Ranma ½ Divine Blood
- Thread starter Thrythlind
- Start date
"And Kodachi Kuno," O'Neil said.
He clicked a button to show a dark haired woman walking determinedly through a plate glass window on the video and dying afterward.
"And Kodachi Kuno," he repeated, moving to another video. "And Kodachi Kuno. Ooo, gotta hurt! And, Kodachi Kuno..."
Daniel and Carter winced at the way he repeated the name so enthusiastically, remembering a similar instance some years previous.
One of two women dropped as a bullet was put into her back and the other ducked behind cover.
"Stop right there!" O'Neil called out, "put the artifact down and..."
He stopped as the individual poked her head out of cover to reveal the face of Dr. Janet Frasier facing him with a sadistic grin.
"Dr. Frasier?" he called out as the other Socrates Group members came up beside him.
"And Kodachi Kuno," the woman said as she clicked a device and a series of explosions cut her off from the reach of the others. "And Kodachi Kuno! And. Kodachi. Kuno. OHH HOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOHO!!!"
She walked off into the darkness then as they had tried to get past the debris she'd erected in their way.
"I sincerely doubt this is an accident," Carter noted. "We have reports on at least eleven confirmed deaths by individuals that were claiming to be Kodachi Kuno. All within an eight minute period and mostly self-inflicted directly or otherwise. In at least one case, she killed herself and about thirty or forty of her researchers in one facility due to a nerve gas leak."
"I want to meet whoever did this," O'Neil said shaking his head. "This is my kind of guy."
"This did result in some responses however," Hammond said.
"Response what do you mean?" Carter asked.
Hammond stepped forward to take the remote from O'Neil and called up a new set of images.
"We have reports of attacks on known psychic families or facilities all over the world," the General said,. "Psyche's sanctuaries have been attacked unsuccessfully in three cities, but their Rio facility has gone dark. Warsaw and NATO programs have also been attacked."
"Ah, hell," Jack said. "She's..."
"Recruiting," Teal'c noted.
"Spreading might be a better term," Jackson said darkly.
"It gets worse," Hammond said, pulling up a new image. "Two of our off-world sites were attacked, we got footage from one of them."
At first glance it appeared to be any other Kodachi, but the team quickly recognized her as she turned toward the camera and then walked into an open gateway ahead of her mercenaries.
"Janet," Daniel said. "There are any of a number of psychic populations that she could assault..."
"So, we have, potentially, three invasions to be concerned with," Carter said.
"Teyla Emmagan from the Atlantis team is supposed to be visiting Mithril about this Ainur thing," Hammond said. "She has a homing beacon, right?"
"Right, sir," Carter said.
"It's unfortunate we didn't build the damn things until after Janet..." O'Neil waved his hands.
"Go ahead and pay a visit to our mercenary white knights, see what they have to say about this," Hammond said. "Be polite, but remember, they have a leak."
"All right, sir," O'Neil said. "I've been wondering about this Captain Teletha Testarossa anyway."
"Indeed," Teal'C agreed, "the events that her name and unit appear next to are most impressive. I am very interested in meeting such a warrior."
"I have to admit to curiosity there myself," Carter said. "The main reason we know that Mithril has a link is because Gauron clearly knew her background and what she looks like and we...well, don't. But the Gods and Demons we've talked to have been speaking highly of her too now..."
"One does wonder what sort of person produces that level of loyalty in others," Daniel agreed.
"I'll bet she's some sort of Amazon bad ass," O'Neil said.
**************
"Excuse me, Colonel O'Neil," Tessa said politely and mildly. "We were not informed that you were coming, or else I would have prepared a more friendly welcome."
She said this while smiling and gesturing for the various soldiers around her to put down their guns. Almost as if she were arranging a tea party. Her walk was graceful but tender, implying recent injury and she was wearing a cast on her arm as well.
The sixteen year old then moved forward, smiling politely and looking up into O'Neil's and Teal'C's faces as calm as could be.
The immediate thought O'Neil had was that the secretary had balls, though his eyes started to wander toward her rank insignia.
"That's okay, Miss..." he started to say.
"Captain!" an older voice called out, causing the girl to glance briefly over her shoulder, as if the visitors were no threat. "You should not be facing these intruders yourself."
"It's fine Commander Mardukas," Tessa said cheerfully and calmly with a mild bow. "There is no problem here. I'm sure Socrates Group is simply wishing to combine our resources."
"You are Captain Teletha Testarossa," O'Neil said pointing.
"That is correct, yes," Tessa said.
"You commanded the DaDanaan when it slew Poseidon," Teal'C asked.
"Also correct," the captain said.
"You're the woman who the Demons say purged a God-made virus from the Nifelheim psychic network?" Carter asked.
"I had help there," Tessa said, blushing slightly.
"And you're the one who developed Project Ainur," Daniel said.
"Yes, but that was more than half copying the Gods' and Demons' designs," Tessa noted.
They stared at her slack-jawed.
"Shall we move to the briefing room for coffee and lunch?" she asked, gesturing with her uninjured arm. "I believe your teammate shall be through in twenty or thirty minutes."
"Are you really...her?" O'Neil started to ask.
Tessa sighed as they started walking through the hall.
Why is it that everyone who meets me the first time has trouble believing I'm the real commander?
You're sixteen and moe, Naiki returned. You said you wanted to talk about something, what was it?
Not right now, Tessa returned. When you get the chance tell your mother and Mara that Socrates Group somehow teleported into our base. I'd like to know how they did that and whether we can use it as a technique the way the Gods and Demons can. Granted, we'll try an exchange first...
All right, Naiki said. Do you have any advice for...
No, I do not have advice for dealing with unwanted stalkers. I have, after all, so far failed to attract a particular wanted stalker.
Sorry about that, Tessa, Naiki said. But you're, you know, immortal now and have plenty of time to find someone else.
I'm only ageless, Naiki, she said. And I'm not particularly comforted by the thought I have an eternity to find true love. It implies it might just take that long.
"There was one thing I'd like to do," O'Neil said as Tessa quietly received Naiki's apologies.
"Oh?" Tessa said.
"Well, I'm assuming it's you," he noted. "But I'd like to shake the hand of whoever gave that freak Kuno such a thrashing."
Tessa's pleasant expression vanished into one of sadness and discomfort.
"Oh," she said. "I...don't suppose that'll be a problem...but it'll have to be short."
"That's fine," O'Neil said, suddenly cautious.
Tessa quietly gestured for them to continue following her and took them into what was clearly the infirmary where they found what appeared to be a seventeen year old girl with Ainur marks lying back in her bed and passively being fed by a nurse.
"That's her," Tessa said quietly. "I'll give you the file later, we had some security footage of the event."
"What's wrong with her?" Daniel asked.
"If your computer gets too heavily infected with viruses?" Tessa asked.
"You format the hard drive, reload all the backups," Carter said.
"Shichimu didn't have a backup," the Captain said quietly. "She's going to have to relearn to walk even. We think the Ainur network gives her language, but she doesn't have any of the concepts behind the words, so she might as well not know any words. I wondered about the way that Gods and Demons become children to make it easier, but apparently it requires some will on the part of the individual to be successful."
O'Neil frowned and looked toward Tessa.
"Do you mind if I go in?" he asked.
"Briefly," Tessa said.
O'Neil walked into the room and glanced toward the nurse cautiously before moving up in front of the girl.
True to Testarossa's description, the girl opened her mouth to talk, but quickly was overwhelmed by a blank, frustrated look and shook her head before glancing back to the nurse and reaching clumsily for the spoon.
"No, no," the nurse said before turning to O'Neil. "She spills it."
O'Neil grimaced and reached into a pocket to retrieve a small, colorful medal which he handed out toward her. She turned toward it, blinking and reached to take it.
"This is my Air Force Cross, I've got a couple of these," he told her in a friendly tone, ignoring her blank attitude as she examined the piece of metal without paying much attention. "It's a reward. It means you did good. Thought I'd give it to the person who did that to that woman."
She looked up at him and down at the medal again.
He gave her a crisp salute which she tried to imitate, blinking in frustration as she did.
"We'll make sure it's safe until she can understand what it means," the nurse said, taking the medal aside before the girl could gnaw on it. "Sergeant Weber will keep an eye on it."
"Good," O'Neil said firmly before waving at the girl with a smile and turning to leave the room.
"Let's go have that coffee," Tessa said silently.
*************
Teyla was surprised to find the command team of Socrates Group having tea with Captain Testarossa as she finished her "ascension" and was escorted to meet with them.
"I still have to say that your image and behavior are very much unexpected," Teal'C noted.
"I know," Tessa said with a sigh. "Everybody tends to be surprised when they first meet me."
"The things your reputed for do tend to imply a certain..." Daniel tried to find a good term.
"Bad-assness," O'Neil said.
"Yes, I suppose so," she said.
"I am fairly certain that you'll find that Captain Testarossa seems to hide some definite iron," Teyla said walking in. "I think I just got a...look of what her mind is like under the appearances."
"I wouldn't call it appearances," Tessa said with a mild and polite frown. "I am not putting on a show here. Now, we have some things to discuss...let's start with why you're here so unannounced."
He clicked a button to show a dark haired woman walking determinedly through a plate glass window on the video and dying afterward.
"And Kodachi Kuno," he repeated, moving to another video. "And Kodachi Kuno. Ooo, gotta hurt! And, Kodachi Kuno..."
Daniel and Carter winced at the way he repeated the name so enthusiastically, remembering a similar instance some years previous.
One of two women dropped as a bullet was put into her back and the other ducked behind cover.
"Stop right there!" O'Neil called out, "put the artifact down and..."
He stopped as the individual poked her head out of cover to reveal the face of Dr. Janet Frasier facing him with a sadistic grin.
"Dr. Frasier?" he called out as the other Socrates Group members came up beside him.
"And Kodachi Kuno," the woman said as she clicked a device and a series of explosions cut her off from the reach of the others. "And Kodachi Kuno! And. Kodachi. Kuno. OHH HOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOHO!!!"
She walked off into the darkness then as they had tried to get past the debris she'd erected in their way.
"I sincerely doubt this is an accident," Carter noted. "We have reports on at least eleven confirmed deaths by individuals that were claiming to be Kodachi Kuno. All within an eight minute period and mostly self-inflicted directly or otherwise. In at least one case, she killed herself and about thirty or forty of her researchers in one facility due to a nerve gas leak."
"I want to meet whoever did this," O'Neil said shaking his head. "This is my kind of guy."
"This did result in some responses however," Hammond said.
"Response what do you mean?" Carter asked.
Hammond stepped forward to take the remote from O'Neil and called up a new set of images.
"We have reports of attacks on known psychic families or facilities all over the world," the General said,. "Psyche's sanctuaries have been attacked unsuccessfully in three cities, but their Rio facility has gone dark. Warsaw and NATO programs have also been attacked."
"Ah, hell," Jack said. "She's..."
"Recruiting," Teal'c noted.
"Spreading might be a better term," Jackson said darkly.
"It gets worse," Hammond said, pulling up a new image. "Two of our off-world sites were attacked, we got footage from one of them."
At first glance it appeared to be any other Kodachi, but the team quickly recognized her as she turned toward the camera and then walked into an open gateway ahead of her mercenaries.
"Janet," Daniel said. "There are any of a number of psychic populations that she could assault..."
"So, we have, potentially, three invasions to be concerned with," Carter said.
"Teyla Emmagan from the Atlantis team is supposed to be visiting Mithril about this Ainur thing," Hammond said. "She has a homing beacon, right?"
"Right, sir," Carter said.
"It's unfortunate we didn't build the damn things until after Janet..." O'Neil waved his hands.
"Go ahead and pay a visit to our mercenary white knights, see what they have to say about this," Hammond said. "Be polite, but remember, they have a leak."
"All right, sir," O'Neil said. "I've been wondering about this Captain Teletha Testarossa anyway."
"Indeed," Teal'C agreed, "the events that her name and unit appear next to are most impressive. I am very interested in meeting such a warrior."
"I have to admit to curiosity there myself," Carter said. "The main reason we know that Mithril has a link is because Gauron clearly knew her background and what she looks like and we...well, don't. But the Gods and Demons we've talked to have been speaking highly of her too now..."
"One does wonder what sort of person produces that level of loyalty in others," Daniel agreed.
"I'll bet she's some sort of Amazon bad ass," O'Neil said.
**************
"Excuse me, Colonel O'Neil," Tessa said politely and mildly. "We were not informed that you were coming, or else I would have prepared a more friendly welcome."
She said this while smiling and gesturing for the various soldiers around her to put down their guns. Almost as if she were arranging a tea party. Her walk was graceful but tender, implying recent injury and she was wearing a cast on her arm as well.
The sixteen year old then moved forward, smiling politely and looking up into O'Neil's and Teal'C's faces as calm as could be.
The immediate thought O'Neil had was that the secretary had balls, though his eyes started to wander toward her rank insignia.
"That's okay, Miss..." he started to say.
"Captain!" an older voice called out, causing the girl to glance briefly over her shoulder, as if the visitors were no threat. "You should not be facing these intruders yourself."
"It's fine Commander Mardukas," Tessa said cheerfully and calmly with a mild bow. "There is no problem here. I'm sure Socrates Group is simply wishing to combine our resources."
"You are Captain Teletha Testarossa," O'Neil said pointing.
"That is correct, yes," Tessa said.
"You commanded the DaDanaan when it slew Poseidon," Teal'C asked.
"Also correct," the captain said.
"You're the woman who the Demons say purged a God-made virus from the Nifelheim psychic network?" Carter asked.
"I had help there," Tessa said, blushing slightly.
"And you're the one who developed Project Ainur," Daniel said.
"Yes, but that was more than half copying the Gods' and Demons' designs," Tessa noted.
They stared at her slack-jawed.
"Shall we move to the briefing room for coffee and lunch?" she asked, gesturing with her uninjured arm. "I believe your teammate shall be through in twenty or thirty minutes."
"Are you really...her?" O'Neil started to ask.
Tessa sighed as they started walking through the hall.
Why is it that everyone who meets me the first time has trouble believing I'm the real commander?
You're sixteen and moe, Naiki returned. You said you wanted to talk about something, what was it?
Not right now, Tessa returned. When you get the chance tell your mother and Mara that Socrates Group somehow teleported into our base. I'd like to know how they did that and whether we can use it as a technique the way the Gods and Demons can. Granted, we'll try an exchange first...
All right, Naiki said. Do you have any advice for...
No, I do not have advice for dealing with unwanted stalkers. I have, after all, so far failed to attract a particular wanted stalker.
Sorry about that, Tessa, Naiki said. But you're, you know, immortal now and have plenty of time to find someone else.
I'm only ageless, Naiki, she said. And I'm not particularly comforted by the thought I have an eternity to find true love. It implies it might just take that long.
"There was one thing I'd like to do," O'Neil said as Tessa quietly received Naiki's apologies.
"Oh?" Tessa said.
"Well, I'm assuming it's you," he noted. "But I'd like to shake the hand of whoever gave that freak Kuno such a thrashing."
Tessa's pleasant expression vanished into one of sadness and discomfort.
"Oh," she said. "I...don't suppose that'll be a problem...but it'll have to be short."
"That's fine," O'Neil said, suddenly cautious.
Tessa quietly gestured for them to continue following her and took them into what was clearly the infirmary where they found what appeared to be a seventeen year old girl with Ainur marks lying back in her bed and passively being fed by a nurse.
"That's her," Tessa said quietly. "I'll give you the file later, we had some security footage of the event."
"What's wrong with her?" Daniel asked.
"If your computer gets too heavily infected with viruses?" Tessa asked.
"You format the hard drive, reload all the backups," Carter said.
"Shichimu didn't have a backup," the Captain said quietly. "She's going to have to relearn to walk even. We think the Ainur network gives her language, but she doesn't have any of the concepts behind the words, so she might as well not know any words. I wondered about the way that Gods and Demons become children to make it easier, but apparently it requires some will on the part of the individual to be successful."
O'Neil frowned and looked toward Tessa.
"Do you mind if I go in?" he asked.
"Briefly," Tessa said.
O'Neil walked into the room and glanced toward the nurse cautiously before moving up in front of the girl.
True to Testarossa's description, the girl opened her mouth to talk, but quickly was overwhelmed by a blank, frustrated look and shook her head before glancing back to the nurse and reaching clumsily for the spoon.
"No, no," the nurse said before turning to O'Neil. "She spills it."
O'Neil grimaced and reached into a pocket to retrieve a small, colorful medal which he handed out toward her. She turned toward it, blinking and reached to take it.
"This is my Air Force Cross, I've got a couple of these," he told her in a friendly tone, ignoring her blank attitude as she examined the piece of metal without paying much attention. "It's a reward. It means you did good. Thought I'd give it to the person who did that to that woman."
She looked up at him and down at the medal again.
He gave her a crisp salute which she tried to imitate, blinking in frustration as she did.
"We'll make sure it's safe until she can understand what it means," the nurse said, taking the medal aside before the girl could gnaw on it. "Sergeant Weber will keep an eye on it."
"Good," O'Neil said firmly before waving at the girl with a smile and turning to leave the room.
"Let's go have that coffee," Tessa said silently.
*************
Teyla was surprised to find the command team of Socrates Group having tea with Captain Testarossa as she finished her "ascension" and was escorted to meet with them.
"I still have to say that your image and behavior are very much unexpected," Teal'C noted.
"I know," Tessa said with a sigh. "Everybody tends to be surprised when they first meet me."
"The things your reputed for do tend to imply a certain..." Daniel tried to find a good term.
"Bad-assness," O'Neil said.
"Yes, I suppose so," she said.
"I am fairly certain that you'll find that Captain Testarossa seems to hide some definite iron," Teyla said walking in. "I think I just got a...look of what her mind is like under the appearances."
"I wouldn't call it appearances," Tessa said with a mild and polite frown. "I am not putting on a show here. Now, we have some things to discuss...let's start with why you're here so unannounced."
"Sheesh, what's the big deal here?" Kaname asked. "So we've got a new physical education teacher. It's about time we got one with Coach Kogure on leave after he got hospitalized earlier in the year."
"She's on Okaasan's list," Eija said, bringing Kaname up short.
"Okay, one group on that list is the Musk people that tried to kidnap us in Korea," Kaname said.
"Number 3," Naiki said.
"And the Chinese people teaching Nimu and Naiki," Yonjuu noted.
"Number 4," Deimosu said.
"Well, that was before, she upgraded Kodachi Kuno from 8 to 1," Eija said. "Now Musk are 4 and Amazons are 5."
"Most of the paranatural world has upgraded Kodachi to 1," Naiki noted.
"What used to be number 1?" Yonjuu asked in a nervous tone.
"Some woman named Hinako Ninomiya," Naiki said.
"Okay, so where's our new teacher then?" Kaname asked.
"Number 3 now," an older voice said, leaning into the conversation. "Now can we get back to where the rest of the class is?"
"Uhh, yes Miss Konjo," Sousuke said as he stood up straight and moved to salute her.
The other kids apologized quietly and carefully moved into the gymnasium as Konjo remained behind to watch them leave, tapping her feet before moving on to the gymnasium behind them and waiting for them to line up with the other students.
She was a tall, beautiful brunette woman with minute laugh lines and a bright and cheerful smile. The green marks on her face stood out to everybody as similar to those of other new teachers and students.
Or returning students in the case of Deimosu and Sousuke.
"All right," she said, walking up the lines. "I'm glad to see everyone here today on time! I'm Coach Konjo and I'm going to be physical instructor for the next little while at least. I'm hoping that we're all going to be able to have fun!"
A couple of people seemed to be chuckling under their breath at her declaration.
"I'd like to have fun with her," one of the chuckling boys noted.
"Now, I'm not really sure where everybody's physical capabilities are just yet," she said in an idle, seemingly airheaded manner. "So we're going to start with a few light exercises to find out where everybody stands."
She started to turn to some of her aids and then paused.
"Oh yes," she said. "First thing, there will be no easy favoritism in this class...and next..."
Ono D, one of several boys from the combined three classes, rose his hand curiously.
"Who would you treat as a favorite in this class?" he asked.
"Well, say, for argument's sake," she said keeping her cheerful appearance. "There were people involved in my ex-husband's family."
"Uhh, right," Ono said. "What's easy favoritism?"
"It's the sort of favoritism where I go easy on you," the coach said. "Instead of testing you to the extreme limits of your being so as best to bring out your ultimate potential."
Kaname stared as she felt a shiver go down her back for a moment and wondered why.
"Anymore questions on that?" she asked. "Good, now, the other thing. Anybody caught engaging in activity that will aggravate their own injuries will...be corrected. Anybody caught aggravating someone else's injuries will...regret it. Now, as I call your name, I will tell you whom of my assistants or myself to report."
She moved to the side and took a clipboard from one of several woman and men that were apparently the woman's assistant coaches.
"Kaname Chidori," she said. "Report to the first bleachers..."
She looked up over the clipboard with a bright and cheery smile that was intimidating as anything Eija had ever done.
"You'll be with my group," she said.
"All right," Kaname said, moving cautiously as she listened to more names being called out.
"Mizuki Inaba," Coach Konjo said. "Please move to the third bleachers and wait for Sonoda-sensei. Shinji Kazama, third bleachers. Lusca Kraken, first bleachers."
A few more names were called.
"Yonjuu Ni, first bleachers."
"Deimosu Satomi, first bleachers," she noted. "Eija Satomi and Naiki Satomi, first bleachers with potential med-evac condition."
"I'm not that badly hurt anymore," Naiki protested.
"I'm in the same bleachers as Naiki!" Lusca gushed. "Squeee!!"
"Ummm, I change my mind," Naiki said. "I think I'm about to cough up a lung can I go to the nurse? Please?"
"Sousuke Sagara," she said, ignoring Naiki. "First bleachers, same med-evac thing."
"Understood," Sousuke said, moving that way.
"Kyoko Tokiwa," and she looked up still cheerful. "We have a physical therapy specialist coming from the nurse's office for you."
"Oh, thank you," Kyoko said.
"All right," Konjo called out. "Let's get to it!"
Mizuki paused and looked around her at the other people in the third bleachers.
"Hey, I might be no good," she said. "But why did they stick me with all the nerds? I mean I can see why you're here, Shinji, but why would she put a beautiful girl like me who tries hard out here?"
"Maybe it's because of the time you knocked yourself out with the basketball!" Shinji wondered.
"Ohh! I'm going to show her I'm ready for real PE," Mizuki said with fire in her eyes.
"You're going rabid wombat again, aren't you?" Shinji asked.
****************
"Okay, so we've got the photos and the blueprints," a man said. "You know the targets and the objectives."
Pictures sat out on the table of several individuals.
"Our job is to be in and out as soon as possible," he declared. "But that hardly needs to be said because for us, this is personal."
The young man leaned down into the light revealing that he was no more than in his early twenties.
"These are the people that stopped the Behemoth before it could carry out our revenge," he said. "And the heavens themselves support our cause even if our leader Seina has abandoned the cause. We'll get rid of this blot now and bring heaven's glory to Tokyo as our fist."
On the table, the pictures of Mara Geisthexe, the Satomis, Kaname Chidori and and Sousuke Sagara sat prominent among a small collection of other VIPs.
***********
Another young woman quietly wandered into the back of the building, glancing over her shoulder as she slipped into the maintenance shed, hoping she hadn't been seen. The last thing she was going to need to deal with school security.
"Okay, janitor's clothes," she said. "And see if I can get in place before I have to deal with some school rent-a-cop as well as A-21."
**********
Wraith didn't like to leave her position if she could avoid it. Which is why she found it annoying as she watched a known terrorist slip in past the security into the maintenance shed. Granted, she couldn't say too much, having almost missed the entry herself.
She took a cell-phone and dialed a number.
Beepers across the school went off.
***********
"And, that's what we'll be doing today," Coach Konjo said as she glanced at her beeper.
"Is there a situation?" Sousuke asked indicating the beeper.
"Mr. Sagara," Konjo said. "The only situation I want to see you focus on is the love in your heart..."
Kaname and Eija sitting on either side of Sousuke flushed brightly as the woman winked at them.
"...and the fact that I will enforce you not aggravating injuries. Now, back to..."
One of the male coaches came over looking a bit embarrassed.
"Didn't you assign an Inaba to my group?" he asked.
"Well," the coach said. "Yes, why do you ask?"
"She's on Okaasan's list," Eija said, bringing Kaname up short.
"Okay, one group on that list is the Musk people that tried to kidnap us in Korea," Kaname said.
"Number 3," Naiki said.
"And the Chinese people teaching Nimu and Naiki," Yonjuu noted.
"Number 4," Deimosu said.
"Well, that was before, she upgraded Kodachi Kuno from 8 to 1," Eija said. "Now Musk are 4 and Amazons are 5."
"Most of the paranatural world has upgraded Kodachi to 1," Naiki noted.
"What used to be number 1?" Yonjuu asked in a nervous tone.
"Some woman named Hinako Ninomiya," Naiki said.
"Okay, so where's our new teacher then?" Kaname asked.
"Number 3 now," an older voice said, leaning into the conversation. "Now can we get back to where the rest of the class is?"
"Uhh, yes Miss Konjo," Sousuke said as he stood up straight and moved to salute her.
The other kids apologized quietly and carefully moved into the gymnasium as Konjo remained behind to watch them leave, tapping her feet before moving on to the gymnasium behind them and waiting for them to line up with the other students.
She was a tall, beautiful brunette woman with minute laugh lines and a bright and cheerful smile. The green marks on her face stood out to everybody as similar to those of other new teachers and students.
Or returning students in the case of Deimosu and Sousuke.
"All right," she said, walking up the lines. "I'm glad to see everyone here today on time! I'm Coach Konjo and I'm going to be physical instructor for the next little while at least. I'm hoping that we're all going to be able to have fun!"
A couple of people seemed to be chuckling under their breath at her declaration.
"I'd like to have fun with her," one of the chuckling boys noted.
"Now, I'm not really sure where everybody's physical capabilities are just yet," she said in an idle, seemingly airheaded manner. "So we're going to start with a few light exercises to find out where everybody stands."
She started to turn to some of her aids and then paused.
"Oh yes," she said. "First thing, there will be no easy favoritism in this class...and next..."
Ono D, one of several boys from the combined three classes, rose his hand curiously.
"Who would you treat as a favorite in this class?" he asked.
"Well, say, for argument's sake," she said keeping her cheerful appearance. "There were people involved in my ex-husband's family."
"Uhh, right," Ono said. "What's easy favoritism?"
"It's the sort of favoritism where I go easy on you," the coach said. "Instead of testing you to the extreme limits of your being so as best to bring out your ultimate potential."
Kaname stared as she felt a shiver go down her back for a moment and wondered why.
"Anymore questions on that?" she asked. "Good, now, the other thing. Anybody caught engaging in activity that will aggravate their own injuries will...be corrected. Anybody caught aggravating someone else's injuries will...regret it. Now, as I call your name, I will tell you whom of my assistants or myself to report."
She moved to the side and took a clipboard from one of several woman and men that were apparently the woman's assistant coaches.
"Kaname Chidori," she said. "Report to the first bleachers..."
She looked up over the clipboard with a bright and cheery smile that was intimidating as anything Eija had ever done.
"You'll be with my group," she said.
"All right," Kaname said, moving cautiously as she listened to more names being called out.
"Mizuki Inaba," Coach Konjo said. "Please move to the third bleachers and wait for Sonoda-sensei. Shinji Kazama, third bleachers. Lusca Kraken, first bleachers."
A few more names were called.
"Yonjuu Ni, first bleachers."
"Deimosu Satomi, first bleachers," she noted. "Eija Satomi and Naiki Satomi, first bleachers with potential med-evac condition."
"I'm not that badly hurt anymore," Naiki protested.
"I'm in the same bleachers as Naiki!" Lusca gushed. "Squeee!!"
"Ummm, I change my mind," Naiki said. "I think I'm about to cough up a lung can I go to the nurse? Please?"
"Sousuke Sagara," she said, ignoring Naiki. "First bleachers, same med-evac thing."
"Understood," Sousuke said, moving that way.
"Kyoko Tokiwa," and she looked up still cheerful. "We have a physical therapy specialist coming from the nurse's office for you."
"Oh, thank you," Kyoko said.
"All right," Konjo called out. "Let's get to it!"
Mizuki paused and looked around her at the other people in the third bleachers.
"Hey, I might be no good," she said. "But why did they stick me with all the nerds? I mean I can see why you're here, Shinji, but why would she put a beautiful girl like me who tries hard out here?"
"Maybe it's because of the time you knocked yourself out with the basketball!" Shinji wondered.
"Ohh! I'm going to show her I'm ready for real PE," Mizuki said with fire in her eyes.
"You're going rabid wombat again, aren't you?" Shinji asked.
****************
"Okay, so we've got the photos and the blueprints," a man said. "You know the targets and the objectives."
Pictures sat out on the table of several individuals.
"Our job is to be in and out as soon as possible," he declared. "But that hardly needs to be said because for us, this is personal."
The young man leaned down into the light revealing that he was no more than in his early twenties.
"These are the people that stopped the Behemoth before it could carry out our revenge," he said. "And the heavens themselves support our cause even if our leader Seina has abandoned the cause. We'll get rid of this blot now and bring heaven's glory to Tokyo as our fist."
On the table, the pictures of Mara Geisthexe, the Satomis, Kaname Chidori and and Sousuke Sagara sat prominent among a small collection of other VIPs.
***********
Another young woman quietly wandered into the back of the building, glancing over her shoulder as she slipped into the maintenance shed, hoping she hadn't been seen. The last thing she was going to need to deal with school security.
"Okay, janitor's clothes," she said. "And see if I can get in place before I have to deal with some school rent-a-cop as well as A-21."
**********
Wraith didn't like to leave her position if she could avoid it. Which is why she found it annoying as she watched a known terrorist slip in past the security into the maintenance shed. Granted, she couldn't say too much, having almost missed the entry herself.
She took a cell-phone and dialed a number.
Beepers across the school went off.
***********
"And, that's what we'll be doing today," Coach Konjo said as she glanced at her beeper.
"Is there a situation?" Sousuke asked indicating the beeper.
"Mr. Sagara," Konjo said. "The only situation I want to see you focus on is the love in your heart..."
Kaname and Eija sitting on either side of Sousuke flushed brightly as the woman winked at them.
"...and the fact that I will enforce you not aggravating injuries. Now, back to..."
One of the male coaches came over looking a bit embarrassed.
"Didn't you assign an Inaba to my group?" he asked.
"Well," the coach said. "Yes, why do you ask?"
"Hey, Gei-sensei," one of the students called out.
Mara winced at the shortening of her surname, especially given how it would sound to some people, and stood up straight.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Moloch just got up and walked away from the group," the student said.
Mara had already noticed the "student" in particular doing that and glanced across toward the named person as he stood at the doorway and leaned immediately to its side, ears cocked pointedly.
"On call," he said, holding his beeper up for Mara to see.
"Right," Mara said before turning back to the other students. "Moloch has a family job that sometimes calls for him to be ready to go. Just deal without him for now."
"Sounds like a gangster to me," the complaining student grumbled.
****************
"Careful," the art teacher said. "These slabs will just shatter completely if you hit them wrong and then you'll have to hope I...
"Iseei-Kun!" Mizuki shouted slamming open a door to the art room and startling half the class.
Stone fragments showered half the class room followed by the wails of the educationally damned.
"Gah!" the martial artist snapped. "What are you doing here, woman?!"
Mizuki, still in her gym uniform scooted up into his face and bunched her fists together.
"The new PE teacher put me in with all the nerds!" she whined.
"Why shouldn't she?" he asked. "You're a walking injury waiting to happen. And what can I do about it?"
He looked around to notice all the looks he was getting.
"Come say that I can be with the normal students," she said. "You're a martial artist and you say I'm impossible! So you can convince this new teacher to put me out of the nerds!"
"It wasn't long ago that you bragged to a bunch of thugs about me so that they'd be ticked off and look for a fight," he reminded her.
"And you never said thank you!" Mizuki said. "Please do this favor?"
"How did you find me anyway," he asked. "I have a brand new class schedule since last week."
"I asked around," Mizuki said.
****************
The caretaker looked at the trail of disturbed classrooms in dismay.
Chemistry club members in an off period had an experiment disturbed by a suddenly opening door.
That room was spewing forth smoke.
The next room had a number of students either chasing or trying to avoid the frogs that had escaped when the teacher dropped the cage upon being shocked.
A pair of students who'd been in the hall with water buckets were trying to dry themselves out and get a handle on their rattled skulls.
The trail of chaos continued more or less down the corridor.
"I'm going to need help on this one," he sighed. "Between Sagara, Tsubaki, Inaba and that green-haired Satomi, it's a wonder we have a school left."
******************
Seina paused in the hallway as she caught sight down the hall of a girl with long dark hair and blue facial marks, gasping she ducked into a nearby room, waiting for the girl, who looked about fourteen to turn down another hallway.
"No, I was living in Japan when it happened," she was saying. "My family just freaked out and got paranoid. What do you think Junpei Kamiya? I heard he's from a great family..."
The rest of the discussion moved on and Seina started to push into the room.
"Was that one of those..." she started to ask before an old man in a maintenance uniform came around and found her standing there.
"Hey there, you must be one of these new hires," he said.
"Yeah," Seina said instantly.
"Good, we've got some work for you to do this way," he said, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her down a hall.
A moment later and one of the newer secretaries came through the same hallway, watching carefully.
"This hallway is clear," she said. "Do we have an description besides Japanese female?"
***************
The former leader of a terrorist group grimaced irritably as she waited for the watchful, if nice, old janitor to go off and do something else so she could get back to familiarizing herself with the layout and trying to find the few targets she knew were in this school.
In retrospect, next time she planned to defy the plan of inhuman invaders disguised as people, she should wait until she saw all the information first.
"Oh, hmm," the janitor said, "I need to get us some more trash bags. I'll be right back you wait here."
"Sure thing, sir," Seina said politely.
She waited for him to leave before standing up and starting to leave the hallway. A sight outside caught her eyes, and she moved toward the open window to note one of her more recent recruits starting to move on the outer edges of the school.
"Here they..."
The door immediately behind her swung open forcefully, and slammed into her backside, sending the wide-eyed woman tumbling out of the window.
"Let go of me, woman!" Issei demanded as Mizuki pulled him through it, snatching his hand away from her. "I'm going back to my class, I don't have time to help you pass your physical test."
"But you can't go now," Mizuki whined. "I've gotten you this far already!"
"I have no reason to want to help you," Tsubaki said.
"But whenever I prank order the jerks," she said. "I always make sure to use your family's restaurant."
"It's you doing that?!" he demanded angrily, marching down the hall towards the other end.
They paused as a tall young man, one of the new students wearing a hall monitor's badge, came into the hallway ahead of them looking about the area and then pausing to look at the two students.
"Have you two seen anybody suspicious around here?" he asked.
"Mizuki Inaba is the definition of suspicious," Issei said bitterly. "But other than her, no."
"Get to class," he said tersely.
"I'm trying to," Issei insisted bitterly as the older student started to walk away. "Who's he to ask about suspicious characters?"
That said, he turned to look and find Mizuki glaring up into his face.
"Aren't you going to help me please?" she asked.
"Aren't you supposed to try that with a puppy-dog face?" he demanded.
Mizuki leaned back, fuming.
"Fine then," she noted. "If you're going to be that way."
She turned around and started to take a step.
"Finally," Issei said. "I can go back to my..."
And as he started to turn, Mizuki turned her mid-air foot around and stepped close to his face, yanking the glasses and then running down the hall.
"Wo...Woman!" Issei shouted. "Bring those back!"
"Not until you help me!" the school girl declared.
********************
Sousuke and Naiki exchanged a look as Coach Konjo went about testing the readiness of the rest of their class. Deimosu himself had his own furtive look toward one of the exits. There was something going on, they knew it.
Sitting next to Sousuke, Eija leaned over toward the soldier as Kaname did her push ups under Coach Konjo's eye.
"Stay here, please," she whispered. "There's other people now, and you're still hurt."
Tell...tell him I don't want to go through my entire life watching the two of you move from one injury to the next.
"Kaname would like us to take some time for ourselves," Eija whispered. "Deal with...stuff."
"I am responsible for the safety of you both," he whispered back. "I could not let anything happen to either of you."
"Then wouldn't it be best if you stayed nearby" Eija asked, holding his hand.
And tell...him I still have my harisen nearby, if he disagrees, Kaname added with playful irritation.
Eija's mouth twitched into a smile briefly as she continued whispering.
"Kaname is also most insistent," the Goddess said, glancing over toward the human girl's things including her harisen.
"I see," Sousuke said. "If you might relay that such a response is not required..."
Deimosu and Yonjuu had their own conversation going on.
I'm going to see what's going on, he said. Can you smell anything?
I thought I smelled gunoil, Yonjuu said. But I think that's just Sagara.
"Just a note," Coach Konjo said without turning around. "I've got the marks, I can hear you even if I can't tell what you're saying. Much as I understand the desire of a heart in love to exchange sweet nothings, not during my instruction please."
"There's nothing like that going on here?" Yonjuu protested immediately.
"Why is it you immediately assume that it's some sort of love thing?" he asked.
He glanced over toward where Kaname was pausing in her push-ups and then toward Eija and Sousuke.
"Isn't that ridiculous?" he asked.
"What?" Kaname asked.
Kaname and Eija then blinked and almost in unison said.
"Oh!"
"Right, we were discussing our curiosity of what the beeper was for," Eija said.
"Right, it just seemed important," Kaname agreed.
"Eija and Kaname are correct," Sousuke agreed. "We were...is there something wrong?"
Kaname and Eija were staring at him from their respective positions.
Oh my god, he said our names! Kaname said blushing furiously.
And it isn't even a life or death situation. Eija noted.
You're even awake to hear it this time. Kaname noted.
Calm, calm, Eija said. We have images to maintain.
Right, Kaname agreed. The last thing we need is to go "squee" like Lusca.
Deimosu grimaced and narrowed his eyes at Kaname and Sousuke as the exchange went on and Coach Konjo sighed and put a palm to her face. The half-Greek Ainur was unable to tell which he was most annoyed with: the two-timing mercenary or the violent school girl.
If they both like him and each other is there a...
"Telepathy, stop," Coach Konjo noted impatiently.
And then a long ribbon appeared in her hand and snaked out to the side before coming back heavier by two demons.
"I was almost to the door," Naiki said. "You couldn't keep her busy a little longer?"
"I'm...I'm so..." Lusca said, tied against Naiki's back. "Squeee!"
"You probably got me noticed," Naiki groaned.
"Now," Coach Konjo said. "I think it's time to see what Naiki can do with those injuries."
"Yeah, injuries," Naiki said. "Aren't you not supposed to be aggravating mine?"
"Are yours aggravated?" Konjo asked casually.
"Damn it, why can't you Masters be less awesome!" Naiki said.
*****************
Seina blinked as she pulled herself out of the dumpster she had fallen into after being pushed out the window. Carefully she tried to find her old comrade again, but failed to irritably enough.
Picking bits of debris out of her hair and clothes, she moved back toward the building, a little bit unstable in her footing and trying to consider where she'd attack if it was her.
She was halfway to the position she'd decided on, when a quick pat down revealed a lack of some of the personal weapons she'd brought with her.
"Let me guess," she said. "They're in the dumpster."
***************
Wraith stood up and started to bring together her sniper rifle as she identified the third clear intruder moving in on the school. She'd already given the alert that there were more intruders than the first, and it looked like they were about to face a major incursion.
One pair of the terrorists were coming up to one of the side doors cautiously and looking for any sign of trouble.
Of course, they failed to note the high-powered rifle that was lining them up with a silencer.
Wraith's shot was thrown off when the door the terrorist was about to open slammed corner first into his face, sending him sprawling backwards into the bushes as his friend stared in shock.
For her own part, Wraith thanked the lucky stars that all she'd managed to do was break the glasses in the schoolgirl's hands.
***********
"Did I just hear my glasses break, Woman?" Issei demanded coming out of the school.
Mizuki nervously glanced at the mysteriously shattered glasses and then over towards the suddenly appeared guy apparently geared up for a paintball match for some reason.
"He did it," she said.
"Now, you two hold it right there and you won't..." the terrorist started to say.
"Haven't you caused enough trouble Sagara?" Issei shouted, misidentifying the blur based on the impression he had of military gear.
His kicked slammed the terrorist up into the roof, knocking him cold and then showed him that Mizuki had fled in the confusion. Grimacing and irritable, he turned back to the school, giving Sousuke one last kick to the face as the soldier-otaku tried to stand up again.
Oddly, it seemed to Tsubaki that Sousuke had been coming from the wrong direction based on where he'd fallen the first time.
Whatever, it was immaterial.
Now, if it had been Satomi he'd just laid out, green hair and all, this whole thing would have been worth it.
*************
Deimosu glanced around carefully and made sure that none of the gym teachers seemed to be watching as he tried to slip into the umisenken and head out into the school as a whole.
Almost immediately, he felt himself stumbling to the floor as a long baton seemed to slip between his legs. And then a ribbon wrapped around his feet and he was pulled back into the group.
At least I got closer than Naiki, he muttered.
"It's like she's using tentacles!" Lusca said.
"Bah, Gymnastics Martial Arts, I can use the ribbon like that," Naiki said.
Immediately, the Demoness smacked her own face with her palm.
"You can do that!" Lusca said. "Are you saying you've mastered tentacle fighting without tentacles?"
"It's no...I'm not...Gah!" Naiki gasped.
"So talented!" the other demoness gushed. "Squeee."
Naiki, I know she's annoying you, Tessa's mind noted. But can you keep the groans to a dull roar?
Lusca turned a bit more serious and glanced toward Naiki.
"Who are you talking to?" she asked.
"Oh, right, another Demon," Naiki muttered.
*******************
Seina took a page from the misfortune that had sent her tumbling into the dumpster earlier, and waited as her former comrades prepared their entry to the school. Slamming the door open at just the right time, she knocked one of them off his feet immediately, and the next moved to slow before she grabbed him and slammed his face into her knee.
After that, she went about checking their unconscious forms for anything she could use and found some zip ties.
She probably should have just killed them, but they had been her people not too long ago. Even if they were working for someone more than a little suspicious right now, they were still the closest she had to family.
"They were making this a quiet raid though," she noted. "For this sort of thing, I almost expected an AS to cow the school."
*********************
She moved back around the outer wall, looking for more of her people.
A couple of seconds later, the secretary poked her head out of the building and found the unconscious terrorists.
"I have two more downed here," she said. "Seriously, would someone take credit for these while I get them out of the way?"
*******************
Mizuki forlornly wandered off around the edges of the school, pausing to notice some of Sousuke's paintball things sitting beside the dumpster. Granted, it occurred to her that Sousuke had had some very real combat injuries, but for the moment she was used to thinking of Sousuke as the military otaku with the toy guns.
Idly, she picked up the gun and the two paint grenades, that's what they had to be, and shook her head as she continued wandering and slipping back into the halls and up the stairs toward the roof.
"What do I do now?" she wondered. "I'm dead, I just know it."
She took the gun to her head and pulled the trigger, expecting a paint ball to the head. She was unaware of just how painful a point blank paint ball would be.
Mizuki was equally unaware of just how safeties worked, and was just confused when the gun failed to fire.
"So that's why he threw these away," Mizuki said. "They're broken."
She tossed the gun idly over the edge of the roof.
Then, just for frustrations sake, she took the grenades and pulled and pocketed the pins before hauling off and tossing them to the horizon.
*************
Wraith gawked as the school blithely tossed what were probably two live grenades out at random after failing to shoot herself in the head.
"Seriously," the intelligence agent muttered. "I'd be doing her a favor to shoot her knee out right now."
**************
Meanwhile, she tracked the grenades, hoping against hope that they wouldn't find any civilians.
"Park here," the truck's passenger said as he looked back in the rear-view mirror to see if they'd attracted any attention yet. "The school is just over the hill here."
He looked away before he saw the grenades, the spoon holding inordinately long on each, bouncing down the street.
"I'm opening the back," the driver said. "We should get ready."
And the grenades bounced in through the open door of the delivery trick and into the open and waiting cockpit of the very obsolete AS inside.
********************
"Wow!" Mizuki said as she saw the smoke rise up in the distance. "I'd almost think that was..."
She stopped and started thinking things through.
"What the hell?!" she screamed. "Those were real?!"
She looked at her hands nervously.
"I almost killed myself," she said. "Thank goodness the gun wasn't loaded. Wait a minute...those people outside the door!"
*************
The driver and passenger of the camouflaged AS delivery shook their heads and stumbled out of the wreckage of the obliterated truck, feeling both confused and very, very lucky to have survived.
************
Seina ducked aside as she saw what was clearly one of the security personnel on the school wander into view. However, it seemed clear that she wasn't the only one that had chosen this hiding place.
A circle of cold metal was put to the back of her head as she backed her way into cover.
"Drop the gun" a voice said and she reluctantly complied.
"Seina," the man behind her said. "I can't let you stop us. This is bigger than us now. This is about the Gods."
"You mean those people in the refuges?" she asked.
"Imposters and rebellious lessers," he said. "That's what Xipe Totec says. He says he serves the true leaders of Heaven and we will..."
The rant was stopped as something fell hard into his head from above and bounced up.
Turning about as her old comrade's gun left her skull, Seina's motions were almost interrupted as she found her own gun bouncing into her hands. She quickly grabbed it and had it pointed at her once friend while he was still recovering from the sharp below to head.
And then she smacked it across the other terrorist's face and watched him crumple.
Seina went to work with the zip ties to secure him and looked up into the sky in confusion and bewilderment before looking back at the gun she was sure that she'd lost at the dumpster.
"That'll hold you until I get the rest of..."
"Hold it right there," a couple of voices declared, drawing Seina's attention to secretary and an older student that were holding guns on her.
"I'm on your side here," she protested darkly.
"Forgive me if we don'..." the secretary started to say before an explosion ripped up in the distance.
Eyes turned and Seina dashed away.
***********
At the distant sound of an explosion, Sousuke and Eija each got to their feet and started heading at a run for the doors.
Kaname sorry, but, Eija was saying.
No problem! Kaname returned vigorously. Go!
Sousuke and Eija exchanged a nod confirming Kaname's approval and saw the door getting close to their reach.
Coach Konjo shook her head casually and whipped out with her ribbon to catch the two up and drag them back. Where they found themselves sitting around a bound and tied Naiki as well as a trussed up and hanging upside down Deimosu.
"Welcome to the party," Naiki said.
"Coach Konjo?" Lusca called out. "Can I go to the restroom."
"Sure, but stay in this building," Coach Konjo said.
"Why does she get to go?" Deimosu asked.
"Because her heart is so full of love for your sister that if she wants to go it clearly must be needed," the woman said in a dramatic sighing tone.
"So true!" Lusca said with a sigh as she reluctantly left the room.
"Can anybody understand what she's talking about?" Naiki asked.
Kaname and Eija blushed as Sousuke looked a little uncomfortable.
"Well, anyway," the coach said. "I think it's time to see where my niece stands."
"Niece?" Yonjuu repeated nervously. "Uheheh."
*****************
Mizuki came rushing down the stairs barreling at a full tilt run such that when she took the first turn, she overshot and started the process of tumbling down the stairs with a wild scream that was nothing about terrorists and everything about the falls.
Fortunately for her, the first real heavy fall was broken as she slammed into a person climbing his way cautiously to the top, sending said person flying backwards into another tactical geared friend. The second friend tumbled through an open window out into open air as the first hit his head and partially collapsed in the stairwell.
Picking herself up, Mizuki limped a few feet and then noticed the radio on the unconscious soldier's jacket and snatched it up before going off running.
*******************
"That's one of the Demons he told us about," one of four A-21 terrorists said as they pointed toward a brown-haired girl with eight long braids in her hair.
The girl was currently leaning over and drinking out of a fountain as they took aim at her back.
"HEY! There are people with guns in the school! And it's not one of Sousuke Sagara's things! If you can hear this, they're right by you because I stole one of their radios!"
The four soldiers paused to switch off their radios immediately and then turn to look up at the pettanko who had turned around to face them with a serious expression.
"That's not funny," the girl said.
***************
"Okay," Coach Konjo said. "I see we're going to have a little bit of trouble following orders. Now, Naiki and Sousuke normally would be expecting to respond when we have this sort of school activity, but not with medical limits."
Yonjuu was on her knees leaning forward and panting heavily.
Are you okay? Deimosu asked. "What about me? I'm not injured."
The floor hasn't stopped moving yet.
"You're also not part of the same sort of extracurricular club as Naiki ad Sousuke are," Konjo said.
Military organizations are extracurricular clubs? Naiki asked.
What are you talking about now? Tessa asked with a sigh.
"Now let's get on with..." Coach Konjo was interrupted by the sound of gunfire in the hallway.
Everybody, normal students and otherwise watched as two screaming men in tactical gear backed away into the gymnasium. Most of the group moved to act when a long brown tentacle stretched out of the wall and grabbed one of the two men, pulling him back.
The man was pulled into the wall hard and stopped with a thud.
The tentacle tried pulling him through the wall a second and third time for the onlookers. When that failed, it tried several more times, with petulant rapidity before, with an air of frustration, tossing the man toward the door.
Apparently it had decided that physical barriers weren't quite as passable to its target.
A second tentacle grabbed the barely conscious terrorist out of the air and pulled him into the hallway beyond. This time through the door.
The remaining terrorist dropped to his knees as the the tentacles vanished with his comrade and took several breaths.
Which was about the point Coach Konjo slashed through his gun with her ribbon, destroying it. This was followed up by her wrapping the terrorist himself up, swinging him in an arch and then tossing him out the door.
The teacher then idly whipped the ribbon out to grab the door and pull it closed.
"Now, while Lusca is getting her workout..."
"What the hell is she Demon of?!" Naiki wondered aloud.
*****************
As Mizuki's radio message carried into Mara's classroom, Moloch was suddenly not leaning near the door any longer. His previous position taken up by a puff of smoke.
This was followed by a very painful sounding pair of thuds that shook the classroom and much of what was nearby.
"Must be some sort of drill," Mara reasoned as Moloch walked into the room, brushing his hands.
*****************
"Hey, you stupid, gun-toting jerks!" Mizuki shouted angrily into the radio. "What the hell are you here for? We already have one gun freak all ready and he's more than enough."
The sound of clicking gun sounds came to her and she slowly turned around to face the trio of terrorists holding their guns on her.
"Uhhh," Mizuki said. "Here you can have these."
And she tossed a pair of small objects toward them.
"What the heck are you expecting to do with tho..." one of the three started to say as his immediate comrade grabbed his shoulder and pointed down to the items Mizuki had dropped.
"Oh crap! She has grenades!"
And the three turned about and ran from Mizuki full tilt.
And Mizuki followed.
Full tilt.
Shouting.
"GRENADES!!!"
She got around one corner before quieting down and running pell mell the other direction.
A minute later, the three A-21 terrorists figured out what she'd done and came after her.
They turned a wrong corner then and found themselves in front of a tall, dark haired young woman with blue marks on her face.
"Hey, my name is Thrud, daughter of Thor," she said as she cracked her knuckles.
*************
Wraith shook her head at the absurdity of it all as she listened in on the security channels. At least they now knew how much trouble the Imperial bodyguard had likely caused.
Then she dropped down from a low balcony and caught up the form of Seina in the woman's flight away from the scene.
"Now," Wraith said, holding Seina still against the nearest wall. "Let's talk..."
**************
Mizuki stumbled into the gymnasium, breathing heavily and threatening to fall over at any moment.
"Sousuke...guns," she gasped pointing back over her shoulder. "Grenades...running....people..."
Coach Konjo shook her head and moved over to the girl with her clipboard.
"Okay..." she said. "Bleacher re-assignment. You're now in the first bleachers, go sit down next to Yonjuu."
"I'm group 1?" Mizuki gasped, blinking, suddenly forgetting everything else.
Mizuki clasped her hands together and started to run back out the door to go give the news to Issei. And she was barely halfway to the door when the ribbon wrapped around her feet and yanked her back to sitting next to Yonjuu.
"And welcome to first bleachers," Kaname noted idly, indicating the way Mizuki had been deposited in her seat.
Mara winced at the shortening of her surname, especially given how it would sound to some people, and stood up straight.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Moloch just got up and walked away from the group," the student said.
Mara had already noticed the "student" in particular doing that and glanced across toward the named person as he stood at the doorway and leaned immediately to its side, ears cocked pointedly.
"On call," he said, holding his beeper up for Mara to see.
"Right," Mara said before turning back to the other students. "Moloch has a family job that sometimes calls for him to be ready to go. Just deal without him for now."
"Sounds like a gangster to me," the complaining student grumbled.
****************
"Careful," the art teacher said. "These slabs will just shatter completely if you hit them wrong and then you'll have to hope I...
"Iseei-Kun!" Mizuki shouted slamming open a door to the art room and startling half the class.
Stone fragments showered half the class room followed by the wails of the educationally damned.
"Gah!" the martial artist snapped. "What are you doing here, woman?!"
Mizuki, still in her gym uniform scooted up into his face and bunched her fists together.
"The new PE teacher put me in with all the nerds!" she whined.
"Why shouldn't she?" he asked. "You're a walking injury waiting to happen. And what can I do about it?"
He looked around to notice all the looks he was getting.
"Come say that I can be with the normal students," she said. "You're a martial artist and you say I'm impossible! So you can convince this new teacher to put me out of the nerds!"
"It wasn't long ago that you bragged to a bunch of thugs about me so that they'd be ticked off and look for a fight," he reminded her.
"And you never said thank you!" Mizuki said. "Please do this favor?"
"How did you find me anyway," he asked. "I have a brand new class schedule since last week."
"I asked around," Mizuki said.
****************
The caretaker looked at the trail of disturbed classrooms in dismay.
Chemistry club members in an off period had an experiment disturbed by a suddenly opening door.
That room was spewing forth smoke.
The next room had a number of students either chasing or trying to avoid the frogs that had escaped when the teacher dropped the cage upon being shocked.
A pair of students who'd been in the hall with water buckets were trying to dry themselves out and get a handle on their rattled skulls.
The trail of chaos continued more or less down the corridor.
"I'm going to need help on this one," he sighed. "Between Sagara, Tsubaki, Inaba and that green-haired Satomi, it's a wonder we have a school left."
******************
Seina paused in the hallway as she caught sight down the hall of a girl with long dark hair and blue facial marks, gasping she ducked into a nearby room, waiting for the girl, who looked about fourteen to turn down another hallway.
"No, I was living in Japan when it happened," she was saying. "My family just freaked out and got paranoid. What do you think Junpei Kamiya? I heard he's from a great family..."
The rest of the discussion moved on and Seina started to push into the room.
"Was that one of those..." she started to ask before an old man in a maintenance uniform came around and found her standing there.
"Hey there, you must be one of these new hires," he said.
"Yeah," Seina said instantly.
"Good, we've got some work for you to do this way," he said, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her down a hall.
A moment later and one of the newer secretaries came through the same hallway, watching carefully.
"This hallway is clear," she said. "Do we have an description besides Japanese female?"
***************
The former leader of a terrorist group grimaced irritably as she waited for the watchful, if nice, old janitor to go off and do something else so she could get back to familiarizing herself with the layout and trying to find the few targets she knew were in this school.
In retrospect, next time she planned to defy the plan of inhuman invaders disguised as people, she should wait until she saw all the information first.
"Oh, hmm," the janitor said, "I need to get us some more trash bags. I'll be right back you wait here."
"Sure thing, sir," Seina said politely.
She waited for him to leave before standing up and starting to leave the hallway. A sight outside caught her eyes, and she moved toward the open window to note one of her more recent recruits starting to move on the outer edges of the school.
"Here they..."
The door immediately behind her swung open forcefully, and slammed into her backside, sending the wide-eyed woman tumbling out of the window.
"Let go of me, woman!" Issei demanded as Mizuki pulled him through it, snatching his hand away from her. "I'm going back to my class, I don't have time to help you pass your physical test."
"But you can't go now," Mizuki whined. "I've gotten you this far already!"
"I have no reason to want to help you," Tsubaki said.
"But whenever I prank order the jerks," she said. "I always make sure to use your family's restaurant."
"It's you doing that?!" he demanded angrily, marching down the hall towards the other end.
They paused as a tall young man, one of the new students wearing a hall monitor's badge, came into the hallway ahead of them looking about the area and then pausing to look at the two students.
"Have you two seen anybody suspicious around here?" he asked.
"Mizuki Inaba is the definition of suspicious," Issei said bitterly. "But other than her, no."
"Get to class," he said tersely.
"I'm trying to," Issei insisted bitterly as the older student started to walk away. "Who's he to ask about suspicious characters?"
That said, he turned to look and find Mizuki glaring up into his face.
"Aren't you going to help me please?" she asked.
"Aren't you supposed to try that with a puppy-dog face?" he demanded.
Mizuki leaned back, fuming.
"Fine then," she noted. "If you're going to be that way."
She turned around and started to take a step.
"Finally," Issei said. "I can go back to my..."
And as he started to turn, Mizuki turned her mid-air foot around and stepped close to his face, yanking the glasses and then running down the hall.
"Wo...Woman!" Issei shouted. "Bring those back!"
"Not until you help me!" the school girl declared.
********************
Sousuke and Naiki exchanged a look as Coach Konjo went about testing the readiness of the rest of their class. Deimosu himself had his own furtive look toward one of the exits. There was something going on, they knew it.
Sitting next to Sousuke, Eija leaned over toward the soldier as Kaname did her push ups under Coach Konjo's eye.
"Stay here, please," she whispered. "There's other people now, and you're still hurt."
Tell...tell him I don't want to go through my entire life watching the two of you move from one injury to the next.
"Kaname would like us to take some time for ourselves," Eija whispered. "Deal with...stuff."
"I am responsible for the safety of you both," he whispered back. "I could not let anything happen to either of you."
"Then wouldn't it be best if you stayed nearby" Eija asked, holding his hand.
And tell...him I still have my harisen nearby, if he disagrees, Kaname added with playful irritation.
Eija's mouth twitched into a smile briefly as she continued whispering.
"Kaname is also most insistent," the Goddess said, glancing over toward the human girl's things including her harisen.
"I see," Sousuke said. "If you might relay that such a response is not required..."
Deimosu and Yonjuu had their own conversation going on.
I'm going to see what's going on, he said. Can you smell anything?
I thought I smelled gunoil, Yonjuu said. But I think that's just Sagara.
"Just a note," Coach Konjo said without turning around. "I've got the marks, I can hear you even if I can't tell what you're saying. Much as I understand the desire of a heart in love to exchange sweet nothings, not during my instruction please."
"There's nothing like that going on here?" Yonjuu protested immediately.
"Why is it you immediately assume that it's some sort of love thing?" he asked.
He glanced over toward where Kaname was pausing in her push-ups and then toward Eija and Sousuke.
"Isn't that ridiculous?" he asked.
"What?" Kaname asked.
Kaname and Eija then blinked and almost in unison said.
"Oh!"
"Right, we were discussing our curiosity of what the beeper was for," Eija said.
"Right, it just seemed important," Kaname agreed.
"Eija and Kaname are correct," Sousuke agreed. "We were...is there something wrong?"
Kaname and Eija were staring at him from their respective positions.
Oh my god, he said our names! Kaname said blushing furiously.
And it isn't even a life or death situation. Eija noted.
You're even awake to hear it this time. Kaname noted.
Calm, calm, Eija said. We have images to maintain.
Right, Kaname agreed. The last thing we need is to go "squee" like Lusca.
Deimosu grimaced and narrowed his eyes at Kaname and Sousuke as the exchange went on and Coach Konjo sighed and put a palm to her face. The half-Greek Ainur was unable to tell which he was most annoyed with: the two-timing mercenary or the violent school girl.
If they both like him and each other is there a...
"Telepathy, stop," Coach Konjo noted impatiently.
And then a long ribbon appeared in her hand and snaked out to the side before coming back heavier by two demons.
"I was almost to the door," Naiki said. "You couldn't keep her busy a little longer?"
"I'm...I'm so..." Lusca said, tied against Naiki's back. "Squeee!"
"You probably got me noticed," Naiki groaned.
"Now," Coach Konjo said. "I think it's time to see what Naiki can do with those injuries."
"Yeah, injuries," Naiki said. "Aren't you not supposed to be aggravating mine?"
"Are yours aggravated?" Konjo asked casually.
"Damn it, why can't you Masters be less awesome!" Naiki said.
*****************
Seina blinked as she pulled herself out of the dumpster she had fallen into after being pushed out the window. Carefully she tried to find her old comrade again, but failed to irritably enough.
Picking bits of debris out of her hair and clothes, she moved back toward the building, a little bit unstable in her footing and trying to consider where she'd attack if it was her.
She was halfway to the position she'd decided on, when a quick pat down revealed a lack of some of the personal weapons she'd brought with her.
"Let me guess," she said. "They're in the dumpster."
***************
Wraith stood up and started to bring together her sniper rifle as she identified the third clear intruder moving in on the school. She'd already given the alert that there were more intruders than the first, and it looked like they were about to face a major incursion.
One pair of the terrorists were coming up to one of the side doors cautiously and looking for any sign of trouble.
Of course, they failed to note the high-powered rifle that was lining them up with a silencer.
Wraith's shot was thrown off when the door the terrorist was about to open slammed corner first into his face, sending him sprawling backwards into the bushes as his friend stared in shock.
For her own part, Wraith thanked the lucky stars that all she'd managed to do was break the glasses in the schoolgirl's hands.
***********
"Did I just hear my glasses break, Woman?" Issei demanded coming out of the school.
Mizuki nervously glanced at the mysteriously shattered glasses and then over towards the suddenly appeared guy apparently geared up for a paintball match for some reason.
"He did it," she said.
"Now, you two hold it right there and you won't..." the terrorist started to say.
"Haven't you caused enough trouble Sagara?" Issei shouted, misidentifying the blur based on the impression he had of military gear.
His kicked slammed the terrorist up into the roof, knocking him cold and then showed him that Mizuki had fled in the confusion. Grimacing and irritable, he turned back to the school, giving Sousuke one last kick to the face as the soldier-otaku tried to stand up again.
Oddly, it seemed to Tsubaki that Sousuke had been coming from the wrong direction based on where he'd fallen the first time.
Whatever, it was immaterial.
Now, if it had been Satomi he'd just laid out, green hair and all, this whole thing would have been worth it.
*************
Deimosu glanced around carefully and made sure that none of the gym teachers seemed to be watching as he tried to slip into the umisenken and head out into the school as a whole.
Almost immediately, he felt himself stumbling to the floor as a long baton seemed to slip between his legs. And then a ribbon wrapped around his feet and he was pulled back into the group.
At least I got closer than Naiki, he muttered.
"It's like she's using tentacles!" Lusca said.
"Bah, Gymnastics Martial Arts, I can use the ribbon like that," Naiki said.
Immediately, the Demoness smacked her own face with her palm.
"You can do that!" Lusca said. "Are you saying you've mastered tentacle fighting without tentacles?"
"It's no...I'm not...Gah!" Naiki gasped.
"So talented!" the other demoness gushed. "Squeee."
Naiki, I know she's annoying you, Tessa's mind noted. But can you keep the groans to a dull roar?
Lusca turned a bit more serious and glanced toward Naiki.
"Who are you talking to?" she asked.
"Oh, right, another Demon," Naiki muttered.
*******************
Seina took a page from the misfortune that had sent her tumbling into the dumpster earlier, and waited as her former comrades prepared their entry to the school. Slamming the door open at just the right time, she knocked one of them off his feet immediately, and the next moved to slow before she grabbed him and slammed his face into her knee.
After that, she went about checking their unconscious forms for anything she could use and found some zip ties.
She probably should have just killed them, but they had been her people not too long ago. Even if they were working for someone more than a little suspicious right now, they were still the closest she had to family.
"They were making this a quiet raid though," she noted. "For this sort of thing, I almost expected an AS to cow the school."
*********************
She moved back around the outer wall, looking for more of her people.
A couple of seconds later, the secretary poked her head out of the building and found the unconscious terrorists.
"I have two more downed here," she said. "Seriously, would someone take credit for these while I get them out of the way?"
*******************
Mizuki forlornly wandered off around the edges of the school, pausing to notice some of Sousuke's paintball things sitting beside the dumpster. Granted, it occurred to her that Sousuke had had some very real combat injuries, but for the moment she was used to thinking of Sousuke as the military otaku with the toy guns.
Idly, she picked up the gun and the two paint grenades, that's what they had to be, and shook her head as she continued wandering and slipping back into the halls and up the stairs toward the roof.
"What do I do now?" she wondered. "I'm dead, I just know it."
She took the gun to her head and pulled the trigger, expecting a paint ball to the head. She was unaware of just how painful a point blank paint ball would be.
Mizuki was equally unaware of just how safeties worked, and was just confused when the gun failed to fire.
"So that's why he threw these away," Mizuki said. "They're broken."
She tossed the gun idly over the edge of the roof.
Then, just for frustrations sake, she took the grenades and pulled and pocketed the pins before hauling off and tossing them to the horizon.
*************
Wraith gawked as the school blithely tossed what were probably two live grenades out at random after failing to shoot herself in the head.
"Seriously," the intelligence agent muttered. "I'd be doing her a favor to shoot her knee out right now."
**************
Meanwhile, she tracked the grenades, hoping against hope that they wouldn't find any civilians.
"Park here," the truck's passenger said as he looked back in the rear-view mirror to see if they'd attracted any attention yet. "The school is just over the hill here."
He looked away before he saw the grenades, the spoon holding inordinately long on each, bouncing down the street.
"I'm opening the back," the driver said. "We should get ready."
And the grenades bounced in through the open door of the delivery trick and into the open and waiting cockpit of the very obsolete AS inside.
********************
"Wow!" Mizuki said as she saw the smoke rise up in the distance. "I'd almost think that was..."
She stopped and started thinking things through.
"What the hell?!" she screamed. "Those were real?!"
She looked at her hands nervously.
"I almost killed myself," she said. "Thank goodness the gun wasn't loaded. Wait a minute...those people outside the door!"
*************
The driver and passenger of the camouflaged AS delivery shook their heads and stumbled out of the wreckage of the obliterated truck, feeling both confused and very, very lucky to have survived.
************
Seina ducked aside as she saw what was clearly one of the security personnel on the school wander into view. However, it seemed clear that she wasn't the only one that had chosen this hiding place.
A circle of cold metal was put to the back of her head as she backed her way into cover.
"Drop the gun" a voice said and she reluctantly complied.
"Seina," the man behind her said. "I can't let you stop us. This is bigger than us now. This is about the Gods."
"You mean those people in the refuges?" she asked.
"Imposters and rebellious lessers," he said. "That's what Xipe Totec says. He says he serves the true leaders of Heaven and we will..."
The rant was stopped as something fell hard into his head from above and bounced up.
Turning about as her old comrade's gun left her skull, Seina's motions were almost interrupted as she found her own gun bouncing into her hands. She quickly grabbed it and had it pointed at her once friend while he was still recovering from the sharp below to head.
And then she smacked it across the other terrorist's face and watched him crumple.
Seina went to work with the zip ties to secure him and looked up into the sky in confusion and bewilderment before looking back at the gun she was sure that she'd lost at the dumpster.
"That'll hold you until I get the rest of..."
"Hold it right there," a couple of voices declared, drawing Seina's attention to secretary and an older student that were holding guns on her.
"I'm on your side here," she protested darkly.
"Forgive me if we don'..." the secretary started to say before an explosion ripped up in the distance.
Eyes turned and Seina dashed away.
***********
At the distant sound of an explosion, Sousuke and Eija each got to their feet and started heading at a run for the doors.
Kaname sorry, but, Eija was saying.
No problem! Kaname returned vigorously. Go!
Sousuke and Eija exchanged a nod confirming Kaname's approval and saw the door getting close to their reach.
Coach Konjo shook her head casually and whipped out with her ribbon to catch the two up and drag them back. Where they found themselves sitting around a bound and tied Naiki as well as a trussed up and hanging upside down Deimosu.
"Welcome to the party," Naiki said.
"Coach Konjo?" Lusca called out. "Can I go to the restroom."
"Sure, but stay in this building," Coach Konjo said.
"Why does she get to go?" Deimosu asked.
"Because her heart is so full of love for your sister that if she wants to go it clearly must be needed," the woman said in a dramatic sighing tone.
"So true!" Lusca said with a sigh as she reluctantly left the room.
"Can anybody understand what she's talking about?" Naiki asked.
Kaname and Eija blushed as Sousuke looked a little uncomfortable.
"Well, anyway," the coach said. "I think it's time to see where my niece stands."
"Niece?" Yonjuu repeated nervously. "Uheheh."
*****************
Mizuki came rushing down the stairs barreling at a full tilt run such that when she took the first turn, she overshot and started the process of tumbling down the stairs with a wild scream that was nothing about terrorists and everything about the falls.
Fortunately for her, the first real heavy fall was broken as she slammed into a person climbing his way cautiously to the top, sending said person flying backwards into another tactical geared friend. The second friend tumbled through an open window out into open air as the first hit his head and partially collapsed in the stairwell.
Picking herself up, Mizuki limped a few feet and then noticed the radio on the unconscious soldier's jacket and snatched it up before going off running.
*******************
"That's one of the Demons he told us about," one of four A-21 terrorists said as they pointed toward a brown-haired girl with eight long braids in her hair.
The girl was currently leaning over and drinking out of a fountain as they took aim at her back.
"HEY! There are people with guns in the school! And it's not one of Sousuke Sagara's things! If you can hear this, they're right by you because I stole one of their radios!"
The four soldiers paused to switch off their radios immediately and then turn to look up at the pettanko who had turned around to face them with a serious expression.
"That's not funny," the girl said.
***************
"Okay," Coach Konjo said. "I see we're going to have a little bit of trouble following orders. Now, Naiki and Sousuke normally would be expecting to respond when we have this sort of school activity, but not with medical limits."
Yonjuu was on her knees leaning forward and panting heavily.
Are you okay? Deimosu asked. "What about me? I'm not injured."
The floor hasn't stopped moving yet.
"You're also not part of the same sort of extracurricular club as Naiki ad Sousuke are," Konjo said.
Military organizations are extracurricular clubs? Naiki asked.
What are you talking about now? Tessa asked with a sigh.
"Now let's get on with..." Coach Konjo was interrupted by the sound of gunfire in the hallway.
Everybody, normal students and otherwise watched as two screaming men in tactical gear backed away into the gymnasium. Most of the group moved to act when a long brown tentacle stretched out of the wall and grabbed one of the two men, pulling him back.
The man was pulled into the wall hard and stopped with a thud.
The tentacle tried pulling him through the wall a second and third time for the onlookers. When that failed, it tried several more times, with petulant rapidity before, with an air of frustration, tossing the man toward the door.
Apparently it had decided that physical barriers weren't quite as passable to its target.
A second tentacle grabbed the barely conscious terrorist out of the air and pulled him into the hallway beyond. This time through the door.
The remaining terrorist dropped to his knees as the the tentacles vanished with his comrade and took several breaths.
Which was about the point Coach Konjo slashed through his gun with her ribbon, destroying it. This was followed up by her wrapping the terrorist himself up, swinging him in an arch and then tossing him out the door.
The teacher then idly whipped the ribbon out to grab the door and pull it closed.
"Now, while Lusca is getting her workout..."
"What the hell is she Demon of?!" Naiki wondered aloud.
*****************
As Mizuki's radio message carried into Mara's classroom, Moloch was suddenly not leaning near the door any longer. His previous position taken up by a puff of smoke.
This was followed by a very painful sounding pair of thuds that shook the classroom and much of what was nearby.
"Must be some sort of drill," Mara reasoned as Moloch walked into the room, brushing his hands.
*****************
"Hey, you stupid, gun-toting jerks!" Mizuki shouted angrily into the radio. "What the hell are you here for? We already have one gun freak all ready and he's more than enough."
The sound of clicking gun sounds came to her and she slowly turned around to face the trio of terrorists holding their guns on her.
"Uhhh," Mizuki said. "Here you can have these."
And she tossed a pair of small objects toward them.
"What the heck are you expecting to do with tho..." one of the three started to say as his immediate comrade grabbed his shoulder and pointed down to the items Mizuki had dropped.
"Oh crap! She has grenades!"
And the three turned about and ran from Mizuki full tilt.
And Mizuki followed.
Full tilt.
Shouting.
"GRENADES!!!"
She got around one corner before quieting down and running pell mell the other direction.
A minute later, the three A-21 terrorists figured out what she'd done and came after her.
They turned a wrong corner then and found themselves in front of a tall, dark haired young woman with blue marks on her face.
"Hey, my name is Thrud, daughter of Thor," she said as she cracked her knuckles.
*************
Wraith shook her head at the absurdity of it all as she listened in on the security channels. At least they now knew how much trouble the Imperial bodyguard had likely caused.
Then she dropped down from a low balcony and caught up the form of Seina in the woman's flight away from the scene.
"Now," Wraith said, holding Seina still against the nearest wall. "Let's talk..."
**************
Mizuki stumbled into the gymnasium, breathing heavily and threatening to fall over at any moment.
"Sousuke...guns," she gasped pointing back over her shoulder. "Grenades...running....people..."
Coach Konjo shook her head and moved over to the girl with her clipboard.
"Okay..." she said. "Bleacher re-assignment. You're now in the first bleachers, go sit down next to Yonjuu."
"I'm group 1?" Mizuki gasped, blinking, suddenly forgetting everything else.
Mizuki clasped her hands together and started to run back out the door to go give the news to Issei. And she was barely halfway to the door when the ribbon wrapped around her feet and yanked her back to sitting next to Yonjuu.
"And welcome to first bleachers," Kaname noted idly, indicating the way Mizuki had been deposited in her seat.
"Okay," Chihiro said, wiping some sweat off her forehead and replacing it with a bit of motor oil. "So what have we got?"
"Urd and Megumi are tracking down the memory leaks in the software," Keiichi said. "They think they've got most of them. The basic chassis works and we know it works."
"Yeah," Chihiro said. "Still working on the whole jumpjet thing though."
"Tell me about it," Keiichi said, shaking his head.
Last time they had tested the jumpjet steering, he'd slammed into a cliff-face. He'd been lucky to get out of it without a serious injury and that particular prototype had been scrapped.
"That was very...concerning," Belldandy agreed as she served drinks to the two and then sat down beside Keiichi.
There was a moment of a shared look and thought.
"Guys, we're on a deadline," Chihiro noted before she lost both Keiichi and Belldandy, who was no slouch with a toolkit despite being girly, to other activities.
"Yes, of course," Belldandy said reluctantly.
"Right, let's get this done," Keiichi said.
They were working in the open air by one of the AS storage bays and thus didn't hear when Tessa walked onto the area to check in on how they were doing.
"Going well?" she asked, glancing around.
"Have you got those battery designs you said you could do?" Chihiro asked.
Tessa smiled and handed over a manila envelope.
"There should be three test units coming your way soon," she said. "My apologies for taking so long, but..."
"You've got other things on your plate," Keiichi said. "Lots of other things."
"This is very true," Tessa said with a sigh as she walked over toward the prototypes. "I must say this is very impressive. It took us three Whispered and five years to create the M-9's various systems, especially the electroactive polymers, and then perfect it enough for field testing."
She examined the inner workings of one of the damaged prototypes.
"This material of yours is different," she noted. "You came up with it yourself, in your own facilities?"
"In Keiichi's backyard, mostly," Chihiro said. "Though we did have help."
"Oh, it was all quite you," Belldandy said. "Urd and I are network programmers primarily. And Skuld...is still learning to be practical."
"I do wonder if the Gods and Demons have something similar," Tessa noted.
"Not really," Belldandy said. "We stopped experimenting with such things after a time. Yggdrasil makes them more or less obsolete for most matters and as weapons, we had the doublet system..."
"So why are we still working on this?" Megumi asked, turning from her software simulation. "Aren't you working on that Silmaril thing?"
"Which will work for the handful of hundreds of Ainur that might be around by then, perhaps some Gods and Demons," Tessa said. "The remaining several million humans and handful of other sentients...?"
"Ah, right," Megumi said. "How many people are you offering this thing to anyway?"
"As many as possible," Tessa said. "We're going to need the help I think and given how few it actually works on..."
"So you've had failures then?" Keiichi asked. "It seemed to go well with all of us."
"Disturbing sort of process though," Megumi said.
"Most of the staff here couldn't make the change," Tessa said. "Reports from the American and Japanese governments suggest similar situations with the Whispers of Souls we gave them. But so far, we've limited to select military personnel, psychics, human paranaturals and some certain civilians in the know. We'll see what happens if it gets to the full public."
"Back to engineering, this other thing," Chihiro said suddenly. "These crystals and circles you want embedded or inscribed. The way I understand it this is like supernatural circuitry?"
"That's as good a way to put it as any," Belldandy said. "If you were to look into an Asgard computer or Mantle you would find it is mostly vegetable matter, closely related to the ash tree."
Urd nodded and turned toward the conversation then.
"And Nifelheim computers and Carapaces would look genetically very similar to a python," she noted. "It's why snakes and Demons have been linked for so long."
"And for us, we apparently deal best with complex crystals," Tessa said.
"Well that be an Ainur only thing?" Keiichi asked.
"I get this feeling that anybody with chi could use these things," Megumi said. "Sort had this weird day dream with lots of numbers and someone whispering..."
"That would be the Whispered network," Tessa said. "All the information and ideas in the network are floating out there, sometimes they used to just filter in. Now, we have to deliberately go looking for it."
"Which is safer but also slows things down," Urd said. "Even safer would be to use consoles rather than direct diving the network...but your Silmaril isn't up yet, and our networks are down, so not quite an option."
"You do have a prophet, however," Belldandy said. "We think. Have you found out who yet."
"I have my suspicions," Tessa assured them. "How is your normal business progressing. Are we causing you too much trouble?"
"We asked a friend to keep track of it," Chihiro said. "She'll make sure certain people stay in check."
"Ah, yes," Tessa said with a bit of a frown. "She's probably a good choice."
*******************
"Listen," Tamaki was saying authoritatively, "this is mechanics and engineering. Which you know nothing about! We're giving the customer exactly what he really wants with..."
"Oh no," Sayoko said, wagging her finger. "You are giving the customer what you want! Chihiro warned me about this. Said you did something similar when she went on vacation and you started tweaking bikes. As I understand it, you then had to waste hundreds of man-hours fixing your tweaks for dissatisfied customers."
"They just didn't understand how to..." Otaki was trying to say.
"No, stop there," Sayoko said. "I don't know much about engineering, but I know about giving people what they want! And I know when someone is trying to push on me what they think I want. And since Chihiro, Keiichi, Urd..."
She ticked off fingers.
"...and even Belldandy warned me about this," she said, emphasizing the last name heavily. "I'm keeping an eye out for it."
The two over-sized mechanics started to open their mouths.
"And if you think you can get something past me," she said. "I also have Sora watching your every move as well, and she DOES know her engineering. So behave and when...not if...when I report to Chihiro...there will be nothing for you to worry about."
"But some of these mods are just so lame," Tamaki said. "Like here, if we just add a slightly bigger engine to this car..."
"What does a golf cart need with a V-8 engine?!" Sayoko demanded.
******************
Nimu ducked under Shampoo's strike, avoiding the first blow as the Amazon champion stepped forward to press the attack.
"Kodachi, when she still fought," Shampoo said. "Was a weapons user and only a weapons user. She primarily avoided contact and led opponents into traps, attacking where they were not ready."
Ranma was watching from the side, having already discussed Nimu's quick learning curve over the past month with Shampoo. It wasn't like she was mastering secret techniques in a week's time the way Ranma had as a teen, but she also didn't have the ten years prior background of real training to have that mindset.
She thought of what Tessa had passed on about prophets bringing the future forward. That's what seemed to be happening with all of the Ainur that Ranma was working with. Stuff they'd learn eventually was coming quicker, leading toward more discoveries.
Looking over toward Sanya running through Tai Chi and Stav routines with Eija seemed to confirm it. The girl had gone a heavy way toward controlling her motions more efficiently.
Which brought to mind her parent-teacher conversation with Mariko.
***************
"What kind of training do you have them doing?" Mariko had asked.
"Eija is teaching, mostly, right now," Ranma said. "Saturdays she goes with her grandmother to help a Demoness death seer. She wroks with Yonjuu's younger sister on body control at least two hours at night. And I'm sure she's doing...something with Sousuke and Kaname."
"Oh yes," Mariko said. "That is such an obvious and heartfelt bond of...I'm doing it again, aren't I."
"Yeah," Ranma said. "Anyway, Naiki is getting some training with some other young Gods and Demons. Mostly theory right now."
"She's healing well though," the cheerleader said. "Should be fit for full training in the next couple of days."
"Yeah, I thought that too," Ranma said. "And she's working with Yonjuu on her senses."
**************
"Oh my God!" Yonjuu gasped. "You can actually feel the electrical conduction in my body from ten feet away?! That is so cool!"
"Uh, yeah, it's a shark thing," Naiki said. "But you can't do that so, back to smells..."
"Ohh! Can you really smell a drop of blood from hundreds of miles?" Yonjuu asked.
"In the water, yeah," Naiki said. "In the air, it's more like two miles...if the wind is right."
"That is just so awesome!" Yonjuu said. "When Deimosu said his sister had the senses of a shark, I never thought I'd actually be able to see it in operation. Isn't that awesome?!"
"So awesome and so cute!" Lusca said. "She's just Soooo....Naiki!"
"Aren't you supposed to be going off and crushing on my brother?" Naiki asked.
Yonjuu immediately blushed and looked away.
"And why are you here anyway?" Naiki asked, pointing at Lusca.
"I'm watching you teach!" the smaller Demoness said. "You're so wise! Squeeeee!"
"What did I do to deserve a fangirl posse?" Naiki asked the heavens.
"I think it's cute," Kyoko said from a chair nearby, clicking a picture. "You know, like when you get around Geisthexe-san. Or Urd-san. Or Mr. Weber."
Naiki thought about that a moment.
"Oh."
************
"And Deimosu..." Ranma frowned, considering her son. "He teaches Yonjuu, but he hasn't worked with me much since he got back."
It annoyed her to suspect that somewhere in Deimosu's head, she'd become only a person to protect and not a person to learn from or respect.
"I've seen some problems with him," Mariko noted. "Lusca sort of ignores him. Naiki and Eija, his sisters, seem to tolerate him..."
"An Eija's part, that's mostly because he doesn't like her..." Ranma paused. "What do we call that anyway?"
"Boyfriend and girlfriend?" Mariko asked. "Soulmates? Destined lovers bound by the red string of....right, doing it again. Anyway, if I have Deimosu in a class with any other Demon or God, I find I have to separate them. Understandable, but he's not making it any easier with his 'it had to be done' attitude."
"I'll see if I can talk to him," Ranma said.
"How about Sousuke and Kaname?" Mariko asked.
"Chi control for Sousuke and I'm not teaching Kaname anything," the redhead noted. "She hasn't asked. Not my kid or a soldier to lay down the law on."
"I'd think the way things are going..." Mariko said.
"Yeah," Ranma noted. "Sneak something in, I guess, see if she gets interested."
"Doing it," Mariko said.
"And, by the way...Mizuki Inaba..." Ranma said with narrowed eyes.
"You asked me to keep an eye on the people with the most likelihood to make things crazy at that school," Mariko noted. "She's by far the most likely to cause trouble. I'd almost she was chaos incarnate which is funny, because I knew you as a kid."
"Funny," Ranma said. "I wasn't chaos, it just happened around me. Mizuki went on a field trip to the water and power department, and the streets were flooded within two hours. Because she was annoyed at some shop that overcharged her."
"Yeah, well, I think I can keep her out of trouble," Mariko said.
There was a moment of silence before Mariko quietly changed the subject.
"Is there any word?" she asked.
"Yeah," Ranma said. "The Americans had her. They're going to cremate her and send the ashes back. You won't have to see her like that this way."
Mariko hung her head, tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes.
"I kinda knew...after your briefing," Mariko said. "But I just sort of hoped...you know, that Kodachi had taken her for...something less...terrible."
Ranma reached out to put a hand on the other girl's shoulder and hold her.
"Well, we'll be able to put her to rest now," Mariko said. "Her little brother and sister and I."
She then turned to look at Ranma forcefully.
"That woman dies," she said. "Every part of her. Everyone she's stolen gets to see her go down. They all get to rest."
"We're going to wipe her out," Ranma assured Mariko, keeping the rest of the thought to herself. "As soon as we figure out how."
**************
Tessa looked across at her two immediate subordinates reading the report on the attack at Jindai as well as other things that Kalinin was looking into. And a rather reluctantly delivered report from Ranma Satomi on the health of certain individuals.
"I don't want to do this before this leak is plugged," Tessa said.
"That is taking longer than expected," Kalinin said. "It is still not clear whether the leak is in intelligence or our own division. What information has gotten out could have come from either."
"It's got to be someone highly placed," Tessa said. "Otherwise there are several little leaks all over, but for that to happen, someone would have to not be paying attention in recruitment, or deliberately putting in such people. Which, again, comes to someone high up in our circle."
"It could even be one of us in this room," Kalinin said.
"Are you accusing me," Mardukas asked.
"No, we're not going to think that way," Tessa said. "We've all gone through too much together to start distrusting each other now. Let's focus on the problem at hand."
"A number of Ainur have had encounters with the entity in the Whispers," Mardukas said. "And we can now report her name as 'Sophia' though that doesn't get us any closer to a true identity. She has attacked a few, new serious injuries yet, but it has been close a couple of times. She demands information about Miss Chidori fairly frequently."
"That's as much confirmation that we're going to get that Kaname Chidori is the Whispered keystone," Kalinin said. "This 'prophet' the Gods talk about. A large part of why the Whispered and Ainur learn so quickly."
"At the moment, Miss Chidori is only occasionally fully connected to the network," Tessa said. "She's only vulnerable while 'logged on' so to speak. If we try to put in the security, make her Ainur, she'll be logged on for quite a while before she's safe. If we do this while we have a leak, before we know everything about this Sophia...then we invite an attack in which she might bring extra forces."
"Given her defeat in earlier encounters with Eija Satomi," Kalinin said. "That is almost guaranteed."
"Everyone is healed and ready," Mardukas said. "Now is the time to act and be ready before something else comes to slow us down. If she is as important as our opponents' actions imply, it would be as important to secure her before the invasion happen as it is to finish the Silmaril."
Tessa took a deep breath.
"We're going," she said. "I'll talk to Mrs Morisato..."
"I would have thought she'd kept her own surname," Mardukas noted. "That is apparently standard for Norse women."
"She wanted to make a point, apparently," Tessa said. "At any rate, I shall speak to her and Miss Geisthexe. We'll have everything ready for the next weekend. If it goes well, things will be done before her next school day."
"I'll start to work on base security," Kalinin said. "This would be the perfect time for Amalgam to try an attack on us."
"Urd and Megumi are tracking down the memory leaks in the software," Keiichi said. "They think they've got most of them. The basic chassis works and we know it works."
"Yeah," Chihiro said. "Still working on the whole jumpjet thing though."
"Tell me about it," Keiichi said, shaking his head.
Last time they had tested the jumpjet steering, he'd slammed into a cliff-face. He'd been lucky to get out of it without a serious injury and that particular prototype had been scrapped.
"That was very...concerning," Belldandy agreed as she served drinks to the two and then sat down beside Keiichi.
There was a moment of a shared look and thought.
"Guys, we're on a deadline," Chihiro noted before she lost both Keiichi and Belldandy, who was no slouch with a toolkit despite being girly, to other activities.
"Yes, of course," Belldandy said reluctantly.
"Right, let's get this done," Keiichi said.
They were working in the open air by one of the AS storage bays and thus didn't hear when Tessa walked onto the area to check in on how they were doing.
"Going well?" she asked, glancing around.
"Have you got those battery designs you said you could do?" Chihiro asked.
Tessa smiled and handed over a manila envelope.
"There should be three test units coming your way soon," she said. "My apologies for taking so long, but..."
"You've got other things on your plate," Keiichi said. "Lots of other things."
"This is very true," Tessa said with a sigh as she walked over toward the prototypes. "I must say this is very impressive. It took us three Whispered and five years to create the M-9's various systems, especially the electroactive polymers, and then perfect it enough for field testing."
She examined the inner workings of one of the damaged prototypes.
"This material of yours is different," she noted. "You came up with it yourself, in your own facilities?"
"In Keiichi's backyard, mostly," Chihiro said. "Though we did have help."
"Oh, it was all quite you," Belldandy said. "Urd and I are network programmers primarily. And Skuld...is still learning to be practical."
"I do wonder if the Gods and Demons have something similar," Tessa noted.
"Not really," Belldandy said. "We stopped experimenting with such things after a time. Yggdrasil makes them more or less obsolete for most matters and as weapons, we had the doublet system..."
"So why are we still working on this?" Megumi asked, turning from her software simulation. "Aren't you working on that Silmaril thing?"
"Which will work for the handful of hundreds of Ainur that might be around by then, perhaps some Gods and Demons," Tessa said. "The remaining several million humans and handful of other sentients...?"
"Ah, right," Megumi said. "How many people are you offering this thing to anyway?"
"As many as possible," Tessa said. "We're going to need the help I think and given how few it actually works on..."
"So you've had failures then?" Keiichi asked. "It seemed to go well with all of us."
"Disturbing sort of process though," Megumi said.
"Most of the staff here couldn't make the change," Tessa said. "Reports from the American and Japanese governments suggest similar situations with the Whispers of Souls we gave them. But so far, we've limited to select military personnel, psychics, human paranaturals and some certain civilians in the know. We'll see what happens if it gets to the full public."
"Back to engineering, this other thing," Chihiro said suddenly. "These crystals and circles you want embedded or inscribed. The way I understand it this is like supernatural circuitry?"
"That's as good a way to put it as any," Belldandy said. "If you were to look into an Asgard computer or Mantle you would find it is mostly vegetable matter, closely related to the ash tree."
Urd nodded and turned toward the conversation then.
"And Nifelheim computers and Carapaces would look genetically very similar to a python," she noted. "It's why snakes and Demons have been linked for so long."
"And for us, we apparently deal best with complex crystals," Tessa said.
"Well that be an Ainur only thing?" Keiichi asked.
"I get this feeling that anybody with chi could use these things," Megumi said. "Sort had this weird day dream with lots of numbers and someone whispering..."
"That would be the Whispered network," Tessa said. "All the information and ideas in the network are floating out there, sometimes they used to just filter in. Now, we have to deliberately go looking for it."
"Which is safer but also slows things down," Urd said. "Even safer would be to use consoles rather than direct diving the network...but your Silmaril isn't up yet, and our networks are down, so not quite an option."
"You do have a prophet, however," Belldandy said. "We think. Have you found out who yet."
"I have my suspicions," Tessa assured them. "How is your normal business progressing. Are we causing you too much trouble?"
"We asked a friend to keep track of it," Chihiro said. "She'll make sure certain people stay in check."
"Ah, yes," Tessa said with a bit of a frown. "She's probably a good choice."
*******************
"Listen," Tamaki was saying authoritatively, "this is mechanics and engineering. Which you know nothing about! We're giving the customer exactly what he really wants with..."
"Oh no," Sayoko said, wagging her finger. "You are giving the customer what you want! Chihiro warned me about this. Said you did something similar when she went on vacation and you started tweaking bikes. As I understand it, you then had to waste hundreds of man-hours fixing your tweaks for dissatisfied customers."
"They just didn't understand how to..." Otaki was trying to say.
"No, stop there," Sayoko said. "I don't know much about engineering, but I know about giving people what they want! And I know when someone is trying to push on me what they think I want. And since Chihiro, Keiichi, Urd..."
She ticked off fingers.
"...and even Belldandy warned me about this," she said, emphasizing the last name heavily. "I'm keeping an eye out for it."
The two over-sized mechanics started to open their mouths.
"And if you think you can get something past me," she said. "I also have Sora watching your every move as well, and she DOES know her engineering. So behave and when...not if...when I report to Chihiro...there will be nothing for you to worry about."
"But some of these mods are just so lame," Tamaki said. "Like here, if we just add a slightly bigger engine to this car..."
"What does a golf cart need with a V-8 engine?!" Sayoko demanded.
******************
Nimu ducked under Shampoo's strike, avoiding the first blow as the Amazon champion stepped forward to press the attack.
"Kodachi, when she still fought," Shampoo said. "Was a weapons user and only a weapons user. She primarily avoided contact and led opponents into traps, attacking where they were not ready."
Ranma was watching from the side, having already discussed Nimu's quick learning curve over the past month with Shampoo. It wasn't like she was mastering secret techniques in a week's time the way Ranma had as a teen, but she also didn't have the ten years prior background of real training to have that mindset.
She thought of what Tessa had passed on about prophets bringing the future forward. That's what seemed to be happening with all of the Ainur that Ranma was working with. Stuff they'd learn eventually was coming quicker, leading toward more discoveries.
Looking over toward Sanya running through Tai Chi and Stav routines with Eija seemed to confirm it. The girl had gone a heavy way toward controlling her motions more efficiently.
Which brought to mind her parent-teacher conversation with Mariko.
***************
"What kind of training do you have them doing?" Mariko had asked.
"Eija is teaching, mostly, right now," Ranma said. "Saturdays she goes with her grandmother to help a Demoness death seer. She wroks with Yonjuu's younger sister on body control at least two hours at night. And I'm sure she's doing...something with Sousuke and Kaname."
"Oh yes," Mariko said. "That is such an obvious and heartfelt bond of...I'm doing it again, aren't I."
"Yeah," Ranma said. "Anyway, Naiki is getting some training with some other young Gods and Demons. Mostly theory right now."
"She's healing well though," the cheerleader said. "Should be fit for full training in the next couple of days."
"Yeah, I thought that too," Ranma said. "And she's working with Yonjuu on her senses."
**************
"Oh my God!" Yonjuu gasped. "You can actually feel the electrical conduction in my body from ten feet away?! That is so cool!"
"Uh, yeah, it's a shark thing," Naiki said. "But you can't do that so, back to smells..."
"Ohh! Can you really smell a drop of blood from hundreds of miles?" Yonjuu asked.
"In the water, yeah," Naiki said. "In the air, it's more like two miles...if the wind is right."
"That is just so awesome!" Yonjuu said. "When Deimosu said his sister had the senses of a shark, I never thought I'd actually be able to see it in operation. Isn't that awesome?!"
"So awesome and so cute!" Lusca said. "She's just Soooo....Naiki!"
"Aren't you supposed to be going off and crushing on my brother?" Naiki asked.
Yonjuu immediately blushed and looked away.
"And why are you here anyway?" Naiki asked, pointing at Lusca.
"I'm watching you teach!" the smaller Demoness said. "You're so wise! Squeeeee!"
"What did I do to deserve a fangirl posse?" Naiki asked the heavens.
"I think it's cute," Kyoko said from a chair nearby, clicking a picture. "You know, like when you get around Geisthexe-san. Or Urd-san. Or Mr. Weber."
Naiki thought about that a moment.
"Oh."
************
"And Deimosu..." Ranma frowned, considering her son. "He teaches Yonjuu, but he hasn't worked with me much since he got back."
It annoyed her to suspect that somewhere in Deimosu's head, she'd become only a person to protect and not a person to learn from or respect.
"I've seen some problems with him," Mariko noted. "Lusca sort of ignores him. Naiki and Eija, his sisters, seem to tolerate him..."
"An Eija's part, that's mostly because he doesn't like her..." Ranma paused. "What do we call that anyway?"
"Boyfriend and girlfriend?" Mariko asked. "Soulmates? Destined lovers bound by the red string of....right, doing it again. Anyway, if I have Deimosu in a class with any other Demon or God, I find I have to separate them. Understandable, but he's not making it any easier with his 'it had to be done' attitude."
"I'll see if I can talk to him," Ranma said.
"How about Sousuke and Kaname?" Mariko asked.
"Chi control for Sousuke and I'm not teaching Kaname anything," the redhead noted. "She hasn't asked. Not my kid or a soldier to lay down the law on."
"I'd think the way things are going..." Mariko said.
"Yeah," Ranma noted. "Sneak something in, I guess, see if she gets interested."
"Doing it," Mariko said.
"And, by the way...Mizuki Inaba..." Ranma said with narrowed eyes.
"You asked me to keep an eye on the people with the most likelihood to make things crazy at that school," Mariko noted. "She's by far the most likely to cause trouble. I'd almost she was chaos incarnate which is funny, because I knew you as a kid."
"Funny," Ranma said. "I wasn't chaos, it just happened around me. Mizuki went on a field trip to the water and power department, and the streets were flooded within two hours. Because she was annoyed at some shop that overcharged her."
"Yeah, well, I think I can keep her out of trouble," Mariko said.
There was a moment of silence before Mariko quietly changed the subject.
"Is there any word?" she asked.
"Yeah," Ranma said. "The Americans had her. They're going to cremate her and send the ashes back. You won't have to see her like that this way."
Mariko hung her head, tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes.
"I kinda knew...after your briefing," Mariko said. "But I just sort of hoped...you know, that Kodachi had taken her for...something less...terrible."
Ranma reached out to put a hand on the other girl's shoulder and hold her.
"Well, we'll be able to put her to rest now," Mariko said. "Her little brother and sister and I."
She then turned to look at Ranma forcefully.
"That woman dies," she said. "Every part of her. Everyone she's stolen gets to see her go down. They all get to rest."
"We're going to wipe her out," Ranma assured Mariko, keeping the rest of the thought to herself. "As soon as we figure out how."
**************
Tessa looked across at her two immediate subordinates reading the report on the attack at Jindai as well as other things that Kalinin was looking into. And a rather reluctantly delivered report from Ranma Satomi on the health of certain individuals.
"I don't want to do this before this leak is plugged," Tessa said.
"That is taking longer than expected," Kalinin said. "It is still not clear whether the leak is in intelligence or our own division. What information has gotten out could have come from either."
"It's got to be someone highly placed," Tessa said. "Otherwise there are several little leaks all over, but for that to happen, someone would have to not be paying attention in recruitment, or deliberately putting in such people. Which, again, comes to someone high up in our circle."
"It could even be one of us in this room," Kalinin said.
"Are you accusing me," Mardukas asked.
"No, we're not going to think that way," Tessa said. "We've all gone through too much together to start distrusting each other now. Let's focus on the problem at hand."
"A number of Ainur have had encounters with the entity in the Whispers," Mardukas said. "And we can now report her name as 'Sophia' though that doesn't get us any closer to a true identity. She has attacked a few, new serious injuries yet, but it has been close a couple of times. She demands information about Miss Chidori fairly frequently."
"That's as much confirmation that we're going to get that Kaname Chidori is the Whispered keystone," Kalinin said. "This 'prophet' the Gods talk about. A large part of why the Whispered and Ainur learn so quickly."
"At the moment, Miss Chidori is only occasionally fully connected to the network," Tessa said. "She's only vulnerable while 'logged on' so to speak. If we try to put in the security, make her Ainur, she'll be logged on for quite a while before she's safe. If we do this while we have a leak, before we know everything about this Sophia...then we invite an attack in which she might bring extra forces."
"Given her defeat in earlier encounters with Eija Satomi," Kalinin said. "That is almost guaranteed."
"Everyone is healed and ready," Mardukas said. "Now is the time to act and be ready before something else comes to slow us down. If she is as important as our opponents' actions imply, it would be as important to secure her before the invasion happen as it is to finish the Silmaril."
Tessa took a deep breath.
"We're going," she said. "I'll talk to Mrs Morisato..."
"I would have thought she'd kept her own surname," Mardukas noted. "That is apparently standard for Norse women."
"She wanted to make a point, apparently," Tessa said. "At any rate, I shall speak to her and Miss Geisthexe. We'll have everything ready for the next weekend. If it goes well, things will be done before her next school day."
"I'll start to work on base security," Kalinin said. "This would be the perfect time for Amalgam to try an attack on us."
Kasumi perused Tofu's notes on the most recent medical seminar that the Demons had put together soon after arriving and the Gods had started to reluctantly get involved in.
From a view point of a pure medical concern, it seemed to her that the Demons had more experience with that sort of thing. The Gods seemed to use a lot of magic, which was fine for those that had that training...assuming it worked right when the people in control of Yggdrasil finally turned it on. Demons, by necessity, were more familiar actual anatomy and medical requirements.
Well, there was that Urd woman, who seemed to prefer herbalism, alchemy and the like over outright mana, chi or vitae use.
Nabiki was home, officially on maternal leave and officially resting.
Unofficially, she was keeping track of where her husband happened to be and managing the construction at what was going to be her new home.
"Yes, yes," she was saying. "I can see what you're talking about, that'll be enough then?"
Kasumi glanced into the main room where Nabiki had the cell phone to her ear and the TV set to receive a video feed of the construction site.
"Nabiki, you're not supposed to be stressing yourself," Kasumi said.
"Just don't skimp on this," Nabiki said. "If you need more or better material, I'll put in an order. But I want this done right. And I've got to go right now. Yes, the warden is watching."
"That's not a very nice thing to say about your sister who's letting you stay in her house while your own is getting built," Kasumi noted.
"It's the ancestral home, Kasumi," Nabiki responded.
"Still," Kasumi said, moving into the room and turning off the TV. "Micromanaging your house construction is not relaxing."
"It's relaxing for me," Nabiki said irritably.
She sighed and leaned back.
"Look, I need...something," she said. "You and Tofu are brushing up on your medical knowledge. Akane and Natsume are fighting monsters. Ryouga's putting his right place, wrong time thing to use. Ranma, of all people, is putting together a psychic army."
"Ryuu is watching his and Akane's children," Kasumi reminded her calmly. "And you are making a contribution in a way."
She reached out to pat Nabiki's belly gently.
"Focus on the important things, little sister," Kasumi said.
********************
"So, we were going to go to Akihabara, this weekend," Mizuki said. "Issei was going to take me. And I invited Kyoko and Shinji and Lusca and everybody."
"There is a task we have to attend to," Sousuke noted calmly.
"Yeah," Kaname said. "There's something we're doing over the weekend."
"Awww, but everybody is going," Mizuki said. "Wait, you..."we have plans"...what we?"
"All the Satomis, their cousins, Sousuke and me," Kaname said.
"Sounds like a family reunion," Kyoko said helpfully.
"Really?" Mizuki said in a sly tone. "So, Eija invited both of you to a family thing?"
Eija quietly ate her lunch and set about not making things worse.
You could say something Kaname noted.
I'm hoping that just letting them run with it will be saner in the long run.
"Actually," Sousuke said. "This is mostly about Kaname."
Eija hung her head as Kaname stood up and wrapped a hand around Sousuke's mouth.
"What he means is..." Kaname looked around at the various faces watching her. "Yeah, Eija's family wants to meet me and Sousuke. Because we're...dating."
She sounded a combination of relieved and defeated as she admitted to it.
Eija blushed visibly and looked around as Sousuke waited patiently for Kaname to release his mouth and set down, though he was mindful of the harisen that she pulled around prominently into her lap.
"You, Eija and Sousuke, really are...?" Mizuki pointed toward them and started crossing her fingers together.
"Well, in a manner of speaking," the Goddess said.
"We've been on several outings together," Sousuke agreed, actually flushing a little in spite of herself. "Though it is not the..."
And at that point Kaname's harisen demonstratively smacked one of her thighs.
"So, does that mean that you've kissed?" Mizuki asked.
Kyoko leaned forward carefully to listen.
Sousuke, was thinking of this in the most literal way possible, and both Kaname and Eija had, of late, kissed him on the cheek or something equally chaste.
Eija and Kaname flushed, with the Goddess interlocking her fingers nervously and Kaname rubbing forcefully at her forehead.
"Yes," all three said about the same time.
"So who gives the best tongue?" Mizuki asked.
Sousuke was oblivious, Eija started out oblivious. Kaname choked almost immediately and started blushing furiously. Then Eija's eyes started to go wide as she flushed.
"Oh, looks like Eija's figuring it out," Kyoko said. "Next they'll remember the word 'which'"..."
As the images shifted around in Kaname and Eija's mind from deep romantic kisses with Sousuke into kissing each other, there was a clear result...
"Wow, I can actually notice Eija getting whiter," Kyoko said. "That's impressive, Mizuki."
"I'm confused," Sousuke said. "What does tongue have to do with kissing."
"I'll...show you later," Kaname said under her breath. "Then, err, you can show Eija."
Kaname Eija sent.
Kaname glanced over and then pointed toward where Kyoko and Mizuki were listening starry eyed.
"Oh no," Kaname said. "I didn't just...I didn't..."
"You did!" Kyoko said.
**************************
A large group of people walked into a crossroads under the power of Persephone and ended up on Meridia Island. And then, it was a march through the facility before they found the Whisper of Souls placed in the middle of a wide AS bay, currently empty as the vehicles were "on training maneuvers".
"Is this in a new place?" Kaname asked outside the building.
"We needed the room," Ranma said as Tessa pushed the access code in to give access to the main area.
The Whisper of Souls container sat in the middle, wires and tubes running to it from all directions, sitting in the middle of several lines and circles.
"Uhhh, what's all this?" Kaname asked.
"An experiment," Mara said as she stood up from checking one of the lines.
"Err, excuse me," Eija said cautiously. "You plan to put Kaname through an experiment?"
"Don't worry about that, Eija," Ranma said. "This has nothing to do with Captain Testarossa's machine there."
"So what is it all for," Sousuke asked.
"Hopefully, nothing," Urd said.
"I'll be right back," Persephone said.
"And us?" Nimu asked.
"We've got a ride planned for Sanya and Yaku to the Labryinth," Tessa said. Then she turned toward Sousuke and Naiki. "Are you two ready?"
"Yeah, but shouldn't I be doing the ritual thing?" Naiki asked. "What are you going to need me out here for, it's a secret base, right?"
"That's the hope," Tessa said firmly.
*****************************
In Tokyo
"Where's Naiki?" Lusca asked Kyoko and Mizuki.
"She had some sort of family thing," Mizuki said.
"Family thing? So loyal!" she said. "But soooo not here!"
From a view point of a pure medical concern, it seemed to her that the Demons had more experience with that sort of thing. The Gods seemed to use a lot of magic, which was fine for those that had that training...assuming it worked right when the people in control of Yggdrasil finally turned it on. Demons, by necessity, were more familiar actual anatomy and medical requirements.
Well, there was that Urd woman, who seemed to prefer herbalism, alchemy and the like over outright mana, chi or vitae use.
Nabiki was home, officially on maternal leave and officially resting.
Unofficially, she was keeping track of where her husband happened to be and managing the construction at what was going to be her new home.
"Yes, yes," she was saying. "I can see what you're talking about, that'll be enough then?"
Kasumi glanced into the main room where Nabiki had the cell phone to her ear and the TV set to receive a video feed of the construction site.
"Nabiki, you're not supposed to be stressing yourself," Kasumi said.
"Just don't skimp on this," Nabiki said. "If you need more or better material, I'll put in an order. But I want this done right. And I've got to go right now. Yes, the warden is watching."
"That's not a very nice thing to say about your sister who's letting you stay in her house while your own is getting built," Kasumi noted.
"It's the ancestral home, Kasumi," Nabiki responded.
"Still," Kasumi said, moving into the room and turning off the TV. "Micromanaging your house construction is not relaxing."
"It's relaxing for me," Nabiki said irritably.
She sighed and leaned back.
"Look, I need...something," she said. "You and Tofu are brushing up on your medical knowledge. Akane and Natsume are fighting monsters. Ryouga's putting his right place, wrong time thing to use. Ranma, of all people, is putting together a psychic army."
"Ryuu is watching his and Akane's children," Kasumi reminded her calmly. "And you are making a contribution in a way."
She reached out to pat Nabiki's belly gently.
"Focus on the important things, little sister," Kasumi said.
********************
"So, we were going to go to Akihabara, this weekend," Mizuki said. "Issei was going to take me. And I invited Kyoko and Shinji and Lusca and everybody."
"There is a task we have to attend to," Sousuke noted calmly.
"Yeah," Kaname said. "There's something we're doing over the weekend."
"Awww, but everybody is going," Mizuki said. "Wait, you..."we have plans"...what we?"
"All the Satomis, their cousins, Sousuke and me," Kaname said.
"Sounds like a family reunion," Kyoko said helpfully.
"Really?" Mizuki said in a sly tone. "So, Eija invited both of you to a family thing?"
Eija quietly ate her lunch and set about not making things worse.
You could say something Kaname noted.
I'm hoping that just letting them run with it will be saner in the long run.
"Actually," Sousuke said. "This is mostly about Kaname."
Eija hung her head as Kaname stood up and wrapped a hand around Sousuke's mouth.
"What he means is..." Kaname looked around at the various faces watching her. "Yeah, Eija's family wants to meet me and Sousuke. Because we're...dating."
She sounded a combination of relieved and defeated as she admitted to it.
Eija blushed visibly and looked around as Sousuke waited patiently for Kaname to release his mouth and set down, though he was mindful of the harisen that she pulled around prominently into her lap.
"You, Eija and Sousuke, really are...?" Mizuki pointed toward them and started crossing her fingers together.
"Well, in a manner of speaking," the Goddess said.
"We've been on several outings together," Sousuke agreed, actually flushing a little in spite of herself. "Though it is not the..."
And at that point Kaname's harisen demonstratively smacked one of her thighs.
"So, does that mean that you've kissed?" Mizuki asked.
Kyoko leaned forward carefully to listen.
Sousuke, was thinking of this in the most literal way possible, and both Kaname and Eija had, of late, kissed him on the cheek or something equally chaste.
Eija and Kaname flushed, with the Goddess interlocking her fingers nervously and Kaname rubbing forcefully at her forehead.
"Yes," all three said about the same time.
"So who gives the best tongue?" Mizuki asked.
Sousuke was oblivious, Eija started out oblivious. Kaname choked almost immediately and started blushing furiously. Then Eija's eyes started to go wide as she flushed.
"Oh, looks like Eija's figuring it out," Kyoko said. "Next they'll remember the word 'which'"..."
As the images shifted around in Kaname and Eija's mind from deep romantic kisses with Sousuke into kissing each other, there was a clear result...
"Wow, I can actually notice Eija getting whiter," Kyoko said. "That's impressive, Mizuki."
"I'm confused," Sousuke said. "What does tongue have to do with kissing."
"I'll...show you later," Kaname said under her breath. "Then, err, you can show Eija."
Kaname Eija sent.
Kaname glanced over and then pointed toward where Kyoko and Mizuki were listening starry eyed.
"Oh no," Kaname said. "I didn't just...I didn't..."
"You did!" Kyoko said.
**************************
A large group of people walked into a crossroads under the power of Persephone and ended up on Meridia Island. And then, it was a march through the facility before they found the Whisper of Souls placed in the middle of a wide AS bay, currently empty as the vehicles were "on training maneuvers".
"Is this in a new place?" Kaname asked outside the building.
"We needed the room," Ranma said as Tessa pushed the access code in to give access to the main area.
The Whisper of Souls container sat in the middle, wires and tubes running to it from all directions, sitting in the middle of several lines and circles.
"Uhhh, what's all this?" Kaname asked.
"An experiment," Mara said as she stood up from checking one of the lines.
"Err, excuse me," Eija said cautiously. "You plan to put Kaname through an experiment?"
"Don't worry about that, Eija," Ranma said. "This has nothing to do with Captain Testarossa's machine there."
"So what is it all for," Sousuke asked.
"Hopefully, nothing," Urd said.
"I'll be right back," Persephone said.
"And us?" Nimu asked.
"We've got a ride planned for Sanya and Yaku to the Labryinth," Tessa said. Then she turned toward Sousuke and Naiki. "Are you two ready?"
"Yeah, but shouldn't I be doing the ritual thing?" Naiki asked. "What are you going to need me out here for, it's a secret base, right?"
"That's the hope," Tessa said firmly.
*****************************
In Tokyo
"Where's Naiki?" Lusca asked Kyoko and Mizuki.
"She had some sort of family thing," Mizuki said.
"Family thing? So loyal!" she said. "But soooo not here!"
Kurz sat beside Shichimu as she slept in her bed, currently transferred to the Labyrinth away from the battle.
His sniper rifle sat behind behind him against a cave wall that had become almost completely crystal.
At this moment, like this while she slept, it almost looked like nothing had changed. However, she was no longer a light sleeper, the instincts and dangers that had created that aspect of her had been wiped out of her mind.
Someone tripped and spilled something metal across the floor and Shichimu slept on where the one he'd moved through Europe with would have already been awake with much less, not looking disturbed, but paying attention.
He held her hand loosely for a moment, head straightening as she tightened her grip on his and then released as she shifted about in the bed, very much the dreaming child.
The sniper glanced around the room and saw a number of Ni's reciting numbers. He recognized it for what it was, recitation of the dead.
Nimu and Sanya San sat in the back of the room quietly giving the Ni's there space until the little ritual was over and Kurz brushed back the girl's hair and stood up.
He walked out of the room, collected his rifle and a P90 for close work and walked toward another chamber where a circle had been drawn and a Japanese Ainur dressed in some sort of cheerleader outfit stood.
"I'm ready," he told the woman.
He tapped his own Ainur marks. Something that if he'd had a few weeks ago, might have given him something to save the Shichimu that he'd first met.
"And the rest of you?" Mariko asked.
"So say we all," a Ni said somewhere. "Ow! What did you hit me for?"
"She's a bit of a geek," Yonjuu said to Kurz.
*******************
"Are you ready for this, Kishi?" Bastet asked outside the warehouse. "This...thing has got to be awfully...familiar to you."
"She hasn't killed as many as I have," Kishimo-jin said with a quiet sad smile.
"That was a long time ago," Bastet said, patting her on the shoulders. "And you were never...what she is."
"Is there much of difference?" Kishimo-jin asked.
"You stopped," Bastet noted. "You've figured out how your going to do what needs to be done?"
"I've got an idea," Kishimo-jin said.
*******************
"Commander Mardukas, we are in the ordered position," one of the techs said.
"Good," he said. "Hold here until the signal is given."
In Tessa's personal quarters, Kali stepped out of a black cloth hanging up on the wall and pulled Naiki in with her.
"Tell her we're here," Kali told Naiki who nodded.
Okay, can you tell where you are? Tessa asked.
We're under the water, so yes, Naiki said.
Show me, Tessa noted.
Uhhh... Naiki fumbled for a bit and just focused on visualizing what she felt of her position in relation to the waves around her.
And that's where I want her to be, Tessa responded, satisfied and deeply relieved. Wait there.
"She says wait," Naiki said.
*************
"This isn't the time I wanted to do this," Leonard noted with more than a trace of irritation.
He knew Sophia's likely response. That is was now or never.
That might have been true for the ghost, but he had other options should this siege fail.
And it wasn't likely that this attack would fail. Tessa had a leak bigger than anything someone as softhearted as her could possibly expect to predict.
She had some advantages on her side, having allied with these Demons and Gods that had arrived on Earth. But the details of her defensive plans had come straight to him.
He knew her AS placements. He knew where the psychics and Immortals were setting up to defend Kaname Chidori on the psychic plane. He'd known the layout of Meridia for months.
And his forces had multiple lambda-driver capable ASes and a handful of useful psychopaths.
The fleet he'd managed to sneak into the area from many vectors may have seemed like overkill, and he was certain Mithril knew at least some were there, but his contact would make sure to downplay the danger.
However, his sister had become a significant danger to his plans and Meridia needed to be dealt with now, or else the whole conflict would just be prolonged.
*********************
"Ready, Kaname?" Tessa asked the blue haired girl.
"Uhh, I think so," Kaname said next to the Whisper of Souls.
She was really starting to wonder just what the hell was so important about her that all this was necessary.
The Norns, with the exception of Skuld, Mara, Ranma, Eija, Deimosu, Persephone, some other Demons and Gods she didn't recognize and they were all standing around her at set spots.
"Everybody who needs to be out of the way is in the Labyrinth?" Tessa asked Ranma.
"Right," Ranma said.
Kaname wondered about the woman with the glasses and paper sticking out all over, but decided not to say anything.
"Kalinin, has the DaDanan reported itself in position yet?" Tessa asked over the intercom.
"The DaDanan is clear of the engagement area and in the appropriate place," he said.
Tessa sighed and then nodded.
We have an answer, Tessa sent to Naiki. Neither of you have anything to do there.
"Then, if you please, Kaname?" Tessa said with a smile as she directed Kaname to go into Whisper of Souls.
Hesitantly, Kaname stepped into the tube and leaned down, watching as everyone around her got ready.
And then the tube shut closed over her.
*****************
It was the whispers, she'd felt and seen this before. The same overwhelming flow of numbers, symbols and flooding information that was never much better than a barely tolerable swirl at best and a wash of mind numbing sensation driving her to contemplate self-destructive actions.
Eija black form and glowing red eyes appeared swiftly at her side as the whispers around her slowly became coherent and separate. For her part, Kaname tried to move but felt herself tied down. The best she could describe it as was being in something like a roller-coaster ride set on a railroad.
Probably the process of the machine.
I'm here, Kaname, Eija's form said. It shall go well.
Kaname felt a sigh of relief at Eija's presence and let herself fall into the ride and sheltered from the mindscape.
As Kaname let the Whisper of Souls wrap her up in a shell of swirling information, something slashed out of the swirl of numbers and reached out toward the black form of Eija. At first she thought it was the ghost again, but it looked...nothing the same.
It had arms and a vague human female form with pale skin, but the legs twisted upwards into another form like a torso surrounded by arms and eyes.
Many, many eyes.
And mouths sewn shut, ripped off, hands covering them or simply erased from existence. All struggling pitifully and moving jerkily as if not moving of their own accord.
Another of the shapes curved around from behind Eija then, legs with its shoulders and one arm twisting off into the darkness.
All the particular component bodies were easily recognizable of a variety of ages and mostly similar appearances. Though there were a few that appeared completely different in look and shape now.
Eija dodged the second attack and called forth the blood red jian she had forged with Kaname's help to use against Poseidon.
Is this all that they have to set forth as defense? a voice asked.
Eija stepped aside of a third form darting in from behind her. The newest tendril of merged bodies slammed ahead into one of the first two, which shuddered, free limbs flying as if in pain, the third tendril whipping about to finish merging completely with it.
A black soul? the voice about her demanded.
Another couple of bodies erupted out of the unseen total of the mass the step forward wielding ribbons and clubs of fingers and hair.
I am the Black Rose! the voice shouted. Who dares come to me in this way.
I am Eija Satomi, she said proudly. I am Goddess of Blood and I will not let you hurt Kaname.
She reached out to feel the mass of screaming souls infesting the creature in front of her.
A keen rose up from the various mouths that first seemed to be Eija to be pain until it unified into a loud echoing sound.
OHHHHHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOO! the thing howled. HOHOHOHOHOHOOOOHHHHHHHOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOHO!!
Eija stepped back dodging away but keeping herself between the attacking bodies and Kaname. She slashed out with her sword through one attack, the four tendrils of blood from her own weapon reaching out to interrupt others, but she wasn't inflicting any major damage.
The whole horrid mass of it was coming closer around Kaname and Eija then.
No wonder that old ghost was so demanding of help the creature was declaring. Do you seriously think I haven't faced a ghost whisperer before? Little 'Goddess'? These are living parts of me, not some dead ghosts for your amusement. It would take more than you to part them from me.
As the things almost playfully pushed Eija backward and moved to swallow up Kaname and Eija, she continued to cackle.
This is the perfect time to end this all, these Ainur, this Whisper of Souls! she declared. To hell with Leonard and his plans and promises, this planet and these lives are mine. Too bad you cannot join me, you won't get to share this immortality.
And then a circle of white light flared up around Eija and Kaname's shell. Two strong points on the edge connected through the middle by a line of energy. One of those two points flared brightly as a small sun, but the next crackled into a burst of lightning before forming into a humanoid form of crackling electricity.
Ah, I see, Kodachi noted spitefully. More of the spawn that redheaded tart begat out of my Darling's body.
Mom's a bit busy right now, Deimosu said. She sent us to deal with you.
And you think this will be enough? Kodachi demanded.
Actually, Eija said, as her soul flared brightly black before stretching out in two lines out from her.
One line stretched, moving from a sold, dependable and vibrant black toward a grey light of peace and determination that erupted into another miniature sun of radiant peaceful white light. The second line stretched outward from Eija shifting into a twisting line of green and brown swirling one on another in ever passing cycle.
Standing up from the white light Belldandy stepped forward bearing a long staff and from the green and brown stepped Persephone as a spear of wood shifting from living to dead held in her hand.
Around the triangle formed by them, another circle stretched out, encircling Kaname in now two lines of defense.
We thought it might be a fair idea to have a few more on hand, Belldandy said.
And then four points erupted around the outside of the mass of Kodachi's consciousness.
Smoke flared up in one corner, coalescing into Mara's form while bones flared up at the next corner and Hel limped out into position, glancing cautiously toward where Eija and Persephone stood nearby. The earth erupted in the third corner as a dark-skinned Japanese woman, Kishimo-jin, Demoness of Children, took her place. And the fourth coalesced into another thunder bolt showing the half-Demon Goddess Urd.
A red circle of heavy power erupted alongside the outer edge of the conflict.
The mass of Kodachis stared about, two lines of defense ahead and a wall closing her in from the outside.
Well, I am honored, she said before diving into her cacophonous laughter.
************
Ranma looked about as the various Gods and Demons settled into their trances except for the vaguely feline woman sitting her place and waiting eagerly for the chance to move in.
"Well, that's one trap," he said, looking toward Tessa.
"Yes, so it would appear," Tessa said, typing at a console. "Might I ask what the extra circles are for? They weren't part of the original design."
"No they weren't," Ranma said with a smile. "And those happen to be spirals."
************
Sousuke frowned in thought as the order to move to secondary positions came direct from Tessa over the com-link rather than over the radio, but didn't question it as he quietly moved the Arbalest into the declared position.
He was settling into the prepared position as the enemy showed itself coming up in a swarm of savages and supported by five of the new Shadows and two Venoms.
Immediately, a pair of rockets swarmed out toward each of the primary positions as the force pushed forward.
"And go!" Mao's voice called out.
Three M-9s opened up from their positions and tore through the mass of frog-like obsolete machines that had just found themselves the finger in the cigar slicer.
The Shadows rolled out of the way, only one taken out by the cross fire and two others damaged. As one stepped into cover and got ready to jump back into the fight, a pair of small forms leaped out of the brush onto it's back wielding smaller versions of the vibro blades carried by many ASes.
The two Sciroccos ripped into vital circuitry and parts, glowing the faint light many had associated with lambda-drivers to that point, only much weaker.
They leaped clear as one of the Venoms lashed out with a full lambda driver blast, only for that Venom to be cut cleanly in two as the Arbalest slammed down on top of it.
"Sgt Major, please be more careful," Sousuke noted as he moved to handle the next Venom, ducking fire from other enemies as he did so.
"Hey, this thing is faster than a grasshopper on speed," Mao called out. "No way this is going down. Focus on the plan."
As she spoke, an M-9 had a limb blown off by incoming reinforcements for the enemy.
Grimacing, Mao triggered the jump jet on her Scirocco and landed cleanly on the head of a savage, dropping an industrial charge into its chassis and leaping off before it exploded
Above them troop-carrying helicopters flew overhead.
"Incoming!"
********************
Kalinin watched in the distance as explosions erupted everywhere across the island, though in the wrong places.
They were not using his positions.
Eyes started to dart toward each other in disbelief behind him as some of the people with him read the inexplicable message they were receiving.
He wasted no time in drawing his pistol and shooting the security around him before they could move to act themselves. The techs in the room stared at him in shock.
"I suggest you leave now," he said calmly to the unarmed men and women. "Knowing Tessa, those were the first orders she gave upon realizing I was her leak."
"Traitor!" one of the women called out, Tessa's receptionist.
She dived down for one of the guns and Kalinin didn't hesitate to shoot her immediately.
Tessa would blame herself, he realized, for the tactical necessity of not letting anybody know. Of course, the blame was so far beyond her that it was sad. Nobody could be blamed for the insanity this world drove them to.
Very reluctantly, the remaining techs left the command center to Kalinin.
The Mithril traitor set all the communications equipment to reboot and then took one of the P90s and shredded the machinery before leaving for his own escape route a little early.
****************
"Command and telemetry just went out," Tessa said. "All units..."
Gunfire erupted outside her.
"That's sounding close," the feline Goddess noted.
"Yomiko, you're supposed to be my receptionist," Ranma said. "Receive."
"Already going, sir," Yomiko noted.
"All units, as you know, the pre-set plan is compromised," she said. "Objectives remain the same, Sciroccos move to reconnaissance and relay information and movements, do not engage unless necessary. Unit commanders operate under your own information."
"How many of those little jumper things do you have?" the Goddess asked.
"They designed one part by part, fabricated the pieces, put it together and programmed it over the course of three weeks in the backyard of a temple," Tessa said. "I gave them production facilities, technicians and a month. We have fifteen."
"Cat-lady!" Ranma sniped. "Pay attention, we have one more entity out there to wait for."
"You don't have to get into a tizzy over it," Bastet muttered.
Ranma watched Mara's body shudder.
**************
"We've lost command feed from Meridia," a tech said calmly.
"Then move, that's our signal," Mardukas said. "I want to find these enemy attack platforms and remove them now."
**************
Mara burst into smoke and ripped up around and over the attacking form of the thing she was fighting.
She'd never actually fought a devourer before, had only seen record of them in the histories on Nifelheim, and was currently glad this one apparently had no idea what she...it could do. With as many souls as she had, she shouldn't need a mainframe to engender category one power
When she reformed, she felt herself go down to one knee, a bit weakened by what was a barely avoided attack.
The surface of the devourer ahead of her rippled and a rush of arms reached out toward her. And then stopped with the keening cry of dozens of children's voices cascading in a ripple up the forms.
Urd zipped by and pulled Mara out of the path as Kishimo-Jin walked determinedly behind the three, psychic hand extended as she kept her eye on what Kodachi was doing.
Hel stood where the corner of the outer wall, the prison, sat immediately behind that of the walls about the shell where Kaname was.
Persephone, Eija and Belldandy held firm their defense ahead of the youngest of the group, here because every one there agreed, reluctantly, that the Demoness of Prisons was necessary to hold the outer walls firm.
A mass of arms and legs like a flood pushed into Belldandy's corner, threatening to shove her back as Urd, Kishimo-jin and Mara moved back into position. More articulate hands slipped out, wielding by cackling faces and holding weapons of psychic potential.
Persephone's spear lashed out through the outcropping as Eija walked up onto the shaft and slashed her jian and its own four flaying tendrils into mass, cutting off most of the attack on Eija.
Belldandy caught her breath as the fallen pieces of Kodachi dropped and were recollected back into the central portion as a renewed attack lashed out gripping the leg of Eija's black soul and started to pull her off into the mass.
The middle Norn whipped out with her own staff as Persephone reached out and the attacking portions were withered in pain and agony for six full seconds.
Eija came back to her feet in time to cover Persephone with Belldandy's help.
Ranma lacked the psychic ability to reach the mindscape, but was practiced in exorcism herself, and the small sun that seemed to represent her will in present rotated around Deimosu's form like a moon with free mind.
They were the circle that could rotate about within the bounds of the other two. Eija, Belldandy and Persephone had to remain around Kaname's cocoon and Hel. The Demons and Urd had to remain on the outside and maintain the wall.
Hel focused on keeping the four point demonic circle stable. Alone it would have been difficult. Demonic circles were inefficiently powerful, wasting a lot of energy if they had anything like enough. In addition the opposite points tore apart from each other over time.
Maintaining one of this power so long was difficult.
The Asgardians made it possible.
Persephone, Belldandy and Eija held Hel firmly within their three point circle. They were in easy position to support each other and acted as a buffer against Mara's point pulling at Hel's.
Meanwhile, Urd, half-Demon, and Kishimo-jin, an Asgard-trained Demoness, knew how to support each other and act in support of each other instead of in opposition without breaking the rhythm of a four point circle.
Deimmosu and his mother made full use of the flexibility and adaptability of a two point circle, rotating around and through the uncoordinated mass of Kodachi's spiritual form.
Hel had one other job.
And as a silent, still form wrapped in crystal started to form past their barriers against Kodachi she called out.
"It's here!"
Another point of light erupted in the field of battle and golden lines lashed out like a cat's tails to connect with Belldandy and Urd, and then on to Mara and Kishimo-Jin.
It wasn't a true five point circle, it was two three point circles with Urd forming a point on both circles. With Mara as the only one without much experience in three point circles, she presented a weak link, but they served their purpose.
Kodachi was forcibly separated from Kaname.
Sophia, meanwhile found herself materializing near Kaname as three strong death seers activated a new circle specifically around her.
It's time to go home, Persephone told the suddenly concerned ghost.
*********************
"Three Venoms sighted at sector A-3!" Mao called out. "Sousuke, get to position."
"Flank weakening here," another Scirocco pilot said.
"This is PRT unit 3 here," another radio noted. "We shot down one of the troops carriers, but we could use some help."
"Two Sciroccos, go!" Mao called out.
Sousuke listened to the chatter with one ear, but focused his thoughts on that night with the setting sun and the comfort he felt just sitting with Kaname and Eija as he moved toward the enemy lambdha-drivers."
Sousuke slashed down into the middle of the three as they collapsed a unit inward.
"Give me everything got, Al," he shouted.
"Affirmative, Sgt Sagara," the AI noted.
Sousuke blew one of the Venoms away before he could direct its lambdha-enhanced chi energy toward blocking him. Then the second pushed in and he raised a block that the enemy's attack pushed into, sending him spinning backwards over his ASs feet, lambdha-driver battle aura preventing major damage and letting him roll up to his feet in time to focus a block on another incoming blast.
**********************
Amalgam's soldiers moved from position, trying to crumple the stiff resistance of the PRT teams inward. Ahead of one group, two young women charged forward with dead and determined expressions.
They dodged from cover to cover, avoiding gunfire bursts before leaping over one barricade to bring down a lethal steel on the surprised soldiers in the position.
And then a burst of wind shoved them out of the way into the backfield, out of the line of fire where Amalgam could support them.
They returned to their feet to find themselves staring across at a tall, grim looking woman carrying a rugbeater. She had one arm, though the one shoulder looked like it was modified to handle an advanced prosthetic.
"Don't think the lack of my mechanical arm is going easy on you," Natsume said coolly. "It is fine for normal use, but it gets in the way on the field."
Yu Lan and Yu Fan exchanged a look and charged forward, swing their blades in at Natsume who almost casually, side stepped one and blocked the next, sending them sprawling head over heels.
They broke off as they returned to their feet and arched in, moving and coordinating as naturally as breathing.
Natsume didn't bother making any outward sign of watching them as Yu Fan tried to draw her attention. She merely stepped back into a donkey kick to catch Yu Lan in the teeth and then pushed off the grounded foot to flip in the air to pass over Yu Fan.
The two sisters nearly slammed into each other, Yu Fan's knife leading.
And then a gust of wind slammed them against the wall of one of the buildings.
"Your coordination is good," she said. "But I've seen it before, and better."
******************
The enemies pressing on the hangar with the Gods, Demons and others was a heavy push of attack, with the PRTs around it finding themselves facing attack almost on all sides and the frequent strafing runs of dueling helicopters, theirs and the enemies.
One helicopter came on an attack vector as most of the soldiers scattered for cover and only a single woman apparently dressed as a librarian stood in the way.
"Crazy secretary," the pilot muttered as she pushed up her glasses on to her face.
And then his view screen was filled with paper.
"What the hell is this?!"
From the outside, people watch as paper caked over the outer body of the helicopter, stopping the rotors cold and sending hurtling down into a cluster of Amalgam soldiers, still maintaining its basic shape. Immediately after it crashed, however, the entire paper-covered helicopter was crushed inward as if into a giant ball of paper, the small sounds and bursts of smoke of violent explosions unable to get out carried even through the gun play, and then the paper pulled away.
A rattling sound of automatic gunfire careened toward Yomiko's position as she raised a wall of paper around herself, though still catching one bullet scoring across her leg.
Spreading out the paper she had, she laid cover for herself and the Mithril soldiers to fall back to the hangar and found herself limping inside.
"Visitors coming, sir," she said. "I'm finding them rather persistent."
"Yeah," Ranma said. "I kind of expected that. Watch where you stand."
Tessa frowned and looked as the martial artist reached for one of the lines connecting the extra circles.
"Stay in the center, Captain," Ranma said.
The chi spiraled outward and erupted into an almost self-sustaining wall of swirling wind that tore the building apart all around them and left them safe and secure inside.
Beyond, in the first ripping explosion of tornadoes, several black sickle blades lashed outward cutting into the Amalgam troops closing in on either side.
"Wait, you can do that and the exorcism?" Tessa asked.
"Yeah, someone told me I couldn't," Ranma noted with a shrug as he turned his attention back to the flow of energies in the exorcism.
******************
"Damage report, Al," Sousuke shouted.
"Right arm at 82% ability, left knee at 76% mobility," the AI said. "Lamdha-driver reaching critical over heating due to coolant system damage. Torso armor at 65% coverage. Targeting system malfunctioning, accuracy suffering estimated 12% error."
Sousuke grimaced and put down another Savage that tried to get in his way.
"Shut down lamdha driver, Sergeant Sagara?" the AI asked.
"Not yet," Sousuke said.
"As you wish," Al said.
Three of the Shadows charged him and took shots at unusual targets, understanding the weaknesses of the lamdha driver apparently, but finding nothing substantial to exploit in Sousuke's defense.
"Venom at five o'clock," Al noted.
Sousuke grimaced as he raised a barrier that cracked as the enemy projectile struck it and the Arbalest lost a knee, sending Sousuke sprawling.
"Overheat imminent," Al said calmly.
"Shut off lamdha driver," Sousuke said, breathing a sigh of relief as the heat levels dropped off immediately.
Sensing a weakened pray, the Shadows pushed in and were surprised as the Arblest pushed itself up on it's left arm, pushing into the air and slashing around with its knife to take out all three and then toss the knife toward the prematurely relaxing Venom, penetrating through the cockpit to kill the pilot within.
"More enemy detected," Al said. "Recommend evacuation."
"Can't do that, Al!" he shouted, rolling his AS over to the down Venom to recover his knife and picking up a new gun. "Tell me when we can restart the lamdha driver.
He fired toward the oncoming next wave and then blinked as a small shape jumped up to the top of the rear AS of the formation.
Inside Mao, rapidly typed out commands and then put her hands back in the holsters before landing on the shoulders of a Shadow and destroying the head before hopping to the next in line.
She'd taken out three before a shot clipped her AS suit, sending hurtling into the brush, only kept from falling completely apart as the chi enhancers built in protected it.
"Damn it," Mao shouted over the intercom. "That's it, this AS is done."
******************
Leonard scowled at the tactical situation. This was going to be a lot more costly than he had originally thought it would. Apparently, Tessa had anticipated his acquiring the battle plans somehow. Well, she always was clever.
However, Meridia was one base and Mithril hadn't been convinced it needed reinforcing for this action. He was attacking with overwhelming force.
The outcome was predetermined. There was no way that Tessa could hold out to protect Kaname long enough for the reported duration of two hours.
"One of the transports just sank!" someone shouted.
"Struck by cruise missile, probably," Leonard said. "Of course the DaDanan isn't where it should be. Which wave?"
"Third," the tech reported.
"She's targeting the reinforcements," Leonard decided. "Triangulate position with the next two she kills."
"A...Aye, sir," the tech said.
******************
Naiki leaped out of the water and landed on the rear of one of the last ships in the small fleet that had gathered for this action.
Several of the sailors immediately turned guns toward her, but nothing enough to worry her.
"You know, spells aren't supposed to work," Naiki said. "But I actually KNOW this girl, so I think I have a pretty good chance to find her in the network. And what the hell, she can't be any more annoying than she is."
As the bullets, annoying as they were to Naiki, pelted her, she raised her hands high and gave a sharp toothed smile.
"Monster of the Norse Deeps!"
*****************
"She's casting my spell again!" Lusca shouted outloud in the middle of Akihabara. "SQUEEEEE!"
"Uhhh," Shinji said.
"What is that girl babbling about?" Issei asked.
"Wait.." Lusca said stopping suddenly. "Wait...no..no...no! She had Miss Geisthexe helping her last time! Let's see...Nidhog down I can't...but...she shouldn't have even been able....I have to try!"
"Try what?" Kyoko asked.
"Naiki Satomi, Demoness of Torrent, I call in a favor! Come spend the rest of the day with me!"
***************
Leonard stepped out of the bridge and looked back toward the rear of his fleet. He watched as several massive tentacles rose up out of the water and reached out to crush one of his ships, tearing it apart and tossing the debris outward into several other ships, severely damaging them as well.
And then the tentacles dissolved into water almost as quickly as they appeared.
****************
Naiki stumbled about, knees shaking heavily as she shook her head and gasped. It felt very much like she'd just trained herself into the floor. Everything felt sore and dried out.
And somehow, she was in the middle of Tokyo.
"Naiki, how'd you get here?" Kyoko gasped as she inexpertly limped over with her cane, almost hopping.
"I...don't..." she said gasping before she fell back to the ground.
And then Lusca was rushing to her side with a large armful of bottled water.
"I called in a favor," Lusca said. "But you still owe me one after that."
"Isn't....that...impossible righ...." Naiki groaned and took a heavy slug of the water bottles that Kyoko and Lusca were forcing on her.
"Yeah, Nidhog is up," Lusca said. "But I didn't feel it. Not funny. Not at all funny."
************
"ASW aircraft over our position!" a tech called out. "Splashes!"
"Brace for impact," Mardukas called out.
The depth charges slipped down into the water and shook the DaDanan.
"They've got to be kidding," a tech said. "We fought Poseidon."
"Depth Charge can still kill us, gentlemen," Mardukas said calmly. "Now, I believe this sub, unlike others, does have some anti-aircraft capability that doesn't require surfacing."
"Yes, sir," a tech noted.
"Deploy it," Mardukas said.
*************
"We've got a steady signal in morse code being dispatched from the target," the comm tech.
"Secured channel?" he asked.
"No," the comm tech said. "Decoding now...."
The tech paused and frowned in confusion.
"What's it say?" Leonard asked.
"You're playing the wrong chessboard, brother." the tech said.
"What does she mean by that."
******************
"All right!" Skuld called out. "Done here!"
"Looks good on my end too," Megumi said.
"Done!" Yaku declared pushing one final button.
"Finished here as well," Sarah said. "Starting up in fifteen..."
"So we can connect, but what about everyone outside the dimension?" Keiichi asked.
"That's what I'm here for," Yonjuu said.
"And Silmaril is active," Sarah said.
In a moment, the various Ainur across the Labyrinth felt themselves running through rapid fire, personal equations and number manipulations.
Once it hit Yonjuu, the connection flooded down into the World.
*****************
Ranma watched as Deimosu shuddered thinking it was another attack, but then blinking as a series of numbers rolled out of his mouth and the Ainur marks flared.
Tessa was next.
And it flooded outward from there.
"And that is checkmate," Tessa noted as her marks flared and her reciting stopped. "This is probably the easiest using Silmaril will ever be the next few minutes....use it."
Ranma was about to say something when he noticed a fluctuation in the intense fields of Mana and instantly worked to stop it.
From across all over, shrapnel slashed out at the meditating Gods and Demons as well as the resting soldiers and others. Paper stopped some, Tessa reaching out by borrowing Nimu's telekinesis stopped others and Ranma's chi manipulation caused still others to flitter out.
Only one fragment found its target.
And everyone could only watch as the one struck slumped forward.
Sousuke gasped as felt the Silmaril contact flood over him, empowering him tremendously.
And for a brief moment, he had contact with several minds and their abilities. It would never be so easy again, but for now.
Amalgam's troops hesitated as they watched the Arbalest stand up and draw pieces from the battle-field to come to full repair and combat readiness with a brilliant glowing corona of an aura.
*****************
The power within the circles flared suddenly as the Silmaril went active and flooded power through the circle that harassed and tore into Kodachi pushing at her in bits and pieces.
This is your move, Kishi! Bastet shouted. It doesn't matter how much we do on this end, she's too spread out to kill solely from a spiritual end without at least three full powered category ones who know what they're doing!
Get ready, Kishimo-jin said. Truce-killer! Pull back and pay attention, you're going to want to send what you hear to your friend.
I've got her, Deimosu snapped.
You've got her held, Mara said, leaning on Belldandy. We need her dead, and the best way to do that is at the body.
You really think that you can kill me!? Kodachi shouted out of many mouths. How demeaning and insulting, to be threatened by such ants!
Back off, Kishimo-jin shouted.
Grimacing, Deimosu stepped back, releasing his hold slightly on Kodachi.
You never said exactly what you were going to do, Bastet noted.
Kishimo-jin smiled at her and leaped into the morass of Kodachi's flaying bodies, being torn apart as everyone stared at her.
And then Kodachi screamed the cries of children killed, not just her own and others, but those killed over thousands of years by another who had once been a monster and now regretted it.
And those screams carried with them...places.
*************
"Got it," Yonjuu said.
More than a dozen Ainur, borrowing Shichimu's powers, keyed in on different locations across the Earth and other worlds.
"Let's go skin a baby-killer," Mariko said coldly.
"Gladly," Kurz noted.
**************
"Whoa!" Shepard said. "Talk about an Info dump. McKay."
"Yeah, yeah, working on it!" he shouted.
"Everyone get your targets and go!" O'Neil said.
***************
Sophia found herself lying in the examination room where she'd died so long ago, the doctors standing over her and cried out, sitting up.
What is going on here! she demanded as the doctors scattered from her into dust and she saw three figures standing around her.
It's time give up this, Persephone said.
I'm not simply going to drive you off this time, Eija added calmly. It's time for you to go.
I don't want to go! Sophia demanded. I don't deserve to go! Do you know what they did to me?
We watched, Persephone said stepping forward. It was terrible, so many terrible things done to one who should have been treasured.
Oh, I was treasured, Sophia snapped. I was treasured, I was treasured as a research subject, do you know what it feels like to be a...
Sacrifice? Eija asked. I have nearly suffered the very same fate.
An object? Persephone added. Yes. I have suffered such at the hands of my husband's own brother.
Hel limped forward quietly and Sophia looked toward her hatefully.
And what about you, do you think you've suffered as much as me? Sophia demanded.
I was literally thrown into hell, Hel noted. Why do you think it was named for me?
They have to pay! Sophia shouted.
That doesn't work! Hel shouted. I tried that and just killed someone else who didn't do anything to me.
This isn't your world anymore, Eija said coolly. We could seal you up, trap you for a time, but it wouldn't help.
But I can come back if I take a body! Sophia said. I can live again.
At the cost of another life, Eija said firmly. A life you can't have.
Life comes again, child, Persephone said. You'll have another chance at life again.
Can you guarantee that? Sophia demanded.
Yes, Persephone said stepping forward and taking the other woman's hand. And I can show you the way.
What? Eija asked. Grandmother?
Mrs. Dispater? Hel asked.
I'm sorry, Eija, Persephone said. But I need to go to.
Why?! Eija demanded. Did Kodachi?
It isn't important right now, Eija, the Iron Queen said, turning toward Sophia. I have lived millions of years, childe. And now it is over. Will you come with me to this next life?
Sophia looked up with confusion at the woman in front of her.
Will it stop hurting there?
Hasn't it already? Persephone asked. You'll find record of my affairs in the Norns' home, Eija.
But, Grandma, we just met, Eija said.
Everybody needs to go in their own time, Persephone said as she walked off into something neither Eija nor Hel could see.
Rapt expressions covered both her and Sophia expressions and then everything faded and they were in the mindscape as Kishimo-jin was being torn apart and Kodachi was screaming, with none of witnesses being able to do anything about it.
But Eija's red eyes had sight for only one thing. And she heard nothing else.
A form she'd only seen in images and reports.
Hecate, standing in the place where Persephone's spirit had stood.
You always were too weak, mother, Hecate said.
Even the part of Kodachi not caught in Kishimojin's last spell paused as the entire surrounding mindscape turned red.
Hecate felt...actually felt...Eija's jian slash through her, trailing a wave of red blood that swirled up in an ocean to rip her to pieces.
The ghost reformed immediately behind Eija and the wave of blood washed around Hecate's daughter and slammed her ghostly body into the floor which opened up to pull her down while Eija stood, as if it were a floor for the living Goddess and a clogging ocean of quicksand for Hecate.
Is nothing enough for you?! Eija shouted. Do you?! Are you amused by this? Are we just ants?! Do you wish to drown in blood?! Will I can do that for you!
In the distraction, Kodachi's spirit fled through the gap that had formed. It still screamed and still carried pieces of Kishimo-jin with it, though Kodachi could not assimilate the Demoness.
Belldandy fell back, he grip on the Asgardian Demoness's hand lost and the woman ripped away as the monster they were fighting fled away and the others turned their attentions to see Hecate struggling to climb up to the surface of the ever reaching swirls of blood that funneled around Eija.
She tried to say something but found her mouth filled with blood such that it pushed into her and out through the eyes and pores, adding to the quantity that dragged her further downward.
The ghost started to reach toward the shocked and startled Hel, but Eija coolly walked into her path and stood in the way.
No more! Hecate! she shouted. You don't get to bath in anymore blood! No more sacrifice! No more pain! Drown! DROWN!!
Hecate disappeared angrily down into the whirling blood which calmed only slowly as Eija took a breath and slumped to her knees.
Ranma watched Eija come out of her meditation and start crying out loudly to the sky, tears flowing freely. With the battle ended and other people waking up as well, she didn't hesitate to move to Eija's side and hold her tightly.
*************
Kodachi, one of several came back to her body, still reeling and hearing those awful screams in her head. She barely had any control of her limbs or even thoughts at the moment. It was as if her entire being was in rebellion.
A door slammed open and feet came into the room with her as she struggled to rise to some sort of defense.
A figure moved to squat in front of her and lift her face up.
"Hey, Doc," O'Neil said seriously. "Sorry this took so long."
"That woman is..."
O'Neil pulled the trigger on his pistol.
Around him his team was killing the other flailing and incapable Kodachis in the room.
***************
Mariko kneeled in the center of several more bodies that the monster had inhabited. She tenderly arranged the bodies of the women she had just killed and sniffed, fighting against more tears coming.
**************
Kurz Weber walked past the dead bodies of the woman's minions that he had killed in a spray of automatic fire as soon as he'd arrived.
"You don't really expect to kill all of me, do you?" Kodachi asked, pained. "I'm regaining control now."
"You know, Shichimu's still alive sort of," Kurz said. "She's sort of letting us borrow something of hers right now."
He shot the woman.
"She's looking back at you through us," Kurz said.
******************
Kodachi crawled back away from Nimu, feeling some sense of control returning to her as she vaguely registered various other bodies being burned, shot, electrocuted, poisoned and more. It seemed that, even if those of her escaped children weren't in the fight, most, probably all of their powers were.
"There is still more of me than all of you can attack at once," Kodachi said. "When this damn curse is done, I shall merely start over."
"Mother," Nimu said. "For the next little while, I'm a telekinetic with the power to see any place one of your bodies is."
"Ah," the creature said.
Blades rose up behind Nimu as Kodachi watched across every body that didn't have direct attackers. Paralyzed by the anguished cries of those that she had taken and revealed by the eyes of one of her daughters, she was about to be killed finally by yet another.
And what Nimu couldn't do herself, Kurz and others borrowing her ability filled in the gap.
"Yes," Kodachi noted. "That would do it."
And the blades slammed into her from all sides in all places.
****************
Kalinin heard the destruction going on above and assumed that the inevitable overwhelming of the forces of Meridia was well underway.
He was down into the empty docks looking for a particular boat to commandeer and leave with.
"Going somewhere?" a woman's voice asked.
Kalinin looked to see Kali walking out of a cloth tablecloth.
"Don't bother with the guns," Kali said. "I'm a war goddess, bulletproof."
"I suppose this is where I surrender then?" Kalinin asked.
"That would be the most convenient," Kali said.
"Convenient," he said idly. "Well, I would rather be facing young Satomi so my words could be conveyed directly to the Captain, but I suppose you'll have to do."
"And what words are those?" Kali asked.
"It's not her fault," he said. "The world is to blame."
And then he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Kali watched his body fall to the ground and sighed.
*******************
"We've lost contact with ASW," a tech noted. "And we're getting reports from the Island, all units being decimated."
"Probably by a handful of people," Leonard said. "Take us out of the engagement area, quickly."
He frowned toward the retreating horizon and crossed his arms.
"Wrong chessboard indeed, sister," he said. "You know you couldn't hold. You used Chidori to draw me out and ran your own timetable with your Silmaril activation. Made me think I had another hour and half than I did."
He shook his head, it was more than that. Even if Kaname had ascended, he could still have used her via his own version of Tessa's Whisper of Souls.
Now, everything was a waste, and he was sure to lose his connections via Amalgam over this. Though that was less than worrisome given their losses here. They pretty much only had Gates left for operatives.
No, he was going to have to go on his own now.
********************
Kaname woke up with tears flowing down her eyes as she felt Eija's sorrow hit her full force. And the first thing she did on getting out was to push through the soldiers to find Eija in a make shift infirmary.
Sousuke appeared at nearly the same time, following word and instinct that Eija was upset.
Eija Kaname asked, cautiously moving forward.
"Eija...chan," Sousuke tried experimentally, seeming to remember that the appellation calmed down some girls.
Tired and feeling drained, Eija stood up stiffly and walked over to the other two, grabbing their hands, one each and pulling them to her.
Kaname was relieved she wasn't seeing with her full death sight just at the moment.
Eija stared at the hands for a long moment and then leaned into both of the two Ainur, descending into quiet, wrenching sobs. She was far too tired to continue wailing.
Ranma looked on as Sousuke and Kaname each tried to comfort her daughter in their own way.
His sniper rifle sat behind behind him against a cave wall that had become almost completely crystal.
At this moment, like this while she slept, it almost looked like nothing had changed. However, she was no longer a light sleeper, the instincts and dangers that had created that aspect of her had been wiped out of her mind.
Someone tripped and spilled something metal across the floor and Shichimu slept on where the one he'd moved through Europe with would have already been awake with much less, not looking disturbed, but paying attention.
He held her hand loosely for a moment, head straightening as she tightened her grip on his and then released as she shifted about in the bed, very much the dreaming child.
The sniper glanced around the room and saw a number of Ni's reciting numbers. He recognized it for what it was, recitation of the dead.
Nimu and Sanya San sat in the back of the room quietly giving the Ni's there space until the little ritual was over and Kurz brushed back the girl's hair and stood up.
He walked out of the room, collected his rifle and a P90 for close work and walked toward another chamber where a circle had been drawn and a Japanese Ainur dressed in some sort of cheerleader outfit stood.
"I'm ready," he told the woman.
He tapped his own Ainur marks. Something that if he'd had a few weeks ago, might have given him something to save the Shichimu that he'd first met.
"And the rest of you?" Mariko asked.
"So say we all," a Ni said somewhere. "Ow! What did you hit me for?"
"She's a bit of a geek," Yonjuu said to Kurz.
*******************
"Are you ready for this, Kishi?" Bastet asked outside the warehouse. "This...thing has got to be awfully...familiar to you."
"She hasn't killed as many as I have," Kishimo-jin said with a quiet sad smile.
"That was a long time ago," Bastet said, patting her on the shoulders. "And you were never...what she is."
"Is there much of difference?" Kishimo-jin asked.
"You stopped," Bastet noted. "You've figured out how your going to do what needs to be done?"
"I've got an idea," Kishimo-jin said.
*******************
"Commander Mardukas, we are in the ordered position," one of the techs said.
"Good," he said. "Hold here until the signal is given."
In Tessa's personal quarters, Kali stepped out of a black cloth hanging up on the wall and pulled Naiki in with her.
"Tell her we're here," Kali told Naiki who nodded.
Okay, can you tell where you are? Tessa asked.
We're under the water, so yes, Naiki said.
Show me, Tessa noted.
Uhhh... Naiki fumbled for a bit and just focused on visualizing what she felt of her position in relation to the waves around her.
And that's where I want her to be, Tessa responded, satisfied and deeply relieved. Wait there.
"She says wait," Naiki said.
*************
"This isn't the time I wanted to do this," Leonard noted with more than a trace of irritation.
He knew Sophia's likely response. That is was now or never.
That might have been true for the ghost, but he had other options should this siege fail.
And it wasn't likely that this attack would fail. Tessa had a leak bigger than anything someone as softhearted as her could possibly expect to predict.
She had some advantages on her side, having allied with these Demons and Gods that had arrived on Earth. But the details of her defensive plans had come straight to him.
He knew her AS placements. He knew where the psychics and Immortals were setting up to defend Kaname Chidori on the psychic plane. He'd known the layout of Meridia for months.
And his forces had multiple lambda-driver capable ASes and a handful of useful psychopaths.
The fleet he'd managed to sneak into the area from many vectors may have seemed like overkill, and he was certain Mithril knew at least some were there, but his contact would make sure to downplay the danger.
However, his sister had become a significant danger to his plans and Meridia needed to be dealt with now, or else the whole conflict would just be prolonged.
*********************
"Ready, Kaname?" Tessa asked the blue haired girl.
"Uhh, I think so," Kaname said next to the Whisper of Souls.
She was really starting to wonder just what the hell was so important about her that all this was necessary.
The Norns, with the exception of Skuld, Mara, Ranma, Eija, Deimosu, Persephone, some other Demons and Gods she didn't recognize and they were all standing around her at set spots.
"Everybody who needs to be out of the way is in the Labyrinth?" Tessa asked Ranma.
"Right," Ranma said.
Kaname wondered about the woman with the glasses and paper sticking out all over, but decided not to say anything.
"Kalinin, has the DaDanan reported itself in position yet?" Tessa asked over the intercom.
"The DaDanan is clear of the engagement area and in the appropriate place," he said.
Tessa sighed and then nodded.
We have an answer, Tessa sent to Naiki. Neither of you have anything to do there.
"Then, if you please, Kaname?" Tessa said with a smile as she directed Kaname to go into Whisper of Souls.
Hesitantly, Kaname stepped into the tube and leaned down, watching as everyone around her got ready.
And then the tube shut closed over her.
*****************
It was the whispers, she'd felt and seen this before. The same overwhelming flow of numbers, symbols and flooding information that was never much better than a barely tolerable swirl at best and a wash of mind numbing sensation driving her to contemplate self-destructive actions.
Eija black form and glowing red eyes appeared swiftly at her side as the whispers around her slowly became coherent and separate. For her part, Kaname tried to move but felt herself tied down. The best she could describe it as was being in something like a roller-coaster ride set on a railroad.
Probably the process of the machine.
I'm here, Kaname, Eija's form said. It shall go well.
Kaname felt a sigh of relief at Eija's presence and let herself fall into the ride and sheltered from the mindscape.
As Kaname let the Whisper of Souls wrap her up in a shell of swirling information, something slashed out of the swirl of numbers and reached out toward the black form of Eija. At first she thought it was the ghost again, but it looked...nothing the same.
It had arms and a vague human female form with pale skin, but the legs twisted upwards into another form like a torso surrounded by arms and eyes.
Many, many eyes.
And mouths sewn shut, ripped off, hands covering them or simply erased from existence. All struggling pitifully and moving jerkily as if not moving of their own accord.
Another of the shapes curved around from behind Eija then, legs with its shoulders and one arm twisting off into the darkness.
All the particular component bodies were easily recognizable of a variety of ages and mostly similar appearances. Though there were a few that appeared completely different in look and shape now.
Eija dodged the second attack and called forth the blood red jian she had forged with Kaname's help to use against Poseidon.
Is this all that they have to set forth as defense? a voice asked.
Eija stepped aside of a third form darting in from behind her. The newest tendril of merged bodies slammed ahead into one of the first two, which shuddered, free limbs flying as if in pain, the third tendril whipping about to finish merging completely with it.
A black soul? the voice about her demanded.
Another couple of bodies erupted out of the unseen total of the mass the step forward wielding ribbons and clubs of fingers and hair.
I am the Black Rose! the voice shouted. Who dares come to me in this way.
I am Eija Satomi, she said proudly. I am Goddess of Blood and I will not let you hurt Kaname.
She reached out to feel the mass of screaming souls infesting the creature in front of her.
A keen rose up from the various mouths that first seemed to be Eija to be pain until it unified into a loud echoing sound.
OHHHHHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOO! the thing howled. HOHOHOHOHOHOOOOHHHHHHHOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOHO!!
Eija stepped back dodging away but keeping herself between the attacking bodies and Kaname. She slashed out with her sword through one attack, the four tendrils of blood from her own weapon reaching out to interrupt others, but she wasn't inflicting any major damage.
The whole horrid mass of it was coming closer around Kaname and Eija then.
No wonder that old ghost was so demanding of help the creature was declaring. Do you seriously think I haven't faced a ghost whisperer before? Little 'Goddess'? These are living parts of me, not some dead ghosts for your amusement. It would take more than you to part them from me.
As the things almost playfully pushed Eija backward and moved to swallow up Kaname and Eija, she continued to cackle.
This is the perfect time to end this all, these Ainur, this Whisper of Souls! she declared. To hell with Leonard and his plans and promises, this planet and these lives are mine. Too bad you cannot join me, you won't get to share this immortality.
And then a circle of white light flared up around Eija and Kaname's shell. Two strong points on the edge connected through the middle by a line of energy. One of those two points flared brightly as a small sun, but the next crackled into a burst of lightning before forming into a humanoid form of crackling electricity.
Ah, I see, Kodachi noted spitefully. More of the spawn that redheaded tart begat out of my Darling's body.
Mom's a bit busy right now, Deimosu said. She sent us to deal with you.
And you think this will be enough? Kodachi demanded.
Actually, Eija said, as her soul flared brightly black before stretching out in two lines out from her.
One line stretched, moving from a sold, dependable and vibrant black toward a grey light of peace and determination that erupted into another miniature sun of radiant peaceful white light. The second line stretched outward from Eija shifting into a twisting line of green and brown swirling one on another in ever passing cycle.
Standing up from the white light Belldandy stepped forward bearing a long staff and from the green and brown stepped Persephone as a spear of wood shifting from living to dead held in her hand.
Around the triangle formed by them, another circle stretched out, encircling Kaname in now two lines of defense.
We thought it might be a fair idea to have a few more on hand, Belldandy said.
And then four points erupted around the outside of the mass of Kodachi's consciousness.
Smoke flared up in one corner, coalescing into Mara's form while bones flared up at the next corner and Hel limped out into position, glancing cautiously toward where Eija and Persephone stood nearby. The earth erupted in the third corner as a dark-skinned Japanese woman, Kishimo-jin, Demoness of Children, took her place. And the fourth coalesced into another thunder bolt showing the half-Demon Goddess Urd.
A red circle of heavy power erupted alongside the outer edge of the conflict.
The mass of Kodachis stared about, two lines of defense ahead and a wall closing her in from the outside.
Well, I am honored, she said before diving into her cacophonous laughter.
************
Ranma looked about as the various Gods and Demons settled into their trances except for the vaguely feline woman sitting her place and waiting eagerly for the chance to move in.
"Well, that's one trap," he said, looking toward Tessa.
"Yes, so it would appear," Tessa said, typing at a console. "Might I ask what the extra circles are for? They weren't part of the original design."
"No they weren't," Ranma said with a smile. "And those happen to be spirals."
************
Sousuke frowned in thought as the order to move to secondary positions came direct from Tessa over the com-link rather than over the radio, but didn't question it as he quietly moved the Arbalest into the declared position.
He was settling into the prepared position as the enemy showed itself coming up in a swarm of savages and supported by five of the new Shadows and two Venoms.
Immediately, a pair of rockets swarmed out toward each of the primary positions as the force pushed forward.
"And go!" Mao's voice called out.
Three M-9s opened up from their positions and tore through the mass of frog-like obsolete machines that had just found themselves the finger in the cigar slicer.
The Shadows rolled out of the way, only one taken out by the cross fire and two others damaged. As one stepped into cover and got ready to jump back into the fight, a pair of small forms leaped out of the brush onto it's back wielding smaller versions of the vibro blades carried by many ASes.
The two Sciroccos ripped into vital circuitry and parts, glowing the faint light many had associated with lambda-drivers to that point, only much weaker.
They leaped clear as one of the Venoms lashed out with a full lambda driver blast, only for that Venom to be cut cleanly in two as the Arbalest slammed down on top of it.
"Sgt Major, please be more careful," Sousuke noted as he moved to handle the next Venom, ducking fire from other enemies as he did so.
"Hey, this thing is faster than a grasshopper on speed," Mao called out. "No way this is going down. Focus on the plan."
As she spoke, an M-9 had a limb blown off by incoming reinforcements for the enemy.
Grimacing, Mao triggered the jump jet on her Scirocco and landed cleanly on the head of a savage, dropping an industrial charge into its chassis and leaping off before it exploded
Above them troop-carrying helicopters flew overhead.
"Incoming!"
********************
Kalinin watched in the distance as explosions erupted everywhere across the island, though in the wrong places.
They were not using his positions.
Eyes started to dart toward each other in disbelief behind him as some of the people with him read the inexplicable message they were receiving.
He wasted no time in drawing his pistol and shooting the security around him before they could move to act themselves. The techs in the room stared at him in shock.
"I suggest you leave now," he said calmly to the unarmed men and women. "Knowing Tessa, those were the first orders she gave upon realizing I was her leak."
"Traitor!" one of the women called out, Tessa's receptionist.
She dived down for one of the guns and Kalinin didn't hesitate to shoot her immediately.
Tessa would blame herself, he realized, for the tactical necessity of not letting anybody know. Of course, the blame was so far beyond her that it was sad. Nobody could be blamed for the insanity this world drove them to.
Very reluctantly, the remaining techs left the command center to Kalinin.
The Mithril traitor set all the communications equipment to reboot and then took one of the P90s and shredded the machinery before leaving for his own escape route a little early.
****************
"Command and telemetry just went out," Tessa said. "All units..."
Gunfire erupted outside her.
"That's sounding close," the feline Goddess noted.
"Yomiko, you're supposed to be my receptionist," Ranma said. "Receive."
"Already going, sir," Yomiko noted.
"All units, as you know, the pre-set plan is compromised," she said. "Objectives remain the same, Sciroccos move to reconnaissance and relay information and movements, do not engage unless necessary. Unit commanders operate under your own information."
"How many of those little jumper things do you have?" the Goddess asked.
"They designed one part by part, fabricated the pieces, put it together and programmed it over the course of three weeks in the backyard of a temple," Tessa said. "I gave them production facilities, technicians and a month. We have fifteen."
"Cat-lady!" Ranma sniped. "Pay attention, we have one more entity out there to wait for."
"You don't have to get into a tizzy over it," Bastet muttered.
Ranma watched Mara's body shudder.
**************
"We've lost command feed from Meridia," a tech said calmly.
"Then move, that's our signal," Mardukas said. "I want to find these enemy attack platforms and remove them now."
**************
Mara burst into smoke and ripped up around and over the attacking form of the thing she was fighting.
She'd never actually fought a devourer before, had only seen record of them in the histories on Nifelheim, and was currently glad this one apparently had no idea what she...it could do. With as many souls as she had, she shouldn't need a mainframe to engender category one power
When she reformed, she felt herself go down to one knee, a bit weakened by what was a barely avoided attack.
The surface of the devourer ahead of her rippled and a rush of arms reached out toward her. And then stopped with the keening cry of dozens of children's voices cascading in a ripple up the forms.
Urd zipped by and pulled Mara out of the path as Kishimo-Jin walked determinedly behind the three, psychic hand extended as she kept her eye on what Kodachi was doing.
Hel stood where the corner of the outer wall, the prison, sat immediately behind that of the walls about the shell where Kaname was.
Persephone, Eija and Belldandy held firm their defense ahead of the youngest of the group, here because every one there agreed, reluctantly, that the Demoness of Prisons was necessary to hold the outer walls firm.
A mass of arms and legs like a flood pushed into Belldandy's corner, threatening to shove her back as Urd, Kishimo-jin and Mara moved back into position. More articulate hands slipped out, wielding by cackling faces and holding weapons of psychic potential.
Persephone's spear lashed out through the outcropping as Eija walked up onto the shaft and slashed her jian and its own four flaying tendrils into mass, cutting off most of the attack on Eija.
Belldandy caught her breath as the fallen pieces of Kodachi dropped and were recollected back into the central portion as a renewed attack lashed out gripping the leg of Eija's black soul and started to pull her off into the mass.
The middle Norn whipped out with her own staff as Persephone reached out and the attacking portions were withered in pain and agony for six full seconds.
Eija came back to her feet in time to cover Persephone with Belldandy's help.
Ranma lacked the psychic ability to reach the mindscape, but was practiced in exorcism herself, and the small sun that seemed to represent her will in present rotated around Deimosu's form like a moon with free mind.
They were the circle that could rotate about within the bounds of the other two. Eija, Belldandy and Persephone had to remain around Kaname's cocoon and Hel. The Demons and Urd had to remain on the outside and maintain the wall.
Hel focused on keeping the four point demonic circle stable. Alone it would have been difficult. Demonic circles were inefficiently powerful, wasting a lot of energy if they had anything like enough. In addition the opposite points tore apart from each other over time.
Maintaining one of this power so long was difficult.
The Asgardians made it possible.
Persephone, Belldandy and Eija held Hel firmly within their three point circle. They were in easy position to support each other and acted as a buffer against Mara's point pulling at Hel's.
Meanwhile, Urd, half-Demon, and Kishimo-jin, an Asgard-trained Demoness, knew how to support each other and act in support of each other instead of in opposition without breaking the rhythm of a four point circle.
Deimmosu and his mother made full use of the flexibility and adaptability of a two point circle, rotating around and through the uncoordinated mass of Kodachi's spiritual form.
Hel had one other job.
And as a silent, still form wrapped in crystal started to form past their barriers against Kodachi she called out.
"It's here!"
Another point of light erupted in the field of battle and golden lines lashed out like a cat's tails to connect with Belldandy and Urd, and then on to Mara and Kishimo-Jin.
It wasn't a true five point circle, it was two three point circles with Urd forming a point on both circles. With Mara as the only one without much experience in three point circles, she presented a weak link, but they served their purpose.
Kodachi was forcibly separated from Kaname.
Sophia, meanwhile found herself materializing near Kaname as three strong death seers activated a new circle specifically around her.
It's time to go home, Persephone told the suddenly concerned ghost.
*********************
"Three Venoms sighted at sector A-3!" Mao called out. "Sousuke, get to position."
"Flank weakening here," another Scirocco pilot said.
"This is PRT unit 3 here," another radio noted. "We shot down one of the troops carriers, but we could use some help."
"Two Sciroccos, go!" Mao called out.
Sousuke listened to the chatter with one ear, but focused his thoughts on that night with the setting sun and the comfort he felt just sitting with Kaname and Eija as he moved toward the enemy lambdha-drivers."
Sousuke slashed down into the middle of the three as they collapsed a unit inward.
"Give me everything got, Al," he shouted.
"Affirmative, Sgt Sagara," the AI noted.
Sousuke blew one of the Venoms away before he could direct its lambdha-enhanced chi energy toward blocking him. Then the second pushed in and he raised a block that the enemy's attack pushed into, sending him spinning backwards over his ASs feet, lambdha-driver battle aura preventing major damage and letting him roll up to his feet in time to focus a block on another incoming blast.
**********************
Amalgam's soldiers moved from position, trying to crumple the stiff resistance of the PRT teams inward. Ahead of one group, two young women charged forward with dead and determined expressions.
They dodged from cover to cover, avoiding gunfire bursts before leaping over one barricade to bring down a lethal steel on the surprised soldiers in the position.
And then a burst of wind shoved them out of the way into the backfield, out of the line of fire where Amalgam could support them.
They returned to their feet to find themselves staring across at a tall, grim looking woman carrying a rugbeater. She had one arm, though the one shoulder looked like it was modified to handle an advanced prosthetic.
"Don't think the lack of my mechanical arm is going easy on you," Natsume said coolly. "It is fine for normal use, but it gets in the way on the field."
Yu Lan and Yu Fan exchanged a look and charged forward, swing their blades in at Natsume who almost casually, side stepped one and blocked the next, sending them sprawling head over heels.
They broke off as they returned to their feet and arched in, moving and coordinating as naturally as breathing.
Natsume didn't bother making any outward sign of watching them as Yu Fan tried to draw her attention. She merely stepped back into a donkey kick to catch Yu Lan in the teeth and then pushed off the grounded foot to flip in the air to pass over Yu Fan.
The two sisters nearly slammed into each other, Yu Fan's knife leading.
And then a gust of wind slammed them against the wall of one of the buildings.
"Your coordination is good," she said. "But I've seen it before, and better."
******************
The enemies pressing on the hangar with the Gods, Demons and others was a heavy push of attack, with the PRTs around it finding themselves facing attack almost on all sides and the frequent strafing runs of dueling helicopters, theirs and the enemies.
One helicopter came on an attack vector as most of the soldiers scattered for cover and only a single woman apparently dressed as a librarian stood in the way.
"Crazy secretary," the pilot muttered as she pushed up her glasses on to her face.
And then his view screen was filled with paper.
"What the hell is this?!"
From the outside, people watch as paper caked over the outer body of the helicopter, stopping the rotors cold and sending hurtling down into a cluster of Amalgam soldiers, still maintaining its basic shape. Immediately after it crashed, however, the entire paper-covered helicopter was crushed inward as if into a giant ball of paper, the small sounds and bursts of smoke of violent explosions unable to get out carried even through the gun play, and then the paper pulled away.
A rattling sound of automatic gunfire careened toward Yomiko's position as she raised a wall of paper around herself, though still catching one bullet scoring across her leg.
Spreading out the paper she had, she laid cover for herself and the Mithril soldiers to fall back to the hangar and found herself limping inside.
"Visitors coming, sir," she said. "I'm finding them rather persistent."
"Yeah," Ranma said. "I kind of expected that. Watch where you stand."
Tessa frowned and looked as the martial artist reached for one of the lines connecting the extra circles.
"Stay in the center, Captain," Ranma said.
The chi spiraled outward and erupted into an almost self-sustaining wall of swirling wind that tore the building apart all around them and left them safe and secure inside.
Beyond, in the first ripping explosion of tornadoes, several black sickle blades lashed outward cutting into the Amalgam troops closing in on either side.
"Wait, you can do that and the exorcism?" Tessa asked.
"Yeah, someone told me I couldn't," Ranma noted with a shrug as he turned his attention back to the flow of energies in the exorcism.
******************
"Damage report, Al," Sousuke shouted.
"Right arm at 82% ability, left knee at 76% mobility," the AI said. "Lamdha-driver reaching critical over heating due to coolant system damage. Torso armor at 65% coverage. Targeting system malfunctioning, accuracy suffering estimated 12% error."
Sousuke grimaced and put down another Savage that tried to get in his way.
"Shut down lamdha driver, Sergeant Sagara?" the AI asked.
"Not yet," Sousuke said.
"As you wish," Al said.
Three of the Shadows charged him and took shots at unusual targets, understanding the weaknesses of the lamdha driver apparently, but finding nothing substantial to exploit in Sousuke's defense.
"Venom at five o'clock," Al noted.
Sousuke grimaced as he raised a barrier that cracked as the enemy projectile struck it and the Arbalest lost a knee, sending Sousuke sprawling.
"Overheat imminent," Al said calmly.
"Shut off lamdha driver," Sousuke said, breathing a sigh of relief as the heat levels dropped off immediately.
Sensing a weakened pray, the Shadows pushed in and were surprised as the Arblest pushed itself up on it's left arm, pushing into the air and slashing around with its knife to take out all three and then toss the knife toward the prematurely relaxing Venom, penetrating through the cockpit to kill the pilot within.
"More enemy detected," Al said. "Recommend evacuation."
"Can't do that, Al!" he shouted, rolling his AS over to the down Venom to recover his knife and picking up a new gun. "Tell me when we can restart the lamdha driver.
He fired toward the oncoming next wave and then blinked as a small shape jumped up to the top of the rear AS of the formation.
Inside Mao, rapidly typed out commands and then put her hands back in the holsters before landing on the shoulders of a Shadow and destroying the head before hopping to the next in line.
She'd taken out three before a shot clipped her AS suit, sending hurtling into the brush, only kept from falling completely apart as the chi enhancers built in protected it.
"Damn it," Mao shouted over the intercom. "That's it, this AS is done."
******************
Leonard scowled at the tactical situation. This was going to be a lot more costly than he had originally thought it would. Apparently, Tessa had anticipated his acquiring the battle plans somehow. Well, she always was clever.
However, Meridia was one base and Mithril hadn't been convinced it needed reinforcing for this action. He was attacking with overwhelming force.
The outcome was predetermined. There was no way that Tessa could hold out to protect Kaname long enough for the reported duration of two hours.
"One of the transports just sank!" someone shouted.
"Struck by cruise missile, probably," Leonard said. "Of course the DaDanan isn't where it should be. Which wave?"
"Third," the tech reported.
"She's targeting the reinforcements," Leonard decided. "Triangulate position with the next two she kills."
"A...Aye, sir," the tech said.
******************
Naiki leaped out of the water and landed on the rear of one of the last ships in the small fleet that had gathered for this action.
Several of the sailors immediately turned guns toward her, but nothing enough to worry her.
"You know, spells aren't supposed to work," Naiki said. "But I actually KNOW this girl, so I think I have a pretty good chance to find her in the network. And what the hell, she can't be any more annoying than she is."
As the bullets, annoying as they were to Naiki, pelted her, she raised her hands high and gave a sharp toothed smile.
"Monster of the Norse Deeps!"
*****************
"She's casting my spell again!" Lusca shouted outloud in the middle of Akihabara. "SQUEEEEE!"
"Uhhh," Shinji said.
"What is that girl babbling about?" Issei asked.
"Wait.." Lusca said stopping suddenly. "Wait...no..no...no! She had Miss Geisthexe helping her last time! Let's see...Nidhog down I can't...but...she shouldn't have even been able....I have to try!"
"Try what?" Kyoko asked.
"Naiki Satomi, Demoness of Torrent, I call in a favor! Come spend the rest of the day with me!"
***************
Leonard stepped out of the bridge and looked back toward the rear of his fleet. He watched as several massive tentacles rose up out of the water and reached out to crush one of his ships, tearing it apart and tossing the debris outward into several other ships, severely damaging them as well.
And then the tentacles dissolved into water almost as quickly as they appeared.
****************
Naiki stumbled about, knees shaking heavily as she shook her head and gasped. It felt very much like she'd just trained herself into the floor. Everything felt sore and dried out.
And somehow, she was in the middle of Tokyo.
"Naiki, how'd you get here?" Kyoko gasped as she inexpertly limped over with her cane, almost hopping.
"I...don't..." she said gasping before she fell back to the ground.
And then Lusca was rushing to her side with a large armful of bottled water.
"I called in a favor," Lusca said. "But you still owe me one after that."
"Isn't....that...impossible righ...." Naiki groaned and took a heavy slug of the water bottles that Kyoko and Lusca were forcing on her.
"Yeah, Nidhog is up," Lusca said. "But I didn't feel it. Not funny. Not at all funny."
************
"ASW aircraft over our position!" a tech called out. "Splashes!"
"Brace for impact," Mardukas called out.
The depth charges slipped down into the water and shook the DaDanan.
"They've got to be kidding," a tech said. "We fought Poseidon."
"Depth Charge can still kill us, gentlemen," Mardukas said calmly. "Now, I believe this sub, unlike others, does have some anti-aircraft capability that doesn't require surfacing."
"Yes, sir," a tech noted.
"Deploy it," Mardukas said.
*************
"We've got a steady signal in morse code being dispatched from the target," the comm tech.
"Secured channel?" he asked.
"No," the comm tech said. "Decoding now...."
The tech paused and frowned in confusion.
"What's it say?" Leonard asked.
"You're playing the wrong chessboard, brother." the tech said.
"What does she mean by that."
******************
"All right!" Skuld called out. "Done here!"
"Looks good on my end too," Megumi said.
"Done!" Yaku declared pushing one final button.
"Finished here as well," Sarah said. "Starting up in fifteen..."
"So we can connect, but what about everyone outside the dimension?" Keiichi asked.
"That's what I'm here for," Yonjuu said.
"And Silmaril is active," Sarah said.
In a moment, the various Ainur across the Labyrinth felt themselves running through rapid fire, personal equations and number manipulations.
Once it hit Yonjuu, the connection flooded down into the World.
*****************
Ranma watched as Deimosu shuddered thinking it was another attack, but then blinking as a series of numbers rolled out of his mouth and the Ainur marks flared.
Tessa was next.
And it flooded outward from there.
"And that is checkmate," Tessa noted as her marks flared and her reciting stopped. "This is probably the easiest using Silmaril will ever be the next few minutes....use it."
Ranma was about to say something when he noticed a fluctuation in the intense fields of Mana and instantly worked to stop it.
From across all over, shrapnel slashed out at the meditating Gods and Demons as well as the resting soldiers and others. Paper stopped some, Tessa reaching out by borrowing Nimu's telekinesis stopped others and Ranma's chi manipulation caused still others to flitter out.
Only one fragment found its target.
And everyone could only watch as the one struck slumped forward.
Sousuke gasped as felt the Silmaril contact flood over him, empowering him tremendously.
And for a brief moment, he had contact with several minds and their abilities. It would never be so easy again, but for now.
Amalgam's troops hesitated as they watched the Arbalest stand up and draw pieces from the battle-field to come to full repair and combat readiness with a brilliant glowing corona of an aura.
*****************
The power within the circles flared suddenly as the Silmaril went active and flooded power through the circle that harassed and tore into Kodachi pushing at her in bits and pieces.
This is your move, Kishi! Bastet shouted. It doesn't matter how much we do on this end, she's too spread out to kill solely from a spiritual end without at least three full powered category ones who know what they're doing!
Get ready, Kishimo-jin said. Truce-killer! Pull back and pay attention, you're going to want to send what you hear to your friend.
I've got her, Deimosu snapped.
You've got her held, Mara said, leaning on Belldandy. We need her dead, and the best way to do that is at the body.
You really think that you can kill me!? Kodachi shouted out of many mouths. How demeaning and insulting, to be threatened by such ants!
Back off, Kishimo-jin shouted.
Grimacing, Deimosu stepped back, releasing his hold slightly on Kodachi.
You never said exactly what you were going to do, Bastet noted.
Kishimo-jin smiled at her and leaped into the morass of Kodachi's flaying bodies, being torn apart as everyone stared at her.
And then Kodachi screamed the cries of children killed, not just her own and others, but those killed over thousands of years by another who had once been a monster and now regretted it.
And those screams carried with them...places.
*************
"Got it," Yonjuu said.
More than a dozen Ainur, borrowing Shichimu's powers, keyed in on different locations across the Earth and other worlds.
"Let's go skin a baby-killer," Mariko said coldly.
"Gladly," Kurz noted.
**************
"Whoa!" Shepard said. "Talk about an Info dump. McKay."
"Yeah, yeah, working on it!" he shouted.
"Everyone get your targets and go!" O'Neil said.
***************
Sophia found herself lying in the examination room where she'd died so long ago, the doctors standing over her and cried out, sitting up.
What is going on here! she demanded as the doctors scattered from her into dust and she saw three figures standing around her.
It's time give up this, Persephone said.
I'm not simply going to drive you off this time, Eija added calmly. It's time for you to go.
I don't want to go! Sophia demanded. I don't deserve to go! Do you know what they did to me?
We watched, Persephone said stepping forward. It was terrible, so many terrible things done to one who should have been treasured.
Oh, I was treasured, Sophia snapped. I was treasured, I was treasured as a research subject, do you know what it feels like to be a...
Sacrifice? Eija asked. I have nearly suffered the very same fate.
An object? Persephone added. Yes. I have suffered such at the hands of my husband's own brother.
Hel limped forward quietly and Sophia looked toward her hatefully.
And what about you, do you think you've suffered as much as me? Sophia demanded.
I was literally thrown into hell, Hel noted. Why do you think it was named for me?
They have to pay! Sophia shouted.
That doesn't work! Hel shouted. I tried that and just killed someone else who didn't do anything to me.
This isn't your world anymore, Eija said coolly. We could seal you up, trap you for a time, but it wouldn't help.
But I can come back if I take a body! Sophia said. I can live again.
At the cost of another life, Eija said firmly. A life you can't have.
Life comes again, child, Persephone said. You'll have another chance at life again.
Can you guarantee that? Sophia demanded.
Yes, Persephone said stepping forward and taking the other woman's hand. And I can show you the way.
What? Eija asked. Grandmother?
Mrs. Dispater? Hel asked.
I'm sorry, Eija, Persephone said. But I need to go to.
Why?! Eija demanded. Did Kodachi?
It isn't important right now, Eija, the Iron Queen said, turning toward Sophia. I have lived millions of years, childe. And now it is over. Will you come with me to this next life?
Sophia looked up with confusion at the woman in front of her.
Will it stop hurting there?
Hasn't it already? Persephone asked. You'll find record of my affairs in the Norns' home, Eija.
But, Grandma, we just met, Eija said.
Everybody needs to go in their own time, Persephone said as she walked off into something neither Eija nor Hel could see.
Rapt expressions covered both her and Sophia expressions and then everything faded and they were in the mindscape as Kishimo-jin was being torn apart and Kodachi was screaming, with none of witnesses being able to do anything about it.
But Eija's red eyes had sight for only one thing. And she heard nothing else.
A form she'd only seen in images and reports.
Hecate, standing in the place where Persephone's spirit had stood.
You always were too weak, mother, Hecate said.
Even the part of Kodachi not caught in Kishimojin's last spell paused as the entire surrounding mindscape turned red.
Hecate felt...actually felt...Eija's jian slash through her, trailing a wave of red blood that swirled up in an ocean to rip her to pieces.
The ghost reformed immediately behind Eija and the wave of blood washed around Hecate's daughter and slammed her ghostly body into the floor which opened up to pull her down while Eija stood, as if it were a floor for the living Goddess and a clogging ocean of quicksand for Hecate.
Is nothing enough for you?! Eija shouted. Do you?! Are you amused by this? Are we just ants?! Do you wish to drown in blood?! Will I can do that for you!
In the distraction, Kodachi's spirit fled through the gap that had formed. It still screamed and still carried pieces of Kishimo-jin with it, though Kodachi could not assimilate the Demoness.
Belldandy fell back, he grip on the Asgardian Demoness's hand lost and the woman ripped away as the monster they were fighting fled away and the others turned their attentions to see Hecate struggling to climb up to the surface of the ever reaching swirls of blood that funneled around Eija.
She tried to say something but found her mouth filled with blood such that it pushed into her and out through the eyes and pores, adding to the quantity that dragged her further downward.
The ghost started to reach toward the shocked and startled Hel, but Eija coolly walked into her path and stood in the way.
No more! Hecate! she shouted. You don't get to bath in anymore blood! No more sacrifice! No more pain! Drown! DROWN!!
Hecate disappeared angrily down into the whirling blood which calmed only slowly as Eija took a breath and slumped to her knees.
Ranma watched Eija come out of her meditation and start crying out loudly to the sky, tears flowing freely. With the battle ended and other people waking up as well, she didn't hesitate to move to Eija's side and hold her tightly.
*************
Kodachi, one of several came back to her body, still reeling and hearing those awful screams in her head. She barely had any control of her limbs or even thoughts at the moment. It was as if her entire being was in rebellion.
A door slammed open and feet came into the room with her as she struggled to rise to some sort of defense.
A figure moved to squat in front of her and lift her face up.
"Hey, Doc," O'Neil said seriously. "Sorry this took so long."
"That woman is..."
O'Neil pulled the trigger on his pistol.
Around him his team was killing the other flailing and incapable Kodachis in the room.
***************
Mariko kneeled in the center of several more bodies that the monster had inhabited. She tenderly arranged the bodies of the women she had just killed and sniffed, fighting against more tears coming.
**************
Kurz Weber walked past the dead bodies of the woman's minions that he had killed in a spray of automatic fire as soon as he'd arrived.
"You don't really expect to kill all of me, do you?" Kodachi asked, pained. "I'm regaining control now."
"You know, Shichimu's still alive sort of," Kurz said. "She's sort of letting us borrow something of hers right now."
He shot the woman.
"She's looking back at you through us," Kurz said.
******************
Kodachi crawled back away from Nimu, feeling some sense of control returning to her as she vaguely registered various other bodies being burned, shot, electrocuted, poisoned and more. It seemed that, even if those of her escaped children weren't in the fight, most, probably all of their powers were.
"There is still more of me than all of you can attack at once," Kodachi said. "When this damn curse is done, I shall merely start over."
"Mother," Nimu said. "For the next little while, I'm a telekinetic with the power to see any place one of your bodies is."
"Ah," the creature said.
Blades rose up behind Nimu as Kodachi watched across every body that didn't have direct attackers. Paralyzed by the anguished cries of those that she had taken and revealed by the eyes of one of her daughters, she was about to be killed finally by yet another.
And what Nimu couldn't do herself, Kurz and others borrowing her ability filled in the gap.
"Yes," Kodachi noted. "That would do it."
And the blades slammed into her from all sides in all places.
****************
Kalinin heard the destruction going on above and assumed that the inevitable overwhelming of the forces of Meridia was well underway.
He was down into the empty docks looking for a particular boat to commandeer and leave with.
"Going somewhere?" a woman's voice asked.
Kalinin looked to see Kali walking out of a cloth tablecloth.
"Don't bother with the guns," Kali said. "I'm a war goddess, bulletproof."
"I suppose this is where I surrender then?" Kalinin asked.
"That would be the most convenient," Kali said.
"Convenient," he said idly. "Well, I would rather be facing young Satomi so my words could be conveyed directly to the Captain, but I suppose you'll have to do."
"And what words are those?" Kali asked.
"It's not her fault," he said. "The world is to blame."
And then he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Kali watched his body fall to the ground and sighed.
*******************
"We've lost contact with ASW," a tech noted. "And we're getting reports from the Island, all units being decimated."
"Probably by a handful of people," Leonard said. "Take us out of the engagement area, quickly."
He frowned toward the retreating horizon and crossed his arms.
"Wrong chessboard indeed, sister," he said. "You know you couldn't hold. You used Chidori to draw me out and ran your own timetable with your Silmaril activation. Made me think I had another hour and half than I did."
He shook his head, it was more than that. Even if Kaname had ascended, he could still have used her via his own version of Tessa's Whisper of Souls.
Now, everything was a waste, and he was sure to lose his connections via Amalgam over this. Though that was less than worrisome given their losses here. They pretty much only had Gates left for operatives.
No, he was going to have to go on his own now.
********************
Kaname woke up with tears flowing down her eyes as she felt Eija's sorrow hit her full force. And the first thing she did on getting out was to push through the soldiers to find Eija in a make shift infirmary.
Sousuke appeared at nearly the same time, following word and instinct that Eija was upset.
Eija Kaname asked, cautiously moving forward.
"Eija...chan," Sousuke tried experimentally, seeming to remember that the appellation calmed down some girls.
Tired and feeling drained, Eija stood up stiffly and walked over to the other two, grabbing their hands, one each and pulling them to her.
Kaname was relieved she wasn't seeing with her full death sight just at the moment.
Eija stared at the hands for a long moment and then leaned into both of the two Ainur, descending into quiet, wrenching sobs. She was far too tired to continue wailing.
Ranma looked on as Sousuke and Kaname each tried to comfort her daughter in their own way.
Another megadump...
245283
That has to irritate her. On a side note, I really like how you've been portraying Mara throughout this story. A more balanced person that the sometimes comic relief of the canon series.
This was one thing that made little sense, considering how competent everyone had seemed up until this point, one would have thought that a bit of discreption would have been more in line.
245313
Creepy, but funny.
I do not get the 'Twelve' reference that is being repeats a few times here unless it is something I forgot from early in the story.
Now there is a blatent act of stupidity and nomination for Darwin Award...
I was surprised you showed no reaction from the surrounding students watching her grab her breasts like that in public.
Unless he is specifically talking star trek, it likely should be teleport or transport instead. it is more generic as I cannot recall any other series calling it beam.
What about the vandalism and terrorism he causes?
Heh... pity they did not think of it, but they could have easily turned that around on her.
Heh... to say that about her own brother... Ouch.
Two *boys* wanted a Nanoha lunchbox... Ok, to each their own.
Considering her past experience with Sagura... I would have expected her to immediately clear out and let him have it.
Hmmm... unless he has changed since I last saw the pictures... he really does not look all that girly, but then, on several levels this guy is just too stupid to get away.
Definately needs to get out more... one thing, if this person has been locked up as long as she has, why would she use slang that way... I cannot picture 'Squee' being sleng from 'the not 1980's' that they've been locked away since.
I'm surprised Tessa was not insulted.
If she could smell it... why did she do nothing about it?
Heh... got to admire someone whom can be that insulting, and stupid on so many levels in so few words... Could not even get the correct Satomi. Oh well, their funeral.
This could be taken two ways... either he really is too obtuse to realize she is his girlfriend... Or he is assuming it and she does not realize she is his girlfriend... leaning toward the 2nd.
No worries, he *will* be facing it.
Sooo... she listens when it is convienent for her to listen... I think they need to have words.
Hmmm... was it a actual helicopter ride, or the song being referred to?
Heh... Luckily Naiki focused on the cheating part, but the last bit on 'letting us in' could be interpreted a couple ways that might have signed their death notice.
Bwahahaha... have they shown signs of *any* thinking?
245324
Basically repeated information.
'cat' s/b 'car'
'thought' s/b 'though'
245342
She thought Ranma was a *traditionalist*... wow she had him pegged wrong.
245348
'spur' s/b 'spar'
Heh... if driving a car is definition of smart, why are most drivers idiots...
'not' s/b 'note'
245354
I did not get one thing with this scene... *why* were they cussing her out?
245370
This episode definately needs a Waff tag...
245380
'here' s/b 'hear'
Heh... the life of that lady could be measured in moments once word would reach had it occured on her recommendation.
245390
Heh... So she will be rearmed...
Sentance was cut off.
Yep.
245398
I should note that last is a mere opinion, based on whether Ranma still is afraid of cats, the kitten one would definately bring down DOOM.
I'd like to know why... after all, it could be something along the lines of the Mimbari belief in Babylon 5 that a persons true face is shown while sleeping.
245435
'anyone' s/b 'anyway'
I'm kind of glad you adressed that point. Even if you left it a bit vague.
Heh... somehow, I do not think she is finding it funny anymore. I remember Mara calling Ranma the equivelent of a Class 2 being...
Kaname may not be one, but she sure can put the fear of god into people...
245464
Heh... I really can see Jack doing this.
Warrior... Amazon bad-ass... yeah...
I do not get this one... I really don't. Keep in mind I've nothing against it per se, but why would she have been offered it. With her generally not even being in the galaxy, not human, and not directly affiliated with anyone in the known military commands on Earth.
Remember, if Tessa did not even know how the SG group could teleport, and Hammond was keeping the stargate program secret and she knows them as the Socrates group... why would she know of Atlantis base?
245477
Ah... it is clear now, we are dealing with the stupid fanatical type with death wishes.
245488
Fail to see the issue... they have per canon at least one daughter of a Mafia lord in the school...
I can definately see Mousse doing something about that even if Issei does not.
Oddly, I can see why this would appeal to her.
I feel sorry for Tessa, everyone seems to insult her. Though being called a demon is not really the insult it used to be.
I would have thoguht a gun thrown over the side of a multistory building onto someones head would kill them due to collapsing their skull, or at a adsolute minimum knock them out.
'hurt' s/b 'love'
At least her priorities are clear.
245528
The first 'of' s/b 'or'
'Well' s/b 'Will'
How does Tessa know it is Sayoko?
Hmmm... I can see where that can potentially come in handy.
Missing word after 'almost', probably 'think' or 'believe'.
'new' s/b 'no'.
245645
There is the phrase, no plan survives contact with the enemy, there is also the concept of knowing what is standing against you does not mean you can defeat it.
Remove the 2nd 'herself'
Kodachi reminds me of a odd mix of the invaders from the Gatekeepers series, and the devourer from Shakugan no Shana.
'mind' s/b 'mine'
Uncertain of the correct wording, but something is wrong with this sentance.
This is in conflict with his state a couple paragraphs prior. If Tessa let them know, then she did not keep it from them.
I have to state though, I was surprised it was him.
Huh... I thought Kodachi was specifically held back from the place Kaname was at.
I believe this is a continuity error, as she had supposedly received her new arm several episodes back. Specifically 245390.
I'm curious, is this post ROD anime, or pre ROD manga... if the former, we've seen her go against quite a bit more than this, if the latter, she still should be fairly innocent but will be waiting for the bubbly high school stalker friend of hers to show.
Ahhh... a challenge, even if an unofficial one, telling Ranma sometihng cannot be done.
Surprising... but one has to wonder *Who* brought it back up. Not likely a good thing. Unless it was really Silmaril and not Nidhog. But if the former, the question then becomes, why would she feel and be able to access a foreign network.
Have to feel sorry for the kid... did everything for supposedly a good reason, and meant no harm, and he is blamed for all this still.
This could have some interesting repurcussions... For example, there is the curse on Nodoka, there is the invitation of Ranma to Join her family, and a few other items... Her dying in a joint excerise could cement the unity and camraderie that developed when the Tendo sister died.
Heh... would be funny if she came back as a kid and was adopted into the Satomi family... things would have come full circle.
Look forward to more.
245283
That has to irritate her. On a side note, I really like how you've been portraying Mara throughout this story. A more balanced person that the sometimes comic relief of the canon series.
This was one thing that made little sense, considering how competent everyone had seemed up until this point, one would have thought that a bit of discreption would have been more in line.
245313
Creepy, but funny.
I do not get the 'Twelve' reference that is being repeats a few times here unless it is something I forgot from early in the story.
Now there is a blatent act of stupidity and nomination for Darwin Award...
I was surprised you showed no reaction from the surrounding students watching her grab her breasts like that in public.
Unless he is specifically talking star trek, it likely should be teleport or transport instead. it is more generic as I cannot recall any other series calling it beam.
What about the vandalism and terrorism he causes?
Heh... pity they did not think of it, but they could have easily turned that around on her.
Heh... to say that about her own brother... Ouch.
Two *boys* wanted a Nanoha lunchbox... Ok, to each their own.
Considering her past experience with Sagura... I would have expected her to immediately clear out and let him have it.
Hmmm... unless he has changed since I last saw the pictures... he really does not look all that girly, but then, on several levels this guy is just too stupid to get away.
Definately needs to get out more... one thing, if this person has been locked up as long as she has, why would she use slang that way... I cannot picture 'Squee' being sleng from 'the not 1980's' that they've been locked away since.
I'm surprised Tessa was not insulted.
If she could smell it... why did she do nothing about it?
Heh... got to admire someone whom can be that insulting, and stupid on so many levels in so few words... Could not even get the correct Satomi. Oh well, their funeral.
This could be taken two ways... either he really is too obtuse to realize she is his girlfriend... Or he is assuming it and she does not realize she is his girlfriend... leaning toward the 2nd.
No worries, he *will* be facing it.
Sooo... she listens when it is convienent for her to listen... I think they need to have words.
Hmmm... was it a actual helicopter ride, or the song being referred to?
Heh... Luckily Naiki focused on the cheating part, but the last bit on 'letting us in' could be interpreted a couple ways that might have signed their death notice.
Bwahahaha... have they shown signs of *any* thinking?
245324
Basically repeated information.
'cat' s/b 'car'
'thought' s/b 'though'
245342
She thought Ranma was a *traditionalist*... wow she had him pegged wrong.
245348
'spur' s/b 'spar'
Heh... if driving a car is definition of smart, why are most drivers idiots...
'not' s/b 'note'
245354
I did not get one thing with this scene... *why* were they cussing her out?
245370
This episode definately needs a Waff tag...
245380
'here' s/b 'hear'
Heh... the life of that lady could be measured in moments once word would reach had it occured on her recommendation.
245390
Heh... So she will be rearmed...
Sentance was cut off.
Yep.
245398
I should note that last is a mere opinion, based on whether Ranma still is afraid of cats, the kitten one would definately bring down DOOM.
I'd like to know why... after all, it could be something along the lines of the Mimbari belief in Babylon 5 that a persons true face is shown while sleeping.
245435
'anyone' s/b 'anyway'
I'm kind of glad you adressed that point. Even if you left it a bit vague.
Heh... somehow, I do not think she is finding it funny anymore. I remember Mara calling Ranma the equivelent of a Class 2 being...
Kaname may not be one, but she sure can put the fear of god into people...
245464
Heh... I really can see Jack doing this.
Warrior... Amazon bad-ass... yeah...
I do not get this one... I really don't. Keep in mind I've nothing against it per se, but why would she have been offered it. With her generally not even being in the galaxy, not human, and not directly affiliated with anyone in the known military commands on Earth.
Remember, if Tessa did not even know how the SG group could teleport, and Hammond was keeping the stargate program secret and she knows them as the Socrates group... why would she know of Atlantis base?
245477
Ah... it is clear now, we are dealing with the stupid fanatical type with death wishes.
245488
Fail to see the issue... they have per canon at least one daughter of a Mafia lord in the school...
I can definately see Mousse doing something about that even if Issei does not.
Oddly, I can see why this would appeal to her.
I feel sorry for Tessa, everyone seems to insult her. Though being called a demon is not really the insult it used to be.
I would have thoguht a gun thrown over the side of a multistory building onto someones head would kill them due to collapsing their skull, or at a adsolute minimum knock them out.
'hurt' s/b 'love'
At least her priorities are clear.
245528
The first 'of' s/b 'or'
'Well' s/b 'Will'
How does Tessa know it is Sayoko?
Hmmm... I can see where that can potentially come in handy.
Missing word after 'almost', probably 'think' or 'believe'.
'new' s/b 'no'.
245645
There is the phrase, no plan survives contact with the enemy, there is also the concept of knowing what is standing against you does not mean you can defeat it.
Remove the 2nd 'herself'
Kodachi reminds me of a odd mix of the invaders from the Gatekeepers series, and the devourer from Shakugan no Shana.
'mind' s/b 'mine'
Uncertain of the correct wording, but something is wrong with this sentance.
This is in conflict with his state a couple paragraphs prior. If Tessa let them know, then she did not keep it from them.
I have to state though, I was surprised it was him.
Huh... I thought Kodachi was specifically held back from the place Kaname was at.
I believe this is a continuity error, as she had supposedly received her new arm several episodes back. Specifically 245390.
I'm curious, is this post ROD anime, or pre ROD manga... if the former, we've seen her go against quite a bit more than this, if the latter, she still should be fairly innocent but will be waiting for the bubbly high school stalker friend of hers to show.
Ahhh... a challenge, even if an unofficial one, telling Ranma sometihng cannot be done.
Surprising... but one has to wonder *Who* brought it back up. Not likely a good thing. Unless it was really Silmaril and not Nidhog. But if the former, the question then becomes, why would she feel and be able to access a foreign network.
Have to feel sorry for the kid... did everything for supposedly a good reason, and meant no harm, and he is blamed for all this still.
This could have some interesting repurcussions... For example, there is the curse on Nodoka, there is the invitation of Ranma to Join her family, and a few other items... Her dying in a joint excerise could cement the unity and camraderie that developed when the Tendo sister died.
Heh... would be funny if she came back as a kid and was adopted into the Satomi family... things would have come full circle.
Look forward to more.
most of the typos ended up fixed in the ff.net versions, I see a few up there I've already requested to be fixed by the AA staff, but there aren't many of them, so going slow.
Others:
(not quoting because last time that fouled up)
I do not get this one... I really don't. Keep in mind I've nothing against it per se, but why would she have been offered it. With her generally not even being in the galaxy, not human, and not directly affiliated with anyone in the known military commands on Earth.
Remember, if Tessa did not even know how the SG group could teleport, and Hammond was keeping the stargate program secret and she knows them as the Socrates group... why would she know of Atlantis base?
She doesn't know about Atlantis (yet). She knows about Teyla because Teyla worked with Kurz in Canada. And knows that SG has had encounters with Kodachi through Ranma's thing. She's given one copy of the machine to Japan and one to the US, the US just happens to have SG take care of it. She just offered for Teyla to be the test case since she knew of at least one SG sensitive.
Psyche and Mithril, and probably most of the Gods and Demons, still think SG lags behind them in paranormal research and just hires Psyche for a few things here and there
I would have thoguht a gun thrown over the side of a multistory building onto someones head would kill them due to collapsing their skull, or at a adsolute minimum knock them out.
Rule of Funny, was keeping the feeling of that episode light
I did not get one thing with this scene... *why* were they cussing her out?
She was beating the heck out of them in Starcraft with apparently no effort...I've met some jerks that get...vocal upon losing
most of them are the type to USE hacks and then complain about how they can't possibly lose because THEY were hacking so the person beating them has to be hacking too
I believe this is a continuity error, as she had supposedly received her new arm several episodes back. Specifically 245390.
she removed it for the fight...as she stated, she finds it gets in the way, so all the twins saw was the place where it could be attached
How does Tessa know it is Sayoko?
Implying she met Sayoko. Would have been more clear if I noted that Sayoko was an Ainur now.
I'm assuming most named characters of most series included are able to make the change since one of the better requirements I've seen discussed for the change is a certain level of either self-awareness or clarity of purpose.
Major and Minor characters in TV shows tend to be in the extreme ends of that sliding scale: either never questioned or had a need to question (Sousuke and Mao) or have a habit of exploring themselves in depth fairly regularly (most psychics). They're the two extreme ends of the scale that have an easier time with knowing who they are.
Even the self-confused characters whose entire point is not knowing for sure who they are tend to be much more self aware then the average real person who likely wouldn't even be aware of the state of confusion.
Percentage wise, if I converted every named human character, I still wouldn't even come to a tenth of the reported potential of 1%.
And yeah, I tend toward "Readers are geniuses" a lot and "Readers can make something up for themselves" occasionally.
This is in conflict with his state a couple paragraphs prior. If Tessa let them know, then she did not keep it from them.
I have to state though, I was surprised it was him.
It was a canon thing. Given is early statements in anime about this tech being something that just shouldn't exist, however, he certainly does fit Leonard's Well-Intentioned Extremist plans.
plus, I'm over the hump now and heading quickly downhill (in ease not quality hopefully) toward a climax and resolution.
I have three more planned major personal confrontations, and a couple of minor ones as well as at least two more major on screen battles and then I've reached a solution for most of the existing conflict in story (not in world...world has plenty of existing conflict)
The sideplot of dealing with Sousuke's reaction to Kalinin's betrayal is easier dealt with with Kalinin out of the way for now.
On Yomiko
I haven't seen Read or Die yet, unfortunately. I showed one instance of her in this fight, and I'm assuming she did a bit more than that in the course of things, (and plan for her to do more on the defense of Tokyo), but for the moment I was being conservative due to lack of experience beyond some way cool AMVs
Huh... I thought Kodachi was specifically held back from the place Kaname was at.
the first set of circles looked like this:
<a href='http://thrythlind.deviantart.com/#/d3byu0q' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://thrythlind.deviantart.com/#/d3byu0q</a>
The circle protecting Kaname (whose position is near to Hel's) doubled as the support and protection for Hel to help maintain the Demonic (four-point) circle for an extended time.
I don't have a diagram of the second scenario yet, I'll work one up, but basically, now had Kodachi completely surrounded with Eija, Persephone and Hel no longer where she could reach.
Others:
(not quoting because last time that fouled up)
I do not get this one... I really don't. Keep in mind I've nothing against it per se, but why would she have been offered it. With her generally not even being in the galaxy, not human, and not directly affiliated with anyone in the known military commands on Earth.
Remember, if Tessa did not even know how the SG group could teleport, and Hammond was keeping the stargate program secret and she knows them as the Socrates group... why would she know of Atlantis base?
She doesn't know about Atlantis (yet). She knows about Teyla because Teyla worked with Kurz in Canada. And knows that SG has had encounters with Kodachi through Ranma's thing. She's given one copy of the machine to Japan and one to the US, the US just happens to have SG take care of it. She just offered for Teyla to be the test case since she knew of at least one SG sensitive.
Psyche and Mithril, and probably most of the Gods and Demons, still think SG lags behind them in paranormal research and just hires Psyche for a few things here and there
I would have thoguht a gun thrown over the side of a multistory building onto someones head would kill them due to collapsing their skull, or at a adsolute minimum knock them out.
Rule of Funny, was keeping the feeling of that episode light
I did not get one thing with this scene... *why* were they cussing her out?
She was beating the heck out of them in Starcraft with apparently no effort...I've met some jerks that get...vocal upon losing
most of them are the type to USE hacks and then complain about how they can't possibly lose because THEY were hacking so the person beating them has to be hacking too
I believe this is a continuity error, as she had supposedly received her new arm several episodes back. Specifically 245390.
she removed it for the fight...as she stated, she finds it gets in the way, so all the twins saw was the place where it could be attached
How does Tessa know it is Sayoko?
Implying she met Sayoko. Would have been more clear if I noted that Sayoko was an Ainur now.
I'm assuming most named characters of most series included are able to make the change since one of the better requirements I've seen discussed for the change is a certain level of either self-awareness or clarity of purpose.
Major and Minor characters in TV shows tend to be in the extreme ends of that sliding scale: either never questioned or had a need to question (Sousuke and Mao) or have a habit of exploring themselves in depth fairly regularly (most psychics). They're the two extreme ends of the scale that have an easier time with knowing who they are.
Even the self-confused characters whose entire point is not knowing for sure who they are tend to be much more self aware then the average real person who likely wouldn't even be aware of the state of confusion.
Percentage wise, if I converted every named human character, I still wouldn't even come to a tenth of the reported potential of 1%.
And yeah, I tend toward "Readers are geniuses" a lot and "Readers can make something up for themselves" occasionally.
This is in conflict with his state a couple paragraphs prior. If Tessa let them know, then she did not keep it from them.
I have to state though, I was surprised it was him.
It was a canon thing. Given is early statements in anime about this tech being something that just shouldn't exist, however, he certainly does fit Leonard's Well-Intentioned Extremist plans.
plus, I'm over the hump now and heading quickly downhill (in ease not quality hopefully) toward a climax and resolution.
I have three more planned major personal confrontations, and a couple of minor ones as well as at least two more major on screen battles and then I've reached a solution for most of the existing conflict in story (not in world...world has plenty of existing conflict)
The sideplot of dealing with Sousuke's reaction to Kalinin's betrayal is easier dealt with with Kalinin out of the way for now.
On Yomiko
I haven't seen Read or Die yet, unfortunately. I showed one instance of her in this fight, and I'm assuming she did a bit more than that in the course of things, (and plan for her to do more on the defense of Tokyo), but for the moment I was being conservative due to lack of experience beyond some way cool AMVs
Huh... I thought Kodachi was specifically held back from the place Kaname was at.
the first set of circles looked like this:
<a href='http://thrythlind.deviantart.com/#/d3byu0q' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://thrythlind.deviantart.com/#/d3byu0q</a>
The circle protecting Kaname (whose position is near to Hel's) doubled as the support and protection for Hel to help maintain the Demonic (four-point) circle for an extended time.
I don't have a diagram of the second scenario yet, I'll work one up, but basically, now had Kodachi completely surrounded with Eija, Persephone and Hel no longer where she could reach.
"We have all the element permissions fixed," Athena noted. "Everyone here is granted appropriate levels of power. As soon as Yggdrasil comes back on line we can start analyzing the data to find out who else to give access to."
Peorth nodded and looked over the control stations thoughtfully.
There was no way for her to know what was happening on Earth or in Asgard. She couldn't know where they stood as compared to their enemies except for the fact that, as far as warriors were concerned, they were outnumbered and, in a way, out equipped.
"If we hesitate too long," Athena reminded her. "We'll drift out of reach of Earth. We have no idea where Kami-Sama put us. And we can't control the drift without category 1 powers."
She knew that as well.
"Okay," Peorth said. "Tell Lind and the others, we're starting Yggdrasil back up."
****************
Mara was unconscious and recovering, but her plans moved on as soon as word came down the line that Nidhog was active. Dozens, if not hundreds of Demons in various places reached out their hands to call up the summoned consoles that had been unavailable for months and started to work coding.
"I'm in the element logs," one of the Demons said. "Getting a list of who's getting what permissions. It's barely operating, looks like some just started the activation process and didn't finish it."
"Thank you," Tutivillus said, moving to beside the man. "That should give us a list of who our...oh dear."
Several people walked over to see what had caught the Demon clerk's attention and saw it immediately as the screen scrolled down a list of elements no longer active.
"That's all of them," someone said. "Every single death seer and life giver left in Nifelheim..."
In the middle of the greyed out list of names stood one that was still active, afforded mere category 3 permissions, the lowest that the system would allow.
Hel, Demoness of Prisons, Category 3 according to the list.
"He'll have his eye fixed," someone noted quietly.
"It took him thousands of years and thousands of lives taken in the shadow of our war to make that as powerful as it was," a Rakshasha, assigned to guarding this set of network architects, noted grimly. "The few that still lived in Nifelheim won't bring it back to full power. Is there any sign of what he's doing up there besides killing his own people?"
"Nifelheim is still sealed," someone said. "But...okay, found a packet of information here..."
The hologram of his console stretched out to show a Demon sitting calmly in what looked like a cell, bound and held.
"Urien, Demon of Fever, Most of these packets are being found and destroyed," the image said. "A few Shadows have already been caught connected to leaving them. They all know our methods and we've been having to adapt. These packets are being left as death reports only in order to avoid being betrayed by them."
He looked out off to the side.
"I wasn't discovered, Balor realized I'm minor healer," he explained. "So I'm on his list. The ritual should be in the next hour. In any case, I've got more time than most to hide this thing."
The Demon paused and continued.
"I'll be leaving a present for Balor," he explained. "My pishogue has already been corrupted. Since it's going to that Eye of his, it probably won't kill him directly, but it will hopefully leave his weapon...unstable."
Other packets of information began to be found.
"Putana, Demoness of Poison," the next said, a woman in a lab coat standing in the midst of a number of fallen bodies. "We've had a problem in the Gehenna Compact grounds. Most of the staff has succumbed to what seems to be a poison gas of some sort. Where in the world could that have come from? I'm afraid this means that those disloyal to Hild's memory have lost most of their medical support. Heavens. How terrible. Ahh...I see they're coming to receive my report. I do estimate at least twenty of the new regime's henchman dying in the next little while, how unfortunate and tragic. This shall likely be my last report at least."
"I'm Illu..janka's daughter," the young woman, girl really. apparently eighteen, gasped, clearly in pain and torn up severely, bleeding from a heavy gash in her skull, missing an arm and large chunk torn out of her torso, bodies all over the place destroyed by spikes all striking out all over the room. "Rene...They said there was no...place to go...but...there is...I took some people to the Abyss...they're fixing it an saw us go in...so tried to stop us...I think...I made it go into lockdown, had to stay outside for that...everybody else should be safe...I think I'm dying...so...I'm leaving a message...I'm sorry all I ever was was a clerk, mother...I know you expected better..."
"Rahu, Demon of Eclipses," a Demon said, sitting in a chair and waiting irritably. "Mission failed. Couldn't reach Nidhog, trapped in here. Going to take as many as I can when they breach into the room."
"Tavara, Demon of Alliances," a new one said leaning over a desk looking defeated. "Gambit succeeded in the worst way possible, enemy factions fighting each other, but the criminals are winning out easily...I'm with a batch of the first set of rebels, we're buying time for most of the civies to get out of the way, some girl in the clerk's office thinks she can get into the Abyss and seal them up, she got Putana into Gehenna, so maybe she can do it...I've ensured our worst sociopath gets total power...Creator forgive me."
There were more than thirty of the same messages, mostly with bad news, and buried in among them.
"Hey, I'm Rene, Illujanka's daughter," the same girl from the third message, looking much brighter and more alert. "You know, from her Woodstock thing. Umm, I'm a clerk here with the Nidhogg Tenders. I sort of turned Nidhog back on. It wasn't all that hard, I know where all the manuals are. I'm a clerk and no one really pays attention to me. I know it doesn't turn on all at once...but if it's on just a little, maybe someone will notice and...I don't know, hack their way in? Does it even work like that?"
"They didn't turn it on," someone said in relief.
"Unfortunately," someone else said. "Now they are, lots of activity. We're going to be seeing company soon."
****************
The artificial night in Asgard came with bright lights and loud laughter up in the high palace of Zeus.
"Come on, come on," Zeus roared drunkenly. "I was promised one of these beauty pageants, the mortals have let's see the contestants."
Several women walked out into the courtyard, looks on their faces ranging from disdain to serenity.
"Hmmm, Benten, Aphrodite, Erzuli, Freya and, should we let human immortals in?" Apollo asked, indicating Daio Chen, one of those heroes who had acquired immortality through deed.
"Why, Apollo? Are you afraid she might be too much for you?" Freya asked with a cruel twist to her mouth. "You asked for the five greatest beauties left in Asgard, this is them. Now, you get to judge for yourself, which is the better? Raw Passion?"
"Perhaps," Benten said stepping forward. "You prefer Eloquence and Grace?"
"Perhaps skill and attentiveness," Daio Chan asked.
"Or the Goddess of Obsession perhaps," Erzuli offered.
"And, of course, there is just raw physical perfection," Aphrodite offered casually.
"Let's hear your votes gentlemen," Benten said calmly.
Hera watched the whole thing irritably and angrily, arms crossed from where she sat on the throne.
The assorted Gods blinked as a certain feeling started to wash over them and Freya immediately stepped forward to call out to the assorted Gods. She stepped forward and cupped the chin of one particular God who looked like he was thinking of something through the haze of drink."
"Come on," she said in a sultry tone. "You can't even count high enough to reach the number of lovers that I've had. Sure you have to see that I am clearly the most desirable and beautiful here."
"Pfft," Aphrodite noted, stepping toward another side of the gathering. "You have not lived for even half as long as I, Vanir slut."
"Such language," Benten said, shaking her head. "I have been much more selective in my lovers. Only the greatest of Men and Gods have been allowed to be graced with my touch, and I am sorry to say I have so far missed our new lord here."
"All such wonderful and temporary feats," Erzuli said stepping forward herself, shaking her Loa figure. "I have three husbands, boys. What must I do right to keep three men attentive to me for all time?"
"Humbly," Daio Chan said bowing and moving to sit in Cu Cuchulain's seat. "I must admit to not having such a long list of incredible feats. I must settle instead for having been the consort of the one warrior of any race that none ever defeated in open combat, not even Gods or Demons."
Several interested eyes sorted over each of the five beauties when a winged woman with armor came in at a run.
"Father!" she shouted. "The Old Monkey some other renegades are taking civilians away, to Earth! Yggdrasil is awake!"
"Actually," Benten thought. "It's Tartarous, going OUT of the line of fire there, I think."
Zeus stood up to his feet.
"Excellent, Nike!" he declared. "Then it is time to..."
And Aphrodite stepped forward.
"Not yet, nephew," and the daughter of Uranus let the word sink in. "We have business to attend to."
"We'll handle that later," Zeus noted idly.
"Actually we'll handle it not," Aphrodite said. "Girls, this may take a while...give the adults privacy."
"What are you..." Benten started to say before she, Erzuli, Freya and Daio Chan and Hera vanished.
"Now," Aphrodite said, as her marks flared and an almost visible wave of mindless lust washed through the gathering, even into the eyes of Nike and the other women. "Let's see how long I can last without full power. I'd still wager I'll burst quite a few hearts. I am after all, one of the last Titans."
She smiled as the swarm of victims swarmed in toward her.
**************
"...doing?" Benten ended.
"What the!" someone shouted as a woman shrieked.
"Why are we in someone's bedroom?" Erzuli asked as the two humans ducked behind a bed.
The man of the pair stared around at the five lovely Immortal and immortal women around him, wondering how to respond to their sudden appearance.
"Aphrodite's medium is scenes of infidelity," Freya said with a sigh. "And she's old and practiced enough just to send people without going herself."
"Scenes of infidelity," the human woman in the room they'd appeared in repeated. "You're married?!"
"No, what made you think that?" the man protested. "How can you believe a bunch of strange people that appear out of nowhere?"
Hera found herself staring at the unfaithful husband, frowning angrily.
"You are going to apologize, mortal," Hera warned. "Or your going to wish..."
"Other things right now, Hera," Erzuli said, grabbing the Goddess of Marriage by the arm and escorting her out of the room. "Smite the adulterers later."
As the women left the two people behind, the man was left seeing his lover dressing herself and leaving herself. In a moment he was alone.
"What the hell just happened?" he asked.
**************
The first skirmishes as Lind and Athena led enemies on forays into Asgard proved that their enemy was uncoordinated but held overwhelming force. They weren't able, with their handful of warriors, to make much of a dent or do much more than harass them and destroy a Mantle or two.
"Did anybody see Zeus?" Peorth asked as they returned.
"No," Athena said. "Heracles, Limos, Hermes and myself hoped to draw him out, but we didn't see one sight of him the entire time. And striking to his palace would have left us to vulnerable."
"He hid?" Peorth demanded. "I knew many things about Zeus but a never realized he was a coward."
"Considering I'm his daughter and his granddaughter," Limos noted. "He might have reason to be afraid."
"The curse is apparently for a son to do the job," Heracles said. "We shouldn't have risked either of you two when it might do no good."
"There were quite a few prominent Gods among the rebels who failed to show themselves as well," Lind noted. "I'm wondering if something kept them busy."
***********
It was more than a day, maybe two, later that saw Aphrodite leaning atop Zeus and straddling him as several Gods lay strewn about the courtroom, covering most of the available space. She was breathing heavily and her marks were fading to a dull blue and her arms shaking even as her bosom heaved.
"Well, I got close there," she said. "My brother made his curses strong. Still, I think that's a...rough fifty...hundred? Soldiers that you'll be missing? And another five times that...somewhat incapable of duty for quite a long while."
She patted his cheek and smirked down at him.
"You know..." she said loud enough for those around and still cognizant to hear. "Now I really know why you can't get any girls to come to you willingly."
"Ho..how dare you say that," Zeus demanded.
"This was...." Aphrodite wearily searched for a phrase. "Hardly worth the effort. Most tedious part of all this...in fact. Finally, one of us gets to die and end this mediocrity. I don't see why Apollo is so jealous of you."
"Apollo is nothing but a...." Zeus protested angrily.
"Now, Ares..." Aphrodite said. "He was a MAN...you shouldn't have let Apollo kill him...tsk tsk...I might not have cared then. Now, I have to follow him...he's the only one worth having regularly. Love and War...all's fair."
And then the last spark of power gave out and she collapsed on top of him, body burned out by the effort she'd put it through and spirit moving on to whatever came next for her.
************
Leonard stepped into his laboratory and took a look at one of a set of prototypes. His own version of the Whisper of Souls and something else. Something he'd been putting together for months now.
A tall, crystalline machine.
"Gilgamesh sought immortality and failed because such power was not meant for those who walked the Earth," he noted. "Such is the path humanity walks. And it will have to fail one way or another."
Peorth nodded and looked over the control stations thoughtfully.
There was no way for her to know what was happening on Earth or in Asgard. She couldn't know where they stood as compared to their enemies except for the fact that, as far as warriors were concerned, they were outnumbered and, in a way, out equipped.
"If we hesitate too long," Athena reminded her. "We'll drift out of reach of Earth. We have no idea where Kami-Sama put us. And we can't control the drift without category 1 powers."
She knew that as well.
"Okay," Peorth said. "Tell Lind and the others, we're starting Yggdrasil back up."
****************
Mara was unconscious and recovering, but her plans moved on as soon as word came down the line that Nidhog was active. Dozens, if not hundreds of Demons in various places reached out their hands to call up the summoned consoles that had been unavailable for months and started to work coding.
"I'm in the element logs," one of the Demons said. "Getting a list of who's getting what permissions. It's barely operating, looks like some just started the activation process and didn't finish it."
"Thank you," Tutivillus said, moving to beside the man. "That should give us a list of who our...oh dear."
Several people walked over to see what had caught the Demon clerk's attention and saw it immediately as the screen scrolled down a list of elements no longer active.
"That's all of them," someone said. "Every single death seer and life giver left in Nifelheim..."
In the middle of the greyed out list of names stood one that was still active, afforded mere category 3 permissions, the lowest that the system would allow.
Hel, Demoness of Prisons, Category 3 according to the list.
"He'll have his eye fixed," someone noted quietly.
"It took him thousands of years and thousands of lives taken in the shadow of our war to make that as powerful as it was," a Rakshasha, assigned to guarding this set of network architects, noted grimly. "The few that still lived in Nifelheim won't bring it back to full power. Is there any sign of what he's doing up there besides killing his own people?"
"Nifelheim is still sealed," someone said. "But...okay, found a packet of information here..."
The hologram of his console stretched out to show a Demon sitting calmly in what looked like a cell, bound and held.
"Urien, Demon of Fever, Most of these packets are being found and destroyed," the image said. "A few Shadows have already been caught connected to leaving them. They all know our methods and we've been having to adapt. These packets are being left as death reports only in order to avoid being betrayed by them."
He looked out off to the side.
"I wasn't discovered, Balor realized I'm minor healer," he explained. "So I'm on his list. The ritual should be in the next hour. In any case, I've got more time than most to hide this thing."
The Demon paused and continued.
"I'll be leaving a present for Balor," he explained. "My pishogue has already been corrupted. Since it's going to that Eye of his, it probably won't kill him directly, but it will hopefully leave his weapon...unstable."
Other packets of information began to be found.
"Putana, Demoness of Poison," the next said, a woman in a lab coat standing in the midst of a number of fallen bodies. "We've had a problem in the Gehenna Compact grounds. Most of the staff has succumbed to what seems to be a poison gas of some sort. Where in the world could that have come from? I'm afraid this means that those disloyal to Hild's memory have lost most of their medical support. Heavens. How terrible. Ahh...I see they're coming to receive my report. I do estimate at least twenty of the new regime's henchman dying in the next little while, how unfortunate and tragic. This shall likely be my last report at least."
"I'm Illu..janka's daughter," the young woman, girl really. apparently eighteen, gasped, clearly in pain and torn up severely, bleeding from a heavy gash in her skull, missing an arm and large chunk torn out of her torso, bodies all over the place destroyed by spikes all striking out all over the room. "Rene...They said there was no...place to go...but...there is...I took some people to the Abyss...they're fixing it an saw us go in...so tried to stop us...I think...I made it go into lockdown, had to stay outside for that...everybody else should be safe...I think I'm dying...so...I'm leaving a message...I'm sorry all I ever was was a clerk, mother...I know you expected better..."
"Rahu, Demon of Eclipses," a Demon said, sitting in a chair and waiting irritably. "Mission failed. Couldn't reach Nidhog, trapped in here. Going to take as many as I can when they breach into the room."
"Tavara, Demon of Alliances," a new one said leaning over a desk looking defeated. "Gambit succeeded in the worst way possible, enemy factions fighting each other, but the criminals are winning out easily...I'm with a batch of the first set of rebels, we're buying time for most of the civies to get out of the way, some girl in the clerk's office thinks she can get into the Abyss and seal them up, she got Putana into Gehenna, so maybe she can do it...I've ensured our worst sociopath gets total power...Creator forgive me."
There were more than thirty of the same messages, mostly with bad news, and buried in among them.
"Hey, I'm Rene, Illujanka's daughter," the same girl from the third message, looking much brighter and more alert. "You know, from her Woodstock thing. Umm, I'm a clerk here with the Nidhogg Tenders. I sort of turned Nidhog back on. It wasn't all that hard, I know where all the manuals are. I'm a clerk and no one really pays attention to me. I know it doesn't turn on all at once...but if it's on just a little, maybe someone will notice and...I don't know, hack their way in? Does it even work like that?"
"They didn't turn it on," someone said in relief.
"Unfortunately," someone else said. "Now they are, lots of activity. We're going to be seeing company soon."
****************
The artificial night in Asgard came with bright lights and loud laughter up in the high palace of Zeus.
"Come on, come on," Zeus roared drunkenly. "I was promised one of these beauty pageants, the mortals have let's see the contestants."
Several women walked out into the courtyard, looks on their faces ranging from disdain to serenity.
"Hmmm, Benten, Aphrodite, Erzuli, Freya and, should we let human immortals in?" Apollo asked, indicating Daio Chen, one of those heroes who had acquired immortality through deed.
"Why, Apollo? Are you afraid she might be too much for you?" Freya asked with a cruel twist to her mouth. "You asked for the five greatest beauties left in Asgard, this is them. Now, you get to judge for yourself, which is the better? Raw Passion?"
"Perhaps," Benten said stepping forward. "You prefer Eloquence and Grace?"
"Perhaps skill and attentiveness," Daio Chan asked.
"Or the Goddess of Obsession perhaps," Erzuli offered.
"And, of course, there is just raw physical perfection," Aphrodite offered casually.
"Let's hear your votes gentlemen," Benten said calmly.
Hera watched the whole thing irritably and angrily, arms crossed from where she sat on the throne.
The assorted Gods blinked as a certain feeling started to wash over them and Freya immediately stepped forward to call out to the assorted Gods. She stepped forward and cupped the chin of one particular God who looked like he was thinking of something through the haze of drink."
"Come on," she said in a sultry tone. "You can't even count high enough to reach the number of lovers that I've had. Sure you have to see that I am clearly the most desirable and beautiful here."
"Pfft," Aphrodite noted, stepping toward another side of the gathering. "You have not lived for even half as long as I, Vanir slut."
"Such language," Benten said, shaking her head. "I have been much more selective in my lovers. Only the greatest of Men and Gods have been allowed to be graced with my touch, and I am sorry to say I have so far missed our new lord here."
"All such wonderful and temporary feats," Erzuli said stepping forward herself, shaking her Loa figure. "I have three husbands, boys. What must I do right to keep three men attentive to me for all time?"
"Humbly," Daio Chan said bowing and moving to sit in Cu Cuchulain's seat. "I must admit to not having such a long list of incredible feats. I must settle instead for having been the consort of the one warrior of any race that none ever defeated in open combat, not even Gods or Demons."
Several interested eyes sorted over each of the five beauties when a winged woman with armor came in at a run.
"Father!" she shouted. "The Old Monkey some other renegades are taking civilians away, to Earth! Yggdrasil is awake!"
"Actually," Benten thought. "It's Tartarous, going OUT of the line of fire there, I think."
Zeus stood up to his feet.
"Excellent, Nike!" he declared. "Then it is time to..."
And Aphrodite stepped forward.
"Not yet, nephew," and the daughter of Uranus let the word sink in. "We have business to attend to."
"We'll handle that later," Zeus noted idly.
"Actually we'll handle it not," Aphrodite said. "Girls, this may take a while...give the adults privacy."
"What are you..." Benten started to say before she, Erzuli, Freya and Daio Chan and Hera vanished.
"Now," Aphrodite said, as her marks flared and an almost visible wave of mindless lust washed through the gathering, even into the eyes of Nike and the other women. "Let's see how long I can last without full power. I'd still wager I'll burst quite a few hearts. I am after all, one of the last Titans."
She smiled as the swarm of victims swarmed in toward her.
**************
"...doing?" Benten ended.
"What the!" someone shouted as a woman shrieked.
"Why are we in someone's bedroom?" Erzuli asked as the two humans ducked behind a bed.
The man of the pair stared around at the five lovely Immortal and immortal women around him, wondering how to respond to their sudden appearance.
"Aphrodite's medium is scenes of infidelity," Freya said with a sigh. "And she's old and practiced enough just to send people without going herself."
"Scenes of infidelity," the human woman in the room they'd appeared in repeated. "You're married?!"
"No, what made you think that?" the man protested. "How can you believe a bunch of strange people that appear out of nowhere?"
Hera found herself staring at the unfaithful husband, frowning angrily.
"You are going to apologize, mortal," Hera warned. "Or your going to wish..."
"Other things right now, Hera," Erzuli said, grabbing the Goddess of Marriage by the arm and escorting her out of the room. "Smite the adulterers later."
As the women left the two people behind, the man was left seeing his lover dressing herself and leaving herself. In a moment he was alone.
"What the hell just happened?" he asked.
**************
The first skirmishes as Lind and Athena led enemies on forays into Asgard proved that their enemy was uncoordinated but held overwhelming force. They weren't able, with their handful of warriors, to make much of a dent or do much more than harass them and destroy a Mantle or two.
"Did anybody see Zeus?" Peorth asked as they returned.
"No," Athena said. "Heracles, Limos, Hermes and myself hoped to draw him out, but we didn't see one sight of him the entire time. And striking to his palace would have left us to vulnerable."
"He hid?" Peorth demanded. "I knew many things about Zeus but a never realized he was a coward."
"Considering I'm his daughter and his granddaughter," Limos noted. "He might have reason to be afraid."
"The curse is apparently for a son to do the job," Heracles said. "We shouldn't have risked either of you two when it might do no good."
"There were quite a few prominent Gods among the rebels who failed to show themselves as well," Lind noted. "I'm wondering if something kept them busy."
***********
It was more than a day, maybe two, later that saw Aphrodite leaning atop Zeus and straddling him as several Gods lay strewn about the courtroom, covering most of the available space. She was breathing heavily and her marks were fading to a dull blue and her arms shaking even as her bosom heaved.
"Well, I got close there," she said. "My brother made his curses strong. Still, I think that's a...rough fifty...hundred? Soldiers that you'll be missing? And another five times that...somewhat incapable of duty for quite a long while."
She patted his cheek and smirked down at him.
"You know..." she said loud enough for those around and still cognizant to hear. "Now I really know why you can't get any girls to come to you willingly."
"Ho..how dare you say that," Zeus demanded.
"This was...." Aphrodite wearily searched for a phrase. "Hardly worth the effort. Most tedious part of all this...in fact. Finally, one of us gets to die and end this mediocrity. I don't see why Apollo is so jealous of you."
"Apollo is nothing but a...." Zeus protested angrily.
"Now, Ares..." Aphrodite said. "He was a MAN...you shouldn't have let Apollo kill him...tsk tsk...I might not have cared then. Now, I have to follow him...he's the only one worth having regularly. Love and War...all's fair."
And then the last spark of power gave out and she collapsed on top of him, body burned out by the effort she'd put it through and spirit moving on to whatever came next for her.
************
Leonard stepped into his laboratory and took a look at one of a set of prototypes. His own version of the Whisper of Souls and something else. Something he'd been putting together for months now.
A tall, crystalline machine.
"Gilgamesh sought immortality and failed because such power was not meant for those who walked the Earth," he noted. "Such is the path humanity walks. And it will have to fail one way or another."
"I don't think we should be doing this," Kinsey said bitterly. "These...people call themselves Gods and Demons for Christ sake. And if this information is correct right it's their people that are going to be invading so how can we trust them."
"Robert," the president said. "Have you met one?"
"No," he said. "I'm glad to say I have not had the matter forced on me."
"Well, you're about to meet some," Hayes said, pushing up the door to the next room.
He paused as he took in the people inside, sitting and waiting for them.
A young woman with blue facial marks and an air of serenity sat at a table chatting with Dr. Daniel Jackson, who had similar facial marks in green Kinsey noted with a twist to his mouth. At the woman's side was another young man with green facial marks and the way they sat close to each other and held their hands entwined implied a closeness confirmed by a pair of rings.
Further down the table was a familiar blonde woman with wild hair and red facial marks. There was an unhealthy paleness to her skin, that implied that she was somewhat unwell. She was chatting closely with a redheaded woman while a third woman, looking like a somewhat disheveled secretary, arranged notes.
Another Japanese woman with green marks sat off to the side watching the first couple with a mixture of happiness and bittersweet regret. She sat with the normal Japanese representatives for important NATO meetings. Beside her sat a man with blue facial marks on his face as he chatted with the other a bit animatedly.
Then there were the normal collection of representatives of the major NATO powers.
O'Neil was there of course, as was other members of the Socrates Group flagship team. All of them with similar green marks.
As soon as he entered the room, attention started to direct toward the president, and people stood up.
Major Davis stepped forward and gestured toward the president.
"Mr President," he said. "Allow me some introductions."
"Go ahead," Hayes noted.
"These are Keiichi and Belldandy Morisato," he said indicating the young couple who bowed with a light blush of embarrassment. "Belldandy is representing the Gods currently residing on Earth."
"It is an honor to meet you, sir," Belldandy said quickly reaching out to take his hand with a smile.
"Yeah," Keiichi said. "I'm not even really sure why I'm here, myself."
Kinsey sniffed at that from behind Hayes. It was a clear publicity stunt to include the human husband of one of these...beings. He just wondered whose idea it was.
"Well, the honor is mine, I think," he said. "I've only met one other Goddess I think, but you only represent the Gods on Earth."
"Yes, well," Belldandy said, looking toward the male God. "Like my...husband," and she almost sparkled the way she said that "I feel I might be making an...imposition here."
"And what might that be?"" Hayes started to ask.
"If I may, Major," the male God said with a flourish, "the specific details of that are best left to the meeting, I am Hermes Cyllene and will represent the word of those of us who hold Yggdrasil."
Belldandy looked a little flustered at that.
"However," Hermes said. "I do remind Lady Wodinsdo...I mean, Mrs. Morisato, forgive me, that her presence was requested by her old friend here."
"Ahh, politics," Hayes thought. "Oh, this is Vice President Kinnsey."
Keiichi and Belldandy turned to face him, Keiichi bowing quickly, somewhat overwhelmed while Belldandy was calmer still, more serene. Especially as she held out her hand.
"So, you're one of these people that think they're God?" he said doubtfully.
Belldandy looked a little deflated at the comment and frowned slightly.
"You'll have to forgive Mr. Kinsey," Hayes said. "He's a bit old fashioned on these things."
"Last I heard," Kinsey said, "the First Commandment still says..."
"...I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods before me," Belldandy quoted. "I believe in the Creater, Vice President. Though...I must admit, I haven't really taken part in human religion before. I'm...pretty much practicing Shintoism for the last few years."
"I see," Kinsey noted turning toward Hermes. "And you?"
"I'm rather a bit agnostic," Hermes said. "If there is a Supreme Being, fine, but I rather wish he'd stick his nose into things once in a while."
"Anyway, sir," Major Hayes said, moving on. "Mara Geisthexe, currently representing Nifelheim."
Mara walked over stiffly, wincing slightly.
"Mr. President," she said, offering a hand. "Sorry if I'm a bit shaky."
"Ms Geisthexe was injured in the reported action on Meridia," Major Davis noted.
"You look fine," Kinsey said.
"The sort of fight I was in deals internal injuries," Mara noted.
"I'm sorry, Mara," Belldandy said. "I tried..."
"I know," Mara said. "Anyway, I'm surprised you haven't recognized me Mr. Kinsey, then we were a bit younger last time we saw each other."
"I don't believe I have ever met one of your kind," the vice president said darkly.
"Sure you have," Mara noted. "You were at my baptism, thirty-five years ago. I was about...six years old at the time and you were...twenty? I volunteered at your city council election campaign when I was fourteen. Got in trouble for it too, not supposed to get involved with human politics."
Kinsey's mouth firmed closed as he took in the woman in front of him and her apparent claim.
"Wow, Kinsey," O'Neil said. "Looks like you had the devil's help getting elected."
Both Mara and Kinsey turned sour expressions toward O'Neil at that one.
"We don't like being called that," Mara noted seriously.
"If you'd please, Colonel," President Hayes said, hiding a smirk on his face.
"All right, all right," O'Neil said.
"If you'd please continue the introductions, Major," Hayes said.
"Right," he said, gesturing toward the red head moving up beside Mara. "Ms Ranma Satomi represents Psyche and Mithril."
"Good to meet you, President," Ranma said in a friendly tone holding out her hand. "And I'm glad to meet Senator Kinsey too. I can't count the number psychics trapped in Warsaw research facilities that have his funding decisions to thank for depending on a mercenary organization such as Mithril to bust them out of state slavery and vivisection."
Mara put a hand to her face as Kinsey grimaced and accept Ranma's hand.
"Great," Daniel muttered. "It's a female Jack."
"This is going to be a long meeting," Hayes noted rolling his eyes as O'Neil suppressed a smile of his own.
"Excuse me, Ma'am, sir," the secretary noted stepping forward and bowing. "I'm Yomiko Readman, Director Satomi's secretary. It is definitely a very great honor to meet you, Mr President. I've read all about your policies and history, most impressive."
"Good to hear," Hayes said, looking toward the Japanese delegation. "And we have one last new comer it seems?"
The Japanese representative stepped forward and gestured for the woman to follow him.
"Sayoko Mishima was offered and accepted a position on staff for her experience with these other races," the man said.
"I'm afraid that I probably won't be contributing too much," Sayoko said in a way that was rather forcefully humble. "I'm the newest member here, after all."
"Well now," the president said. "Now that that's out of the way. Can we get down to business."
He gestured for everyone to sit down and gestured for someone to begin.
"I've had my people collecting information for a few weeks now," she said. "Most of that I think has been in Director Satomi's reports to you. Every rogue God or Demon we've been able to track down, is already in information you guys have. Now, both Yggdrasil and Nidhog are allowing access, we've got information on Asgard and Nifelheim as well."
She glanced toward Hermes before continuing.
"I'm a bit confused as to what's happening in Asgard," she said. "Some of my people got an odd report from some escapees about a beauty pageant, and Hermes' report seems to suggest that Zeus and a number of other prominent rogue Gods have decided to sit on their asses for a few days instead of invading...whatever, it's good for us."
"We're not entirely certain either," Hermes said. "But given you said Aphrodite was involved..."
"Moving on," Mara said quickly, reaching her hands out to summon a console. "I think we'll see the escaped convicts from the Abyss before we see the Gods. I'm going to play a selection of reports we've just managed to get out of our agents still in Nifelheim. The deaths of most of the givers of these reports is confirmed."
An image of a mutilated young girl appeared in the room.
"I'm Illu...janka's daughter, Rene..."
**************
All across Japan, America and Western Europe, government representatives spoke on the news and confirmed rumors that had been flying ever since the more talkative of the God and Demon civilians had started interacting with humans, especially reporters.
And militaries mobilized everywhere in the NATO countries to get ready for what was coming.
Kyoko looked out the window as her parents watched the television and saw soldiers moving around in the streets below.
"Doesn't that girl who shows up in your pictures a lot have marks like those, Kyoko?" her mother asked sharply. "Is she..."
"She's a Demoness. Her sister is a Goddess," Kyoko said calmly. "And it was a God that hit me."
"How long have you known about this?" her father demanded.
"They're just people, very strong, but just people," Kyoko said, turning around and walking on her cane to a seat.
"This is not a matter just to brush..."
"Mom, Dad," she said. "Amaterasu is going to my high school."
Her parents hesitated.
"Amaterasu?" her mother repeated.
"She's apparently fourteen and crushing on a kendoist," Kyoko confirmed.
They had no answer to that.
*****************
Natsume held Hel in her hands as she moved forward toward the people setting up the circle to take her and the young Demoness to the Labyrinth and better safety, given that Balor apparently intended to finish of the Demonic healers and death seers for his own power.
"You're sure they'll come here?" Natsume asked Ranma as she came up to the red-head.
"As best as Mara's people can guess," the redhead said. "Hel's in their system and they can track her here. They tell me getting into the Labyrinth is going to be a lot harder."
***************
You want me to do what? Naiki asked.
We're going to seal you until Balor can be killed, Tessa said. It won't be long.
I can still fight! Naiki protested.
But what if he makes you fight us, Tessa warned.
That's not going to happen.
And that's why we're taking this precaution, Tessa noted.
Naiki was going to respond when she felt the ground underneath her shake violently, but not as if it were in an Earthquake. No, it felt like something and struck the Earth with a hideous impact.
Naiki felt a huge amount of pishogue filtering through the air from the center of town.
"Now! We'll start on removing the blight from this world!" a loud voice declared shaking evenly throughout the city. "This world belongs to Demons, we were here first, and we will be here last! And I, Balor shall be their master and your doom!"
I've got a better idea, Tessa Naiki said. I'm going to kill him before he can call in a favor.
No, Naiki don't call attenti...
And for the second time ever Naiki succeeded in cutting off Tessa's protests.
"Robert," the president said. "Have you met one?"
"No," he said. "I'm glad to say I have not had the matter forced on me."
"Well, you're about to meet some," Hayes said, pushing up the door to the next room.
He paused as he took in the people inside, sitting and waiting for them.
A young woman with blue facial marks and an air of serenity sat at a table chatting with Dr. Daniel Jackson, who had similar facial marks in green Kinsey noted with a twist to his mouth. At the woman's side was another young man with green facial marks and the way they sat close to each other and held their hands entwined implied a closeness confirmed by a pair of rings.
Further down the table was a familiar blonde woman with wild hair and red facial marks. There was an unhealthy paleness to her skin, that implied that she was somewhat unwell. She was chatting closely with a redheaded woman while a third woman, looking like a somewhat disheveled secretary, arranged notes.
Another Japanese woman with green marks sat off to the side watching the first couple with a mixture of happiness and bittersweet regret. She sat with the normal Japanese representatives for important NATO meetings. Beside her sat a man with blue facial marks on his face as he chatted with the other a bit animatedly.
Then there were the normal collection of representatives of the major NATO powers.
O'Neil was there of course, as was other members of the Socrates Group flagship team. All of them with similar green marks.
As soon as he entered the room, attention started to direct toward the president, and people stood up.
Major Davis stepped forward and gestured toward the president.
"Mr President," he said. "Allow me some introductions."
"Go ahead," Hayes noted.
"These are Keiichi and Belldandy Morisato," he said indicating the young couple who bowed with a light blush of embarrassment. "Belldandy is representing the Gods currently residing on Earth."
"It is an honor to meet you, sir," Belldandy said quickly reaching out to take his hand with a smile.
"Yeah," Keiichi said. "I'm not even really sure why I'm here, myself."
Kinsey sniffed at that from behind Hayes. It was a clear publicity stunt to include the human husband of one of these...beings. He just wondered whose idea it was.
"Well, the honor is mine, I think," he said. "I've only met one other Goddess I think, but you only represent the Gods on Earth."
"Yes, well," Belldandy said, looking toward the male God. "Like my...husband," and she almost sparkled the way she said that "I feel I might be making an...imposition here."
"And what might that be?"" Hayes started to ask.
"If I may, Major," the male God said with a flourish, "the specific details of that are best left to the meeting, I am Hermes Cyllene and will represent the word of those of us who hold Yggdrasil."
Belldandy looked a little flustered at that.
"However," Hermes said. "I do remind Lady Wodinsdo...I mean, Mrs. Morisato, forgive me, that her presence was requested by her old friend here."
"Ahh, politics," Hayes thought. "Oh, this is Vice President Kinnsey."
Keiichi and Belldandy turned to face him, Keiichi bowing quickly, somewhat overwhelmed while Belldandy was calmer still, more serene. Especially as she held out her hand.
"So, you're one of these people that think they're God?" he said doubtfully.
Belldandy looked a little deflated at the comment and frowned slightly.
"You'll have to forgive Mr. Kinsey," Hayes said. "He's a bit old fashioned on these things."
"Last I heard," Kinsey said, "the First Commandment still says..."
"...I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods before me," Belldandy quoted. "I believe in the Creater, Vice President. Though...I must admit, I haven't really taken part in human religion before. I'm...pretty much practicing Shintoism for the last few years."
"I see," Kinsey noted turning toward Hermes. "And you?"
"I'm rather a bit agnostic," Hermes said. "If there is a Supreme Being, fine, but I rather wish he'd stick his nose into things once in a while."
"Anyway, sir," Major Hayes said, moving on. "Mara Geisthexe, currently representing Nifelheim."
Mara walked over stiffly, wincing slightly.
"Mr. President," she said, offering a hand. "Sorry if I'm a bit shaky."
"Ms Geisthexe was injured in the reported action on Meridia," Major Davis noted.
"You look fine," Kinsey said.
"The sort of fight I was in deals internal injuries," Mara noted.
"I'm sorry, Mara," Belldandy said. "I tried..."
"I know," Mara said. "Anyway, I'm surprised you haven't recognized me Mr. Kinsey, then we were a bit younger last time we saw each other."
"I don't believe I have ever met one of your kind," the vice president said darkly.
"Sure you have," Mara noted. "You were at my baptism, thirty-five years ago. I was about...six years old at the time and you were...twenty? I volunteered at your city council election campaign when I was fourteen. Got in trouble for it too, not supposed to get involved with human politics."
Kinsey's mouth firmed closed as he took in the woman in front of him and her apparent claim.
"Wow, Kinsey," O'Neil said. "Looks like you had the devil's help getting elected."
Both Mara and Kinsey turned sour expressions toward O'Neil at that one.
"We don't like being called that," Mara noted seriously.
"If you'd please, Colonel," President Hayes said, hiding a smirk on his face.
"All right, all right," O'Neil said.
"If you'd please continue the introductions, Major," Hayes said.
"Right," he said, gesturing toward the red head moving up beside Mara. "Ms Ranma Satomi represents Psyche and Mithril."
"Good to meet you, President," Ranma said in a friendly tone holding out her hand. "And I'm glad to meet Senator Kinsey too. I can't count the number psychics trapped in Warsaw research facilities that have his funding decisions to thank for depending on a mercenary organization such as Mithril to bust them out of state slavery and vivisection."
Mara put a hand to her face as Kinsey grimaced and accept Ranma's hand.
"Great," Daniel muttered. "It's a female Jack."
"This is going to be a long meeting," Hayes noted rolling his eyes as O'Neil suppressed a smile of his own.
"Excuse me, Ma'am, sir," the secretary noted stepping forward and bowing. "I'm Yomiko Readman, Director Satomi's secretary. It is definitely a very great honor to meet you, Mr President. I've read all about your policies and history, most impressive."
"Good to hear," Hayes said, looking toward the Japanese delegation. "And we have one last new comer it seems?"
The Japanese representative stepped forward and gestured for the woman to follow him.
"Sayoko Mishima was offered and accepted a position on staff for her experience with these other races," the man said.
"I'm afraid that I probably won't be contributing too much," Sayoko said in a way that was rather forcefully humble. "I'm the newest member here, after all."
"Well now," the president said. "Now that that's out of the way. Can we get down to business."
He gestured for everyone to sit down and gestured for someone to begin.
"I've had my people collecting information for a few weeks now," she said. "Most of that I think has been in Director Satomi's reports to you. Every rogue God or Demon we've been able to track down, is already in information you guys have. Now, both Yggdrasil and Nidhog are allowing access, we've got information on Asgard and Nifelheim as well."
She glanced toward Hermes before continuing.
"I'm a bit confused as to what's happening in Asgard," she said. "Some of my people got an odd report from some escapees about a beauty pageant, and Hermes' report seems to suggest that Zeus and a number of other prominent rogue Gods have decided to sit on their asses for a few days instead of invading...whatever, it's good for us."
"We're not entirely certain either," Hermes said. "But given you said Aphrodite was involved..."
"Moving on," Mara said quickly, reaching her hands out to summon a console. "I think we'll see the escaped convicts from the Abyss before we see the Gods. I'm going to play a selection of reports we've just managed to get out of our agents still in Nifelheim. The deaths of most of the givers of these reports is confirmed."
An image of a mutilated young girl appeared in the room.
"I'm Illu...janka's daughter, Rene..."
**************
All across Japan, America and Western Europe, government representatives spoke on the news and confirmed rumors that had been flying ever since the more talkative of the God and Demon civilians had started interacting with humans, especially reporters.
And militaries mobilized everywhere in the NATO countries to get ready for what was coming.
Kyoko looked out the window as her parents watched the television and saw soldiers moving around in the streets below.
"Doesn't that girl who shows up in your pictures a lot have marks like those, Kyoko?" her mother asked sharply. "Is she..."
"She's a Demoness. Her sister is a Goddess," Kyoko said calmly. "And it was a God that hit me."
"How long have you known about this?" her father demanded.
"They're just people, very strong, but just people," Kyoko said, turning around and walking on her cane to a seat.
"This is not a matter just to brush..."
"Mom, Dad," she said. "Amaterasu is going to my high school."
Her parents hesitated.
"Amaterasu?" her mother repeated.
"She's apparently fourteen and crushing on a kendoist," Kyoko confirmed.
They had no answer to that.
*****************
Natsume held Hel in her hands as she moved forward toward the people setting up the circle to take her and the young Demoness to the Labyrinth and better safety, given that Balor apparently intended to finish of the Demonic healers and death seers for his own power.
"You're sure they'll come here?" Natsume asked Ranma as she came up to the red-head.
"As best as Mara's people can guess," the redhead said. "Hel's in their system and they can track her here. They tell me getting into the Labyrinth is going to be a lot harder."
***************
You want me to do what? Naiki asked.
We're going to seal you until Balor can be killed, Tessa said. It won't be long.
I can still fight! Naiki protested.
But what if he makes you fight us, Tessa warned.
That's not going to happen.
And that's why we're taking this precaution, Tessa noted.
Naiki was going to respond when she felt the ground underneath her shake violently, but not as if it were in an Earthquake. No, it felt like something and struck the Earth with a hideous impact.
Naiki felt a huge amount of pishogue filtering through the air from the center of town.
"Now! We'll start on removing the blight from this world!" a loud voice declared shaking evenly throughout the city. "This world belongs to Demons, we were here first, and we will be here last! And I, Balor shall be their master and your doom!"
I've got a better idea, Tessa Naiki said. I'm going to kill him before he can call in a favor.
No, Naiki don't call attenti...
And for the second time ever Naiki succeeded in cutting off Tessa's protests.