Yonjuu sniffed a bit as she felt a haze of Deimosu's emotions through the dimensional barriers. She couldn't hear the thoughts at the moment, but the emotion itself felt very intense and touching.
"Why is Big Sister Baggage crying?" Yaku asked as she passed by.
"Would you please stop calling me that," Yonjuu pleaded with the little girl.
"Why does she call you that?" Sarah asked quietly.
Yaku pointed up towards Yonjuu's chest and smiled.
"She has baggage," the little girl said.
"Huh?" the rather nervous teenager asked. "But she's beautiful."
"No I'm not," Yonjuu protested. "I'm too tall, too thick and too...big..."
"But...big is good," Sarah said in a bit of confusion. "Guys like big."
"Eww, how could they possibly like this?" she wondered.
"Maybe we should just concentrate on the project," Sarah noted, shaking her head in confusion.
Yonjuu looked toward some of the soldiers in the labyrinth with them, apparently with a number of map-makers, architects and engineers as well. She'd already taken a few on a trip through the labyrinth as it was.
"Was the crystal thing bigger?" Yonjuu asked.
"It's supposed to be," Yaku said.
"What?" Yonjuu said.
"Silmaril is growing," Sarah said idly. "It's replacing the walls in some places, but it's leaving the mushroom cavern and the water."
"How big is it going to get?" Yonjuu asked.
"If I understand Yaku's original design..." Sarah said. "It'll probably stop short of this room. At least for now."
"How much power is that?" Yonjuu asked meekly.
"Probably enough to break the world," Yaku said.
"Several times over," the older whispered agreed.
******
"Hey, thanks for coming by," Naiki said as Kyoko arrived.
"Oh, it's no problem," Kyoko noted. "Kaname, Eija and Sousuke aren't around and Mizuki got herself grounded, so I might as well hang out with you."
She smiled brightly at the explanation.
"Yay, I feel special," Naiki said in a deadpan tone.
"Well, I don't know too many demons," Kyoko noted.
Naiki shuffled nervously.
"How exactly do you know about that?" Naiki asked.
"Well, I think it started when Eija introduced your grandmother..." Kyoko said.
"She's not my grandmother," Naiki said quickly.
"Yeah, but Persephone DisPater," the blonde girl repeated, pushing up her glasses. "And that explained the superpowers and why Eija creeps people out despite being nice. She's Hades' granddaughter. But you didn't go to the same place while you were gone, and came back with different colored marks...so if Eija's a Goddess then you must be a Demon."
"Uh, it sounds obvious the way you say it," Naiki said nervously. "Does anybody else..."
"I don't think so," Kyoko said shrugging and smiling casually. "So what's going on here?"
"Mom asked these people to help me practice defense," Naiki said, gesturing back toward the building that held her four unwanted sensei. "But just doing some light stuff right now since I'm 'hurt'"
She lifted up her fingers to give air quotes around that last word.
"Here right?" Kyoko asked, poking Naiki in the side.
Instantly, the demoness winced and started to double over way from the finger.
"Oww..." Naiki said quietly.
*****
"Keiichi! Belldandy! Everybody" Megumi shouted as she opened the door to see the Norns and Keiichi outside her door.
"Everybody?" Skuld and Urd asked each other as they each noted the lack of their actual names being used.
"What happened to you guys!? I went over and the shrine was trashed! It looked like there was a war or something."
"There was," Skuled muttered.
"Yeah, some...people came by," Keiichi said. "And...well, we had to get out of there."
"Oh my god!" Megumi shouted loudly. "Did you call the police?"
"It's taken care of," Keiichi promised her. "And speaking of 'Go..."
"With a lower case 'g'," Belldandy suggested calmly.
"Anyway, we have to talk about something, Megumi," Keiichi said. "It's about the Norns."
"What's that?" Megumi asked in a worried tone.
"Have you been watching news?" Urd asked, pointing to the marks on her face.
"Yeah, I kind of noted the tattoos they all had..." Megumi said.
"You might want to sit down for this, Belldandy quietly suggested with a smile.
*******
"You know," Shepard said, looking back over his shoulder. "Your make up is starting to come off."
Nimu frowned and reached up to her forehead and the blush there that was supposed to cover her marks for the moment.
"I suppose it wasn't made for this sort of activity," she noted.
"Interesting tattoos, by the way," the major noted idly. "Going to make undercover work interesting."
"Yeah, I don't think that will be a problem," Weber said. "We're not planning to..."
"Hold it," the dark-skinned sensitive said suddenly.
Teyla stopped and turned to look to their right towards what seemed to be simply more trees.
"Teyla?" Shepard asked.
"Something is here," she said. "Check your amulets."
Nimu and Kurz nodded and took their amulets out and visible, finding that the blue and red crystals were actually growing darker. Weber held his out and walked closer to the part of the forest that Teyla was looking towards and watched as two of crystals turned almost completely black.
"Well...that's funny," Weber said without a trace of a smirk.
"This is a San effect," Nimu said suddenly.
"Excuse me?" Shepard asked. "A 'San effect'?"
"Yes, the San batch have abilities that enhance their physical skills and the like," she explained. "One of my sisters amongst them had a stealth field that worked by absorbing her trace presence in the area."
"And where is this sister now?" Teyla asked.
"Gone," Nimu said grimly.
"The point is, something's here," Shepard said. "We're here to get info, let's get some."
Kurz swung back his sniper rifle and pulled up his P90 and nodded.
Nimu quietly moved toward Kurz's flank, holding her pistol and keeping low and quiet as the four fanned out and slipped into the area of the trees where the mana and pishogue was subdued.
It didn't take long for them to find a clearing that held an encampment holding nearly twenty people, a mix of Demons and Gods by the marks on their faces, most of them younger than fifteen in appearance.
Standing in front of them and looking into the surrounding trees carefully, were two adults, both looking more than a little battered and in need of some sort of medical care.
One was a pale woman with a pair of dark wings out of which two large eyes blinked as the wings shifted about in various directions. The other was a tall man with tanned skin leaning on a makeshift staff, but ready to bring it up in defense.
"Survivors," Weber noted in realization.
"Are you coming or not cowards?" the man said.
"Hey, hey," Shepard said, standing up and stepping forward. "Easy on the hostility."
The two demons in front blinked and looked toward each other cautiously as they looked down to the firearm in the Major's hands.
"How'd you find us?" the man asked.
"Teyla?" Shepard asked over his shoulder. "Ichi?"
Weber looked back toward Nimu and nodded before standing up and walking forward himself, staying ahead of Nimu to obscure her face for the moment.
Teyla walked out into the clearing first and let her weapon slide to the side, but still in easy reach for quick use.
"Greetings," she said in a friendly tone. "I'm Teyla Emmagan, I happen to be a sen..."
"There's an immortal with them," the woman noted quickly, eyes fixing toward Nimu where she was coming into view standing slightly behind the blonde. "You can't hide that from me. There aren't many demon death-seers left, but I'm one of them."
"Crap," Weber said, turning to look back toward Nimu.
"Let's continue with introductions," Shepard said, glancing toward the Mithril agents.
"Indeed," Teyla said, glancing toward Nimu herself. "I am Teyla Emmagan of Socrates Group, I'm a sensitive and telepath. This is Major Shepard of the United States Air Force."
"Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," Shepard said nodding.
"Fene, Category 2, Demon of Obscurement," the man said looking toward the immortal that his partner had noted.
"Vanth, Category 3, Demon of the Deathbed," the woman noted, her wings unfurled and the eyes focused over toward Nimu.
"And maybe we can get a complete introduction over there?" Shepard suggested.
"Sergeant Kurz Weber, Mithril SRT," Weber said reluctantly.
"And the other?" Vanth declared. "Is she one of those enlightened human masters?"
The teenager stepped forward and wiped at the make up on her face to uncover her green marks completely which caused the demons and the people behind them to open their eyes wide.
"Nimu Ichi of the Ichi batch, Ainur," she said firmly and proudly.
"Humans have evolved this far?" Fene gasped in shock.
"That must be how they humans managed to purge the impurity virus from our Network," Vanth said, her wings vanishing into her back as she marginally relaxed. "You've entered the self-evolution phase like us."
"Apparently so," Teyla said then, looking toward Nimu momentarily and then stepping forward. "Are you survivors of the attack here? Perhaps we can help with the wounded."
"I am a medic," Vanth said quickly before continuing, "but if you have supplies..."
"We don't know that they're any better than those murdering rebels," Fene noted.
"If it helps," Weber said. "Our commanding officer had contact with Mara Geisthexe prior to us coming out here."
"That could have been useful information," Shepard noted under his breath.
"Mara survived," Fene said as if surprised and then dismissing that. "You still didn't say how you found us, I've cloaked the entire area."
"Against Pishogue and against Mana," Teyla noted in a friendly tone. "Not against Chi."
She paused and turned back the way they had come looking serious.
"We should move," she said quickly.
"Problem?" Weber asked.
"There's a tracker behind us," Teyla said. "He's thinking a bit a loudly in our direction, but he doesn't know what he's following yet."
"Siler or Quinn?" Shepard asked.
"No, I'd say it's our other friends," the sensitive noted.
"Amalgam," Weber noted bitterly.
Fene's eyes widened briefly and he turned back toward the collected refugees.
"Let's move," he ordered.
"We're not going to be able to hide a trail of twenty or more people," Nimu noted, how far can you people teleport.
"Nifelheim is closed, no more than a hundred feet," Vanth said. "Gods can travel through mediums without worrying about that stuff, and what about you?"
"Not something I can accomplish yet," Nimu noted.
"A hundred feet is plenty to through them off," Weber said. "Head south, we'll catch up."
"And meanwhile," Fene asked.
Shepard smiled as he pulled out a claymore mine.
"I've had a few encounters with Amalgam in the past," he noted. "Think I'll give them a hello before I follow."
"Sounds good to me," Weber said with a smirk. "By the way, Nimu, remember what I said about moving something small from a distance?"
"Yes," Nimu noted.
"Think Miss Emmagan can let my girl here see something from a distance better than my scope?" he asked.
"It might be possible," Teyla said.
******
"There was a large group here," one of Amalgam's soldiers said as they came into the clearing. "The soldiers we've been tracking met up with them. Looks like their was some medical work done here, but the blood is old. Children's foot prints. Can't see how they left the area."
"Damn, this is turning out to be a bust," the other mercenary with him said. "We've lost three shadows and ten men to that skirmish and only took one prisoner and now we miss out on a bunch of others."
He shook his head, glancing around.
"Gates' team is going to outshine us easy," he muttered.
"I think I found a trail, same soldiers we picked up before," the tracker said. "Very faint, covering their trail more effectively. I'd say they know they're being followed now."
"Crap, sir, found something," another soldier said calling the officer over.
"What is it?" the man asked moving forward.
He found the man look at a claymore mine uncovered in the brush around them. Strangely it didn't seem as if it had its tripwire set.
"Almost missed it," the soldier noted. "It was practically wedged in place over here, almost invisible. But that doesn't make sense the way they placed it."
"Yeah, there's no way to set it to trigger in there," the officer noted as he looked into the hollow the soldier was indicating the claymore had been. "I wonder what they were..."
Both the soldier and the officer stopped talking as they watched the tripwire pull out of the mine on its own.
"What the..."
******
An explosion erupted far off in the distance as Teyla and Nimu concentrated from their position.
"Next," Shepard said with a smirk just before another explosion was heard.
Three more explosions sounded off soon after.
"Two got out," Weber said from where he watched down toward the scene with his scope.
The sniper pulled the trigger.
"One," he said, shifting his rifle slightly and firing again. "And we're clear."
"So maybe you can explain something about Miss Ichi here and being an 'immortal' that woman said," Shepard commented.
******
In a particular laundry room, the staff casually chatted about as they went about their tasks as they did everyday.
"And the president is talking to some cultural anthropologist or something," one of them was saying. "The TV is saying some of these people that appeared out of nowhere are calling themselves gods or something."
"That's just totally..."
Whatever he'd been about to say was interrupted as a figure burst out of one of the dryers and landed in a crouch on the floor between them. Everyone stepped back away from the woman that had just appeared out of the laundry and was even now standing and shaking her head. At least two fled out of the room yelling loudly.
"Laundry was an easier medium to travel through before the invention of machines to do the job," she muttered.
She turned to look at one of the several humans around her and cricked her neck.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"Stop right there, Secret Service," someone shouted as several men in dark suits flooded into the room and pointed guns at the woman. "Identify yourself."
She smiled briefly and raised her hands casually.
"Morrigan, Category 1, Goddess of Bloodshed," she said. "Eyes of Ra senior investigator. And just to warn you, it'll take a few more bullets of larger caliber than you can hold in those clips to actually slow me down."
******
"Well she claims to be the Morrigan," a scholarly looking man said to the president.
"And that means?" a short man gaining some weight in his final years asked. He was wearing a uniform that marked him as an Air Force general.
"Well, they were a Celtic triple goddess," the scholar noted. "I already asked if we should be expecting more and she's said the other two died a long time ago...well, to be specific, she the way she put it was that 'she lost her other two bodies long ago', but anyway..."
"What is she here for?" the president asked pointedly.
"Delivering information," Jackson said. "She says she's on the wrong continent and mentioned she needed to contact her people. She also asked for two people by name: Ranma Satomi and Teletha Testarossa."
"I'm familiar with these names," the president said.
"Sir?" the Air Force general noted.
"Mithril personnel, General Hammond," the President said.
"Mithril as in the organization that delivered the report on Gods and Demons in the first place," the scholar noted.
"That's correct Dr Jackson," the President said. "What's our recent account on the numbers of these refugees on American soil?"
"Nearly fifty thousand of these Gods and about sixty thousand so-called Demons," a man noted dryly.
"Okay, let's talk to her," the President said.
"I'd suggest otherwise, Mr. President," another air force officer said. "She wasn't particularly concerned with the secret service that took her into custody, and she practically shrugged out of her handcuffs by accident."
"But she also hasn't attacked anyone, Jack," Jackson noted.
"Well, I for one am curious to meet someone that claims to be a Goddess, should be interesting," the President said. with a smile.
*******
It was a little bit later when he walked into the room with the leather-clad woman sitting there and keeping an amused expression on her face, though an expert could see a look of urgency as well. In the old days, she'd have just ignored all these people and gone looking for Persephone and the Norns or someone else. However, she was well aware that at the moment they couldn't afford to tick off the human powers of the world.
"So, Miss Morrigan is it," the president said idly as he sat down across from her. "Should I be praying to you."
"Please, you gave us that name," Morrigan said rolling her eyes. "I was baptized in Chicago, 1912, last time I was a child."
"Oh, Chicago, now there's a town," the President said. "So, if that makes you an American citizen then, should I know if you voted for me or not?"
"We don't vote in human politics President Hayes," Morrigan said. "And excuse me if I'd like to get on with this. I have people to contact, if you weren't probably the fastest way to contact them, I'd probably be on my way."
"And what interest do you have in these people you named?" the President asked.
Morrigan hesitated.
"Given that you've stated that we couldn't stop you if we wanted to," Hayes noted. "I'm guessing you've already realized that you're going to need cooperation with humanity, or at least us, as whole. We've already got some reports of injuries that suggest your people aren't all as invulnerable as you claim."
The goddess nodded and sat up straight.
"One of our chief administrators was visiting family when this all happened," Morrigan said. "Said family is also related to Demons, and I know there's a category 1 Demon hanging around them. If anybody's going to be the center point for figuring out the whole picture, it's going to be the people around Satomi."
"And Testarossa," the president asked.
"Of the humans that I know have immortal contacts," she said. "Teletha Testarossa and Ranma Satomi are the two that might be in your files. Being Mithril and Psyche, respectively. And given that most American presidents have a straight line to Mithril, I figured staying around here would be the best idea."
"What was your first plan?" the president asked.
"Head to Japan and checking home addresses," Morrigan said. "Hoping they hadn't already gone under the radar."
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to report to me," the President asked.
"No offense, I'll talk to my superior first," Morrigan said.
"Of course."
*******
Leonard Testarossa took note of the overdue nature of each of the three teams he'd sent to attack locations where he suspected to combat troops of these new races. He grimaced briefly but nodded as he realized it wasn't any better than he probably could have expected.
"Costly experiment," he decided. "Amalgam's leaders and accountants are going to be a little upset with me."
He smiled without a trace of concern for that and looked out the window where he could see the lunatic Gates coming into the compound with four specimens.
Snatching the clear civilians of these new, or old, people had, of course, been the logical way to go about this. And now at least he had something to play with and perhaps, given his recent agreement with Sophia, something else besides.
"Psyche's little meddlers are working together more often than ever," his visitor noted irritably. "And when it's not Psyche, it's Mithril. Or both. They've been looking for my girls since those first two facilities were freed."
"Your fault for not burning them to the ground instead of letting them out alive with that information," Leonard said.
"I dislike this new toy your ghost in the machine wants to give you," Kodachi said vehemently.
"Of course you do," Leonard said. "It means you can't eat anybody who uses it. Don't worry, Miss Kuno, I'm sure you can keep yourself well supplied without worrying about us."
"Hmph," the woman declared, crossing her arms. "And out of this, she hopes to take the body of merely one other girl, there is more to this than either you or she is telling me."
"Of course there is," Leonard said with a smile. "And there's more to your little organization than you're telling me. At the moment we need each other."
"Yes, I'd noticed you'd lost a couple of facilities already," Kodachi said with a smirk. "I'm guessing neither had adequate paranatural defenses, I've made the same mistakes in the facilities with my girls. I'm sure we can fix that little vulnerability assuming, of course, you're willing to provide the military might."
Kodachi wandered toward the window and watched the captured Gods and Demons being taken down below with a quirk of the mouth.
"Yes, I think Legion can help Amalgam quite well," Kodachi said finally. "Even if I don't accept your offer to lose my appetite. And when do we find this girl your ghost wants so much?"
"If we're lucky," Leonard said, "then that will be taken care of soon anyway."
"How unfortunate," Kodachi said. "I was looking forward to trying my hand at a siege. By the way, I notice you're remarkably calm for someone that has a tasty little mind yourself."
"Resonance with another Whispered, or should I say a real Whispered, isn't going to be what you're used to," Leonard said. "And you know that. Otherwise I'd expect you'd have tried by now."
Kodachi narrowed her eyes and turned back to watching the proceedings outside.
***************
"There is a guard on the prisoner, Captain," Mardukas said. "None of them are from the SRT team."
"Good," Tessa noted. "Until we know who sabotaged Sergeant Sagara's computer, we need to be careful. Kalinin is making inquiries with the Intelligence division at the moment, because if there's one here.... I hope that doesn't ruffle too many feathers."
"If I may, Captain, I've heard some rumors since your reveal," he noted. "Some people seem to think you're setting yourself up to be the new director."
Tessa took a deep sigh and shook her head.
"At least they're not accusing me of trying to become a God," she said.
"Isn't that exactly what you did?" Mardukas asked.
"I really hope not," Tessa said.
*************
"Sousuke-kun!" Eija called out in relief as she saw him down the hallway.
"Sousuke!" Kaname called out behind her. "We heard about Mao and that your AS crashed, is everything okay?"
Kaname came to a stop and then leaned both her hands onto her knees taking a breath as Eija came to a simple stop and grabbed Sousuke's hand without thinking about it.
"There was a...fault in my computer," Sousuke said looking around. "The machine locked up at a crucial point, Mao drew fire to give me time to get up and running."
"Thank God everything's going to be fine," Kaname said, wiping her forehead and then grabbing Sousuke's other hand.
"We lost a team member," Sousuke noted quietly.
He knew that casualty had not been avoidable, the Venom had simply been too fast for the man to pull away. But the injuries to Mao and forcing them to make use of the network like that could have been avoided if someone hadn't sabotaged the Arbalest. Still, he kept his anger over that hidden for the moment.
"I'm sorry, Sousuke," Eija said. "I wish there was more..."
One of the crew stopped while passing an intersection and looked to see both girls holding Sousuke's hands and then gave a bit of a wolf whistle that suddenly had both girls pulling their hands back. Kaname giving the whistler a firm glare as Eija merely bowed and blushed.
"Anyway, Specialist Sagara," Kaname said immediately to the confused looking mercenary. "You're back and Mao is in the clinic. So everything will be fine now."
"I should see if I can help," Eija said, moving past Sousuke and into the clinic.
"Chidori, is there something wrong with Satomi?" Sousuke asked, turning to look at Kaname after the goddess moved into the clinic.
"W...She just likes you," Kaname said quietly.
Kaname! That's not fair! You can't tell him tha...oh!
"I was not aware that was ever a question," Sousuke said.
"What?" Kaname said in response to Sousuke's statement.
"Well, usually if Satomi dislikes someone, she gets a bit more formal and says less," Sousuke said. "I have never seen such signs directed toward me. She is much easier to read in that way than you, Chidori."
"And she likes you too! Sousuke!" Eija said rushing back to the hallway. "And...and...and...that was an admission, wasn't it?"
Eija's pale skin flushed very brightly then.
"An admission of what?" Sousuke asked.
"Let's not talk about admitting to things in an open hallway?" Kaname said then. "Not that I am, mind you."
Eija! How could you do that!?
Well you did it to me.
Not broadcasted at the top of my lungs.
Both girls stopped and a creeping expression of realization started to cross each of their faces.
It's true isn't it.
Yes, I'm afraid it is.
I mean not just sort-of-nice-hanging-around-with-him like.
No, I think this is cupid's-arrow-have-babies like.
Oh my God, when did we become Ryoko and Ayeka?
Didn't they fight all the time? Aren't we more like Min and Aviendha from Wheel of Time?
Why Aviendha?
Didn't she think about killing Rand once?
I am not that ba...wait, if we're like Min and Aviendha, who's Elayne?
Both girls turned to look at Sousuke then and the blush that had been fading returned.
"Is there something..."
"No Elayne!" both girls said at once.
******
Gauron considered the guards in his room, none of them had one of the two names that he'd managed to turn toward his ends. And there were four people in the room with him instead of the expected two.
"So, Mithril," he said idly. "The world's white knights finally caught up to little old me, huh? Guess that makes me the black knight."
"Shut up," one of the guards said. "You've had it, this is the last of these little jobs you'll be pulling."
"Don't talk to him," another guard said. "You heard the orders."
"If they didn't want you talking to me," Gauron said with a smile, "wouldn't they have put you in another room with a computer monitor to watch me?"
"He thinks he's going to trick us up so he can get free," a third guard said, a huge man maybe even larger than Gauron was. "Well, guess what, psycho, see this."
The man moved forward and pulled a fragmentation grenade out of his uniform and held out in front of Gauron's face. One hand on the grenade, the other with fingers looped through the pin.
"What the hell, Karlson!" the fourth guard shouted as the other three jumped to their feet. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm just proving a point here," Karlson said snappishly before turning about to look at Gauron. "You see this, freak?"
"I see it," Gauron said with a wide smile.
"Before you escape from here," the guard noted with a smirk. "I'd pull the pin on this baby and make sure nobody gets out of here."
"Really?" Gauron asked still smiling.
"Karlson, quit joking about with that thing," one of the guards said coming forward.
"Really," Karlson said.
And then Gauron through himself back in his chair, kicking his bound legs up between Karlson's own and into his groin. The man flinched in reaction as he lifted up off of his feet and, in the course of the reflex, the grenade and it's pin flew off in separate directions.
"Oh fuck! Catch it!"
The explosion followed scattered sharp points of metal all through out the room and into several bodies as they screamed out momentarily and then went silent.
A few seconds of motionlessness followed and then one of the bodies was pushed off the form of the man he'd fallen atop of and thus stopped all the sharpnel before it could strike the prisoner.
Gauron smirked as he worked to pull the handcuff keys off the belt of the dead guard and was soon free.
"Well, you kept that promise," he said with a smirk.
******
Sousuke was about to ask Kaname and Eija what they meant when an entirely different look came over first Eija's and then Kaname's face.
"What is it?" Sousuke asked.
"People just died," Eija said in a serious tone.
"She said it was violent," Kaname said, not having felt it herself but having been privy to Eija's immediate thoughts on the matter.
