meditate using a scented candle as a focus, while Ami had been tutoring the rest on their schoolwork. Usagi in particular welcomed the distraction; while working with the blue-haired senshi was considerably more engaging than trying to do so alone, she still did not feel that academic work suited her.
"Come in!" Minako called, the most sociable of the Senshi readily taking the initiative.
Urawa Ryo opened the door and stepped in, smiling somewhat hesitantly at the assembled teenage girls.
"Hello," He said, sketching a short, slightly jerky bow, "I am Urawa Ryo, is this a good time for me to speak with all of you?"
"Yes!" Usagi said decisively before anybody else could speak, putting on a bright smile as she greeted the boy, "It's nice to meet you, Ryo-kun, how are you today?"
"I am well, Tsukino-san," Ryo said, "It is good to see that you are doing well. Did you know that we attend the same school?"
Usagi blushed and opened her mouth, but ended up looking away, feeling too awkward about not having recognized the boy to form an immediate response.
"Hai," Ami put in quietly, nodding respectfully towards the boy, a small smile gracing her delicate features, "You are in class 1-C, and you are the second highest scorer on tests in the school. It is nice to finally meet you, Urawa-san."
The boy opened his mouth to speak, but only stuttering attempts at enunciation came out, as his face turned a bright, bright red.
"Someone's got an admirer," Minako whispered rather un-subtly in Usagi's ear.
((()))
'Alert.' Apparently it's the name of the first human inhabitation I've found in my southward drive from the North Pole, and with my newly enhanced speed, I've reached it on my second day. Forty miles per hour might not seem like a hole lot to those accustomed to traveling on highways; the next time you're doing forty try opening the car door, sticking your head out, and lowering it down to about a foot off the surface of the road.
Then you will know the true meaning of speed.
All that aside, it was still dark by the time I reached the settlement; October was at least a month shy of the 'full dark' part of the seasonal cycle in the Arctic Circle, but that didn't mean that days weren't damn short anyways. I was starting to lose feeling in my paws, which meant that I was dangerously cold by the time I arrived, but as there were lights on, and I could see the Ki-signatures of humans even through the metal walls of Alert's buildings, I knew I'd soon have some refuge from that particular threat.
((()))
Lieutenant Matt Greenwood was one of the 'nerds' of the Canadian Forces Station Alert, an 'intelligence weenie' who specialized in decryption of the signals picked up by the remote facility's sensitive radio-interception equipment. Like many of the more skilled specialists in his field, he had a passionate enthusiasm for prying useful information out of raw data that most people found absolutely bewildering; he himself found their lack of appreciation for the challenge of data extraction to be just as incomprehensible.
Like most other CF personnel stationed at Alert though, he quite appreciated a hot thermos of tea/coffee/hot chocolate, some company, and a view of the stars from just far enough away from the base's perimeter to avoid most of its (mild) light pollution. Some of the support personnel who'd only recently transferred up were too afraid of the local wolf-pack to go out alone, but as someone who'd actually gone through boot camp and was, in fact, a commissioned officer, even if his command was a desk, a computer, and the electronics it connected to, he was more than comfortable enough with his service pistol not to fear the predators.
Besides, the few times he'd had a direct encounter with the wolves, they seemed more amused by the presence of the humans than anything else, and recognized another predator species well enough not to bother or harass them. Which didn't mean that Matt didn't respect them enough not to lay his gloved hand on the sidearm beneath his coat as he saw a bounding shape approaching across the ice out of the North.
"Small one," He commented, nodding towards the approaching animal, "Maybe a lost pup?"
"Not moving right," Aippaq, one of the Inuit guides that the CF kept on retainer in the area replied, "It does not have the legs of a wolf. We'll see what it is when it gets closer."
"I guess," Matt said, his curiosity piqued, "Doesn't look like a fox to me either though."
"It is not," Aippaq said, watching as the creature closed, "It is a cat. And most likely a spirit-cat at that, it is moving too fast for a normal creature."
"A cat?" Matt said, leaning forward as the cat began slowing its approach, twisting his head side to side as he tried to get a better handle on its distance and size in the moonlight, "Isn't it awfully big for a cat?"
"As I said," Aippaq said, nodding again, "A spirit cat."
By the time it reached them, the cat had slowed to a trot, and it didn't do more than glance up at them before continuing on into Alert, moving directly towards the nearest building. Aippaq called something in the Inuit tongue, and the cat stopped, turning to look at the Inuit, tilting its head to the side curiously as it stared at them. Matt didn't know what Aippaq said, but his attention wasn't on the tracker anyways; the cat was huge, larger than any that Matt had even seen before, even if he discounted its long, shaggy fur.
Aippaq spoke again, and the cat turned around fully, trotting up to the Inuit, before leaping up onto the stocky man's shoulder, shaking snow and ice from his fur, then burrowing into the man's jacket.
"The spirit is cold," Aippaq said in English, and Matt boggled at how calmly the Inuit was reacting to the situation at hand, "I will take him inside."
Aippaq was half way to the base's mess hall before Matt recovered enough to follow.
((()))
"A military base, eh?" Nephrite said, the hint of a fierce grin touching his features, "This should be interesting."
((()))
"That," Declared Corporal Seagreen, the primary cook on shift in the kitchen, "Is a big cat."
"He is also a hungry cat, Corporal," Aippaq said calmly, "And I believe he may be an emissary of the spirits. I would appreciate it greatly if you would feed him."
"I thought you thought he was a spirit-cat?" Matt asked.
"I did," Aippaq said, "But the spirits here would not be troubled by the cold. He clearly is not a normal cat though."
"I suppose that would make a certain kind of sense," Matt said with a shrug, "I still just think he's just a big cat though."
"No," Aippaq said as he unzipped his jacket partway, allowing the cat to slip the rest of the way out onto one of the mess tables, before removing the outer garment in its entirety, "His eyes hold too much intelligence for a normal animal."
The cat rolled its eyes, before fishing around in the thick, shaggy fur around its neck to pull out a collar and name-tag, which had an oriental pictographic character on it, neither of those close enough to see it wasn't sure which language it was from.
"There is no way in hell that that is a house-cat," Matt declared, "Not at that size."
"Maybe it's a show-cat?" Corporal Seagreen offered from behind the kitchen's counter.
"How the hell would a show cat get all the way up here?" Matt asked.
"The same way a house cat would," Aippaq said, a faint smile on his face, "By not being one in the first place."
"That doesn't even make any-"
Lieutenant Greenwood was cut of by some thing appearing beside him. In a flurry of motion before the humans in the room were even fully aware that something had just appeared out of thin air, the cat leapt onto the creature's head, claws glowing with a brilliant red energy, and literally tore the head apart, leaving the creature itself to briefly thrash about, before dissolving into ash.
"What the hell was that?" Matt said, swiftly drawing his sidearm as his eyes shifted back and forth between staring at the cat-created pile of ash, and around the galley at large, "What the hell-"
Another monstrosity appeared, and began to brawl with the cat, lasting slightly longer before it was torn to shreds as well. Corporal Seagreen wisely slammed the Big Red Button in the kitchen raising the General Quarters alarm for the base.
((()))
Nephrite himself appeared in the precise geographic center of Alert; unfortunately for him, this was not within the grounds of the CFS Alert base, but within the scientific complex that formed the rest of the settlement. It was more unfortunate for the civilians living in said complex, as they had no meaningful ability to protect themselves from the Dark General or the dozen bodyguard Youma he had ported in with himself.
Even more unfortunately for Nephrite, it gave the Canadian Forces, and the smaller American at their smaller monitoring station nearby, the time they needed to arm themselves and coordinate a meaningful response.
((()))
"Sir!" Greenwood shouted into the kitchen's intra-base phone, "Local expert says only explosives and heavy weapons will be effective against the hostiles, though if we see fliers, they may be vulnerable to small arms fire."
"Who the hell is this expert?" Lieutenant Colonel Pine, the CFS Alert's base commander demanded.
"No name yet," Greenwood replied as he stared down at the message the cat had gouged into the stainless steel kitchen counter with its claws, "But Aippaq vouches for him."
"Put this damn expert on the line," Pine demanded, "I want to hear it for myself."
"Doesn't speak English or French sir," Greenwood said with a wince, then started as another monster appeared in the middle of the kitchen, directly behind the cat, "Another one just appeared here, gotta go sir!"
The cat, again, butchered the creature almost before Greenwood had finished hanging up, but he was more interested in trying to keep his CO from deciding that the intel was from an untrustworthy source, than helping the cat fight.
"Well," Seagreen said as he stared at the pile of ash on the floor of his kitchen, "...I don't know what to say to that."
"And that's why you're a Corporal, and I'm a Lieutenant," Greenwood said promptly, "Get your sidearm, put your jacket on, and get outside to form up with the rest of the company."
Pulling his jacket back on, Greenwood followed his own instructions, Aippaq and the cat moving out with him.
((()))
In proper military parlance, what happened at Alert wasn't a battle, it was a skirmish, or perhaps more accurately a probing raid. There were no major formations deployed by either side, the Dark Kingdom had no intention of taking and holding territory, and perhaps more importantly, of the three 'strategic assets' in play (Jaeger as a bearer of critical intelligence, CFS Alert as a monitoring/E-war station, and Nephrite as a magical super-weapon), only Nephrite was a direct-force 'tool.'
Which he demonstrated once he caught sight of Jaeger moving outdoors, by turning half of the Alert into a five hundred meter crater with a single spell. The civilian research facilities were completely obliterated, roughly half of the CF base was destroyed (including the command post that Lieutenant-Colonel Pine was operating out of), and a handful of Youma were destroyed as well. Only the American installation was spared, and that purely by the fact that it was by far the smallest part of Alert, and on the opposite side of the Canadian Forces base from the civilian area where Nephrite had arrived.
For a long moment, both sides were stunned by the sheer scale of the not-explosive detonation Nephrite had created, and the Dark General himself laughed madly as his foes beheld him with horror. His laughter was cut short, however, as the vast majority of surviving soldiers on the base had been granted a clear line-of-sight on the Dark General, realized that he was the source of destruction, and opened fire on him.
Nearly a hundred and fifty small arms opened up on Nephrite, and seconds later, the 7.62 mm machine gun and 12.7 mm machine gun pair mounted to an AVGP Grizzly opened up on the man. Shadowy shields of energy, visible by the light of shells smashing themselves against them, protected the Dark General for long seconds, but as both the heavier vehicle-mounted weapons, and the pistols and assault rifles used by the Canadian infantry tracked to home in on the man more accurately, the shields began to erode away.
Within thirteen seconds of the detonation, the laughing figure standing in the open was overwhelmed by fire, and disintegrated into ash. The handful of ground-bound Youma that still survived fled upon their leader's death, running off into the icy wastes around the camp, and the Grizzly fired up its engines in preparation for moving out in pursuit.
((()))
Ami blushed.
Ryo blushed.
Minako chortled.
"It's just a pot of tea!" Rei exclaimed, seizing it from between the two, and coincidentally ending the accidental contact between their hands from when they'd both tried to reach for it at the same time, "Now Ryo, didn't you say that you had something important to tell us?"
"Yes," Ryo said, shaking his head and taking on a much more serious demeanor, "Mizuno-san, a, er, magically powerful computer appeared for you recently, yes?"
Ami nodded, trying to fight down her blush.
"There should be a great wealth of information on magic available there," Ryo said, his tone turning grim, "Unless Tsukino-san learns some of the purification magic, and at least one of you all learns some of the healing magic, we will most likely all die, and Mizuno-san's cat certainly will."
((()))
"Alright cat," Greenwood said, glaring down at the smaller creature as he dragged a chair around one of the mess hall tables and plopped down in it, "Now tell me what the hell is going on."
The cat made a hacking, coughing sound, followed by a series of chitters, rasps, and then what sounded vaguely like attempts to speak, before giving up and hissing in apparent frustration. It then leapt up onto the table between them, and began to scratch out words in English with one of its claws.
'Would you rather I communicate like this,' It asked, 'Or procure pencil and paper?'
"Half or more of Alert's inhabitants are dead," Greenwood said flatly, "I don't have the damn time to send a private for office supplies."
'Very well then,' the cat wrote out, staring directly up at the Lieutenant as he did so, 'The man was called 'Nephrite,' and is one of the three known surviving leaders of an aristocratic magocracy that ruled the Earth before currently-recorded history. When they woke back up they were less than happy to find someone else had 'usurped' their rule, and are looking for the magical artifacts they need to reassert their rule via force. Odds are good that the dark magical force backing their play will turn them all to destructive ends, depopulating the planet if they win.'
"Sounds like bullshit," Greenwood said flatly, "The same kind of bullshit that just leveled half of Alert. Why are they here?"
'For reasons unknown to me, their base is up in the Arctic ice. I escaped imprisonment there, and this is the first settlement I found. I thought I had eluded pursuit when I killed most of their fliers, but apparently they were tracking me via scrying.'
"And why did they have you captive?" Greenwood pressed.
'Ask the Americans about the Hikawa shrine bombing in Tokyo,' The cat wrote out, 'I was part of the team acting in response to that. I recommend aerial evacuation of the site as soon as possible, as they have no reliable means of intercepting aircraft in flight.'
"Major Oak," Greenwood ground out, "The ranking surviving officer here, is already calling for reinforcements. If he follows my recommendation, you'll be on the first plane out of Alert."
((()))
The Mizuno apartment had been essentially abandoned for days; Ami had already been moved to the TMPD HQ for her own protection, and after the attack that had removed Jaeger from the apartment, Saeko had stopped spending time there either, leaving it sealed off by the police as a crime scene. Partially because it was a crime scene, and partially because it kept the apartment secure for the Mizuno's (hopeful) return. They were not, however, the first pair of women to enter said apartment; a pair with a similar age gap, though older overall, entered it before they did. They didn't enter through the door, however.
A rippling arc of energy manifested in the center of the Mizuno's kitchen, sheering the table in half, then disintegrating most of its mass as the table collapsed inward onto the arc, which was rapidly shaping itself into a circle. Cycling through various shades of blue and white, the circle stabilized as a geometrically perfect shape, then expanded until it was roughly seven feet across, turning utterly opaque.
Two western woman, one middle-aged and dressed in a miko's outfit, the other young and wearing an ill-fitting Victorian-era frock, stepped into the empty apartment.
"Japanese," The younger immediately said, as her keen eyes swept across the bindings of a handful of books that had been left in the kitchen, "I'll look for a phone book."
"Please do," The elder said, carefully turning to face the gate they had stepped through, one hand glowing with power as she dismissed it with the other.
The portal quickly shrank down to the size of a pinhead, then vanished altogether; the woman watching did not relax until several seconds after it had fully disappeared, only then allowing the spell held in her hand to fade.
"We're in Tokyo" The younger woman called from the apartment's living room, "And there's both signs of a cat living here, and violence."
"Of course there are signs of violence," The older woman said with a sigh.
((()))
"I'm glad you finally found the time to speak with me, Admiral," Natsuna said cordially, greeting the older man with a handshake rather than a bow.
"Things have raised your meeting request to a considerably higher priority," Admiral Burkhalter replied grimly as he shook the (attractive) younger woman's hand, "As it was, the matter you're investigating had already landed me under a mess of time-wasting demands for reports from my political superiors back across the pond."
The two were meeting in Rear Admiral Burkhalter's office at the United States Fleet Activities base in Yokosuka, Japan. The base was the administrative center for both the US Naval Forces Japan, and the US Seventh Fleet, making it the command point for better than sixty American naval vessels, including one of the three super carriers that the US Navy kept stationed in the far east as a matter of strategic doctrine. The USS Independence, the last Forrestal-class Aircraft Carrier the Americans were keeping in service, was visible through the large windows of the Admiral's somewhat luxurious office, eighty thousand tons of war machine ready for battle, minus the refueling and re-provisioning it was undergoing.
"I assume," Natsuna said, as the admiral seated himself and gestured for her to do the same, "That a similar attack to that carried out on the Hikawa shrine has taken place?"
"Indeed," The somewhat grizzled admiral said with a grim nod, "The forward observation and intelligence base in Alert, Nunavut, was hit last night, and a detonation almost identical to that which you have been investigating occurred."
"I see," Natsuna said, her own fair countenance taking a grim cast, "Would reports of the incident happen to include the presence of an unusually large and intelligent cat?"
For an instant, surprise flickered across Burkhalter's face, before long-ingrained military displine buried it utterly.
"How did you know about that?" He asked calmly.
"Jaeger, the cat," Natsuna explained, "Was abducted by hostile forces some days ago."
"You say 'abducted,'" Burkhalter noted, "Rather than 'stolen.' Why?"
Natsuna stared at the older man thoughtfully for a few seconds before responding.
"I'm not sure how detailed the reports of Jaeger's behavior from Alert may have been," She eventually said, "So in the interests of you not thinking I am insane, would you mind if I had one of my aides bring a visual aide into your office?"
"...I suppose not," Burkhalter said after a moment's thought, "Though this does make me curious as to just what you're planning to tell me."
Natsuna just smiled.
((()))
With all the pandemonium in Alert, getting access to one of the base's computers before leaving wasn't too difficult; doing it without being noticed was somewhat more so. Fortunately, Greater Change allowed me to do some very strange shape-shifting; growing what amounted to a very, very long tail, then hollowing it out so it would be internally reflective, allowed me to fake a fiber-optic manipulator extending through the half-ruined building I was being watched in. I had to check three computers before I found one that had been left logged in, but once I found that, I had access to what existed of the internet in October of 1994, as well as the base's local network, such as it was.
Doubtless, if I tried to go crawling through the military parts of the data networks, I'd inevitably draw attention to myself; fortunately, what I needed was available on public astronomy websites, and via IRC chat and e-mail protocols. I extended a set of subsidiary tails from my peeping-eye tail, and began to type.
((()))
"He's clean," Luna said from her position on Admiral Burkhalter's desk, "I'm not familiar with the American rank insignia, but I assume from the amount he has, he's fairly important?"
"Two star admiral," Natsuna confirmed as Luna hopped back off of the desk, into the superintendent-general's lap, "Only two higher ranks in the entire navy, so yes, I'd say he's fairly important. I believe that Aircraft carrier is under his command. So Admiral," she turned her gaze back to the rather bewildered Admiral and began to gently stroke the fur along Luna's back, "If I were to tell you that Jaeger is a sentient cat, capable of communicating with humans, what would you say?"
Slowly, very slowly, the Admiral began to nod.
"I'd say that it's not quite so ridiculous a claim as I'd have once thought," Burkhalter said cautiously.
"Good," Natsuna said with a sharp nod, her tone entirely professional, "I believe I know where all of the important elements in this conflict now are, or how to draw them out. I'm going to be taking a small 'vacation' to Malaysia shortly, and I would feel ever so much safer knowing that there was a strong military presence nearby, to stabilize the region, you understand..."
((()))
"October twelfth, 1995," The younger woman said as she shared a meal at a small western-style diner in Shibuya, "Not even the same Earth, and we're in the future too."
"You knew we would be getting into trouble when we decided to follow him," The elder said mildly.
"Yes," The younger replied, "But I didn't give up my right to heckle him mercilessly for the trouble he keeps getting himself into. So there."
Neither said much more of consequence before paying for their meal (entirely with coins), and leaving the cafe.
((()))
Fifteen hours after the attack on Alert, a Boeing CC-137 that the Candadian Forces used for airlift touched down at the Trenton CFB airstrip.
"I hope you're better at dealing with the brass than I am," Greenwood said flatly, turning to stare down at the cat seated beside him, "Because they're not happy about this, and a very solid argument can be made that you led them to us."
'I'll manage,' the cat scrawled on the notepad that had been attached to the back of his collar, 'It's not like there's terribly much they can do to me if I don't, either.'
"I suppose if you got away from the dark army of magical bullshit," Greenwood said gruffly, "That most cells around here won't hold you."
Jaeger was silent as the cargo hauler taxied, much as he was most of the time, and as he'd been instructed, allowed Greenwood to carry him from the plane once it came to a stop, so as to avoid preventing a navigational hazard underfoot.
"You are a damn heavy cat," Greenwood grumbled, "You know that?"
Jaeger responded by flicking his tail up into the other man's face; not hard enough to hurt, but enough to convey irritation.
"Yeah, yeah," Greenwood muttered, ignoring the base personnel that were looking at him oddly as he crossed the airstrip to the administration building, "You've certainly got the disposition of a cat."
He completely failed to notice Aippaq following in his wake, and the private that gave him directions in the administration building's lobby didn't feel it appropriate to question a commissioned officer fresh from a combat zone about the company he kept. When he arrived at the conference room he'd been directed to (which had a pair of armed guards, oddly enough) however, those guards did take notice.
"I'm sorry sir, but civilian consultants will not be allowed into this meeting without explicit permission," One of the guards, a Sergeant, said as Greenwood approached the door.
"What?" Greenwood said, glancing down at the cat in his arms for a moment before returning his attention to the Sergeant, "The cat?"
"He means me," Aippaq said, nearly causing Greenwood to jump out of his skin in sheer shock, "You should be more aware of your surroundings, Lieutenant."
"Didn't I tell you not to do that?" Greenwood said, turning around to face the Inuit tracker, "I'm a tech weenie! I don't do tracking and interception!"
Aippaq just smiled, almost smirked, at the CF officer, before turning to nod at the Sergeant.
"I will wait out here," Aippaq said calmly, "My concern is with the spirit-cat, not what lays within."
"Thank you sir," The sergeant said, nodding respectfully to the Inuit, before ushering Greenwood and the cat (who was chittering softly in in amusement), into the conference room.
Within, was a conference table surrounded by more brass than Greenwood had ever seen in his life, and Prime Minister Jean Chretien .
"Lieutenant Greenwood," Admiral John de Chastelain, Chief of of Defense Staff and ranking commissioned officer of the Canadian Forces, greeted as the younger man entered the room.
"Sir!" Greenwood replied immediately, stopping so abruptly he almost lost his balance, snapping a sharp salute, and dropping into a near-perfect attention stance, unintentionally dropping the cat he was carrying as he did so.
Jaeger, as befitted a cat, landed on his feet, before hopping up onto the conference table, and seating himself in the most imperious posture he could manage, tail wrapped around his feet.
"Lieutenant," Chastelain continued, glancing back and forth between the enormous cat, and his frazzled subordinate, "You're here because Major Oak said you knew more than anyone else on the ground, just what happened up at CFB Alert. The cat is here, because it's supposedly involved. So tell us son, what happened?"
Greenwood told them.
((()))
Things moved quickly after the visit with the Canadian leadership; they'd already had word from their American counterparts about the attack on Japan, and when it became clear that I was both a target and desiring to leave their country, they were quite happy to provide me an escort out. I asked for another shot at internet access, some travel funds, and to be sent to Vancouver; I'd be moving pretty far outside of my intended contact's operational area, but commercial air travel was always a viable backup option.
I'd much rather keep under the radar though. Of the Dark Generals, Jadeite was fire-aligned, and Kunzite was water/ice aligned, and both are dead. With the remaining two generals being air and earth aligned, I'd take travel by sea as the least likely, especially if Nephrite is actually dead. The other generals didn't disintegrate though, and even if the curse is still blocking much of my practical, applied knowledge of what magic can do, I know there's quite a bit of difference between turning into a rock, or turning into ash, and that avoiding their primary areas of elemental influence is still a good idea.
Even if I don't know the details of what they could do to me within those spheres of influence, or if they're capable of accessing them instead of the Dark Kingdom-provided access to Darkness Magic.
((()))
"Not quite what I was expecting," The vicar rumbled as he looked Saeko, dressed for a vacation in the tropics, up and down, "While I'm sure you are a very attractive woman, right now I'm finding your lack of horns, fangs, or claws to make you dreadfully plain."
"That does still indirectly suggest that Youma have genders that go beyond the purely superficial," Saeko said as she jotted a note down on her clipboard before looking up at the transformed former-human, "Considering that the only other Youma we've seen aside from you were female, this may suggest strange things about gender roles within their society."
"I'm getting vague hints of memories," The vicar said, carefully sitting down on the bed in his small assigned quarters within the TMPD HQ, wary of accidentally damaging it, "But most of it relates to fighting techniques at this point."
"What sort of fighting techniques?" Saeko asked, raising an eyebrow at the winged male.
"I haven't been a martial artist or a soldier in this life," The vicar said, a hint of humor in his gravelly voice, "So I couldn't tell you much with what little I have. I can tell you though, that some of them involve flying. Which I would like to try once I can get out of here."
"I wouldn't mind seeing it, myself," Saeko said with a nod, "Any luck with the shape-shifting?"
The vicar shook his head.
"Don't worry," Saeko said gently, reaching up (way up) to rest a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder, "Every Youma we've seen so far has been capable of it, so you should be able to take a human form eventually. With luck, we'll take one alive and figure it out for ourselves at some point."
The vicar nodded, his eyes conveying quiet gratitude to the woman for a long moment, before their continued testing of his new abilities and physique resumed.
((()))
"Any luck?" The younger woman asked as the elder came out of a small stand of trees that masked part of the stream flowing through the park they were in.
"No," The elder said with a grimace, "The water was neither still enough, nor 'natural' enough, for me to scry effectively with; all I received were jumbled images. We'll have to leave the city for me to find something suitable."
"I don't like it," The younger said with a sigh, "But I kind of expected it. Should we leave today, or wait until after we've slept?"
"Today," The elder said firmly, "If we fly across the bay, it'll only take a few hours, and I'm sick of dealing with gropers on the trains anyways."
Neither of them noticed a short young woman with an arm in a cast listening, but carefully not watching them.
((()))
"Mizuno-san," Ryo called hesitantly as he knocked on the door to Ami's temporary room, "May I come in?"
"Yes, Ryo-san," Ami called back through the door, "Please come in."
The young junior-higher entered to find Ami laying on her (unsurprisingly) rapidly reading through a magical text on what had been dubbed the 'Mercury Computer,' though she did pause to smile shyly up at him once he had entered.
"Studying again?" Ryo asked with a gentle smile, one which deepened slightly at Ami's blush.
"Always," She said quietly, "Especially when it can save lives."
"I can't see far enough into the future to say for sure," Ryo said somewhat hesitantly, "But someone who works as hard as you will definitely be able to be a doctor if she wants to."
Ami's shy smile brightened into something gently radiant, and it took her some time to articulate a coherent response to the boy's words.
"Thank you," She finally managed to whisper out, unaccustomed to praise from a member of the opposite gender since her father had left.
"You're more than welcome," Ryo said kindly, then with supernaturally-augmented social aptitude that many other boys in his position would have envied, he changed topics; "So, I was wondering if the Mercury Computer has anything in it on Psychics, I was hoping that it might be able to help me develop my abilities further..."
The conversation continued, firmly shifted into the realm of academics, an area that Ami felt eminently comfortable within.
((()))
Getting to Vancouver was easy; unfortunately, while my intended contact responded to my request, the sheer distance and time involved made things unfeasible; instead, I asked for a pickup in Hawaii, and was forced to risk a flight from Vancouver on through. At that point, I was intensely grateful that Lieutenant Greenwood had been sent as an overt escort (I was fairly certain there were covert escorts involved as well), and Aippaq was following as well. If I'd not had a uniformed officer on hand to be slightly assertive for me, I would have been forced to follow the usual pet protocols for travel, and that would have made what I needed to do altogether impossible.
And I was not putting up with riding in a pet-carrier in the cargo hold.
((()))
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen," Natsuna declared as she entered the meeting room where she'd had the jewel-bearers gathered, "Events are coming to a head, and that means that, amongst other things, it's time that I fill you in on the remaining details of what you being jewel-bearers means, at least to the best of our knowledge. To that end, I'm going to introduce you to Peter Gabriel, the Vicar of an Anglican church here in Tokyo, the first jewel-bearer that we found and retrieved."
"Why haven't we been introduced before?" A teen who preferred to be known as 'crane machine Joe' asked.
"Because I'm rather frightening to look at," A deep voice rumbled into the room, preceding the large orange form of the Vicar by only a second or two.
Half the people in the room froze; Natsuna and her subordinates had all seen the vicar before, and most of the others looked torn between panic and disbelief.
"Hello," The large, orange 'man' with wings rumbled, "I am Vicar Gabriel, and it's nice to meet you all."
"I'm P-p-pleased to meet you?" Ryo's mother managed to half-state, half-ask.
"And I you," The vicar rumbled, smiling gently as he moved over to the woman, who began to tremble, and crouched to take her hand and kiss it.
"We've had Vicar Gabriel here under observation for a full week now," Natsuna continued, drawing (most) people's attention back to her as Gabriel exchanged a few quiet, reassuring words with Mrs Urawa, "And aside from some slowly-returning memories of his prior life and slight increase in aggressive urges, which he has displayed full control of, the physical transformation, there have been no major side-effects to the transformation itself."
Gabriel stood and retreated to stand directly behind Natsuna, unintentionally looming over her as she waited to ensure she had everyone's attention.
"Perhaps most importantly for your consideration," She continued, "The process of transformation was extensively painful, though Vicar Gabriel undertook it while conscious, whereas we are quite willing to bring a specialist in to place you all under general anesthesia during the process. We are certain it will be at least partially effective, but once your physiology begins to change, it may wear off before the transformation completes itself, as we have only had a limited time to study the nature of Youma physiology."
"And that seems more like magic than biology," The Vicar contributed.
"Indeed," Natsuna said with a nod, "The reason I bring this up now is rather simple; I've received word from our best field operative concerning affairs such as these, who goes by 'Jaeger,' and he's requested a meeting with all of the jewel-shards as soon as possible, in a specific location which will remain classified at this time. His message implied that he may have a means of reuniting the jewels, which is the single most essential element in this conflict, if Luna and Artemis are correct, possessing the reconstituted jewels will end the conflict."
Natsuna paused for a minute to meet each of the jewel-bearer's eyes in turn, attempting to impress the gravity of the situation on them.
"I am a police officer; I will not attempt to force your choice in this, but I will tell you that without the help of each of you, we may lose this war."
((()))
"I still don't get why your 'contact' wants to meet in such a public place," Greenwood muttered, his voice low enough that none but Jaeger and Aippaq could hear him.
Aippaq was too far into culture shock from what he was seeing on a Hawaiian beach to respond, but Jaeger reached up and gently patted the cheek of the human that was carrying him with one paw.
"No need to be condescending," Greenwood paused a moment before continuing, "But then, I suppose you are a cat."
Jaeger purred, his chest rumbling with good humor, before his head came around sharply, directing his (and Greenwood's) attention towards a young(ish) blonde woman in an a rather scandalous bikini. The woman herself noticed Jaeger as soon as Greenwood turned in her direction, and began sauntering towards them, further discombobulating Aippaq.
"That is the biggest damn cat I've ever seen," She declared as she approached, striking a pose and extending her hands, "Can I hold him."
Greenwood rather abruptly found that there was no longer a cat in his hands.
((()))
I am what many people would consider a 'prude' as far as body modesty goes. Between growing up largely in the muslim world, where many women wore Abayas, and my own Christian worldview, I have developed a mentality where I find the rare modest woman to be far more visually attractive. I'm still a red-blooded male, and it took discipline while I was human to keep my eyes off those who weren't so modestly dressed. The saturation of sexual imagery in western society was a lot harder to deal with, but I've essentially developed a reflex for not gawking at women in real life, even if I still struggle with not-real imagery.
When Eda (and that had to be here, though why she was here... oh) came sauntering up wearing a string bikini and an attitude, said reflex kicked in, and I looked away. It felt kind of odd, because I didn't have any hormonal reaction to her, but when she asked to hold me, I had a small freakout. Maybe I've watched too many crappy harem anime, but I couldn't see being in intimate physical contact with a mostly-naked woman who wasn't aware I'm a shapeshifted human as ending with anything but bloodshed.
And Eda is not the type of woman you want trying to kill you. Fortunately, Eda hadn't come alone; a large, burly black man was moving up behind her, and judging by the shades and vest he was wearing, it was almost certainly Dutch.
Communicating was a bit awkward, but after a few minutes we followed Eda and Dutch down to where a modest dinghy was pulled up onto the beach, and were on our way out to their ship.
((()))
"I believe I have divined the feline's intended destination, my queen," Nephrite announced with an elaborate bow.
"Excellent," Beryl replied, deigning to favor the Dark General with a small smile, "Where will our foes gather?"
"An island that is called Borneo," Nephrite said respectfully, "One of the largest on Earth since Atlantis was sunk. Due to the sheer distance from our current stronghold, if we are to move in force, I would recommend that we begin ferrying troops immediately, that those of us capable of teleporting forces in will be less fatigued when the time comes."
"Your plan is acceptable," Beryl declared imperiously, "Begin assisting Zoicite in reviving and moving Yoiuma at once; we can allow nothing to hinder our strike when it comes."
((()))
"Well," Saeko said as she looked over at Natsuna, "When you said you'd be using a 'vacation trip' as a cover story, I didn't think you'd be taking it this far."
Natsuna just smiled, though the sunglasses concealing her eyes gave the expression a mysterious air, and leaned back in her lounge chair. The young woman was doing an excellent job of projecting air of relaxed languor, but even if she had lacked the personal presence and social acuity to pull it off, her location most likely would have accomplished it for her. Her lounge chair lay on the private deck of one of the four luxury villas built into the top of a massive luxury cruise ship, a luxury vessel unlike any other sailing the Pacific.
Saeko had considerable wealth at her disposal, for someone who worked a 'conventional' day job, but even she was still shocked by the sheer amount of money that had to have gone into the vessel's construction and outfitting.
"I think I've rather outdone myself this time," Natsuna said, lazily reaching over to the small table beside her lounge chair for a fruity drink with an umbrella sticking out of it, "I'm particularly proud of the escort."
Saeko glanced east, at the the American super-carrier looming over the cruise ship, then at the rest of the ships in the carrier battlegroup arrayed around it.
"How did you do that?" Saeko asked, still feeling slightly surreal about what she and her daughter had been caught up in.
"There was another attack by the Dark Kingdom," Natsuna said, her tone more serious, "On a joint American/Canadian base up around the Arctic, and more than two hundred people were killed, despite there being less than two dozen hostiles involved in the attack. Most of the damage done was from a detonation much like the one that destroyed the Hikawa shrine."
Saeko gave no response to that; she had no response to give, and instead turned her attention to the 'private' pool in front of her, where her Ami and her friends were playing water polo. Much like Saeko herself, Ami was wearing a very modest swimsuit, something Saeko would have insisted on if Ami hadn't chosen such herself, given that the Urawa boy was present. And while Saeko wasn't sure if Ami had realized it yet, it was quite apparent to her that the boy had a crush on her daughter.
"Natsuna-san," Saeko said quietly, wanting to make certain that her daughter didn't hear, in spite of the noise her friends were generating, "How likely do you think a battle is when we get to Malaysia?"
"According to Ryo," Natsuna said, her voice soft with sorrow, "It's pretty much certain. My own instincts say this won't end with anything less than the maximum level of possible violence on the part of our foes. They're too committed to this to do anything else."
"According to Luna," Saeko said with uncharacteristic hesitance, "The last time the Dark Kingdom went to war, they scoured eight planets of life, and utterly devastated Earth as well."
"I know," Natsuna replied, "We'll just have to hope they're not up to that level of destruction a second time around."
((()))
"That is a big #$*(ing cat," Revy, a buxom young woman wearing cutoff shorts and a belly shirt with a pair of pistols holstered under arms, drawled as the Black Lagoon's launch rejoined the ship, "We carrying cargo for some damn pet collector?"
"Actually-" Greenwood began, but was cut off by Jaeger jumping down out of his arms onto the Black Lagoon's deck, then shifting, warping, and twisting up into the shape of a full-grown man, complete with sandals, trunks, and a beard, but no shirt.
Three people on the Lagoon's deck responded instinctively, training a small variety of firearms on the shapeshifter who'd just revealed himself in their midst, who for his part, seemed wholly occupied with inspecting his new appendages. Also, trying to talk and failing, nothing more than hisses and short barking sounds emerging from his throat. Finally, grunting in frustration, then smiling at having managed a grunt, the shape-shifter reached up towards the back of his neck (where the notepad he'd been given by the Canadians was still attached to his collar), and was promptly shot by Revy.
Aippaq started and drew a bone knife from his belt; one of Revy's pair of Beretta's shifted over to cover him, while Jaeger just stared down at the hole in the left side of his chest and scowled, before he finished retrieving the notepad and attached writing implement from his collar, and quickly jotted a message out.
'I'm sorry, but it's been so long since I've been human that I don't know how to form the vocal cords properly anymore. Please don't shoot me again, it's going to take hours to grow that back,' he wrote, before holding it up for everyone to see.
Revy stared.
Dutch stared.
Greenwood stared.
Ada stared and twitched.
Aippaq relaxed, and slowly returned his knife to its sheathe.
"Oy," A blonde man called as he poked his head out from one of the hatches, "We can't afford this kind of noise so close to American waters, what's..."
He stared at the wound, directly over Jaeger's heart, leaking blood down his chest.
'Don't worry,' Jaeger wrote, after tearing the first note off of the top of the pad and slapping it over the hole in his chest, 'Just caught miss immodesty here by surprise.'
((()))
"That idiot," The younger woman growled, "Does he never learn?"
"I suspect," The older woman said, irritation showing on her own face in spite of the concentration necessary to maintain the scrying spell that they were watching through, "That he did that purely for effect. He's changed his fundamental physical nature again, though I cannot yet fully discern how. He's probably either immune to damage from non-supernatural sources, or wants people to think so, judging by how he's reacting."
"I'm still going to smack him next time we see him," The younger grumbled.
((()))
"...Okay," Greenwood said, deciding that somebody had to break the ice, "I knew that he was a magical cat, but I didn't know that he could do that."
'Nobody asked,' Jaeger replied via written note, 'But we need to get to Borneo promptly, and I felt it appropriate to drive home just how outside of what any of you have experienced before this all is.'
"I shot you in the !# $ing heart," Revy shouted, "Why the hell aren't you dead?"
'Because I'm a damn magical man,' Jaeger wrote, 'And you'd have gotten the same result if you'd shot me in the eye, the brain, or anywhere else. My organs-'
He disappeared from in front of her, and Revy abruptly twisted around, snapping off another pair of shots, the instant that she caught sight of him, standing ten feet down the deck from her. One shot took him in the shoulder, the other he leaned out of the way of, his beard rustling as it passed.
'Are purely optional,' he continued to write, 'And if you shoot me again, I'll have to start fighting back.'
He swept his writing hand off to his side, and a glowing band of energy leapt from it into the sea, cutting into the surface of the waves and caused a violent eruption of spray.
'If you shoot me enough, I will die,' he continued, ignoring blood running down his arm and onto the paper he was writing on, 'I don't know who would win if we fought, but I can tell you for certain that the boat would lose.'
"And," A Japanese man in semi-formal wear who looked rather out of place cut in from inside of one of the hatches, "I believe we have been contracted for a transport job. Not an assassination."
"Eyes on the paycheck Revy," Dutch cut in, beginning to move towards the small ship's bridge, "Since Mister Cat seems talkative, he can answer questions on the way. Stop shooting him though, or I take any penalties out of your pay."
((()))
AN: Next chapter will finish the arc. There's more planned, but odds are decent I won't be posting any more here until I've finished writing the second arc.