Ranma ½ Divine Blood
- Thread starter Thrythlind
- Start date
"Okay," Mizuki said, looking about the various things in the safehouse.
There was food and weapons and lots of pieces of sculpture, crystals or something. Empty scrolls of paper. Strange, ornate boxes. And a lot of money.
"Wow, Satomi-san is rich," Mizuki noted in awe.
"I think that's the least of what she is," Issei said, looking around. "I guess this will do until people start fighting back."
"MmHmm," Mizuki said. "I wonder what's in these things?"
Mizuki asked, picking up one of the boxes and moving to open it.
"Stop!" Issei shouted as the girl started to reach for one of the clasps. "This is a hidden stockpile of weapons and occult supplies for a powerful exorcist and feng shih. There's no telling what opening one of those will do!"
"So, you mean it could summon some sort of ravening monster?" Mizuki asked.
Issei grimaced and took the box from her carefully and set it back in place.
"I hardly think so," he said. "Satomi-san does not seem the type to deal in that but you can't be too careful."
"Right, you're right," she said, looking around. "Oooo, covert ops clothes! Awesome and perfect."
"What, what are you talking about?" Issei demanded. "Are you going to play...dress up? With all this?"
"Of course not," Mizuki said. "But I'm not going to walk around dressed in a school uniform while we're doing resistance stuff."
"Damn you, Inaba, this is not a game!" Issei said.
"You want to stick around and do nothing?" Mizuki asked checking some of the black kevlar outfits for size. "Isn't that boring?"
"What the hell do you think we can do?" Issei demanded.
"Something," Mizuki said, shrugging.
Issei grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around.
"Listen, woman," he said. "Don't you understand?"
"Of course I do," Mizuki said with an idle smile, though her shoulders were shaking just slightly enough to show that she wasn't as unaffected as she pretended. "If I stay here, I'm going to go crazy and freak out. So, might as well have some fun."
*****************
"Irregular patrols," Wraith noted looking over the information that Tofu had brought in. "Going to be hard to predict."
There were notes of places the Gods had settled in, the routines of people who were told to go about their business while being terrorized by random individuals. Tofu had collected some photos, including of the serving staff still being employed, more like enslaved now, at the Imperial Palace.
"That'll be deliberate," Moloch said. "They get too old, they get quirky. Hard to control."
"So he feeds their quirks," Wraith noted, nodding. "And his quirks are parties, women and spoiling his children."
She glanced over her shoulder toward the woman that Tofu had brought in with him. Human, business woman by the dress, probably Egyptian by the name she had given. When Tofu first brought her in, she'd mostly raved about how wonderful Zeus had made her feel.
Moloch had done something and the woman was now much clearer of mind. He'd shown the two chi-users how to perform the treatment at the same time.
"Outside the Mantels, they're as vulnerable as we are right now," Moloch said. "Some will have body hardening."
"Expected," Wraith said. "Everybody is loaded with armor piercing already. Direct confrontation won't be the name of the game though."
Kasumi walked over to the group and handed them cups of tea.
"Green tea, room temperature," Kasumi said, handing the cup to her husband. "Oolong with added sulphur. Another green tea. And excuse me."
Kasumi started moving among the soldiers, handing them cups as she walked around the edge of the planning session glancing down to make sure she was giving the right cups to the right people. Then she walked on to attend to the various other people in the room.
"Where did she get ingredients?" Wraith wondered idly before turning back to the situation. "He's letting his human victims go, but he's keeping the four Immortals he has, why?"
"Think of them like machines on a hard-wired network," Moloch said. "He can use the Demon and the Ainur to get into Silmaril or Nidhog. Not much he can do with the Goddesses, they're most likely just there for pride's sake."
"Captain Testarossa recommended mixed units because of something like this," Wraith said grimmly. "We didn't expect this as a source."
"I note you stayed human," Moloch said.
"Let's get to some operations," Wraith said. "You found where they parked some of their ASes."
She looked to Tofu.
"Destruction or sabotage?" Moloch asked.
"I tend to think things falling apart when they're most needed is the most disheartening," Wraith said.
"I do agree," the Demon said with a smile.
"Let's get started," Wraith said. "The counter attack will be coming quickly."
***************
Chihiro woke up slowly and looked around at the debris surrounding her until her eyes settled on the forms of Ootaki and Tamiya.
"What happened," she asked.
"You were disappearing in something like a circle and then suddenly got thrown across the room" Tamiya said. "We got you out of there before these guys in the whale-bots could show up."
"Whale-bots?" Chihiro asked.
"Yeah," Ootaki said, gesturing for her to come to a gap in the broken wall.
Chihiro crept over, rubbing at her forehead and looking out to see a tall blue AS standing not far away from where they hid.
"What the hell is that?" she asked briefly.
"You don't know?" Tamiya asked. "Weren't we working for these people?"
"Wait, I think these must be Gods," Chihiro said. "I saw a Demon AS at that military base and it was like a red dinosaur."
"Whatever it is," Ootaki said. "It's been sitting on top of us all day, can't move out of here."
"Let's see what we can do about that," Chihiro noted.
************
"Here you go, Auntie Nodoka," Kasumi said idly to Nodoka, handing her a cup of tea.
The woman shakily gripped the cup and pulled it to her lips.
"A Miss Satomi told you about this place, Kasumi-chan?" Nodoka asked.
Kasumi paused and then sat down across from Nodoka carefully.
"Yes, she did," Kasumi said. "I believe the same woman is the one who had it stocked up like this."
"This feels like a holy place," Nodoka said with a frown as she looked about at the people and items in the cavern.
"Ranma said it should protect people against hostile forces," Kasumi said, basically implying that Ranma had agreed.
"What sort of woman is this Satomi, and what are her children like?" the older woman asked, wincing as the pain in her body continued to grow.
"I have not spoken to your...daughter often," Kasumi said. "If you had come to Kurumi's funeral you could have seen them for yourself. Naiki was a bit reckless, but Eija seemed quite polite and formal. I'm sorry to say that his son seemed a bit...distant."
"She has a son?" Nodoka asked, interested.
"What makes that more significant than her daughters?" Kasumi asked in a polite but cool tone.
Nodoka leaned back and frowned.
"Perhaps there is nothing," she admitted reluctantly.
The older woman glanced across toward the Egyptian woman.
"That happened to Ranma," she whispered.
Kasumi looked at her hands and the tea kettle she held there and the small assortment of tea packets she had. She held that appearance for a long moment before sighing and looking back toward Nodoka.
"Yes," Kasumi said quietly. "I believe so. There were two others, but they are dead now."
"Is this so?" Nodoka asked.
"Kurumi died killing Hecate," Kasumi said. "And Eija Satomi sealed that woman's spirit. Naiki Satomi helped kill both Hecate and Poseidon."
"Her children are avenging her," Nodoka noted proudly.
"That wasn't what Ranma wanted," Kasumi said quietly. "I believe she merely wished that her children could defend themselves better than she had been able to."
"You mean she didn't encourage this?" Nodoka asked, surprised. "Death is lighter than a feather..."
"Auntie Nodoka," Kasumi said, "I know the proverb. But it is the duty of a mother to protect her children, not ask them to settle her problems."
Nodoka winced and Kasumi took a breath, starting to sit up and move on to handle other errands.
"I spoke to her," Nodoka said quietly, stopping Kasumi.
"When?" the gentle woman asked.
"After it happened," Nodoka said. "I encouraged her to satisfy honor."
"Nabiki went looking for her," Kasumi said in an outwardly mild manner. "Starting with talking to you."
"I am aware of this," Nodoka said.
Kasumi took another long breath, anger clear under her mild demeanor as she stood up.
"I have a food situation to attend to," the younger woman noted. "I shall be back later."
There was food and weapons and lots of pieces of sculpture, crystals or something. Empty scrolls of paper. Strange, ornate boxes. And a lot of money.
"Wow, Satomi-san is rich," Mizuki noted in awe.
"I think that's the least of what she is," Issei said, looking around. "I guess this will do until people start fighting back."
"MmHmm," Mizuki said. "I wonder what's in these things?"
Mizuki asked, picking up one of the boxes and moving to open it.
"Stop!" Issei shouted as the girl started to reach for one of the clasps. "This is a hidden stockpile of weapons and occult supplies for a powerful exorcist and feng shih. There's no telling what opening one of those will do!"
"So, you mean it could summon some sort of ravening monster?" Mizuki asked.
Issei grimaced and took the box from her carefully and set it back in place.
"I hardly think so," he said. "Satomi-san does not seem the type to deal in that but you can't be too careful."
"Right, you're right," she said, looking around. "Oooo, covert ops clothes! Awesome and perfect."
"What, what are you talking about?" Issei demanded. "Are you going to play...dress up? With all this?"
"Of course not," Mizuki said. "But I'm not going to walk around dressed in a school uniform while we're doing resistance stuff."
"Damn you, Inaba, this is not a game!" Issei said.
"You want to stick around and do nothing?" Mizuki asked checking some of the black kevlar outfits for size. "Isn't that boring?"
"What the hell do you think we can do?" Issei demanded.
"Something," Mizuki said, shrugging.
Issei grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around.
"Listen, woman," he said. "Don't you understand?"
"Of course I do," Mizuki said with an idle smile, though her shoulders were shaking just slightly enough to show that she wasn't as unaffected as she pretended. "If I stay here, I'm going to go crazy and freak out. So, might as well have some fun."
*****************
"Irregular patrols," Wraith noted looking over the information that Tofu had brought in. "Going to be hard to predict."
There were notes of places the Gods had settled in, the routines of people who were told to go about their business while being terrorized by random individuals. Tofu had collected some photos, including of the serving staff still being employed, more like enslaved now, at the Imperial Palace.
"That'll be deliberate," Moloch said. "They get too old, they get quirky. Hard to control."
"So he feeds their quirks," Wraith noted, nodding. "And his quirks are parties, women and spoiling his children."
She glanced over her shoulder toward the woman that Tofu had brought in with him. Human, business woman by the dress, probably Egyptian by the name she had given. When Tofu first brought her in, she'd mostly raved about how wonderful Zeus had made her feel.
Moloch had done something and the woman was now much clearer of mind. He'd shown the two chi-users how to perform the treatment at the same time.
"Outside the Mantels, they're as vulnerable as we are right now," Moloch said. "Some will have body hardening."
"Expected," Wraith said. "Everybody is loaded with armor piercing already. Direct confrontation won't be the name of the game though."
Kasumi walked over to the group and handed them cups of tea.
"Green tea, room temperature," Kasumi said, handing the cup to her husband. "Oolong with added sulphur. Another green tea. And excuse me."
Kasumi started moving among the soldiers, handing them cups as she walked around the edge of the planning session glancing down to make sure she was giving the right cups to the right people. Then she walked on to attend to the various other people in the room.
"Where did she get ingredients?" Wraith wondered idly before turning back to the situation. "He's letting his human victims go, but he's keeping the four Immortals he has, why?"
"Think of them like machines on a hard-wired network," Moloch said. "He can use the Demon and the Ainur to get into Silmaril or Nidhog. Not much he can do with the Goddesses, they're most likely just there for pride's sake."
"Captain Testarossa recommended mixed units because of something like this," Wraith said grimmly. "We didn't expect this as a source."
"I note you stayed human," Moloch said.
"Let's get to some operations," Wraith said. "You found where they parked some of their ASes."
She looked to Tofu.
"Destruction or sabotage?" Moloch asked.
"I tend to think things falling apart when they're most needed is the most disheartening," Wraith said.
"I do agree," the Demon said with a smile.
"Let's get started," Wraith said. "The counter attack will be coming quickly."
***************
Chihiro woke up slowly and looked around at the debris surrounding her until her eyes settled on the forms of Ootaki and Tamiya.
"What happened," she asked.
"You were disappearing in something like a circle and then suddenly got thrown across the room" Tamiya said. "We got you out of there before these guys in the whale-bots could show up."
"Whale-bots?" Chihiro asked.
"Yeah," Ootaki said, gesturing for her to come to a gap in the broken wall.
Chihiro crept over, rubbing at her forehead and looking out to see a tall blue AS standing not far away from where they hid.
"What the hell is that?" she asked briefly.
"You don't know?" Tamiya asked. "Weren't we working for these people?"
"Wait, I think these must be Gods," Chihiro said. "I saw a Demon AS at that military base and it was like a red dinosaur."
"Whatever it is," Ootaki said. "It's been sitting on top of us all day, can't move out of here."
"Let's see what we can do about that," Chihiro noted.
************
"Here you go, Auntie Nodoka," Kasumi said idly to Nodoka, handing her a cup of tea.
The woman shakily gripped the cup and pulled it to her lips.
"A Miss Satomi told you about this place, Kasumi-chan?" Nodoka asked.
Kasumi paused and then sat down across from Nodoka carefully.
"Yes, she did," Kasumi said. "I believe the same woman is the one who had it stocked up like this."
"This feels like a holy place," Nodoka said with a frown as she looked about at the people and items in the cavern.
"Ranma said it should protect people against hostile forces," Kasumi said, basically implying that Ranma had agreed.
"What sort of woman is this Satomi, and what are her children like?" the older woman asked, wincing as the pain in her body continued to grow.
"I have not spoken to your...daughter often," Kasumi said. "If you had come to Kurumi's funeral you could have seen them for yourself. Naiki was a bit reckless, but Eija seemed quite polite and formal. I'm sorry to say that his son seemed a bit...distant."
"She has a son?" Nodoka asked, interested.
"What makes that more significant than her daughters?" Kasumi asked in a polite but cool tone.
Nodoka leaned back and frowned.
"Perhaps there is nothing," she admitted reluctantly.
The older woman glanced across toward the Egyptian woman.
"That happened to Ranma," she whispered.
Kasumi looked at her hands and the tea kettle she held there and the small assortment of tea packets she had. She held that appearance for a long moment before sighing and looking back toward Nodoka.
"Yes," Kasumi said quietly. "I believe so. There were two others, but they are dead now."
"Is this so?" Nodoka asked.
"Kurumi died killing Hecate," Kasumi said. "And Eija Satomi sealed that woman's spirit. Naiki Satomi helped kill both Hecate and Poseidon."
"Her children are avenging her," Nodoka noted proudly.
"That wasn't what Ranma wanted," Kasumi said quietly. "I believe she merely wished that her children could defend themselves better than she had been able to."
"You mean she didn't encourage this?" Nodoka asked, surprised. "Death is lighter than a feather..."
"Auntie Nodoka," Kasumi said, "I know the proverb. But it is the duty of a mother to protect her children, not ask them to settle her problems."
Nodoka winced and Kasumi took a breath, starting to sit up and move on to handle other errands.
"I spoke to her," Nodoka said quietly, stopping Kasumi.
"When?" the gentle woman asked.
"After it happened," Nodoka said. "I encouraged her to satisfy honor."
"Nabiki went looking for her," Kasumi said in an outwardly mild manner. "Starting with talking to you."
"I am aware of this," Nodoka said.
Kasumi took another long breath, anger clear under her mild demeanor as she stood up.
"I have a food situation to attend to," the younger woman noted. "I shall be back later."
notes:
episode 245649
Since Tessa did the preliminary work, wouldn't she know that?
Short of being scanned by gods or demons, how could Ranma know answer to that?
I am reasonably sure you did not mean 'mischievous'.
episode 249691
The 'Now they are' I believe was meant to be a bit more like 'Now they are aware it's on,'
As a note... these 'messages' and death notes were pretty nicely done, very moving.
'not' s/b 'now'
episode 245718
remove 'right'?
I'm assuming Ranma got trasported from the meeting back to Japan, as otherwise that is a very fast plane.
Ranma really needs to have a talk with this one on tactics and understanding situations...
episode 245740
It occurs to me that this battle and overall situation reminds me of a concept from Star Trek, Cosmic Scramble... everyone under the sun want the earth, everyone has different plans for it, and different goals, in such a way that everyone is essentially a enemy.
Creepy, but funny.
So, he became Ainur... makes sense, considering how the other two factions would see him.
Snorts... thinks pretty highly of himself, but I'm in serious doubt of the claim.
I've always felt she would love Roger Rabbit.
That one minor demon made the difference after all
'unsubtle' wrong word, perhaps destabilize or affect.
Nice, having Ranma learn to use the new trigger as part of the battle.
'mealy' s/b 'measly'
Odd no one ever seems to take her seriously, except Mara.
episode 245751
'main' s/b 'mine'
Le ouch... Harsh.
She will likely be out of it for days.
Bwahahaha....
Wow... Ranma likely could be another Hild in the making.
episode 245764
Oddly, I cannot really see why he would work for them...
Another one needing a talk on situational awareness and tactics.
Would have thought he would have been a bit calmer after the name change.
So... did Shampoo get the technique by accessing the system to learn it from Deimosu? If she learned it herself, why would the need for the marks to flare come into play?
'got' s/b 'get'
I have to say, I agree with Mao... that is damned inconvienent, and I would not have thought Souskae up to the task before ascending. One thing though, it might make more sense going forward even if you keep this method, to have the person doing the call to state what it is they are doing for the readers benefit.
Took a moment to realize you really meant mantles, not ASes
This confused me, are the Ainur, freshly able to telport thanks to Souskae's learning how to do it, able to teleport across a galaxy? Or are they closer, like in orbit?
Those numbers are not even close to what she herself said in that episode. I interpreted what she said to be 5000...
Well... Sadly I don't think it matters any more.
episode 245800
pretty sure 'bond' s/b 'bound'
episode 245803
So... It did continue past her death. I was wondering if it would.
Man... she is like a cockroach
'here' s/b 'hear' I have to wonder though, that while convienent why the heck would info on bolt holes and hideouts and safe house be spoken of where *she* could hear it?
I'm kind of glad Tessa is telling her off, as odd as it seems, I think it better and more impact coming from her. This does also answer the question as to where atlantis is... I have to say I'm have a hard time believing that could know to teleport that far.
How insulting... she needs better PR
Heh... all that praise does not make up for constantly being considered a kid.
I should note, he is doing this in front of Wier.... Since she did not call him on it here, I hope she took him aside and did so.
As a computer programmer, I can tell you it is extremely easy to mess up a network, considering you also had saboteurs, and counter saboteurs all hacking in, and regular maintenance not done... I'm surprised it works at all.
episode 245865
I'm pretty sure that is a strike that and reverse it scenario, since reading it literally makes out Ranma is telling her she is more powerful than him.
She is not being very fair, since at least for his male side, she was likely his first.
I have to say, I quite liked the banter between Mao and Ranma. The only issue with the Mao / Ranma relationship is it seemed a bit sudden starting with the aftermath of the Mithril attack.
episode 245880
I've been wondering, just when in SG1 and Atlantis canon is this supposed to occur?
Another one with good bantor going on...
episode 245891
This was way... way overdue as a explanation to them all... Sad that it came from him... I had actually half expected it from Webber a few episodes prior.
episode 245897
Bwahahaha... hoist by her own petard.
episode 245921
Is there a particular reason it would matter? They should be able to communicate telepathically after all. With Kaname and Eija partially merged, and Kaname and Souskae in the Ainur network, I fail to see why it could not be done at least indirectly.
I disagree, without question Gauron is the lesser threat... No matter what, he cannot match the issues involved with routing a entrenched invasion force.
episode 245927
This puzzles me... Why would they ask Luska, whom is currently a kid due to a combination of reincarnation and being sealed to reincarnate again, just as she finds someone in her life?
'knoq' s/b 'know'
I have to admit, the interaction between Naiki and Kyoko in this episode was a bit surprising, but interesting.
episode 245939
Except to comment on surprise that Zeus would bother with a human attempting to sell him a relative, and hope he gets or got his, I'm not going to comment on this episode since it is of graphic content.
episode 245953
Wow... I am impressed, he certainly has come far to know that. Mousse must have been giving him a lot of training and advice.
Am I to interpret this to mean that either Nodoka helped Nabiki and caused her to be in China for the breakup, or did not help and it happen, either way making her partially held to blame for endangering her. Ouch...
Keep up the good work, look forward to more.
episode 245649
Since Tessa did the preliminary work, wouldn't she know that?
Short of being scanned by gods or demons, how could Ranma know answer to that?
I am reasonably sure you did not mean 'mischievous'.
episode 249691
The 'Now they are' I believe was meant to be a bit more like 'Now they are aware it's on,'
As a note... these 'messages' and death notes were pretty nicely done, very moving.
'not' s/b 'now'
episode 245718
remove 'right'?
I'm assuming Ranma got trasported from the meeting back to Japan, as otherwise that is a very fast plane.
Ranma really needs to have a talk with this one on tactics and understanding situations...
episode 245740
It occurs to me that this battle and overall situation reminds me of a concept from Star Trek, Cosmic Scramble... everyone under the sun want the earth, everyone has different plans for it, and different goals, in such a way that everyone is essentially a enemy.
Creepy, but funny.
So, he became Ainur... makes sense, considering how the other two factions would see him.
Snorts... thinks pretty highly of himself, but I'm in serious doubt of the claim.
I've always felt she would love Roger Rabbit.
That one minor demon made the difference after all
'unsubtle' wrong word, perhaps destabilize or affect.
Nice, having Ranma learn to use the new trigger as part of the battle.
'mealy' s/b 'measly'
Odd no one ever seems to take her seriously, except Mara.
episode 245751
'main' s/b 'mine'
Le ouch... Harsh.
She will likely be out of it for days.
Bwahahaha....
Wow... Ranma likely could be another Hild in the making.
episode 245764
Oddly, I cannot really see why he would work for them...
Another one needing a talk on situational awareness and tactics.
Would have thought he would have been a bit calmer after the name change.
So... did Shampoo get the technique by accessing the system to learn it from Deimosu? If she learned it herself, why would the need for the marks to flare come into play?
'got' s/b 'get'
I have to say, I agree with Mao... that is damned inconvienent, and I would not have thought Souskae up to the task before ascending. One thing though, it might make more sense going forward even if you keep this method, to have the person doing the call to state what it is they are doing for the readers benefit.
Took a moment to realize you really meant mantles, not ASes
This confused me, are the Ainur, freshly able to telport thanks to Souskae's learning how to do it, able to teleport across a galaxy? Or are they closer, like in orbit?
Those numbers are not even close to what she herself said in that episode. I interpreted what she said to be 5000...
Well... Sadly I don't think it matters any more.
episode 245800
pretty sure 'bond' s/b 'bound'
episode 245803
So... It did continue past her death. I was wondering if it would.
Man... she is like a cockroach
'here' s/b 'hear' I have to wonder though, that while convienent why the heck would info on bolt holes and hideouts and safe house be spoken of where *she* could hear it?
I'm kind of glad Tessa is telling her off, as odd as it seems, I think it better and more impact coming from her. This does also answer the question as to where atlantis is... I have to say I'm have a hard time believing that could know to teleport that far.
How insulting... she needs better PR
Heh... all that praise does not make up for constantly being considered a kid.
I should note, he is doing this in front of Wier.... Since she did not call him on it here, I hope she took him aside and did so.
As a computer programmer, I can tell you it is extremely easy to mess up a network, considering you also had saboteurs, and counter saboteurs all hacking in, and regular maintenance not done... I'm surprised it works at all.
episode 245865
I'm pretty sure that is a strike that and reverse it scenario, since reading it literally makes out Ranma is telling her she is more powerful than him.
She is not being very fair, since at least for his male side, she was likely his first.
I have to say, I quite liked the banter between Mao and Ranma. The only issue with the Mao / Ranma relationship is it seemed a bit sudden starting with the aftermath of the Mithril attack.
episode 245880
I've been wondering, just when in SG1 and Atlantis canon is this supposed to occur?
Another one with good bantor going on...
episode 245891
This was way... way overdue as a explanation to them all... Sad that it came from him... I had actually half expected it from Webber a few episodes prior.
episode 245897
Bwahahaha... hoist by her own petard.
episode 245921
Is there a particular reason it would matter? They should be able to communicate telepathically after all. With Kaname and Eija partially merged, and Kaname and Souskae in the Ainur network, I fail to see why it could not be done at least indirectly.
I disagree, without question Gauron is the lesser threat... No matter what, he cannot match the issues involved with routing a entrenched invasion force.
episode 245927
This puzzles me... Why would they ask Luska, whom is currently a kid due to a combination of reincarnation and being sealed to reincarnate again, just as she finds someone in her life?
'knoq' s/b 'know'
I have to admit, the interaction between Naiki and Kyoko in this episode was a bit surprising, but interesting.
episode 245939
Except to comment on surprise that Zeus would bother with a human attempting to sell him a relative, and hope he gets or got his, I'm not going to comment on this episode since it is of graphic content.
episode 245953
Wow... I am impressed, he certainly has come far to know that. Mousse must have been giving him a lot of training and advice.
Am I to interpret this to mean that either Nodoka helped Nabiki and caused her to be in China for the breakup, or did not help and it happen, either way making her partially held to blame for endangering her. Ouch...
Keep up the good work, look forward to more.
again, not trusting the quote feature when I have to break it up several times
some of the typos have already been noted and fixed on other places...AA is just REALLY slow on going through those requests
"Are there any potentially lethal differences between an Ainur and a human?" Tessa asked.
Since Tessa did the preliminary work, wouldn't she know that? - she knows there definite differences, but isn't aware of ALL the biological ramifications...she's a freaking genius, but her focus is on tactics, strategy, physics and engineering
"The matter of your inability to become one of us, have you had any chance to find an answer to that?"
Short of being scanned by gods or demons, how could Ranma know answer to that?
Assuming that she is wondering if he got one to look at him. Sometimes I fall into Readers Are Geniuses mode or else simply take such things for granted.
A mischievous thought crossed Tessa's mind for a moment and then she caught sight of a simple door.
I am reasonably sure you did not mean 'mischievous'.
I remember fixing this typo in draft...grr...(runs to check ff.net)....I'll bet the correction got overwritten by a save refresh...bloody damn it...hoist on my own precautions
episode 249691
As a note... these 'messages' and death notes were pretty nicely done, very moving.
Thanks it was a lot of work
episode 245718
QUOTE
"You're sure they'll come here?" Natsume asked Ranma as she came up to the red-head.
I'm assuming Ranma got trasported from the meeting back to Japan, as otherwise that is a very fast plane.
I started assuming that alot.
QUOTE
I've got a better idea, Tessa Naiki said. I'm going to kill him before he can call in a favor.
Ranma really needs to have a talk with this one on tactics and understanding situations...
This is her last major one...needed to get Ranma into beat down mode, so she was handed the idiot ball, somewhat believable since it's one of her favorite toys
episode 245740
QUOTE
And then it became clear that what had been destroyed was an Amalgam Venom.
It occurs to me that this battle and overall situation reminds me of a concept from Star Trek, Cosmic Scramble... everyone under the sun want the earth, everyone has different plans for it, and different goals, in such a way that everyone is essentially a enemy.
right, that seems to be the case here
QUOTE
"Oh come on, Barney, you're not even trying," Mao said as she started to bring down her rifle on top of his head. "Sing it with me now! I hit you," the rifle butt came down, "you hit me," her knee came up into his face "we're a brawling virtuosity."
Creepy, but funny.
Hee hee
QUOTE
He fancied he had even more power than Hild would have been allowed now.
Snorts... thinks pretty highly of himself, but I'm in serious doubt of the claim.
The doubt is very well founded.
QUOTE
"Ahh, an opening," Ranma said, noting where the corrupted energy left it unstable.
That one minor demon made the difference after all
Oddly, I got complaints that I didn't use it enough
QUOTE
"This is my house," Ranma said. "Someone should have told you. All smiting privileges are mine."
Odd no one ever seems to take her seriously, except Mara.
I imagine there are a handful of Gods and Demons over the centuries that have gone missing, assumed sealed by the other side, that are sitting in a human-made cell wondering what the hell went wrong
QUOTE
"She's not very good," the Kraken said, mystified.
Le ouch... Harsh.
When you're obsessed stalker thinks you don't kiss very well...
QUOTE
Which was when Lusca would have started hearing symphony orchestra if she had heard such before.
She will likely be out of it for days.
Hee hee
QUOTE
"You see!" Mara snapped pointing at the various people that had teased her about being afraid of Ranma. "You see?!"
Bwahahaha....
A favorite with a lot of people...for me "GRENADES" is pretty up there in the funny quotient
QUOTE
"Mara, you're supposed to be getting Kaname," Ranma reminded her.
"Right, going," the Demoness of Smoke said.
Wow... Ranma likely could be another Hild in the making.
There is a line coming if I can fit it about "Wow, Mara you REALLY miss Hild, don't you."
episode 245764
QUOTE
Oddly, there were pantyhose tied around his arms.
Oddly, I cannot really see why he would work for them...
He's reasonably mercenary and power hungry for it.
QUOTE
"Come on and try, fiendish mortal!" she shouted with a smirk. "OhhhHOHOHOHO!!"
Another one needing a talk on situational awareness and tactics.
The phrase "I'm invincible" should be banned from the speech of any San....it never goes well for them when they say it.
QUOTE
"Hey, Akira," one of the soldiers shouted toward Tarou.
Would have thought he would have been a bit calmer after the name change.
Left it up in air as to whether he got his name changed.
QUOTE
Shampoo's facial marks flared.
"Moko Takabisha," she said angrily.
So... did Shampoo get the technique by accessing the system to learn it from Deimosu? If she learned it herself, why would the need for the marks to flare come into play?
Ranma created the Moko with help from Cologne, or she could have gotten it from Deimosu, a couple of different options there. The marks flaring were because she put a bit extra power in it just to be sure (Tarou is friggin tough after all). Considering that, Tarou is lucky not to be pancaked.
QUOTE
"5-3+2-32-15+17-1517..."
I have to say, I agree with Mao... that is damned inconvienent, and I would not have thought Souskae up to the task before ascending. One thing though, it might make more sense going forward even if you keep this method, to have the person doing the call to state what it is they are doing for the readers benefit.
Indeed, beyond the spoken numbers there is a lot of subconscious level stuff going on that having Silmaril active makes possible. A lot of background mental processes day-to-day is shared effort across the connected elements(minds) and Silmaril. Conscious thought is a bit less burdened, though probably not an immediately noticeable intelligence boost.
QUOTE
"Labyrinth," the woman in the center said, smiling. "Elizabeth Weir, Atlantis stands ready to take on refugees."
This confused me, are the Ainur, freshly able to telport thanks to Souskae's learning how to do it, able to teleport across a galaxy? Or are they closer, like in orbit?
Something I got after myself for not setting up further...however, it seems to me to fall under a case of "don't explain the midichlorians"
assume that they had worked out a possibility for teleporting but hadn't gotten around to actually testing it
Sousuke proved it worked, then they just passed the word...
QUOTE
"We've had reports that it was anywhere from forty to eighty," Hermes said. "And three hundred or so incapacitated for a time."
Those numbers are not even close to what she herself said in that episode. I interpreted what she said to be 5000...
Original statement was 50 or 100 with 5 times that incapacitated....so 50/250 or 100/500 being the outside.
and this isn't the last time a woman at a party is going to thin the numbers heavily
QUOTE
"Permission to make Aphrodite an enemy, sir," O'Neil said without missing a beat.
Well... Sadly I don't think it matters any more.
Indeed, I had second thoughts about this comment...
QUOTE
"I was hiding, Issei-kun," Mizuki said in a pleading tone. "I was supposed to be hard to find."
Man... she is like a cockroach
I have started to think that when Eris died and went into the normal cycle of souls being reborn entirely, that she came back as Mizuki
QUOTE
"Eija was kinda whispering so no one would here and I'm not entirely sure she was supposed to be telling us
'here' s/b 'hear' I have to wonder though, that while convienent why the heck would info on bolt holes and hideouts and safe house be spoken of where *she* could hear it?
Because she wanted her friends safe JIC....I still want Inaba to trigger a recorded message from Ranma directly aimed at her
QUOTE
Why do I get stuck with all the people who tell me what to do? the Demoness asked. My mother, Geisthexe-san, you.
Act a little more self-controlled, Tessa noted, and you might find less external controls applied. You can't be a violent, tumultuous, overwhelming flow all the time.
I'm kind of glad Tessa is telling her off, as odd as it seems, I think it better and more impact coming from her. This does also answer the question as to where atlantis is... I have to say I'm have a hard time believing that could know to teleport that far.
Yeah, Atlantis is a shard realm in Earth's cosmology like Nifelheim and Asgard, my thought is that it built up over generations, growing in size each time before it got to where it currently is
QUOTE
Wait, you're the secretary, aren't you?"
How insulting... she needs better PR
QUOTE
"Anyway," Shepard noted. "Teyla called her a 'truly graceful lady', you said O'Neil's. All Teal'c would say was that she was 'indeed most impressive'. And the eggheads over there started talking about her physics and engineering work or her references to Lord of the Rings and the 'symbolic nature of choosing a set of images that were created by humans independently of influence by other species'."
Heh... all that praise does not make up for constantly being considered a kid.
QUOTE
"She's a cute little girl," Rodney said.
I should note, he is doing this in front of Wier.... Since she did not call him on it here, I hope she took him aside and did so.
I really like doing the "Captain on deck" bit and having Shepard pretty much immediately going "oh crap"
and yes, Weir does that sort of thing privately...
QUOTE
"Who the hell can mess up an entire Network like this in a couple of months?" some demanded.
As a computer programmer, I can tell you it is extremely easy to mess up a network, considering you also had saboteurs, and counter saboteurs all hacking in, and regular maintenance not done... I'm surprised it works at all.
I used to be comp sci once upon a time, I should know better
episode 245865
QUOTE
"I'd say if that were the case, I was more of an X-Wing fighter," Ranma quipped.
I'm pretty sure that is a strike that and reverse it scenario, since reading it literally makes out Ranma is telling her she is more powerful than him.
Mao has more raw power than Ranma through Silmaril...however, she doesn't have the training to be near as efficient as Ranma is...
Ranma's not even tops in terms of raw power in the canon manga, he's something like fifth down (admittedly, my potentially erroneous estimation)....but he is the most dangerous....
the box does not exist for Ranma, emphasized by the fact that he took the Hiryu Shoten Ha, a technique practiced for thousands of years and never thought possible to apply in more than just a narrow way, and came up with no less than 3 or 4 variations on it in the space of half a year.
QUOTE
"How am I supposed to compete with someone bilingual in the language of bodies, who has spent their lives studying the way the body works?"
She is not being very fair, since at least for his male side, she was likely his first.
This is quite true, but liked the line anyway
QUOTE
"Protesting too much?" he asked.
I have to say, I quite liked the banter between Mao and Ranma. The only issue with the Mao / Ranma relationship is it seemed a bit sudden starting with the aftermath of the Mithril attack.
They started dating about a month before Meridia, I fast forwarded through a bit of that, left it background...
that said, I've noticed relationships are quick to develop in fanfic, even knowing that trend, I fall victim to it...
episode 245880
QUOTE
The Whisper of Souls had been moved, to Atlantis now.
I've been wondering, just when in SG1 and Atlantis canon is this supposed to occur?
well, can't do full SG1/Atlantis canon since they've gone from interplanetary to interdimensional (of a limited nature...they tooling around Earth's rather crowded cosmology), so I'd have to do a whole other fanfic focusing on just them from start up on to make a reliable and acceptable set of changes..
Another one with good bantor going on...
thanks
episode 245891
QUOTE
"Twelve," Deimosu repeated.
Twelve, Yonjuu repeated, nodding.
This was way... way overdue as a explanation to them all... Sad that it came from him... I had actually half expected it from Webber a few episodes prior.
Weighing the options, I wanted this to be a Yonjuu/Deimosu moment...just was waiting to put it in...pretty sure that others have gotten similar warnings for other people....but imagine Yonjuu slipped through the cracks
episode 245897
QUOTE
"Imagine for a moment, it works," Urd said. "Then imagine that they go through all the effort of learning and preparing one of those spells we were just talking about..."
"Oh creator," Mara said, paling.
Bwahahaha... hoist by her own petard.
Hee hee
episode 245921
QUOTE
Eija stopped herself from responding telepathically with Sousuke in the room.
Is there a particular reason it would matter? They should be able to communicate telepathically after all. With Kaname and Eija partially merged, and Kaname and Souskae in the Ainur network, I fail to see why it could not be done at least indirectly.
Politeness on her part...no longer an issue, part of this was to imply that Sousuke was invited to their little psychic link
their core personality and minds are shielded very well, but the part of them that's connected to each other and Silmaril/Yggdrasil is in constant operation and more vulnerable by necessity...so it's possible to get into that...
in Kaname/Eija/Sousuke's case it was invitation/consensual (if accidental) and Sousuke's going to start out being quiet for a bit...
QUOTE
"And you're going after Gauron! I'm not sure which is worse!"
I disagree, without question Gauron is the lesser threat... No matter what, he cannot match the issues involved with routing a entrenched invasion force.
I agree as well, but it's an emotional reaction
episode 245927
QUOTE
"When this is over, they'll ask her to reincarnate, right?" the girl in the glasses asked. "What if you let her go without trying to get past the looney stalkter crush to the real her. And what if you like the real her?"
This puzzles me... Why would they ask Luska, whom is currently a kid due to a combination of reincarnation and being sealed to reincarnate again, just as she finds someone in her life?
I liked the drama, but I'm thinking the time won't be less than thirty or forty years out.
She does have a long period of time aware that's put holes in her mental health. She's still mostly herself, indicating that she's one of the more centered to begin with, but she's likely to be watched/denied power until she reincarnates again to make sure she's not a danger to self/others.
Naiki is still a little hung up on Kyoko and probably using it as an excuse to avoid looking into a serious relationship...
Kyoko is using it as a push
Except to comment on surprise that Zeus would bother with a human attempting to sell him a relative, and hope he gets or got his, I'm not going to comment on this episode since it is of graphic content.
I hate Aoshima....loathe him with a passion...in the course of anime and manga both he has tried to corner and rape Belldandy (who defended herself) and Skuld (who was rescued by a combination of Keiichi and Urd as I remember)
So it is a bit of an author conceit to make him slime, I suppose.
episode 245953
QUOTE
"Stop!" Issei shouted as the girl started to reach for one of the clasps. "This is a hidden stockpile of weapons and occult supplies for a powerful exorcist and feng shih. There's no telling what opening one of those will do!"
Wow... I am impressed, he certainly has come far to know that. Mousse must have been giving him a lot of training and advice.
indeed, shows a lot of growth
QUOTE
"Nabiki went looking for her," Kasumi said in an outwardly mild manner. "Starting with talking to you."
Am I to interpret this to mean that either Nodoka helped Nabiki and caused her to be in China for the breakup, or did not help and it happen, either way making her partially held to blame for endangering her. Ouch...
Keep up the good work, look forward to more.
thanks! I like these long comment dumps of yours, very helpful!
especially since there's always at least one typo that I didn't already know about that you catch...
some of the typos have already been noted and fixed on other places...AA is just REALLY slow on going through those requests
"Are there any potentially lethal differences between an Ainur and a human?" Tessa asked.
Since Tessa did the preliminary work, wouldn't she know that? - she knows there definite differences, but isn't aware of ALL the biological ramifications...she's a freaking genius, but her focus is on tactics, strategy, physics and engineering
"The matter of your inability to become one of us, have you had any chance to find an answer to that?"
Short of being scanned by gods or demons, how could Ranma know answer to that?
Assuming that she is wondering if he got one to look at him. Sometimes I fall into Readers Are Geniuses mode or else simply take such things for granted.
A mischievous thought crossed Tessa's mind for a moment and then she caught sight of a simple door.
I am reasonably sure you did not mean 'mischievous'.
I remember fixing this typo in draft...grr...(runs to check ff.net)....I'll bet the correction got overwritten by a save refresh...bloody damn it...hoist on my own precautions
episode 249691
As a note... these 'messages' and death notes were pretty nicely done, very moving.
Thanks it was a lot of work
episode 245718
QUOTE
"You're sure they'll come here?" Natsume asked Ranma as she came up to the red-head.
I'm assuming Ranma got trasported from the meeting back to Japan, as otherwise that is a very fast plane.
I started assuming that alot.
QUOTE
I've got a better idea, Tessa Naiki said. I'm going to kill him before he can call in a favor.
Ranma really needs to have a talk with this one on tactics and understanding situations...
This is her last major one...needed to get Ranma into beat down mode, so she was handed the idiot ball, somewhat believable since it's one of her favorite toys
episode 245740
QUOTE
And then it became clear that what had been destroyed was an Amalgam Venom.
It occurs to me that this battle and overall situation reminds me of a concept from Star Trek, Cosmic Scramble... everyone under the sun want the earth, everyone has different plans for it, and different goals, in such a way that everyone is essentially a enemy.
right, that seems to be the case here
QUOTE
"Oh come on, Barney, you're not even trying," Mao said as she started to bring down her rifle on top of his head. "Sing it with me now! I hit you," the rifle butt came down, "you hit me," her knee came up into his face "we're a brawling virtuosity."
Creepy, but funny.
Hee hee
QUOTE
He fancied he had even more power than Hild would have been allowed now.
Snorts... thinks pretty highly of himself, but I'm in serious doubt of the claim.
The doubt is very well founded.
QUOTE
"Ahh, an opening," Ranma said, noting where the corrupted energy left it unstable.
That one minor demon made the difference after all
Oddly, I got complaints that I didn't use it enough
QUOTE
"This is my house," Ranma said. "Someone should have told you. All smiting privileges are mine."
Odd no one ever seems to take her seriously, except Mara.
I imagine there are a handful of Gods and Demons over the centuries that have gone missing, assumed sealed by the other side, that are sitting in a human-made cell wondering what the hell went wrong
QUOTE
"She's not very good," the Kraken said, mystified.
Le ouch... Harsh.
When you're obsessed stalker thinks you don't kiss very well...
QUOTE
Which was when Lusca would have started hearing symphony orchestra if she had heard such before.
She will likely be out of it for days.
Hee hee
QUOTE
"You see!" Mara snapped pointing at the various people that had teased her about being afraid of Ranma. "You see?!"
Bwahahaha....
A favorite with a lot of people...for me "GRENADES" is pretty up there in the funny quotient
QUOTE
"Mara, you're supposed to be getting Kaname," Ranma reminded her.
"Right, going," the Demoness of Smoke said.
Wow... Ranma likely could be another Hild in the making.
There is a line coming if I can fit it about "Wow, Mara you REALLY miss Hild, don't you."
episode 245764
QUOTE
Oddly, there were pantyhose tied around his arms.
Oddly, I cannot really see why he would work for them...
He's reasonably mercenary and power hungry for it.
QUOTE
"Come on and try, fiendish mortal!" she shouted with a smirk. "OhhhHOHOHOHO!!"
Another one needing a talk on situational awareness and tactics.
The phrase "I'm invincible" should be banned from the speech of any San....it never goes well for them when they say it.
QUOTE
"Hey, Akira," one of the soldiers shouted toward Tarou.
Would have thought he would have been a bit calmer after the name change.
Left it up in air as to whether he got his name changed.
QUOTE
Shampoo's facial marks flared.
"Moko Takabisha," she said angrily.
So... did Shampoo get the technique by accessing the system to learn it from Deimosu? If she learned it herself, why would the need for the marks to flare come into play?
Ranma created the Moko with help from Cologne, or she could have gotten it from Deimosu, a couple of different options there. The marks flaring were because she put a bit extra power in it just to be sure (Tarou is friggin tough after all). Considering that, Tarou is lucky not to be pancaked.
QUOTE
"5-3+2-32-15+17-1517..."
I have to say, I agree with Mao... that is damned inconvienent, and I would not have thought Souskae up to the task before ascending. One thing though, it might make more sense going forward even if you keep this method, to have the person doing the call to state what it is they are doing for the readers benefit.
Indeed, beyond the spoken numbers there is a lot of subconscious level stuff going on that having Silmaril active makes possible. A lot of background mental processes day-to-day is shared effort across the connected elements(minds) and Silmaril. Conscious thought is a bit less burdened, though probably not an immediately noticeable intelligence boost.
QUOTE
"Labyrinth," the woman in the center said, smiling. "Elizabeth Weir, Atlantis stands ready to take on refugees."
This confused me, are the Ainur, freshly able to telport thanks to Souskae's learning how to do it, able to teleport across a galaxy? Or are they closer, like in orbit?
Something I got after myself for not setting up further...however, it seems to me to fall under a case of "don't explain the midichlorians"
assume that they had worked out a possibility for teleporting but hadn't gotten around to actually testing it
Sousuke proved it worked, then they just passed the word...
QUOTE
"We've had reports that it was anywhere from forty to eighty," Hermes said. "And three hundred or so incapacitated for a time."
Those numbers are not even close to what she herself said in that episode. I interpreted what she said to be 5000...
Original statement was 50 or 100 with 5 times that incapacitated....so 50/250 or 100/500 being the outside.
and this isn't the last time a woman at a party is going to thin the numbers heavily
QUOTE
"Permission to make Aphrodite an enemy, sir," O'Neil said without missing a beat.
Well... Sadly I don't think it matters any more.
Indeed, I had second thoughts about this comment...
QUOTE
"I was hiding, Issei-kun," Mizuki said in a pleading tone. "I was supposed to be hard to find."
Man... she is like a cockroach
I have started to think that when Eris died and went into the normal cycle of souls being reborn entirely, that she came back as Mizuki
QUOTE
"Eija was kinda whispering so no one would here and I'm not entirely sure she was supposed to be telling us
'here' s/b 'hear' I have to wonder though, that while convienent why the heck would info on bolt holes and hideouts and safe house be spoken of where *she* could hear it?
Because she wanted her friends safe JIC....I still want Inaba to trigger a recorded message from Ranma directly aimed at her
QUOTE
Why do I get stuck with all the people who tell me what to do? the Demoness asked. My mother, Geisthexe-san, you.
Act a little more self-controlled, Tessa noted, and you might find less external controls applied. You can't be a violent, tumultuous, overwhelming flow all the time.
I'm kind of glad Tessa is telling her off, as odd as it seems, I think it better and more impact coming from her. This does also answer the question as to where atlantis is... I have to say I'm have a hard time believing that could know to teleport that far.
Yeah, Atlantis is a shard realm in Earth's cosmology like Nifelheim and Asgard, my thought is that it built up over generations, growing in size each time before it got to where it currently is
QUOTE
Wait, you're the secretary, aren't you?"
How insulting... she needs better PR
QUOTE
"Anyway," Shepard noted. "Teyla called her a 'truly graceful lady', you said O'Neil's. All Teal'c would say was that she was 'indeed most impressive'. And the eggheads over there started talking about her physics and engineering work or her references to Lord of the Rings and the 'symbolic nature of choosing a set of images that were created by humans independently of influence by other species'."
Heh... all that praise does not make up for constantly being considered a kid.
QUOTE
"She's a cute little girl," Rodney said.
I should note, he is doing this in front of Wier.... Since she did not call him on it here, I hope she took him aside and did so.
I really like doing the "Captain on deck" bit and having Shepard pretty much immediately going "oh crap"
and yes, Weir does that sort of thing privately...
QUOTE
"Who the hell can mess up an entire Network like this in a couple of months?" some demanded.
As a computer programmer, I can tell you it is extremely easy to mess up a network, considering you also had saboteurs, and counter saboteurs all hacking in, and regular maintenance not done... I'm surprised it works at all.
I used to be comp sci once upon a time, I should know better
episode 245865
QUOTE
"I'd say if that were the case, I was more of an X-Wing fighter," Ranma quipped.
I'm pretty sure that is a strike that and reverse it scenario, since reading it literally makes out Ranma is telling her she is more powerful than him.
Mao has more raw power than Ranma through Silmaril...however, she doesn't have the training to be near as efficient as Ranma is...
Ranma's not even tops in terms of raw power in the canon manga, he's something like fifth down (admittedly, my potentially erroneous estimation)....but he is the most dangerous....
the box does not exist for Ranma, emphasized by the fact that he took the Hiryu Shoten Ha, a technique practiced for thousands of years and never thought possible to apply in more than just a narrow way, and came up with no less than 3 or 4 variations on it in the space of half a year.
QUOTE
"How am I supposed to compete with someone bilingual in the language of bodies, who has spent their lives studying the way the body works?"
She is not being very fair, since at least for his male side, she was likely his first.
This is quite true, but liked the line anyway
QUOTE
"Protesting too much?" he asked.
I have to say, I quite liked the banter between Mao and Ranma. The only issue with the Mao / Ranma relationship is it seemed a bit sudden starting with the aftermath of the Mithril attack.
They started dating about a month before Meridia, I fast forwarded through a bit of that, left it background...
that said, I've noticed relationships are quick to develop in fanfic, even knowing that trend, I fall victim to it...
episode 245880
QUOTE
The Whisper of Souls had been moved, to Atlantis now.
I've been wondering, just when in SG1 and Atlantis canon is this supposed to occur?
well, can't do full SG1/Atlantis canon since they've gone from interplanetary to interdimensional (of a limited nature...they tooling around Earth's rather crowded cosmology), so I'd have to do a whole other fanfic focusing on just them from start up on to make a reliable and acceptable set of changes..
Another one with good bantor going on...
thanks
episode 245891
QUOTE
"Twelve," Deimosu repeated.
Twelve, Yonjuu repeated, nodding.
This was way... way overdue as a explanation to them all... Sad that it came from him... I had actually half expected it from Webber a few episodes prior.
Weighing the options, I wanted this to be a Yonjuu/Deimosu moment...just was waiting to put it in...pretty sure that others have gotten similar warnings for other people....but imagine Yonjuu slipped through the cracks
episode 245897
QUOTE
"Imagine for a moment, it works," Urd said. "Then imagine that they go through all the effort of learning and preparing one of those spells we were just talking about..."
"Oh creator," Mara said, paling.
Bwahahaha... hoist by her own petard.
Hee hee
episode 245921
QUOTE
Eija stopped herself from responding telepathically with Sousuke in the room.
Is there a particular reason it would matter? They should be able to communicate telepathically after all. With Kaname and Eija partially merged, and Kaname and Souskae in the Ainur network, I fail to see why it could not be done at least indirectly.
Politeness on her part...no longer an issue, part of this was to imply that Sousuke was invited to their little psychic link
their core personality and minds are shielded very well, but the part of them that's connected to each other and Silmaril/Yggdrasil is in constant operation and more vulnerable by necessity...so it's possible to get into that...
in Kaname/Eija/Sousuke's case it was invitation/consensual (if accidental) and Sousuke's going to start out being quiet for a bit...
QUOTE
"And you're going after Gauron! I'm not sure which is worse!"
I disagree, without question Gauron is the lesser threat... No matter what, he cannot match the issues involved with routing a entrenched invasion force.
I agree as well, but it's an emotional reaction
episode 245927
QUOTE
"When this is over, they'll ask her to reincarnate, right?" the girl in the glasses asked. "What if you let her go without trying to get past the looney stalkter crush to the real her. And what if you like the real her?"
This puzzles me... Why would they ask Luska, whom is currently a kid due to a combination of reincarnation and being sealed to reincarnate again, just as she finds someone in her life?
I liked the drama, but I'm thinking the time won't be less than thirty or forty years out.
She does have a long period of time aware that's put holes in her mental health. She's still mostly herself, indicating that she's one of the more centered to begin with, but she's likely to be watched/denied power until she reincarnates again to make sure she's not a danger to self/others.
Naiki is still a little hung up on Kyoko and probably using it as an excuse to avoid looking into a serious relationship...
Kyoko is using it as a push
Except to comment on surprise that Zeus would bother with a human attempting to sell him a relative, and hope he gets or got his, I'm not going to comment on this episode since it is of graphic content.
I hate Aoshima....loathe him with a passion...in the course of anime and manga both he has tried to corner and rape Belldandy (who defended herself) and Skuld (who was rescued by a combination of Keiichi and Urd as I remember)
So it is a bit of an author conceit to make him slime, I suppose.
episode 245953
QUOTE
"Stop!" Issei shouted as the girl started to reach for one of the clasps. "This is a hidden stockpile of weapons and occult supplies for a powerful exorcist and feng shih. There's no telling what opening one of those will do!"
Wow... I am impressed, he certainly has come far to know that. Mousse must have been giving him a lot of training and advice.
indeed, shows a lot of growth
QUOTE
"Nabiki went looking for her," Kasumi said in an outwardly mild manner. "Starting with talking to you."
Am I to interpret this to mean that either Nodoka helped Nabiki and caused her to be in China for the breakup, or did not help and it happen, either way making her partially held to blame for endangering her. Ouch...
Keep up the good work, look forward to more.
thanks! I like these long comment dumps of yours, very helpful!
especially since there's always at least one typo that I didn't already know about that you catch...
Skuld looked about herself carefully.
There was electricity judging by the lights in the hallway. Which meant it was connected to the city grid, hopefully. She was still connected to Yggdrasil, but as the guy holding her had said, she didn't really want to risk getting captured in case someone unwanted was listening to
On the plus side, her captor was actually rather professional about things rather than the sort of psychopath she'd heard about under people's breaths.
"What are you looking for?" Skuld asked as he set out her food, some sort of ugly military mush.
"It isn't a concern of yours," Kolya said. "Suffice to say that both groups that will come looking for you have people in their employ that I wish to speak to. My client, likewise, hopes to have his own conversation I understand."
"Okay, so I'm bait then?" she asked.
"Yes," Kolya noted. "Now, if you behave, then my old acquaintances come and one group wins and you end up a lab experiment somewhere, the other group wins and you're rescued, or I win and I let you go."
She looked at him doubtfully.
"You'd just let me go?" she asked.
"I have no interest in a sixteen year old girl, regardless of how special she may be," the man said. "Now, you'll be tempted to help the team coming to rescue you. I am not sure you've actually met them however, so I wonder if you'll be able to tell the team that'll turn you into an experiment from the one that will come to rescue you."
Frowning, Skuld poked at her food and picked up a packet that blasphemously called itself ice cream.
"You're a jerk," Skuld said irritably, trying to cover her fear with bravado.
"Yes, but at least I am honest and have limits," he said. "Unlike some of the individuals interested in you."
*************
As the door opened, Sayoko was surprised to find Aoishima stepping inside with a smug expression and flanked by a pair of guards.
She stood up and was halfway across the room before the US air force lieutenant stepped forward to intercept her.
"I see that you're upset with me," her cousin said.
Sayoko straightened herself, staying behind the human that had come forward.
"You might say that, Aoishima," she said bitterly.
She flinched slightly at the near constant headache she'd had since...her audience with Zeus, and reached up to note that her marks were bleeding again.
"Well, it is your own fault," he noted. "I understand that you, personally, advised against giving me even a chance of becoming Ainur."
Melinoe stepped forward to come up beside Sayoko and hold her shoulders. Nyx stayed with Meryl, and the handful of remaining women stepped forward around Sayoko and the guards.
"You...betrayed me because I wouldn't recommend you," Sayoko said evenly.
"You did more than that," Aoishima said. "You outright told them not to let me near it."
Sayoko gestured to herself and shouted.
"Is there any question why?!" she demanded and gripped her forehead again.
"Keep calm, Miss Mishima," the air force lieutenant noted firmly. "You know what the Goddess said."
"Why are you here, human," Melinoe asked coolly.
"I just wanted to see my cousin and explain to her just my reasoning," Aoishima said. "You see, the Imperials left that Whisper of Souls machine a mess, but I'm thinking Zeus is getting ready to put together a replacement, once that's done, I'll have my immortality."
"You idiot," Nyx said. "Zeus is doomed. He's desperate and just buying time, you'll go down with him."
"He has no intention of being around when things go wrong," Sayoko said.
"Don't guess Sayoko," Aoishima said, glancing toward the two Gods flanking him. "It doesn't become you."
"Lord Zeus has already decided as much, actually," one of the guards said.
"What was that?" Aoishima asked.
He turned to look and saw the two guards leaving the room calmly.
"Lord Zeus tells you to consider this a gift Lady Sayoko," the other noted. "Zeus partially agrees with you. A mortal should not presume to treat an Immortal the way he has treated you."
"Do you expect us to beat him to death?" Sayoko asked.
"For a little while," the first guard said. "We'll relax the bounds of your power in this room, not enough to get out, of course, but enough for some retribution."
Aoishima turned frantically from the closing door to look at the women around him.
Sayoko grimaced darkly and leaned over to whisper into Melinoe's ear.
"It can be done," the Goddess said.
Then the woman started chanting and tracing runes in the air as Sayoko stepped forward.
"I'm giving you a warning because we're blood, cousin," she said darkly under her breath. "But once you open that door, get away from the palace before an hour is up and stay out of sight."
"Who are you to tell what I should do?" Aoishima asked as the Goddess finished her spell and the energy washed over Aoishima.
"Trust me on this one if we see you back in this room, you won't willingly like it," Sayoko said meaningfully.
Aoishima looked confused towards the Goddess and back to Sayoko and the other women.
"Why would I ever be back in this..." his pupils shrank in fear then as he saw the mana fading away and he considered a possibility.
Melinoe walked to the door and knocked on it.
When the door opened, Aoishima was running out of it with them laughing.
He didn't stop running until he was out of breath and far out of the palace where Zeus had set up, most of the servants and Gods ignoring the fleeing mortal.
Resting and laughing at his own panic, he was started to calm down as the hour came to an end.
And the next time he looked into a mirror, there was a woman standing there.
*************
Kasumi checked over the rolls of bandages quietly humming to herself as she made sure they were in good condition. Satisfied, she started to measure out a length, holding a pair of scissors in one hand.
"Mrs Ono," one of the kids in the shelter asked, coming up to her. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm just preparing," she said in a friendly manner. "Someone might need help, after all. Can you do me a favor and sort through those uniforms there and see which ones are clean?"
"I guess," he said. "Where are these uniforms for?"
Behind them, unnoticed amongst the other people, Nodoka Saotome struggled to her feet and started quietly walking her way out of the main, large room where everybody had settled.
***************
Mizuki, bandana wrapped around her face as if she were some sort of ninja, flattened dramatically against a wall as two nervous looking men walked out of the building she was trying to get into. There was a small cloth bag held on a bandolier about her chest, something she'd picked up from her locker.
Beside her, dressed normally, Issei was standing more casually by her side and rolling his eyes as the two men, not guards, walked out toward the parking lot.
Mizuki crept along the edge of the wall, Issei walking behind her and gripping the bridge of his nose, and pushed inside, immediately rolling for cover to the side.
There was neither cover nor a reason for it.
"Inaba, what are you..." he started to ask.
"Shh," Mizuki said. "They might hear you."
"The building is just about empty," he noted. "Though it should be guarded."
"Yeah, this one's a lot easier to sneak into than the one I was planning to go to," Mizuki said moving toward the currently vacant security desk. "You really have to get that circle thingy working better."
"Apparently long distances is easier tha..." Issei paused in speech. "Why were you sneaking into a power substation or do I want to know?"
"College entrance exams," Mizuki said.
"You're sixteen," he said.
"I know, I like to be prepared," the girl said, sitting in the desk and flipping randomly through camera sights.
"What does a power sub-station have to do with a test two years from now?" the martial artist demanded.
"Just in case they use IR beams," Mizuki said. "So I can cut the power."
"IR beams? Wha...?" he thought about it a moment. "Are you planning to heist the test answers?"
"No!" Mizuki said. "That would be cheating."
"Then..." he waved his hand helplessly.
"I'm going to scramble the grading machines and destroy the test sheets," she said. "Then I get a retest."
Issei stared at her, blinking.
"Have you ever thought about studying?" he asked.
"Come on!" she said. "It's two years away, I have to get ready."
She finished fiddling with the security desk and stood up, stretching loudly until she remembered that she was supposed to be a ninja.
"Shhh," she said, tiptoeing down the middle of the hall, pantomiming holding the sword Issei hadn't allowed her to bring.
The martial artist put a palm to his face.
He followed her to a door, noticing her peek up into the window cautiously. The comment on his mouth died when he saw a God and Goddess in the room "examining" each other. He ducked down under the window pulling Mizuki down with him.
"Are you insane?"
"I think they're a little too busy to pay attention," Mizuki whispered. "Besides, aren't you one of them now? You can beat them up right?"
"And bring the other fifty to eighty thousand of them running," Issei noted, he glanced up into the window again, blushing red as he did so. "Is that what you want?"
"Well, not right away," Mizuki said, taking a small box out of her bag and opened it up.
Issei looked down in time to see a couple of pieces of paper shift into butterflies and fly up off a smaller box. One flew up into the air and then sputtered into flame as it tried to cross the dimensional boundaries. The other flittered up to Mizuki's face...and stuck to it before unfolding out into parchment again.
The martial artist quickly covered Mizuki's mouth to prevent her from crying out and then pulled the parchment off her face, noting the angry look steaming out from underneath.
"Inaba. If you aren't in a life threatening situation and need to hide right now, Eija's grounded and your life is going to be...interesting," Issei read. "If you are in a life-threatening situation, the little box will give you a distraction after about ten seconds."
"Ooo, distraction," Mizuki whispered, looking back behind her at the sounds going on there. "I should have brought more of these. I wonder what it does."
Issei and Mizuki looked over it curiously, noting all the spirals worked into the outer carvings of the box inside the box.
"Let's save it for after we get further into this place," Issei said. "These two are obviously the guards so we should be able to do whatever it is you have in mind."
Right, Mizuki said, sneaking off down the hallway as quietly as she could. This time, much as it galled him, Issei did likewise until they were a few turns further into the building.
They came to something like a control and saw about three nervous technicians inside, playing cards or something.
"Hmmm," Mizuki said, tossing the little box up and down as she considered what to do.
Issei snatched it as soon as he saw what she was doing and glared at her.
"Okay," Mizuki said, reaching into her bag again and pulling out a small bottle with netting on top of an uncorked top...inside were a number of angry looking hornets.
"How did you..." Issei asked.
"I smoked them unconscious and tweezered them in," she said off-handedly. "Been trying to keep them fed...think some of them died...ehh."
With the eh, she opened the door and tossed the bottle in hard and then sat around the corner.
Issei blinked and then moved around to join her just as the men in the control room came running out chased by a small, splitting swarm.
Mizuki was inside the room quickly and starting to push buttons and twist dials all over the place.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" he asked.
"I told you my plan wasn't ready yet, but I know red-lines are bad," Mizuki said. "Sooo..."
Issei pondered that for a moment as he watched her go from station to station fiddling until things started reaching danger levels.
"You are insane," he said.
And then she started running out the door, grabbing his arm and pulling him with her. She almost stopped dead in the attempt, but he was moving not long after her and both were running down the hall way as alarms started going off in the building.
Heading back to the parking lot they ran bolt past the two confused and angered Gods, who watched them and then back into the hallway, slow to react.
"We could use that distraction!" Mizuki shouted.
Issei was already pulling it out of his pocket and opening before casting it behind him. The action giving him a peek back just in time to react and tackle Mizuki to the ground before a stream of summoned spears could skewer either her or him.
Scrambling back to his feet, Issei hauled Mizuki up as the girl reached into her bag and pulled out a bag of what looked like marbles which she tossed behind her.
The Goddess running after them tripped on the small round spheres and landed firmly on her jar as Issei and Mizuki fled out the door.
Behind them, Ranma's sealed tornado ripped into existence in the hallway, pulling both Gods in and set them to spinning within the small funnel for much longer than Issei and Mizuki needed to get away.
Issei and Mizuki didn't stop running until they were well up a hill and able to look down and see other people had fled the building.
The building which otherwise looked just fine.
"So, is anything going to..." Mizuki started to ask.
And then the first of several explosions ripped through the building. All around them throughout the night, power shut off. and below, explosions were still moving throughout the station.
"Now let's try that circle thing to get back to the school," Mizuki said meekly.
"I have a better idea," a new voice said. "Tell me where to go and I'll take you there without need of experimentation."
Both turned to see a Demon standing there and stepping in between them.
************
Far to the south, smoke and darkness wrapped about several forms as they dropped through the air slowly, landing in shadows in the wild parts of Kyushu.
"All right," Groseaux said. "Remember, leave any active Mantle to the Ainur or Gods with us..."
Someone cleared a throat.
"Correction, Asgardians," he said with a smile, remembering some of the Demons were connected to Yggdrasil. "If you have to take on a Mantle, evidence is that if they distracted even small arms is good enough. Everybody has the right ammo, the armor piercing will still be difficult. Naiki Satomi could survive 50 cal while she was still half-human due to training. So don't be shy about explosives."
He looked around.
"Any questions?" he asked, receiving none, he nodded. "Then let's go secure some civilian populations."
They weren't the only group slipping in with the benefit of shadows and darkness that conveniently did not inhibit anyone else.
**************
Wraith and her team ducked into a looted department store as the explosion in the distance spurred the Mantles they'd been...modifying according to Moloch's instructions.
The three machines got started as their pilots entered into them and started to run down the street.
The now familiar shimmer of a mana aura limned each of the three Mantles briefly before they erupted one after another into bursts of uncontrolled energy and fire.
"Well, makes sense the Demon would know how to sabotage a God's machine," one of the soldiers said.
Wraith moved up to a second floor to look out toward the other three target points and was pleased to note explosions in that direction as well. Then she focused on the explosion that had likely attracted the attention.
"A power substation," she noted. "Could be one of Geisthexe's shadows."
Moving down to the floor she looked to the soldiers around her.
"Let's go, looks like Moloch, Tofu and Seina's groups were successful as well," she said. "But that still leaves all the Mantles around Japan or that were already active to come track us down."
Nodding, the small group of saboteurs took to the back alleys and started moving casually through the night time streets, made even darker as they passed through the region now denied power.
It was morning with a dawning sun before they were climbing up the trail to the entrance of their safehouse.
Coming down, she found Moloch already there.
"The Ono woman is out," he said seriously. "Apparently that old cursed woman wandered out to."
"Tsh, Ono probably went to get the other to come back," Wraith said. "Hopefully she's fine, seemed sensible enough otherwise. Anything else?"
********
Akane stood outside the bridge of her destroyer, normally she'd be inside, but for the moment, she was part of the defense system. She hadn't accepted the offer for becoming Ainur yet.
She understood Mariko's reasoning, the woman had already been thinking about taking on Kodachi. Shampoo had said something about stopping the biological clock. She and Ryuu, like Kasumi and Tofu, wanted to see whether their children would be able to accept the process.
"Approaching Kyushu," her XO said. "Those Mithril people better know what they're about, otherwise we'll be having a slaughter of civilians on our hands."
Akane passed a peach from hand to hand as she answered.
"We'd all better be sure of what we're doing," Akane said.
There was electricity judging by the lights in the hallway. Which meant it was connected to the city grid, hopefully. She was still connected to Yggdrasil, but as the guy holding her had said, she didn't really want to risk getting captured in case someone unwanted was listening to
On the plus side, her captor was actually rather professional about things rather than the sort of psychopath she'd heard about under people's breaths.
"What are you looking for?" Skuld asked as he set out her food, some sort of ugly military mush.
"It isn't a concern of yours," Kolya said. "Suffice to say that both groups that will come looking for you have people in their employ that I wish to speak to. My client, likewise, hopes to have his own conversation I understand."
"Okay, so I'm bait then?" she asked.
"Yes," Kolya noted. "Now, if you behave, then my old acquaintances come and one group wins and you end up a lab experiment somewhere, the other group wins and you're rescued, or I win and I let you go."
She looked at him doubtfully.
"You'd just let me go?" she asked.
"I have no interest in a sixteen year old girl, regardless of how special she may be," the man said. "Now, you'll be tempted to help the team coming to rescue you. I am not sure you've actually met them however, so I wonder if you'll be able to tell the team that'll turn you into an experiment from the one that will come to rescue you."
Frowning, Skuld poked at her food and picked up a packet that blasphemously called itself ice cream.
"You're a jerk," Skuld said irritably, trying to cover her fear with bravado.
"Yes, but at least I am honest and have limits," he said. "Unlike some of the individuals interested in you."
*************
As the door opened, Sayoko was surprised to find Aoishima stepping inside with a smug expression and flanked by a pair of guards.
She stood up and was halfway across the room before the US air force lieutenant stepped forward to intercept her.
"I see that you're upset with me," her cousin said.
Sayoko straightened herself, staying behind the human that had come forward.
"You might say that, Aoishima," she said bitterly.
She flinched slightly at the near constant headache she'd had since...her audience with Zeus, and reached up to note that her marks were bleeding again.
"Well, it is your own fault," he noted. "I understand that you, personally, advised against giving me even a chance of becoming Ainur."
Melinoe stepped forward to come up beside Sayoko and hold her shoulders. Nyx stayed with Meryl, and the handful of remaining women stepped forward around Sayoko and the guards.
"You...betrayed me because I wouldn't recommend you," Sayoko said evenly.
"You did more than that," Aoishima said. "You outright told them not to let me near it."
Sayoko gestured to herself and shouted.
"Is there any question why?!" she demanded and gripped her forehead again.
"Keep calm, Miss Mishima," the air force lieutenant noted firmly. "You know what the Goddess said."
"Why are you here, human," Melinoe asked coolly.
"I just wanted to see my cousin and explain to her just my reasoning," Aoishima said. "You see, the Imperials left that Whisper of Souls machine a mess, but I'm thinking Zeus is getting ready to put together a replacement, once that's done, I'll have my immortality."
"You idiot," Nyx said. "Zeus is doomed. He's desperate and just buying time, you'll go down with him."
"He has no intention of being around when things go wrong," Sayoko said.
"Don't guess Sayoko," Aoishima said, glancing toward the two Gods flanking him. "It doesn't become you."
"Lord Zeus has already decided as much, actually," one of the guards said.
"What was that?" Aoishima asked.
He turned to look and saw the two guards leaving the room calmly.
"Lord Zeus tells you to consider this a gift Lady Sayoko," the other noted. "Zeus partially agrees with you. A mortal should not presume to treat an Immortal the way he has treated you."
"Do you expect us to beat him to death?" Sayoko asked.
"For a little while," the first guard said. "We'll relax the bounds of your power in this room, not enough to get out, of course, but enough for some retribution."
Aoishima turned frantically from the closing door to look at the women around him.
Sayoko grimaced darkly and leaned over to whisper into Melinoe's ear.
"It can be done," the Goddess said.
Then the woman started chanting and tracing runes in the air as Sayoko stepped forward.
"I'm giving you a warning because we're blood, cousin," she said darkly under her breath. "But once you open that door, get away from the palace before an hour is up and stay out of sight."
"Who are you to tell what I should do?" Aoishima asked as the Goddess finished her spell and the energy washed over Aoishima.
"Trust me on this one if we see you back in this room, you won't willingly like it," Sayoko said meaningfully.
Aoishima looked confused towards the Goddess and back to Sayoko and the other women.
"Why would I ever be back in this..." his pupils shrank in fear then as he saw the mana fading away and he considered a possibility.
Melinoe walked to the door and knocked on it.
When the door opened, Aoishima was running out of it with them laughing.
He didn't stop running until he was out of breath and far out of the palace where Zeus had set up, most of the servants and Gods ignoring the fleeing mortal.
Resting and laughing at his own panic, he was started to calm down as the hour came to an end.
And the next time he looked into a mirror, there was a woman standing there.
*************
Kasumi checked over the rolls of bandages quietly humming to herself as she made sure they were in good condition. Satisfied, she started to measure out a length, holding a pair of scissors in one hand.
"Mrs Ono," one of the kids in the shelter asked, coming up to her. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm just preparing," she said in a friendly manner. "Someone might need help, after all. Can you do me a favor and sort through those uniforms there and see which ones are clean?"
"I guess," he said. "Where are these uniforms for?"
Behind them, unnoticed amongst the other people, Nodoka Saotome struggled to her feet and started quietly walking her way out of the main, large room where everybody had settled.
***************
Mizuki, bandana wrapped around her face as if she were some sort of ninja, flattened dramatically against a wall as two nervous looking men walked out of the building she was trying to get into. There was a small cloth bag held on a bandolier about her chest, something she'd picked up from her locker.
Beside her, dressed normally, Issei was standing more casually by her side and rolling his eyes as the two men, not guards, walked out toward the parking lot.
Mizuki crept along the edge of the wall, Issei walking behind her and gripping the bridge of his nose, and pushed inside, immediately rolling for cover to the side.
There was neither cover nor a reason for it.
"Inaba, what are you..." he started to ask.
"Shh," Mizuki said. "They might hear you."
"The building is just about empty," he noted. "Though it should be guarded."
"Yeah, this one's a lot easier to sneak into than the one I was planning to go to," Mizuki said moving toward the currently vacant security desk. "You really have to get that circle thingy working better."
"Apparently long distances is easier tha..." Issei paused in speech. "Why were you sneaking into a power substation or do I want to know?"
"College entrance exams," Mizuki said.
"You're sixteen," he said.
"I know, I like to be prepared," the girl said, sitting in the desk and flipping randomly through camera sights.
"What does a power sub-station have to do with a test two years from now?" the martial artist demanded.
"Just in case they use IR beams," Mizuki said. "So I can cut the power."
"IR beams? Wha...?" he thought about it a moment. "Are you planning to heist the test answers?"
"No!" Mizuki said. "That would be cheating."
"Then..." he waved his hand helplessly.
"I'm going to scramble the grading machines and destroy the test sheets," she said. "Then I get a retest."
Issei stared at her, blinking.
"Have you ever thought about studying?" he asked.
"Come on!" she said. "It's two years away, I have to get ready."
She finished fiddling with the security desk and stood up, stretching loudly until she remembered that she was supposed to be a ninja.
"Shhh," she said, tiptoeing down the middle of the hall, pantomiming holding the sword Issei hadn't allowed her to bring.
The martial artist put a palm to his face.
He followed her to a door, noticing her peek up into the window cautiously. The comment on his mouth died when he saw a God and Goddess in the room "examining" each other. He ducked down under the window pulling Mizuki down with him.
"Are you insane?"
"I think they're a little too busy to pay attention," Mizuki whispered. "Besides, aren't you one of them now? You can beat them up right?"
"And bring the other fifty to eighty thousand of them running," Issei noted, he glanced up into the window again, blushing red as he did so. "Is that what you want?"
"Well, not right away," Mizuki said, taking a small box out of her bag and opened it up.
Issei looked down in time to see a couple of pieces of paper shift into butterflies and fly up off a smaller box. One flew up into the air and then sputtered into flame as it tried to cross the dimensional boundaries. The other flittered up to Mizuki's face...and stuck to it before unfolding out into parchment again.
The martial artist quickly covered Mizuki's mouth to prevent her from crying out and then pulled the parchment off her face, noting the angry look steaming out from underneath.
"Inaba. If you aren't in a life threatening situation and need to hide right now, Eija's grounded and your life is going to be...interesting," Issei read. "If you are in a life-threatening situation, the little box will give you a distraction after about ten seconds."
"Ooo, distraction," Mizuki whispered, looking back behind her at the sounds going on there. "I should have brought more of these. I wonder what it does."
Issei and Mizuki looked over it curiously, noting all the spirals worked into the outer carvings of the box inside the box.
"Let's save it for after we get further into this place," Issei said. "These two are obviously the guards so we should be able to do whatever it is you have in mind."
Right, Mizuki said, sneaking off down the hallway as quietly as she could. This time, much as it galled him, Issei did likewise until they were a few turns further into the building.
They came to something like a control and saw about three nervous technicians inside, playing cards or something.
"Hmmm," Mizuki said, tossing the little box up and down as she considered what to do.
Issei snatched it as soon as he saw what she was doing and glared at her.
"Okay," Mizuki said, reaching into her bag again and pulling out a small bottle with netting on top of an uncorked top...inside were a number of angry looking hornets.
"How did you..." Issei asked.
"I smoked them unconscious and tweezered them in," she said off-handedly. "Been trying to keep them fed...think some of them died...ehh."
With the eh, she opened the door and tossed the bottle in hard and then sat around the corner.
Issei blinked and then moved around to join her just as the men in the control room came running out chased by a small, splitting swarm.
Mizuki was inside the room quickly and starting to push buttons and twist dials all over the place.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" he asked.
"I told you my plan wasn't ready yet, but I know red-lines are bad," Mizuki said. "Sooo..."
Issei pondered that for a moment as he watched her go from station to station fiddling until things started reaching danger levels.
"You are insane," he said.
And then she started running out the door, grabbing his arm and pulling him with her. She almost stopped dead in the attempt, but he was moving not long after her and both were running down the hall way as alarms started going off in the building.
Heading back to the parking lot they ran bolt past the two confused and angered Gods, who watched them and then back into the hallway, slow to react.
"We could use that distraction!" Mizuki shouted.
Issei was already pulling it out of his pocket and opening before casting it behind him. The action giving him a peek back just in time to react and tackle Mizuki to the ground before a stream of summoned spears could skewer either her or him.
Scrambling back to his feet, Issei hauled Mizuki up as the girl reached into her bag and pulled out a bag of what looked like marbles which she tossed behind her.
The Goddess running after them tripped on the small round spheres and landed firmly on her jar as Issei and Mizuki fled out the door.
Behind them, Ranma's sealed tornado ripped into existence in the hallway, pulling both Gods in and set them to spinning within the small funnel for much longer than Issei and Mizuki needed to get away.
Issei and Mizuki didn't stop running until they were well up a hill and able to look down and see other people had fled the building.
The building which otherwise looked just fine.
"So, is anything going to..." Mizuki started to ask.
And then the first of several explosions ripped through the building. All around them throughout the night, power shut off. and below, explosions were still moving throughout the station.
"Now let's try that circle thing to get back to the school," Mizuki said meekly.
"I have a better idea," a new voice said. "Tell me where to go and I'll take you there without need of experimentation."
Both turned to see a Demon standing there and stepping in between them.
************
Far to the south, smoke and darkness wrapped about several forms as they dropped through the air slowly, landing in shadows in the wild parts of Kyushu.
"All right," Groseaux said. "Remember, leave any active Mantle to the Ainur or Gods with us..."
Someone cleared a throat.
"Correction, Asgardians," he said with a smile, remembering some of the Demons were connected to Yggdrasil. "If you have to take on a Mantle, evidence is that if they distracted even small arms is good enough. Everybody has the right ammo, the armor piercing will still be difficult. Naiki Satomi could survive 50 cal while she was still half-human due to training. So don't be shy about explosives."
He looked around.
"Any questions?" he asked, receiving none, he nodded. "Then let's go secure some civilian populations."
They weren't the only group slipping in with the benefit of shadows and darkness that conveniently did not inhibit anyone else.
**************
Wraith and her team ducked into a looted department store as the explosion in the distance spurred the Mantles they'd been...modifying according to Moloch's instructions.
The three machines got started as their pilots entered into them and started to run down the street.
The now familiar shimmer of a mana aura limned each of the three Mantles briefly before they erupted one after another into bursts of uncontrolled energy and fire.
"Well, makes sense the Demon would know how to sabotage a God's machine," one of the soldiers said.
Wraith moved up to a second floor to look out toward the other three target points and was pleased to note explosions in that direction as well. Then she focused on the explosion that had likely attracted the attention.
"A power substation," she noted. "Could be one of Geisthexe's shadows."
Moving down to the floor she looked to the soldiers around her.
"Let's go, looks like Moloch, Tofu and Seina's groups were successful as well," she said. "But that still leaves all the Mantles around Japan or that were already active to come track us down."
Nodding, the small group of saboteurs took to the back alleys and started moving casually through the night time streets, made even darker as they passed through the region now denied power.
It was morning with a dawning sun before they were climbing up the trail to the entrance of their safehouse.
Coming down, she found Moloch already there.
"The Ono woman is out," he said seriously. "Apparently that old cursed woman wandered out to."
"Tsh, Ono probably went to get the other to come back," Wraith said. "Hopefully she's fine, seemed sensible enough otherwise. Anything else?"
********
Akane stood outside the bridge of her destroyer, normally she'd be inside, but for the moment, she was part of the defense system. She hadn't accepted the offer for becoming Ainur yet.
She understood Mariko's reasoning, the woman had already been thinking about taking on Kodachi. Shampoo had said something about stopping the biological clock. She and Ryuu, like Kasumi and Tofu, wanted to see whether their children would be able to accept the process.
"Approaching Kyushu," her XO said. "Those Mithril people better know what they're about, otherwise we'll be having a slaughter of civilians on our hands."
Akane passed a peach from hand to hand as she answered.
"We'd all better be sure of what we're doing," Akane said.
Ahh... it came across as panting as she spoke, and thus not a second guess on the range, but a single spread number, I had the Hild battle in mind when reading that as well, and from the impress was giving to thinking huge numbers.
The Atlantis location explanation clears things up for me, since you've completely redone its location... While that messes with the how the stargate network works in my eyes, it is not worth pursuing as it is not relevent to this story.
As to the "Greneades" comment being funny, it was, I just thought the Mara scene moreso.
As to the potential upcoming Mara crack on really missing Hild... given your propensity for multimatches in this story, I would find it more appropriate were Mara to become the third hub in a Ranma/Mara/Mao matchup... I could see it, but am doubtful it would happen.
Your comments on Ranma's power make sense, but what no one realizes in this story, and continually causes those she works with to underestimate her, is that Ranma has a long history of beating those with more raw power than her. Given 16+ years of working to prep herself and her kids for a potential 2nd assault by those that beat her, she should be ready for most anything. The only one up to now to really take it into account besides her kids seems to be Mara and maybe Tessa.
EDIT:
The problems with commenting on this story here mainly revolve on the speed of the updates (which I like, but makes individual commentary hard), and the fact you simultaneously post here in preview and on AA, sometimes AA first, and FF shortly after.
I realize you stated they are both the scratch forums for the FF version, but most do not work it that way.
The Atlantis location explanation clears things up for me, since you've completely redone its location... While that messes with the how the stargate network works in my eyes, it is not worth pursuing as it is not relevent to this story.
As to the "Greneades" comment being funny, it was, I just thought the Mara scene moreso.
As to the potential upcoming Mara crack on really missing Hild... given your propensity for multimatches in this story, I would find it more appropriate were Mara to become the third hub in a Ranma/Mara/Mao matchup... I could see it, but am doubtful it would happen.
Your comments on Ranma's power make sense, but what no one realizes in this story, and continually causes those she works with to underestimate her, is that Ranma has a long history of beating those with more raw power than her. Given 16+ years of working to prep herself and her kids for a potential 2nd assault by those that beat her, she should be ready for most anything. The only one up to now to really take it into account besides her kids seems to be Mara and maybe Tessa.
EDIT:
The problems with commenting on this story here mainly revolve on the speed of the updates (which I like, but makes individual commentary hard), and the fact you simultaneously post here in preview and on AA, sometimes AA first, and FF shortly after.
I realize you stated they are both the scratch forums for the FF version, but most do not work it that way.
I don't have a problem with the long ones, nice to get occasionally...
note: I'm writing the fanfic in between my work for Jeonyu International Film Festival...hopefully, I'll have more work for them (or someone else)
At this moment, I'm at about a month and half worth of bills in the last two weeks
hopefully, more films come and I can build up three or four months before the film festival season dries up until summer
The Atlantis location explanation clears things up for me, since you've completely redone its location... While that messes with the how the stargate network works in my eyes, it is not worth pursuing as it is not relevent to this story.
It's not so much a network....
basically, they've collected various artifacts that act as doorways into one place so that they can funnel interdimensional travel through one doorway as much as possible
other artifacts exist on other shards leading to other shards and some of those are less able to be moved, plus, they're still outside the primary gate so not as much of a concern
Gods, Demons and now Ainur cheat by owning their own cars rather than taking the subway, but even then, they can be put somewhere with no roads
note: I'm writing the fanfic in between my work for Jeonyu International Film Festival...hopefully, I'll have more work for them (or someone else)
At this moment, I'm at about a month and half worth of bills in the last two weeks
hopefully, more films come and I can build up three or four months before the film festival season dries up until summer
The Atlantis location explanation clears things up for me, since you've completely redone its location... While that messes with the how the stargate network works in my eyes, it is not worth pursuing as it is not relevent to this story.
It's not so much a network....
basically, they've collected various artifacts that act as doorways into one place so that they can funnel interdimensional travel through one doorway as much as possible
other artifacts exist on other shards leading to other shards and some of those are less able to be moved, plus, they're still outside the primary gate so not as much of a concern
Gods, Demons and now Ainur cheat by owning their own cars rather than taking the subway, but even then, they can be put somewhere with no roads
Early the same morning, as various naval craft were approaching the shore of Japan, Second Lieutenant Mao and Sergeant Weber were waiting outside for Sergeant Sagara to answer one of their knocks.
"What the hell is taking him so long?" Mao wondered idly.
"If this were me, you'd be screaming at the top of your lungs by now," Kurz noted.
"Yeah, but it's Sagara," Melissa said. "It isn't like he's prone to...
She stopped as Sousuke appeared down the hallway and walked up to the door as Kurz and Mao watched.
"Second Lieutenant Mao," he said, coming to attention and snapping a salute.
"Sergeant Sagara," Mao said. "Why aren't you in your assigned quarters getting ready?"
"There was an...errand that needed attending to," Sousuke said, clearly sweating nervously.
Kurz and Melissa shared a look and took in the rumpled appearance of the young mercenary's clothes including signs of lipstick on the collar.
Melissa pinched the bridge of her nose and stepped out of the way of the door gesturing for him to go inside.
"Excuse me," he said. "I shall be ready shortly."
And Sousuke vanished into the room, leaving Kurz and Melissa outside.
"You think..." Kurz asked.
"I'd rather not think about it," Mao muttered, wondering what she should tell Ranma.
*************
"Eija!" Naiki said in relief as her sister appeared down the hallway. "There you are, what's tak..."
"I was saying my good..." Eija started to say, pushing her loose sleeves up on her arms underneath her jacket.
Naiki stopped and leaned forward as Eija came closer, taking a long breath of air through her nose and then shifting about to circle around her sister, sniffing and examining the Jindai high uniform she was still wearing.
"Is there something wrong?" Eija asked nervously.
"Okay! We're going to the shower and getting new clothes," Naiki said. "We still got some time before we're expected."
"What?" the Goddess asked in surprise. "What is wrong?"
"Unless you want 'Kaasan to know," Naiki said.
"Know what?" Eija asked, blushing furiously as she was pulled into her room by Naiki.
**************
"This is going to take forever," Demon complained at his console. "With everything that's been going on, it'll take us months to clear this up completely."
"We don't need this completely clear yet," Mara said. "Just enough to kick the remaining bad seeds out and step up to the big leagues."
At that point, Kaname came in the room in a circle of energy. She was pulling at her blouse collar underneath her jacket. It was very clearly tight around her neck even though it hadn't been buttoned all the way.
"Sorry, I'm late," she said. "I had trouble with my clothes, they feel like they shrank or something."
Mara arched an eyebrow at Kaname as Megumi stood up and walked forward.
"Mind if I check something?" the other Ainur in the room asked.
"Uhh what do you want to check?" Kaname asked a clear expression of confusion on her face.
Megumi started to lift up one corner of Kaname's blouse collar and then another.
"It's usually under one of thes....ah here," Megumi said. "E. S. Roman letters by the way."
Kaname started to blush brightly.
"We must have gotten them mixed up in...the shower," Kaname said, flushing brightly. "I'll be right back."
Mara slapped a palm to her face and shook her head as Kaname vanished back to Atlantis. And then she thumped her head into a desk.
***************
When Kaname appeared again, dressed in Atlantis expedition clothing now, she walked past everybody and sat down across from Megumi who was watching her with a smirk.
"Are you ready to get started now?" Mara asked.
"Yeah, you can say that," Kaname noted.
And then, Kaname took a deep breath and simply leaned back, eyes closed.
Mara and the other Demons as well as Megumi blinked in confusion for a moment, and then the blonde Demoness's eyes snapped wide.
"Go get me some of the Shadows up in the front!" Mara snapped. "Tell them to follow us in."
"Follo..."
*************
Kaname paused as she slipped through the Silmaril network as she found a trail of what seemed to be mana crackling about as if it were some sort of lightning or electricity.
It wasn't coming from Eija, because it would have to come through Kaname first then. Then she realized that Deimosu must have been moving about and he had mana of his own.
The delay that moment of consideration gave her, however, was enough for Mara to beat her into the section of Nidhog's network that could be entered through Tessa and Naiki.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Mara demanded angrily. "Are you really planning to attack Nidhog alone? Did you hit your head? Did you have some sort of personality exchange with Naiki?"
"No, no," Kaname said angrily. "I'm thinking this through! There's no way we're going to get anywhere up there through those consoles. So let's deal with all damages from here!"
Mara sighed and stepped out Kaname's way, letting the Ainur girl into Nidhog fully and revealing the damaged and twisted throughout the mindscape as far as the eye could see.
"Okay..." Kaname said, surprised. "That's a bit bigger then I thought it was."
"What the hell is taking him so long?" Mao wondered idly.
"If this were me, you'd be screaming at the top of your lungs by now," Kurz noted.
"Yeah, but it's Sagara," Melissa said. "It isn't like he's prone to...
She stopped as Sousuke appeared down the hallway and walked up to the door as Kurz and Mao watched.
"Second Lieutenant Mao," he said, coming to attention and snapping a salute.
"Sergeant Sagara," Mao said. "Why aren't you in your assigned quarters getting ready?"
"There was an...errand that needed attending to," Sousuke said, clearly sweating nervously.
Kurz and Melissa shared a look and took in the rumpled appearance of the young mercenary's clothes including signs of lipstick on the collar.
Melissa pinched the bridge of her nose and stepped out of the way of the door gesturing for him to go inside.
"Excuse me," he said. "I shall be ready shortly."
And Sousuke vanished into the room, leaving Kurz and Melissa outside.
"You think..." Kurz asked.
"I'd rather not think about it," Mao muttered, wondering what she should tell Ranma.
*************
"Eija!" Naiki said in relief as her sister appeared down the hallway. "There you are, what's tak..."
"I was saying my good..." Eija started to say, pushing her loose sleeves up on her arms underneath her jacket.
Naiki stopped and leaned forward as Eija came closer, taking a long breath of air through her nose and then shifting about to circle around her sister, sniffing and examining the Jindai high uniform she was still wearing.
"Is there something wrong?" Eija asked nervously.
"Okay! We're going to the shower and getting new clothes," Naiki said. "We still got some time before we're expected."
"What?" the Goddess asked in surprise. "What is wrong?"
"Unless you want 'Kaasan to know," Naiki said.
"Know what?" Eija asked, blushing furiously as she was pulled into her room by Naiki.
**************
"This is going to take forever," Demon complained at his console. "With everything that's been going on, it'll take us months to clear this up completely."
"We don't need this completely clear yet," Mara said. "Just enough to kick the remaining bad seeds out and step up to the big leagues."
At that point, Kaname came in the room in a circle of energy. She was pulling at her blouse collar underneath her jacket. It was very clearly tight around her neck even though it hadn't been buttoned all the way.
"Sorry, I'm late," she said. "I had trouble with my clothes, they feel like they shrank or something."
Mara arched an eyebrow at Kaname as Megumi stood up and walked forward.
"Mind if I check something?" the other Ainur in the room asked.
"Uhh what do you want to check?" Kaname asked a clear expression of confusion on her face.
Megumi started to lift up one corner of Kaname's blouse collar and then another.
"It's usually under one of thes....ah here," Megumi said. "E. S. Roman letters by the way."
Kaname started to blush brightly.
"We must have gotten them mixed up in...the shower," Kaname said, flushing brightly. "I'll be right back."
Mara slapped a palm to her face and shook her head as Kaname vanished back to Atlantis. And then she thumped her head into a desk.
***************
When Kaname appeared again, dressed in Atlantis expedition clothing now, she walked past everybody and sat down across from Megumi who was watching her with a smirk.
"Are you ready to get started now?" Mara asked.
"Yeah, you can say that," Kaname noted.
And then, Kaname took a deep breath and simply leaned back, eyes closed.
Mara and the other Demons as well as Megumi blinked in confusion for a moment, and then the blonde Demoness's eyes snapped wide.
"Go get me some of the Shadows up in the front!" Mara snapped. "Tell them to follow us in."
"Follo..."
*************
Kaname paused as she slipped through the Silmaril network as she found a trail of what seemed to be mana crackling about as if it were some sort of lightning or electricity.
It wasn't coming from Eija, because it would have to come through Kaname first then. Then she realized that Deimosu must have been moving about and he had mana of his own.
The delay that moment of consideration gave her, however, was enough for Mara to beat her into the section of Nidhog's network that could be entered through Tessa and Naiki.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Mara demanded angrily. "Are you really planning to attack Nidhog alone? Did you hit your head? Did you have some sort of personality exchange with Naiki?"
"No, no," Kaname said angrily. "I'm thinking this through! There's no way we're going to get anywhere up there through those consoles. So let's deal with all damages from here!"
Mara sighed and stepped out Kaname's way, letting the Ainur girl into Nidhog fully and revealing the damaged and twisted throughout the mindscape as far as the eye could see.
"Okay..." Kaname said, surprised. "That's a bit bigger then I thought it was."
"Okay, paper parachutes and airplanes are pretty cool," Ranma told Yomiko. "Done that before?"
"Once, Ma'am," Yomiko said, lifting a tear to her eye. "Shall we get started?"
Ranma nodded and looked about the parking lot that they found themselves in.
One of several winged forms swooped in and landed in the area, dropping off a passenger before walking up to Ranma.
"How long do you and your feng shih need to be undisturbed," the woman said calmly.
"This might take a good few hours, Kiima," Ranma noted. "Can your people keep us covered until then?"
"Remember, Satomi," the woman noted coolly, not dignifying the question on her ability with an answer, "We will need certainty that the foolishness north of us does not contaminate our home."
"Don't worry, no radiation spill on aisle Jusendo," Ranma assured her. "Yomiko, receive any visitors she doesn't."
"Understood," Yomiko said, nodding as she picked up a book and started flipping through it with ridiculous speed.
The red-head pulled out her tools and materials then, walking towards the collected other feng shih and starting to discuss placements and locations.
***************
The building connected to the parking lot was a large factory labeled as Kanada-Tek Paper Products.
Belfangan Groseaux and his group were one of dozens of US and Mithril forces scattered throughout the region of the invasion. Judging their strategies based on what Gods such as Lind and Athena told them about the plans to eliminate Mantles in the first taking of Asgard by the rebels.
They filtered into one of the thickly populated neighborhoods during the cover of night, basing their plans on satellite surveillance that the wall blocking teleportation in and out.
"You'd think the Gods would be more aware of things looking down on them from above," one of his troops said.
"It's been a couple of million years that we'd thought about things like cameras as adverse psychic scrying," the Asgardian noted. "I'm sure they destroyed any camera they thought might peek at them, but once the wall went up, they stopped looking up."
Belfangan nodded at that, there was always the trap as a soldier to only look at things the way they existed for you. These rebels just sounded like they were more prone to that trap than normal.
"Okay," the Lieutenant said, "One Mantle looks idle, that's your target Raiden," the Asgardian Demon nodded, "Looks like ten other Gods hanging around loosely. Damn, I see an armed human guard."
A puff of smoke appeared behind him, and he turned about, looking toward the Demon that appeared there, a gun at her head almost instantly.
"One of Mara's!" she said quickly and quietly, raising her hands.
Belfangan nodded and his troops held off.
"How'd you see us?" he asked.
"Accident," she said. "I'm watching the same group."
"Any more of you?" he asked. "We're told that she didn't leave that many of you behind."
"We can teleport about the nation," she said, relaxing. "Makes it a little bit easier to cover large areas. Mostly we're finding groups that are trying to fight back and coordinating between them. And there's something you should know..."
"Does it have to do with the armed humans down there that seem to be very much not resisting?" Belfangan asked, looking down toward the target area.
"Yes," she said clearly a bit deflated at having her thunder stolen. "They've got a couple of cults in the area. People that want immortality or think the Gods are things you should worship."
"Got information on how many down there?" the lieutenant asked.
"At least twenty, maybe as many as forty," the Demoness said. "There aren't all that many of them, and they're generally dregs, but it does complicate things."
"How about the enemy as a whole here?" Belfangan asked.
"Roughly a third of Zeus's people," she said. "More than twenty thousand Gods ranging from high category three to high category two. An unknown number of cultists. Under Nike, her Rea...excuse me, Domain his Victory, so this could be touch and go."
"Your coordinating right?" Belfangan asked.
"Right," the Demoness said.
"How many of you on Kyushu?" he asked.
"We're down some because to these cultists," the Demoness said. "But we have some JSDF and American intelligence types, two other Shadows, a handful of exorcists, mostly young. And a scattering of soldiers or old veterans. What are your numbers on power users?"
"Asgard is fielding three thousand, five hundred category one," Raiden said. "Nifelheim is putting in three hundred Rakshasha with a two thousand Shadows and Gehenna Complex in support. The humans have around five hundred Ainur. Maybe thirty category ones. And about three thousand assorted mortal power users."
"That's not enough," the Demoness said quietly. "We have less category ones than they have Mantles and the rest of us will be flooded in Gods."
"Maybe on their own," Belfangan said with a smile. "Were you in Tokyo for the Demons?"
"Not really, no," the Demoness said.
"If you remember your history, girl," Raiden said. "It was mortal weaponry that drove the Gods and Demons both away in the days of the silthine."
"You're not dropping nukes are you?" she asked a bit nervously.
"Not that much firepower," the Asgardian Demon assured her.
"Let your people know that stuff is coming," Belfangan said.
"Going now," the Demoness said, "I hope you're not being foolish in this attack." She vanished into a puff of smoke.
"Now, revised," the tall black-man said. "Mostly the same idea but more targets."
******************
A burst of smoke atop the mantle was the first visible move by the infiltration team and the first clue the Gods had that an attack had started.
Raiden appeared atop the Mantle hand outstretched and instantly the operator inside scrambled to start up the aura enhancing nature of the Mantle. He was far too slow, however, as Raiden drew mana from Yggdrasil, converted it to pishogue to be usable by him and even with the extra step involved, the blast of red lightning that tore through down through the sky tore apart the Mantle underneath.
Moments before the vehicle exploded, the Asgardian Demon vanished again into a puff of smoke.
He appeared in the middle of an open field, entering a stance with a summoned spear, smiling grimmly as the other collected Gods considered whether or not to attack him when Yggdrasil backed him rather than them.
"Don't stand there, destroy the traitorous reptile!" one shouted.
As the Demon attracted attention, heavy assault rifles ripped open into the backs of the Gods, tearing some apart and sending others diving for cover.
While that fight was going on, the majority of the Mithril team were filtering through the neighborhood, finding and removing cultists well before the loud fight happened.
*****************
Nike leaped up into the air, wings spreading as she felt heavy use of chi and mana mostly, with increasing use of pishogue all over the island she was responsible for.
This wasn't simply more harassment by the handful of saboteurs and Demons stirring up disloyal mortals. No, this was an attack by fully powered Immortals with the support of working Networks behind them.
And the first attackers were already on the island and taking hold of the places where most of the human population had been directed together.
The winged Goddess was more than a little surprised. She'd been expecting the first strike to come from the mortal ships that were now amassing and getting ready to fire. Looking out towards them, she grimaced as she caught sight of distant puffs of smoke and water. They were too far out for their cannons, but those things they called missiles: massive explosive spears, could be launched from that far out.
Grimacing she swooped down to the ground into a group of her soldiers.
"Move now unless you're disloyal to my father," she shouted. "Victory is on our side."
*************
Akane watched the missiles flying up through the air above her ship, moving in to give cover for the mass of troops that would be landing soon. A lot of the AS pilots in the transports around them were less than thrilled about taking on opponents that could practically ignore conventional ASes, but the lack of real armor underneath the aura at least made it possible.
Out ahead, Akane watched as some of the swarm of missiles were taken down by blasts of energy and power. But several still got through, and it was only the first salvo.
There was probably a billion dollars worth of ordnance flowing into Kyushu ahead of them on precisely directed paths. When her ship and the others got close enough, then a more traditional naval barrage would begin.
She looked to her side and noted the water rising significantly between her ship and one of the transports.
Immediately, she lashed out with a raw blast of chi into the bulging water, sending it crashing back down and flattening out. Out of the water came an irate figure that landed on the deck of her ship, pointing her out.
"You there, mortal!" he shouted. "You dare challenge the Gods. This land belongs to us!"
"Really," she said. "You don't look a thing like Amaterasu."
He snarled and started to step forward, apparently eager to continue the banter when the first security personnel opened up on him, slashing across him with the sub-machine guns that they had used until recently in hunting and fighting pirates.
The first salvo didn't kill the toughened God, but forced him to hide behind cover. He started reaching out towards the water around him and Akane could hear her boat creaking.
Leaping forward, she landed behind his cover and with a loud cry reached out to grab him with the pillar breaking grab of the Yamasenken.
Before he could call the waters could overly damage her ship, she felt his back break in her arms. Tossing the God to the ground, she still watched him carefully, crawling for the edge and toward the water.
Her security crew swarmed over him then and knocked him cold.
"Take him downstairs," Akane said. "There should be an onmyouji to seal his powers and then see how injured he..."
She stopped as she looked out toward the island and saw an approaching Mantle. Turning back toward her bridge she called out.
"Turn! Get ready for a broadside on that target!" She paused to point out a deck gun and call out to the gun crew there. "Hold fire on that gun until I tell you specifically, then let loose!"
"Aye, Commander," the gun grew said, reminding her of the promotion.
The destroyer turned to face its side toward the incoming Mantle as she returned to the bridge and the intercom.
"All missiles, all guns, on that target," she shouted. "As accurately as possible, and watch the friendly fire. Now!!"
The destroyer shuddered as each cannon roared out and the racks of missiles launched outward. It was small compared to the old days of battleships and cruisers, but even now when a ship unleashed everything it had, the result was impressive.
Akane tapped her fingers and watched as the Mantle glowed blue and the bursts of smoke and fire around it seemed to do little more than make pause in the flight driving it out over the water. But she was satisfied to see that it distracted the God-craft away from the transports and onto her boat, which continued to blast the vehicle with almost every gun and missile it had.
Once she saw the aura crack and a lash of fire whip out to sear across the Mantle, but then it was coming in down on top of them, pushing the forward of her ship almost down under the water before it righted itself. The machine towered over the deck, gloating in it's superiority.
"Fools, did you really think that such a show could stop a weapon made by the Gods?" the pilot demanded as he opened the cockpit and stood out to stand over them.
"Deck gun," Akane said calmly into the intercom as the Mantle's aura faded out in its pilot's apparent glee.
"That might have harmed one of your primitive chi-enhancing vehicles," the unseen God continued. "But..."
The deck gun took advantage of that moment of vulnerability and unleashed a near endless stream of bullets into the Mantle, just about cutting it in half and knocking it over the side. A moment later it exploded into a pillar of water.
The vehicle's pilot found himself fortunately tumbled to the deck of the ship and looking up into the barrels of several weapons pointed his way.
"Get us back on course to get in range for a proper supporting barrage," Akane commanded. "Assuming we still have ammo after that."
*******************
Ryuu watched the threat to his wife's boat from several ships away before turning back to his task. Akane was serving double duty as a ship commander and the chi user, but all he had to focus on was countering anything weird the Gods might send within his reach.
And then to basically act as armor or anti-armor when they got to shore.
The rebel Gods under Zeus had to hold the island, because other wise, that gave the lot of them an opening into the dimensional wall and the hundreds of category ones on their side could spread out amongst the rest of Japan wherever they wanted. It would still be difficult given the sheer number of rebel Gods, but
He was surprised when the first attack directed against his area came from the shore defense batteries, missiles for the most part. But he didn't hesitate.
Even if there were anti-missile boats in the fleet, it would be a bad idea to simply assume that they'd be enough.
The wave of vacuum blades whipped out from him out into the air, intersecting with missiles and continuing on as they sliced through. Dissipating somewhere out over the water.
****************
"We still do not have contact with the teams inside the engagement area," Mardukas told Tessa. "There seems to be a sort of electromagnetic field interfering with communication."
"Is it affecting the missile's course?" Tessa asked in concern.
"Not yet," Mardukas said. "But we're still aiming mostly for shore. The US and Japanese are reporting the same issues. Missiles are to be aimed as closely within the bounds of the effect as possible until then. Most air strikes are held back until it can be cleared."
"Miss Geisthexe is out of contact," she noted idly. "Kali is on Kyushu. Mrs Morisato should be acting in cover on one of the ships, see if you can contact her, I need to ask a question about the amount of power Zeus should have and the amount this all would take. My suspicion is that this is a lot more than he should be able to do right now."
"He could be manipulating it through these Mantles," Mardukas noted.
"Possibly," she said, tapping her fingers. "But the phrasing I've always heard is 'able to compete with' a category one. This feels a bit too subtle for the implication."
****************
The Naval barrage had scattered all over the shoreline, adding to the missiles and turning the air into a mass of thick dark smoke that held above everything. The barrage only slowed as the transports started to reach land.
Naiki came up onto the land reluctantly out of the water. Like Hecate, someone had tried to corrupt some of the wildlife into monsters. It wasn't something she'd ever do to the sharks she appreciated.
Feeding the monsters to the sharks in the area she was responsible for was another matter.
"I don't think this is going to be a safe beach for swimming for a while," noted one of the soldiers passing her off one of the transports she'd been swimming alongside.
"Depends on whose doing the swimming," Naiki said.
American M-9s started to come up onto the beach from the water with Naiki. A little ways down the beach, she saw one of the four remaining Demonic Carapaces, all of which were being used in this action somewhere. Probably piloted by an Asgardian capable of full power, though.
They were under attack almost instantly, a tank in between a group of soldiers obliterated by a blast of raw power as gunfire started to sparkle down on the attackers.
Naiki grimaced as one bullet struck her and bounced off, not high enough caliber to be a problem for her and she focused instead on the Mantle coming down the street at them.
Stomping her foot down first, she sent a crack of opening earth outward across, hoping to set the vehicle off balance. Immediately she stepped forward into the highest form of the yamasenken that she was practiced in.
A burst of wind pushed into her vacuum blades then, scattering them and washing over Naiki and the soldiers behind her like a typhoon. The M-9s coming up staggered against the wind as did Naiki, though the tanks held better and unleashed a barrage of fire at the Mantle, causing it to erupt into fire along a blue glow of an enhanced aura.
The distraction did end the wind, however, and Naiki reached outward.
"Disciple of Smoke, your apprentice seeks your power," Naiki called out, the start of spell.
The thick smoke swarmed in and clustered about the Mantle like a winter blanket, obscuring its vision.
The tanks fired again, with the M-9s adding their own fire and, as the Mantle tried to clear the smoke away, dissipating its protective aura to do so, it was cut to pieces.
However, a number of other Gods came swarming in wielding swords and spells and other power, exchanging fire with Naiki, the soldiers about her and other people.
***************
Sayoko, Melinoe and Meryl found themselves seated at the head of a table in the Imperial Palace as hundreds of Gods and Goddesses allied with Zeus and the rebels sat around loudly celebrating something.
The three looked about with something like disgust to note the number of women who would probably sleep with Zeus at little more than a suggestion that he wanted them. Though the disgust was still deeper for the rapist who apparently felt it necessary to have lovers that needed conquering.
Throughout the room, human servants were moving about, almost completely ignored by the Gods in the midst of their party.
"Everyone," Zeus called up. "Right now, the usurpers of our rightful home are attacking our new stronghold with these new Immortals and the remnants of the Demons. They're throwing mortals at us as if it would make a difference."
He paused and took up a chalice, much better than the cups these waifish Japanese had, and drained it as the Gods around him chortled.
"Even worse," he called out. "They're taking direction from mortals! As if the mortals had a rightful authority."
There was a chorus of boos and heckles then.
"Clearly," Zeus said. "They'll find the situation otherwise when they cross blades with my daughter Nike."
This was met with a chortle of laughter.
"But just to be sure," Zeus said. "I've called for some aide from some recent additions to our ranks."
He smiled and came up behind Meryl who flinched as he gripped her shoulders. A shiver worked through her as he held her, mixing horror and pleasure in her eyes. She gripped Melinoe's eyes tightly and held her mouth closed to prevent from crying out.
"This Demoness, apparently made a living at a mortal company," he said. "And she's thrown off the shackles of these unworthy to join my court."
Zeus moved on to Melinoe, and gripped her shoulders the same way.
"And another of my daughters, until recently confused by the weak policies of her mother's colleagues," he said. "And lastly."
And here he grabbed Sayoko in a way that seemed outwardly sophisticated while having none of feeling of it, he pulled her out of the chair and directed her to face the others.
"My own wife has fled my company and taken up with the usurpers of our proper place," he said. "Kami-sama's weak following. It seems proper that, in the age of a return to old glories, that the new queen should reflect the newest of the Immortals. What do you have to say to this, Sayoko Mishima?"
It was most likely just a spit in the eye of Hera, and Sayoko knew at she stood there with all the dignity she had.
"A wouldn't be the queen of a man who can't satisfy a woman," she said coldly.
Zeus's smile did not fade as his following laughed at the commentary, but Sayoko did scream out as he gripped her arm hard and put her, with false gentleness, back into her chair.
"Obviously that doesn't describe me," Zeus said, gripping her shoulders as she tried to recover. "Now, to aid my daughter, I've...asked for their help in certain ways."
Eyes started to drift to the signs of recent bleeding on the marks of all three women.
"I've arranged for a toast after this," the mad God said, pointing toward the servant closest to him. "You there, start pouring for the toast. Nobody drink just yet, we'll have this in a moment."
The servant, of average height for a young man and sleight of build, almost like a woman, nodded quietly, bowing low as Zeus looked past and into the sea of approving faces.
"Let's get started, shall we?" Zeus asked, moving to stand behind the three as they cringed, trying to prepare for what was coming. "The sooner for the toast."
Zeus reached in through their minds, not bothering with the trick of making it even seem pleasant, and into Nidhog and Silmaril, and past some of the immediate blocks on him in Yggdrasil.
The celebrating quieted briefly as the three women shrieked in clear pain.
The servant took a sharp intake of breath and gripped the pitcher of wine intended by someone for the toast tightly.
************
As Zeus reached out, Sayoko felt herself fall back into the mindscape and watch as he pushed through her into Silmaril and through Meryl into the clutter of Nidhog. In her writhing, she was still aware of this, just as she was aware that Yggdrasil was closing tightly around Melinoe as Zeus pushed in to his home system through her.
And she realized briefly, the connection went two ways.
Wincing and shaking in her mental self, her very soul, just as much as her body was, she pushed herself backwards deeper through Zeus's being out the other side and finding a solid wall of singing and data there.
Another twitch of Zeus's mind brought her crying out and dropping to her knees outside the wall.
**************
"We confirmed it was Melinoe," one of the Goddesses around Peorth said. "Zeus was trying to access through her. We've already shut it down, but he may have gotten a limited curse through."
"There is some activity on Zeus's link," another noted. "But...that's chi."
"What?" Peorth asked, moving over to look at the information in question. "I need to see this for myself."
******************
Sayoko brought herself up to her feet again and tried to take in the wall in front of her, trying to understand it. Another burst of pain ripped through her and she hunched over tightly.
Sayoko Mishima, a voice gasped.
Breathing heavily, she looked up to see a rosy aura across the other side of the wall.
I know you... Sayoko shook her head. How do I build one of these?
Peorth bent down in the mindscape as Sayoko cringed and waited for the other woman to meet her eyes.
I'll lead you through it, she said.
************
Thor stood in victory over one of the fallen Mantles after having pounded it into submission with the help of the mortals around him. He was looking about for more targets when a sudden pain wrapped over him, dropping him to his knees for a moment before he pushed himself back up.
Though clearly even that was an effort suddenly.
It was being repeated across all the fields of conflict along the shores and cities of Kyushu.
****************
In the DaDanaan, Tessa clutched at the arms of her command chair and cried out in surprise at the attack out of nowhere, head pounding vehemently.
"Captain," Mardukas called out, coming to her side.
"I'm...fine..." she said shaking visibly and sweating. "Mardukas, take the...helm."
Eija was pulling out an injured soldier and starting to work on stopping his bleeding when the virus struck her and she paused, gritting her teeth.
Suddenly she was very thankful of all those years when casting spells was so painful, it let her set that aside and focus on saving the soldier's life before she moved aside and tried to focus on the pain instead.
************************
Kaname winced in the mindscape of Nidhog as Eija's pain ripped through her.
Eija, what's wrong? she demanded.
Some....kind of attack, the girl responded.
Mara and the other Demons with Kaname paused in their examination of the terrain around them to look at her.
What's going on, Kaname? Mara asked.
You can't hear her? Kaname asked.
She's not in front of us, Mara said. What's going on?
Mara! one of the Demons said, pointing out into Nidhog toward the distance where a storm of lightning shaped mana was spreading outward.
I saw something like that in Silmaril, Kaname said. I thought it was Deimosu.
Oh joy, Mara said and then looked toward one of the Demons. All right, you go back to the physical World and tell the lot of them at the consoles to redirect efforts for now.
The collected Demons nodded as Kaname gritted her teeth, so to speak and led the Demons with her back toward Silmaril. Mara and the other Demons traveled with her, finding that the link between Nidhog and Silmaril was indeed infested.
Push through, carefully! Mara said.
Kaname wasn't sure how long it took for Mara and the handful of other virus experts to push through the virus to where Naiki connected with Tessa, finding the two of their forms fading painfully into the mindscape slowly.
Clear them, Mara said quickly.
And then they were standing the middle of a forced clearing in the lightning around Naiki and Tessa's minds recovering slowly from the attack.
Naiki, Tessa said. Back to the fight...
I'm going, the Demoness of Torrent said fading back to the real world.
What is the manner of attack, Tessa started to say. I'll...
Excuse me, Mara said. If you're clear, you're needed back in the battle too. We're the virus people, let us handle this.
Reluctantly, Tessa nodded.
Fine, Miss Geisthexe, she said. I leave it to you then.
Tessa faded out of the mindscape then and Mara and the Demons started the process of pushing through the edge of the attacked area into the clear to find they weren't the only ones there.
And they weren't the first there.
It's limited to the minds at Kyushu right now, one hesitant soul that Kaname recognized as Sarah said. But it's growing.
It is getting a sustained amount of power from an outside force, another figure noted before looking around. This...this whole mindscape thing is...pretty awesome.
Focus, Rodney, a third figure noted before glancing back towards Kaname and the Demons with her. Who's this?
I'm Kaname Chidori, the Ainur responded. This stuff is in Nidhog too, these guys came to see if they needed to do something here.
Shadows under Mara Geisthexe, one said, indicating the named Demoness. Virus experts.
Really, Rodney said. That'll be helpful. We can do more damage.
I'm supposed to go on to Yggdrasil from here, Kaname said, looking toward Mara for confirmation.
Not alone, Mara said. Eija is going to be on the edge of this on Yggdrasil's side.
She pointed out two of her Demons and gestured toward Kaname.
Help her clear the way, she said before turning to the other Ainur. Major Carter, right?
Right, Sam said. Is this in Nidhog too?
"Once, Ma'am," Yomiko said, lifting a tear to her eye. "Shall we get started?"
Ranma nodded and looked about the parking lot that they found themselves in.
One of several winged forms swooped in and landed in the area, dropping off a passenger before walking up to Ranma.
"How long do you and your feng shih need to be undisturbed," the woman said calmly.
"This might take a good few hours, Kiima," Ranma noted. "Can your people keep us covered until then?"
"Remember, Satomi," the woman noted coolly, not dignifying the question on her ability with an answer, "We will need certainty that the foolishness north of us does not contaminate our home."
"Don't worry, no radiation spill on aisle Jusendo," Ranma assured her. "Yomiko, receive any visitors she doesn't."
"Understood," Yomiko said, nodding as she picked up a book and started flipping through it with ridiculous speed.
The red-head pulled out her tools and materials then, walking towards the collected other feng shih and starting to discuss placements and locations.
***************
The building connected to the parking lot was a large factory labeled as Kanada-Tek Paper Products.
Belfangan Groseaux and his group were one of dozens of US and Mithril forces scattered throughout the region of the invasion. Judging their strategies based on what Gods such as Lind and Athena told them about the plans to eliminate Mantles in the first taking of Asgard by the rebels.
They filtered into one of the thickly populated neighborhoods during the cover of night, basing their plans on satellite surveillance that the wall blocking teleportation in and out.
"You'd think the Gods would be more aware of things looking down on them from above," one of his troops said.
"It's been a couple of million years that we'd thought about things like cameras as adverse psychic scrying," the Asgardian noted. "I'm sure they destroyed any camera they thought might peek at them, but once the wall went up, they stopped looking up."
Belfangan nodded at that, there was always the trap as a soldier to only look at things the way they existed for you. These rebels just sounded like they were more prone to that trap than normal.
"Okay," the Lieutenant said, "One Mantle looks idle, that's your target Raiden," the Asgardian Demon nodded, "Looks like ten other Gods hanging around loosely. Damn, I see an armed human guard."
A puff of smoke appeared behind him, and he turned about, looking toward the Demon that appeared there, a gun at her head almost instantly.
"One of Mara's!" she said quickly and quietly, raising her hands.
Belfangan nodded and his troops held off.
"How'd you see us?" he asked.
"Accident," she said. "I'm watching the same group."
"Any more of you?" he asked. "We're told that she didn't leave that many of you behind."
"We can teleport about the nation," she said, relaxing. "Makes it a little bit easier to cover large areas. Mostly we're finding groups that are trying to fight back and coordinating between them. And there's something you should know..."
"Does it have to do with the armed humans down there that seem to be very much not resisting?" Belfangan asked, looking down toward the target area.
"Yes," she said clearly a bit deflated at having her thunder stolen. "They've got a couple of cults in the area. People that want immortality or think the Gods are things you should worship."
"Got information on how many down there?" the lieutenant asked.
"At least twenty, maybe as many as forty," the Demoness said. "There aren't all that many of them, and they're generally dregs, but it does complicate things."
"How about the enemy as a whole here?" Belfangan asked.
"Roughly a third of Zeus's people," she said. "More than twenty thousand Gods ranging from high category three to high category two. An unknown number of cultists. Under Nike, her Rea...excuse me, Domain his Victory, so this could be touch and go."
"Your coordinating right?" Belfangan asked.
"Right," the Demoness said.
"How many of you on Kyushu?" he asked.
"We're down some because to these cultists," the Demoness said. "But we have some JSDF and American intelligence types, two other Shadows, a handful of exorcists, mostly young. And a scattering of soldiers or old veterans. What are your numbers on power users?"
"Asgard is fielding three thousand, five hundred category one," Raiden said. "Nifelheim is putting in three hundred Rakshasha with a two thousand Shadows and Gehenna Complex in support. The humans have around five hundred Ainur. Maybe thirty category ones. And about three thousand assorted mortal power users."
"That's not enough," the Demoness said quietly. "We have less category ones than they have Mantles and the rest of us will be flooded in Gods."
"Maybe on their own," Belfangan said with a smile. "Were you in Tokyo for the Demons?"
"Not really, no," the Demoness said.
"If you remember your history, girl," Raiden said. "It was mortal weaponry that drove the Gods and Demons both away in the days of the silthine."
"You're not dropping nukes are you?" she asked a bit nervously.
"Not that much firepower," the Asgardian Demon assured her.
"Let your people know that stuff is coming," Belfangan said.
"Going now," the Demoness said, "I hope you're not being foolish in this attack." She vanished into a puff of smoke.
"Now, revised," the tall black-man said. "Mostly the same idea but more targets."
******************
A burst of smoke atop the mantle was the first visible move by the infiltration team and the first clue the Gods had that an attack had started.
Raiden appeared atop the Mantle hand outstretched and instantly the operator inside scrambled to start up the aura enhancing nature of the Mantle. He was far too slow, however, as Raiden drew mana from Yggdrasil, converted it to pishogue to be usable by him and even with the extra step involved, the blast of red lightning that tore through down through the sky tore apart the Mantle underneath.
Moments before the vehicle exploded, the Asgardian Demon vanished again into a puff of smoke.
He appeared in the middle of an open field, entering a stance with a summoned spear, smiling grimmly as the other collected Gods considered whether or not to attack him when Yggdrasil backed him rather than them.
"Don't stand there, destroy the traitorous reptile!" one shouted.
As the Demon attracted attention, heavy assault rifles ripped open into the backs of the Gods, tearing some apart and sending others diving for cover.
While that fight was going on, the majority of the Mithril team were filtering through the neighborhood, finding and removing cultists well before the loud fight happened.
*****************
Nike leaped up into the air, wings spreading as she felt heavy use of chi and mana mostly, with increasing use of pishogue all over the island she was responsible for.
This wasn't simply more harassment by the handful of saboteurs and Demons stirring up disloyal mortals. No, this was an attack by fully powered Immortals with the support of working Networks behind them.
And the first attackers were already on the island and taking hold of the places where most of the human population had been directed together.
The winged Goddess was more than a little surprised. She'd been expecting the first strike to come from the mortal ships that were now amassing and getting ready to fire. Looking out towards them, she grimaced as she caught sight of distant puffs of smoke and water. They were too far out for their cannons, but those things they called missiles: massive explosive spears, could be launched from that far out.
Grimacing she swooped down to the ground into a group of her soldiers.
"Move now unless you're disloyal to my father," she shouted. "Victory is on our side."
*************
Akane watched the missiles flying up through the air above her ship, moving in to give cover for the mass of troops that would be landing soon. A lot of the AS pilots in the transports around them were less than thrilled about taking on opponents that could practically ignore conventional ASes, but the lack of real armor underneath the aura at least made it possible.
Out ahead, Akane watched as some of the swarm of missiles were taken down by blasts of energy and power. But several still got through, and it was only the first salvo.
There was probably a billion dollars worth of ordnance flowing into Kyushu ahead of them on precisely directed paths. When her ship and the others got close enough, then a more traditional naval barrage would begin.
She looked to her side and noted the water rising significantly between her ship and one of the transports.
Immediately, she lashed out with a raw blast of chi into the bulging water, sending it crashing back down and flattening out. Out of the water came an irate figure that landed on the deck of her ship, pointing her out.
"You there, mortal!" he shouted. "You dare challenge the Gods. This land belongs to us!"
"Really," she said. "You don't look a thing like Amaterasu."
He snarled and started to step forward, apparently eager to continue the banter when the first security personnel opened up on him, slashing across him with the sub-machine guns that they had used until recently in hunting and fighting pirates.
The first salvo didn't kill the toughened God, but forced him to hide behind cover. He started reaching out towards the water around him and Akane could hear her boat creaking.
Leaping forward, she landed behind his cover and with a loud cry reached out to grab him with the pillar breaking grab of the Yamasenken.
Before he could call the waters could overly damage her ship, she felt his back break in her arms. Tossing the God to the ground, she still watched him carefully, crawling for the edge and toward the water.
Her security crew swarmed over him then and knocked him cold.
"Take him downstairs," Akane said. "There should be an onmyouji to seal his powers and then see how injured he..."
She stopped as she looked out toward the island and saw an approaching Mantle. Turning back toward her bridge she called out.
"Turn! Get ready for a broadside on that target!" She paused to point out a deck gun and call out to the gun crew there. "Hold fire on that gun until I tell you specifically, then let loose!"
"Aye, Commander," the gun grew said, reminding her of the promotion.
The destroyer turned to face its side toward the incoming Mantle as she returned to the bridge and the intercom.
"All missiles, all guns, on that target," she shouted. "As accurately as possible, and watch the friendly fire. Now!!"
The destroyer shuddered as each cannon roared out and the racks of missiles launched outward. It was small compared to the old days of battleships and cruisers, but even now when a ship unleashed everything it had, the result was impressive.
Akane tapped her fingers and watched as the Mantle glowed blue and the bursts of smoke and fire around it seemed to do little more than make pause in the flight driving it out over the water. But she was satisfied to see that it distracted the God-craft away from the transports and onto her boat, which continued to blast the vehicle with almost every gun and missile it had.
Once she saw the aura crack and a lash of fire whip out to sear across the Mantle, but then it was coming in down on top of them, pushing the forward of her ship almost down under the water before it righted itself. The machine towered over the deck, gloating in it's superiority.
"Fools, did you really think that such a show could stop a weapon made by the Gods?" the pilot demanded as he opened the cockpit and stood out to stand over them.
"Deck gun," Akane said calmly into the intercom as the Mantle's aura faded out in its pilot's apparent glee.
"That might have harmed one of your primitive chi-enhancing vehicles," the unseen God continued. "But..."
The deck gun took advantage of that moment of vulnerability and unleashed a near endless stream of bullets into the Mantle, just about cutting it in half and knocking it over the side. A moment later it exploded into a pillar of water.
The vehicle's pilot found himself fortunately tumbled to the deck of the ship and looking up into the barrels of several weapons pointed his way.
"Get us back on course to get in range for a proper supporting barrage," Akane commanded. "Assuming we still have ammo after that."
*******************
Ryuu watched the threat to his wife's boat from several ships away before turning back to his task. Akane was serving double duty as a ship commander and the chi user, but all he had to focus on was countering anything weird the Gods might send within his reach.
And then to basically act as armor or anti-armor when they got to shore.
The rebel Gods under Zeus had to hold the island, because other wise, that gave the lot of them an opening into the dimensional wall and the hundreds of category ones on their side could spread out amongst the rest of Japan wherever they wanted. It would still be difficult given the sheer number of rebel Gods, but
He was surprised when the first attack directed against his area came from the shore defense batteries, missiles for the most part. But he didn't hesitate.
Even if there were anti-missile boats in the fleet, it would be a bad idea to simply assume that they'd be enough.
The wave of vacuum blades whipped out from him out into the air, intersecting with missiles and continuing on as they sliced through. Dissipating somewhere out over the water.
****************
"We still do not have contact with the teams inside the engagement area," Mardukas told Tessa. "There seems to be a sort of electromagnetic field interfering with communication."
"Is it affecting the missile's course?" Tessa asked in concern.
"Not yet," Mardukas said. "But we're still aiming mostly for shore. The US and Japanese are reporting the same issues. Missiles are to be aimed as closely within the bounds of the effect as possible until then. Most air strikes are held back until it can be cleared."
"Miss Geisthexe is out of contact," she noted idly. "Kali is on Kyushu. Mrs Morisato should be acting in cover on one of the ships, see if you can contact her, I need to ask a question about the amount of power Zeus should have and the amount this all would take. My suspicion is that this is a lot more than he should be able to do right now."
"He could be manipulating it through these Mantles," Mardukas noted.
"Possibly," she said, tapping her fingers. "But the phrasing I've always heard is 'able to compete with' a category one. This feels a bit too subtle for the implication."
****************
The Naval barrage had scattered all over the shoreline, adding to the missiles and turning the air into a mass of thick dark smoke that held above everything. The barrage only slowed as the transports started to reach land.
Naiki came up onto the land reluctantly out of the water. Like Hecate, someone had tried to corrupt some of the wildlife into monsters. It wasn't something she'd ever do to the sharks she appreciated.
Feeding the monsters to the sharks in the area she was responsible for was another matter.
"I don't think this is going to be a safe beach for swimming for a while," noted one of the soldiers passing her off one of the transports she'd been swimming alongside.
"Depends on whose doing the swimming," Naiki said.
American M-9s started to come up onto the beach from the water with Naiki. A little ways down the beach, she saw one of the four remaining Demonic Carapaces, all of which were being used in this action somewhere. Probably piloted by an Asgardian capable of full power, though.
They were under attack almost instantly, a tank in between a group of soldiers obliterated by a blast of raw power as gunfire started to sparkle down on the attackers.
Naiki grimaced as one bullet struck her and bounced off, not high enough caliber to be a problem for her and she focused instead on the Mantle coming down the street at them.
Stomping her foot down first, she sent a crack of opening earth outward across, hoping to set the vehicle off balance. Immediately she stepped forward into the highest form of the yamasenken that she was practiced in.
A burst of wind pushed into her vacuum blades then, scattering them and washing over Naiki and the soldiers behind her like a typhoon. The M-9s coming up staggered against the wind as did Naiki, though the tanks held better and unleashed a barrage of fire at the Mantle, causing it to erupt into fire along a blue glow of an enhanced aura.
The distraction did end the wind, however, and Naiki reached outward.
"Disciple of Smoke, your apprentice seeks your power," Naiki called out, the start of spell.
The thick smoke swarmed in and clustered about the Mantle like a winter blanket, obscuring its vision.
The tanks fired again, with the M-9s adding their own fire and, as the Mantle tried to clear the smoke away, dissipating its protective aura to do so, it was cut to pieces.
However, a number of other Gods came swarming in wielding swords and spells and other power, exchanging fire with Naiki, the soldiers about her and other people.
***************
Sayoko, Melinoe and Meryl found themselves seated at the head of a table in the Imperial Palace as hundreds of Gods and Goddesses allied with Zeus and the rebels sat around loudly celebrating something.
The three looked about with something like disgust to note the number of women who would probably sleep with Zeus at little more than a suggestion that he wanted them. Though the disgust was still deeper for the rapist who apparently felt it necessary to have lovers that needed conquering.
Throughout the room, human servants were moving about, almost completely ignored by the Gods in the midst of their party.
"Everyone," Zeus called up. "Right now, the usurpers of our rightful home are attacking our new stronghold with these new Immortals and the remnants of the Demons. They're throwing mortals at us as if it would make a difference."
He paused and took up a chalice, much better than the cups these waifish Japanese had, and drained it as the Gods around him chortled.
"Even worse," he called out. "They're taking direction from mortals! As if the mortals had a rightful authority."
There was a chorus of boos and heckles then.
"Clearly," Zeus said. "They'll find the situation otherwise when they cross blades with my daughter Nike."
This was met with a chortle of laughter.
"But just to be sure," Zeus said. "I've called for some aide from some recent additions to our ranks."
He smiled and came up behind Meryl who flinched as he gripped her shoulders. A shiver worked through her as he held her, mixing horror and pleasure in her eyes. She gripped Melinoe's eyes tightly and held her mouth closed to prevent from crying out.
"This Demoness, apparently made a living at a mortal company," he said. "And she's thrown off the shackles of these unworthy to join my court."
Zeus moved on to Melinoe, and gripped her shoulders the same way.
"And another of my daughters, until recently confused by the weak policies of her mother's colleagues," he said. "And lastly."
And here he grabbed Sayoko in a way that seemed outwardly sophisticated while having none of feeling of it, he pulled her out of the chair and directed her to face the others.
"My own wife has fled my company and taken up with the usurpers of our proper place," he said. "Kami-sama's weak following. It seems proper that, in the age of a return to old glories, that the new queen should reflect the newest of the Immortals. What do you have to say to this, Sayoko Mishima?"
It was most likely just a spit in the eye of Hera, and Sayoko knew at she stood there with all the dignity she had.
"A wouldn't be the queen of a man who can't satisfy a woman," she said coldly.
Zeus's smile did not fade as his following laughed at the commentary, but Sayoko did scream out as he gripped her arm hard and put her, with false gentleness, back into her chair.
"Obviously that doesn't describe me," Zeus said, gripping her shoulders as she tried to recover. "Now, to aid my daughter, I've...asked for their help in certain ways."
Eyes started to drift to the signs of recent bleeding on the marks of all three women.
"I've arranged for a toast after this," the mad God said, pointing toward the servant closest to him. "You there, start pouring for the toast. Nobody drink just yet, we'll have this in a moment."
The servant, of average height for a young man and sleight of build, almost like a woman, nodded quietly, bowing low as Zeus looked past and into the sea of approving faces.
"Let's get started, shall we?" Zeus asked, moving to stand behind the three as they cringed, trying to prepare for what was coming. "The sooner for the toast."
Zeus reached in through their minds, not bothering with the trick of making it even seem pleasant, and into Nidhog and Silmaril, and past some of the immediate blocks on him in Yggdrasil.
The celebrating quieted briefly as the three women shrieked in clear pain.
The servant took a sharp intake of breath and gripped the pitcher of wine intended by someone for the toast tightly.
************
As Zeus reached out, Sayoko felt herself fall back into the mindscape and watch as he pushed through her into Silmaril and through Meryl into the clutter of Nidhog. In her writhing, she was still aware of this, just as she was aware that Yggdrasil was closing tightly around Melinoe as Zeus pushed in to his home system through her.
And she realized briefly, the connection went two ways.
Wincing and shaking in her mental self, her very soul, just as much as her body was, she pushed herself backwards deeper through Zeus's being out the other side and finding a solid wall of singing and data there.
Another twitch of Zeus's mind brought her crying out and dropping to her knees outside the wall.
**************
"We confirmed it was Melinoe," one of the Goddesses around Peorth said. "Zeus was trying to access through her. We've already shut it down, but he may have gotten a limited curse through."
"There is some activity on Zeus's link," another noted. "But...that's chi."
"What?" Peorth asked, moving over to look at the information in question. "I need to see this for myself."
******************
Sayoko brought herself up to her feet again and tried to take in the wall in front of her, trying to understand it. Another burst of pain ripped through her and she hunched over tightly.
Sayoko Mishima, a voice gasped.
Breathing heavily, she looked up to see a rosy aura across the other side of the wall.
I know you... Sayoko shook her head. How do I build one of these?
Peorth bent down in the mindscape as Sayoko cringed and waited for the other woman to meet her eyes.
I'll lead you through it, she said.
************
Thor stood in victory over one of the fallen Mantles after having pounded it into submission with the help of the mortals around him. He was looking about for more targets when a sudden pain wrapped over him, dropping him to his knees for a moment before he pushed himself back up.
Though clearly even that was an effort suddenly.
It was being repeated across all the fields of conflict along the shores and cities of Kyushu.
****************
In the DaDanaan, Tessa clutched at the arms of her command chair and cried out in surprise at the attack out of nowhere, head pounding vehemently.
"Captain," Mardukas called out, coming to her side.
"I'm...fine..." she said shaking visibly and sweating. "Mardukas, take the...helm."
Eija was pulling out an injured soldier and starting to work on stopping his bleeding when the virus struck her and she paused, gritting her teeth.
Suddenly she was very thankful of all those years when casting spells was so painful, it let her set that aside and focus on saving the soldier's life before she moved aside and tried to focus on the pain instead.
************************
Kaname winced in the mindscape of Nidhog as Eija's pain ripped through her.
Eija, what's wrong? she demanded.
Some....kind of attack, the girl responded.
Mara and the other Demons with Kaname paused in their examination of the terrain around them to look at her.
What's going on, Kaname? Mara asked.
You can't hear her? Kaname asked.
She's not in front of us, Mara said. What's going on?
Mara! one of the Demons said, pointing out into Nidhog toward the distance where a storm of lightning shaped mana was spreading outward.
I saw something like that in Silmaril, Kaname said. I thought it was Deimosu.
Oh joy, Mara said and then looked toward one of the Demons. All right, you go back to the physical World and tell the lot of them at the consoles to redirect efforts for now.
The collected Demons nodded as Kaname gritted her teeth, so to speak and led the Demons with her back toward Silmaril. Mara and the other Demons traveled with her, finding that the link between Nidhog and Silmaril was indeed infested.
Push through, carefully! Mara said.
Kaname wasn't sure how long it took for Mara and the handful of other virus experts to push through the virus to where Naiki connected with Tessa, finding the two of their forms fading painfully into the mindscape slowly.
Clear them, Mara said quickly.
And then they were standing the middle of a forced clearing in the lightning around Naiki and Tessa's minds recovering slowly from the attack.
Naiki, Tessa said. Back to the fight...
I'm going, the Demoness of Torrent said fading back to the real world.
What is the manner of attack, Tessa started to say. I'll...
Excuse me, Mara said. If you're clear, you're needed back in the battle too. We're the virus people, let us handle this.
Reluctantly, Tessa nodded.
Fine, Miss Geisthexe, she said. I leave it to you then.
Tessa faded out of the mindscape then and Mara and the Demons started the process of pushing through the edge of the attacked area into the clear to find they weren't the only ones there.
And they weren't the first there.
It's limited to the minds at Kyushu right now, one hesitant soul that Kaname recognized as Sarah said. But it's growing.
It is getting a sustained amount of power from an outside force, another figure noted before looking around. This...this whole mindscape thing is...pretty awesome.
Focus, Rodney, a third figure noted before glancing back towards Kaname and the Demons with her. Who's this?
I'm Kaname Chidori, the Ainur responded. This stuff is in Nidhog too, these guys came to see if they needed to do something here.
Shadows under Mara Geisthexe, one said, indicating the named Demoness. Virus experts.
Really, Rodney said. That'll be helpful. We can do more damage.
I'm supposed to go on to Yggdrasil from here, Kaname said, looking toward Mara for confirmation.
Not alone, Mara said. Eija is going to be on the edge of this on Yggdrasil's side.
She pointed out two of her Demons and gestured toward Kaname.
Help her clear the way, she said before turning to the other Ainur. Major Carter, right?
Right, Sam said. Is this in Nidhog too?
An Ainur froze in the middle of a fight before being blasted into pieces by the mantle he'd been trying to keep focused. He wasn't the only casualty by a long shot.
Elsewhere, a Demon collapsed while coming to grab someone to bring them back to medical. Immediately, the human soldiers grabbed him and the wounded soldier up and pulled them back into cover.
For the Gods and cultists fighting on foot, not much changed as mostly they've been facing the human soldiers anyway. It was with the mantles that the balance of the encounter really changed as many of the power-users whose job was to keep them focused had to be pulled quickly to safety.
However, they were not unprepared for this.
Two men with an RPG crept along cover as fighting raged around them and tanks and ASes exchanged fire with a single Mantle. Four M-9s firing and disengaging as tanks sought continually loosening cover.
A tank was crushed, an M-9 torn to pieces by what looked like blades of force. But they kept up the pressure, falling back slowly as the RPG crew crept forward into position, hoping the infantry about the Mantle didn't find them first.
As the God Mantle stepped past them, all of its power and energy focused forward, they fired there rocket, blowing a massive hole in the back and toppling it forward. And the M-9s, tanks and military surged forward to engage the Gods and mortals that now lacked heavy support.
Elsewhere, where the Mantles were spotted coming from further out, the answer was simpler. Radio it in to one of the many subs and cruisers further out.
And then the cruise missiles came.
*****************
"The Immortals are crippled at least temporarily," Akane said. "Going ashore to support the advance. XO has the bridge."
"Aye, Ma'am," the XO said. "Good luck."
"Thanks," Akane said with a smile as she took out a peach.
It took her only a brief amount of time to cross to the shore, roof hopping from transport to transport until she was on shore and taking out a peach to bite into it as she moved from cover to cover up to the front.
"Uh...Commander?" a JSDF ground soldier noted as she came up beside him. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm your heavy support," she said with a wink and a twinkle as she finished the peach and looked out to see an approaching Mantle with support.
Taking a deep breath, and Akane stepped forward and roared forth, borrowing power from Persephone's gift as she shaped her chi outward into the largest demon-head technique she'd ever imagined.
Ahead of her, the Mantle, the Gods on foot and the humans with them, all paused before the massive illusion of her head modified to monstrous form.
And the surround soldiers took that moment to tear the Mantle apart before its pilot could recover.
Akane moved forward ahead of the soldiers and launched into a yamasenken dance to obliterate the forces immediately in front of her with vacuum blades. As for those on the sides trying to get toward her from the flanks.
She wasn't alone.
Walking forward in a clear moment, she stepped up onto the wreckage of a Mantle, took a knife and scored it across her palm before letting the blood drip down over the fallen vehicle in clear sight of everybody nearby.
**********************
Ryuu rushed forward, finishing his own peach and growing with each step as he found plenty of chi on hand for using a technique that Genma had that was, until now, prohibitively draining.
The pilot in the Mantle immediately in front of him froze in shock as the mortal in front of him grew to tower over even the mantle and then a large black blade of vacuum appeared in Ryuu's hand.
He stepped forward and slashed through the Mantle before looking on for the next one and jumping towards it with a kick that sent it flying backwards even as much of the impact was absorbed by a battle aura. And then the vacuum sword in his hand was launched as a crescent.
***********************
The border between the crystalline precision of the Silmaril and the organic serenity of Yggdrasil was marked by a mass of lightning encompassing Eija's form.
Kaname and the Demons with her, however, were surprised to find she was not alone.
Sousuke?! Kaname asked surging forward and almost jumping into the lightning without thinking.
Stay back! Sousuke said with difficulty. This...spreads.
Eija, Sousuke! Kaname asked. Are you okay? Wait, that's stupid, of course you're not.
This, does not seem as bad as Hecate's virus, Eija said. But, it is...distracting.
Miss Chidori, one of the Demons said. We should cleanse these two before moving on.
Right, Kaname noted, flushing angrily that he'd think that she would just move on.
As they had been the entire time, she pushd forward, shaping the numbers and symbols of the Whispers as the Demons brought forth their own symbols out of the distant Call and slashed into the lightning piece by piece until it was pushed off both Sousuke and Eija and Kaname was able to reach out in the Mindscape to hug each of them.
Thank goodness you're all right, Kaname said.
That was timely, Kaname, Sousuke said. Thank you.
Indeed, Eija said taking a heavy breath. I was making little progress either on my own or with Sousuke's help. Though it lost a bit of effect in trying to deal with us both. Possibly because of how we're two different beings.
How the hell did you get here, Sousuke? Kaname asked. Well, I know how you got in here...but how did you know to get in here?!
I came when I heard Eija call out, Sousuke noted taking a breath.
When you heard... Kaname started.
...me call out? Eija completed.
I responded that I was coming, Sousuke answered. I wasn't sure you could hear, however.
You did... Kaname started to ask.
I believe Miss Chidori and each of you two have tasks, the Demon noted. You may discuss your lover's bond later.
The three looked a bit embarrassed at that.
*************
Naiki grimaced irritably as she ducked around a corner again.
"I can't wait for someone to fix Nidhog so I can get in the same playing ground as everybody else," she said.
"Given the track record in the file I saw when you were assigned to me, Miss Satomi," the US officer with her said. "I'm not sure how much more power they'd give you. Just focus on support and not wishes."
"Yeah, yeah," Naiki said. "There's still a lot of smoke in the air, but I really don't want to see how many favors I owe Geisthexe-san after this."
She started enchanting the spell again, blinding their enemies with smoke so that the infantry and vehicles with her could press forward. Or else give Tessa a location to send cruise missiles to.
It was hardly what she was used to in fighting. But at least she was doing something.
They were passing forward in the street, pushing back the enemy after another mantle had fallen to distraction and human weapons. Out of the surrounding field of debris, Gods and human cultists swarmed into the middle of them, cutting the advance in two and turning the situation into the sort of chaotic mass of individual fights that some of the Gods expected were true warfare.
"There's the little Demon," a woman's voice called out.
Naiki turned around in time to see a sword slashing out for her neck. The Demoness ducked back and responded with a handstand kick that knocked her opponent backward. It was then easy to see that her sword wielding enemy was some sort of winged Goddess.
"So, a warrior and not just a little saboteur," she said, wiping at her mouth. "I am Nike! Goddess of Victory, who are you to stand before me, Demon?"
Naiki flipped up to her feet and took in the Goddess hovering in front of her as battle raged about them.
"I am Naiki, Demoness of Torrent."
The winged Goddess stared at her in rank disbelief.
"You dare take my name?" she demanded.
"Are you going to talk or fight?" Naiki asked. "Cause if you talk to long, someone is going to shoot you before I get to take you out."
Sneering, Nike charged forward, swinging her sword.
Naiki responded by dodging around the weapon and pushing forward into Nike's armored chest, feeling the rib cage press down into itself on the Goddess.
She pressed the advantage as the Goddess tumbled backwards, but was surprised when the wings slashed forward, feathers cutting into her shoulders.
Both took a step back, Nike again hovering bare inches over the ground. They took each other in again and then Naiki charged forward.
********************
"Take care of her," Deimosu told Eija as his sister leaned over Yonjuu and checked her injuries.
"There's no question of that, she'll be in bed for some time, but she'll be fine" she said in a relieved tone. "Are you not afflicted as well?"
"No," Deimosu said grimly. "Maybe because he thinks of me as his son."
Eija nodded and moved to carry Yonjuu further into the medical area to find somewhere to put her where she could lie down and not be either at risk or in the way.
Yonjuu left with his sister, he turned back into the battle and pushed forward to find the front lines. He arrived in time to see Herb attacking a Mantle along with his son, forcing it down to the ground as they battered its aura mercilessly.
Deimosu lashed out with his own power, adding a third attack in the form of a lightning bolt which stabbed through the aura's split attention and destroyed the Mantle with in.
Coming up beside them, he stopped as he recognized Basil.
"You!" the two of them said suddenly.
"What is he doing here?" Deimosu demanded. "He tried to kidnap my sisters and that Kaname girl."
"He is doing his penance," Herb said, turning to look toward Basil and forestall him from speaking on the subject.
"How is it that you're not afflicted with the same attack these other 'Immortals' suffer from?" Basil demanded. "Is the enemy ruler not your father?"
"He might think he is," Deimosu said. "Hey! They need help down there."
He pointed out toward one of the dinosaur-like Carapaces stopped cold where it stood in front of the littered destruction of several Mantles. Ahead of it several Gods were coming in with clear intention to destroy it.
From where they stood, Deimosu and the Musk could see the US military trying to hold and support the frozen Carapace, but it was out of cover and another Mantle was coming down the way.
Deimosu leaped forward as the two dragons flew down after him.
Unable to fall back and leave the Carapace vulnerable, the humans and Musk found themselves quickly facing a situation almost the reverse of what had been the normal circumstance.
They were being flooded with enemies, even with Herb and Basil focusing on the Mantle.
Like elsewhere, this particular fight was degenerating into individual conflicts around the Carapace and out of the mass, a loud, European looking God charged forward wielding a long spear.
Deimosu stepped in front of him and batted the spear aside before stepping forward with an Amaguriken into the God's side. An attack which only just brushed the enemy.
"Well, a true warrior amongst these new Immortals?" the God said, stepping back and holding his spear out with a smirk on his face. "I am Cu Cuchlain, God of Challenge. What is your name?"
"I am Deimosu Satomi," the Ainur said. "Son of Ranma Satomi. Practioner of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Ainur."
"Well, well," Cu Cuchlain said. "You're the one we have to thank for all this."
Deimosu flinched and stepped forward grimacing.
"Isn't it glorious?" he asked.
"You like all this?" Deimosu demanded.
"Of course!" Cu Cuchlain said. "Before all I had to look forward to was fading further and further away. Now....now I get to die in battle. I had hoped it would be Ares I faced in the end, but Apollo prefers his surprise attacks."
He curled his lip and shook his head.
"Now, however," he said. "I'll get a chance to battle the one who attacked and destroyed the Doublet-System single-handed. Perhaps, you'll give me a warriors death."
"You want me to kill you," Deimosu said, confused.
"What fool would side with Zeus in this expecting to win?" he asked. "Come on, let's get on with this."
And Cu Cuchlain charged forward with his spear.
*******************
Kiima blinked as a wall of paper rose up between her and the Mantle's blast and held, although it bulged inward. And almost immediately, the paper erupted outward into a flying cloud of razor sharp edges cutting through the surrounded soldiers and then caking along the outside of the Mantle.
Yomiko's face showed clear effort as she manipulated the paper in the area around them.
From where she stood, Kiima saw no less than five paper monsters acting as heavy support for her Phoenix people whenever a Mantle might show up. Said monsters had the tendency to become walls, clouds, wrap up around enemies.
"How long can you keep this up?" Kiima asked.
"Oh, quite sometime, I think," Yomiko said.
Kiima nodded and took to the air with several of her people and began darting in and out of the shards of paper to meet the Gods that were flying above them.
Ranma looked over toward the fight and frowned briefly before moving back to setting out the rest of their circle.
"Come on," she called out. "Don't get bogged down! We need to finish this."
*********************
Kaname returned to Silmaril with a Goddess on top of two Demons and found that the progress of the lightning as a whole had been stopped.
It is here, the Goddess said. We had it in Yggdrasil too.
Had, Carter noted, quickly. As in it's gone?
It's more like a direct attack, the Goddess said. We cut off the entry point and handling it was easy after that. Fortunately, we caught it early.
We need to cut off the flow at the tap, McKay said quickly. But...that's a problem.
Mara cursed and looked out toward the lightning storm in front of them where it encompassed part of Silmaril and spread into Nidhog.
The taps are in there somewhere, Carter said. First thing first, maybe we can at least push the containment in a bit more, clear the path to Nidhog and attack this on all sides.
That sounds like a good idea, Major Carter, the Goddess noted.
Excuse me, Sarah said. It's not responding as quickly suddenly.
She's right, McKay said, walking to the edge. It's still getting power, but it's like it's not paying attention anymore.
And we attack, Mara said, waving forward. Demons to Nidhog with me.
McKay go with them, Carter said.
Why do you have to tell me to go to Hell? McKay wondered.
Rodney, Carter said impatiently.
Right, right, go to hell, he said irritably following Mara and the Demons.
********************
Zeus broke partly out of his trance as he turned away from Melinoe, leaving his daughter to sit, trying to catch her breath, marks bleeding from the edges and the flow only just slowing. Sayoko and Meryl still writhed in his hands, however, as his followers watched. and something else caught his attention.
An older human woman limping her way into the thrown room as the various Gods and Goddesses about him watched, chuckling. The old woman almost stumbled but was helped by the servant who was moving around, carefully pouring wine for the toast to come.
"Be careful there," the servant noted in a calm, almost serene voice, that seemed just a bit artificially deep.
"Thank you," she said.
The old woman nodded and straightened herself adjusting the oblong bundle on her back.
Standing up, but not releasing the trickle of power pushing through the two women, Zeus took in the woman's approach with a chuckle of amusement.
"And to what do we owe the honor of your coming here to our court, Madame?" Zeus asked, moving around and ignoring the continuing cries from two of the three women behind him. "You, continue pouring the drink for the toast. Don't bother with those three. Alcohol and children after all."
Tightly, the servant bowed and went back to pouring the drink for the assorted Gods, not far from being done as it was.
Melinoe, somewhat recovered of herself, tried to ease Meryl and Sayoko's pain as much as she could with the bounds placed on her power, and turned to look at Zeus.
"Monster," she snapped bitterly.
"Is that anyway to talk to your father or the father of your child?" Zeus asked. "Now, I believe I asked a question, Madam, what brings you here bearing a curse from Persephone?"
The older woman stood up straight and brought the bundle down from behind her back.
"I am Nodooka Saotome," she said. "Mother of Ranma Saotome. I am here to collect the debt."
"Really?" Zeus said, chuckling as Nodoka unwrapped her sword and drew it.
He was looking around the room as the woman drew the sword and stepped forward.
"No!" Melinoe shouted. "Don't try it! You can't..."
She winced as Zeus casually caught the blade and sent a current of electricity through it, knocking Nodoka back drawing laughter as she slammed into the wall.
"She's right," Zeus said. "No one can kill me but my own son, it's set that way, not that you had much chance in the first place."
"Do not be so secure," Nodoka said, panting and leaning on her sword to stand up, surrounded by the laughter of the Gods. "Hecate is dead by her child. Poseidon is dead by his. I learned this only recently. There's only one more of you monsters left, and one more child left to speak to you."
Zeus's smile left his face briefly at that as Nodoka stepped forward leveling her sword and charging him again.
He laughed again then, batted the inexpertly thrust sword away and gripping Nodoka by the neck.
"And you still try?" he asked.
"I was reminded," Nodoka said breathlessly around the pressure of his hand. "Of a mother's duty recently."
"A mother's duty?" Zeus scoffed. "How amusing, now what to..."
"Excuse me, Lord Zeus," the servant said quietly, bowing low, almost kow-towing. "I do not mean to interrupt. But everyone has been served for the toast."
Zeus shrugged and let Nodoka go, throwing her back to ground and across the floor, where she sat, trying to get her breath.
"Indeed," he said. "We shall deal with Dame Saotome after the toast."
He moved forward to grab his chalice and raise it high, all around him, other Gods did likewise. Behind him, the servant waited patiently with the empty tray held aside.
"To our renewal!" he shouted, receiving many likewise responses before all across the room, Gods downed their drinks.
The servant smiled.
************************
You almost have it, Peorth called out encouragingly from the other side of the wall blocking Zeus out of full use of Yggdrasil.
Sayoko once again tried to start building the wall, forcing the first pieces in over the flow of power from Zeus. It looked almost as if she'd push this first equation into place, but a burst of power through her back again.
Only this time, she was caught by another soul.
You look like you could use some help here, Major Carter said in a friendly tone.
Peorth, the Goddess with them said. What are you doing here?
She was teaching me to wall Zeus out of Silmaril, Sayoko said weakly.
If she showed you how, then go ahead and get started, Kaname said. The rest of us will keep you clear.
********************
"And we're done!" a feng shih called out.
"Then do it!" Ranma ordered.
The whole small group of feng shih bent down to pour their chi into the circle as battle continued around them.
And the wall cutting off Japan from the rest of the world broke.
***********************
"This is the beginning my..." Zeus was interrupted in his speech as the human servant stepped forward and placed the tray casually on one the table in front of him.
Removing the hat, and loosening the tunic, the servant revealed a woman's chest bandaged down to be flat and hair only recently cut to be extremely short. Then she took a knife from the table and slashed it across her palm which she held out toward Zeus in a fist as she smiled quietly.
"What is this?" Zeus asked with a chuckle.
Nodoka looked up at her and squinted, trying to recognize the woman.
"Kasumi?" she said, aghast. "Why are you here."
Kasumi said nothing as her palm bled onto the ground and behind her one God after another started retching in pain and collapsing into lifeless lumps.
"I might add," Kasumi said calmly. "I wasn't trying to kill you, Zeus. Incapacitate, yes. I do believe I over did the dose in the attempt, however."
And whatever Zeus had been about to say was cut short as a severe pain shot through his stomach and he lurched forward down to his knees in front of Kasumi, pain running through him as she looked down at him mild and unimpressed.
He tried to reach out for the power he was stealing from Silmaril, and was shocked to feel but a trickle of the energy and access before it shut off completely. A moment later and even the very limited power he'd been siphoning from the fouled up Nidhog was likewise cut off.
Behind Kasumi, Melinoe was looking around in shock as the whole room full of Gods died around her and Meryl slowly came conscious.
Sayoko struggled to her feet breathing heavily.
"We're all linked now, bastard," she said glaring at him and leaning on her hands. "One network locks you out, all of them can."
Then he felt his wall, cutting out invasion by the Gods, fall to pieces and he made a decision.
Everyone watched as a circle of runes appeared around his feet, barely glowing, and then he vanished from the room.
Kasumi released the bandages around her chest with a clear breath of relief and then reclosed her tunic for modesty. Then she looked over toward one of the Gods still choking on her poison and sighed sadly at the waste before turning to the four still living people in the room with her.
"Shall we see about those other prisoners now?" she asked in a calm, friendly tone.
Elsewhere, a Demon collapsed while coming to grab someone to bring them back to medical. Immediately, the human soldiers grabbed him and the wounded soldier up and pulled them back into cover.
For the Gods and cultists fighting on foot, not much changed as mostly they've been facing the human soldiers anyway. It was with the mantles that the balance of the encounter really changed as many of the power-users whose job was to keep them focused had to be pulled quickly to safety.
However, they were not unprepared for this.
Two men with an RPG crept along cover as fighting raged around them and tanks and ASes exchanged fire with a single Mantle. Four M-9s firing and disengaging as tanks sought continually loosening cover.
A tank was crushed, an M-9 torn to pieces by what looked like blades of force. But they kept up the pressure, falling back slowly as the RPG crew crept forward into position, hoping the infantry about the Mantle didn't find them first.
As the God Mantle stepped past them, all of its power and energy focused forward, they fired there rocket, blowing a massive hole in the back and toppling it forward. And the M-9s, tanks and military surged forward to engage the Gods and mortals that now lacked heavy support.
Elsewhere, where the Mantles were spotted coming from further out, the answer was simpler. Radio it in to one of the many subs and cruisers further out.
And then the cruise missiles came.
*****************
"The Immortals are crippled at least temporarily," Akane said. "Going ashore to support the advance. XO has the bridge."
"Aye, Ma'am," the XO said. "Good luck."
"Thanks," Akane said with a smile as she took out a peach.
It took her only a brief amount of time to cross to the shore, roof hopping from transport to transport until she was on shore and taking out a peach to bite into it as she moved from cover to cover up to the front.
"Uh...Commander?" a JSDF ground soldier noted as she came up beside him. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm your heavy support," she said with a wink and a twinkle as she finished the peach and looked out to see an approaching Mantle with support.
Taking a deep breath, and Akane stepped forward and roared forth, borrowing power from Persephone's gift as she shaped her chi outward into the largest demon-head technique she'd ever imagined.
Ahead of her, the Mantle, the Gods on foot and the humans with them, all paused before the massive illusion of her head modified to monstrous form.
And the surround soldiers took that moment to tear the Mantle apart before its pilot could recover.
Akane moved forward ahead of the soldiers and launched into a yamasenken dance to obliterate the forces immediately in front of her with vacuum blades. As for those on the sides trying to get toward her from the flanks.
She wasn't alone.
Walking forward in a clear moment, she stepped up onto the wreckage of a Mantle, took a knife and scored it across her palm before letting the blood drip down over the fallen vehicle in clear sight of everybody nearby.
**********************
Ryuu rushed forward, finishing his own peach and growing with each step as he found plenty of chi on hand for using a technique that Genma had that was, until now, prohibitively draining.
The pilot in the Mantle immediately in front of him froze in shock as the mortal in front of him grew to tower over even the mantle and then a large black blade of vacuum appeared in Ryuu's hand.
He stepped forward and slashed through the Mantle before looking on for the next one and jumping towards it with a kick that sent it flying backwards even as much of the impact was absorbed by a battle aura. And then the vacuum sword in his hand was launched as a crescent.
***********************
The border between the crystalline precision of the Silmaril and the organic serenity of Yggdrasil was marked by a mass of lightning encompassing Eija's form.
Kaname and the Demons with her, however, were surprised to find she was not alone.
Sousuke?! Kaname asked surging forward and almost jumping into the lightning without thinking.
Stay back! Sousuke said with difficulty. This...spreads.
Eija, Sousuke! Kaname asked. Are you okay? Wait, that's stupid, of course you're not.
This, does not seem as bad as Hecate's virus, Eija said. But, it is...distracting.
Miss Chidori, one of the Demons said. We should cleanse these two before moving on.
Right, Kaname noted, flushing angrily that he'd think that she would just move on.
As they had been the entire time, she pushd forward, shaping the numbers and symbols of the Whispers as the Demons brought forth their own symbols out of the distant Call and slashed into the lightning piece by piece until it was pushed off both Sousuke and Eija and Kaname was able to reach out in the Mindscape to hug each of them.
Thank goodness you're all right, Kaname said.
That was timely, Kaname, Sousuke said. Thank you.
Indeed, Eija said taking a heavy breath. I was making little progress either on my own or with Sousuke's help. Though it lost a bit of effect in trying to deal with us both. Possibly because of how we're two different beings.
How the hell did you get here, Sousuke? Kaname asked. Well, I know how you got in here...but how did you know to get in here?!
I came when I heard Eija call out, Sousuke noted taking a breath.
When you heard... Kaname started.
...me call out? Eija completed.
I responded that I was coming, Sousuke answered. I wasn't sure you could hear, however.
You did... Kaname started to ask.
I believe Miss Chidori and each of you two have tasks, the Demon noted. You may discuss your lover's bond later.
The three looked a bit embarrassed at that.
*************
Naiki grimaced irritably as she ducked around a corner again.
"I can't wait for someone to fix Nidhog so I can get in the same playing ground as everybody else," she said.
"Given the track record in the file I saw when you were assigned to me, Miss Satomi," the US officer with her said. "I'm not sure how much more power they'd give you. Just focus on support and not wishes."
"Yeah, yeah," Naiki said. "There's still a lot of smoke in the air, but I really don't want to see how many favors I owe Geisthexe-san after this."
She started enchanting the spell again, blinding their enemies with smoke so that the infantry and vehicles with her could press forward. Or else give Tessa a location to send cruise missiles to.
It was hardly what she was used to in fighting. But at least she was doing something.
They were passing forward in the street, pushing back the enemy after another mantle had fallen to distraction and human weapons. Out of the surrounding field of debris, Gods and human cultists swarmed into the middle of them, cutting the advance in two and turning the situation into the sort of chaotic mass of individual fights that some of the Gods expected were true warfare.
"There's the little Demon," a woman's voice called out.
Naiki turned around in time to see a sword slashing out for her neck. The Demoness ducked back and responded with a handstand kick that knocked her opponent backward. It was then easy to see that her sword wielding enemy was some sort of winged Goddess.
"So, a warrior and not just a little saboteur," she said, wiping at her mouth. "I am Nike! Goddess of Victory, who are you to stand before me, Demon?"
Naiki flipped up to her feet and took in the Goddess hovering in front of her as battle raged about them.
"I am Naiki, Demoness of Torrent."
The winged Goddess stared at her in rank disbelief.
"You dare take my name?" she demanded.
"Are you going to talk or fight?" Naiki asked. "Cause if you talk to long, someone is going to shoot you before I get to take you out."
Sneering, Nike charged forward, swinging her sword.
Naiki responded by dodging around the weapon and pushing forward into Nike's armored chest, feeling the rib cage press down into itself on the Goddess.
She pressed the advantage as the Goddess tumbled backwards, but was surprised when the wings slashed forward, feathers cutting into her shoulders.
Both took a step back, Nike again hovering bare inches over the ground. They took each other in again and then Naiki charged forward.
********************
"Take care of her," Deimosu told Eija as his sister leaned over Yonjuu and checked her injuries.
"There's no question of that, she'll be in bed for some time, but she'll be fine" she said in a relieved tone. "Are you not afflicted as well?"
"No," Deimosu said grimly. "Maybe because he thinks of me as his son."
Eija nodded and moved to carry Yonjuu further into the medical area to find somewhere to put her where she could lie down and not be either at risk or in the way.
Yonjuu left with his sister, he turned back into the battle and pushed forward to find the front lines. He arrived in time to see Herb attacking a Mantle along with his son, forcing it down to the ground as they battered its aura mercilessly.
Deimosu lashed out with his own power, adding a third attack in the form of a lightning bolt which stabbed through the aura's split attention and destroyed the Mantle with in.
Coming up beside them, he stopped as he recognized Basil.
"You!" the two of them said suddenly.
"What is he doing here?" Deimosu demanded. "He tried to kidnap my sisters and that Kaname girl."
"He is doing his penance," Herb said, turning to look toward Basil and forestall him from speaking on the subject.
"How is it that you're not afflicted with the same attack these other 'Immortals' suffer from?" Basil demanded. "Is the enemy ruler not your father?"
"He might think he is," Deimosu said. "Hey! They need help down there."
He pointed out toward one of the dinosaur-like Carapaces stopped cold where it stood in front of the littered destruction of several Mantles. Ahead of it several Gods were coming in with clear intention to destroy it.
From where they stood, Deimosu and the Musk could see the US military trying to hold and support the frozen Carapace, but it was out of cover and another Mantle was coming down the way.
Deimosu leaped forward as the two dragons flew down after him.
Unable to fall back and leave the Carapace vulnerable, the humans and Musk found themselves quickly facing a situation almost the reverse of what had been the normal circumstance.
They were being flooded with enemies, even with Herb and Basil focusing on the Mantle.
Like elsewhere, this particular fight was degenerating into individual conflicts around the Carapace and out of the mass, a loud, European looking God charged forward wielding a long spear.
Deimosu stepped in front of him and batted the spear aside before stepping forward with an Amaguriken into the God's side. An attack which only just brushed the enemy.
"Well, a true warrior amongst these new Immortals?" the God said, stepping back and holding his spear out with a smirk on his face. "I am Cu Cuchlain, God of Challenge. What is your name?"
"I am Deimosu Satomi," the Ainur said. "Son of Ranma Satomi. Practioner of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Ainur."
"Well, well," Cu Cuchlain said. "You're the one we have to thank for all this."
Deimosu flinched and stepped forward grimacing.
"Isn't it glorious?" he asked.
"You like all this?" Deimosu demanded.
"Of course!" Cu Cuchlain said. "Before all I had to look forward to was fading further and further away. Now....now I get to die in battle. I had hoped it would be Ares I faced in the end, but Apollo prefers his surprise attacks."
He curled his lip and shook his head.
"Now, however," he said. "I'll get a chance to battle the one who attacked and destroyed the Doublet-System single-handed. Perhaps, you'll give me a warriors death."
"You want me to kill you," Deimosu said, confused.
"What fool would side with Zeus in this expecting to win?" he asked. "Come on, let's get on with this."
And Cu Cuchlain charged forward with his spear.
*******************
Kiima blinked as a wall of paper rose up between her and the Mantle's blast and held, although it bulged inward. And almost immediately, the paper erupted outward into a flying cloud of razor sharp edges cutting through the surrounded soldiers and then caking along the outside of the Mantle.
Yomiko's face showed clear effort as she manipulated the paper in the area around them.
From where she stood, Kiima saw no less than five paper monsters acting as heavy support for her Phoenix people whenever a Mantle might show up. Said monsters had the tendency to become walls, clouds, wrap up around enemies.
"How long can you keep this up?" Kiima asked.
"Oh, quite sometime, I think," Yomiko said.
Kiima nodded and took to the air with several of her people and began darting in and out of the shards of paper to meet the Gods that were flying above them.
Ranma looked over toward the fight and frowned briefly before moving back to setting out the rest of their circle.
"Come on," she called out. "Don't get bogged down! We need to finish this."
*********************
Kaname returned to Silmaril with a Goddess on top of two Demons and found that the progress of the lightning as a whole had been stopped.
It is here, the Goddess said. We had it in Yggdrasil too.
Had, Carter noted, quickly. As in it's gone?
It's more like a direct attack, the Goddess said. We cut off the entry point and handling it was easy after that. Fortunately, we caught it early.
We need to cut off the flow at the tap, McKay said quickly. But...that's a problem.
Mara cursed and looked out toward the lightning storm in front of them where it encompassed part of Silmaril and spread into Nidhog.
The taps are in there somewhere, Carter said. First thing first, maybe we can at least push the containment in a bit more, clear the path to Nidhog and attack this on all sides.
That sounds like a good idea, Major Carter, the Goddess noted.
Excuse me, Sarah said. It's not responding as quickly suddenly.
She's right, McKay said, walking to the edge. It's still getting power, but it's like it's not paying attention anymore.
And we attack, Mara said, waving forward. Demons to Nidhog with me.
McKay go with them, Carter said.
Why do you have to tell me to go to Hell? McKay wondered.
Rodney, Carter said impatiently.
Right, right, go to hell, he said irritably following Mara and the Demons.
********************
Zeus broke partly out of his trance as he turned away from Melinoe, leaving his daughter to sit, trying to catch her breath, marks bleeding from the edges and the flow only just slowing. Sayoko and Meryl still writhed in his hands, however, as his followers watched. and something else caught his attention.
An older human woman limping her way into the thrown room as the various Gods and Goddesses about him watched, chuckling. The old woman almost stumbled but was helped by the servant who was moving around, carefully pouring wine for the toast to come.
"Be careful there," the servant noted in a calm, almost serene voice, that seemed just a bit artificially deep.
"Thank you," she said.
The old woman nodded and straightened herself adjusting the oblong bundle on her back.
Standing up, but not releasing the trickle of power pushing through the two women, Zeus took in the woman's approach with a chuckle of amusement.
"And to what do we owe the honor of your coming here to our court, Madame?" Zeus asked, moving around and ignoring the continuing cries from two of the three women behind him. "You, continue pouring the drink for the toast. Don't bother with those three. Alcohol and children after all."
Tightly, the servant bowed and went back to pouring the drink for the assorted Gods, not far from being done as it was.
Melinoe, somewhat recovered of herself, tried to ease Meryl and Sayoko's pain as much as she could with the bounds placed on her power, and turned to look at Zeus.
"Monster," she snapped bitterly.
"Is that anyway to talk to your father or the father of your child?" Zeus asked. "Now, I believe I asked a question, Madam, what brings you here bearing a curse from Persephone?"
The older woman stood up straight and brought the bundle down from behind her back.
"I am Nodooka Saotome," she said. "Mother of Ranma Saotome. I am here to collect the debt."
"Really?" Zeus said, chuckling as Nodoka unwrapped her sword and drew it.
He was looking around the room as the woman drew the sword and stepped forward.
"No!" Melinoe shouted. "Don't try it! You can't..."
She winced as Zeus casually caught the blade and sent a current of electricity through it, knocking Nodoka back drawing laughter as she slammed into the wall.
"She's right," Zeus said. "No one can kill me but my own son, it's set that way, not that you had much chance in the first place."
"Do not be so secure," Nodoka said, panting and leaning on her sword to stand up, surrounded by the laughter of the Gods. "Hecate is dead by her child. Poseidon is dead by his. I learned this only recently. There's only one more of you monsters left, and one more child left to speak to you."
Zeus's smile left his face briefly at that as Nodoka stepped forward leveling her sword and charging him again.
He laughed again then, batted the inexpertly thrust sword away and gripping Nodoka by the neck.
"And you still try?" he asked.
"I was reminded," Nodoka said breathlessly around the pressure of his hand. "Of a mother's duty recently."
"A mother's duty?" Zeus scoffed. "How amusing, now what to..."
"Excuse me, Lord Zeus," the servant said quietly, bowing low, almost kow-towing. "I do not mean to interrupt. But everyone has been served for the toast."
Zeus shrugged and let Nodoka go, throwing her back to ground and across the floor, where she sat, trying to get her breath.
"Indeed," he said. "We shall deal with Dame Saotome after the toast."
He moved forward to grab his chalice and raise it high, all around him, other Gods did likewise. Behind him, the servant waited patiently with the empty tray held aside.
"To our renewal!" he shouted, receiving many likewise responses before all across the room, Gods downed their drinks.
The servant smiled.
************************
You almost have it, Peorth called out encouragingly from the other side of the wall blocking Zeus out of full use of Yggdrasil.
Sayoko once again tried to start building the wall, forcing the first pieces in over the flow of power from Zeus. It looked almost as if she'd push this first equation into place, but a burst of power through her back again.
Only this time, she was caught by another soul.
You look like you could use some help here, Major Carter said in a friendly tone.
Peorth, the Goddess with them said. What are you doing here?
She was teaching me to wall Zeus out of Silmaril, Sayoko said weakly.
If she showed you how, then go ahead and get started, Kaname said. The rest of us will keep you clear.
********************
"And we're done!" a feng shih called out.
"Then do it!" Ranma ordered.
The whole small group of feng shih bent down to pour their chi into the circle as battle continued around them.
And the wall cutting off Japan from the rest of the world broke.
***********************
"This is the beginning my..." Zeus was interrupted in his speech as the human servant stepped forward and placed the tray casually on one the table in front of him.
Removing the hat, and loosening the tunic, the servant revealed a woman's chest bandaged down to be flat and hair only recently cut to be extremely short. Then she took a knife from the table and slashed it across her palm which she held out toward Zeus in a fist as she smiled quietly.
"What is this?" Zeus asked with a chuckle.
Nodoka looked up at her and squinted, trying to recognize the woman.
"Kasumi?" she said, aghast. "Why are you here."
Kasumi said nothing as her palm bled onto the ground and behind her one God after another started retching in pain and collapsing into lifeless lumps.
"I might add," Kasumi said calmly. "I wasn't trying to kill you, Zeus. Incapacitate, yes. I do believe I over did the dose in the attempt, however."
And whatever Zeus had been about to say was cut short as a severe pain shot through his stomach and he lurched forward down to his knees in front of Kasumi, pain running through him as she looked down at him mild and unimpressed.
He tried to reach out for the power he was stealing from Silmaril, and was shocked to feel but a trickle of the energy and access before it shut off completely. A moment later and even the very limited power he'd been siphoning from the fouled up Nidhog was likewise cut off.
Behind Kasumi, Melinoe was looking around in shock as the whole room full of Gods died around her and Meryl slowly came conscious.
Sayoko struggled to her feet breathing heavily.
"We're all linked now, bastard," she said glaring at him and leaning on her hands. "One network locks you out, all of them can."
Then he felt his wall, cutting out invasion by the Gods, fall to pieces and he made a decision.
Everyone watched as a circle of runes appeared around his feet, barely glowing, and then he vanished from the room.
Kasumi released the bandages around her chest with a clear breath of relief and then reclosed her tunic for modesty. Then she looked over toward one of the Gods still choking on her poison and sighed sadly at the waste before turning to the four still living people in the room with her.
"Shall we see about those other prisoners now?" she asked in a calm, friendly tone.
episode 245999
I found him seemingly refreshingly honest... reminds me of the guy whom kidnapped and tortuered GKar in Babylon 5
I am of mixed feelings on this... You do realize with a different look, she could con her way into becoming a Ainur... they will not recognize him/her, and Sayoko does not know what he/she now looks like
I did not know it when I read this the first time, but this was interesting forshadowing, and meant it was no accident she followed Nodoka where she did later on.
She has very interesting moral standards.
I nunderstood this after a couple times rereading it, but it is bad wording.
I am reminded of a scene in the fan fiction called Process of Elimination, where it is stated that switches are better than buttons, since you can reverse a button. In that scene, they sent a martial artist to help control a satellite beam weapon... he was not the best choice.
S/b "evidence is that if they *are* distracted even small arms *will be* good enough."
episode 246033
I should note this entire scene is with Kaname is a bit confusing from a networking standpoint... you are talking almost as if the three networks are directly connected toeach other, but we know that is not the case. While Kaname should have come in by way of Silmaril, Mara should not have been able to join her at Nidhog... I would have expected Mara to have to take her intot he Nidhog mindscape connection...
episode 246059
Ummm... pretty sure meant perhaps 'wiping a tear from her eye'
Neato... A Yomiko with unlimited weaponry.
'his' s/b 'is'
I'd remove 'he could call'
'A' s/b 'I'
episode 246100
I failed to figure out the meaing of this act.
I do not think it would be too bad, Mara would *not* want Ranma too upset with her. I was thinking it would be great for her to use them up to simply tell her to stop with the advances and inuuendo.
'to' s/b 'too'
and
I'm still a bit confused. While it is a mixed party and I'm assuming they can go to the three different networks as a group because of that, that should not mean the three are directly connected already with the equivelent of hard lines. Yes, Zeus is infiltrating them, but that still would make for 3 infultrations, not a shared cloud environment, to use a more modern buzzword. Also, if they are linked *now* then how were they linked *before*?
I found him seemingly refreshingly honest... reminds me of the guy whom kidnapped and tortuered GKar in Babylon 5
I am of mixed feelings on this... You do realize with a different look, she could con her way into becoming a Ainur... they will not recognize him/her, and Sayoko does not know what he/she now looks like
I did not know it when I read this the first time, but this was interesting forshadowing, and meant it was no accident she followed Nodoka where she did later on.
She has very interesting moral standards.
I nunderstood this after a couple times rereading it, but it is bad wording.
I am reminded of a scene in the fan fiction called Process of Elimination, where it is stated that switches are better than buttons, since you can reverse a button. In that scene, they sent a martial artist to help control a satellite beam weapon... he was not the best choice.
S/b "evidence is that if they *are* distracted even small arms *will be* good enough."
episode 246033
I should note this entire scene is with Kaname is a bit confusing from a networking standpoint... you are talking almost as if the three networks are directly connected toeach other, but we know that is not the case. While Kaname should have come in by way of Silmaril, Mara should not have been able to join her at Nidhog... I would have expected Mara to have to take her intot he Nidhog mindscape connection...
episode 246059
Ummm... pretty sure meant perhaps 'wiping a tear from her eye'
Neato... A Yomiko with unlimited weaponry.
'his' s/b 'is'
I'd remove 'he could call'
'A' s/b 'I'
episode 246100
I failed to figure out the meaing of this act.
I do not think it would be too bad, Mara would *not* want Ranma too upset with her. I was thinking it would be great for her to use them up to simply tell her to stop with the advances and inuuendo.
'to' s/b 'too'
and
I'm still a bit confused. While it is a mixed party and I'm assuming they can go to the three different networks as a group because of that, that should not mean the three are directly connected already with the equivelent of hard lines. Yes, Zeus is infiltrating them, but that still would make for 3 infultrations, not a shared cloud environment, to use a more modern buzzword. Also, if they are linked *now* then how were they linked *before*?
"We're all linked now, bastard," she said glaring at him and leaning on her hands. "One network locks you out, all of them can." [/QUOTE]
I'm still a bit confused. While it is a mixed party and I'm assuming they can go to the three different networks as a group because of that, that should not mean the three are directly connected already with the equivelent of hard lines. Yes, Zeus is infiltrating them, but that still would make for 3 infultrations, not a shared cloud environment, to use a more modern buzzword. Also, if they are linked *now* then how were they linked *before*?
Zeus accessed/hacked each network separately through a different source point (Melinoe, Meryl and Sayoko)
the Gods already were blocking him out so they stopped it early, and probably the Gods in battle on the side of the Good guys recovered quickest of the lot
Eija,, Naiki and Tessa happened to be in the affected area...the effect did not spread through them
Sousuke got affected because he tried to help Eija, direct interaction
The networks have all been linked, through Naiki/Tessa and Kaname/Eija(Sousuke) it just hasn't been thoroughly utilized until now
the "now" from Sayoko is more for Zeus's benefit as it would be news to him
I'm still a bit confused. While it is a mixed party and I'm assuming they can go to the three different networks as a group because of that, that should not mean the three are directly connected already with the equivelent of hard lines. Yes, Zeus is infiltrating them, but that still would make for 3 infultrations, not a shared cloud environment, to use a more modern buzzword. Also, if they are linked *now* then how were they linked *before*?
Zeus accessed/hacked each network separately through a different source point (Melinoe, Meryl and Sayoko)
the Gods already were blocking him out so they stopped it early, and probably the Gods in battle on the side of the Good guys recovered quickest of the lot
Eija,, Naiki and Tessa happened to be in the affected area...the effect did not spread through them
Sousuke got affected because he tried to help Eija, direct interaction
The networks have all been linked, through Naiki/Tessa and Kaname/Eija(Sousuke) it just hasn't been thoroughly utilized until now
the "now" from Sayoko is more for Zeus's benefit as it would be news to him
A massive paper creature that looked like it was supposed to be a mix between King Kong and Cthulhu exploded outward into its component pieces swirling about in the air to the confusion of the pilots in the two Mantles that it had been holding off to that point.
Elsewhere a paper serpent likewise exploded into swirling paper as the Gods facing it paused in their retreat.
Kiima and her warriors watched the other of the massive paper kaiju exploding outward, save the phoenix and dragon that were giving her warriors support in the air. Pausing in mid air during a quiet period, Kiima flapped her wings and glanced down to see what the human was doing with her papers.
"Stay well above the ground," she called out. "Stay focused on their flyers and show why the Phoenix rules the air!"
Down below, Yomiko Readman was standing at the center of a swirling storm of papers slightly behind Ranma Satomi who was calmly radiating a portion of her chi as if preparing to enter battle.
"Okay, Yomiko," Ranma said. "Looks good, you ready for this?"
"After they start burning you won't have long before I have to drop them," the woman said.
"Right," Ranma noted. "That's what the factory is for, do it."
She glanced back toward the other fang shui shih and nodded toward them encouragingly. Demons were already supposed to be taking them out of the fight area, but that clearly wasn't happening.
"Get ready and take cover," she said. "Yomiko you know what to do while stuff is going boom, right?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Yomiko said.
Ahead of her, Yomiko had directed her paper through the various fires in the area, producing a growing, massive firestorm.
"You want fire, mortal!" someone shouted from outside them. "We'll give you fire!"
The swirling flames sped up into swirls of ever increasing speeds as the various fire related deities beyond tried to turn what they saw as a defensive weapon back on the humans they were trying to reach.
"That's right," Ranma said with a smirk as she started walking in a tightening circle as if viewing the strings of fire that were streaming her way. "Give it to me, all that power."
There were a number of people that could have said that what made Ranma dangerous wasn't the raw level of power at the martial artist's beck and call. That was impressive, but it wasn't the most dangerous thing.
The most dangerous thing about Ranma was control. When she'd had the merest fraction of the power she now had, she'd beaten Herb, who'd towered over the human in terms of raw power.
As the multiple fingers of twisting fire, lighting and wind cut in through the air to target what was clearly taken to be the main power behind things in the area, Ranma twisted into a final turn and met the first of the attacks.
"Hiryu Hyo Toppa..." she said, "...amaguriken."
The first tongue of fire was obliterated as Ranma used a fraction of her strength to turn all the mana put into the attack backwards into a narrow twisting blast of spear thick wind. It had barely progressed a few feet when a lightning bolt was similarly consumed and then another tongue of fire.
The tornado spears flashed backwards, tearing into the ground and through buildings outward as Ranma turned all the energy directed at her people backwards on her attackers.
With minimal expenditure of her own chi.
Glancing down, the Gods in the air stared in shock as the devastation surged outwards in a wave of devastation that tossed mantles and Gods about like little dolls.
The distraction cost them as the Phoenix warriors came down out of the sky on top of them in the midst of their distraction. To that point, the battle had been more or less even between the Phoenix and the Gods with casualties and injuries on both sides. However, now they took their chance to attack all at once and clear the skies once and for all. The paper beasts shattering into thousands of projectiles to aid them.
Down on the ground Ranma stood forward and looked out at the devastation and noted a number of Gods climbing back up to their feet and even a last set of Mantles coming forward over the suddenly obliterated landscape.
"Take her in hand to hand," someone shouted as they charged over the gray and dusty ground. "Don't give her any power to use!"
Despite the destruction, Ranma had wrought, there were still many that had survived or else were just now coming into the area from outside the reach of her attack. She stared calmly and watched them calm, arching an eyebrow.
The lead elements were with twenty feet when the ground for a thousand feet out from Ranma and Yomiko spiked upwards through Gods and Mantles.
"I'm afraid none of you have an appointment," Yomiko said.
And then the spikes dissipated into a swirl of slicing, paper objects, as if the Gods had just walked into the puree function of a massive blender.
Then the first Demon appeared.
"We here, let's..." the Demon looked about at the devastation, "...hurry? What happened here?"
************************
"Director Satomi's secretary reports their position clear," a tech told Mardukas.
"Clear?" Mardukas said, noting that the report had come by radio rather than butterfly. "What is the count there?"
"Readman is reporting now sir," the tech said, clicking the radio to speaker.
"I think I personally disabled or destroyed twelve of those Mantles," she noted. "The Phoenix People can account for another four for sure, two possible, and Director Satomi I believe took eight, maybe nine. It is hard to tell, I didn't have an accurate count before they were in pieces. Rough estimate is between a thousand and two thousand enemy soldiers. Most dead, Kiima's people and the evac team are checking for survivors now."
"And on your end?" Mardukas asked.
"It's serious, sir," Yomiko said. "I estimate the Phoenix have suffered at least thirty percent casualties serious enough to pull them out of the fight. I'm not sure how many of that are dead or probably will die. They kept the skies clear for us, sir, filled all the gaps."
She sounded more than a little horrified at the high numbers underneath her calm frame of speech.
"Understood," Mardukas said. "We're sending a hospital and garrison to you, Readman, so only send the most serious cases out for now."
"Right, sir," Yomiko said. "Might I ask where Captain Testarossa is?"
*********************
"Most of the Asgardians are recovered or recovering," a Japanese general said. "Ainur and Nifelheim are a bit slower to recover, but it's happening."
"We got a report in about that," General Hammond said. "Some sort of psychic attack on the Networks."
His Japanese counterpart nodded sagely.
"This Captain Testarossa's recommendation not to depend too heavily on these Immortals proved wise," he said. "A full unit of Immortals would have been cut down. As it is, we've lost people and machines, and a little bit of momentum, but we're still advancing in some places, holding in most."
"We're expecting Captain Testarossa to join us here soon," General Hammond said.
"One of my aides did report that it seemed a secretary had showed up," the Japanese general noted. "They're try
General Hammond resisted the urge to smirk.
"You might want to let that 'secretary' on in," he said.
It was a few minutes later when a lavender haired girl strode in gracefully with a tired, frustrated look on her face.
"Captain," Hammond said, smiling. "It's good to meet you at last. I thought you'd be commanding the DaDanaan."
"Thank you, General," she said, taking his hand and shaking before bowing to the Japanese general. "General. Yes, I left it in my XOs hand's in case I had a relapse."
She walked to the situation map and frowned. It was taking too long to relieve the advance teams. And once the Immortals were incapacitated, it became a matter of an average of eight to nine tanks or five ASes to take out each of the Mantles. And there were still at least ninety still operational, and probably twenty or thirty unaccounted for.
"I received word that we had a radio report to the DaDanaan," she said.
"Time to send air support," Hammond noted.
<I>Naiki, the air force is coming,</i> Tessa said.
<I>I've got this,</i> send them somewhere else, Naiki responded with a bit of effort.
<I>Do not be stupid,</i> Tessa reminded her quickly. <I>We've already had enough of that with you...
I'm not being stupid!</i> Naiki returned. <i>This bitch has her people all mixed up with the soldiers here! All air support is going to do is shoot all of us up!</i>
Tessa frowned and looked up toward the map again and tapped the location Naiki was.
"There's a skirmish here," she said. "Our people mixed with theirs, send a couple of choppers with snipers out, here and here."
"And how can you be sure of that?" the Japanese general asked.
"Because I share thoughts with one of the people in it," Tessa said.
Elsewhere a paper serpent likewise exploded into swirling paper as the Gods facing it paused in their retreat.
Kiima and her warriors watched the other of the massive paper kaiju exploding outward, save the phoenix and dragon that were giving her warriors support in the air. Pausing in mid air during a quiet period, Kiima flapped her wings and glanced down to see what the human was doing with her papers.
"Stay well above the ground," she called out. "Stay focused on their flyers and show why the Phoenix rules the air!"
Down below, Yomiko Readman was standing at the center of a swirling storm of papers slightly behind Ranma Satomi who was calmly radiating a portion of her chi as if preparing to enter battle.
"Okay, Yomiko," Ranma said. "Looks good, you ready for this?"
"After they start burning you won't have long before I have to drop them," the woman said.
"Right," Ranma noted. "That's what the factory is for, do it."
She glanced back toward the other fang shui shih and nodded toward them encouragingly. Demons were already supposed to be taking them out of the fight area, but that clearly wasn't happening.
"Get ready and take cover," she said. "Yomiko you know what to do while stuff is going boom, right?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Yomiko said.
Ahead of her, Yomiko had directed her paper through the various fires in the area, producing a growing, massive firestorm.
"You want fire, mortal!" someone shouted from outside them. "We'll give you fire!"
The swirling flames sped up into swirls of ever increasing speeds as the various fire related deities beyond tried to turn what they saw as a defensive weapon back on the humans they were trying to reach.
"That's right," Ranma said with a smirk as she started walking in a tightening circle as if viewing the strings of fire that were streaming her way. "Give it to me, all that power."
There were a number of people that could have said that what made Ranma dangerous wasn't the raw level of power at the martial artist's beck and call. That was impressive, but it wasn't the most dangerous thing.
The most dangerous thing about Ranma was control. When she'd had the merest fraction of the power she now had, she'd beaten Herb, who'd towered over the human in terms of raw power.
As the multiple fingers of twisting fire, lighting and wind cut in through the air to target what was clearly taken to be the main power behind things in the area, Ranma twisted into a final turn and met the first of the attacks.
"Hiryu Hyo Toppa..." she said, "...amaguriken."
The first tongue of fire was obliterated as Ranma used a fraction of her strength to turn all the mana put into the attack backwards into a narrow twisting blast of spear thick wind. It had barely progressed a few feet when a lightning bolt was similarly consumed and then another tongue of fire.
The tornado spears flashed backwards, tearing into the ground and through buildings outward as Ranma turned all the energy directed at her people backwards on her attackers.
With minimal expenditure of her own chi.
Glancing down, the Gods in the air stared in shock as the devastation surged outwards in a wave of devastation that tossed mantles and Gods about like little dolls.
The distraction cost them as the Phoenix warriors came down out of the sky on top of them in the midst of their distraction. To that point, the battle had been more or less even between the Phoenix and the Gods with casualties and injuries on both sides. However, now they took their chance to attack all at once and clear the skies once and for all. The paper beasts shattering into thousands of projectiles to aid them.
Down on the ground Ranma stood forward and looked out at the devastation and noted a number of Gods climbing back up to their feet and even a last set of Mantles coming forward over the suddenly obliterated landscape.
"Take her in hand to hand," someone shouted as they charged over the gray and dusty ground. "Don't give her any power to use!"
Despite the destruction, Ranma had wrought, there were still many that had survived or else were just now coming into the area from outside the reach of her attack. She stared calmly and watched them calm, arching an eyebrow.
The lead elements were with twenty feet when the ground for a thousand feet out from Ranma and Yomiko spiked upwards through Gods and Mantles.
"I'm afraid none of you have an appointment," Yomiko said.
And then the spikes dissipated into a swirl of slicing, paper objects, as if the Gods had just walked into the puree function of a massive blender.
Then the first Demon appeared.
"We here, let's..." the Demon looked about at the devastation, "...hurry? What happened here?"
************************
"Director Satomi's secretary reports their position clear," a tech told Mardukas.
"Clear?" Mardukas said, noting that the report had come by radio rather than butterfly. "What is the count there?"
"Readman is reporting now sir," the tech said, clicking the radio to speaker.
"I think I personally disabled or destroyed twelve of those Mantles," she noted. "The Phoenix People can account for another four for sure, two possible, and Director Satomi I believe took eight, maybe nine. It is hard to tell, I didn't have an accurate count before they were in pieces. Rough estimate is between a thousand and two thousand enemy soldiers. Most dead, Kiima's people and the evac team are checking for survivors now."
"And on your end?" Mardukas asked.
"It's serious, sir," Yomiko said. "I estimate the Phoenix have suffered at least thirty percent casualties serious enough to pull them out of the fight. I'm not sure how many of that are dead or probably will die. They kept the skies clear for us, sir, filled all the gaps."
She sounded more than a little horrified at the high numbers underneath her calm frame of speech.
"Understood," Mardukas said. "We're sending a hospital and garrison to you, Readman, so only send the most serious cases out for now."
"Right, sir," Yomiko said. "Might I ask where Captain Testarossa is?"
*********************
"Most of the Asgardians are recovered or recovering," a Japanese general said. "Ainur and Nifelheim are a bit slower to recover, but it's happening."
"We got a report in about that," General Hammond said. "Some sort of psychic attack on the Networks."
His Japanese counterpart nodded sagely.
"This Captain Testarossa's recommendation not to depend too heavily on these Immortals proved wise," he said. "A full unit of Immortals would have been cut down. As it is, we've lost people and machines, and a little bit of momentum, but we're still advancing in some places, holding in most."
"We're expecting Captain Testarossa to join us here soon," General Hammond said.
"One of my aides did report that it seemed a secretary had showed up," the Japanese general noted. "They're try
General Hammond resisted the urge to smirk.
"You might want to let that 'secretary' on in," he said.
It was a few minutes later when a lavender haired girl strode in gracefully with a tired, frustrated look on her face.
"Captain," Hammond said, smiling. "It's good to meet you at last. I thought you'd be commanding the DaDanaan."
"Thank you, General," she said, taking his hand and shaking before bowing to the Japanese general. "General. Yes, I left it in my XOs hand's in case I had a relapse."
She walked to the situation map and frowned. It was taking too long to relieve the advance teams. And once the Immortals were incapacitated, it became a matter of an average of eight to nine tanks or five ASes to take out each of the Mantles. And there were still at least ninety still operational, and probably twenty or thirty unaccounted for.
"I received word that we had a radio report to the DaDanaan," she said.
"Time to send air support," Hammond noted.
<I>Naiki, the air force is coming,</i> Tessa said.
<I>I've got this,</i> send them somewhere else, Naiki responded with a bit of effort.
<I>Do not be stupid,</i> Tessa reminded her quickly. <I>We've already had enough of that with you...
I'm not being stupid!</i> Naiki returned. <i>This bitch has her people all mixed up with the soldiers here! All air support is going to do is shoot all of us up!</i>
Tessa frowned and looked up toward the map again and tapped the location Naiki was.
"There's a skirmish here," she said. "Our people mixed with theirs, send a couple of choppers with snipers out, here and here."
"And how can you be sure of that?" the Japanese general asked.
"Because I share thoughts with one of the people in it," Tessa said.
Are you talking about a symbol or the people? If it's a symbol, fine, but if it's the people, shouldn't it be "rule" instead?
Why the different name formats for the different Immortals? The Gods are named as residents of their plane, the Ainur follow the same format as they always have, and the Demons are just "Nifelheim." I'd suggest Aesir and Vanir, myself, but that's just me.
Try what? The sentence just drops off.
HTML code here, although that's really just a style thing at this point.
Why the different name formats for the different Immortals? The Gods are named as residents of their plane, the Ainur follow the same format as they always have, and the Demons are just "Nifelheim." I'd suggest Aesir and Vanir, myself, but that's just me.
Try what? The sentence just drops off.
HTML code here, although that's really just a style thing at this point.
haven't had time to look at the cut off sentence yet, so not sure:
first the Phoenix, ie, the nation singular, so rules
hadn't thought about that...hmm...Aesir and Jotun would work better though
was saying it that way because there are Demons connected to Yggdrasil who'd be recovering quicker than Gods connected to Nidhog...
thinking too much probably
first the Phoenix, ie, the nation singular, so rules
hadn't thought about that...hmm...Aesir and Jotun would work better though
was saying it that way because there are Demons connected to Yggdrasil who'd be recovering quicker than Gods connected to Nidhog...
thinking too much probably