Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Third Labor (Forward to the past) ❯ what do you do with a drunken sploogie? ( Chapter 6 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Third Labor (Discord's Bet) chapter six
"What do ya do with a drunken sploogie?"

Disclaimer: multiple universes, various timelines, and a self insert (at this point a sort-of self insert
as Grey's gone through several very different lives and decades of experience). Some characters
are tm other people.

-----

Princess Venus swept into the Moon Palace, graceful and poised. "Bennu!" She nodded happily to
the flame-haired mage. Friendly fellow, though he tended to lose himself in research and go off to
that tower of his for extended period. Bennu waved back.

"Have you seen Nebula?" Venus had decided her cousin was due for some good natured teasing,
just like old times. Cousin Nebula had been sent off on so many duties lately, she hardly ever got
to see him.

"You didn't hear?" Bennu blinked at that. "It's usually *me* who's the last to know about the
Court goings on... Nebula's been sent away from Court."

The Princess stumbled as her graceful gliding missed a step. "Say what?! What happened?"

Bennu leaned against the railing and regarded Venus for a moment. "Do you want the scuttlebut
or the Official Version?"

"Both," Venus answered promptly. "He's Serena's father, how could he just be tossed out like
that?"

"You know how he'd been sent off on quests a lot lately?" Bennu made a gesture that left a
sparkling trail in midair. "Well, the Queen decided she was getting too reliant on having him about
and..."

Venus winced. "So, just like the last three Consorts, she decided that having personal feelings for
any one of her paramours was detracting from her efficiency as the Queen. Think they'll reconcile
like the last time she did that?"

Bennu shook his head. "He's been forbidden to even attend the Court or enter the Palace grounds
this time."

All thoughts of teasing her favorite cousin was shelved. Though she was a Princess of the Royal
House of Venus, and Nebula a minor noble of a bastard line of the same family, twice removed,
the Princess had long considered Nebula a dependable friend. "How's he taking it?"

"Pretty badly," Bennu confirmed. "He was forbidden from seeing his daughter again, and per the
Queen's orders, nobody's told Princess Serenity about it, but he was always gratified to be able to
catch glimpses and hear of her development. Now he might as well be on a distant world, he'll
never see her again that much."

Venus winced again. Both understood that Queen Serenity had wanted her daughter to grow up
without unwanted dependency upon anyone besides herself, and that Nebula was the doting sort
who would have been able to refuse his daughter nothing. It had been hard though, very hard on
the Knight Of Duty.

Bennu excused himself, grateful that at least Venus wasn't following him around with hearts in her
eyes as usual.

---------

Minako/Honey moaned in her sleep, remembering how she'd found Nebula. He didn't drink, which
was a pity as running across him drunk would have been less of a shock than finding the crushed
individual she'd found on the outskirts of the Silver Palace.

Then she'd introduced Nebula to her friend Princess Jupiter, who was trying to get over a loss
herself. It had gone well, briefly, but then another disaster had occurred.

Nearby, Apple dreamed. This time it was not of the Princess Jupiter.

---------

"So it's true," Makoto said, stepping out of the shadows and causing a series of squeaks and yelps
from her friends. Minako, Usagi, Ami and Rei looked a combination of guilty and shocked. "How
could you keep something like this from me!"

"You're not scared or disgusted?" The cat on the floor inquired.

"No," Makoto insisted.

Orion couldn't help but make an observation. "Then why is your ponytail still sticking straight
up?"

"Heh heh!" Makoto reached up and smoothed her hair back down. "So, Mina-chan, you've been
keeping this boyfriend of yours hidden?"

"No, he's not really my boyfriend," Minako said truthfully at the moment. It would take her
another year before she could overcome the image of Orion just being a talking cat. She'd had him
since she was a child, and he'd only remembered how to transform last year. "We're just friends.
Besides, we're too young for THAT."

Makoto's eyes gleamed. She'd thought Grey a fairly exotic looking boy. Not as cute as her ideal,
for certain. Maybe they were only in 1st year Junior High but Makoto Kino was ready for love!
And an enchanted prince would do until someone who fit the profile a bit more came along!

----------

Apple groaned and shifted in her sleep. No, she wouldn't do that. Not again. Never again. The
image of Nebula sparring with his favored weapon - a manriki gusari called the Chain Of Duty
held in his hands while the long knife Sunderer was tucked in his belt. Followed by the broken
man whom she had glimpsed walking away from Princess Jupiter and Narcisssus. Another image
of Grey, seen from the doorway to the roof of an embassy, explaining to Minako that he
understood why they would all abandon him again. The level of anguish in his that had made her
want to break out of the shadows and hug him. Only to have the merger of timelines seperate
them once again.

Blueberry whimpered in HER sleep. Which was filled with dreams of a Moon Palace, and of
finding a soulmate in the researcher Bennu. Only Bennu had had so many other admirers, some
prettier, some smarter, some with more "talent" or more raw power. And there were her duties as
the Mercury Princess which kept her away from research or study much of the time, much less
fraternizing with an independent spirit who had once composed a song about the fickleness of
Queen Serenity (devastatingly accurate and an underground hit with lower caste people snickering
the lyrics where the nobles weren't expected to hear them). The song and composer had been
banned from the Moon, which had suited Bennu quite well. Dubbing himself the Pheonixi, he'd
developed a tower on Deimos - a moon of Mars and one of those who rumors linked as interested
in him was no less than the Princess of Mars herself!

Blueberry dreamed of watching the Knight Of Love, a mysterious figure indeed, and speculating
on his identity. The same with the Knight Of Duty until it was publicly revealed that it was
Nebula, who had been a consort of the Queen decades ago. Still, with the lifespans of the Silver
Millenium, the difference in ages of a mere span of decades was of little consequence. Princess
Mercury had watched the Knight grow cold and distant, dedicating himself to the Art Of Combat
in a method similar to Bennu's love of research. And as for her, she'd had few consorts.

Rei mumbled something about a "baka" a few times and dreamed of being the Princess Mars and
her odd relation with the outcast and outspoken researcher Bennu. Of viewing her friend Jupiter's
failure to remain constant to Nebula and seeing something of herself and her relation with Bennu
reflected there. She rooted for her friend, saw her lose, and then saw the winner defeated. By duty
ironically enough. She also dreamed of two lives growing up with her sometimes-best
friend/confidante/fiancee sometimes known as Ranma with fellow fiancees/friends/almost-sisters.

Grey had fallen asleep on watch, lulled by the gentle snoring of more than one of the other
dreamers. He dreamed of a life where he flitted like a ghost, always there but rarely touching
another, more unseen than not. Adrift and alone, caring but not cared about. Able to love, but not
loved himself, surviving on dreams and false hopes. And then...

---------

"Suicide?" He shook his head. "No, it's against my faith. Else i would have done it long ago."
Depreciating gesture. "Which would have made a few online people happier if the FFML is any
indication, i think."

The black cat regarded him briefly. "Perhaps. Yet the predictors show that you'll throw your life
away trying to rescue a child tomorrow at 9am. And fail, of course, you simply don't care enough
about continued living to struggle back from major bodily harm."

"So, i know i haven't taken any of those weird anti-depression pills my Doctor prescribed,
precisely because of weird effects like this, so why am i dreaming you?" The man regarded the cat
with a curious stare. "Toltiir, Elder god of mischief, a being of near-infinite power and not even
vaguely infinite wisdom?"

"Curiosity and mischief *are* my motivation," admitted the sometimes-feline being. "I'm here to
grant you a wish."

The man gave a snort and scratched thinning gray hair. "Yeah right. Toltiir the Wishbringer, who
got the position because the agendas of the various other deities in the Aramarian pantheon
wouldn't let any of the others had it and they all assumed it was just another of your whims of the
moment. i know the mythos, i dreamed the whole thing up."

"A thousand chimps," Toltiir said, beginning to lick a paw. "Ideas have long been your bag. Let
me put it to you this way, what have you got to lose?"

"If this were real. A LOT." The man shook his head again. "The reason the gods left the position
with you was that you're tricky and mischievous. Any wish granted beyond the most simple was
twisted into something that would amuse you and cause no great or lasting changes in the Nine
Worlds you mainly concerned yourself with. So any wish that *i* made would have to be careful
indeed."

"True," Toltiir said, not even looking up from his current task. "Again, what have you got to
lose?"

"A wish, huh." The man thought for a moment. "Okay... since i *know* you won't go away until i
do something..."

"Also true," said Toltiir, now using a hind leg to scratch behind an ear. "And you also know that
I'm easily bored and so stalling will just make me make the wish for you."

Wincing, the man considered the probability of something beneficial resulting from THAT being a
null set. "In that case, i wish i was completely healthy, with my mind and sense of identity being
unaltered, that i could continue to learn and develop new skills, ..." He continued on, adding
provisions and clauses as he went until he had to draw breath again.

"Done!" The being said before any further provisos could be added.

-------------

Grey came awake, remembering that. It had been that wish that had gotten the Binding woven
over him and he had been transformed into something to suit Toltiir's sense of irony. An incubus,
a male sex-demon who had refused to take advantage of his abilities and had therefore never
gotten to the fullness of the powers of that form. He'd taken the name Grey as he had neither been
truly of the Light or Dark, but a mix of both.

He had been transported to Asgard, and had run into Ares on his first day there. Literally. Ares
had been taking a wager from Loki and had been sneaking out of Thor's house WITH the thunder
god's belt of might. The resultant quarrel between himself (unsure of who this was other than a
thief) and the disguised Greek god of war had lasted just long enough to attract the attention of
the house's occupants. The resultant beating had given Greek an excuse to continue getting even
with the "little punk mortal" and Grey (caught in the blast radius) his first experience with the
painful resurrection-through-flame that the Binding gave him.

Thor had turned out to be gruff, tempramental, and a bit slow upstairs. Okay guy though,
especially with his wife running herd on his crazier impulses. Sif had turned out to be nice, though
with a temper than made even her husband quail.

Looking out into the night, Grey adjusted his vision down to the infrared, a simple enough trick
now that he was a cyborg again. Oddly enough it was the modified Triax Manhunter form he'd
had on the first part of his First Labor. Until the Pheonix Mage's spell had rebuilt him. As what he
couldn't remember, which usually meant that things had gotten pretty nasty.

Little glowing dots were interpreted into bats, a slightly larger blur was an owl, and the big
shambling shape was a...

>IDENTIFICATION: Tigerclaw Raptor WARNING: pack predator

Grey extended his laser rod and watched the creature warily. The blasted ruin of the apartment
complex he had brought the girls to was intact away from the opening he was currently at. He
was sure he could kill this one with four or five bursts, but that would alert the others to his
presence. Scanning the forest, Grey could make out five other blobs. A hunting pack. Best to let
them move on. One advantage of his cyborg body was that it smelled like a machine to most
predators. Inedible.

More concerning was what this meant. A forest covering the mounds of fallen buildings. The
gaping wreck of a hotel across from a largely intact apartment complex. Tigerclaw Raptors.
Tentative identification: Scottsdale Forest, RIFTS Earth.

This could be bad.

One of the girls sleeping in the hunter's camp screamed in her sleep. The raptors immediately
oriented on the sound and began running.

Yup. This was bad.

----------

Another timeline:

Gendo Ikari stepped forward. It was ready and now he could seize the moment. "...the Silver
Millenium crystal..." With it, he could bring Yui back. With it, he could have everything and
anything he wanted. With it, all of his plans would end in triumph!

*BANG*

Gendo stumbled and clutched his chest then stared down at the bloody hole in his chest.

"I told you, dumpling head. A little .22 has insufficient knockdown and damage!"

There came the sound of an asthmatic sewing machine.

"An UZI on the other hand has some slight problems with inaccuracy but makes up for it by being
a sort of traditional weapon."

Gendo tried to stand from where he had fallen, looking back in surprise. "Katsuragi? But..."

Misato leveled the submachinegun with a grin at the NERV Commander, flanked by the GUTS
units on both sides. "Ami, you've wanted this for awhile."

Ami nodded and walked past Gendo, not even sparing a glance at He Who Would Be God as he
fell back down and drowned in the lake of LCL beneath NERV HQ. Then she looked back at her
friends. "Guys. We should all do this. We've all suffered at HIS hands."

Ami, Minako, Usagi, Makoto, and Rei all formed a circle around the rose-shaped crystal for a
moment. As one they reached forward, each focussing on their own vision of what they held dear.

*CONTACT*

----------------

Ami finished her breakfast, but then paused. What an odd daydream. And her husband
transformed into a dragon and dead? Maybe she was coming down with something.

"Something wrong, honey?" Shinji asked from where he was washing the breakfast dishes. He
was concerned about her, medical school was tough and took a lot of her time. He'd taken over
the housewife role mainly (despite her protests) due to her increasing load of schoolwork and
thought this looked like a good time for his special sugar cookies. That usually cheered her up.
"Looked like you were out of it there for a moment."

"No, it's nothing..." Ami essayed a smile, still shaken by the odd dream.

"Tell you what, it's been some time since we had some time to ourselves. Let's just schedule a
little trip and there's that hot springs up in the mountains..."

Ami blushed, ducked her head, and agreed that that *did* sound like a good idea.

--------------

China, 211 AD, Elsewhere:

Jared brought his right hand up to his forehead, first two fingers extended.
"Holy power, purest light,
Come ye and cleanse this blight,
Strike this evil from my sight!
HOLY!"

Bringing his right hand down to point it like a gun at the enemy, Jared proved he'd learned his
lesson the last time he'd cast this spell from that Aramarian spellbook. THIS time he braced his
arm so it wouldn't bend the joint from the force of the beam. As it had before, the white
corkscrew of energy sped forth, drilling through yoma and consuming them.

The land forces were getting into their own positions.

"MERCURY COMET STORM!"

Uranus and Mars linked attacks in a combo that had served them well in the past. "SHAKE AND
BAKE!"
Jared smiled as the large batwinged Thing From Another World rose up to meet him, a sword in
one hand and a barbed cat-o-nine-tails in the other. It grinned in reply.

"At last, a challenge!" That they had spoken simultaneously and said the same thing concerned a
few of the onlookers. On both sides.

The demon blurred and vanished. So did Jared. The two reappeared in each others places. More
blurring and vanishing as the two jockeyed for position via Dimension Door and teleports.

The demon roared. Jared yelled. "FIREBALL!" The fireballs met in midair and exploded.

"FREEZE ARROW!"

"FIRE ARROW!"

Again the attacks met and cancelled out. By mutual unspoken agreement, the two faced each
other with grins and started more "heavy artillery" pieces.

The balrog made a set of passes with his sword.
"Darkness beyond twilight,
Crimson beyond blood that flows,"

The Pheonix cupped hands in front of him.
"Brightness beyond daylight,
Coil of creation's spring,"

The two reached the ends of their spells simultaneously.

"DRAGON SLAVE!"

"GODSFIRE!"

The reddish corkscrew burst was sundered, the white beam of light racing past and narrowly
missing the demon as he dodged.

"Impressive," said the balrog, "but now that the prelimaries are out of the way..." The dread evil
thing shot a beam of blackness out, which Jared simply sidestepped, allowing it to eat out a few
hundred tons of cliff face instead of impact on anything living. With a confident smirk the Pheonix
mage replied by taking out a sword whose blade seemed to radiate a holy light.

"Do you recognize this? I've been dying to use this ever since I pried it from the cold grasp of the
dead abomination that had eaten the original owner. This is a Fell Blade, a Demon Slayer, called
in some cultures a Bane of Fiends. One touch from this weapon and your unholy kind are in
danger of ceasing to exist, and if one of your unholy breed should be struck down by this you are
irrevocably destroyed, no matter where it is you've hidden your lifeforce or what you've done to
preserve it." The smirk grew wider. "And no magic of any kind would bring you back."

The fiend chuckled warmly in cruel delight, drawing forth a blade of dead black iron, with squigly
runes engraved all over its surface. The fiend had no sooner drawn it forth than the weapon began
howling like a chorus of damned infernal spirits. "I've fought those kind of blades before, hero.
None yet has slain me. Meet *my* partner in this battle: The Blade of Howling Souls. Over a
dozen angels and heroes of light are bound within it, suffering endless torment for all eternity."
The batwinged demon licked a forked tongue across its fanged chops. "And I've decided you're
worthy of joining them."

The Pheonix Mage's brow bent low in seriousness. "I hold no fear of rune weapons, they hold no
power to steal or bind my spirit. I'll just have to spend enough time to free them after I've
destroyed you." His smirk returned. "And I imagine neither task will take long."

The Mage raised his blade high above his head and cried out. "Triforce Crown!" Bathing himself
in a ten yard wide aura of brilliant light, yet constantly radiating waves of destructive force over
the entire spectrum of electricity, fire, cold and so on. For demonic and foul creatures he
became well nigh unbearable to look upon, and his close presense would scour their foul hides
with energies that, while not the most destructive of powers he could weild, were guaranteed not
to do his foes any good.

And yet, uncommonly genuine feelings of peace and love and hope filled the breasts of any good
being who looked upon him, and his aura of cascading destructions would sweep away the evil
and yet leave all good beings or creatures unharmed.

The batwinged general of the demonic army spoke a single word in a dread and abominable
tongue and was instantly cloaked in inky blackness, a hungry, devouring sort of coldness that
didn't apply to heat, but to the energy of one's soul, leeching and sucking out at one's very
essence.

The two forces sped together and met in a resounding crash. The howling of the demon blade met
the shaft of holy light and the twin auras of light and darkness thrashed and crashed about as they
met.

There came an explosion and the body of the dark general went sprawling, propelled through the
air by massive destructive force, to impact and shatter, bones and gristle flying apart and falling
like shrapnel among the demonic army.

"Man, what a pushover *you* were!" Jared exclaimed, floating in mid air without a touch or a
mark on him. He stopped when something strange began happening within the demonic army. The
host was dissolving, eaten apart by the shreds of their general's body where it had struck them.
Hundreds upon hundreds of demons were dissolving down into icky goo, and just as the mage
was about to make some quip about it, the dissolved bodies drew together into a single
amorphous blob, which had no sooner assembled than it shot forth arms and limbs and grew into a
single demonic being two hundred feet tall.

The reformed demon general laughed heartily, and though the appearance was off the voice was
dead on. It was the same guy. With sudden inspiration the Mage realized that the demon had
never been touched by a Fell Blade because it was never *itself* it was risking! Through some
means it magically usurped control of whatever body came to hand, there was not the link for a
Fell Blade to work on because the flesh it struck was in no way connected to the infernal spirit
that drove it. The true bad guy was basically imposing its will over others, and if its pawns were at
risk doing it so what? There were replacements to hand.

The real bad guy was doing this whole battle by remote control. The Fell Blade would never
endanger him because it would never hit him, just servants under magical control and remotely
empowered.

Clever. That was an angle the Pheonix Mage hadn't ever thought of a demon using. He cocked his
head at the giant monstrosity. "Fancy that, I hardly expected to meet a demon lord slumming on
such a routine assignment. Haven't you rivals that you have to watch out for? Hardly worth a little
entertainment if your enemies steal all of your power behind your back."

The monstrosity responded by sending out thousands of tentacles from its breast, hoping to catch
the Mage within their squirming masses.

"Analyzing: Remote Operation Technique, Acquired. Tracing to source. There!!" Shan flew by
and shot a bolt of power into a ring worn by one of the gawking footsoldier demons. The
resulting explosion cratered the area and caused the evil artifact to split, releasing its cargo even
as Jared finished blasting the artificial, two hundred foot tall composite demon into dust.

"Shan, get clear!" Jared started building power between his hands. This would take care of ONE
problem.

The blackness formed and summoned its sword, swatting the bothersome insect that was
annoying it with microbursts of energy.

Shan didn't listen to her Master, using her Powerkey Staff to harmlessly block a strike by the
demon's sword. He made a mistake, trying to absorb Shan's soul. Shan was a cyborg (and often
annoyed by her Master mistaking her for an android) but one crafted to be an Ifurita upgrade.
Therefore she did have a soul to absorb, but it wasn't that easy to defeat her. Use a technique
against her or where she could analyze it, and she could absorb it and adapt the attack - adding it
to her personal arsenal. No one had ever learned the Breaking Point as easily as she had.

"Analyzing: Soul Drinker. Technique Acquired. Reversing." Shan blocked another strike, then
brought her staff up and struck the sword. "SOUL FREER!"

The explosion was immense as an "indestructible" weapon was shattered and the souls within
freed all in one massive rush.

"Chain Lightning!" Jared threw the spell into the massed ghouls, then returned his attention to the
opponent facing him. The Pheonix Mage noted the unconscious and badly drained body of the
cyborg falling to the ground below, and released tears yet didn't even turn to watch it fall. He had
allies who would take care of her, do everything that could be done, and this guy was only
growing as a threat. Though without that sword, he was perhaps less threat than he had been.

The inky blackness that was the true creature stormed the Mage in such an amazing burst of
speed that he barely had time to react as it engulfed him in utter chaos, tearing apart the local
fabric of the universe around him as a means of indirectly destroying the well-defended Mage.

The blackness roared. "You face a balrog prince, mortal!!"

The Mage responded, his own god marks flaring with inner light. "And you a hero! Let God
support the Right!" And with that, his god marks blazed alight, rebuilding the universe as fast or
faster than the demon could destroy it.

Unfortunately, as he was the God of Crossovers, that meant that when he'd rebuilt it they were no
longer in the same place.

------------

Jared appeared in a blink of light and watched his enemy fade into existence. All of his senses
were tightly focused on his foe so he barely even noted their surroundings: some kind of city
somewhere.

"If you want to escape, now's your chance." He told the demon, gloating as he appraised its
weakness over the last attack.

The balrog prince replied with a curling jet of fire that boiled the very air surrounding it, causing
minor heat flashes and scorching walls not even struck by it. The jet washed over the Pheonix
Mage, who had to laugh. "Hah! No effect at all!" Drawing together both his hands he
brought them high and did the *quick* version of a powerful spell.

"Archangel Sword!!"

The demon intercepted the scarcely visible shearing attack with a flick of its nine-tailed whip, and
bellowed with laughter in turn.

The Mage's eyes narrowed in calculation. A tiny flick of that weapon had totally disrupted a spell
akin to an armor-piercing Dragon Slave. With a gasp of recognition he saw the golden links that
made up the chains of each of those nine lashes.

The demon prince chuckled again, a truly nasty sound. "Yes, I see you recognize my TRUE
weapon of power. The sword was useful. I'll make another with the last energy from the final
beating of your heart. But so long as I have Spellbreaker incorporated into my whip you are
already as
good as finished! Just like a dozen angels before you!"

~This was not good.~

*****

Whimper. Cry.

Scores of young married females: Androids, amazons, cyborgs, Sailor Scouts, and at least one
more, alternated between laboring feverishly and watching helplessly.

"The local disturbance around that demon lord is just too strong!" Amy declared, working at the
head of a team armed with Scout Planetary computers. "I doubt that we'd be able to breach that
dimension even with a Scout Teleport."

"So what you're saying is?"

"For right now, Jay-chan's all on his own!"

More gazes turned mournfully to the great picture that had formed in the absence of the rift that
had taken Jared away. Seeing their beloved and unable to help him was sheer torture to most.

Makoto Jupiter was ready to breach the field anyway. As a Sailorjin, this sort of fight was just too
good for her to pass up. Danger? All the better. The only problem was that she blocked from it by
two of her other selves. Vanishing like a soap bubble or merging with her local analogue wouldn't
do her a lot of good.

Seeing Belldandy work with others to help recuperate the injured Shan, Urd stepped carefully to
the side and took out a cell phone.

It was about time she made this particular call.

Women of the amazon village, watching from a safe distance away on a local hillside, were both
locked in awe and concerned. The battle had started with such fell magics on both sides as to
totally humble the proud warrior culture, yet it was also clear that this was only one such
demon army. If their protectors went away their village was as good as dust, and from what they
could see these women, ALL of them, were intending to leave after their husband as quickly as
they could find means enough to follow him.

*****

If the alarms had blared for the disappearance of Mamoru Tengoku, then the discordance visited
upon Lorelei's sensitive ears now was indescribable.
"CUT THOSE BLOODY THINGS OFF!"

Ginseng's normal calm had slipped just slightly in her expression. "Statement: the Mage has
returned. Request: run full scanning mode. Statement: we have met the enemy, and he's a big
sucker."

The statement was so incongruous that everyone briefly stared at Ginseng before returning their
attention to the monster stomping the Kuno mansion into kindling.

Otaru whistled. "That thing must be four hundred feet tall!"

"Three hundred forty seven and seven eighths," corrected Cherry. "Slightly larger than
Ponta-kun."

"Don't worry, Otaru!" Bloodberry made a muscle gesture though she wasn't feeling nearly that
confident. "With the new powerarmor we can..."

Bloodberry's voice trailed off as the demonic being spat a stream of black lightning that ripped a
ragged line of destruction that extended past the city limits.

"..." Bloodberry continued to stare at the monitor.

Cherry hesitated for a moment. "Uhm, what about the rocket cannon?"

"Statement: Neither the rocket cannon nor the prototype marionette enhancing power armor
would make an appreciable difference in this battle." Ginseng almost frowned. "Analysis: this does
however seem to be the perfect chance to field test the armor under the conditions for which it
was designed."

"You're not suggesting..." Otaru stared at the marionette.

"Statement: this unit is the only marionette which does not have a place or function within the
greater society." Ginseng paused. "Analysis: this unit will not be missed and data obtained will
prove of value to further series."

"That's crazy!" Lorelei broke her silence. "You're..." Lorelei's voice trailed off. There really wasn't
much use for the marionette. Nobody felt that comfortable around her and she'd already made
available what data she had felt was safe into marionettes that *she* had built.

Ginseng regarded them all, and not one met her gaze. "Statement: you know I'm right on this."

------------

Rifts Earth: edge of the Scottsdale Forest, about four miles from New Tempe.

Grey had realized that the beings attacking were not easily discouraged. Therefore he'd used
exceptional methods to argue that there was easier prey elsewhere. He started off by using his
laser rod, even though in the game he was familiar with it only did 2d6 MD and was silent.

Superheated air crackled behind each blast and the first raptor struck by the beam let out a steam
whistle screech.

Grey got two more shots while the pack leapt and climbed their way up what had been an
apartment complex facade a few centuries ago. Then he switched to another weapon that he'd
gotten a long time ago and in a galaxy far far away.

*Vshhhhhtttt. Vum vummmmm.*

These were not intelligent dinosaurs. One charged forward, drawing attention for the two flankers
to attack from the sides. The lightsaber skidded slightly but then was inserted through an open
mouth to exit the raptor's skull. The cyborg then grabbed the thing's neck, crushed it with an
Anything Goes manuever, and threw it into the nearest of the two other attackers. Holding the
sword forward as if to stab it, Grey then used a iaijitsu manuever to sheathe his sword in the one
sneaking up on him.

Grey clicked on his anti-Juicer protocols. These were fast attackers, strong, and he wasn't too
sure what would happen if they got past him. He simply filled the doorway into the shelter and
sliced and diced anything that came near. The raptors were too tough to carve through in a single
swipe, but the damage inflicted was much heavier than the laser rod had managed.

The raptors were wary now, clicking to themselves as they watched him for any sign of weakness.

Grey was using IR to track them by body heat as well as by tricorder. He noticed them bunching
up at an angle and spared a glance at the battery charge on the saber.

The raptors attacked en masse.

--------

Jared made a gesture and spoke a phrase of power, surrounding himself with a Fire Shield.

The demon cast Acid Armor upon itself.

The rattle of a machine gun firing announced a third player, this one shooting towards the massive
demon via some kind of jetpack.

Both sides ignored the relatively low power marionette, who quickly ran out of ammunition
anyway.

Jared eyed the golden whip that had a 100% magic resistance. Any spell impinging upon that
would immediately be sundered, which cut his options considerably. Chi attacks would work, but
like his Devilhunter sword or his martial arts, they would only serve to whittle at an enemy this
size.

If Shan could recover her reserves, her ability to circumvent dimensions would bring the others
here. Then they could use wolf pack tactics, striking from different directions so that the giant
demon couldn't block all of their attacks. Just Shan by herself could probably generate enough
raw power to take out the Spellbreaker, followed by his spells ravaging the creature. However,
whenever Shan learned a technique and first duplicated it, it tended to exhaust her energy
reserves. Having learned two techniques, employing them, and then being caught by the explosion
- Shan would be out for awhile. Unless, of course, Belldandy could do that recharge thing...

Ginseng's performance was closely monitored, that was why she was there after all. So the
computers recorded that the machine guns and grenade launcher had produced no injury in the
target. A flame thrower from Ginseng had absolutely no effect on the demon. A vibrational knife,
stabbed into the demon's forehead, finally brought a response. The demon slapped its forehead,
then scraped marionette bits off onto one of the buildings.

The demon sprayed black and purple lightning towards its' opponent. Jared responded with a
Force Wall while he planned. Magic items? Nothing effective that wouldn't be overwhelmed by
Spellbreaker. Maybe...

"Twist and turn the magic flows,
Disrupt the spell from order's rows,
Confound ye now the magic's function,
I invoke ye now: Mordenkainen's Disjunction!"

The demon was stunned as the conflicting energies sparked and sizzled around its' frame.

Jared's eyes narrowed, then widened.

If Shan could do it, he could.

Doing something immediately dangerous, that had gotten more than one mage exploding into
fiery, flying bits when it went wrong, the Pheonix Mage committed the Ultimate No No of the
school of magic he'd been trained on. The fact that it had never worked before in all recorded
knowledge did not deter him. Fortunately, he'd studied some schools where such things weren't
entirely impossible, at least in theory.

He invented a spell on the fly.

The Mage brought a hand above him and pointed a hand below, using the slipstream effect of his
flying ability to momentarily stay out of reach of the much slower demon. In fact the particles
stirring in the air from his passage would soon trigger a plasma storm and *that* ought to help
this out immensely.

Now that he recognized the place, he knew that this was Terra Two. Terra Two, the Sailor
Marionette world, where the air had a layer of charged particles. Three or four times a day, a
Plasma Cloud would break out because of vortices in the air causing one particle to bump up
against another and start an avalanche. Really tall buildings, aircraft, longrange missiles, all of
these were made difficult to impossible by the plasma layer. Even the species of birds remaining
from the colonization had been weeded down to those who only flew at low altitudes. Otherwise
a Plasma Cloud formed and hundreds of thousands of volts would be pumped into the offending
object.

"Power of Water, Wind and Earth
wrest thy energies from their berth
Electricity, now lend thy might
to aid us now in Heaven's fight!

By the powers that I have named
be now lifeforce unashamed
The core of life in man's pure heart
Energy to darkness part!"

The demon's glowing eyeslits grew thin, then burst wide in mocking laughter as the entire city
below them grew still, lights went out, computers shut down and marionettes grew silent as their
battery powers (or in some cases their converters) were exhausted down to trickles. Even the
wind grew still and the growing plasma storm sputtered and died.

The demon Prince roared in laughter at the puny mortal's failure.

Jared's reasoning was simple: Shan had an electricity to chi converter, why couldn't a spell do the
same? Enough electricity to run all of Japoness, along with plasma energy for miles around, now
converted and gathered into chi in his hands. Regardless of if he survived the plasma
storms would be a hefty bit quieter around here for a while. He brought his hands down and
shouted. Oddly enough, he'd intended to say "DevilHunter Chi Strike" but it came out a bit
different.

"DENKI BALL!"

Caught in mid-gloat, the balrog prince got speared through the heart by many mighty megawatts
of chi in a blazing spear of holy destruction that vaporized many large segments of its infernal
structure.

Many, but not all.

(Of course, the beam continued on. Destroying the fifth floor of the tallest building in Japonesse,
wrecking four observation towers outside the city, and converting a section of the Stormspire
Mountains to the Stormspire Bay.)

In the perverse way those things had of surviving long after they ought to be rightfully deceased,
the balrog swept down its whip and spat out a ball of blackened fire, consuming an entire fifty
story apartment complex in one mighty explosion.

Tendrils of energy from the deaths that caused trickled out and began to rebuild the demon.

Jared didn't know what he was going to do. That attack took everything he'd had and everything
the city could spare also, if he drew any more electricity marionettes would die as their programs
got erased from total power outage. That this guy could heal itself from near death by killing
others seemed unfair when they were in the middle of a huge pool of innocents that could be
made to suffer in order to repair the infernal thing.

"Oh, no you don't." The Mage said between gritted teeth. "There's no way I'm going to let you
win."

"And he's not going to!" A comet streaked up and resolved itself into the image of Makoto
Jupiter. "Try THIS on! RAGING JUPITER THUNDER DRAGON!"

The demon staggered back but seemed not particularly injured.

"KAME..." Makoto brought her hands cupped back. Sometimes the basics were best. "HAME..."
To live in battle, to die in battle, and spend as much of the time in between snuggling- this was the
fate of a Sailorjin. "HA!"

The demon braced itself as if Makoto were spraying him with a fire hose.

Tears stinging his eyes, the floating Mage called forth his crystal mirror that was his concealed
spellbook, and without a glance from the demon he was fighting he calmly and simply broke it,
taking from the precious object a blue gemstone he'd once called the Pheonix Eye. The
recovering demon took a slash at him from a ridiculously elongated arm, which the mage dodged
with difficulty.

Makoto got slammed to the ground by a huge misshapen foot, then stepped on.

"FOOL! He's used a similar attack already! My power allows me to adapt to such tactics once
they've been used." The demon made a grinding gesture with the foot pinning the Sailorjin down.

Inhaling, Jared shouted. "Knight of Duty, heed! As a duly ordained Prince of the Silver
Millennium I summon thee to battle this evil!"

Among the wreckage of Ginseng, a spirit warrior firmed into place and looked up, and up, and
up. "You've *got* to be kidding."

In that moment Jared knew a great deal more than he'd like what Queen Serenity had been
through, sending beloved friends in to sacrifice themselves to buy time while you lost what dear
things you possessed, building up the power to crush the enemy that had caused this. He steadied
his voice with effort, and in that moment, he finally understood the Silver Millennium power.
"Nebula, Knight of Duty, link your energy to mine."

Reluctantly, the spirit figure dressed like a Musketeer began skipping across rooftops toward the
Mage, who was wordlessly concentrating all his power into the blue eyeball sized crystal, while
falling back from the enraged demon. By this time the balrog was too infuriated to speak, and
extended an arm that stretched impossibly long to lash with its whip at the Mage.
Jared's eyes came up, and he thrust forward the fist that held the gemstone.

"Cosmic Moon Power!" Jared's jaw grew firm. "Fight this evil!"

An impossible shield of light sprang up and intercepted the descending whip, stopping the magic
destroying artifact with effort.

The Silver Imperial Crystal magnified chi, but he'd used that up. It would also use magic, but he
had exhausted all that creating this new crystal. When those were gone several times Serena had
used her life force, killing herself to accomplish a deed. The Pheonix Mage lifted his blue crystal
high and called upon his last reserves of everything.

Then other presences began to appear. To his left, Shan flipped her Powerkey Staff around like a
bo staff and repeated "Cosmic Moon Power. ENHANCE!"

Makoto Jupiter lifted the Knight Of Duty up to where Jared floated, adding her own chi to the
glow of energies as soon as Jared manifested a platform the single non-flyer could stand on.

"aaaaaa HA!" BOOM! Makoto's hair turned golden and she was surrounded by a fiery aura as she
went from normal to Super
Sailorjin and finally to Super Sailorjin II mode.

Shan had observed this twice now. She emulated it. "aaaaa HA!" BOOM!

Now that his opponent was flanked by two the equivelant of two Super Sailorjin (a blonde
Makoto and a blonde cyborg
Shampoo), and the Knight Of Duty, the demon took a faltering step back in alarm. THIS might
actually be tough. The power level he was facing had just gone up by a considerable factor.

Jared cast a glance to his side, catching a glimpse of Makoto Jupiter's transformation to Super
Sailorjin II, gasping ahold of her shoulder he diverted a portion of his growing power into another
spell invented off the cuff from observing Shan close by for months. "Emulate!"

"aaaaaa HA!" BOOM! Power rippled up around the Mage as his fiery hair acquired a golden cast
to it. As with Shan and Makoto, he was quickly surrounded by waves of golden chi and sparks as
the air itself became charged as it contacted him. His clothes altered, becoming a red gi-like
garment edged with golden flames. His eyes altered to a glacial blue that matched the eyes of the
girls flanking him.
Makoto Jupiter noted the surprise transformation and fought the nigh-overwhelming urge to
glomp him then and there for intense and frantic snuggling. He made her so proud!

"This can't be!!!" The balrog prince roared, opening wide its mouth and shouting while belching a
horizontal column of acid and black fire at its target. Jared stood unflinching as both acid and fire
split and parted, evaporating rather than pierce his blue shield. The whip started lashing it again
but the Pheonix Mage's gaze only grew more cold, if that were even possible.

~After the fight, after the fight...~ The two maidens hanging by his side were inwardly chanting to
themselves, fighting the urge to glomp him and carry him off to find privacy. Even privacy was
vanishing as a consideration as they struggled against the urge to reward his behavior then and
there. ~Let's kill the bad guy and...~ Vision of torrid lemon scenes went dancing in their heads,
varying only in the detail of who got to him first.

"I'm NOT letting you win this fight, you wretch! My friends are counting on me!"

Casting a nervous glance to where two super-powerful females were gritting their teeth and
clamping their legs together to fight the urge for a glomp.

The Knight of Duty placed a hand upon the fist wherein the Mage held his new crystal,
transferring parts of his energy. As if that opened up a bridge (it had) suddenly Jared felt
transference of power from a whole *host* of Sailor Scouts. Portals opened up and the projected
spirits of Serena, Rae, the rest of the Inners, the Outers, the Sailors Gemini and all the rest of the
Scouts he'd helped in creating, combined into a burst of fiery blue radiance that gathered at the
end of his arm as each and every one shouted her (or his- something that would have surprised the
Mage if he could spare any attention at the moment) power phrase, contributing to the buildup.

The Mage concluded it all by shouting again. "Cosmic Moon Power!! Moon Healing
Purification!"

A ball of brilliant blue energy that could be clearly seen from New Texas and Geltland shot forth
from the Mage's hand, expanding as it went along, effortlessly consuming buildings that were
unfortunate enough to be in its way (lucky, by now they'd all been mainly evacuated) and slapping
into the balrog prince with a force that dissolved the magic whip (and its body) into tiny moon
dust particles, before carving a deep trench so wide and deep that forever after Japoness would
have bordering it a rather oddly shaped lake, before the ball of energy continued on, leaving the
globe of Terra Two and causing that entire hemisphere to be bathed in bluish light.

The Knight of Duty's spirit fought the urge, then gave in to it. "He's dead, Jim." ~Well, so am i
but that's the way things go.~

The Mage grimly nodded his head. "Yes, but that thing's fell master remains. I'll have to..." The
redhead stood triumphantly for a moment before slumping into two girls' arms. Shan and Makoto
looked at each other, nodded, then flew off with the Mage.

The Knight of Duty watched them fly off, then waited around for a few minutes, growing steadily
more agitated. "Hey? um..." he finally asked. "Aren't I supposed to disperse or something?
Hello?"

He looked down at the street far below. "Uhm, anybody? This form can't fly. Errr. Oh dear."

A few more minutes went by and the Knight Of Duty sat down on his floating platform. "Great.
i'm dead (i think), sitting down, no ladders, and i'm four hundred feet above a crater full of broken
rocks. They look spiky too. i'm REALLY not having a good day."

The duration of the spell expired, and the platform abruptly vanished.

***

In castle Japoness, power was finally coming back on, and Otaru already had his special
marionettes hooked up to outlets. Cherry stirred first, having somehow been drained the least of
them. As she came to wakefulness, her nose sniffed and she groggily asked.

"What is that smell, Otaru-sama?"

She was temporarily ignored for the moment, as the humans stared in awe at the sight of what had
just happened.

Gennai cleared his throat and nervously toyed with his beard. "And that's just our friends, imagine
what our enemies can do."

Lorelei excused herself to head for the Ladies room at all due speed.

"Actually," corrected Cherry, hooking herself into the Castle Japonesse security network (one of
Ginseng's ideas that had panned out), "it appears that the big trench and that gap in the mountains
are the result of Mage-san. The buildings that have crumpled or disintegrated are from the big
ugly thingie he was fighting."

"Oooooo. Daisy, daisy, give me your answer do..." Bloodberry seemed to have stirred herself,
though there may have been some residual damage.

"Cherry-chan, what are the estimates?" Gennai kept his eyes on the monitors. "AH! Tamasaburo
and Baiko collapsed there, camera four in the outer compound!"

"Estimating over five hundred dead," Cherry said, her voice showing pain. "All those people..."

Shogun Smurf, err, Ieyasu's image flicked on to one of the monitors. "All that from just ONE of
those enemies appearing. It appears that we cannot survive much more attention from either our
allies or our enemies. Otaru..."

"Yes, your Majesty!" Otaru was a simple man, he'd gotten mixed up in a lot of big things but at
heart he was a simple unassuming fellow who just went with what his heart told him was right.
Though short and blue, this was his majesty - the ruler of Japonesse. Someone who had sacrificed
his life and his happiness for his country, and who had privately agonized over the need to
sacrifice the three marionettes for the return of the human woman. And for it all had been
returned to life- as a smurf.

"Otaru. A strong leader is needed in the times ahead. Due to my current form, I cannot be that
leader. My clone child, " the smurf winced as he spoke, "was at the springs of Ravas Mountain in
the Stormspires."

Everyone's gaze went unbidden to the monitor showing the boiling water and gap in the
Stormspire Mountains.

"Shogun-sama, your wisdom is needed more than ever," Otaru began.

"No, it is not, Otaru." The blue head of the Shogun sagged forward. "I shall leave as soon as
possible. If it becomes public knowledge that I am in this deformed body, Japonesse will become
a laughingstock. There is only one thing I can do. There is only one person who has the support
of the people enough that he can take my place."

Otaru's eyes widened. "Shogun-sama! No, I couldn't! I don't know anything about governing
people!"

"Otaru! There is simply no one else left."

-----------

Elsewhere:

Ami was frantic as she contacted her friends. So frantic that it took them a considerable amount
of time to understand what she was babbling about.

"Shinji just up and vanished?" Rei frowned. "That's strange. Do you suppose because we rewove
the timeline, his death was still in there somehow? Or maybe we just tried to do too much at
once?"

Ami startled and sat down. "It wasn't a dream? I..."

"Our husband's been stolen, so we can't be slow, it's hip hip hip and away we go!"

Rei groaned. "Minako. You have GOT to stop watching old American cartoons. Besides, he's
Ami's husband. We're just engaged to him per our earlier agreement, until such time as we either
find other loves or Ami graduates. And Ami is doing everything she can to hurry that along as it
is."

"You're right! We'll rescue him!" Ami stood up, a fire burning in her heart. "And I'll get him back
and I'll let him know how upset he's made me worrying about him! That he... I... I'll... I'll... I'll hug
him for hours and kiss him for days and..."

Several envious sighs interrupted Ami before a Lime flag could be dropped.

"But, Ami-chan, how exactly are we going to find him? All we know is that he vanished." Makoto
felt that *someone* had to be the Voice Of Reason. Who'd have thought that role would end up
in *her* area?

-----------

RIFTS Earth, Scottsdale Forest, January 107 PA

"Aw crap!" Grey said when numbers finally overwhelmed him. The lightsaber had gone out
abruptly, why was something to puzzle over later, and he was stuck punching and kicking. Which
didn't seem to phase the raptors much at all. And so, once again, he was struck with one of the
great truths of living on RIFTS Earth.

If you fought alone, you died alone. Also fairly quickly and violently.

One of the Raptors knocked him over then started shredding outer body armor.

*KLIK-KLAK VUMMMMM SCHNICKT VSSSHHH!*

Grape had pulled a large knife-like device out of the folds of her kimono, extended the hilt into a
three foot pole, then activated the vibroblade. The naginata swept through the large reptile on top
of Grey, sliced a neat little furrow into the one behind it, and then split the head of a third in an
efficient set of manuevers.

Now that their numbers had been pruned to less than half of what they'd started with, the raptors
decided to flee.

Grey ran a quick systems diagnosis. BAD. Major internal damage, systems leaking, power failing.
"Dang it, this body keeps falling apart on me."

"Master..." Grape knelt in concern, the others coming forward to examine him.

"Uhm, this body is shutting down. We'll meet again in four hours or when you leave this timeline.
Keep clear of the body in case the Binding resurrects me. i'm..."

Everything faded out and went black. Grey knew what this meant. His *biological* physical
organs- his brain and a chunk of spinal cord, had life support for a couple of hours as the
emergency measures cut in. Since the only ones who knew where and who he was were some
marionettes who did *not* have cyberdoc experience, that meant that he had total sensory
deprivation for the next few hours at the end of which he simultaneously suffocated and starved to
death. If the Binding was active he might resurrect, but likely wouldn't be in this timeline again. If
the Binding was NOT active, he'd die and stay dead, going on to an Afterlife where he'd be judged
for a lifetime of failure and incompetence. ~This sucks.~

---------

SMJ Timeline:

The Knight Of Duty had fallen a mere three hundred feet. When he landed, his Knight Armor had
proved to be capable of withstanding jagged rocks and protecting him from most of the force of
the fall.

The twisted spike of rebar, however, had been a different story. The Knight faded, leaving (to the
consternation of those who came after) an albino boy of about fourteen years age.

Cameras had recorded the Knight being formed from Ginseng, and it was well known by certain
viewers of those recordings that Ginseng had been the marionette created from memory tapes of a
dimension travelling cyborg named Grey. The young albino had been neither, but Gennai
suggested a theory that the albino had been the human who had become the cyborg. As there
were no other rationales offered, this was accepted. What *really* got people going was that
other than the pink eyes, white hair and skin, was the resemblence of the corpse to a fellow named
Mamoru Tengoku.

The Mage and his girls had vanished, presumably back to the universe they had hailed from.

Otaru had absolutely no clue as to what to do about any of this, was ignored by almost everyone
who didn't like what he had to say, and was singularly unequipped to run a country. Neither, for
that matter, was Doctor Lorelei. New Texas was not the only country looking to snap up the
leaderless country of Japonesse, and various factions within Japonesse were moving to further
sunder the country into complete anarchy.

And then, two weeks after the Mage had left, the six year old clone-son of Ieyasu was found
alive. Unfortunately, at this point, it was rather like lighting a match in a gas-filled room.

============

Oh my. Hardly the superpowered can-do-anything of the regular SI, is he? He is?! Oh...

Next chapter: the Pheonix Mage discovers that good intentions don't always pan out, Grey finds
himself in an SI personal nightmare, and Celeste sweatdrops a lot.

==========