Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Soldier's Duty ❯ in touch with reality? ( Chapter 10 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter 10 4th Labor, Rewrite

A Soldier's Duty

"Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it." -Lily Tomlin

DISCLAIMER: Bless this mess.

-------

Two ninjas (Maria & Oomori) seperated from the other two in order to a) have some peace & quiet, b) arrange for lodgings and contact the local branch, c) keep their sanity.

Two other ninja (Ayane & Kasumi) grumbled at each other but headed toward the Hikawa Shrine with a vague semblence to being civilized.

Ayane was the first to notice the girl in the pink dress, an obvious hick from the country, gawking at some of the machines and puzzling over some of the kiosks and displays that were fairly common in the city. She noticed the girl, noticed that she was carrying a bundle that could only be a daisho - or the long and short swords of the samurai.

The albino kunoichi (female ninja) sneered a bit at that. A hick from the sticks, and with sticks. Or weapons, but a samurai fought by rules and conventions that made them targets. Fine in a challenge match, and able to do frontline fighting, but of no practical value. She was also fairly flatchested and no match for Ayane's own exotic beauty, at least in Ayane's opinion, and so she studied the girl briefly to determine if there was a way she could use this other.

Kasumi frowned, traced her rival's attention, and noticed the girl. Then backtracked her memories. Yes, the girl had been seen moving past their compartment on the first train. Then the transfer. Now here and... she was consulting a newspaper in her hand for directions. Great, another rival in an already crowded playing field. The girl looked too delicate for a fighter, and considering Ayane's reputation, maybe it would be necessary that Kasumi would have to protect her from some tragic circumstance.

Sakura noticed that two girls were staring at her and suppressed a shiver. She'd heard about such girls before. Guys were so smelly and clumsy, at least at this age, that there were girls who preferred other girls. And they were following her! This, of course, meant that these two were stalking her, preparing to corner her and do all sorts of perverted things to her tender young body. Well, if they tried, they would find that Sakura Shinguichi was NOT like that and was well able to defend herself!

-------

"EEEP!"

Hotaru frowned at her sempai's voice, hand still raised from knocking. This did *not* sound good. No doubt the evil forces that had destroyed her papa were now after her sempai!

The door was locked! How was she going to get through?

"-What are you doing? Hey!-"

Hotaru's eyes teared up. Her sempai was getting eaten by a monster while that weird pervert girl was watching! *She* should have been the one in there.

Setsuna was considering a quick change to Sailor Pluto and then a "Dead Scream" to get past the lock. Not that she was jealous of course, being the calm and dignified Senshi of Time.

Nuku, however, merely placed one hand on the door. Then pushed.

The door exploded inwards with a sound similar to a gunshot. There was a lot staring immediately following that action.

"-Ouch! Hey!-"

"Makoto-chan!" Ami exclaimed on hearing a door breaking, the crux of her attention being elsewhere. Something breaking=Makoto. The boy squirming in her grasp was more interesting. Now how to better latch on with him trying to grab her arms and hold her off? " My love!" Ah, just the thing.

Hotaru strode forward like some Valkyrie, the beginnings of a violet aura wisping about her. Her sempai had been thrown onto the bed, and he was trying to fight off that pervert girl!

Setsuna did a Mr. Spock impression and managed to do a fairly good job. "-Fascinating, but highly illogical.-"

"Nuku Nuku want to play too!"

"Oh," Ami said after she realized she had her teeth imbedded in her iinazuke's shoulder. He was holding her arms, and her legs were wrapped about him. The sudden embarassment and horror were enough to throw off the sudden bout of passion. "...oh dear..."

What Ami had said earlier caused Grey to slump from more than wounds. She'd called out Makoto's name. That meant he was such a poor choice for a fiance that she was swearing off guys entirely. Or was it that the two were ALREADY an item?

Ami tried to grapple the girl who was pulling her off her iinazuke, only to grab soft curves and come to an embarassed halt.

Grey saw this and groaned. Obviously, Ami did *not* want him. Whatever had gotten into her was causing her to grab anything that moved. Letting out a deep breath, the boy moved out the shattered door towards the elevator. He needed new bandages, he needed some quiet time to think, and he wanted to get Minako and talk over the events of the day.

Maybe a Japanese girl could make sense out of all this, it was obviously outside *his* understanding.

Unfortunately, he was quickly dragged back to the room where everyone wanted explanations.

--------

Two girls in drab overcoats donated by officers were sitting in a little room in a downtown police station looking at the police captain sitting across from them as he stabbed yet another finger in a steady rap against the counter.

Michiru had never given thought to being arrested and sent to jail for the things she did. She considered it now.

Haruka was having difficulty adjusting to that thought. Especially with her transformation pen sitting in a manila envelope. For some reason, the police had wanted to remove anything even vaguely suspicious from two possible terrorists. "I told you. I don't know!"

The officers had not taken well the fact that neither girl had felt able to describe their secret identities blowing up their apartment in an ill-timed fight with a goddess who had just happened to kidnap the five year old incarnation of a thousand year old mage who had been trying to tell them secrets for leading to their recovery of talismans to be used in the recovery of a magical artifact they'd never seen, and on whose fate the world might rest.

Of course, that thousand-year-old mage had *not* realized that in this simulation, that some of the Talismans and their carriers were different. But that had been a reasonable assumption on his part.

Haruka grumbled under her breath, glad that at least the police kept a warm interview room.

"Look, you can make this easy on all of us, just answer the questions. You don't know why your apartment exploded, you don't why you were in Kyoto, you don't know why you were wandering the streets in your nightclothes, and you don't know why Professor Tomoe's apartment exploded. Is there anything you two *do* know? Miss Ten'ou, you apparently have been known to pilot a helicopter and drive a car despite being sixteen years old without having a responsible adult to supervise. Do you have anything to say about *that?!*"

Haruka squirmed slightly. "Uhm. Well..."

"Captain," a woman said, stepping up to the desk and ignoring the other officers. "I'm here to take charge of the prisoners. This has become a matter of National Security."

"I'll need to see more identification, than..." The captain shook his head briefly after he examined some document that the young women pulled out of her pocket. "Yes, of course. I should have guessed that this would happen. They're all yours, of course."

The other officers looked puzzled, then at the paperwork dangled by the young woman. Then they started nodding. It all made perfect sense now. The military *would* want details on some energy weapon capable of that sort of damage.

Haruka and Michiru were beginning to get nervous when several openly pitying gazes were directed towards them.

--------

Rei looked askance at the stacked wood in the shrine.

"Why not just light it again?" Minako wanted to know.

"Not just any flame will do. It has to be a *sacred* flame. It doesn't have the same significance if Makoto flicks her Bic." Rei considered the area. Usually, when the area was cleaned, the flame was transferred to another receptacle from which it would be relit later. The wood wasn't particularly important, the flame was the thing. "If I trusted our transformation back to Senshi mode, I could try manifesting a flame that way."

"Hmmmm," said Makoto, about to suggest that she try it anyway. Then they could try and get Grey to change her back if it didn't work.

*FWHAM!* This being the sound of a pile of wood covered with what would be very pretty gold and crimson flames under normal circumstances, startled the three shrine maidens (miko) that were present.

Makoto would require a spatula to peel her off the far wall at the moment. She was attempting to become one with it.

Rei had somehow managed to hide behind Minako. Minako was wondering how Rei had managed that, particularly as she had been trying to hide behind Rei.

"REI HINO!"

"Is-is-is it a yoma?!" Minako asked hopefully. A yoma they knew how to handle. If it was the evil wizard who had nearly erased Rei's existence (they were still learning the extent of that - she had run into someone who had insisted her name was 'Bambi') - they would try a new manuever they'd just developed. Oddly enough, it was also known to a few as the Saotome Secret Technique. (Run Away. Either think of a new attack or get allies before coming back.)

While both Minako and Makoto were frequently boy-crazy, neither fancied the idea of meeting guys THAT way. Neither was entirely sure WHAT a table dance was, or could picture Rei/Bambi doing one, though the guy had been pretty darn certain he'd seen Rei/Bambi doing one. They were just quite sure they didn't want to do it themselves.

Eyes opened in the flame and regarded the three briefly. "REI HINO!"

"Can you turn down the volume?" Rei asked, still behind Minako. Minako wasn't happy about this and was considering departing at full speed.

"...if the Mage can interfere, so can I..." muttered the flame. "Rei Hino! Why aren't you pursuing the Knight Of Duty?"

"WHAT?!" This exclamation came from three girls at the same time. Also a female ninja nearby, but everyone ignored her. The samurai girl nearby merely lifted an eyebrow and decided she'd wait before introducing herself and seeing about accomodations.

"Haven't you considered that if 'the child of a frog is a frog' that the child of two high ranked psychics could only benefit your Moon Kingdom?" The fire turned half lidded eyes towards the shrine maiden.

"CHILDREN?!" Rei stood up in front of Minako, forgetting her earlier display of... caution. "Who are YOU to lecture me on... and why would I be after him anyway? He's *Ami's* fiance!"

The image of a woman appeared in the flame, replacing the eyes. "Amaterasu Omikami, or weren't you requesting a sacred flame?"

Rei, uncharacteristically, fainted. Kasumi considered joining her, but as she was hanging by her knees from a tree branch decided to not risk it. Sakura merely pursed her lips and sat down. It sounded like this would take awhile.

"Oh fuss and bother," said the sacred flame. She had considered making Rei an avatar, but this sort of thing made her wonder if she shouldn't be favoring the samurai girl instead.

Minako quailed a bit, but held her ground. "If Ami dumps him, then the next person in line is *me*!"

The woman's image shrugged, an arm of flame reached out, pulled Rei up, then slapped her awake. "Each of the Senshi, and the other fiancees, could benefit from a relationship with the Knight. Not to mention *his* heart could finally heal. As for what could be, behold."

Rei looked into the fire, and saw an image of a slightly older Rei Hino, hoisting a younger version of herself up, while a smiling version of Ami's fiance stood protectively nearby.

Minako looked into the fire and saw a much younger version of herself, sitting next to someone who looked remarkably like Shard-san, while that looked like *herself* was playing volleyball?

Makoto looked at herself in a kitchen, a younger version of herself in an apron next to her, and Ami's fiance pulling that other older version of herself into an embrace. But she was still taller than he was?! How strange!

Sakura saw herself, with a younger version of herself, leading the child through the most basic sword kata of her school. Her husband nearby, smiling and getting pictures.

Kasumi saw herself, in what was obviously America, in a red sportscar, her hair flying in the breeze. There was a carefree, happy, content, expression on her future self's face.

Ayane, sneaking around, caught a vision of herself - practically purring and relaxed. She frowned a little at the sight, how could she let her guard down like that? And... Ayane's eyes bugged as she saw her future self reach down and rub the noticeable bulge of her tummy. Obviously she'd *really* failed to keep the boy at a distance. And that vapid, dreamy, happy expression. How could she... she couldn't be *that* content with the situation, could she?

The images faded. "Look. I'm leaving now. Just consider the possibility, will you?"

The presence faded. The fire continued, but seemed to settle down into a normal fire.

Three sometimes Senshi blinked. Blinked again. Then went off seperately to think. Fainting was considered, however.

A samurai pondered. Two ninja snuck off to do their own thinking.

Maria and Oomori, observing Kasumi and Ayane being thoughtful, weren't sure if this meant things were about to hit the fan or if there was hope for the future of the two agents.

-----

"Amaterasu!"

"Hey, that Mage meddles all the time. Why can't *I* do so? I've got seniority here, you know!"

------

Jared had always felt that Beethoven's Ode to Joy was one of the best spices for large explosions and the sounds of mass destruction. But lately this song called Everlast had risen to his notice and he just felt he HAD to blow things up to it.

Besides, he still hadn't tried out that Metal Siren in combat.

Engines roaring, the advanced veritech spiraled a corkscrew down into the midst of Invid and began blowing things away. It didn't matter that he'd called up a higher energy signature to be adult form so he could pilot this, when he was in a veritech not even an angry goddess could hit him if she had an angel riding on every beam.

So ace veritech combat pilot Jared Saotome merely added "Pink Beam From Heaven" among his list of things to dodge and got down to the serious business of blowing up the enemy. One of the pink blasts even caught an Invid Shock Trooper, lifting it up into heaven, where it no doubt caused no end of consternation and havoc because the pink beams stopped for a long while after.

(In fact, as it had just been a simulated creature, it had promptly vanished after being pulled out of the simulation.)

Flying among clouds of missiles, Jared spun and twisted so they couldn't target correctly and took out each other, then dove through swarms of the enemy, getting his licks in with the plasma spear while experimenting with his own missiles.

This was a VERY heavily armed combat plane!

Down on the ground the Australian Military Scouts there to observe the aliens were getting their sensors full, as was the news team in another part of the valley. Meanwhile the Metal Siren was slashing and blasting it's way through the enemy as the pilot experimented with slashing with the plasma spear (unsatisfactory, have to upgrade), blasts from the same (VERY nice! Have to compliment the designers, but too slow a rate of fire), energy bursts from his wing cannon (nice, but ought to be auto-linked for greater effect with other weapon systems), missiles were in great supply and quantity (less than a Female Power Armor, but still very considerable and more than any other Earth mecha he'd encountered), but you could NEVER have enough missiles!

As far as he was concerned the protective head shield was a waste of space that could be filled with a valuable weapon system, in this case two, actually. They'd torn out the familiar head lasers to make room for the thing. Those could be replaced (with upgraded range and firepower, of course) and the empty space taken by the head shield could be converted into a long range missile pack.

Never discount the ability to hurt the enemy while he's still a thousand miles away.

The hip auto-cannons would HAVE to go! They had piddly range, less damage, and were an eyesore to his delicate and refined mass-carnage-inflicting-capability tastes. The rapid fire pulse lasers were also a big disappointment. These designers had obviously never considered the need to wring every drop of armament to its maximum effect in the heart of combat. They consistently cheated on range to cut cost in manufacturing, and often put weapons in that had no conceivable use in battle just to fit ordinance regs! Such-And-Such lobbyist had a sponsor with a lot of autocannon ammo to get rid of, so some political bootlicker got kissed up to so he would form a committee to pass a resolution to force a general to give an order including a useless peashooter on a combat platform on which the entire survival of the human race would depend.

Which was why any sensible program included pilots who had the ability to say "This has got to go."

The wing mounted energy cannon were a nice touch, but they were obviously intended to be deployed into the hands as rifles in Battloid configuration. Jared transformed and left them where they were. He wasn't opposed to the idea of rifle style weaponry, but these wing cannon were nicely articulated and fully able to do all the shooting he desired of them from their present position on the wings, though a slight change in mounting location and he would be able to sling extra missiles there on pylons.

And you could REALLY never have enough missiles.

The missiles ran on empty, having claimed sixty two Invid scouts out of sixty four short range road flares. Jared could see they were still using the old compound type in those tubs. No doubt because some manufacturer had invested heavily in production facilities for the old material and it couldn't go to waste, therefore he underbid all the production quotas of the guys pressing better explosive power and sold the procurement committees on cost and quantity, cutting the competition out of the picture entirely so the new production warheads never got to see any fighting at all.

Anyone relying on politicians to save the human race would be sorely disappointed.

A final blast with his left wing cannon and ace pilot Saotome checked in a brief moment to see why the right wing cannon was disabled. he hadn't taken a hit in this fight yet.

"Out of Ammo!" But it was an ENERGY weapon for crying out loud! He dodged a double-bore shot from an Invid Command Unit and checked his systems. Okay, it was an internal energy storage capacitor system, so how long would it take the thing to recharge from the internal energy reactor?

Never?!!?!? Oh, *great!* Some designer had deliberately bastardized the system to run off an energy clip arrangement when the thing was not ten feet away from a nuclear reactor with protoculture assist! There were even shielded energy conduits running within a foot of the weapon!

Great. Some industrial tycoon was no doubt wringing his hands in joy over all the energy clips pilots would discard, recharging their weapons in combat, and that would have to be replaced from his factories.

Somehow Nabiki came to mind, but he doubted it was her. For one thing she had a stronger sense of survival than most and when Jared checked stored there were no spare energy clips listed as carried on this plane. Nabiki might be stupid and cash-grubbing, but you could hardly pay her to stick a gun to her own head, and a system this short-sighted would get people killed.

Missiles gone, beam cannon empty, plasma spear had a miserable rate of fire and couldn't be employed to any satisfaction as a melee weapon. Jared employed a burst from the hip auto cannon to blow away an armored scout and felt ashamed of himself for stooping so low. But the way they'd designed this cut corners on all the primary weapon systems, until here he was shooting down his enemy with a useless peashooter! There were some serious design priorities out of order here!

Checking stored as he used his fist to pulverize the faceplate of a shock trooper and squish the pilot between his fingers on the other side before withdrawing his hand, Jared noticed that these autocannon had vast stores of ammo coiled up in otherwise valuable space, on the order of ten thousand rounds.

Yep, somebody had alot of ammunition to sell and a friend in high places.

So what did he have left? The autocannon, and just because he hated them wouldn't mean he wouldn't wring every drop of boom out of them in the middle of a combat. The pulse lasers, which were the closest thing to a solidly designed weapon system on this bird, yet still had many faults. The plasma spear, which was more like a bazooka, as it had heavy punch but slow cycling and no close combat utility to speak of. His hands and feet and that was it.

Who'd designed this thing?!!

Okay, the original VF-1 series had been wimpier, but the technology involved was vastly dissimilar. It was like comparing fighting planes of world war one with those from world war two. To say their armaments were almost the same was a hefty insult to the later fighter, because the technology had improved to where they SHOULDN'T be!

Yet with the old VF-1's lasers, after the missiles and gun had run out, it had an end-of-fight weapon profile that wasn't too far short of this one. Then again, the VF-1 series had been our best attempt to stave off death from a terrible foe, while this new plane was supposed to be the 'pride' of a military that never expected to enter into a fight they might lose, and had corners cut just about everywhere. The design was blocky, it was less nimble that its predecessor (and nimbleness was the very heart and substance of a Robotech military fighting style) and his own personally modified VF-1, the Fire Angel, had more armor protection and a weapon profile that closed on parity.

Oh, the sad, sad things military contractors will do to make a buck! Sadder still was how often military design teams would sit on their duffs pleasing politicians when they didn't think there was a chance of them entering into a fight they might not win.

It was his professional military opinion that this fighter needed some serious overhauling.

The Australian observers noted with awe that the pilot of the strange transforming aircraft went right on punching, slashing and blasting apart his foes even after the autocannon ran out.

Jared barrelrolled and drove the tip of his spear through the nose of the Royal Command Battloid that was leading this struggle, ripping it out sideways and causing damage to his spear even while he tore up the main compartments of his opponent.

Female pilot. Grab, capture. Never know when they or their information might come in handy. While he'd never personally faought Invid before if they were as emotionally repressed as Zentraedi then if you tickled them just right they'd tell you anything. A tap to the forehead knocked her out and he opened his cockpit canopy to slid her limp form into the storage area behind his seat even while he continued to fight his remaining foes.

Three more explosions and he found the hive was now empty of all flying foes, leaving only the ground based Enforcer units, which were still pretty nasty according to the rulebooks he'd read.

Oh, and the Inorganics. Cannot forget them, the evil mage certainly hadn't.

Well, he HAD the measure of this new fighter, and it was lacking but the right refits sounded promising. For one thing he was going to be sure and acquire a Destabilizor style rifle. He didn't object to the ability of the wing cannon to be converted to hand held mode, you might lose a wing and it would be nice not to automatically lose that armament too. But so long as the things worked where they were he had no desire to fill his hands with them, and that left room for a rifle, even the undercarriage mount space was free and uncluttered, so he could easily sling it there when in jet mode.

But aside from that, his fighter was as presently out of armaments as it could get, and showed some battle damage. The ground forces of the hive were bound to be tougher and more numerous, and he had not much to take them on with in this fighter.

Then again, he had other options than this fighter.

He flew out of sight, stored the veritech fighter magically because he didn't have the chi right now to make it weapon-spaceable, and it would require heavy mods before he'd put it there anyway. Then he reverted to chibi form so that Celeste would have a harder time targeting him.

~Hmm, okay, what was the best way to take on the Invid ground forces and destroy the actual hive?~ The chibi mage snapped his fingers. He had just thing! It was even pilotable by a kid!

He raised his hand to the sky, calling on his heavily modified, Washu-refitted Evangelion unit.

"Thunder Knight! Charging up!"

A tremendous roar reminding all of the recent appearance of Godzilla tore from his throat, and he began advancing on the now terrified Invid hive, into the swarms of counterattacking hellcats and inorganic powerhouses.

The hive finally got their power field up, a defense designed to be able to stop the main gun blast of a Zentraedi flagship main gun or a Macross Cannon.

Funny, he wasn't worried.

"Neutralizing enemy AT field!!"

--------

Eudial noticed something unusual and investigated further.

Power. Lots of power.

Her love hotel experiment was proceeding nicely. Her own office was shielded, but every other room in the place had a low level escalating spell to lower inhibitions and increase feelings that fit perfectly in with the function of such a place.

Playing back a recording from a security camera, she discovered the power increase had come from a young girl leading a young boy into the lobby.

Eudial found a relatively clear image and froze it. An American boy, young and looking very self conscious. A Japanese girl, and if the boy was uncertain - the girl qualified as "ready to bolt" but was also the one leading the boy. Except that the boy was a foreigner, she'd seen dozens of couples like this just in the past few days.

The girl quickly proved the dominant of the two. It was she who went to the machine, figured it out, and withdrew a key after making a deposit.

Until she'd started this operation, Eudial had had no idea how common it was for young couples to visit such establishments. She considered comparing notes with Cyprine.

Another pair entered. Two girls. Unusual, but this happened more common than she'd previously thought as well. And then an older woman by herself. "One of *those* groups," said Eudial after coming to a conclusion that made her shudder. Another boy and girl. Quite an age difference on these two...

Eudial switched to a hall camera. The first boy and girl had found their room, entered, and...

The Witch frowned and rewound. For some reason even her typical high schooler or young adult customers seemed to realize when she'd used hidden cameras. So she'd gone with more subtle methods that she'd just finished.

The bed did *not* show any pressure on it. The shower was being run, but there were no variances in the sound of the stream to indicate a body (or bodies) within the flow.

Eudial had been fairly curious to begin with, however she had come to the conclusion that the imaginativeness of the average Japanese male was sorely lacking. It had gotten boring very very quickly. Enter room. Take shower. Frantic but very brief action on the bed. Shower again. Leave. Send the maids in, prepare the room for the next occupants. Repeat as necessary. Dull, dull, dull. The "fantasy rooms" rarely got used.

Which was a pity, as she'd put together the Sailor Moon room together specifically as a trap for the Senshi should they ever arrive. It hadn't even been used yet.

The second boy/girl couple went into another standard room. Similar pattern to the first one.

The two girls and their somewhat older companion stood about in the hallway and were arguing about... who should have accompanied the boy that they were following? Eudial became slightly more interested. She'd only seen a few similar groups. In one case, it had become *much* more interesting once the aphrodisiac in the refrigerator had gotten passed around. They'd apparently rented the room for one hour, stayed for six. This had been before she'd removed the hidden cameras, and Eudial had put *that* tape safely away.

The refrigerator was opened. One of the jugs of refrigerated aphrodisiac was removed, as indicated by the weight gauge under the shelf.

Eudial found herself wishing that she had *not* removed the hidden camera from Room 222.

The aphrodisiac was something the Wizard had provided. All of the Witches had gotten a recipe for something similar, though this particular formula was only shared with Cyprine. The plastic jugs merely indicated that it was free and exclusive to the Moon Princess Love Hotel.

Eudial had gone for subtle throughout. She wasn't looking forward to having the Senshi come roaring in with energy blasts to disrupt things. Especially as continued operation of the place increased her own powers. The Sailor Moon room being an exception, if they got in there... well, she hadn't removed the hidden cameras and it would likely prove very entertaining for many nights thereafter. Removing potential problems + entertainment value. Who could ask for more? Now if they'd just oblige her and investigate that room.

Then the hallway camera showed one of the girls break the door down seconds after weight finally registered on the bed.

Eudial shook her head, unusually high power readings, otherwise she'd have just accepted this as a set of rivals at each others throats and a single boy being the point of contension. There had already been four groups like that in the past few days, almost like it was a recurrent theme within Japanese society or something.

Deciding that the high power readings were a fluke in what was becoming a common event, possibly these were espers or crazed martial artists from Nerima, Eudial turned her attention to other things of greater importance.

Such as how to stay alive and untransformed when she still had not found a sign of those damn Senshi.

---------

The Wizard felt the Invid being decimated and knew that the Mage was still on the loose.

Oh, to be sure, he could just confront the Mage. There was no certainty he'd win, but he could do it. Most likely the Mage's fiancees would get involved. At the very least most of *those* would be eradicated from existence. But at the cost of this very world.

While the Wizard appreciated the irony of a villain such as himself trying to save the world from a hero, he'd prefer a little less even a playing field if it came to an actual confrontation. Okay, he'd prefer the odds in his favor. As opposed to having to go through a lot of fuss and bother just to increase his chance of survival. Yes, he was a villain, thank you very much. In a direct confrontation, he understood he had about as much chance against the Mage as a bottle of sake against a thirsty Urd. He felt that evil should not equal suicidal, and so sought to minimize going against ridiculous odds.

The Wizard considered all the possibilities, and finally did something that he'd wanted to avoid doing. He created a "shadow self" - a simulated him of this Virtual World. Both of him pursed their lips in thought. It was obvious that sooner or later, he'd run out of enemies to distract the Mage with.

That meant he'd have to "up the ante" quite a bit. The Virtual Beast wasn't ready, and it was likely that even THAT would fail to imprison the Mage long enough for the scenario to run.

The two nodded and began working in unison.

The Mage hadn't noticed that *all* of his opponents had been of the female persuasion, save Vader. It was easy and familiar for the Wizard, his years of work in a Spells R Us franchise had it so that he could cast the parameters for the rather simple Bimbo Template without a second thought. Using that common template as a ground, with a few variables for racial phenotype, hair color, eye color, and other similar random tweaks, adding enough competency in mechanical operation to be able to pilot Imperial vehicles, had brought forth sixty Stormtroopers. That they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn was pretty much in character, but something he'd since refined.

Now another gap opened as troops were brought forth. This time, however, the Wizard decided to try something *quite* amusing. Taking a group of human supremicists and make them something the Mage likely couldn't resist. All the troops, of course, were female - two dimensional bimbos outside of their soldier role. This would temporarily drain his resources, but the "waves" kicked up by the Mage made it easier to conceal exactly *what* he had done.

Then his other self could leave the simulation, and plot a way to keep the Mage offline.

--------

As far as Captain Patricia Haggerty was concerned, Battlegroup 39 had been engaged in the war against Tolkeen one moment, and then the enemy had opened a Rift around them.

She brought her Spider-Skull Walker to a halt, opening commlinks to the other battlecraft in her group.

It was obvious that the Rift had deposited them elsewhere. Emperor Wizard had commanded that they engage in a Command/Conquer scenario as part of the campaign against human-led Tolkeen. Being stranded here, there was only one course of action available. They would conquer this world, and make it safe for elves like themselves.

Thirty Juicers, twenty full conversion Borgs, seventy Skelebots, three Coalition IAR-2 Abolisher giant robots, two IAR-3 Skull Smashers, forty two old style SAMAS VTOL powerarmor, five of the new "Super SAMAS" powerarmor, six CTX-50 Heavy Assault Tanks, two CTX-52 Anti-Aircraft Tanks, twenty four Warbird rocket cycles, and eighty nine heavily armed and armored infantry stood ready.

Captain Haggerty swept her hair back, tucking it behind a delicately pointed ear. Their mission was plain - to take control of this world for their Emperor.

She just hoped she had enough troops. The very name of the nearest city (according to that highway road sign) was enough to give her a chill.

[Salt Lake City - 10 miles]

---------

Setsuna looked up again, briefly ignoring the drama around her. "The time stream trembles."

Under many circumstances, the quietly voiced and odd statement would have been ignored.

Grey *seized* on the change of subject, preferring any topic of conversation that did not dwell on his shortcomings as a fiance. (Though in truth the mumbled comments from Ami were denials and apologies, they were just jumbled all together because she was completely confused.) "What do you mean, Meiou-san?"

Setsuna winced at what she felt was an overly formal title. "Something is causing ripples and distortions in the timestream. I can hear the sound of the currents changing. Bringing something..." Setsuna paled. ~No. Not HER! Please, not HER.~

Everyone else saw the normally calm, even smug, Senshi of Time turn pale and reacted. (Except for Ami who was still trying to figure out the odd jumble of feelings on the matter of fiances, fellow Senshi, and whether she could actually get involved in such things with exams coming up.)

The odd seperated intelligence that was the Nebula part of Grey was alarmed. Pluto *never* looked afraid. Not even mildly so. This was enough to alarm the rest of Grey.

Hotaru kept an eye on that girl that seemed to want to hurt her sempai, but also kept an eye out for whatever had scared the old lady.

Nuku wondered if she should ask for her date now. And if she could get her fiance to take her to a seafood restaurant. Where maybe someone would explain exactly what a fiance was, at least better than that Ritsuko-lady had.

Swallowing nervously, Setsuna calmed herself as best as she could. Against Ami - she felt certain she could win. Rei wasn't that interested in guys, Minako would sabotage herself, so would Makoto under normal circumstances. Her main competitor would be Makoto - the seeds of the Silver Millenium relationships providing some emotional familiarity that Mercury lacked. However, all it would take was a cute guy, and Minako and Makoto would be off after the other. Ami might even be interested in Makoto, such things were known to happen among the Senshi. Nuku and the other non-Senshi, an even more distant competition.

If SHE made an appearance, as that familiar feeling attested, Setsuna Meiou would not feel at all confident in her ability to win out.

"Setsuna-san? Puu-chan?" Grey was getting *very* worried at her expression. Was it the Invincible Shadow? The Four Generals? Metal'la? Something even more horrible?

"I've got to go and investigate," Setsuna said, suppressing a little grin that he had just used an affectionate contraction. "I'll be back for our date later."

Grey nodded. Then realized he'd just agreed to go out on a date with Setsuna. But wasn't their current age difference something that would be easily misunderstood by the general public? Except that she'd dumped him all those years ago, so it couldn't be *that*. Could it?

--------

Haruka and Michiru found themselves in handcuffs of some odd design, placed in the back of some armored panel truck, and the doors closed before they really realized what was going on.

"Tea, coffee, cocoa?" An elderly figure that would have been a perfect butler sort if not for his clothing inquired. Said clothing consisting of obviously ballistic armor. "You'll find a newspaper and some magazines in the tray."

"You'd really make our day by letting us go," suggested Haruka.

Michiru picked up the newspaper and managed a certain resigned elegance. "Coffee, sugar and cream."

Haruka glanced at Michiru as she sat demurely and waited for the butler to get her coffee. "You're just going to sit there?"

"What else are we going to..."

Michiru stopped and just stared at something in the paper. Haruka was about to ask what had caught her attention when the "butler" reappeared.

"Here you go, Miss. The trip will take about twenty minutes, depending on traffic." Without another word, the man left. Less than a minute later the truck began moving.

"What did you see?" Haruka asked, trying to act cool and nonchalant, following Michiru's lead.

"There's this *fascinating* article dealing with an American who is engaged to marry several young flowers of Japan." Michiru sipped at the coffee and raised an eyebrow. A hazelnut blend. Her favorite. Obviously they'd read her dossier.

Haruka turned this over and over again, trying to figure out what Michiru was trying to tell her. Then took the article from Michiru. "Gu-rei Sha-ru-do?"

"Look here, his full name. 'Grey Le Shard'. Americans have a 'middle' name, you know." Michiru sipped again at her coffee. "Or, if you prefer Greylle Shard or..."

Haruka's eyes bugged as a connection clicked. "But that kid said..."

"That the Talismans were found within the hearts of Uranus, Neptune, and *another* soldier." Michiru sipped again at her coffee, enjoying the warmth.

"If we don't have the words, three hearts joined as one..." Haruka shuddered. "...but he's a *guy*."

"If nothing else, as fiancees, we'd be able to keep an eye out," Michiru suggested.

---------

She'd been walking along, lost in thought over the voice identifying itself as "Amaterasu Omikami" and the possibility of Rei (Rei?!) being a fiancee-candidate.

"Fortunes, young lady. Love fortunes?"

Minako winced, but bowed politely to the old woman who had set a table up near the stairs to Rei's shrine. "I'm sorry, but I don't have that much money."

"This is for free, child, for I see you have already been touched by Destiny."

Minako blinked. "Well, I..."

"According to this, you were cursed by the Ace Of Hearts," said the woman, holding up a card.

Minako swallowed, remembering Ace/Danburite, and an event when she was "Sailor V". "Cursed?"

The fortuneteller nodded her head. "Cursed - your lovelife will be hopeless for all eternity. So that you may never have to choose between Duty and Love."

The words being almost exactly what Danburite's final words had been caused Minako to flinch. Then came a realization which caused her eyes to widen. Ace had said that this was to keep her from choosing between love or duty. So...

Minako turned on the old fortuneteller. "How can this be defeated?"

"Love and duty are not necessarily incompatible," said the fortuneteller mysteriously.

Minako turned away from the old woman, deep in thought. Then turned back to ask another question.

Except that the fortuneteller and her stall were gone.

Minako Aino, Sailor V, later Sailor Venus, understood something. She'd seen "Ladyhawke" - and curses could only be broken by finding a loophole to attack. If her inability to find someone had been due to this, then she had only one choice. And it fit what the fortuneteller had hinted at.

To break the curse, to finally have a boyfriend, she had to choose love *and* duty. The Knight Of Duty.

Minako took a deep breath. Now she *had* to win.

-------

Sakura considered carefully. Like her ancestral namesake during the time of the "Sakura Wars" she found herself surrounded by strange characters and associating with supernatural entities.

Like that ancestor, she was an expert in that school of swordsmanship. Like that ancestor, she had recently developed a ki attack.

She ignored the presence of the pervert ninja going off on their own, musing over what she had seen.

The bloodline of a samurai was *everything* - normally she would only be allowed to even date a boy of samurai descent or a higher caste ranking. Yet here she was, with a *gaijin* boy who was to be her lifemate. Maybe. Even her mother, who had first brought up the concept, acknowledged that this would be a difficult battle and one she was ill prepared for.

Something Sakura was quite aware of. Several of the girls she'd seen before were (in her certainly unbiased opinion) prettier. Talking to gods wasn't common. Having them reply put a significantly new spin on things.

She hadn't been sure *what* to expect, considering the stories about Azabu Juuban. Even if it was ninety years after her namesake had been instrumental in defeating demonic evil, some things appeared to be eternal.

Okay, pervert ninja girls were new. And her ancestor had never had to fight demonic evil in a short skirt the way that these "Senshi" had to. No steam-powered mecha, and that was a BIG minus in Sakura's book.

Could she help it if she wanted to pilot a giant robot?

On the other hand, there *was* a psychic girl of sorts. Shrine maidens had that kind of reputation. There was the Sailor Senshi, and if Sakura were lucky she could meet them. Professional meeting, after all. Demonhunter to demonhunter. Yeah, that'd work.

-------

Jared dodged, Jared teleported, Jared moved very very quickly. He was very good at all three. Life as an adventuring hero had given him LOTS of practice.

Celeste blocked escape routes, stabbed out in carefully arrayed patterns, lay traps, and used Advanced Trickery to a high extent. She was very good at all of this. Being a System Administrator and "computer guru" had given *her* LOTS of practice. And all those hours of playing UFO Catcher and Crane games hadn't hurt either.

It was much like the game of Tag with Edema. Each of the contestants was thinking three moves ahead and using their skills to the utmost. Where Edema had used Shapechange, Improved Invisibility, Shadowstep, and similar spells, Celeste used the Anything Goes Style Of Programming to her full advantage.

Jared was loving it.

"@$#$&*!"

Celeste, on the other hand, wasn't terribly happy. So much so that she had completely missed Amaterasu giving *her* favorite in the race (Rei) a little nudge. (Well, 'little nudge' was a relative value here.) She *had* noticed that Urd had given the one that she was rooting for (Minako) a quick pep talk in the guise of a mysterious fortuneteller. She also noticed signs of instability in the simulation, and Shan was attempting to adapt her Remote Operation technique to insert herself into the simulated SM world.

Others had been ready to likewise leap in and give hints to their favored contestants.

In order to de-stress, Celeste briefly considered giving *her* favored (Setsuna) a talking to.

"There's only one more to manuever into place, y'all know," said Edema. "The poor gal ain't even on the field yet."

Celeste sighed and decided to briefly use the Mage's presence. And if he showed up at this little get together (she figured he'd know it was a trap, but be unable to *not* come), she'd have him!

---------

Maya Tono, taiko drum virtuoso, and less known - the heir to the Tono School of Taiko Drum Stick Fighting (which had originally been a twin sai style), pondered the odd meeting.

She was young, pretty, and had her share of dreams. However, she'd never actually dated and had spent most of her life surrounded by girls at various all-girl schools. Her skills with her martial art were not *nearly* what her musical skills with the taiko drum were, but she hadn't been able to get a lot of practical experience in the former. No, Maya Tono had no illusions of her level of skill as a warrior, particularly among the current crowd.

The sixteen year old considered the chaos she'd suddenly found herself thrust into and wondered if perhaps her life so far had been entirely too sheltered.

First had been the article in the paper, listing the Tono engagement. Then there was the talk shows.

Maya Tono felt the butterflies battling in her stomach and looked out from the top of torii (red archway/spirit gate) at the lights of Azabu Juuban. She was engaged to this boy from two generations back for a favor his grandfather had done her grandmother. MUCH further back, there had been an honor pledge to guard the boy that had involved her entire clan.

Which, unfortunately, consisted of one individual: herself.

Maya Tono placed strong tapered fingers calloused by long practice of her Art against her firm stomach, hoping to quell those dueling butterflies and tried to get ahold of herself. She could try, she supposed, but *marriage*?! On the other hand, how many boys had she actually interacted with over the past few years. Children's stories and shojo manga to the side, there was no swashbuckler swinging in on his rope to rescue her from pirates. Nor likely to be.

If only she could be sure.

-----------

Phobos and Deimos, though in this life they were crows, remembered other times.

Well, they *could* transform to humanoid shape. Unfortunately they could only maintain it for brief periods and they couldn't change their mass.

They'd been shikigami (Shinto guardian animals) for Rei Hino, and in a previous life had been the Beautiful Twins who had taken the position of handmaidens to Princess Mars.

"So what do you think?" Phobos asked Deimos.

"I think the two ninjas are a disgrace to their calling, the samurai's got some class, and Mina's in the front of the pack right now," Deimos responded. "While Nebula obviously has a crush on Mercury, she keeps pushing him away. Sooner or later, she'll be successful. Pluto is too clumsy in affection, plus she's got to go off and guard the Gate. Even when our Princess is told by a goddess to go after him, she's not inclined to do so."

"Yup, that's how I saw it," agreed Phobos. "It'd take more than divine intervention at this point."

-----------

Grey had watched Pluto sidestep into the currents of time, had watched Ami go rushing off to study, and had wondered if Atsuko (who called herself Nuku Nuku) and Hotaru were as confused as he was.

The odd girl with the batwings was briefly spotted again. The Chain ignored her as a possible threat, so maybe she wasn't one of the bad guys.

Nonetheless, Nuku and Hotaru dropped back. If the girl attacked when she saw Grey was alone, then *wham!* the two would know and respond accordingly.

Grey didn't think it likely. He was pretty sure that the bat-girl had deliberately shown herself on those occasions. She'd even nodded at him once, before melding with the shadows again. Probably would wait until a suitable time before introducing herself and whatever she was trying to do. A hand was empty and out, ready to summon the Chain in a moment if necessary.

Rough hands grabbed Grey and pushed him into a wall. "YOU! YOU TELL WHERE IS RANMA!"

Looking at someone who was clearly not an ally. Grey reacted before Nuku or Hotaru could approach. The Chain filled his hand.

"AIYAA!" The girl shrieked as the Chain looped around and tightened around her.

*CLANG!* Said girl hit the ground a moment later as she was wrapped up. She said a lot of things that sounded very uncomplimentary. Language unknown, though Grey thought it sounded different from Japanese.

Nuku was the first to reach Grey. Only to stand around trying to figure out what to do.

*Crackle* A purple "h" was showing itself on Hotaru's forehead when she finally caught up.

The very upset girl bound in chains continued yelling in some language that none of the three understood.

"What you suppose she want?" Grey asked the two. "She say something but Grey not understand what in 'Ranma' to be."

Hotaru resolved to learn English. It couldn't be more difficult than Japanese was for her sempai. Then she touched the jug of fluid in her carry purse. Maybe she ought to try it out on the odd girl.

Nuku watched as the girl finally decided that she was well and truly caught. "Nuku think that girl very dangerous. Nuku be right back." Nuku picked the girl up, hoisted her overhead as the Chain retracted, then ran off down an alley. She came back out, alone, a moment later.

"You didn't kill her did you?" Hotaru asked, still not sure whether to classify the girl as Threat or Menace.

"Nuku just knock her out. No big deal. We go?"

------

Shampoo slowly came awake, with a massive headache where the strange pink-haired girl had struck her.

She wasn't too sure *what* had just happened. Other than she'd been defeated. He certainly wasn't a handsome guy, and she suspected trickery had been involved that could provide her a loophole, but the law was clear until she could prove otherwise.

Though if she had to give the Kiss Of Marriage to someone, she'd much rather it had been a handsome guy.

Now she had to go hunting down that boy, and from what she'd been able to tell his companions were quite powerful. Pink Girl was strong, very strong. And Pale Girl had a glowing purple mark on her skin combined with glowing purple eyes. Shampoo didn't know much about the outside world, but suspected that this meant Pale Girl was likely someone capable of doing something nasty - maybe a chi attack.

So now she had to go hunting down that girl "Ranma" to kill her, *and* go hunting down that non-asian boy to kiss him. Why did her life have to be so complicated?

----------

"I. AM. A. GUY!"

"Now, son, there's no reason to get so upset," Genma cajoled. "We'll simply get you married off to this boy, then file for divorce, and we'll get half his fortune and then you can marry Akane! It's a perfect plan."

"I ain't gettin' married. Not to no guy, not to no tomboy. Not gunna happen!" Ranma Saotome, being a boy cursed to turn into a girl was *very* unhappy with this turn of events. "And ain't gunna wear *that*! Besides, is this *another* of your perfect plans? Like Jusenkyo?"

"When are you going to stop bringing up these sordid details from the past? Oh, how shameful! My son has no honor! We could even go to China with that money and get a cure!"

Ranma stopped. "A cure?"

Genma sniffled, crocodile tears running down his cheeks. "Yes, that's why I want that money, foolish boy. With that sort of money we might be able to get rid of these curses altogether."

"A cure, huh?" Ranma considered. She (having been splashed with cold water and turned to his cursed form) really really really wanted a cure. But... marriage?! To a GUY?! "No! No way!"

"But son, at least lets go meet the boy. If he's rich, you might be able to just flirt with him a little and we could get enough money to go to China!"

Ranma eyed his father again, but it looked like the old man was sincere. Just a little flirting, huh? "...don't expect much, old man. I ain't going to no great effort on this, and I *still* think it's just another of your lame plans."

"Trust me, son, this'll work out just fine. But we can't let Tendo know. You know how much he goes to extremes."

-------

Nabiki whistled happily. "Hikawa Shrine" was where some of the fiancees were staying, at least according to the newspaper article. She could meet the competition, get the goods on them, research her target... err, prospective husband, and then prove that she was the best choice. After all, he was rich, and someone who knew how to manage money was a good quality to have in a wife. Yup, Nabiki had a clear goal - becoming a multimillionaire and financier. All she had to do was marry a gaijin. Not nearly the problem to her it would be for some others.

"But DAD!"

Nabiki smirked. Akane was arguing with Daddy again. No doubt about her engagement to Ranma. Two days into the engagement and they got along like fire and water. Heh. Let Akane marry the dumb jock. Nabiki would marry money. And if the boy had a brain and wasn't a loudmouthed egoist, maybe they'd even stay married.

"...but I thought this Tendo-Saotome thing was so important..."

Nabiki's eyes narrowed and she quickly moved closer to the wall to listen.

"It IS important. More important than you realize. However, the money this boy has could solve so many of our problems!"

"What about Kasumi or Nabiki?" Akane's voice asked. Nabiki had been wondering that herself.

"The boy is fifteen according to this. Far too young for Kasumi."

Nabiki nodded at that. Kasumi liked mature. If it came down to family duty, no doubt Kasumi would go along with it, but she was too traditional Japanese to be comfortable with a foreigner. Much less one four years younger than her.

"Nabiki lacks your skill in English, and you are *far* more popular with boys."

"...and that's an aspect of my life I could do without," came Akane's dry response. "I. HATE. BOYS!"

"Akane! You only have to marry this boy briefly. Demonstrate your womanly charms. Then divorce him right after the ceremony! That way you'll be free to marry Ranma."

Nabiki frowned. And what was she? Chopped liver?

"What part of 'I hate boys' do you not understand?"

"Please, Akane, think of the money!"

Nabiki went back to her room, knowing how this whole thing was going to turn out. Her Daddy would convince little sister to go along with it, though she'd be angry and resentful of the whole thing, and likely take it out on the gaijin.

She had one chance - and that was to get there ahead of Akane and introduce herself as the Tendo family representitive.

-------

Danburite's curse appears in Vol 3 of "Code Name Sailor V" thanks to Andrew Greaves for pointing this out. As for the idea that the Princesses are not actually princesses, but that the title is more in keeping with the station of Senshi, and that there was no canon evidence of the terraforming of planets... it came a little late as i'd already written a lot of those scenes. And having Rei recognize Nabiki as the reborn Coral was something i'd planned for awhile.

examples of the Japanese misuse of English can be found at:
http://www.engrish.com/

i've gotten a request to drop the Ranma cast and some of the crossover elements, so most of those will be dropped in Chapter 11. They're all virtual identities anyway, and this is concentrating on the characters who are actually inserted into the VR simulation as opposed to characters developed from Celeste's skill with coding.

=======