Ranma ½ Divine Blood
- Thread starter Thrythlind
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Takuma stared in supreme shock at the tentacles dragging the Behemoth forward.
Where had this monster come from and why did it suddenly decide to start attacking Behemoth.
Blasts from the cannons on the head exploded tentacles but they just reformed and reached out again, exorably dragging the Behemoth further into the harbor away from the land.
Irritably, Takuma tossed aside the pitiful AS in one of Behemoth's hands. Almost instantly, three of the tentacles lashed out at the AS, and the consistency of the remaining five slackened only briefly.
****
"Don't lose the anger!" Mara snapped as she watched five of the tentacles start to lose cohesion. "That monster just tossed a friend into the air and made you waste your time and effort saving them. Use that! The moment you stop being angry you lose the spell!"
"I got it! I got it!" Naiki responded as she caught the M9 and set aside to a reasonably safe landing.
Mara winced as she watched the M9 take a painful looking roll.
"Okay, building anger isn't your problem I guess," she said. "But control is."
"Look anger is a big part of Yamasenken," Naiki said, whirling about to face Mara. "I can control my anger!"
Coincidentally, at about that point, the tentacles out in the harbor whipped the Behemoth around and dragged it into the harbor, spilling AS's and police cars all over the place.
****
Kurz grabbed Tessa up before her legendary clumsiness caught up to her amidst the way the impact with the huge red AS turned basically solid ground into a boiling mass of wood, concrete and metal.
"The hell is going on here?" Kurz demanded as he vaulted over some debris to more stable ground. "Where did those tentacles come from."
"I think they're from Miss Satomi," Tessa said as she set her feet down on the ground and seperated from Mr. Weber.
The world had that same twisting, inside out quality she felt before, only it had been much more extreme to start, just before the tentacles appeared. In addition, the spiral was spinning towards two points instead of one.
Both points were up over a crane to the side of the battle.
Now, the feeling was sustained but somewhat muted. It was background to the normal world, sort of a strange overlay of things.
Sousuke glanced over the debris ahead to watch the situation.
"That's not good," Sousuke said. "Eija mentioned a 'curse' on her family involving magic."
"No worry there," Tessa said, shaking her head. "The link was normal. She's just very, very mad. And what she's using is just going to be a delaying tactic if that thing's pilot get's settled."
"Then we have another problem," Sousuke said with a sigh.
"We need a better weapon to handle this," Tessa said.
****
"The hell is going on?!" Mao shouted out as she worked frantically at her controls.
She was trying to work out a landing that wasn't going to leave her with shrapnel in her gut or a leg snapped.
"Grabbed by King Mecha and tossed to a giant piece of Tako-Shishkabob," Mao grumbled as she braced herself for collision with the ground. "Damage report!"
The mecha's AI pulled up screens and reports for Mao to consider as she tried to pilot the mecha into standing. Left knee joint was crap. Right hand actuator was twitchy.
Gyros were iffy.
But she still had the AS-Assault Rifle, so she was still in the fight, sort of.
"Sergeant Major Mao here," she said. "Someone thank the fucking squid for putting me down on a bunch of I-Beams, but I'm still somewhat operational."
"We read you Sergeant Major," Sousuke's voice called out. "We think the 'squid' might be something from Satomi."
"The green-haired girl that led us here?" Mao asked.
"Affirmative," Sousuke responded.
"I have some additions to make to your performance assessment on that girl, Sagara," Mao said irritably.
****
Takuma growled as he shook his head clear and sprayed the clinging tentacles with cannon fire dispersing them into water at least temporarily.
As he did so, the AS started registering weapons impacts on the AS's armor.
"Damn it! Behemoth is supposed to be invincible!" he snapped as he registered several readings of minor damage, mostly cosmetic. "Wait, I need to focus. A shield. Yeah, a shield."
Slowly a red glow formed aside the behemoth in the shape of an old style european shield that deflect all the weapon's fire coming in at his AS.
"And thorns," Takuma said with a vicious smile as the tentacles reached out to grab him again.
****
"Tendrils of the Kraken?" Urd said as she looked over the battlefield. "Really? Biting off more than she can chew might be a little off. This goes into overkill."
She glanced across the way where she spotted Mara and someone else.
"She has an apprentice," Urd said, shaking her head. "No wonder things have been quiet."
Then the red-glow started up around the robot and the latent mass of energy she'd felt earlier confirmed itself as being definitely chi.
"By Heaven," she said quietly.
Despite Skuld's opinion to the contrary, Urd was well versed in divine and infernal history, and she knew what made mana and pishogue superior to chi.
There were two reasons.
The Nidhog and Yggdrasil networks that let gods and demons borrow each other's powers and energy through spell formulae.
The devices and machines that focused and enhanced the pishogue and mana so that there were massive amounts of energy on hand floating about the network.
Chi users existed all on their own, at least until conversion formulas were added to spells and blessed or cursed items and weapons.
But what she was seeing wasn't a conversion matrix.
"That thing has a chi-enhancing array," she whispered. She looked over to Mara again. "I renew my original statement, Mara. More than you can chew."
That said, Urd found herself a high point and started focusing her own magic.
****
Mara stared in shock as the chi shield formed to block the smaller AS's cannon fire.
More chi wrapped around the Behemoth in the shape of giant, red spikes that slashed up the Kraken tentacles as they tried to wrap around the monstrous robot again.
"That thing down there is using chi!" Naiki snapped angrily. "I spend most of my life trying to learn it and use it and build it up and some drugged out kid in a machine is putting out enough to make me look like a dim light bulb."
At least the thing that had her so freaked out had her potential apprentice flaming mad enough to make up for slack in the spell that Mara had allowed in her shock.
Anyway, had to think of that later, fight right now.
Big fight.
Big enough fight that she really wished she wasn't wearing limiters just at the moment.
As the clouds above them started to coalesce, Mara blinked and followed the trail of energy, grimacing.
Heavenly reinforcements.
Even if they were nominally on the same side in this, that complicated things.
****
Seina watched the battle in shock as the tentacles kept battering the Behemoth, rising up out of the water. Now that they couldn't grab it, they lashing out like whips, cracking the lambda-driver's shield as they dispersed.
The fact that the Behemoth was standing up to the slowing attacks of the tentacles was perhaps the most intimidating part of it.
Still, at least the tentacle's appearance had given her the chance to get away from that meddlesome old man before the Behemoth tore apart the cargo ship.
*****
Blazing mad, Takuma brought the hands of the Behemoth up toward's the sword and started swinging.
One swing dissipated several tentacles and slashed through many of surrounding structures.
****
Mara and Naiki felt their perch shake out from under them as the sword sliced through the crane they were standing on.
Mara dashed out and grabbed Naiki before the green-haired girl could tumble further downward.
"Damn it!" Naiki shouted as she lost hold of the spell and all her tentacles dissapated into water.
"Don't worry about it, student," Mara said as she brought them to the ground. "We're still in this fight."
"Hai, Geisthexe-sensei," Naiki said.
"And that hand better not be moving toward copping a feel," the demoness said.
"I'm not doing anything," the demi-goddess said. "Focus on the fight Geisthexe-sensei, you can't let yourself be distracted."
"Is reinstatement worth dealing with this?" Mara wondered quietly.
****
"This is good," Kaname said as another explosion rocked the building they were currently on.
"Are you sure?" Ranma asked. "I could get you further back before I go in."
Kaname wasn't really certain how close she had to be, but she could feel the....magic she guessed it was, from here. So she assumed this would be good.
"This is about how close we were to Sousuke's fight before," Eija noted.
"All right," Ranma said. "I'm going in to help, call my cell phone if you have an answer."
****
"Okay, squid looks out of it," Mao said as she took aim. "Lambda driver needs the target to be aware of the attack right?"
"That's correct, Sergeant Major," Tessa said over the radio she was handed.
"Well, I'd rather have Kurz in my AS right now," she said. "But we'll see if I can get a few sniped shots in before I have to abandon AS."
She continued looking for a good shot when she noticed where the Behemoth was turning.
"Sousuke, Kurz!" she shouted. "Get the captain out of there!"
****
Smiling broadly, Takuma watched his mysterious adversary vanish into mere water and started walking back toward the ruined harbor, taking a moment to blast away at the Japanese AS's with a few well placed canon fire bursts.
He climbed up on land with slow, burdensome steps, eager to get away from the water in case the tentacles returned.
Then the Behemoth's AS zeroed in on an image that it had gleaned from its pilot's frenzied mind.
Takuma almost instantly turned his head toward the monitor and the image of Tessa Testarosa fleeing the area with two men in crash-suits.
Even with the very limited exposure to Tessa that he'd had and a few brief conversations while that green-haired bitch stood guard, Takuma had developed an...interest in the lavender haired genius.
A rather unhealthy interest.
"There she is," he growled. "The girl who didn't notice my feelings."
The Behemoth moved forward with clear intent.
He was distracted as his computers registered another weapon impact in its back. A second weapon impact and functional damage was done to his right arm's elbow.
The sword full out of his AS's hand and crashed to the ground with an metal shearing sound that clattered through the ears of everyone present.
Then he slammed the lambda driver field around his entire mech, resisting the driving headache that brought him.
Growling he started to twist his head to face the attacker, launching a blast toward the crippled M9 it had had in hand earlier. The AS rolled mostly out of the way, but Takuma was amused to see that the thing's left side was obliterated.
when the cameras caught sight of the anomalous image of a red-haired woman charging forward toward him with what the computer was clocking at inhuman speeds.
"Please," Takuma growled as he fired the canon at the image.
****
Ranma stared up at the monster in front of her.
A huge machine, somehow making use of chi. Very clumsy, brute force use, but definitely use.
The burst of gunfire from the head pointed roughly in her direction warned her that the thing had taken notice of her.
"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" she shouted.
The original amaguriken only enhanced the speed of her hands and arms, and only partially sped up her mind to be able to accurately place each strike. The full body amaguriken applied that speed of thought and body as whole.
Unfortunately, she could only do it in short bursts or she'd drain herself. That technique was easily the most chi-intensive technique she had.
Suddenly, all about her, movement slowed to almost a crawl. Only the supersonic shells streaking toward her showed much of anything resembling real speed.
Leaping upward, Ranma stepped forward onto the first shield, quietly counting to herself as she pushed herself from that shell to another, to another in a swirling procession up the channel of hot bullets.
"Hiryu Hyo Toppa!" she shouted before launching herself straight out away from the column of bullets.
A sigh of relief flowed through her body as she released the full body chestnut technique and was treated to the image of a tornado spear up through the column of bullets, taking them with it and colliding with the Behemoth's head, blowing a quarter of the AS's skull away.
Ranma also realized that she'd blown the cannon away. Which meant that she was unlikely to get another use of the hiryu shoten ha. She was unlikely to get tight enough a spiral with anything else to do with the monstrous thing.
As Ranma landed some hundred yards away, taking in what she had managed, a blast of powerful lightning struck downwards into the lambda driver field that the hiryu shoten ha had momentarily subverted and was just now recovering.
The lightning coruscated over the red field causing the monster to shudder and shiver for several moments.
****
"Well, looks like God's on our side," Kurz said as he stopped his most recent borrowed vehicle some blocks away. "Any word on how to handle this?"
"The Danaan said the Arbalest would be here soon," Sousuke noted. "Until then, all we have on hand is my personelle defense weapon and your sniper rifle."
Tessa leaned against the wall near here and shook her head.
It was hard to focus with all the interference around her, then she felt something...or rather someone.
Someone she'd Resonated with only once before and only briefly.
Miss Chidori, she thought clearly.
Who are you? came the response.
This is Captain Telarossa, a third, unlooked for presence stated. I recognize the voice
<I>Captain...[/I] Kaname started to respond
Never mind, we need to find a weakness and fast.
****
"Good one, Urd," Mara muttered. "Okay, kid, you've got an idea of what you're doing? You know how to use that spell?"
"I've got it," Naiki said. "Attack the field, crack it open. Do you know how much chi that is?"
"Oh, I know all right," Mara said, though it was followed by a particular thought. "Damn it, I'm class 1 demoness, but I'm not a war demon."
"Searing ashes of of Nifelheim," Naiki intoned firmly. "Empower my strikes and weapons to smite my enemy."
"Mastery of treachery and fire," Mara said with a grimace, and all the fires in her sight flared brightly as she spoke. "Your disciple seeks your power again."
****
Urd watched from where she was building another lightning strike to see smoke rise up and engulf the Behemoth as it scanned about looking for something.
Then several black curving shapes whipped out through the air into the amorphous cloud of blinding ash and smoke, each one crashing into the chi-shield with a brilliant red flash that spoke of a slowly weakening defense.
"I think we've got this," Urd smirked as her lightning crashed down again.
****
Seina hefted the weapon in her hand and traced the black sickle blades to their source and found, to her surprise a pair of women, one was really nothing more than a girl, without any apparent weapons.
One was chanting, the red-tattoos on her face flaring brightly, and the other was hurling those black blades at the Behemoth.
Unable to cope with what she was seeing, Seina let her obsession for revenge take over and lifted the weapon she'd gotten hold of.
The first burst caught the blonde in the shoulder, and then the green-haired one was looking her way, enraged.
Seina peppered the charging figure with fire but was horrified to see several definite hits just ricochet off as the girl charged her position, moving at inhuman speed.
Launching one of those black crescents ahead of her, the green-haired school girl leaped upward at Seina's position.
It was only the necessity for dodging that crescent that had Seina moving in time to avoid Naiki's pounce, leaving a grenade in her wake.
Rolling aside, Seina was up and moving at a run as Naiki turned to follow her deliberately, taking the time to stare at the running foe, still futiley throwing back bursts of automatic fire.
And then she saw the grenade and kicked it up into the air between her and the fleeing woman.
The explosion between them threw both girls away with brutal force, though Naiki was able to roll herself clear of the worst of it and come to a landing. She couldn't see what had happened to Seina.
The young terrorist landed painfully in the water and started swimming away, smirking as she saw the Behemoth walking forward.
****
The problem is even when we find a weakness, Kaname noted. with all the surprise attacks...
The lambda driver and pilot have shorn up all their weaknesses, Tessa finished. Too bad we can't attack that confidence.
Actually... Eija's mental voice noted as the girl watched what was developing.
****
"Damn it," Ranma grimaced as she noticed the black-magic enhanced Kijin Ran's were no longer in the fight. "That could have gotten it given time."
Black magic though.
Naiki was getting a talking to.
And so was whoever it was that was teaching her daughter and helping her in this fight.
Another lightning strike came down, but when it slammed into the lambda driver's chi field this time, it didn't have near the effect.
Chi was based on strength of will. They hadn't been able to overwhelm this monster, and whoever was at the center of it was getting more confident as a result. It was turning into a battle of attrition which they would probably win only at the cost of much of the city.
Ranma slipped into the Goshin Dai Ry?sei Fu, the invisibility technique of the Umisen. Then she darted forward under the Behemoth, grabbing a tarp from a turned over truck as she moved. he let the Amaguriken-Kansei fade as she arrived.
"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" she shouted. "Yasha Tankai Ho!"
Whipping about at nearly imperceptible speeds, she gathered debris into the tarp around her. At this speed, she was even able to loosen the concrete into sand as she wound about the Behemoth and leapt up into the sky above leaping more and more and more above it until the massive form of the debris filled tarp was hanging over the robot.
She let the full chestnut fade and released the Umisenken's final attack at her normal speed before diving into that draining speed again, sweat streaming around her as she hit the bottom and, all along the way released Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbu's all about the Behemoth, providing the void that the Yasha Tankai Ho needed to complete the technique.
The chi master was pushing the edge of her strength now as she landed and felt the Yasha Tankai Ho and the Kijin Ran's combine into a force dragging all loose matter around the Behemoth inward.
Ranma didn't expect to do too much damage with this, but perhaps she could shake that confidence and slow it down a little.
If she let the full chestnut go this time, she wouldn't be able to go back in without a substantial rest.
Still in full chestnut speed she hit the nearest of the eight directions and twisted in the bursting heat of the smoke about the monster before forming the first spiral, then crisscrossing to the opposite and so on until she was directly under the Behemoth.
Voids above her were slowly, to her perception, forming and in all eight directions hot chi was spiraling in individual twisters that spiralled in with each other.
****
Urd blinked, there was a chi-master down there trying to damage this thing. The chi output was much smaller compared to what the machine was putting out, but it didn't have near the unfocused nature that the machine did.
"That would be Miss Satomi," Urd said, remembering the very brief and near even exchange the woman had had with Morrigan.
Granted, Morrigan had been wearing limiters, just like Urd and, judging by the lack of a flash fried robot, Mara had. But the limiters basically brought a goddess down to just their own inherent mana and whatever spells they could cast to borrow other powers.
Still, even as she watched the high speed manipulations, she couldn't see what the point was.
The woman would have been better off doing like she and Mara were, and unleashing a barrage of constant attacks.
Ranma was expelling a lot of energy to basically pelt the Behemoth's chi shield with debris. Then the Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbo's started, blinking into experience with insane speed, the flying debris and vacuum blade dances forming gravity wells that would soon be slamming the shields with intense force.
Finally, the smoke Mara's spell carried around the Behemoth swirled about it into eight interlocking and forming twists below.
It was still less than three seconds since the whole thing had started.
Then finally she heard the cry.
"Hachi Houkou Hiryu Shoten Senken!" she shouted.
Eight Directions Flying Dragon Ascension Thousand Fists.
Urd had barely any space of time to figure out that Ranma had spent the entire past moments setting up this one chi manipulation.
And then the Behemoth rose into the air, riding eight tornadoes swirling into a coiled windstorm that was pulled off the ground by a multitude of growing black spheres that pulled in close to each other, trying to crush the Behemoth between them while succeeding in twisting the eight tornadoes into a single black ball of wind, ash and debris.
Urd was capable of similar shows with her own power, even with a limiter. She had passed her first class license test, even if she refused the promotion. But, with the limiters that would wipe her out.
She could only assume that Ranma was in similar straights.
Forgetting her next lightning strike, Urd dived downward as Ranma's attack started running out of steam and the Behemoth crashed downward.
The goddess spotted the red-headed woman trying to catch her breath and gather herself to move, too slowly, and whipped past grabbing her out from under the monstrous robot.
****
Takuma stared at his monitors, one of them black from when the head had been damaged somehow, another cracked from whatever that had been that had just hit him.
His focus was suffering and he could tell that his shield was flickering all over his Behemoth as he pulled himself out of the water filled crater his fall had left.
He had a snapped rip that was threatening to puncture a lung at any point, but he didn't know that. All he knew was that his chest hurt like fire.
Standing up, his remaining monitors scanned through the few undamaged scanners and found, to his rage, that red-head being dropped off on a building by some sort of flying woman.
Angrily, the urge to destroy built up in him.
****
Mara stared, impressed as she pulled herself away from the field. Naiki backing off with her, eyes scanning about.
The girl was making sure her teacher wasn't ambushed again.
Mara smirked out the sentiment.
"That is probably the only use of pure chi I've seen match up to a Class 1 spell," Mara noted with a whistle.
"What have we been doing," Naiki asked.
"We shared a class 1, I supplied most of the power and gave you the control," Mara said, checking her injury and wiping her brow of sweat. "Since then, Class 3. I'm tired, and I'm not sure what you can handle on your own."
"What's class 2?" Naiki asked.
"Did you see those lightning bolts?" Mara asked.
"There's another demon out there?" Naiki said in surprise.
"Something like that," Mara noted.
"So, it's down now right?" Naiki asked, eyeing where Mara was bleeding, watching a parachute start landing in the distance for some reason.
"No such luck," Mara said. "That machine there is magnifying the power of whoever's in it. If I had to guess, I'd say we're basically trying to deal with an average 2nd class god or demon not wearing limiters."
"Umm, right," Naiki said.
"Enough power to level a France sized portion of the Himalayas," Mara said simply.
"But you're first class!" Naiki protested.
"With limiter!" the demoness said, pointing to her earrings. "Gods and Demons with limiters aren't much different than powerful chi-users. I need permission to drop it."
"Is that why the bullets hurt you?" the demi-goddess asked.
"Not right now, kid," Mara said. "It's moving again. Kid? Naiki?"
Mara turned to look at her to-be apprentice and watched as the girl's eyes fade out, as if not seeing the world around her.
"The hell?" Mara said, and then her eyes widened. "Oh crap!"
****
Eija blinked as the world around them vanished into whispers and strange symbols again. Suddenly, she looked about and saw the nude forms of Tessa and Kaname focusing hard on their task, so hard they didn't seem to notice the shift to that mental frame work.
Suddenly, across from her, she saw the sea-green skinned and blue-eyed form of her sister, glancing about in surprise and shock.
The hell? her sister said.
Naiki! Eija called out.
The mental projection of the sharkish Satomi turned to find Eija's jet-black, red-eyed body standing close at guard behind Kaname's form.
What is this place Naiki asked.
It's a mindscape, Eija explained. <I>Tessa and Kaname are 'resonating' together to find how to beat this thing.</i>
Naiki looked to the other two mental forms, the two pale skinned girls who looked as they did in the real world, save nude. The other Satomi was in the process of committing the sights to memory when she noticed that Kaname and Tessa's forms were coming closer together.
Eija! Keep them from touching! Naiki shouted, reaching forward to grab Tessa's spirit and start to pull.
What?! Eija asked. Why?
I don't know! Naiki said, struggling with Tessa's form and at times being dragged forward. But Tessa said too much resonating was bad! Just grab Kaname!
Eija nodded and shifted forward smoothly to easily lay hold of Kaname's soul and pull it way from Naiki and Tessa in a motion that looked as easy as breathing.
Naiki felt more than a slight pang of envy at that, but for the moment, she was more concerned with keeping Tessa seperate from Kaname.
Eija shrieked then, as she watched the hand she was using to push Kaname back started to turn white and some of her black slip into the blue-haired girl.
Concerned herself, Naiki turned about to see one of her hands likewise bleeding its color into Tessa, even as the sub-captain's partially bled into her.
Then both Whispered's eyes snapped open.
Got it!
I'll tell Sousuke!
All right, Miss Chidori, let's go.
And then the mind-scape vanished for all four.
****
Sousuke was moving toward the canister and setting up arbalest when his cell phone rang.
He checked the number and saw that it was Kaname. For a moment he thought about not answering, but perhaps it was something important, like that pervert attacking again. Something he'd have to deal with immediately on finishing this monstrosity.
"Miss Chidori, hello," Sousuke said calmly as he slipped into the cockpit. "Is everything oh..."
"There's a cooling system," Kaname said.
"What are you talking about?" Sousuke asked nervously.
"The Behemoth," Kaname said. "Tessa and I found it's weak point. There's a cooling system for the lambda driver in the thing's groin. Take that out and the lambda driver shuts down, the Behemoth is too heavy to move on its own."
"The groin?" Sousuke asked in confirmation.
"That's right," Kaname said. "You'll have to use the lambda driver for the attack. Nothing else is getting through."
"Affirmative," Sousuke said grimmly.
"It'll be a slit, left or right," Kaname said. "Either one will do."
"So basically..." Sousuke hesitated to continue.
"Yeah, kick it in the nuts," Kaname said viciously. "And do it HARD! Sousuke! Do you hear me?!"
"Affirmative," the mercenary said as the arbalest finished starting up. "Beginning attack run."
****
Urd blinked as a wave a chi started flashing toward her position.
The tired red-head she'd rescued stood up, her breath mostly caught and whirled her arms in swift circles.
"Kijin Toku!" she shouted, continuing to swing her arms about as a black shield came into being in front of her.
The red chi from the Behemoth slammed into the shield of vacuum, threatning, and, even if Ranma had managed to successfully give herself and Urd protection in her "Fierce-God Shelter", the building they were standing on should have been blown away.
Urd was nothing if not a quick learner and willing to experiment, however.
Also, she had not yet tired herself as thoroughly as either Ranma or Mara had.
She reached quickly through all the magic she could find and, borrowing the Yggdrasil readings of the phenomena in front of her, improvised a much wider shield.
"Now, that's not fair," Ranma said as she leapt away and looked towards the edges where Urd's shield hadn't protected the building from the lambda-chi blast.
"Excuse me, who was braiding tornadoes earlier?" Urd asked, breathing hard herself as she flew backwards away from the Behemoth.
****
Takuma slammed his fist down as his targets got away...again and then turned toward a threat assessment to see an AS heading his way.
Laughing uproariously at the absurdity of his powerful Behemoth being taken apart by such foes as unequipped men and women and old AS's, he lurched his machine forward to meet the attack by just outright smashing the white machine heading his way.
It seemed that was the new AS's intention as well, to die, smashed under Behemoth's foot, as it slid under the red monstrosity and fired a single lambda enhanced blast.
And then failure messages starting erupting all over his machine.
****
Sousuke rolled his AS into a standing position and bolted away to avoid the falling Behemoth. That hadn't required near the effort that beating Gauron had. Perhaps this Behemoth's lambda driver hadn't been as powerful.
Of course, another part of him said. It could also have had to do with how much of a beating the machine took before I got a credible shot at it.
****
Mara looked up from where Naiki was coming too, glancing toward where the Behemoth was finally falling.
Another chi-enhancing array armed into a suit. Granted this chi-enhancer was much more reasonable than that monstrosity, but still, it meant that this was more than just a fluke.
As did Naiki's current condition.
Human Chi had evolved into a Network, and there was no telling how many elements there were in it right now.
A quick check of Naiki told the demoness that the demi-goddess wasn't an element in a network yet, but she'd closely resonated with someone lacking necessary protections.
The personality bleed was starting already.
Right now it was just surface thoughts, occasional memories, but if Mara didn't do something soon, she was going to lose her recruit to this new human network. And the girl would lose her identity.
Where had this monster come from and why did it suddenly decide to start attacking Behemoth.
Blasts from the cannons on the head exploded tentacles but they just reformed and reached out again, exorably dragging the Behemoth further into the harbor away from the land.
Irritably, Takuma tossed aside the pitiful AS in one of Behemoth's hands. Almost instantly, three of the tentacles lashed out at the AS, and the consistency of the remaining five slackened only briefly.
****
"Don't lose the anger!" Mara snapped as she watched five of the tentacles start to lose cohesion. "That monster just tossed a friend into the air and made you waste your time and effort saving them. Use that! The moment you stop being angry you lose the spell!"
"I got it! I got it!" Naiki responded as she caught the M9 and set aside to a reasonably safe landing.
Mara winced as she watched the M9 take a painful looking roll.
"Okay, building anger isn't your problem I guess," she said. "But control is."
"Look anger is a big part of Yamasenken," Naiki said, whirling about to face Mara. "I can control my anger!"
Coincidentally, at about that point, the tentacles out in the harbor whipped the Behemoth around and dragged it into the harbor, spilling AS's and police cars all over the place.
****
Kurz grabbed Tessa up before her legendary clumsiness caught up to her amidst the way the impact with the huge red AS turned basically solid ground into a boiling mass of wood, concrete and metal.
"The hell is going on here?" Kurz demanded as he vaulted over some debris to more stable ground. "Where did those tentacles come from."
"I think they're from Miss Satomi," Tessa said as she set her feet down on the ground and seperated from Mr. Weber.
The world had that same twisting, inside out quality she felt before, only it had been much more extreme to start, just before the tentacles appeared. In addition, the spiral was spinning towards two points instead of one.
Both points were up over a crane to the side of the battle.
Now, the feeling was sustained but somewhat muted. It was background to the normal world, sort of a strange overlay of things.
Sousuke glanced over the debris ahead to watch the situation.
"That's not good," Sousuke said. "Eija mentioned a 'curse' on her family involving magic."
"No worry there," Tessa said, shaking her head. "The link was normal. She's just very, very mad. And what she's using is just going to be a delaying tactic if that thing's pilot get's settled."
"Then we have another problem," Sousuke said with a sigh.
"We need a better weapon to handle this," Tessa said.
****
"The hell is going on?!" Mao shouted out as she worked frantically at her controls.
She was trying to work out a landing that wasn't going to leave her with shrapnel in her gut or a leg snapped.
"Grabbed by King Mecha and tossed to a giant piece of Tako-Shishkabob," Mao grumbled as she braced herself for collision with the ground. "Damage report!"
The mecha's AI pulled up screens and reports for Mao to consider as she tried to pilot the mecha into standing. Left knee joint was crap. Right hand actuator was twitchy.
Gyros were iffy.
But she still had the AS-Assault Rifle, so she was still in the fight, sort of.
"Sergeant Major Mao here," she said. "Someone thank the fucking squid for putting me down on a bunch of I-Beams, but I'm still somewhat operational."
"We read you Sergeant Major," Sousuke's voice called out. "We think the 'squid' might be something from Satomi."
"The green-haired girl that led us here?" Mao asked.
"Affirmative," Sousuke responded.
"I have some additions to make to your performance assessment on that girl, Sagara," Mao said irritably.
****
Takuma growled as he shook his head clear and sprayed the clinging tentacles with cannon fire dispersing them into water at least temporarily.
As he did so, the AS started registering weapons impacts on the AS's armor.
"Damn it! Behemoth is supposed to be invincible!" he snapped as he registered several readings of minor damage, mostly cosmetic. "Wait, I need to focus. A shield. Yeah, a shield."
Slowly a red glow formed aside the behemoth in the shape of an old style european shield that deflect all the weapon's fire coming in at his AS.
"And thorns," Takuma said with a vicious smile as the tentacles reached out to grab him again.
****
"Tendrils of the Kraken?" Urd said as she looked over the battlefield. "Really? Biting off more than she can chew might be a little off. This goes into overkill."
She glanced across the way where she spotted Mara and someone else.
"She has an apprentice," Urd said, shaking her head. "No wonder things have been quiet."
Then the red-glow started up around the robot and the latent mass of energy she'd felt earlier confirmed itself as being definitely chi.
"By Heaven," she said quietly.
Despite Skuld's opinion to the contrary, Urd was well versed in divine and infernal history, and she knew what made mana and pishogue superior to chi.
There were two reasons.
The Nidhog and Yggdrasil networks that let gods and demons borrow each other's powers and energy through spell formulae.
The devices and machines that focused and enhanced the pishogue and mana so that there were massive amounts of energy on hand floating about the network.
Chi users existed all on their own, at least until conversion formulas were added to spells and blessed or cursed items and weapons.
But what she was seeing wasn't a conversion matrix.
"That thing has a chi-enhancing array," she whispered. She looked over to Mara again. "I renew my original statement, Mara. More than you can chew."
That said, Urd found herself a high point and started focusing her own magic.
****
Mara stared in shock as the chi shield formed to block the smaller AS's cannon fire.
More chi wrapped around the Behemoth in the shape of giant, red spikes that slashed up the Kraken tentacles as they tried to wrap around the monstrous robot again.
"That thing down there is using chi!" Naiki snapped angrily. "I spend most of my life trying to learn it and use it and build it up and some drugged out kid in a machine is putting out enough to make me look like a dim light bulb."
At least the thing that had her so freaked out had her potential apprentice flaming mad enough to make up for slack in the spell that Mara had allowed in her shock.
Anyway, had to think of that later, fight right now.
Big fight.
Big enough fight that she really wished she wasn't wearing limiters just at the moment.
As the clouds above them started to coalesce, Mara blinked and followed the trail of energy, grimacing.
Heavenly reinforcements.
Even if they were nominally on the same side in this, that complicated things.
****
Seina watched the battle in shock as the tentacles kept battering the Behemoth, rising up out of the water. Now that they couldn't grab it, they lashing out like whips, cracking the lambda-driver's shield as they dispersed.
The fact that the Behemoth was standing up to the slowing attacks of the tentacles was perhaps the most intimidating part of it.
Still, at least the tentacle's appearance had given her the chance to get away from that meddlesome old man before the Behemoth tore apart the cargo ship.
*****
Blazing mad, Takuma brought the hands of the Behemoth up toward's the sword and started swinging.
One swing dissipated several tentacles and slashed through many of surrounding structures.
****
Mara and Naiki felt their perch shake out from under them as the sword sliced through the crane they were standing on.
Mara dashed out and grabbed Naiki before the green-haired girl could tumble further downward.
"Damn it!" Naiki shouted as she lost hold of the spell and all her tentacles dissapated into water.
"Don't worry about it, student," Mara said as she brought them to the ground. "We're still in this fight."
"Hai, Geisthexe-sensei," Naiki said.
"And that hand better not be moving toward copping a feel," the demoness said.
"I'm not doing anything," the demi-goddess said. "Focus on the fight Geisthexe-sensei, you can't let yourself be distracted."
"Is reinstatement worth dealing with this?" Mara wondered quietly.
****
"This is good," Kaname said as another explosion rocked the building they were currently on.
"Are you sure?" Ranma asked. "I could get you further back before I go in."
Kaname wasn't really certain how close she had to be, but she could feel the....magic she guessed it was, from here. So she assumed this would be good.
"This is about how close we were to Sousuke's fight before," Eija noted.
"All right," Ranma said. "I'm going in to help, call my cell phone if you have an answer."
****
"Okay, squid looks out of it," Mao said as she took aim. "Lambda driver needs the target to be aware of the attack right?"
"That's correct, Sergeant Major," Tessa said over the radio she was handed.
"Well, I'd rather have Kurz in my AS right now," she said. "But we'll see if I can get a few sniped shots in before I have to abandon AS."
She continued looking for a good shot when she noticed where the Behemoth was turning.
"Sousuke, Kurz!" she shouted. "Get the captain out of there!"
****
Smiling broadly, Takuma watched his mysterious adversary vanish into mere water and started walking back toward the ruined harbor, taking a moment to blast away at the Japanese AS's with a few well placed canon fire bursts.
He climbed up on land with slow, burdensome steps, eager to get away from the water in case the tentacles returned.
Then the Behemoth's AS zeroed in on an image that it had gleaned from its pilot's frenzied mind.
Takuma almost instantly turned his head toward the monitor and the image of Tessa Testarosa fleeing the area with two men in crash-suits.
Even with the very limited exposure to Tessa that he'd had and a few brief conversations while that green-haired bitch stood guard, Takuma had developed an...interest in the lavender haired genius.
A rather unhealthy interest.
"There she is," he growled. "The girl who didn't notice my feelings."
The Behemoth moved forward with clear intent.
He was distracted as his computers registered another weapon impact in its back. A second weapon impact and functional damage was done to his right arm's elbow.
The sword full out of his AS's hand and crashed to the ground with an metal shearing sound that clattered through the ears of everyone present.
Then he slammed the lambda driver field around his entire mech, resisting the driving headache that brought him.
Growling he started to twist his head to face the attacker, launching a blast toward the crippled M9 it had had in hand earlier. The AS rolled mostly out of the way, but Takuma was amused to see that the thing's left side was obliterated.
when the cameras caught sight of the anomalous image of a red-haired woman charging forward toward him with what the computer was clocking at inhuman speeds.
"Please," Takuma growled as he fired the canon at the image.
****
Ranma stared up at the monster in front of her.
A huge machine, somehow making use of chi. Very clumsy, brute force use, but definitely use.
The burst of gunfire from the head pointed roughly in her direction warned her that the thing had taken notice of her.
"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" she shouted.
The original amaguriken only enhanced the speed of her hands and arms, and only partially sped up her mind to be able to accurately place each strike. The full body amaguriken applied that speed of thought and body as whole.
Unfortunately, she could only do it in short bursts or she'd drain herself. That technique was easily the most chi-intensive technique she had.
Suddenly, all about her, movement slowed to almost a crawl. Only the supersonic shells streaking toward her showed much of anything resembling real speed.
Leaping upward, Ranma stepped forward onto the first shield, quietly counting to herself as she pushed herself from that shell to another, to another in a swirling procession up the channel of hot bullets.
"Hiryu Hyo Toppa!" she shouted before launching herself straight out away from the column of bullets.
A sigh of relief flowed through her body as she released the full body chestnut technique and was treated to the image of a tornado spear up through the column of bullets, taking them with it and colliding with the Behemoth's head, blowing a quarter of the AS's skull away.
Ranma also realized that she'd blown the cannon away. Which meant that she was unlikely to get another use of the hiryu shoten ha. She was unlikely to get tight enough a spiral with anything else to do with the monstrous thing.
As Ranma landed some hundred yards away, taking in what she had managed, a blast of powerful lightning struck downwards into the lambda driver field that the hiryu shoten ha had momentarily subverted and was just now recovering.
The lightning coruscated over the red field causing the monster to shudder and shiver for several moments.
****
"Well, looks like God's on our side," Kurz said as he stopped his most recent borrowed vehicle some blocks away. "Any word on how to handle this?"
"The Danaan said the Arbalest would be here soon," Sousuke noted. "Until then, all we have on hand is my personelle defense weapon and your sniper rifle."
Tessa leaned against the wall near here and shook her head.
It was hard to focus with all the interference around her, then she felt something...or rather someone.
Someone she'd Resonated with only once before and only briefly.
Miss Chidori, she thought clearly.
Who are you? came the response.
This is Captain Telarossa, a third, unlooked for presence stated. I recognize the voice
<I>Captain...[/I] Kaname started to respond
Never mind, we need to find a weakness and fast.
****
"Good one, Urd," Mara muttered. "Okay, kid, you've got an idea of what you're doing? You know how to use that spell?"
"I've got it," Naiki said. "Attack the field, crack it open. Do you know how much chi that is?"
"Oh, I know all right," Mara said, though it was followed by a particular thought. "Damn it, I'm class 1 demoness, but I'm not a war demon."
"Searing ashes of of Nifelheim," Naiki intoned firmly. "Empower my strikes and weapons to smite my enemy."
"Mastery of treachery and fire," Mara said with a grimace, and all the fires in her sight flared brightly as she spoke. "Your disciple seeks your power again."
****
Urd watched from where she was building another lightning strike to see smoke rise up and engulf the Behemoth as it scanned about looking for something.
Then several black curving shapes whipped out through the air into the amorphous cloud of blinding ash and smoke, each one crashing into the chi-shield with a brilliant red flash that spoke of a slowly weakening defense.
"I think we've got this," Urd smirked as her lightning crashed down again.
****
Seina hefted the weapon in her hand and traced the black sickle blades to their source and found, to her surprise a pair of women, one was really nothing more than a girl, without any apparent weapons.
One was chanting, the red-tattoos on her face flaring brightly, and the other was hurling those black blades at the Behemoth.
Unable to cope with what she was seeing, Seina let her obsession for revenge take over and lifted the weapon she'd gotten hold of.
The first burst caught the blonde in the shoulder, and then the green-haired one was looking her way, enraged.
Seina peppered the charging figure with fire but was horrified to see several definite hits just ricochet off as the girl charged her position, moving at inhuman speed.
Launching one of those black crescents ahead of her, the green-haired school girl leaped upward at Seina's position.
It was only the necessity for dodging that crescent that had Seina moving in time to avoid Naiki's pounce, leaving a grenade in her wake.
Rolling aside, Seina was up and moving at a run as Naiki turned to follow her deliberately, taking the time to stare at the running foe, still futiley throwing back bursts of automatic fire.
And then she saw the grenade and kicked it up into the air between her and the fleeing woman.
The explosion between them threw both girls away with brutal force, though Naiki was able to roll herself clear of the worst of it and come to a landing. She couldn't see what had happened to Seina.
The young terrorist landed painfully in the water and started swimming away, smirking as she saw the Behemoth walking forward.
****
The problem is even when we find a weakness, Kaname noted. with all the surprise attacks...
The lambda driver and pilot have shorn up all their weaknesses, Tessa finished. Too bad we can't attack that confidence.
Actually... Eija's mental voice noted as the girl watched what was developing.
****
"Damn it," Ranma grimaced as she noticed the black-magic enhanced Kijin Ran's were no longer in the fight. "That could have gotten it given time."
Black magic though.
Naiki was getting a talking to.
And so was whoever it was that was teaching her daughter and helping her in this fight.
Another lightning strike came down, but when it slammed into the lambda driver's chi field this time, it didn't have near the effect.
Chi was based on strength of will. They hadn't been able to overwhelm this monster, and whoever was at the center of it was getting more confident as a result. It was turning into a battle of attrition which they would probably win only at the cost of much of the city.
Ranma slipped into the Goshin Dai Ry?sei Fu, the invisibility technique of the Umisen. Then she darted forward under the Behemoth, grabbing a tarp from a turned over truck as she moved. he let the Amaguriken-Kansei fade as she arrived.
"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" she shouted. "Yasha Tankai Ho!"
Whipping about at nearly imperceptible speeds, she gathered debris into the tarp around her. At this speed, she was even able to loosen the concrete into sand as she wound about the Behemoth and leapt up into the sky above leaping more and more and more above it until the massive form of the debris filled tarp was hanging over the robot.
She let the full chestnut fade and released the Umisenken's final attack at her normal speed before diving into that draining speed again, sweat streaming around her as she hit the bottom and, all along the way released Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbu's all about the Behemoth, providing the void that the Yasha Tankai Ho needed to complete the technique.
The chi master was pushing the edge of her strength now as she landed and felt the Yasha Tankai Ho and the Kijin Ran's combine into a force dragging all loose matter around the Behemoth inward.
Ranma didn't expect to do too much damage with this, but perhaps she could shake that confidence and slow it down a little.
If she let the full chestnut go this time, she wouldn't be able to go back in without a substantial rest.
Still in full chestnut speed she hit the nearest of the eight directions and twisted in the bursting heat of the smoke about the monster before forming the first spiral, then crisscrossing to the opposite and so on until she was directly under the Behemoth.
Voids above her were slowly, to her perception, forming and in all eight directions hot chi was spiraling in individual twisters that spiralled in with each other.
****
Urd blinked, there was a chi-master down there trying to damage this thing. The chi output was much smaller compared to what the machine was putting out, but it didn't have near the unfocused nature that the machine did.
"That would be Miss Satomi," Urd said, remembering the very brief and near even exchange the woman had had with Morrigan.
Granted, Morrigan had been wearing limiters, just like Urd and, judging by the lack of a flash fried robot, Mara had. But the limiters basically brought a goddess down to just their own inherent mana and whatever spells they could cast to borrow other powers.
Still, even as she watched the high speed manipulations, she couldn't see what the point was.
The woman would have been better off doing like she and Mara were, and unleashing a barrage of constant attacks.
Ranma was expelling a lot of energy to basically pelt the Behemoth's chi shield with debris. Then the Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbo's started, blinking into experience with insane speed, the flying debris and vacuum blade dances forming gravity wells that would soon be slamming the shields with intense force.
Finally, the smoke Mara's spell carried around the Behemoth swirled about it into eight interlocking and forming twists below.
It was still less than three seconds since the whole thing had started.
Then finally she heard the cry.
"Hachi Houkou Hiryu Shoten Senken!" she shouted.
Eight Directions Flying Dragon Ascension Thousand Fists.
Urd had barely any space of time to figure out that Ranma had spent the entire past moments setting up this one chi manipulation.
And then the Behemoth rose into the air, riding eight tornadoes swirling into a coiled windstorm that was pulled off the ground by a multitude of growing black spheres that pulled in close to each other, trying to crush the Behemoth between them while succeeding in twisting the eight tornadoes into a single black ball of wind, ash and debris.
Urd was capable of similar shows with her own power, even with a limiter. She had passed her first class license test, even if she refused the promotion. But, with the limiters that would wipe her out.
She could only assume that Ranma was in similar straights.
Forgetting her next lightning strike, Urd dived downward as Ranma's attack started running out of steam and the Behemoth crashed downward.
The goddess spotted the red-headed woman trying to catch her breath and gather herself to move, too slowly, and whipped past grabbing her out from under the monstrous robot.
****
Takuma stared at his monitors, one of them black from when the head had been damaged somehow, another cracked from whatever that had been that had just hit him.
His focus was suffering and he could tell that his shield was flickering all over his Behemoth as he pulled himself out of the water filled crater his fall had left.
He had a snapped rip that was threatening to puncture a lung at any point, but he didn't know that. All he knew was that his chest hurt like fire.
Standing up, his remaining monitors scanned through the few undamaged scanners and found, to his rage, that red-head being dropped off on a building by some sort of flying woman.
Angrily, the urge to destroy built up in him.
****
Mara stared, impressed as she pulled herself away from the field. Naiki backing off with her, eyes scanning about.
The girl was making sure her teacher wasn't ambushed again.
Mara smirked out the sentiment.
"That is probably the only use of pure chi I've seen match up to a Class 1 spell," Mara noted with a whistle.
"What have we been doing," Naiki asked.
"We shared a class 1, I supplied most of the power and gave you the control," Mara said, checking her injury and wiping her brow of sweat. "Since then, Class 3. I'm tired, and I'm not sure what you can handle on your own."
"What's class 2?" Naiki asked.
"Did you see those lightning bolts?" Mara asked.
"There's another demon out there?" Naiki said in surprise.
"Something like that," Mara noted.
"So, it's down now right?" Naiki asked, eyeing where Mara was bleeding, watching a parachute start landing in the distance for some reason.
"No such luck," Mara said. "That machine there is magnifying the power of whoever's in it. If I had to guess, I'd say we're basically trying to deal with an average 2nd class god or demon not wearing limiters."
"Umm, right," Naiki said.
"Enough power to level a France sized portion of the Himalayas," Mara said simply.
"But you're first class!" Naiki protested.
"With limiter!" the demoness said, pointing to her earrings. "Gods and Demons with limiters aren't much different than powerful chi-users. I need permission to drop it."
"Is that why the bullets hurt you?" the demi-goddess asked.
"Not right now, kid," Mara said. "It's moving again. Kid? Naiki?"
Mara turned to look at her to-be apprentice and watched as the girl's eyes fade out, as if not seeing the world around her.
"The hell?" Mara said, and then her eyes widened. "Oh crap!"
****
Eija blinked as the world around them vanished into whispers and strange symbols again. Suddenly, she looked about and saw the nude forms of Tessa and Kaname focusing hard on their task, so hard they didn't seem to notice the shift to that mental frame work.
Suddenly, across from her, she saw the sea-green skinned and blue-eyed form of her sister, glancing about in surprise and shock.
The hell? her sister said.
Naiki! Eija called out.
The mental projection of the sharkish Satomi turned to find Eija's jet-black, red-eyed body standing close at guard behind Kaname's form.
What is this place Naiki asked.
It's a mindscape, Eija explained. <I>Tessa and Kaname are 'resonating' together to find how to beat this thing.</i>
Naiki looked to the other two mental forms, the two pale skinned girls who looked as they did in the real world, save nude. The other Satomi was in the process of committing the sights to memory when she noticed that Kaname and Tessa's forms were coming closer together.
Eija! Keep them from touching! Naiki shouted, reaching forward to grab Tessa's spirit and start to pull.
What?! Eija asked. Why?
I don't know! Naiki said, struggling with Tessa's form and at times being dragged forward. But Tessa said too much resonating was bad! Just grab Kaname!
Eija nodded and shifted forward smoothly to easily lay hold of Kaname's soul and pull it way from Naiki and Tessa in a motion that looked as easy as breathing.
Naiki felt more than a slight pang of envy at that, but for the moment, she was more concerned with keeping Tessa seperate from Kaname.
Eija shrieked then, as she watched the hand she was using to push Kaname back started to turn white and some of her black slip into the blue-haired girl.
Concerned herself, Naiki turned about to see one of her hands likewise bleeding its color into Tessa, even as the sub-captain's partially bled into her.
Then both Whispered's eyes snapped open.
Got it!
I'll tell Sousuke!
All right, Miss Chidori, let's go.
And then the mind-scape vanished for all four.
****
Sousuke was moving toward the canister and setting up arbalest when his cell phone rang.
He checked the number and saw that it was Kaname. For a moment he thought about not answering, but perhaps it was something important, like that pervert attacking again. Something he'd have to deal with immediately on finishing this monstrosity.
"Miss Chidori, hello," Sousuke said calmly as he slipped into the cockpit. "Is everything oh..."
"There's a cooling system," Kaname said.
"What are you talking about?" Sousuke asked nervously.
"The Behemoth," Kaname said. "Tessa and I found it's weak point. There's a cooling system for the lambda driver in the thing's groin. Take that out and the lambda driver shuts down, the Behemoth is too heavy to move on its own."
"The groin?" Sousuke asked in confirmation.
"That's right," Kaname said. "You'll have to use the lambda driver for the attack. Nothing else is getting through."
"Affirmative," Sousuke said grimmly.
"It'll be a slit, left or right," Kaname said. "Either one will do."
"So basically..." Sousuke hesitated to continue.
"Yeah, kick it in the nuts," Kaname said viciously. "And do it HARD! Sousuke! Do you hear me?!"
"Affirmative," the mercenary said as the arbalest finished starting up. "Beginning attack run."
****
Urd blinked as a wave a chi started flashing toward her position.
The tired red-head she'd rescued stood up, her breath mostly caught and whirled her arms in swift circles.
"Kijin Toku!" she shouted, continuing to swing her arms about as a black shield came into being in front of her.
The red chi from the Behemoth slammed into the shield of vacuum, threatning, and, even if Ranma had managed to successfully give herself and Urd protection in her "Fierce-God Shelter", the building they were standing on should have been blown away.
Urd was nothing if not a quick learner and willing to experiment, however.
Also, she had not yet tired herself as thoroughly as either Ranma or Mara had.
She reached quickly through all the magic she could find and, borrowing the Yggdrasil readings of the phenomena in front of her, improvised a much wider shield.
"Now, that's not fair," Ranma said as she leapt away and looked towards the edges where Urd's shield hadn't protected the building from the lambda-chi blast.
"Excuse me, who was braiding tornadoes earlier?" Urd asked, breathing hard herself as she flew backwards away from the Behemoth.
****
Takuma slammed his fist down as his targets got away...again and then turned toward a threat assessment to see an AS heading his way.
Laughing uproariously at the absurdity of his powerful Behemoth being taken apart by such foes as unequipped men and women and old AS's, he lurched his machine forward to meet the attack by just outright smashing the white machine heading his way.
It seemed that was the new AS's intention as well, to die, smashed under Behemoth's foot, as it slid under the red monstrosity and fired a single lambda enhanced blast.
And then failure messages starting erupting all over his machine.
****
Sousuke rolled his AS into a standing position and bolted away to avoid the falling Behemoth. That hadn't required near the effort that beating Gauron had. Perhaps this Behemoth's lambda driver hadn't been as powerful.
Of course, another part of him said. It could also have had to do with how much of a beating the machine took before I got a credible shot at it.
****
Mara looked up from where Naiki was coming too, glancing toward where the Behemoth was finally falling.
Another chi-enhancing array armed into a suit. Granted this chi-enhancer was much more reasonable than that monstrosity, but still, it meant that this was more than just a fluke.
As did Naiki's current condition.
Human Chi had evolved into a Network, and there was no telling how many elements there were in it right now.
A quick check of Naiki told the demoness that the demi-goddess wasn't an element in a network yet, but she'd closely resonated with someone lacking necessary protections.
The personality bleed was starting already.
Right now it was just surface thoughts, occasional memories, but if Mara didn't do something soon, she was going to lose her recruit to this new human network. And the girl would lose her identity.
Phew, Kaname thought. >Glad that's over.
So am I, Eija returned.
Both girls froze and turned, almost simultaneously, to stare at each other.
"Eija-chan?" Kaname said tightly. "Isn't time you get out of my head?"
"I...I don't know what's going," Eija noted. I'm not a true telepath, what's happening?
"Well I certainly don't know," Kaname returned. Wait was that a thought or a spoken sentence?
I can hear both unless I focus on blocking you out, Eija answered. "It doesn't matter."
As the two girls were coming to that realization a red-headed woman dropped down in front of the girls, followed by the white-haired woman from the train station.
Isn't she the one that jumped into the TV? Kaname asked, eyebrow twitching as her weird meter progressed closer to explosion now that life and death weren't an issue.
"Are you girls all right?" Ranma asked wearily.
They looked at each other nervously, Kaname taking on an expression similar to the one she had been wearing when trying to get Eija to the nurses's office without alerting the other girl's family.
"We're sort of...hearing each other," Eija said.
Ranma frowned as she investigated their chi flows and noticed, yes, it was flowing together slightly, though possibly capable of getting stronger later.
Behind the red-headed martial artist, Urd frowned and stepped forward, staring very closely as she opened her palm top keyboard again.
"Remember what I said about merging personalities?" Urd said.
"You mean about Morrigan used to being 3 goddesses?" Ranma asked nervously.
"Looks like there is a chi network after all," Urd said. "And she's part of it."
Urd pointed to Kaname.
"Me? What are you talking about networks?" Kaname asked nervously.
Urd turned with a serious face toward Kaname.
"Your personality is slowly blending with hers," Urd said. "Right now you're picking up each other's surface thoughts. Soon it will be impossible to shut them out. After that, memories will start to bleed over. Then quirks. Eventually, neither Kaname Chidori nor Eija Satomi will exist, instead they will be replaced by a single personality that is both of you and neither of you at the same time."
"H...how do we stop it?" Kaname and Eija both asked at once, flinching as they did.
"If you were both pure human," Urd said. "Or were both full elements in the network, then we couldn't do anything...but..."
"But what?" Ranma asked.
"But Eija's a demi-goddess," Urd said. "If she's willing to come with me to Asgard, she can become a full goddess, including firewalls that will keep both her and Kaname from blending too severely."
"Demi-goddess!?" Kaname snapped, turning toward Eija. "Demi-goddess?!"
"Don't look at me," the girl said. "I hadn't heard of this before either."
Kaname shouted her frustration into the sky, gripping the bridge of her nose.
Ranma crossed her arms in silence.
"Would I have to stay up there?" Eija asked.
"No," Urd said. "You'd be expected to finish out your life-span here, actually. At the very least, before taking regular residence above."
"Is there any other way?" Ranma asked.
"You'd have to kill one of them," Urd said. "And even then, that soul might try to rush the process."
Ranma sat down and sighed before looking towards where she thought she felt Naiki and her apparent teacher.
"I..."
"Okaasan," Eija said. "Go find Naiki, I...I know what I'm going to do."
"You don't have to do this on my account," Kaname said. "Well, I guess it's our account...really....we're both gone otherwise..."
Eija smirked at that.
"She'll be back by tomorrow or the next day," Urd said, understanding the decision.
"Urd," Ranma said darkly. "If I don't get my girl back and healthy and herself. Someone's paying."
"No one's going to hurt her," Urd said. "You have my word."
****
Tessa was walking toward the Behemoth when she heard parts of a similar conversation.
Naiki! No! she thought.
I'm not joining Hell, the reckless Satomi said. This is just the only way to keep you and me from doing a creepy twin thing.
Naiki, there's another... Tessa sighed as she felt the other girl forcefully block thoughts from reaching the demi-goddess.
****
"This doesn't mean I have to stay in Hell, right?" Naiki asked.
"The longer you think about it, the more chance you have of absorbing your friend over there," Mara noted. "And yes, you'll be back here in a day or two."
"This isn't changing sides or anything," Naiki asked.
"Delays again?" Mara reminded the girl. "And there are demons that serve in Heaven. Besides, we can't change your god half, you'll be half-demon, half-god."
The demoness left unmentioned the favors Naiki had already worked up, nor what favors she'd accrue for the transformation.
Really, bringing Naiki in now as too soon. But the Resonance had rushed the issue.
It just meant they'd have to still be extra careful while training her. The line hadn't been crossed yet, and just a change of species wasn't going to push Mara over it.
If anything, and Mara could already hear Hild's lecture, this early transformation was just as likely as to ruin the whole plan and even if rogue and ascended demons were nothing new any longer, recruiting a human early only to have them switch sides, or even just stop being an element in the system, in a month or so was damn embarassing.
She wouldn't be able to treat Naiki like a common new hire.
Instead, she'd still be having to sweet talk the deal and explain the situation.
Besides, the link Naiki had to one of the element's of this Human network made her doubly valuable now.
"I'll go," Naiki said.
"Good," Mara responded with relief.
The blonde woman caught a glimpse of a red-head landed in their general area as she weaved her powers and smoke started to cover the two.
"Naiki!" Ranma shouted rushing forward.
Surprised, the demi-goddess turned to her mother and waved.
"'Kaasan," she shouted. "I'll be back soon."
"Two days, Saotome," Mara confirmed with a smirk. "I'll keep her safe until she comes back then."
Then the smoke covered them both and, as Ranma dashed through, that was all that there was.
Growling angrily at her lack of speed, body and chi drained by the fight. Ranma mentally promised that blonde woman pain the next time Ranma saw her.
****
Ranma came up beside Urd as the white-haired woman watched Eija and Kaname speak to Sousuke.
"I thought you were collecting another daughter," Urd said.
"Some blonde chick with red-tattoos took her away," Ranma said dangerously. "Anybody you know?"
"Red...you mean red marks?" Urd said in surprise. "Like mine?"
"Exactly," Ranma said, voice low and threatening. "So what are Gods doing kidnapping my girl?"
Urd didn't doubt that the woman would be able to do some damage to her before she did anything like teleport away.
"That wasn't a God," Urd said. "That was a Demoness. Did she say anything as she left?"
"She said she'd keep Naiki safe for two days and bring her back," Ranma said quietly. "You said demon?"
"Mara's an old friend of mine," Urd admited. "If she said she'll keep Naiki safe, then she means it. There'll be something up her sleeve, but she'll keep Naiki as safe as she can."
"A demon, keep someone safe?" Ranma asked for clarification.
"When they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions," Urd explained. "They don't just mean the humans that side with the demons. Most of the demons think what they do is in the best interest of everybody. Just like humans and gods, only a few are intentional assholes."
"Unfortunately the assholes stand out," Ranma muttered.
Across the way Sergeant Major Mao shuffled wearily into the scene with Lieutenant Commander Kalinin leaning on her shoulder.
****
"It's only for one or two days," Eija said. "Until this...problem can be fixed."
"I'll make sure to collect your assignments then," Sousuke said after some hesitation.
He gathered that there was an injury of some sort. Somehow the girls' minds had been injured and in order to protect both...Eija had to leave for a time?
Watching, he noted as both girls shook their heads, as if both realizing the same thing at once.
"Miss Chidori and I will be seeing you in two days then," Sousuke said firmly. "And we will discuss modifying my miniatures as suggested."
Each time he said will, it came with the staccato firmness of thunderbolt.
"And if we can't find you at school or home," Kaname added with a smirk.
"Then we will find you where-ever you are," Sousuke finished.
Flushing brilliantly, Eija started to bow to the other two, but stopped midway and lunged across to hug them both, to the surprise and momentary discomfort of Sousuke.
Kaname had more warning given her current mental link, which she wasn't choosing to block at the moment, but still let Eija hug anyway.
****
At the Satomi home, Deimosu hesitated at the door to his family's home.
There was something...strange about his decision to leave like this, with just a note explaining things.
There was something very strange.
He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but it had to do with the continuing reverbation of the Furies' voices in his ears.
The longer he tried to figure it out, the more the answer seemed to slip from him. He was certain now, that he was making some sort of mistake, but he couldn't be certain what that mistake was.
He seemed to remember that leaving felt like a mistake, but now it seemed more like waiting was.
The young man growled and shook his head angrily.
Why couldn't everything be simple?!
He had to get revenge for his mother!
That's what was simple. That was what he needed to focus on.
Was that even his own thought?
"Over course it is!" Deimosu declared. "Who else could be thinking for me?"
No, he had to go now, before this silly confusion spread.
Deimosu walked out the door.
****
"You almost lost him," Hecate noted to the Furies as they stared into their scrying pool.
"He is strong minded," one of the three said.
"We cannot bind him," followed the second.
"He will escape our spell before two weeks have past," the last predicted.
"And by that time he should be well on the path we want him," Hecate said with a smile.
****
Okaasan,
I know about the people that attacked you. I know you wouldn't want me to go seeking them out, because I was listening when you spoke to Akane Saotome.
But I can't let it sit.
These...things...must be punished, and I have it under authority that the punishment's they'll receive from their own kind aren't nearly severe enough.
I'll be fine.
After all, you've been training us for this.
Even if you don't want us to do it.
Your son, Deimosu.
****
It was the next day, after an empty night in her house, that Ranma called Zhuge Shen.
All about her, the house was in shambles, her children's rooms untouched by the catastrophe that had been her fear and sadness turned to rage upon finding Deimosu's note.
Now, she turned her thoughts toward the Mithril job.
Access to reports from all over Japan and probably other regions of Asia. Possibly access to information from other regions around the world.
Most of her time, Shen had said, would be spent picking talent and organizing job offers rather than actually going on missions.
"Zhuge-san," she said quietly. "I have a condition."
It was a few minutes later when she shut the phone closed and looked about the warehouse.
"I'll need to have this cleaned before Eija and Naiki get back," she muttered so quietly, that one wondered if she said anything at all. "Need to buy new furniture while I'm at it."
**********
AN:
I tried to make it obvious that Mara considered Naiki's recruitment incomplete and that even if they have some by contract holds on her, that they'd want to make sure she would stay of her own volition.
that she would decide it was the best choice.
right now, Mara is basically realizing that Naiki is going to get something of an eyeful and she isn't sure how much that will affect her decision.
she's half afraid of Naiki going rogue soon after or even switching sides.
basically, everything is screaming "too early" and "no choice" at the same time
So am I, Eija returned.
Both girls froze and turned, almost simultaneously, to stare at each other.
"Eija-chan?" Kaname said tightly. "Isn't time you get out of my head?"
"I...I don't know what's going," Eija noted. I'm not a true telepath, what's happening?
"Well I certainly don't know," Kaname returned. Wait was that a thought or a spoken sentence?
I can hear both unless I focus on blocking you out, Eija answered. "It doesn't matter."
As the two girls were coming to that realization a red-headed woman dropped down in front of the girls, followed by the white-haired woman from the train station.
Isn't she the one that jumped into the TV? Kaname asked, eyebrow twitching as her weird meter progressed closer to explosion now that life and death weren't an issue.
"Are you girls all right?" Ranma asked wearily.
They looked at each other nervously, Kaname taking on an expression similar to the one she had been wearing when trying to get Eija to the nurses's office without alerting the other girl's family.
"We're sort of...hearing each other," Eija said.
Ranma frowned as she investigated their chi flows and noticed, yes, it was flowing together slightly, though possibly capable of getting stronger later.
Behind the red-headed martial artist, Urd frowned and stepped forward, staring very closely as she opened her palm top keyboard again.
"Remember what I said about merging personalities?" Urd said.
"You mean about Morrigan used to being 3 goddesses?" Ranma asked nervously.
"Looks like there is a chi network after all," Urd said. "And she's part of it."
Urd pointed to Kaname.
"Me? What are you talking about networks?" Kaname asked nervously.
Urd turned with a serious face toward Kaname.
"Your personality is slowly blending with hers," Urd said. "Right now you're picking up each other's surface thoughts. Soon it will be impossible to shut them out. After that, memories will start to bleed over. Then quirks. Eventually, neither Kaname Chidori nor Eija Satomi will exist, instead they will be replaced by a single personality that is both of you and neither of you at the same time."
"H...how do we stop it?" Kaname and Eija both asked at once, flinching as they did.
"If you were both pure human," Urd said. "Or were both full elements in the network, then we couldn't do anything...but..."
"But what?" Ranma asked.
"But Eija's a demi-goddess," Urd said. "If she's willing to come with me to Asgard, she can become a full goddess, including firewalls that will keep both her and Kaname from blending too severely."
"Demi-goddess!?" Kaname snapped, turning toward Eija. "Demi-goddess?!"
"Don't look at me," the girl said. "I hadn't heard of this before either."
Kaname shouted her frustration into the sky, gripping the bridge of her nose.
Ranma crossed her arms in silence.
"Would I have to stay up there?" Eija asked.
"No," Urd said. "You'd be expected to finish out your life-span here, actually. At the very least, before taking regular residence above."
"Is there any other way?" Ranma asked.
"You'd have to kill one of them," Urd said. "And even then, that soul might try to rush the process."
Ranma sat down and sighed before looking towards where she thought she felt Naiki and her apparent teacher.
"I..."
"Okaasan," Eija said. "Go find Naiki, I...I know what I'm going to do."
"You don't have to do this on my account," Kaname said. "Well, I guess it's our account...really....we're both gone otherwise..."
Eija smirked at that.
"She'll be back by tomorrow or the next day," Urd said, understanding the decision.
"Urd," Ranma said darkly. "If I don't get my girl back and healthy and herself. Someone's paying."
"No one's going to hurt her," Urd said. "You have my word."
****
Tessa was walking toward the Behemoth when she heard parts of a similar conversation.
Naiki! No! she thought.
I'm not joining Hell, the reckless Satomi said. This is just the only way to keep you and me from doing a creepy twin thing.
Naiki, there's another... Tessa sighed as she felt the other girl forcefully block thoughts from reaching the demi-goddess.
****
"This doesn't mean I have to stay in Hell, right?" Naiki asked.
"The longer you think about it, the more chance you have of absorbing your friend over there," Mara noted. "And yes, you'll be back here in a day or two."
"This isn't changing sides or anything," Naiki asked.
"Delays again?" Mara reminded the girl. "And there are demons that serve in Heaven. Besides, we can't change your god half, you'll be half-demon, half-god."
The demoness left unmentioned the favors Naiki had already worked up, nor what favors she'd accrue for the transformation.
Really, bringing Naiki in now as too soon. But the Resonance had rushed the issue.
It just meant they'd have to still be extra careful while training her. The line hadn't been crossed yet, and just a change of species wasn't going to push Mara over it.
If anything, and Mara could already hear Hild's lecture, this early transformation was just as likely as to ruin the whole plan and even if rogue and ascended demons were nothing new any longer, recruiting a human early only to have them switch sides, or even just stop being an element in the system, in a month or so was damn embarassing.
She wouldn't be able to treat Naiki like a common new hire.
Instead, she'd still be having to sweet talk the deal and explain the situation.
Besides, the link Naiki had to one of the element's of this Human network made her doubly valuable now.
"I'll go," Naiki said.
"Good," Mara responded with relief.
The blonde woman caught a glimpse of a red-head landed in their general area as she weaved her powers and smoke started to cover the two.
"Naiki!" Ranma shouted rushing forward.
Surprised, the demi-goddess turned to her mother and waved.
"'Kaasan," she shouted. "I'll be back soon."
"Two days, Saotome," Mara confirmed with a smirk. "I'll keep her safe until she comes back then."
Then the smoke covered them both and, as Ranma dashed through, that was all that there was.
Growling angrily at her lack of speed, body and chi drained by the fight. Ranma mentally promised that blonde woman pain the next time Ranma saw her.
****
Ranma came up beside Urd as the white-haired woman watched Eija and Kaname speak to Sousuke.
"I thought you were collecting another daughter," Urd said.
"Some blonde chick with red-tattoos took her away," Ranma said dangerously. "Anybody you know?"
"Red...you mean red marks?" Urd said in surprise. "Like mine?"
"Exactly," Ranma said, voice low and threatening. "So what are Gods doing kidnapping my girl?"
Urd didn't doubt that the woman would be able to do some damage to her before she did anything like teleport away.
"That wasn't a God," Urd said. "That was a Demoness. Did she say anything as she left?"
"She said she'd keep Naiki safe for two days and bring her back," Ranma said quietly. "You said demon?"
"Mara's an old friend of mine," Urd admited. "If she said she'll keep Naiki safe, then she means it. There'll be something up her sleeve, but she'll keep Naiki as safe as she can."
"A demon, keep someone safe?" Ranma asked for clarification.
"When they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions," Urd explained. "They don't just mean the humans that side with the demons. Most of the demons think what they do is in the best interest of everybody. Just like humans and gods, only a few are intentional assholes."
"Unfortunately the assholes stand out," Ranma muttered.
Across the way Sergeant Major Mao shuffled wearily into the scene with Lieutenant Commander Kalinin leaning on her shoulder.
****
"It's only for one or two days," Eija said. "Until this...problem can be fixed."
"I'll make sure to collect your assignments then," Sousuke said after some hesitation.
He gathered that there was an injury of some sort. Somehow the girls' minds had been injured and in order to protect both...Eija had to leave for a time?
Watching, he noted as both girls shook their heads, as if both realizing the same thing at once.
"Miss Chidori and I will be seeing you in two days then," Sousuke said firmly. "And we will discuss modifying my miniatures as suggested."
Each time he said will, it came with the staccato firmness of thunderbolt.
"And if we can't find you at school or home," Kaname added with a smirk.
"Then we will find you where-ever you are," Sousuke finished.
Flushing brilliantly, Eija started to bow to the other two, but stopped midway and lunged across to hug them both, to the surprise and momentary discomfort of Sousuke.
Kaname had more warning given her current mental link, which she wasn't choosing to block at the moment, but still let Eija hug anyway.
****
At the Satomi home, Deimosu hesitated at the door to his family's home.
There was something...strange about his decision to leave like this, with just a note explaining things.
There was something very strange.
He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but it had to do with the continuing reverbation of the Furies' voices in his ears.
The longer he tried to figure it out, the more the answer seemed to slip from him. He was certain now, that he was making some sort of mistake, but he couldn't be certain what that mistake was.
He seemed to remember that leaving felt like a mistake, but now it seemed more like waiting was.
The young man growled and shook his head angrily.
Why couldn't everything be simple?!
He had to get revenge for his mother!
That's what was simple. That was what he needed to focus on.
Was that even his own thought?
"Over course it is!" Deimosu declared. "Who else could be thinking for me?"
No, he had to go now, before this silly confusion spread.
Deimosu walked out the door.
****
"You almost lost him," Hecate noted to the Furies as they stared into their scrying pool.
"He is strong minded," one of the three said.
"We cannot bind him," followed the second.
"He will escape our spell before two weeks have past," the last predicted.
"And by that time he should be well on the path we want him," Hecate said with a smile.
****
Okaasan,
I know about the people that attacked you. I know you wouldn't want me to go seeking them out, because I was listening when you spoke to Akane Saotome.
But I can't let it sit.
These...things...must be punished, and I have it under authority that the punishment's they'll receive from their own kind aren't nearly severe enough.
I'll be fine.
After all, you've been training us for this.
Even if you don't want us to do it.
Your son, Deimosu.
****
It was the next day, after an empty night in her house, that Ranma called Zhuge Shen.
All about her, the house was in shambles, her children's rooms untouched by the catastrophe that had been her fear and sadness turned to rage upon finding Deimosu's note.
Now, she turned her thoughts toward the Mithril job.
Access to reports from all over Japan and probably other regions of Asia. Possibly access to information from other regions around the world.
Most of her time, Shen had said, would be spent picking talent and organizing job offers rather than actually going on missions.
"Zhuge-san," she said quietly. "I have a condition."
It was a few minutes later when she shut the phone closed and looked about the warehouse.
"I'll need to have this cleaned before Eija and Naiki get back," she muttered so quietly, that one wondered if she said anything at all. "Need to buy new furniture while I'm at it."
**********
AN:
I tried to make it obvious that Mara considered Naiki's recruitment incomplete and that even if they have some by contract holds on her, that they'd want to make sure she would stay of her own volition.
that she would decide it was the best choice.
right now, Mara is basically realizing that Naiki is going to get something of an eyeful and she isn't sure how much that will affect her decision.
she's half afraid of Naiki going rogue soon after or even switching sides.
basically, everything is screaming "too early" and "no choice" at the same time
By the way Trythlind, I think the "three years later" in your summary on fanfiction.net is superfluous.
Divine Blood ? by Thrythlind reviews
Seventeen years ago, three gods started a bet to see who could spawn the strongest hero. This bet destroyed Ranma Saotome's old life. Now, three years later, the martial artist's children are being wrapped up in events beyond their control. FemRanma OMG
Divine Blood ? by Thrythlind reviews
Seventeen years ago, three gods started a bet to see who could spawn the strongest hero. This bet destroyed Ranma Saotome's old life. Now, three years later, the martial artist's children are being wrapped up in events beyond their control. FemRanma OMG
Did Hecate leave any back-doors into Eija's psyche? If she did, she's about to be kicked out; Urd might be lazy, but I can't see her missing something like that when she knows that this is going to be getting a lot of Attention of the sort that deserves the capital letter. I can see the Morrigan asking about that, too. Hecate might have a plan, but there's an old saying to the effect that "plans never survive first contact with the enemy."
Mara, though... I don't know enough about her to even guess if she'd look for that kind of thing. Hild might, if she thought about it.
Of course, if there isn't a back-door in, this is all moot.
Mara, though... I don't know enough about her to even guess if she'd look for that kind of thing. Hild might, if she thought about it.
Of course, if there isn't a back-door in, this is all moot.
Eija stared around her at the lush green paradise that was heaven. In the distance she could see snow mountains, but here, in front of her was a beautiful green park in the middle of a host of buildings built in an endless variety of styles, and yet not appearing out of place.
As she stared around, she was reminded of the country kids that came in and saw Athens for the first time.
Or how she felt coming into Tokyo for that matter.
Only on a much, much higher degree.
The middle of it all, a massive tree grew up through the middle of the landscape.
"Let's go," Urd said, pointing down the path out of the park and towards a high rising spire that looked like it belonged in some sort of temple. "That's the main offices. We'll need to head to immigrations."
Urd was typing on a full sized holographic keyboard as they walked.
"What are you doing?" Eija asked.
"I'm sending word ahead as to what's going on," Urd said, then she frowned. "Kali's going to meet us in Frigga's office."
"Excuse me," the demi-goddess said. "Would that be Kali, who the thugees worship."
"She gets that a lot," Urd said with a smile. "But she's not the weird one, Kali heads up immigration. Frigga's my boss at the Helper Goddess Office."
"And what do you do there?" Eija asked.
"We maintain Yggdrasil," Urd said, pointing toward the huge tree that held in the center of the world. "That's the physical element, but the important part is all of us, our minds. That provides power, keeps records of events, memories and spells, but without the gods it's just a tree."
"And without it, the Gods are just powerful chi-users?" Eija asked.
"Mana, actually," Urd said. "But that covers it. We make sure the network and everybody in it stays secure, healthy and working properly. Actually your..."
Urd hesitated and closed her mouth.
"My father works there," Eija said quietly.
"Other mother, actually," Urd said.
That caught Eija by surprise.
"Okassan never talks about our...other parent," Eija said. "I asked once and she only said we'd have to be ready. I assumed that she was..."
"Do you want to talk about this now, with me?" Urd asked. "Or do you want to ask your mother about it?"
"Right," Eija said. "I should talk to her first."
"Why don't we trade anecdotes on the way then," Urd said with a smirk.
So saying, Urd went into a story about her youngest sister and some sort of robotics contest with the sister of their middle sister's boyfriend. It ended with the young goddess destroying both machines instead of losing, resulting in a draw.
It didn't take much longer past that story for them to reach their destination.
The building was bigger than most cities Eija had heard of, but it didn't look like that from outside. Even inside, the young dark-haired girl only had a vague impression of the size of the building. Things like hallways that extended for miles, or windows that opened up on conference rooms the size of stadiums.
There were a few more anecdotes, several involving a demon women named Mara. Things about bugs in booze, blast flowers in apology bouquets and contests of ping-pong, video games and karaoke.
And a story about how this demon woman Mara split her into two parts.
"She was wanting, I guess, a me to hang out with all the time," Urd said. "Instead of just when our jobs brought us in on opposite sides or when we took some vacation. Of course, she didn't expect my demon-side to go on a rampage, seems splitting a person's personality into two parts makes for unstable people. Belldandy ended up making her stay in the temple for two days until she healed up afterward."
Eija knew the reason for those stories and had to smile at the thought behind them. She'd heard, before they left, that her sister had gone off with a demon, the same demon Urd was now talking about.
It definitely concerned her, but having a more complete picture of the demoness in question made her slightly more comfortable.
The office Urd led her to looked something like the bridge of a starcraft from a TV show. Two women were inside, a tall Indian woman and a blonde Scandanavian behind a desk.
Even if Kali hadn't been in an Indian appearance, Eija was able to recognize her from the feeling of death that hung around the destroyer.
It dwarfed her own.
The blonde woman had a much more motherly aura to her, but there was more than a hint of a warrior underneath the warm exterior. It reminded Eija of her own mother, actually.
"So, what's going on here?" Urd asked coming in.
"Urd, when will you ever learn to mind your manners?" Frigga asked, she turned toward Eija with a smile. "Would you mind waiting for..."
"This has to do with her, Frigga," Kali interrupted. "She has the right to stay."
The blonde turned a clearly disapproving eye toward Kali.
"I would appreciate it if you did not dictate terms to me in my own office," Frigga said coolly. "But I suppose you are correct."
"Excuse me," Eija said. "What's going on?"
Frigga turned toward Urd.
"Morrigan came by with Horus and Tyr looking for Hecate," Frigga said. "Unfortunately, she'd already left."
"Left?" Urd said.
"From what we can tell," Frigga said. "When you started uploading Miss Satomi's data, she started obscuring her own file and then left."
"Wouldn't that make her magic weak like it did to me?" Eija asked.
"We've also found tracks in her recent system logs to show that she's ordered the release of a virtual arsenal in devices out of the vault," Frigga said. "Enough spell tools, personal focusing items and enhancing devices that she could probably do without accessing more than her personal powers and mana."
"Long story short," Kali said. "She's taken herself out of the system and equipped herself to compensate."
"You leave those things in a vault instead of using them?" Eija asked.
"They're from before we used devices to focus and enhance the network itself," Urd explained. "They're obsolete to anybody that isn't rogue. They're saying Hecate's been planning a leavetaking connected to your family getting found."
Eija took in a deep breath as she realized that Hecate was her other mother.
"Indeed," Kali said. "And we want to make sure she didn't leave any surprises behind that could be detrimental to our new hire's life-span."
A chill went down Eija's spine.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"You'd probably call it a curse," Frigga said. "We tend to use the more up to date term: virus. The mind is like a computer you see, and Yggdrasil is basically a mass of minds linked together. Powerful minds with access to incredible powers. And a virus is basically a renegade bit of instruction that causes our computers up here to give wrong commands." She pointed to her head.
"Hecate was one of our best security staff here," Kali said. "According to both Frigga and Urd there, among others. She probably knows more about viruses than anyone in Yggdrasil that isn't a demon, and she probably knows more than a lot of the demons who've defected."
"You're saying," Eija said, hands clinched tightly. "That this...person took..." she grimaced and didn't say much further. "That she cursed me...gave me a virus...despite the fact that I'm her..."
"Hecate's plans are long-spanning," Kali said. "She's not prone to the sort of thrills that motivated the oth-"
Urd gave a quick gesture and Kali cut off.
"Others," Eija thought.
She really had to talk to her mother.
"Regardless," Frigga said. "She's been purposefully delaying the Eyes of Ra from finding your mother, hiding your existence from Heaven and Hell and generally playing dangerous games with people's lives in all three worlds."
"What do I have to do?" Eija asked.
"You're going to have to sit in a chair for several hours while people scan you down to the soul," Urd said.
"That sounds...tedious," the dark-haired Satomi said.
"For all concerned," Frigga agreed. "Kali has called in a few of our resident demons to consult on this."
"Kishimo-jin," Kali said in confirmation. "and Tlazolteotl."
"And who from our department?" Urd asked.
"I was thinking you, Peorth and Kuan Yin," Frigga said.
"Shouldn't we get started?" Eija asked. "I seem to have this...Resonance thing."
"Reso...oh yes, the spirit merger," Frigga said. "You weren't clear on what was occuring there, Urd. Is she merging with one of her siblings, or another demi-god? If so you should have brought them with you as well."
"No, she's merging with a human," Urd said.
Both the other goddesses stared at her blankly, Frigga obviously thinking there was a poorly thought out joke in that comment.
"Humans have developed a chi network," Urd said and the goddess's eyes widened. "It's primitive, no safeguards. Eija here is close friends with one of the Elements."
"A third network," Kali said. "Well, that changes things."
"Indeed," Frigga said. "I'll call in your sister, Belldandy of course, for the virus scans then. Urd, you'll be reporting your findings on this chi-network to the department heads."
Urd winced at the fact that she'd just gotten herself a long tiring meeting.
"Is there something wrong?" Eija asked cautiously. "Kaname's a nice person."
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the other women.
"It requires caution," Kali said. "No one seriously considered this a possibility for another few hundred years, so we're a little behind in planning. We're not going to hurt your friend, Eija Satomi. And that is a promise."
Eija nodded at that, promising herself that she would make sure of that.
As she stared around, she was reminded of the country kids that came in and saw Athens for the first time.
Or how she felt coming into Tokyo for that matter.
Only on a much, much higher degree.
The middle of it all, a massive tree grew up through the middle of the landscape.
"Let's go," Urd said, pointing down the path out of the park and towards a high rising spire that looked like it belonged in some sort of temple. "That's the main offices. We'll need to head to immigrations."
Urd was typing on a full sized holographic keyboard as they walked.
"What are you doing?" Eija asked.
"I'm sending word ahead as to what's going on," Urd said, then she frowned. "Kali's going to meet us in Frigga's office."
"Excuse me," the demi-goddess said. "Would that be Kali, who the thugees worship."
"She gets that a lot," Urd said with a smile. "But she's not the weird one, Kali heads up immigration. Frigga's my boss at the Helper Goddess Office."
"And what do you do there?" Eija asked.
"We maintain Yggdrasil," Urd said, pointing toward the huge tree that held in the center of the world. "That's the physical element, but the important part is all of us, our minds. That provides power, keeps records of events, memories and spells, but without the gods it's just a tree."
"And without it, the Gods are just powerful chi-users?" Eija asked.
"Mana, actually," Urd said. "But that covers it. We make sure the network and everybody in it stays secure, healthy and working properly. Actually your..."
Urd hesitated and closed her mouth.
"My father works there," Eija said quietly.
"Other mother, actually," Urd said.
That caught Eija by surprise.
"Okassan never talks about our...other parent," Eija said. "I asked once and she only said we'd have to be ready. I assumed that she was..."
"Do you want to talk about this now, with me?" Urd asked. "Or do you want to ask your mother about it?"
"Right," Eija said. "I should talk to her first."
"Why don't we trade anecdotes on the way then," Urd said with a smirk.
So saying, Urd went into a story about her youngest sister and some sort of robotics contest with the sister of their middle sister's boyfriend. It ended with the young goddess destroying both machines instead of losing, resulting in a draw.
It didn't take much longer past that story for them to reach their destination.
The building was bigger than most cities Eija had heard of, but it didn't look like that from outside. Even inside, the young dark-haired girl only had a vague impression of the size of the building. Things like hallways that extended for miles, or windows that opened up on conference rooms the size of stadiums.
There were a few more anecdotes, several involving a demon women named Mara. Things about bugs in booze, blast flowers in apology bouquets and contests of ping-pong, video games and karaoke.
And a story about how this demon woman Mara split her into two parts.
"She was wanting, I guess, a me to hang out with all the time," Urd said. "Instead of just when our jobs brought us in on opposite sides or when we took some vacation. Of course, she didn't expect my demon-side to go on a rampage, seems splitting a person's personality into two parts makes for unstable people. Belldandy ended up making her stay in the temple for two days until she healed up afterward."
Eija knew the reason for those stories and had to smile at the thought behind them. She'd heard, before they left, that her sister had gone off with a demon, the same demon Urd was now talking about.
It definitely concerned her, but having a more complete picture of the demoness in question made her slightly more comfortable.
The office Urd led her to looked something like the bridge of a starcraft from a TV show. Two women were inside, a tall Indian woman and a blonde Scandanavian behind a desk.
Even if Kali hadn't been in an Indian appearance, Eija was able to recognize her from the feeling of death that hung around the destroyer.
It dwarfed her own.
The blonde woman had a much more motherly aura to her, but there was more than a hint of a warrior underneath the warm exterior. It reminded Eija of her own mother, actually.
"So, what's going on here?" Urd asked coming in.
"Urd, when will you ever learn to mind your manners?" Frigga asked, she turned toward Eija with a smile. "Would you mind waiting for..."
"This has to do with her, Frigga," Kali interrupted. "She has the right to stay."
The blonde turned a clearly disapproving eye toward Kali.
"I would appreciate it if you did not dictate terms to me in my own office," Frigga said coolly. "But I suppose you are correct."
"Excuse me," Eija said. "What's going on?"
Frigga turned toward Urd.
"Morrigan came by with Horus and Tyr looking for Hecate," Frigga said. "Unfortunately, she'd already left."
"Left?" Urd said.
"From what we can tell," Frigga said. "When you started uploading Miss Satomi's data, she started obscuring her own file and then left."
"Wouldn't that make her magic weak like it did to me?" Eija asked.
"We've also found tracks in her recent system logs to show that she's ordered the release of a virtual arsenal in devices out of the vault," Frigga said. "Enough spell tools, personal focusing items and enhancing devices that she could probably do without accessing more than her personal powers and mana."
"Long story short," Kali said. "She's taken herself out of the system and equipped herself to compensate."
"You leave those things in a vault instead of using them?" Eija asked.
"They're from before we used devices to focus and enhance the network itself," Urd explained. "They're obsolete to anybody that isn't rogue. They're saying Hecate's been planning a leavetaking connected to your family getting found."
Eija took in a deep breath as she realized that Hecate was her other mother.
"Indeed," Kali said. "And we want to make sure she didn't leave any surprises behind that could be detrimental to our new hire's life-span."
A chill went down Eija's spine.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"You'd probably call it a curse," Frigga said. "We tend to use the more up to date term: virus. The mind is like a computer you see, and Yggdrasil is basically a mass of minds linked together. Powerful minds with access to incredible powers. And a virus is basically a renegade bit of instruction that causes our computers up here to give wrong commands." She pointed to her head.
"Hecate was one of our best security staff here," Kali said. "According to both Frigga and Urd there, among others. She probably knows more about viruses than anyone in Yggdrasil that isn't a demon, and she probably knows more than a lot of the demons who've defected."
"You're saying," Eija said, hands clinched tightly. "That this...person took..." she grimaced and didn't say much further. "That she cursed me...gave me a virus...despite the fact that I'm her..."
"Hecate's plans are long-spanning," Kali said. "She's not prone to the sort of thrills that motivated the oth-"
Urd gave a quick gesture and Kali cut off.
"Others," Eija thought.
She really had to talk to her mother.
"Regardless," Frigga said. "She's been purposefully delaying the Eyes of Ra from finding your mother, hiding your existence from Heaven and Hell and generally playing dangerous games with people's lives in all three worlds."
"What do I have to do?" Eija asked.
"You're going to have to sit in a chair for several hours while people scan you down to the soul," Urd said.
"That sounds...tedious," the dark-haired Satomi said.
"For all concerned," Frigga agreed. "Kali has called in a few of our resident demons to consult on this."
"Kishimo-jin," Kali said in confirmation. "and Tlazolteotl."
"And who from our department?" Urd asked.
"I was thinking you, Peorth and Kuan Yin," Frigga said.
"Shouldn't we get started?" Eija asked. "I seem to have this...Resonance thing."
"Reso...oh yes, the spirit merger," Frigga said. "You weren't clear on what was occuring there, Urd. Is she merging with one of her siblings, or another demi-god? If so you should have brought them with you as well."
"No, she's merging with a human," Urd said.
Both the other goddesses stared at her blankly, Frigga obviously thinking there was a poorly thought out joke in that comment.
"Humans have developed a chi network," Urd said and the goddess's eyes widened. "It's primitive, no safeguards. Eija here is close friends with one of the Elements."
"A third network," Kali said. "Well, that changes things."
"Indeed," Frigga said. "I'll call in your sister, Belldandy of course, for the virus scans then. Urd, you'll be reporting your findings on this chi-network to the department heads."
Urd winced at the fact that she'd just gotten herself a long tiring meeting.
"Is there something wrong?" Eija asked cautiously. "Kaname's a nice person."
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the other women.
"It requires caution," Kali said. "No one seriously considered this a possibility for another few hundred years, so we're a little behind in planning. We're not going to hurt your friend, Eija Satomi. And that is a promise."
Eija nodded at that, promising herself that she would make sure of that.
Ranma's kids, they need a good telling off, a beating/spanking at best. One thing which could be good, if Hecate or some other God or Demon, did something to Ranma to make her say screw you little brats, you want to F-off then go! lol, or if Ranma was offered to become male again if she looses contact with the brats?
Yeah. And Eija has done nothing wrong. And Deimos and Naiki deserves a good scolding and spanking.
As for the goddesses finding the decoy virus and convincing themselves that there isn't a second or n hidden virii that are a lot more subtle, they deserve to be demoted a rank or two as punishment when it is all over. Maybe even enforce a sabbatical with white and black hat hackers amongst the humans. :sick3:
This story is no longer so cheerful with all that looming darkness.
As for the goddesses finding the decoy virus and convincing themselves that there isn't a second or n hidden virii that are a lot more subtle, they deserve to be demoted a rank or two as punishment when it is all over. Maybe even enforce a sabbatical with white and black hat hackers amongst the humans. :sick3:
This story is no longer so cheerful with all that looming darkness.
rdde said:
Yeah. And Eija has done nothing wrong. And Deimos and Naiki deserves a good scolding and spanking.
As for the goddesses finding the decoy virus and convincing themselves that there isn't a second or n hidden virii that are a lot more subtle, they deserve to be demoted a rank or two as punishment when it is all over. Maybe even enforce a sabbatical with white and black hat hackers amongst the humans. :sick3:
This story is no longer so cheerful with all that looming darkness.
As for the goddesses finding the decoy virus and convincing themselves that there isn't a second or n hidden virii that are a lot more subtle, they deserve to be demoted a rank or two as punishment when it is all over. Maybe even enforce a sabbatical with white and black hat hackers amongst the humans. :sick3:
This story is no longer so cheerful with all that looming darkness.
Well written, and a ton of other things, but not cheerful.
rdde said:
Yeah. And Eija has done nothing wrong. And Deimos and Naiki deserves a good scolding and spanking.
As for the goddesses finding the decoy virus and convincing themselves that there isn't a second or n hidden virii that are a lot more subtle, they deserve to be demoted a rank or two as punishment when it is all over. Maybe even enforce a sabbatical with white and black hat hackers amongst the humans.? :sick3:
This story is no longer so cheerful with all that looming darkness.
As for the goddesses finding the decoy virus and convincing themselves that there isn't a second or n hidden virii that are a lot more subtle, they deserve to be demoted a rank or two as punishment when it is all over. Maybe even enforce a sabbatical with white and black hat hackers amongst the humans.? :sick3:
This story is no longer so cheerful with all that looming darkness.
I'm mostly using the manga....I only have immediate access to the manga, the OAVs and one movie.
However, yeah, I do have a few episodes of the TV show which are a lot closer to the manga than the OAVs....so I guess it could be said I'm leaning toward manga/TV.
I haven't used the movies or OAVs yet....mostly just the manga stories
"Welcome to Nifelheim," Mara said as the smoke dissapated.
"Okay, this is not what I expected," Naiki noticed as she looked around.
At the moment, the demi-goddess was helping support Mara.
"Oh, really?" Mara asked as she looked aruond at the red skies filled with black clouds.
Trailing down from some imperceptible height were reaching tendrils that reminded Naiki of the roots of an upturned tree. In the midst of the strongest of the roots coiled the vague form of a tremendous serpent.
Around them was a wild area, overgrown with bushes and weeds amongst twisted trees. Naiki heard a creepy giggling and occasional saw childish faces peeking out from amongst the foliage.
Here and there, fires burned up through the ground, disgorging a thick smoke that had Naiki's eyes and nose stinging, but there were railings around those fire pits, well out from the heat. Obviously meant to keep onlookers from getting too close. Aside from the skies and those fires, however, Naiki was finding that Hell wasn't that...well, hellish.
A little ways further out, the demi-goddess could see a tumble of buildings not much different than she'd seen in cities and towns before, though there was a lack of unity in some regards. Each building just seemed to be doing its own thing regardless of its neighbors.
"We don't exactly have Heaven's living standards," Mara said. "But we're not primitives."
"Umm, is there a hospital?" Naiki asked, noting that Mara was still bleeding from the three wounds that woman had managed to give her.
"It looks worse than it is, kid," Mara said.
There was a couple of seconds of silence after that.
"It's down that road," Mara said. "Looks like a cross between a monastery and a mad-scientist's castle."
Naiki nodded and started walking off in that direction, holding Mara around the waist.
Purely in case the demoness felt weak at anytime.
"My waist is higher than that," Mara said as they came in front of the hospital.
A man, demon, was walking out of the building and blinked as he saw Mara and the green-haired girl coming up the road. An amused expression worked over his face as he moved forward to help Mara forward.
"Mara, you haven't finished paying for your last visit," he said.
"Stuff it Dever," Mara said. "And I need to make a call before you start working."
"Are you expecting anesthesia, Mara," the demon asked. "These flesh wounds aren't going to need that level of healing."
"There's a time issue here," Mara said. "The girl needs to be at Registration as soon as we can get her there."
Dever turned to look at Naiki then as they came into a room and he directed Mara to lay down on a bed.
"Heya," she said hesitantly.
"A demigoddess," the man said, looking over her carefully. "A sea-child I see."
"Umm, I...what?" Naiki asked, looking toward the man. "I'm just a strong human."
"As you say," Dever said with a curious smile.
The demon of plagues had an eye for biology and anatomy, and he knew a half-blooded being when he saw one. Still, if she didn't know, Mara had a good reason to keep that knowledge from her. So it would be best not push the issue.
"Make your call, Mara," the man said, unfolding a panel to reveal a computer monitor. "I'm going to get some assitants in here."
Mara moved toward the panel and started typing at it. Naiki recognized texting when she saw it, even if she herself never got a cell phone to take part. Apparently, the term "call" was meant in a broad sense.
Mara frowned a bit as she turned around and closed the panel, but nodded as if she wasn't too surprised.
"We'll be going to the Network War Center first," Mara said.
"The what?" Naiki asked.
"Hell's code monkeys," Mara said.
Then she quieted as Dever came back in with a young woman that Naiki thought was a demoness at first glance, though the symbols on her head were different and had different colors.
"So, are you going to be casting a healing spell on Mara then?" Naiki asked, paying close attention as they removed Mara's top.
And sighed as it was proved Mara was wearing a bra.
Dever turned toward the glowering demoness and examined her arm, shoulder and side where the bullets had impacted before turning toward a set of tools.
"Unfortunately," Dever said. "Demonic magic is not well known for healing power. The side wound went straight through, fortunately, and missed anything vital. My own magic is about making the body fail rather than keeping it up, I can turn that against a disease...kill it before it kills the patient, but for purely physical wounds like this, the old skills are best. Fortunately I have a innate sense of anatomy as well."
Mara gritted her teeth painfully as the demon turned a sci-fi looking device on her side injury and a beam passed over it leaving a sealed burn behind. As that was done, the young woman moved in to place her hands over the injury and quietly started chanting.
"I thought you said you didn't have healing magic," Naiki said.
"Oh, Althea, introduce yourself please," Dever said as he moved around behind Mara to start probing the shoulder wound.
"Oh, yes," the woman said with a smile. "I'm Althea, Goddess of Medics."
"Wait, shouldn't a goddess stay in Heaven?" Naiki asked.
"Heaven's policies aren't going to stop the evils of any of the worlds," Althea said seriously. "They're too restrictive on each their own actions and too...generous. Besides, Nifelheim has a more desperate need for healers, even minor ones like me."
"So what makes you minor?" Naiki asked.
"I'm the magical equivalent of first aid," Althea said. "I can't instantly heal wounds, but I can stop them from getting worse and make the body heal faster. Any other healing spells is in Yggdrasil's system and I'm barred access now."
"Oh," Naiki said.
"That feels better," Mara said moments before crying out as Dever continued probing her shoulder.
"You're going to need a sling for this," Dever said. "Do you concur?"
"That'll be best," Althea said. "One day, maybe two."
"So I'll be a hundred percent when we go back up to Earth," Mara noted with approval.
It didn't take long to finish up treating the injuries so that Mara and Naiki could continue with their business here.
"Thank you for your business, Mara," Dever said as she left. "Always good to have one of the elite owing you favors."
The word elite was said with more than a trace of sardonic wit.
Walking through the streets, Naiki noticed that some parts of Nifelheim seemed more hellish than others. Though, for the most part, the fires, ash and smoke were still the only thing that matched the stereotypes, and even they seemed less malevolent than she thought.
Just irritating.
"When you become a demon, you'll stop noticing," Mara said. "Earth will seem a bit thin to you though. Except some of the cities, Los Angeles is still pretty smoggy at times I hear."
"Wait, pollution is a demonic plot?" Naiki asked.
"Yes...no...sort of," Mara said gesturing in a bit of confusion. "Someone thought it would make it easier to deal with humans if the environment was more tolerable to us than to the Gods, but the industrial revolution was already going on strong. Couldn't keep it up, anyway."
"Why not?" Naiki asked.
Mara sighed for a moment and concentrated before chanting in a language Naiki did not know. As she did, Mara's features twisted, face becoming more pointed and angular, with large, frilled ears, dark scaled skin, a thin twisting tail and enlongated, taloned arms.
She held that form for perhaps ten seconds before reverting back to her normal face, turning to face Naiki.
"Wh..what was that?" Naiki asked.
"That's a spell to recall our people's original appearance and bodies," Mara said.
"So, that's what I'm becoming?" Naiki asked.
"What, Hell no," Mara said. "Demons haven't naturally looked like that since the first God-Demon war. Thank god, those bodies were the ugliest." She did have vague memories that she didn't always think that way.
"What made the change?" Naiki asked.
"We both started hiding among humans, appealing to them," Mara said. "Rewriting ourselves to resemble them. Reincarnating to live among them and understand them. It became more and more permanent over time."
"So what seperates Gods, Demons and Humans now?" Naiki asked.
"Lots of things," Mara said shrugging. "We only changed the outer appearance, and maybe absorbed some philosophies and culture differences. Though that might be why demons and gods only started interbreeding with humans and each other over the last four or five thousand years."
"And I'm becoming a Demon?" Naiki asked.
"Half-Demon," Mara said. "Can't change Gods into Demons, or vice versa. Can't change the parts of you wired to be a God."
"Why not?" Naiki asked again as they continued walking along.
"They're elements in a network," Mara said. "Even if they leave their network, that sort of wiring protects itself. Althea is part of Nidhog through a conversion hook up. It makes her a less efficient element in the system, but it's the only way to add her and other defectors in."
Mara stopped for a moment and looked around to see if anybody was listening.
"Your friend is the same way," Mara said. "She's an element. That means her species is locked. Human now and forever. If the network succeeds, in a few generations, all humans will have similarly guarded DNA, and evolution will allow less interference."
"So why do I have to become a demon?" Naiki asked suspiciously.
"Because that human network is new, primitive," Mara said. "They don't know how to bring you in or safeguard your souls. And hear we are."
The Network War Center looked something like a massive factory, billowing smoke into the air. Judging by the way Mara waved at the air about her as they entered the building, the atmosphere was thick even for a demon.
Opening the door ahead of them Mara had a surprise and Naiki had a suddenly dry mouth.
Geisthexe-san was blonde.
Kurz Weber was blonde.
Tessa's lavender hair was close to white, making her almost a platinum blonde.
Kaname's friend, Kyoko, the cute girl with the camera, had light brown hair with some traces of blonde.
Someone had once joked that Naiki harbored a secret attraction for her blonde brother Deimosu. A comment that had Naiki unable to enjoy the sight of any cute, handsome or sexy blonde for two weeks afterward.
As she walked in behind Mara, however, Naiki was quite sure that she had found the perfect blonde female.
"Hild-sama," Mara said in surprise. "This is...a surprise."
"Well, I came down to meet our new recruit," Hild said, swaying forward in motion that had Naiki just about mesmerized.
The CEO of Nifelheim stopped in front of the staring girl, looked her over carefully and reached out to close her mouth.
"Umm, sorry," Naiki said. "Are you Geisthexe-san's boss then?"
"I'm every demon's boss," Hild said. "Soon to be yours, what do you say to that?"
"If you want I can give you a sacrifice of virginity right now," the green-haired girl said.
"Passionate...little thing, isn't she?" Hild noted to Mara with a twinkle of amusement.
"I've been learning that," Mara said.
"That won't be necessary," Hild said, looking over Naiki speculatively. "Hmm, already have fangs. You'll make a lovely demon. Maybe in a few years, we'll talk."
"Oh definitely," Naiki said, nodding fervantly.
"Now, as to why you're hear instead of in Registration sitting in the so-called 'Throne of Damnation' getting your marks," Hild said.
"What's the problem?" Mara asked.
"Let's just say that I'm not all that trusting of the coincidences involved here," Hild said.
"Coincidences?" Naiki asked.
"Heaven realized your mother's case involved some of their own ten years ago," Hild said. "And they've been looking for her since then. I find it hard to believe that I can stumble on by accident what the Eyes of Ra have missed for decade."
"Wait, my mother's case?" Naiki asked. "What are you talking about."
"We'll discuss that in a little bit," Hild said. "For now, we have to make sure you're not carrying any surprises that could be detrimental to either you or us."
She gestured and a small group of demons stepped out from a side room and moved forward.
Naiki immediately dropped into a stance at the suspicious approach.
"There going to check you for curses," Mara said simply. "Heaven doesn't use viruses like we do."
"We're talking about rogues here," Hild said. "Rogues don't follow anybody's rules, ours or theirs. Don't worry, child, we're trying to make sure you're not going to be hurt."
Naiki looked to Mara and Hild, she knew she didn't have much of a history with these people, but given the situation with her and Tessa, she didn't have much choice. She wondered if being in another world slowed things down at all.
"Fine," Naiki said, finally. "But the first hint of funny business..."
"And you have my permission to thrash the lot of them silly," Hild said. "Given there's not a combat specialist in the lot, I'm sure you could do it before they got off more than a spell or two. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to borrow your teacher for a bit."
Naiki blinked as perfection turned to walk into another room, curling a finger behind her to indicate for Mara to follow and watched as the other blonde demoness grimaced before stepping into the wake.
"Miss Satomi," one of the demons around her said. "This way and we can get this over with."
Naiki sighed and nodded.
Meanwhile, in the next room, Mara had caught up to Hild.
"Now would you mind telling me why we have a half-initiated demi-goddess being set up to become a demoness?" Hild asked.
"She's assimilating with someone," Mara said. "If we wait too long, there won't be a her to recruit."
"Assimilating?" Hild said in surprise. "Is there some old God or Demon out there that avoided the markings?"
"No, it's a Human element," Mara said.
Hild stopped in her tracks, turned and faced Mara.
"Explain this again," Hild said.
"There's a chi-network," Mara said. "I don't know what they're calling it yet. But it's more than that, they have enhancing arrays."
"A network and enhancing devices," Hild muttered shaking her head. "Well, we've overlooked that fairly blatantly. If Heaven's not in the same position, we'll be the laughing stocks of the dimensional community. Give my a quick summary of the encounter."
"I was doing the standard dark mentor schtick and helping her lead some of Mithril's soldiers to a terrorist den," Mara said. "Turns out the terrorist have their own Juggernaut, newly made, built around chi. It took her, me, Urd, her mother and some human soldiers with an Arms Slave that for all I could tell went past the machines they've been piloting. It might as well have been a Carapace, also built on Chi, to take it down."
"I see," Hild said. "Organize your thoughts, get ready to report them in thirty minutes. I want a full analysis while Miss Satomi is getting her vaccinations before joining our merry band."
"Okay, this is not what I expected," Naiki noticed as she looked around.
At the moment, the demi-goddess was helping support Mara.
"Oh, really?" Mara asked as she looked aruond at the red skies filled with black clouds.
Trailing down from some imperceptible height were reaching tendrils that reminded Naiki of the roots of an upturned tree. In the midst of the strongest of the roots coiled the vague form of a tremendous serpent.
Around them was a wild area, overgrown with bushes and weeds amongst twisted trees. Naiki heard a creepy giggling and occasional saw childish faces peeking out from amongst the foliage.
Here and there, fires burned up through the ground, disgorging a thick smoke that had Naiki's eyes and nose stinging, but there were railings around those fire pits, well out from the heat. Obviously meant to keep onlookers from getting too close. Aside from the skies and those fires, however, Naiki was finding that Hell wasn't that...well, hellish.
A little ways further out, the demi-goddess could see a tumble of buildings not much different than she'd seen in cities and towns before, though there was a lack of unity in some regards. Each building just seemed to be doing its own thing regardless of its neighbors.
"We don't exactly have Heaven's living standards," Mara said. "But we're not primitives."
"Umm, is there a hospital?" Naiki asked, noting that Mara was still bleeding from the three wounds that woman had managed to give her.
"It looks worse than it is, kid," Mara said.
There was a couple of seconds of silence after that.
"It's down that road," Mara said. "Looks like a cross between a monastery and a mad-scientist's castle."
Naiki nodded and started walking off in that direction, holding Mara around the waist.
Purely in case the demoness felt weak at anytime.
"My waist is higher than that," Mara said as they came in front of the hospital.
A man, demon, was walking out of the building and blinked as he saw Mara and the green-haired girl coming up the road. An amused expression worked over his face as he moved forward to help Mara forward.
"Mara, you haven't finished paying for your last visit," he said.
"Stuff it Dever," Mara said. "And I need to make a call before you start working."
"Are you expecting anesthesia, Mara," the demon asked. "These flesh wounds aren't going to need that level of healing."
"There's a time issue here," Mara said. "The girl needs to be at Registration as soon as we can get her there."
Dever turned to look at Naiki then as they came into a room and he directed Mara to lay down on a bed.
"Heya," she said hesitantly.
"A demigoddess," the man said, looking over her carefully. "A sea-child I see."
"Umm, I...what?" Naiki asked, looking toward the man. "I'm just a strong human."
"As you say," Dever said with a curious smile.
The demon of plagues had an eye for biology and anatomy, and he knew a half-blooded being when he saw one. Still, if she didn't know, Mara had a good reason to keep that knowledge from her. So it would be best not push the issue.
"Make your call, Mara," the man said, unfolding a panel to reveal a computer monitor. "I'm going to get some assitants in here."
Mara moved toward the panel and started typing at it. Naiki recognized texting when she saw it, even if she herself never got a cell phone to take part. Apparently, the term "call" was meant in a broad sense.
Mara frowned a bit as she turned around and closed the panel, but nodded as if she wasn't too surprised.
"We'll be going to the Network War Center first," Mara said.
"The what?" Naiki asked.
"Hell's code monkeys," Mara said.
Then she quieted as Dever came back in with a young woman that Naiki thought was a demoness at first glance, though the symbols on her head were different and had different colors.
"So, are you going to be casting a healing spell on Mara then?" Naiki asked, paying close attention as they removed Mara's top.
And sighed as it was proved Mara was wearing a bra.
Dever turned toward the glowering demoness and examined her arm, shoulder and side where the bullets had impacted before turning toward a set of tools.
"Unfortunately," Dever said. "Demonic magic is not well known for healing power. The side wound went straight through, fortunately, and missed anything vital. My own magic is about making the body fail rather than keeping it up, I can turn that against a disease...kill it before it kills the patient, but for purely physical wounds like this, the old skills are best. Fortunately I have a innate sense of anatomy as well."
Mara gritted her teeth painfully as the demon turned a sci-fi looking device on her side injury and a beam passed over it leaving a sealed burn behind. As that was done, the young woman moved in to place her hands over the injury and quietly started chanting.
"I thought you said you didn't have healing magic," Naiki said.
"Oh, Althea, introduce yourself please," Dever said as he moved around behind Mara to start probing the shoulder wound.
"Oh, yes," the woman said with a smile. "I'm Althea, Goddess of Medics."
"Wait, shouldn't a goddess stay in Heaven?" Naiki asked.
"Heaven's policies aren't going to stop the evils of any of the worlds," Althea said seriously. "They're too restrictive on each their own actions and too...generous. Besides, Nifelheim has a more desperate need for healers, even minor ones like me."
"So what makes you minor?" Naiki asked.
"I'm the magical equivalent of first aid," Althea said. "I can't instantly heal wounds, but I can stop them from getting worse and make the body heal faster. Any other healing spells is in Yggdrasil's system and I'm barred access now."
"Oh," Naiki said.
"That feels better," Mara said moments before crying out as Dever continued probing her shoulder.
"You're going to need a sling for this," Dever said. "Do you concur?"
"That'll be best," Althea said. "One day, maybe two."
"So I'll be a hundred percent when we go back up to Earth," Mara noted with approval.
It didn't take long to finish up treating the injuries so that Mara and Naiki could continue with their business here.
"Thank you for your business, Mara," Dever said as she left. "Always good to have one of the elite owing you favors."
The word elite was said with more than a trace of sardonic wit.
Walking through the streets, Naiki noticed that some parts of Nifelheim seemed more hellish than others. Though, for the most part, the fires, ash and smoke were still the only thing that matched the stereotypes, and even they seemed less malevolent than she thought.
Just irritating.
"When you become a demon, you'll stop noticing," Mara said. "Earth will seem a bit thin to you though. Except some of the cities, Los Angeles is still pretty smoggy at times I hear."
"Wait, pollution is a demonic plot?" Naiki asked.
"Yes...no...sort of," Mara said gesturing in a bit of confusion. "Someone thought it would make it easier to deal with humans if the environment was more tolerable to us than to the Gods, but the industrial revolution was already going on strong. Couldn't keep it up, anyway."
"Why not?" Naiki asked.
Mara sighed for a moment and concentrated before chanting in a language Naiki did not know. As she did, Mara's features twisted, face becoming more pointed and angular, with large, frilled ears, dark scaled skin, a thin twisting tail and enlongated, taloned arms.
She held that form for perhaps ten seconds before reverting back to her normal face, turning to face Naiki.
"Wh..what was that?" Naiki asked.
"That's a spell to recall our people's original appearance and bodies," Mara said.
"So, that's what I'm becoming?" Naiki asked.
"What, Hell no," Mara said. "Demons haven't naturally looked like that since the first God-Demon war. Thank god, those bodies were the ugliest." She did have vague memories that she didn't always think that way.
"What made the change?" Naiki asked.
"We both started hiding among humans, appealing to them," Mara said. "Rewriting ourselves to resemble them. Reincarnating to live among them and understand them. It became more and more permanent over time."
"So what seperates Gods, Demons and Humans now?" Naiki asked.
"Lots of things," Mara said shrugging. "We only changed the outer appearance, and maybe absorbed some philosophies and culture differences. Though that might be why demons and gods only started interbreeding with humans and each other over the last four or five thousand years."
"And I'm becoming a Demon?" Naiki asked.
"Half-Demon," Mara said. "Can't change Gods into Demons, or vice versa. Can't change the parts of you wired to be a God."
"Why not?" Naiki asked again as they continued walking along.
"They're elements in a network," Mara said. "Even if they leave their network, that sort of wiring protects itself. Althea is part of Nidhog through a conversion hook up. It makes her a less efficient element in the system, but it's the only way to add her and other defectors in."
Mara stopped for a moment and looked around to see if anybody was listening.
"Your friend is the same way," Mara said. "She's an element. That means her species is locked. Human now and forever. If the network succeeds, in a few generations, all humans will have similarly guarded DNA, and evolution will allow less interference."
"So why do I have to become a demon?" Naiki asked suspiciously.
"Because that human network is new, primitive," Mara said. "They don't know how to bring you in or safeguard your souls. And hear we are."
The Network War Center looked something like a massive factory, billowing smoke into the air. Judging by the way Mara waved at the air about her as they entered the building, the atmosphere was thick even for a demon.
Opening the door ahead of them Mara had a surprise and Naiki had a suddenly dry mouth.
Geisthexe-san was blonde.
Kurz Weber was blonde.
Tessa's lavender hair was close to white, making her almost a platinum blonde.
Kaname's friend, Kyoko, the cute girl with the camera, had light brown hair with some traces of blonde.
Someone had once joked that Naiki harbored a secret attraction for her blonde brother Deimosu. A comment that had Naiki unable to enjoy the sight of any cute, handsome or sexy blonde for two weeks afterward.
As she walked in behind Mara, however, Naiki was quite sure that she had found the perfect blonde female.
"Hild-sama," Mara said in surprise. "This is...a surprise."
"Well, I came down to meet our new recruit," Hild said, swaying forward in motion that had Naiki just about mesmerized.
The CEO of Nifelheim stopped in front of the staring girl, looked her over carefully and reached out to close her mouth.
"Umm, sorry," Naiki said. "Are you Geisthexe-san's boss then?"
"I'm every demon's boss," Hild said. "Soon to be yours, what do you say to that?"
"If you want I can give you a sacrifice of virginity right now," the green-haired girl said.
"Passionate...little thing, isn't she?" Hild noted to Mara with a twinkle of amusement.
"I've been learning that," Mara said.
"That won't be necessary," Hild said, looking over Naiki speculatively. "Hmm, already have fangs. You'll make a lovely demon. Maybe in a few years, we'll talk."
"Oh definitely," Naiki said, nodding fervantly.
"Now, as to why you're hear instead of in Registration sitting in the so-called 'Throne of Damnation' getting your marks," Hild said.
"What's the problem?" Mara asked.
"Let's just say that I'm not all that trusting of the coincidences involved here," Hild said.
"Coincidences?" Naiki asked.
"Heaven realized your mother's case involved some of their own ten years ago," Hild said. "And they've been looking for her since then. I find it hard to believe that I can stumble on by accident what the Eyes of Ra have missed for decade."
"Wait, my mother's case?" Naiki asked. "What are you talking about."
"We'll discuss that in a little bit," Hild said. "For now, we have to make sure you're not carrying any surprises that could be detrimental to either you or us."
She gestured and a small group of demons stepped out from a side room and moved forward.
Naiki immediately dropped into a stance at the suspicious approach.
"There going to check you for curses," Mara said simply. "Heaven doesn't use viruses like we do."
"We're talking about rogues here," Hild said. "Rogues don't follow anybody's rules, ours or theirs. Don't worry, child, we're trying to make sure you're not going to be hurt."
Naiki looked to Mara and Hild, she knew she didn't have much of a history with these people, but given the situation with her and Tessa, she didn't have much choice. She wondered if being in another world slowed things down at all.
"Fine," Naiki said, finally. "But the first hint of funny business..."
"And you have my permission to thrash the lot of them silly," Hild said. "Given there's not a combat specialist in the lot, I'm sure you could do it before they got off more than a spell or two. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to borrow your teacher for a bit."
Naiki blinked as perfection turned to walk into another room, curling a finger behind her to indicate for Mara to follow and watched as the other blonde demoness grimaced before stepping into the wake.
"Miss Satomi," one of the demons around her said. "This way and we can get this over with."
Naiki sighed and nodded.
Meanwhile, in the next room, Mara had caught up to Hild.
"Now would you mind telling me why we have a half-initiated demi-goddess being set up to become a demoness?" Hild asked.
"She's assimilating with someone," Mara said. "If we wait too long, there won't be a her to recruit."
"Assimilating?" Hild said in surprise. "Is there some old God or Demon out there that avoided the markings?"
"No, it's a Human element," Mara said.
Hild stopped in her tracks, turned and faced Mara.
"Explain this again," Hild said.
"There's a chi-network," Mara said. "I don't know what they're calling it yet. But it's more than that, they have enhancing arrays."
"A network and enhancing devices," Hild muttered shaking her head. "Well, we've overlooked that fairly blatantly. If Heaven's not in the same position, we'll be the laughing stocks of the dimensional community. Give my a quick summary of the encounter."
"I was doing the standard dark mentor schtick and helping her lead some of Mithril's soldiers to a terrorist den," Mara said. "Turns out the terrorist have their own Juggernaut, newly made, built around chi. It took her, me, Urd, her mother and some human soldiers with an Arms Slave that for all I could tell went past the machines they've been piloting. It might as well have been a Carapace, also built on Chi, to take it down."
"I see," Hild said. "Organize your thoughts, get ready to report them in thirty minutes. I want a full analysis while Miss Satomi is getting her vaccinations before joining our merry band."
For some reason, I started thinking of BRIAN BLESSED, but then realized that that was wrong.
So, she's unable to keep it down in any way or form, huh. Okay.
So, what influences will Naiki and Eija have on the fledgling Chi network? You might've mentioned it already, but I can't remember. Also, concerning Deimosu and the Whispered that he's apparently going to be playing Papa Bear for, will he be able to keep from gattaing with him/her/it, or will Hecate be stepping in for that one?
So, she's unable to keep it down in any way or form, huh. Okay.
So, what influences will Naiki and Eija have on the fledgling Chi network? You might've mentioned it already, but I can't remember. Also, concerning Deimosu and the Whispered that he's apparently going to be playing Papa Bear for, will he be able to keep from gattaing with him/her/it, or will Hecate be stepping in for that one?
Naiki and Eija are going to be providing alternate paths to things that Sophia doesn't want her brother and sister Whispered to know how to do yet.
Basically, Sophia herself is the conduit to the future, but she has at least partial control over what devices and information gets out, if she tries hard enough, she can keep some info, such as how to rewrite the human code to develop marks like Gods and Demons have, out of the possession of people that she's won't be able to Resonate with and take over once that trick is learned.
Sophia being the Whispered currently trapped in crystal in Russia.
She especially doesn't want Kaname figuring it out. Kaname's the keystone, which makes her more important to the network than Sophia is.
Kaname is basically analogous to what Hild or Kami-Sama were before the networks had physical devices to help maintain them.
Basically, Sophia herself is the conduit to the future, but she has at least partial control over what devices and information gets out, if she tries hard enough, she can keep some info, such as how to rewrite the human code to develop marks like Gods and Demons have, out of the possession of people that she's won't be able to Resonate with and take over once that trick is learned.
Sophia being the Whispered currently trapped in crystal in Russia.
She especially doesn't want Kaname figuring it out. Kaname's the keystone, which makes her more important to the network than Sophia is.
Kaname is basically analogous to what Hild or Kami-Sama were before the networks had physical devices to help maintain them.