Ranma ½ Divine Blood
- Thread starter Thrythlind
- Start date
Naiki ducked under the sword and kicked upward as she rose up from the crouch, falling back so as to trap the weapon arm uselessly underneath her. Her opponent, however, recognized the ploy and immediately flapped up into the air over the kick and coming about behind Naiki as the Demoness caught herself on one hand and flipped back to standing.
Similar fights were going on all around the two, human soldiers versus Gods. Asgard forged weapons and high-powered automatic weapons competing against quick dives for cover and glowing mana-charged battle auras.
"What the hell is any Goddess, Demoness or any 'ess' doing working for someone like Zeus?" Naiki asked idly as she stomped her feet and unbalanced a damaged wall to collapse down atop her flying enemy.
"He is my father, Demon," Nike noted quickly clipping out from under the falling debris easily and zipping in with a twisting run of her sword. "I doubt such as you would understand."
We're sending snipers, Tessa told Naiki.
Got it, Naiki said with a nod.
"Really, so the way you honor your mother," Naiki said. "Is to serve her rapist. That's just twisted."
Nike swore angrily and smashed out with the hilt of her blade as she sidestepped around a slashing vacuum blade passing within inches of her. The godly weapon struck Naiki in the face pushing her aside and putting her off balance for just a moment as the next wing swiped in, sharp feathers slashing across Naiki's soldier.
"You know nothing of my father!" Nike shouted. "Were you there when the Titans went insane and he stopped them? You have no idea how powerful he is!"
Red pishogue poured out of Naiki in a raw burst as she stood up, forcing the winged Goddess away and giving the Demoness enough of a breather to recover herself.
"So what, you serve him 'cause you're afraid or something?" the sea Demoness demanded. "When he no longer needs you, you know what comes next don't you? And are you going to give that victory to him too?"
She lashed her hand out remembering the trick she'd seen Ryuu pull in the match against her mother. The pishogue vacuum blade formed into her hand and took the shaky appearance of a sword as she swung to match against Nike's only to have the God sword cut cleanly through the vacuum blade which burst into a display of raw power, forcing both fighters back.
"What's your victory? Nike!" the Demoness shouted as she tumbled back
Hopping back to her feet, Naiki lashed out her hands again, sending vacuum blades against her opponent who dodged aside easily and slashed in with her sword swiping out at the one who shared her name and screaming out loud, wind blow her forward.
"Is Zeus winning really your victory?" Naiki demanded.
Naiki smirked and dodged backwards nimbly, hands extended outward and chanting at the top of her lungs fast enough that Nike, who wasn't paying much attention anyway, missed much of the phrasing.
And then the winged Goddess's charge was cut short as something grabbed about her foot and slammed her down into ground.
"Want to see what I've learned from a friend?" Naiki asked as two more brown tentacles grew out of the ground around Nike and tried to pull her down.
"You base cretin!" Nike shouted as mana poured out from her, slicing through the trio of tentacles holding her.
Naiki winced as she felt the backlash of the tentacles destruction and then had to brace herself for Nike's attack.
The woman's wings flared out and then launched forward, unleashing a hail of razor sharp feathers directed at Naiki.
"Ohh! Wrong move!" Naiki shouted as she reached outward and bent her hand aside.
"Violent!"
The feathers bent aside and curled around Naiki.
"Tumultous!"
The feathers twisted about behind and around her, coming back along one side.
"Overwhelming!"
Nike watched with mouth open wide as her own feathers slashed in toward her.
"Flow!"
Barely raising a shield of mana up, the feathers cracked hard against Nike's shield one after another followed by Naiki herself slamming down hard with a gate smashing entry assault leading the way.
The mana cracked underneath her and Nike was slammed backwards cartwheeling over the ground back into one of the damaged buildings. Naiki was already charging forward as the Goddess pushed herself up using the sword.
And then lurched to the side suddenly, feeling at the side of her skull where the bullet had glanced off the side of her head. Quickly an aura of blue mana rose back up to shield her as her wings spread out and she flew back up into the sky ahead of Naiki's attack.
"Assassins!" Nike shouted as more bullets cracked into her shield.
What happened? Tessa asked.
The first bullet was a glancing shot, Naiki said. Tell 'em to back up everybody else, I got my namesake.
She's Goddess of Victory, Naiki, Tessa warned. It's going to take more than just brute force.
And that's why I'm 'borrowing' you, the Demoness noted. By the way, do you ALWAYS think like this? It's sooo....categorized.
Discuss later, Tessa snapped. Focus on what you're doing.
Naiki nodded and leaped up onto the side of one of the remaining buildings in the area and pushed herself upwards into the air before bursting into smoke and reappearing right behind Nike.
"I'll not be taken by..." Nike stopped as she was grabbed from behind.
"You're in the air," Naiki said simply. "My family owns the air."
And then the Demoness hurled herself about, dragging Nike along with her into a flat dive straight down into the ground, the Goddess leading. Naiki almost winced at the cracking sound as the other woman's wings snapped on impact, but was immediately slamming several hundred pishogue empowered fists into Nike's abdomen before the other could respond.
Weakly, Nike was still trying to struggle out from under Naiki as the Demoness straddled over her and pushed one hand over the stunned Goddess's heart before funneling pishogue down the arm and over the Winged Goddess, watching as the binding was laid in and Nike's mana fizzled away.
"Noooo!!" Nike shouted. "I'm the Goddess of Victory! I can't be defeated in open combat! There's no way...!"
"How about if you don't really want the victory," Naiki asked, leaning back onto her rump and Nike's stomach.
Nike stared up at her in shock, pondering what the Demoness just said.
Okay, she told Tessa. One captured enemy general and I think I'll stop borrowing you for the moment, Tessa. Thinking like that is tiring.
As Naiki stood up and hauled Nike to her feet, she watched as the skirmish came under control, the surrounding snipers supporting the various other soldiers in the area.
"Hey, sir," Naiki called out to the US marine that commanded the unit she was part of. "I'm taking the lady back to answer questions and get a check up with my sister or some other doctor type. Okay?"
"Make it quick, we need to get moving quickly to be on objective," he said.
She gave a thumbs up and teleported away, leaving Nike with some security and medics before returning.
I'd like to note, Naiki, Tessa commented. That you were just straddling a highly attractive, angelic blonde warrior and made not one sexual advance, inappropriate or otherwise. I think you might actually be maturing.
Yeah, well, groping while talking about Zeus seemed....ewwww Naiki responded.
"Hey, Demon girl, what were those tentacle things you did?" one of the marines moving along side her asked then. "I thought you did smoke or something?"
"Smoke is my boss," Naiki said. "The tentacles come from this short pettanko girl who kinda has a thing for me."
"Are you saying your girlfriend is a tentacle monster?" the marine asked. "That must get fun cuddling."
"No sex until I'm eighteen, parental decree," Naiki muttered. She was silent for a moment before continuing. "What do tentacles have to do with cuddling anyway?"
"Really, seriously? I thought all you Asian girls were into that kinky stuff," the Marine said. "And you're a Demon, how can you not know?"
"Know what?" Naiki asked.
The marine looked around cautiously before pausing to reach into one of many pockets.
"Look, we're not supposed to have this stuff out here, so don't let anybody see it," he noted retrieving a small pocket manga and handing it over to Naiki.
"What, a manga?" the Demoness said. "What is going to be in....oh. Oh. OH! Oh! Wow. Oh Wow! Uhhh...Oh! must not sq....SQUEEEEEE WOW!!"
At that point the officer came over and snatched the book out of Naiki's hands and shoved it back into the marines, point forward.
"Stop perverting the teenager and get moving, Jenkins," the officer said.
********************
Hammond watched as Tessa quite graceful raised a hand to her face and placed it there in a clear expression of combined frustration and patience.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"One of the marines just introduced a concept to Naiki that I could have gone the rest of my life without being exposed to quite happily," Tessa noted.
"Do I want to know?" the American general asked with a smirk.
"Oh God, no," Tessa said.
"If we might continue with the battle?" the Japanese general noted. "We seem to be making progress."
Similar fights were going on all around the two, human soldiers versus Gods. Asgard forged weapons and high-powered automatic weapons competing against quick dives for cover and glowing mana-charged battle auras.
"What the hell is any Goddess, Demoness or any 'ess' doing working for someone like Zeus?" Naiki asked idly as she stomped her feet and unbalanced a damaged wall to collapse down atop her flying enemy.
"He is my father, Demon," Nike noted quickly clipping out from under the falling debris easily and zipping in with a twisting run of her sword. "I doubt such as you would understand."
We're sending snipers, Tessa told Naiki.
Got it, Naiki said with a nod.
"Really, so the way you honor your mother," Naiki said. "Is to serve her rapist. That's just twisted."
Nike swore angrily and smashed out with the hilt of her blade as she sidestepped around a slashing vacuum blade passing within inches of her. The godly weapon struck Naiki in the face pushing her aside and putting her off balance for just a moment as the next wing swiped in, sharp feathers slashing across Naiki's soldier.
"You know nothing of my father!" Nike shouted. "Were you there when the Titans went insane and he stopped them? You have no idea how powerful he is!"
Red pishogue poured out of Naiki in a raw burst as she stood up, forcing the winged Goddess away and giving the Demoness enough of a breather to recover herself.
"So what, you serve him 'cause you're afraid or something?" the sea Demoness demanded. "When he no longer needs you, you know what comes next don't you? And are you going to give that victory to him too?"
She lashed her hand out remembering the trick she'd seen Ryuu pull in the match against her mother. The pishogue vacuum blade formed into her hand and took the shaky appearance of a sword as she swung to match against Nike's only to have the God sword cut cleanly through the vacuum blade which burst into a display of raw power, forcing both fighters back.
"What's your victory? Nike!" the Demoness shouted as she tumbled back
Hopping back to her feet, Naiki lashed out her hands again, sending vacuum blades against her opponent who dodged aside easily and slashed in with her sword swiping out at the one who shared her name and screaming out loud, wind blow her forward.
"Is Zeus winning really your victory?" Naiki demanded.
Naiki smirked and dodged backwards nimbly, hands extended outward and chanting at the top of her lungs fast enough that Nike, who wasn't paying much attention anyway, missed much of the phrasing.
And then the winged Goddess's charge was cut short as something grabbed about her foot and slammed her down into ground.
"Want to see what I've learned from a friend?" Naiki asked as two more brown tentacles grew out of the ground around Nike and tried to pull her down.
"You base cretin!" Nike shouted as mana poured out from her, slicing through the trio of tentacles holding her.
Naiki winced as she felt the backlash of the tentacles destruction and then had to brace herself for Nike's attack.
The woman's wings flared out and then launched forward, unleashing a hail of razor sharp feathers directed at Naiki.
"Ohh! Wrong move!" Naiki shouted as she reached outward and bent her hand aside.
"Violent!"
The feathers bent aside and curled around Naiki.
"Tumultous!"
The feathers twisted about behind and around her, coming back along one side.
"Overwhelming!"
Nike watched with mouth open wide as her own feathers slashed in toward her.
"Flow!"
Barely raising a shield of mana up, the feathers cracked hard against Nike's shield one after another followed by Naiki herself slamming down hard with a gate smashing entry assault leading the way.
The mana cracked underneath her and Nike was slammed backwards cartwheeling over the ground back into one of the damaged buildings. Naiki was already charging forward as the Goddess pushed herself up using the sword.
And then lurched to the side suddenly, feeling at the side of her skull where the bullet had glanced off the side of her head. Quickly an aura of blue mana rose back up to shield her as her wings spread out and she flew back up into the sky ahead of Naiki's attack.
"Assassins!" Nike shouted as more bullets cracked into her shield.
What happened? Tessa asked.
The first bullet was a glancing shot, Naiki said. Tell 'em to back up everybody else, I got my namesake.
She's Goddess of Victory, Naiki, Tessa warned. It's going to take more than just brute force.
And that's why I'm 'borrowing' you, the Demoness noted. By the way, do you ALWAYS think like this? It's sooo....categorized.
Discuss later, Tessa snapped. Focus on what you're doing.
Naiki nodded and leaped up onto the side of one of the remaining buildings in the area and pushed herself upwards into the air before bursting into smoke and reappearing right behind Nike.
"I'll not be taken by..." Nike stopped as she was grabbed from behind.
"You're in the air," Naiki said simply. "My family owns the air."
And then the Demoness hurled herself about, dragging Nike along with her into a flat dive straight down into the ground, the Goddess leading. Naiki almost winced at the cracking sound as the other woman's wings snapped on impact, but was immediately slamming several hundred pishogue empowered fists into Nike's abdomen before the other could respond.
Weakly, Nike was still trying to struggle out from under Naiki as the Demoness straddled over her and pushed one hand over the stunned Goddess's heart before funneling pishogue down the arm and over the Winged Goddess, watching as the binding was laid in and Nike's mana fizzled away.
"Noooo!!" Nike shouted. "I'm the Goddess of Victory! I can't be defeated in open combat! There's no way...!"
"How about if you don't really want the victory," Naiki asked, leaning back onto her rump and Nike's stomach.
Nike stared up at her in shock, pondering what the Demoness just said.
Okay, she told Tessa. One captured enemy general and I think I'll stop borrowing you for the moment, Tessa. Thinking like that is tiring.
As Naiki stood up and hauled Nike to her feet, she watched as the skirmish came under control, the surrounding snipers supporting the various other soldiers in the area.
"Hey, sir," Naiki called out to the US marine that commanded the unit she was part of. "I'm taking the lady back to answer questions and get a check up with my sister or some other doctor type. Okay?"
"Make it quick, we need to get moving quickly to be on objective," he said.
She gave a thumbs up and teleported away, leaving Nike with some security and medics before returning.
I'd like to note, Naiki, Tessa commented. That you were just straddling a highly attractive, angelic blonde warrior and made not one sexual advance, inappropriate or otherwise. I think you might actually be maturing.
Yeah, well, groping while talking about Zeus seemed....ewwww Naiki responded.
"Hey, Demon girl, what were those tentacle things you did?" one of the marines moving along side her asked then. "I thought you did smoke or something?"
"Smoke is my boss," Naiki said. "The tentacles come from this short pettanko girl who kinda has a thing for me."
"Are you saying your girlfriend is a tentacle monster?" the marine asked. "That must get fun cuddling."
"No sex until I'm eighteen, parental decree," Naiki muttered. She was silent for a moment before continuing. "What do tentacles have to do with cuddling anyway?"
"Really, seriously? I thought all you Asian girls were into that kinky stuff," the Marine said. "And you're a Demon, how can you not know?"
"Know what?" Naiki asked.
The marine looked around cautiously before pausing to reach into one of many pockets.
"Look, we're not supposed to have this stuff out here, so don't let anybody see it," he noted retrieving a small pocket manga and handing it over to Naiki.
"What, a manga?" the Demoness said. "What is going to be in....oh. Oh. OH! Oh! Wow. Oh Wow! Uhhh...Oh! must not sq....SQUEEEEEE WOW!!"
At that point the officer came over and snatched the book out of Naiki's hands and shoved it back into the marines, point forward.
"Stop perverting the teenager and get moving, Jenkins," the officer said.
********************
Hammond watched as Tessa quite graceful raised a hand to her face and placed it there in a clear expression of combined frustration and patience.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"One of the marines just introduced a concept to Naiki that I could have gone the rest of my life without being exposed to quite happily," Tessa noted.
"Do I want to know?" the American general asked with a smirk.
"Oh God, no," Tessa said.
"If we might continue with the battle?" the Japanese general noted. "We seem to be making progress."
well, reader comments on AA convinced me to look over at Nobody Dies and I think, when I get to the end of the story here (not that far away, though the death of Zeus has been prolonged unfortunately...) I might do an omake of characters ending up over there
The keywords that interested me was "Lusca meets the Ree" and "slumber party from hell"
not sure who or how yet, wrote a minor snippet in the comments on AA but not going to fresh anything more out til later
at the moment thinking the DachiKira (or at least a small handful of Sans and some others), Mizuki Inaba and/or Lusca
possibly Tessa (with more incidents of mistaking her for a secretary or bridge bunny) and maybe some of the Satomis and the like
current ideas include Ryouga as an Ainur doing a coordinate shift the WRONG way
The keywords that interested me was "Lusca meets the Ree" and "slumber party from hell"
not sure who or how yet, wrote a minor snippet in the comments on AA but not going to fresh anything more out til later
at the moment thinking the DachiKira (or at least a small handful of Sans and some others), Mizuki Inaba and/or Lusca
possibly Tessa (with more incidents of mistaking her for a secretary or bridge bunny) and maybe some of the Satomis and the like
current ideas include Ryouga as an Ainur doing a coordinate shift the WRONG way
Deimosu dived aside of Cu Cuchlain's spear, rolling underneath it. The warrior God reacted quickly, however, swinging the spear's butt around to smash the Ainur aside.
The young Satomi wasn't worried about the blunt end of the spear, but he'd heard stories about what would happen to someone stabbed by that particular point.
Rolling up to his feet and stepping back, Deimosu stepped aside of the slashing blade and called out with his own power to slam down into Cu Cuchlain from above.
As the Celtic warrior lifted his arm out to craft an aura of mana against the chi-filled lightning, Deimosu took advantage of the man's focus upward to push raw chi into a blast of pure, white energy. Chi was neither the most stable nor the most powerful of the life-forces, but it was the most adaptable and the quickest.
And Cu Cuchlain had a severe disadvantage.
He was locked out of many of the benefits of Yggdrasil.
However, Deimosu had Silmaril's support.
Cu Cuchlain was trying to extend his battle-aura as the chi blast rushed out at him, but he was slow to shift the mana from one direction to another. He flew backwards, still keeping tight hold of his spear.
Deimosu was charging forward as Cu Cuchlain pushed himself up to his feet with a semi-crazed smile.
He swung his spear about, forcing Deimosu to dodge upwards and then roll black flat as the butt of the spear came around, which left the Ainur in position for the God to kick upward into Deimosu's back throwing him into the sky with a grunt.
Swinging out with the point of his spear again, he was mildly surprised when Deimosu threw his weight aside and out of the way of the incoming blade.
"Kachu tenshin amaguriken!" Deimosu shouted, slamming his fist into Cu Cuchlain's side and drawing a clear wince from the spearman.
Stepping aside, the Celtic God clutched the battered side as he put his spear between him and Deimosu.
"Hmm," he said. "Right now you're stronger than me and faster than me. Things look desperate for me, don't they,"
"Then just give up and let's not deal with this anymore," Deimosu said sharply as he stepped in, moving cautiously this time.
"I already told you," Cu Cuchlain said. "I'm not going to be satisfied until someone can beat me into the ground."
He charged forward, stabbing out with the masterful skill of thousands of years of practice, which Deimosu was only barely able to duck around. As the butt came around again then, however, he caught the butt end and immediately let loose his power again.
The shaft of the spear crackled with the lightning pouring out of his hand, scoring black marks throughout the crafted spear until it finally shattered in his hand.
Cu Cuchulain glanced down at the splintered remains of his spear with something akin to shock before Deimosu stepped in and started beating him about the head and body until he was thrown back to land on his rear against a wall.
"We're done," Deimosu said.
"Of course," the disarmed spearwielder said. "Because you say so, right?"
Behind him, the Carapace was starting to reactivate and the rebel Gods were fleeing as the Demon with in the vehicle apparently recovered.
"That's right," Deimosu said. "Because I say so."
"So much like your father," the Celtic God said with a smirk.
Almost immediately, Deimosu's hand was about his throat and the God was being lifted up and pushed through one wall and into the next.
"What did you say?" the blonde Ainur demanded.
"You're just like your father," Cu Cuchlain said with a little smirk. "Everything is because you say so, there's no thought but the fact that you say something is true therefore it has to be true."
"I'm nothing like that," Deimosu said angrily. "I set limits on myself unlike that....thing."
"Right," Cu Cuchlain said, not disturbed in the slightest. "You set limits on yourself, nobody else. And as soon as you decide what must be done, you do it, without asking because you say so."
"Quiet!" Deimosu shouted. "I haven't done anything like that."
"Look around you Son of Zeus," Cu Cuchlain said with a smile. "Where would you say this whole mess came from? We're at war."
And behind Deimosu, the piecces Gae Bolg rose up and came together as it pointed towards Deimosu's back.
"Because. You. Said. So."
Deimosu stared ahead blankly as if in shock for just a moment, and in that moment, the spear behind him launched itself forward...
...and found itself stopped cold by thin pile of papers floating in air.
Cu Cuchlain stared in disbelief, wondering what was going on as two women came into view, one of whom picked up his spear and almost casually broke the link between him and the weapon.
"Thank, Yomiko," Ranma said casually.
"It is not a problem Ma'am," she said proudly as Ranma moved forward.
The red head leaned the spear against her shoulder casually, almost disrespectfully as she walked forward.
"Deimosu, are you all right?" she asked in concern.
Slowly, her son nodded and then quickly shook his head, trying to hide his shock too late.
"Okay, step aside a bit here," Ranma said casually, waiting for her son to slowly back away from Cu Cuchlain.
"So, you're the mother?" the Celtic God asked weakly as she came to stand in front of him,
"You're lucky some people want you alive," Ranma told the man coldly.
ôUnlike the rest of you here, IÆm seeking a true warriorÆs death in the midst of battle,ö the Celtic God said pulling himself to his feet.
ôI guess that makes not lucky then,ö Ranma said, examining the spear. ôSo, this thingÆs been broken, repaired and disrupted in the past minute, maybe two. Looks like itÆs going to take a while to recover completely.ö
ôGuess you wonÆt be able to get much use out of it,ö Cu Cuchlain noted smirking.
ôJust a little bit,ö Ranma said, stabbing the spear down into the warriorÆs foot.
Cu Cuchlain winced at the pain and twitched as he could feel the weak, unrecovered remnants of the Gae BolgÆs curse working through him already.
ôI imagine that hurts,ö Ranma said.
The God grimaced and shifted weight off the foot as he took Ranma in. The exorcist was already drawing a circle about the ground and focusing power, using the relic as an etching tool.
ôThatÆs just spite,ö the man said irritably, showing a loss of humor for the first time.
ôNo, thatÆs you being lucky this isnÆt my house,ö the red-head noted as she finished the circle and the chi snapped shut. ôYou get to come back.ö
And the Celtic God seemed to be pulled into the Gae Bolg, now serving as the link between Earth and the prison Ranma had crafted for him.
The red-head turned to look at her son.
ôYou let him unsettle you,ö she said seriously.
ôHe wasàheàö he stopped himself.
Deimosu had to admit that there wasnÆt anything particularly untrue said in any of what the lancer had said.
ôGo see if Eija needs any help,ö the red-head said in a casual tone that was not to be mistaken as anything but an order.
ôMomàö Deimosu started to say.
ôYouÆre distracted and over emotional,ö Ranma said. ôDo I have to say anything more direct?ö
ôIÆll go,ö the lightning user said reluctantly, leaping back towards the beach.
As her son left to head back to the medical tents, she shook her head and glanced aside toward where Herb was walking her way. Behind him, Basil regarded Ranma cautiously.
ôWell, we still have a few thousand walking WMDs and assorted mooks to put down or capture,ö Ranma said. ôSoàletÆs get to it.ö
________________________________________
Belldandy took a deep breath as the virus in her system was finally cleared and she sat up on the medical cot that she'd been helped to when the attack first came.
ôI donÆt get it,ö a wounded soldier said as he watched her sit up. "Aren't you people supposed to be powerful enough to destroy the world? Why are we bothering with this? Why does it even work?"
Belldandy looked over at him.
"I could," Belldandy said quietly. "If I took my time, weave a spell that could wipe Japan clean."
"Then why don..." he stopped mid sentence. "Everything?"
"Everything," Belldandy said sadly. "It would not be the best of spells, such...things are not what I enjoy. Kali could be more precise, but...they are Gods, they would sense the spell coming and interfere. People would die who we sought to protect and most of those who we wished to...stop...would be untouched."
"And how are we succeeding at all?" he asked.
"Because, the networks are divided," she said. "There is too much activity and it is directed inward. And we are dying. It used to be our subconscious was enough to protect ourselves from normal hazards, but the extra processing is...busy. And the individual minds can't focus everywhere at once. It's requiring more and more conscious effort to do things that were automatic."
"So, what you're saying is..." the soldier started to say cautiously.
"Lag kills," Hermes said, entering the room. "Belldandy, I assume you're recovered?"
She nodded.
"They'll be needing me healing, I know," she said.
"Actually, we have some news," the God of Messengers said.
"Skuld?" Belldandy asked hopefully.
"Sayoko Mishima," Hermes said as he shook his head. "Peorth had contact with her."
________________________________________
Akane felt the energy of the peach fading away just as a God and an Ainur joined up with them.
With a bit of relief, she stepped back from the front lines to catch her breath and take in the situation that she could see from where she was.
The soldiers she'd been supporting hadn't done too poorly, but in places where the human soldiers had been left with minimal or no psychic support, she could already see that the attrition was not quite pyrrhic.
She jumped a little as a hand clapped on her shoulder and whipped about to enter battle until she realized that it was her husband that had just gathered her attention.
"Damn it, Ryuu, don't do that," she said. "I don't want to have to explain to the kids how I killed their father."
"On accident of course," Ryuu said with a smile.
"Right," Akane said irritably before leaning into him and exchanging a quick hug on the battlefield as a jet passed over them. "Thank goodness you're alive."
"I was worried about you too," he said.
________________________________________
Hammond, Tessa and the other command leaders watched as reports came in and more of the southern island was cleared. Some of the rebel Gods were fleeing, others were hanging on to fight to the dire end. Others were doing something that seemed entirely random.
It all depended on what sort of quirks they had.
"We're winning," Hammond noted obviously. "Probably have the island under control within the next three hours."
"Now we just need to move on to the main island," Tessa said with a sigh.
________________________________________
Doctor Hasuke glanced over at the Goddess that had been helping throughout the whole attack. She was one of the first to recover from whatever attack had struck the Immortals, even amongst the Gods, who mostly seemed to recover quicker. However, what he saw at the moment was a bit concerning.
"Is someone in immediate danger?" the girl asked, turning to look at what seemed to be empty air. "Then I can't help you right now."
She turned away from the empty air a moment and went back to moving through the wounded looking for the injuries that required the most immediate attention.
"I'm trying to keep more people from dying right now," she said wearily over her shoulder. "I shall try to help the already dead after that. In the meantime, all of you might find ways to make yourselves useful and see if you can find ways to direct people to the wounded. There is plenty of energy in the air to make use of."
Satomi didn't slow down as she settled on a man who looked fine.
"Internal, bleeding here," she said quickly. "I'll stabilize him."
"Miss Satomi," the doctor said, moving over to the girl's side. "Perhaps you should lie down again."
Eija looked up, eyes red out to the visible edges of the sphere.
"No, I am fine," she said sighing. "I'm not that tired yet."
"You were just talking to thin air," the man noted for a moment.
"Hmmm, oh," Eija noted. "That was a ghost."
"A ghost?" the man said. "Of course. We have Gods and Demons, why not ghosts. How many ghosts are around?"
"Too many," Eija said quietly. "Way too many."
How are things going? Kaname asked.
I think things are slowing down, Eija said. We seem to be winning.
That is good, a faint but strengthening sound trickled to their minds.
Kaname and Eija both paused in thought though Eija didn't let the mild surprise distract her from her medical duties.
Sousuke? was asked simultaneously with Sousuke-kun?
Affirmative, the mercenary said. Apparently, I'm now a part of this link.
One moment please, Eija said, putting away her worry of this event as she regarded something going on around her.
Making sure to leave one hand on the patient, she stood up and looked around, putting herself protectively before the patients as a collection of men in the guise of civilians broke in to the tent brandishing firearms.
So...we're...all three connected now, Kaname said nervously.
"You are our captives and now you will cease to provide aid and comfort to the enemies of hea..." the man was interrupted as Eija turned to look calmly away from them.
Should that bother us? Sousuke asked. The conversion was supposed to prevent this.
"If you'd please, I seem to be busy," Eija told a many-braided brunette girl off to the side.
Bullets tore out of the guns directed at them as a blue field extended outward from Eija and blocked the shots. Really, Eija noted, basic bullets from twenty-year old weapons and without even trying a distraction first.
Mara, could you answer me a question, Kaname asked nervously, Eija and Sousuke hearing her thoughts as they were connected to the statement.
"That," Lusca said stepping forward with a frown, "is not funny."
Tentacles erupted out of the ground and nearly any other nearby surface as the girl walked forward. On tentacle darted in from outside the tent and pulled one of the terrorists out screaming as others lashed out to grab guns and bad guys, pulling them down to ground.
Okay, I'm clear again.
What occurred? Sousuke asked.
A handful of human cultists got into the medical area, Eija said. Lusca is handling them.
Some of the tentacles seemed to be trying to pull their targets into the ground, but finding it difficult to impossible.
A wall of the summoned things ripped up between the school girl and the cultists as she pushed them out of the area and away from the injured.
Okay, Uh, Mara said the part of us that's linked can be broken into...or we can let people into...which is what she thinks happened, Kaname said with clear relief. She suggests we get our marks checked for damage, but doesn't think it will be a problem.
Eija and Dr. Hasuke watched as two of the men, the lower half of their faces covered by a turn of the tendrils, tried to fight being pulled out of the tent as Lusca left. The men left huge furrows and traces of blood as fingers cracked in the attempt not to be pulled out into the outside.
"Why isn't she in the fight?" the doctor asked turning back to the patient as the crisis passed.
"All the category three Demons are performing support roles," Eija said, retuning all her focus on the man whose life they were trying to save. "And she's Demoness of Crushing. So..."
"Yes, I know, she's been 'applying pressure'," the doctor said. "And that display explains some of the 'bandages' I've been seeing recently."
Eija stopped and thought about that statement.
"She makes tentacle bandages?" she asked.
Is there anything that girl doesn't answer with tentacles?
Isn't Lusca category two at least? Sousuke asked.
Yes, but she's supposed to be limited right now, Eija said. A partial binding due to her current mental state. Enough to defend herself with.
Are you sure she's actually limited? Kaname asked.
________________________________________
"The battle line's been pushed ten miles from here," a soldier explained to his friend. "We're guarding a bunch of civies and back rank people. There's nothing going on back here, so don't sweat it."
"Did I hear you right soldier," an angry voice came from behind the two. "Are you going to slack off on guard duty."
The two soldiers straightened up immediately as the sergeant stepped forward into view, but not to the degree that they would around an officer.
"Ah, come on Sarge, everything's finished here," the laid back soldier said.
"Have you not heard the reports of enemy agents, cultists or crap like that, filtering into the civilian population?" the sergeant demanded.
"Oh please, what's the chance that any of those are going to be around here?"
A brown tentacle rippled out of the wall on one side behind the three and passed into the damaged wall across from it. All three turned to look at the reptilian, brown mass phasing through the two walls until it started pulling back rapidly.
With the sound of a high pitched scream, the damaged brick wall exploded into debris as a man in civilian clothes and dropping what looked like a second hand AK-47 as he slammed into the next, very solid wall.
The tentacle wrapped man continued clawing at his captor and screaming as the vaguely frustrated appendage had troubles getting the man to phase through the wall.
"Awww, why don't the people go through the walls too?" a girl's voice asked with an annoyed pout.
The soldiers looked over to see a teenager standing there surrounded by struggling and flailing men trying to scream out. Another tentacle grew out of the ground at her feet and whipped out to grab the man who wouldn't go through the wall, provoking a brief tug of war between the two tentacles.
"Wait, wait," Lusca said, forcibly making herself dismiss the other tentacle so that the last of the men hurtled his way towards her. "And now to save you guys for later."
All around her, save the patch immediately underneath her, it seemed as if the ground opened up to darkness and a writhing mass of tentacles ripped up out of the darkness to grab the girl's collected prisoners down into the hole.
At which point the hole vanished away, leaving behind a little plushie octopus which the girl picked up and skipped over to the three witnessing soldiers.
"Here you go! Prisoners!" she said cheerfully.
"Thanks, kid," the sergeant said, at least trying to seem non-pulsed.
"I'm going back to helping Naiki's sister! Bye!"
She waved happily before popping into smoke and vanishing from in front of them.
"Di...did a school girl just give me a plushie gate to tentacle hell?" the formerly laid back soldier asked.
"See that, soldier, the civilians are doing your job for you," the sergeant snapped at them. "Now get that plushie to a command staff."
The young Satomi wasn't worried about the blunt end of the spear, but he'd heard stories about what would happen to someone stabbed by that particular point.
Rolling up to his feet and stepping back, Deimosu stepped aside of the slashing blade and called out with his own power to slam down into Cu Cuchlain from above.
As the Celtic warrior lifted his arm out to craft an aura of mana against the chi-filled lightning, Deimosu took advantage of the man's focus upward to push raw chi into a blast of pure, white energy. Chi was neither the most stable nor the most powerful of the life-forces, but it was the most adaptable and the quickest.
And Cu Cuchlain had a severe disadvantage.
He was locked out of many of the benefits of Yggdrasil.
However, Deimosu had Silmaril's support.
Cu Cuchlain was trying to extend his battle-aura as the chi blast rushed out at him, but he was slow to shift the mana from one direction to another. He flew backwards, still keeping tight hold of his spear.
Deimosu was charging forward as Cu Cuchlain pushed himself up to his feet with a semi-crazed smile.
He swung his spear about, forcing Deimosu to dodge upwards and then roll black flat as the butt of the spear came around, which left the Ainur in position for the God to kick upward into Deimosu's back throwing him into the sky with a grunt.
Swinging out with the point of his spear again, he was mildly surprised when Deimosu threw his weight aside and out of the way of the incoming blade.
"Kachu tenshin amaguriken!" Deimosu shouted, slamming his fist into Cu Cuchlain's side and drawing a clear wince from the spearman.
Stepping aside, the Celtic God clutched the battered side as he put his spear between him and Deimosu.
"Hmm," he said. "Right now you're stronger than me and faster than me. Things look desperate for me, don't they,"
"Then just give up and let's not deal with this anymore," Deimosu said sharply as he stepped in, moving cautiously this time.
"I already told you," Cu Cuchlain said. "I'm not going to be satisfied until someone can beat me into the ground."
He charged forward, stabbing out with the masterful skill of thousands of years of practice, which Deimosu was only barely able to duck around. As the butt came around again then, however, he caught the butt end and immediately let loose his power again.
The shaft of the spear crackled with the lightning pouring out of his hand, scoring black marks throughout the crafted spear until it finally shattered in his hand.
Cu Cuchulain glanced down at the splintered remains of his spear with something akin to shock before Deimosu stepped in and started beating him about the head and body until he was thrown back to land on his rear against a wall.
"We're done," Deimosu said.
"Of course," the disarmed spearwielder said. "Because you say so, right?"
Behind him, the Carapace was starting to reactivate and the rebel Gods were fleeing as the Demon with in the vehicle apparently recovered.
"That's right," Deimosu said. "Because I say so."
"So much like your father," the Celtic God said with a smirk.
Almost immediately, Deimosu's hand was about his throat and the God was being lifted up and pushed through one wall and into the next.
"What did you say?" the blonde Ainur demanded.
"You're just like your father," Cu Cuchlain said with a little smirk. "Everything is because you say so, there's no thought but the fact that you say something is true therefore it has to be true."
"I'm nothing like that," Deimosu said angrily. "I set limits on myself unlike that....thing."
"Right," Cu Cuchlain said, not disturbed in the slightest. "You set limits on yourself, nobody else. And as soon as you decide what must be done, you do it, without asking because you say so."
"Quiet!" Deimosu shouted. "I haven't done anything like that."
"Look around you Son of Zeus," Cu Cuchlain said with a smile. "Where would you say this whole mess came from? We're at war."
And behind Deimosu, the piecces Gae Bolg rose up and came together as it pointed towards Deimosu's back.
"Because. You. Said. So."
Deimosu stared ahead blankly as if in shock for just a moment, and in that moment, the spear behind him launched itself forward...
...and found itself stopped cold by thin pile of papers floating in air.
Cu Cuchlain stared in disbelief, wondering what was going on as two women came into view, one of whom picked up his spear and almost casually broke the link between him and the weapon.
"Thank, Yomiko," Ranma said casually.
"It is not a problem Ma'am," she said proudly as Ranma moved forward.
The red head leaned the spear against her shoulder casually, almost disrespectfully as she walked forward.
"Deimosu, are you all right?" she asked in concern.
Slowly, her son nodded and then quickly shook his head, trying to hide his shock too late.
"Okay, step aside a bit here," Ranma said casually, waiting for her son to slowly back away from Cu Cuchlain.
"So, you're the mother?" the Celtic God asked weakly as she came to stand in front of him,
"You're lucky some people want you alive," Ranma told the man coldly.
ôUnlike the rest of you here, IÆm seeking a true warriorÆs death in the midst of battle,ö the Celtic God said pulling himself to his feet.
ôI guess that makes not lucky then,ö Ranma said, examining the spear. ôSo, this thingÆs been broken, repaired and disrupted in the past minute, maybe two. Looks like itÆs going to take a while to recover completely.ö
ôGuess you wonÆt be able to get much use out of it,ö Cu Cuchlain noted smirking.
ôJust a little bit,ö Ranma said, stabbing the spear down into the warriorÆs foot.
Cu Cuchlain winced at the pain and twitched as he could feel the weak, unrecovered remnants of the Gae BolgÆs curse working through him already.
ôI imagine that hurts,ö Ranma said.
The God grimaced and shifted weight off the foot as he took Ranma in. The exorcist was already drawing a circle about the ground and focusing power, using the relic as an etching tool.
ôThatÆs just spite,ö the man said irritably, showing a loss of humor for the first time.
ôNo, thatÆs you being lucky this isnÆt my house,ö the red-head noted as she finished the circle and the chi snapped shut. ôYou get to come back.ö
And the Celtic God seemed to be pulled into the Gae Bolg, now serving as the link between Earth and the prison Ranma had crafted for him.
The red-head turned to look at her son.
ôYou let him unsettle you,ö she said seriously.
ôHe wasàheàö he stopped himself.
Deimosu had to admit that there wasnÆt anything particularly untrue said in any of what the lancer had said.
ôGo see if Eija needs any help,ö the red-head said in a casual tone that was not to be mistaken as anything but an order.
ôMomàö Deimosu started to say.
ôYouÆre distracted and over emotional,ö Ranma said. ôDo I have to say anything more direct?ö
ôIÆll go,ö the lightning user said reluctantly, leaping back towards the beach.
As her son left to head back to the medical tents, she shook her head and glanced aside toward where Herb was walking her way. Behind him, Basil regarded Ranma cautiously.
ôWell, we still have a few thousand walking WMDs and assorted mooks to put down or capture,ö Ranma said. ôSoàletÆs get to it.ö
________________________________________
Belldandy took a deep breath as the virus in her system was finally cleared and she sat up on the medical cot that she'd been helped to when the attack first came.
ôI donÆt get it,ö a wounded soldier said as he watched her sit up. "Aren't you people supposed to be powerful enough to destroy the world? Why are we bothering with this? Why does it even work?"
Belldandy looked over at him.
"I could," Belldandy said quietly. "If I took my time, weave a spell that could wipe Japan clean."
"Then why don..." he stopped mid sentence. "Everything?"
"Everything," Belldandy said sadly. "It would not be the best of spells, such...things are not what I enjoy. Kali could be more precise, but...they are Gods, they would sense the spell coming and interfere. People would die who we sought to protect and most of those who we wished to...stop...would be untouched."
"And how are we succeeding at all?" he asked.
"Because, the networks are divided," she said. "There is too much activity and it is directed inward. And we are dying. It used to be our subconscious was enough to protect ourselves from normal hazards, but the extra processing is...busy. And the individual minds can't focus everywhere at once. It's requiring more and more conscious effort to do things that were automatic."
"So, what you're saying is..." the soldier started to say cautiously.
"Lag kills," Hermes said, entering the room. "Belldandy, I assume you're recovered?"
She nodded.
"They'll be needing me healing, I know," she said.
"Actually, we have some news," the God of Messengers said.
"Skuld?" Belldandy asked hopefully.
"Sayoko Mishima," Hermes said as he shook his head. "Peorth had contact with her."
________________________________________
Akane felt the energy of the peach fading away just as a God and an Ainur joined up with them.
With a bit of relief, she stepped back from the front lines to catch her breath and take in the situation that she could see from where she was.
The soldiers she'd been supporting hadn't done too poorly, but in places where the human soldiers had been left with minimal or no psychic support, she could already see that the attrition was not quite pyrrhic.
She jumped a little as a hand clapped on her shoulder and whipped about to enter battle until she realized that it was her husband that had just gathered her attention.
"Damn it, Ryuu, don't do that," she said. "I don't want to have to explain to the kids how I killed their father."
"On accident of course," Ryuu said with a smile.
"Right," Akane said irritably before leaning into him and exchanging a quick hug on the battlefield as a jet passed over them. "Thank goodness you're alive."
"I was worried about you too," he said.
________________________________________
Hammond, Tessa and the other command leaders watched as reports came in and more of the southern island was cleared. Some of the rebel Gods were fleeing, others were hanging on to fight to the dire end. Others were doing something that seemed entirely random.
It all depended on what sort of quirks they had.
"We're winning," Hammond noted obviously. "Probably have the island under control within the next three hours."
"Now we just need to move on to the main island," Tessa said with a sigh.
________________________________________
Doctor Hasuke glanced over at the Goddess that had been helping throughout the whole attack. She was one of the first to recover from whatever attack had struck the Immortals, even amongst the Gods, who mostly seemed to recover quicker. However, what he saw at the moment was a bit concerning.
"Is someone in immediate danger?" the girl asked, turning to look at what seemed to be empty air. "Then I can't help you right now."
She turned away from the empty air a moment and went back to moving through the wounded looking for the injuries that required the most immediate attention.
"I'm trying to keep more people from dying right now," she said wearily over her shoulder. "I shall try to help the already dead after that. In the meantime, all of you might find ways to make yourselves useful and see if you can find ways to direct people to the wounded. There is plenty of energy in the air to make use of."
Satomi didn't slow down as she settled on a man who looked fine.
"Internal, bleeding here," she said quickly. "I'll stabilize him."
"Miss Satomi," the doctor said, moving over to the girl's side. "Perhaps you should lie down again."
Eija looked up, eyes red out to the visible edges of the sphere.
"No, I am fine," she said sighing. "I'm not that tired yet."
"You were just talking to thin air," the man noted for a moment.
"Hmmm, oh," Eija noted. "That was a ghost."
"A ghost?" the man said. "Of course. We have Gods and Demons, why not ghosts. How many ghosts are around?"
"Too many," Eija said quietly. "Way too many."
How are things going? Kaname asked.
I think things are slowing down, Eija said. We seem to be winning.
That is good, a faint but strengthening sound trickled to their minds.
Kaname and Eija both paused in thought though Eija didn't let the mild surprise distract her from her medical duties.
Sousuke? was asked simultaneously with Sousuke-kun?
Affirmative, the mercenary said. Apparently, I'm now a part of this link.
One moment please, Eija said, putting away her worry of this event as she regarded something going on around her.
Making sure to leave one hand on the patient, she stood up and looked around, putting herself protectively before the patients as a collection of men in the guise of civilians broke in to the tent brandishing firearms.
So...we're...all three connected now, Kaname said nervously.
"You are our captives and now you will cease to provide aid and comfort to the enemies of hea..." the man was interrupted as Eija turned to look calmly away from them.
Should that bother us? Sousuke asked. The conversion was supposed to prevent this.
"If you'd please, I seem to be busy," Eija told a many-braided brunette girl off to the side.
Bullets tore out of the guns directed at them as a blue field extended outward from Eija and blocked the shots. Really, Eija noted, basic bullets from twenty-year old weapons and without even trying a distraction first.
Mara, could you answer me a question, Kaname asked nervously, Eija and Sousuke hearing her thoughts as they were connected to the statement.
"That," Lusca said stepping forward with a frown, "is not funny."
Tentacles erupted out of the ground and nearly any other nearby surface as the girl walked forward. On tentacle darted in from outside the tent and pulled one of the terrorists out screaming as others lashed out to grab guns and bad guys, pulling them down to ground.
Okay, I'm clear again.
What occurred? Sousuke asked.
A handful of human cultists got into the medical area, Eija said. Lusca is handling them.
Some of the tentacles seemed to be trying to pull their targets into the ground, but finding it difficult to impossible.
A wall of the summoned things ripped up between the school girl and the cultists as she pushed them out of the area and away from the injured.
Okay, Uh, Mara said the part of us that's linked can be broken into...or we can let people into...which is what she thinks happened, Kaname said with clear relief. She suggests we get our marks checked for damage, but doesn't think it will be a problem.
Eija and Dr. Hasuke watched as two of the men, the lower half of their faces covered by a turn of the tendrils, tried to fight being pulled out of the tent as Lusca left. The men left huge furrows and traces of blood as fingers cracked in the attempt not to be pulled out into the outside.
"Why isn't she in the fight?" the doctor asked turning back to the patient as the crisis passed.
"All the category three Demons are performing support roles," Eija said, retuning all her focus on the man whose life they were trying to save. "And she's Demoness of Crushing. So..."
"Yes, I know, she's been 'applying pressure'," the doctor said. "And that display explains some of the 'bandages' I've been seeing recently."
Eija stopped and thought about that statement.
"She makes tentacle bandages?" she asked.
Is there anything that girl doesn't answer with tentacles?
Isn't Lusca category two at least? Sousuke asked.
Yes, but she's supposed to be limited right now, Eija said. A partial binding due to her current mental state. Enough to defend herself with.
Are you sure she's actually limited? Kaname asked.
________________________________________
"The battle line's been pushed ten miles from here," a soldier explained to his friend. "We're guarding a bunch of civies and back rank people. There's nothing going on back here, so don't sweat it."
"Did I hear you right soldier," an angry voice came from behind the two. "Are you going to slack off on guard duty."
The two soldiers straightened up immediately as the sergeant stepped forward into view, but not to the degree that they would around an officer.
"Ah, come on Sarge, everything's finished here," the laid back soldier said.
"Have you not heard the reports of enemy agents, cultists or crap like that, filtering into the civilian population?" the sergeant demanded.
"Oh please, what's the chance that any of those are going to be around here?"
A brown tentacle rippled out of the wall on one side behind the three and passed into the damaged wall across from it. All three turned to look at the reptilian, brown mass phasing through the two walls until it started pulling back rapidly.
With the sound of a high pitched scream, the damaged brick wall exploded into debris as a man in civilian clothes and dropping what looked like a second hand AK-47 as he slammed into the next, very solid wall.
The tentacle wrapped man continued clawing at his captor and screaming as the vaguely frustrated appendage had troubles getting the man to phase through the wall.
"Awww, why don't the people go through the walls too?" a girl's voice asked with an annoyed pout.
The soldiers looked over to see a teenager standing there surrounded by struggling and flailing men trying to scream out. Another tentacle grew out of the ground at her feet and whipped out to grab the man who wouldn't go through the wall, provoking a brief tug of war between the two tentacles.
"Wait, wait," Lusca said, forcibly making herself dismiss the other tentacle so that the last of the men hurtled his way towards her. "And now to save you guys for later."
All around her, save the patch immediately underneath her, it seemed as if the ground opened up to darkness and a writhing mass of tentacles ripped up out of the darkness to grab the girl's collected prisoners down into the hole.
At which point the hole vanished away, leaving behind a little plushie octopus which the girl picked up and skipped over to the three witnessing soldiers.
"Here you go! Prisoners!" she said cheerfully.
"Thanks, kid," the sergeant said, at least trying to seem non-pulsed.
"I'm going back to helping Naiki's sister! Bye!"
She waved happily before popping into smoke and vanishing from in front of them.
"Di...did a school girl just give me a plushie gate to tentacle hell?" the formerly laid back soldier asked.
"See that, soldier, the civilians are doing your job for you," the sergeant snapped at them. "Now get that plushie to a command staff."
Kasumi peeked around the corner and looked to see a pair of guards down the hall, apparently they hadn't heard any cause for alarm yet. She frowned at that. She had brought the wine and glasses with her, but hadn't expected that she would be able to use them.
"Shouldn't Zeus have alerted someone by now?" she asked quietly.
"That depends on whether or not he's given this up as a lost cause or not," Melinoe said, leaning against a wall. "If he has, I doubt he cares much what happens here."
The wife of Tofu Ono turned toward the side and saw her charges in varying states of a lack of health. The one in the best condition was actually Nodoka, who was still wincing every few moments.
"Wait a moment please," Kasumi said calmly, checking her servant's uniform again.
She was starting to turn around the corner, a mild look on her face, when the building shook about as if in some sort of Earthquake. She toppled to her knees and the poisoned wine went splattering across the floor as the bottle shattered.
"What was that!" one of the guards demanded.
"That felt like it just might be action," the other said eagerly.
And then he was off running past Kasumi, pushing her aside into the wall negligently.
"Wait, you idiot!" the first guard shouted, moving after his friend a moment later. "We're supposed to stay here and gu..."
He was interrupted after his partner twisted around the corner and then stopped with a sharp pained sound a moment before Nodoka stumbled her way forward, sword leading where it was stabbed through the guard's stomach, until she pushed the surprised God to the wall.
She was thrown aside almost immediately, the hilt of her sword breaking off in her hands as it left the blade in the God's abdomen.
"What in Zeus's name!" the guard said, moving forward at about the same time that his friend was pulling the blade out of his stomach.
"There's more!" the injured guard snapped, lifting a hand and reaching it out toward Nodoka.
Whatever was going to happen was interrupted as Kasumi came up behind him, passing the first guard and desperately pulled her tunic down over the guard's head, leaving herself dressed in bandages.
The so-far untouched guard turned to look around the corner and found Melinoe's fist slamming into his face and sending his head back with a surprised blink, dropping his keys as he did so. Almost immediately he kicked out into the Goddess, staving in her belly and knocking the wind out of her.
Leaping over Melinoe came a reptilian form of scales and fangs and claws leaping onto the God and biting hard into his shoulder, as lines were raked along his arm.
The God which Meryl was clinging to grimaced angrily, his hardened skin not allowing her much damage, and took a deep breath before shouting out with a resounding roar that sent her hurtling down the hallway to slam into a doorframe. Almost squeaking at the impact, she shifted back into her normal form, groaning as she slid down to the ground, stunned.
Kasumi found herself being shaken about like one of those rodeo bull riders that she'd seen in the occasional Western movie, with Nodoka trying to stand up again to help. She slammed into the wall painfully a couple times and could only barely keep out of its way the third time, and that only by losing her grip and sprawling back to the floor.
In the meantime, Sayoko dodged around the fight and sprinted for the door holding the other women prisoner, snatching up the keys and running for the door, fumbling to open it. She succeeded just as the roar echoed through the halls.
And the first two out were the cop and the air force officer, who had so far been overlooked by Zeus in favor of other, softer beauties.
Both ran forward at a run, the air force officer bending down to pick up the discarded shard of Nodoka's sword as she reached the one that had already been stabbed once.
She stabbed the sword blade upward into the God's armpit and then jerked him downward, bring the shattered, blunt end down into her rising knee and stabbing it up through his resilent skin and destroying the use of that arm.
The cop meanwhile grabbed the other distracted God's arm and kicked out into the back of his knee, bringing him down hard into the ground and twisting his arm tight against his back, trying to pin him down.
"Give me a weapon!" she shouted.
The air force officer was surprised when her opponent didn't immediately fall down dying but simply pulled the blade out of his arm pit and the bleeding slowly came to a stop.
"Damn it," the air force officer grimaced.
The God, now down to one useful arm twisted into a skilled kick which the air force officer barely ducked under. And then the next foot snapped out into her chin, clipping it, and she was tossed back, stumbling to keep her feet and bleeding from where she'd just bitten into her tongue.
A burst of blue energy from the other God through the police woman back into a wall hard. The guard was already standing up as Melinoe stepped forward, staggering and still trying to catch her breath, but focusing mana past the pain of her damaged connection to Yggdrasil and slamming all the power she could gather into a raw blast of energy.
The guard, raised a wall of chi easily enough and Melinoe's attack pretty much shattered with an accompanying cry of pain as the skin of her marks cracked and bled freely.
He idly kicked out his foot at her head when another blast of mana unsteadied him from behind.
"Get away from my aunt!" Nyx shouted angrily, her own marks bleeding from the damage inflicted on her.
The guard smirked and stepped forward batting away Nyx's raw blasts of mana and stepping into the area around her as it filled with darkness so thick he couldn't see and even the light of mana flashes was swallowed.
A loud burst of sound erupted from the darkness and it flew backwards, pulled along by it's source, and vanished entirely as Nyx's head slammed into the top of the doorframe and cartwheeled her to the ground.
Smirking the guard turned around to find the cop slashing a knife hand up into his throat and then slamming his face down into her knee and, while that knee was still in the air and anchoring against her existing momentum, slammed her foot up in between his legs.
The one-armed God meanwhile reached out with his arm, gathering mana as the air force officer got back to her feet and tried to rush back into the fight, a grim smile on his face.
He was disrupted again by Nodoka slamming the shard of blade still connected to her hilt up into his chest. It was only another minor injury, but it gave the American woman time to reach the God and grab hold of his disabled arm and twisting in a direction that design had not intended the arm to go.
"Do you really think this is going to be enough, mortals?!" he demanded angrily.
Which was when claws loaded with as much pishogue as Meryl could manage slashed through his throat once and then again.
Another preternatural roar, of a distinctly higher pitch, and the cop found herself flattened so hard against the stone wall behind her that it cracked and she could feel her back bruising up all read and wondered if anything more serious might have been done.
Before he could take advantage of the moment however, the air force officer was behind him and twisting his head about in a sharply disturbing fashion...that almost managed to outright break his neck.
An arm smacked out against her and the air force officer found herself slammed into the wall.
"I'm tougher than that, mortal!" he shouted. "And you will pay for this...what is..." his eyes began to go black and he shook his head about. "Hecate's spawn!"
He twisted his head toward where she had fallen and was taking a breath again.
And Kasumi stuffed her tunic into his mouth and he pulled it down, choking.
Before the guard could reach up to pull the cloth out, the cop and air force officer each stepped forward and grabbed a limb, twisting it into submission holds away from that necessary connection to the vital air that all life needed.
It wasn't long before the God ceased to move and the collected women took several breaths.
"Everybody all right?" the cop asked weakly, trying to stand straight.
Meryl, Nyx and Melinoe all three were clutching at their heads, only Sayoko of the four not having aggravated the injuries Zeus had left them with.
"I feel just a little bit better, actually," Nodoka said tightly as she leaned against the wall.
"We should hurry," Kasumi said, gesturing to the remaining women, who had not gotten into the fight. "Someone is going to have heard that."
The women who were having difficulty holding themselves off were paired off to someone to support them, a process taking less than a minute, and they were set to move down the hall back to the surface, when guards did indeed appear ahead of them.
Gods and human worshipers both, there were four more of the renegade Immortals and twenty or thirty anger looking fanatics.
"These are the murderers of the Gods," one of the Immortals said to the despairing women.
The groups came down separate hallways, set to meet in the intersection where the fight had happened.
Guns were being raised and safeties taken off as the Gods sat back with glowers, ready to watch the mortals do their dirty work.
Kasumi and the others gathered themselves up to stand up straight and dignified. The housewife straightened herself and found her center, banishing the worry as she took on that same serene look on her face that she had held when she looked down at Zeus.
The same she held on any given day.
The sound of gunshots was proceeded by a raucous explosion and cloud of dust.
"The hell?" the cop asked, not quite believing she hadn't been shot at all.
Ahead of them, the dust cleared away revealing an unfurled bamboo umbrella in the hands of a massive Japanese man dressed all in yellow traveling clothes. Above him an almost perfect hole in the ceiling showed.
"I can't allow you to harm these women," Ryouga said with a growling tone as his free hand reached for his bandanna. "I can't allow it!"
The arm holding the umbrella swung back as his other hand slashed forward, unleashing a torrent of glowing yellow and black projectiles that tore into the mortals even as the Gods mostly dodged out of the way.
A massive white glow suffused the hallway, pouring out from Ryouga as the Gods tried to unleash their individual power against him and then the umbrella was thrust forward down another hallway, mowing through the opponents there like reaper in the wheat.
His hands free, he reached out toward either side of him and jabbed his fingers into the stone walls.
"Bakusei Tenketsu Wave!" he shouted.
The stone exploded around him, one explosion carrying with it chi-enthused debris which struck further breaking points and onward and onward. A roaring continuation of explosions and shattering rock that carried upward and shook the entire building which had stood for hundreds of years.
And, as things began to quiet down, the umbrella swung back around through the newly sunlit air and landing in Ryouga's hand easily.
The dust settled showing a slope of rock and gravel leading up out of the basement of the palace into the sky above and Ryouga turned back to look at the women he had just protected, all but Kasumi staring at him in raw shock.
"Kasumi?" Ryouga said. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out of Japan?"
"I didn't quite make it," Kasumi said with a sigh and a relieved smile.
"The only problem is," the air force officer noted. "There's no way we're sneaking out of this."
A burst of smoke beside them revealed three new people.
"Perhaps," Moloch said calmly. "We can help with that. Get close together. We're not sure how well this will work with so many."
Beside the Demon, Seina and Issei both moved out and started verbally running through a swift string of numbers until circular swaths of energy rippled out from each of them, bending space in their area, and they were gone as the remaining Gods in the area came upon the area.
"Shouldn't Zeus have alerted someone by now?" she asked quietly.
"That depends on whether or not he's given this up as a lost cause or not," Melinoe said, leaning against a wall. "If he has, I doubt he cares much what happens here."
The wife of Tofu Ono turned toward the side and saw her charges in varying states of a lack of health. The one in the best condition was actually Nodoka, who was still wincing every few moments.
"Wait a moment please," Kasumi said calmly, checking her servant's uniform again.
She was starting to turn around the corner, a mild look on her face, when the building shook about as if in some sort of Earthquake. She toppled to her knees and the poisoned wine went splattering across the floor as the bottle shattered.
"What was that!" one of the guards demanded.
"That felt like it just might be action," the other said eagerly.
And then he was off running past Kasumi, pushing her aside into the wall negligently.
"Wait, you idiot!" the first guard shouted, moving after his friend a moment later. "We're supposed to stay here and gu..."
He was interrupted after his partner twisted around the corner and then stopped with a sharp pained sound a moment before Nodoka stumbled her way forward, sword leading where it was stabbed through the guard's stomach, until she pushed the surprised God to the wall.
She was thrown aside almost immediately, the hilt of her sword breaking off in her hands as it left the blade in the God's abdomen.
"What in Zeus's name!" the guard said, moving forward at about the same time that his friend was pulling the blade out of his stomach.
"There's more!" the injured guard snapped, lifting a hand and reaching it out toward Nodoka.
Whatever was going to happen was interrupted as Kasumi came up behind him, passing the first guard and desperately pulled her tunic down over the guard's head, leaving herself dressed in bandages.
The so-far untouched guard turned to look around the corner and found Melinoe's fist slamming into his face and sending his head back with a surprised blink, dropping his keys as he did so. Almost immediately he kicked out into the Goddess, staving in her belly and knocking the wind out of her.
Leaping over Melinoe came a reptilian form of scales and fangs and claws leaping onto the God and biting hard into his shoulder, as lines were raked along his arm.
The God which Meryl was clinging to grimaced angrily, his hardened skin not allowing her much damage, and took a deep breath before shouting out with a resounding roar that sent her hurtling down the hallway to slam into a doorframe. Almost squeaking at the impact, she shifted back into her normal form, groaning as she slid down to the ground, stunned.
Kasumi found herself being shaken about like one of those rodeo bull riders that she'd seen in the occasional Western movie, with Nodoka trying to stand up again to help. She slammed into the wall painfully a couple times and could only barely keep out of its way the third time, and that only by losing her grip and sprawling back to the floor.
In the meantime, Sayoko dodged around the fight and sprinted for the door holding the other women prisoner, snatching up the keys and running for the door, fumbling to open it. She succeeded just as the roar echoed through the halls.
And the first two out were the cop and the air force officer, who had so far been overlooked by Zeus in favor of other, softer beauties.
Both ran forward at a run, the air force officer bending down to pick up the discarded shard of Nodoka's sword as she reached the one that had already been stabbed once.
She stabbed the sword blade upward into the God's armpit and then jerked him downward, bring the shattered, blunt end down into her rising knee and stabbing it up through his resilent skin and destroying the use of that arm.
The cop meanwhile grabbed the other distracted God's arm and kicked out into the back of his knee, bringing him down hard into the ground and twisting his arm tight against his back, trying to pin him down.
"Give me a weapon!" she shouted.
The air force officer was surprised when her opponent didn't immediately fall down dying but simply pulled the blade out of his arm pit and the bleeding slowly came to a stop.
"Damn it," the air force officer grimaced.
The God, now down to one useful arm twisted into a skilled kick which the air force officer barely ducked under. And then the next foot snapped out into her chin, clipping it, and she was tossed back, stumbling to keep her feet and bleeding from where she'd just bitten into her tongue.
A burst of blue energy from the other God through the police woman back into a wall hard. The guard was already standing up as Melinoe stepped forward, staggering and still trying to catch her breath, but focusing mana past the pain of her damaged connection to Yggdrasil and slamming all the power she could gather into a raw blast of energy.
The guard, raised a wall of chi easily enough and Melinoe's attack pretty much shattered with an accompanying cry of pain as the skin of her marks cracked and bled freely.
He idly kicked out his foot at her head when another blast of mana unsteadied him from behind.
"Get away from my aunt!" Nyx shouted angrily, her own marks bleeding from the damage inflicted on her.
The guard smirked and stepped forward batting away Nyx's raw blasts of mana and stepping into the area around her as it filled with darkness so thick he couldn't see and even the light of mana flashes was swallowed.
A loud burst of sound erupted from the darkness and it flew backwards, pulled along by it's source, and vanished entirely as Nyx's head slammed into the top of the doorframe and cartwheeled her to the ground.
Smirking the guard turned around to find the cop slashing a knife hand up into his throat and then slamming his face down into her knee and, while that knee was still in the air and anchoring against her existing momentum, slammed her foot up in between his legs.
The one-armed God meanwhile reached out with his arm, gathering mana as the air force officer got back to her feet and tried to rush back into the fight, a grim smile on his face.
He was disrupted again by Nodoka slamming the shard of blade still connected to her hilt up into his chest. It was only another minor injury, but it gave the American woman time to reach the God and grab hold of his disabled arm and twisting in a direction that design had not intended the arm to go.
"Do you really think this is going to be enough, mortals?!" he demanded angrily.
Which was when claws loaded with as much pishogue as Meryl could manage slashed through his throat once and then again.
Another preternatural roar, of a distinctly higher pitch, and the cop found herself flattened so hard against the stone wall behind her that it cracked and she could feel her back bruising up all read and wondered if anything more serious might have been done.
Before he could take advantage of the moment however, the air force officer was behind him and twisting his head about in a sharply disturbing fashion...that almost managed to outright break his neck.
An arm smacked out against her and the air force officer found herself slammed into the wall.
"I'm tougher than that, mortal!" he shouted. "And you will pay for this...what is..." his eyes began to go black and he shook his head about. "Hecate's spawn!"
He twisted his head toward where she had fallen and was taking a breath again.
And Kasumi stuffed her tunic into his mouth and he pulled it down, choking.
Before the guard could reach up to pull the cloth out, the cop and air force officer each stepped forward and grabbed a limb, twisting it into submission holds away from that necessary connection to the vital air that all life needed.
It wasn't long before the God ceased to move and the collected women took several breaths.
"Everybody all right?" the cop asked weakly, trying to stand straight.
Meryl, Nyx and Melinoe all three were clutching at their heads, only Sayoko of the four not having aggravated the injuries Zeus had left them with.
"I feel just a little bit better, actually," Nodoka said tightly as she leaned against the wall.
"We should hurry," Kasumi said, gesturing to the remaining women, who had not gotten into the fight. "Someone is going to have heard that."
The women who were having difficulty holding themselves off were paired off to someone to support them, a process taking less than a minute, and they were set to move down the hall back to the surface, when guards did indeed appear ahead of them.
Gods and human worshipers both, there were four more of the renegade Immortals and twenty or thirty anger looking fanatics.
"These are the murderers of the Gods," one of the Immortals said to the despairing women.
The groups came down separate hallways, set to meet in the intersection where the fight had happened.
Guns were being raised and safeties taken off as the Gods sat back with glowers, ready to watch the mortals do their dirty work.
Kasumi and the others gathered themselves up to stand up straight and dignified. The housewife straightened herself and found her center, banishing the worry as she took on that same serene look on her face that she had held when she looked down at Zeus.
The same she held on any given day.
The sound of gunshots was proceeded by a raucous explosion and cloud of dust.
"The hell?" the cop asked, not quite believing she hadn't been shot at all.
Ahead of them, the dust cleared away revealing an unfurled bamboo umbrella in the hands of a massive Japanese man dressed all in yellow traveling clothes. Above him an almost perfect hole in the ceiling showed.
"I can't allow you to harm these women," Ryouga said with a growling tone as his free hand reached for his bandanna. "I can't allow it!"
The arm holding the umbrella swung back as his other hand slashed forward, unleashing a torrent of glowing yellow and black projectiles that tore into the mortals even as the Gods mostly dodged out of the way.
A massive white glow suffused the hallway, pouring out from Ryouga as the Gods tried to unleash their individual power against him and then the umbrella was thrust forward down another hallway, mowing through the opponents there like reaper in the wheat.
His hands free, he reached out toward either side of him and jabbed his fingers into the stone walls.
"Bakusei Tenketsu Wave!" he shouted.
The stone exploded around him, one explosion carrying with it chi-enthused debris which struck further breaking points and onward and onward. A roaring continuation of explosions and shattering rock that carried upward and shook the entire building which had stood for hundreds of years.
And, as things began to quiet down, the umbrella swung back around through the newly sunlit air and landing in Ryouga's hand easily.
The dust settled showing a slope of rock and gravel leading up out of the basement of the palace into the sky above and Ryouga turned back to look at the women he had just protected, all but Kasumi staring at him in raw shock.
"Kasumi?" Ryouga said. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out of Japan?"
"I didn't quite make it," Kasumi said with a sigh and a relieved smile.
"The only problem is," the air force officer noted. "There's no way we're sneaking out of this."
A burst of smoke beside them revealed three new people.
"Perhaps," Moloch said calmly. "We can help with that. Get close together. We're not sure how well this will work with so many."
Beside the Demon, Seina and Issei both moved out and started verbally running through a swift string of numbers until circular swaths of energy rippled out from each of them, bending space in their area, and they were gone as the remaining Gods in the area came upon the area.
Mara took a breath as she sat on the examination bench and consented to let herself be examined. She'd been spending a lot of time in the doctor's office recently, she realized.
"If I had to guess," the Scottish accented doctor said. "I'd say you'd been smashed by a truck going at about twenty miles per hour. There are all sorts of burst blood vessels in non-vital areas."
"It's getting common place recently," she said irritably, spitting a bit of saliva mixed with blood into a nearby tray. "How's everybody else doing."
She looked around the room of Demons as well as Kaname and Rodney McKay.
"Internal bleeding?!" Rodney said. "Nobody said anything about that! That wasn't on the sales brochure. You're saying that my choice on a psychic attack is let it screw with my mind or taking it on in that place and risk an aneurysm! Or drowning because a vessel in my lungs popped."
"Some are doing better than others," the Doctor said wryly.
"How do you put up with that?" Mara asked.
"I look it as a down payment on any penance I might have to take in the future," came the answer.
"So any Gods or anybody else with healing abilities?" she asked.
"Not yet, you'll all have to deal with this the old fashioned way," Beckett said.
"Technically, one of you Ainur or other Demons that isn't already wiped out psychically could do a skip through the Satomis into Yggdrasil and borrow something," Mara said.
"I don't think I want to risk experimenting with magic on real patients before I've talked to someone about training," the doctor explained.
"Look," McKay said, pointing. "My hand is bruising up."
"Though I suppose I could make an exception for certain patients," the little man said, rolling his eyes.
Mara smirked and stood up, calling out.
"Okay," she said. "We got a bit side-tracked what with Zeus trying to screw over all three networks at once. But since we caught him looking the wrong way, looks like we got past it without much. So, rest and tomorrow...Nidhog again."
"What yuo're going in again tomorrow?" McKay asked. "Don't you need more time to recover?"
"On at least three of your people, I'd agree," the doctor said. "But nobody came out as badly as your records imply for the Meridia battle two weeks ago, Miss Geisthexe."
Mara winced.
"Anyway, save the people on Dr. Beckett's list, rest and get ready for tomorrow," Mara said.
There was some weary nodding and Kaname stepped forward towards the blonde Demoness, a nervous expression on her face.
"Mara can you answer me a question," she asked.
"Okay," Mara said, rubbing her forehead.
"Well, Eija and I can hear and talk to Sousuke after last night," she said. "Should we be worried about merging our minds again?"
Mara froze in mid-motion, color draining from her face as a look of mortification crossed over it.
Nearby, several other of the Demons in the room twisted their head about to look at Kaname, one of the women twittering with a bit of laughter somewhere between embarrassment and amusement. A couple simply stared at Kaname slack-jawed.
"Uhhh...." Mara said, glancing around for support. "Well...no...you see...ummm..."
Pretty much every Demon fled the room at a good place as Shepard came in, cocking an eyebrow.
"What the heck is that about?" McKay asked.
"Uhh, there shouldn't be...a...uh problem," Mara said. "That...uh...wasn't the same sort of...psychic...mixing...but when you...let in Eija and Sousuke...or they let you in or..."
Mara's face was getting redder as she talked and flitted to looking about the room at the Ainur around her.
"umm...actual telepathic conversation is...uh...strange after...but...err..." she paused a moment and calmed down as she drifted away from the disturbing topic, "it may have left Sousuke in the subconscious merger, since that's a bit outside your firewalls. Because putting it inside the firewalls would just let the creep continue and"
And she twitched again, continuing on.
"...maybe get your marks checked just to be sure. But the...uh...actual...uh...pen...entr...mixing was in...other parts of the uh...yeah...minds. Normally fades off...guess...uh special case because of the spirit merger. Yeah. Right"
"Okay..." Kaname said, slightly confused at the behavior even if her concern was answered.
She looked aside a moment in talking to Sousuke and Eija.
"Is there any reason you suddenly turned into a babbling idiot?" McKay asked.
"Err, it's uh...nothing," Mara said hopefully, turning in an attempt to leave the room.
"It almost sounds like she's trying to give 'the talk'," Shepard noted.
Mara winced and tripped.
And Kaname's eyes widened.
"Did...did I just ask 'what do I do when I pop my psychic hymen?'" she asked weakly.
"Uhhh...talk to Belldandy," Mara said before puffing into smoke.
"Oh My God," Kaname whimpered.
***********
"Miss Satomi, is something wrong?" Dr Hasuke asked the teenager who looked suddenly embarrassed and flustered.
***********
"Hmmm," Sousuke said.
"What is it Urzu 7?" Mao asked as they sat around a table in a motel catching their breath.
"Any answer on what that whole seizure thing was?" Kurz asked irritably.
"Zeus made a psychic attack on Silmaril," Melissa said. "At least the part of it that was involved in the invasion. We know that. It got to us because Sousuke went to help Eija out."
"And I'm wondering how he knew to do that," Kurz said.
"Apparently my addition to their link is related to their spirit merger interacting with what may be a normal facet of certain activities," he said dryly.
"You know," Kurz said. "Three months ago, I would have killed to hear more about certain activities from you Sergeant, but maybe we should change topics and get to work."
"I'm certain I have no idea what you're talking about," Sousuke said calmly. "How can you be certain what sort of activities I am meaning?"
Mao slapped a hand to her face.
"At this point, Sagara, I think the only thing saving you from early death by Director Satomi is that he has her own things to say to the kids," the promoted lieutenant said.
"'He'?" Kurz repeated.
"Work," Mao snapped.
"If I had to guess," the Scottish accented doctor said. "I'd say you'd been smashed by a truck going at about twenty miles per hour. There are all sorts of burst blood vessels in non-vital areas."
"It's getting common place recently," she said irritably, spitting a bit of saliva mixed with blood into a nearby tray. "How's everybody else doing."
She looked around the room of Demons as well as Kaname and Rodney McKay.
"Internal bleeding?!" Rodney said. "Nobody said anything about that! That wasn't on the sales brochure. You're saying that my choice on a psychic attack is let it screw with my mind or taking it on in that place and risk an aneurysm! Or drowning because a vessel in my lungs popped."
"Some are doing better than others," the Doctor said wryly.
"How do you put up with that?" Mara asked.
"I look it as a down payment on any penance I might have to take in the future," came the answer.
"So any Gods or anybody else with healing abilities?" she asked.
"Not yet, you'll all have to deal with this the old fashioned way," Beckett said.
"Technically, one of you Ainur or other Demons that isn't already wiped out psychically could do a skip through the Satomis into Yggdrasil and borrow something," Mara said.
"I don't think I want to risk experimenting with magic on real patients before I've talked to someone about training," the doctor explained.
"Look," McKay said, pointing. "My hand is bruising up."
"Though I suppose I could make an exception for certain patients," the little man said, rolling his eyes.
Mara smirked and stood up, calling out.
"Okay," she said. "We got a bit side-tracked what with Zeus trying to screw over all three networks at once. But since we caught him looking the wrong way, looks like we got past it without much. So, rest and tomorrow...Nidhog again."
"What yuo're going in again tomorrow?" McKay asked. "Don't you need more time to recover?"
"On at least three of your people, I'd agree," the doctor said. "But nobody came out as badly as your records imply for the Meridia battle two weeks ago, Miss Geisthexe."
Mara winced.
"Anyway, save the people on Dr. Beckett's list, rest and get ready for tomorrow," Mara said.
There was some weary nodding and Kaname stepped forward towards the blonde Demoness, a nervous expression on her face.
"Mara can you answer me a question," she asked.
"Okay," Mara said, rubbing her forehead.
"Well, Eija and I can hear and talk to Sousuke after last night," she said. "Should we be worried about merging our minds again?"
Mara froze in mid-motion, color draining from her face as a look of mortification crossed over it.
Nearby, several other of the Demons in the room twisted their head about to look at Kaname, one of the women twittering with a bit of laughter somewhere between embarrassment and amusement. A couple simply stared at Kaname slack-jawed.
"Uhhh...." Mara said, glancing around for support. "Well...no...you see...ummm..."
Pretty much every Demon fled the room at a good place as Shepard came in, cocking an eyebrow.
"What the heck is that about?" McKay asked.
"Uhh, there shouldn't be...a...uh problem," Mara said. "That...uh...wasn't the same sort of...psychic...mixing...but when you...let in Eija and Sousuke...or they let you in or..."
Mara's face was getting redder as she talked and flitted to looking about the room at the Ainur around her.
"umm...actual telepathic conversation is...uh...strange after...but...err..." she paused a moment and calmed down as she drifted away from the disturbing topic, "it may have left Sousuke in the subconscious merger, since that's a bit outside your firewalls. Because putting it inside the firewalls would just let the creep continue and"
And she twitched again, continuing on.
"...maybe get your marks checked just to be sure. But the...uh...actual...uh...pen...entr...mixing was in...other parts of the uh...yeah...minds. Normally fades off...guess...uh special case because of the spirit merger. Yeah. Right"
"Okay..." Kaname said, slightly confused at the behavior even if her concern was answered.
She looked aside a moment in talking to Sousuke and Eija.
"Is there any reason you suddenly turned into a babbling idiot?" McKay asked.
"Err, it's uh...nothing," Mara said hopefully, turning in an attempt to leave the room.
"It almost sounds like she's trying to give 'the talk'," Shepard noted.
Mara winced and tripped.
And Kaname's eyes widened.
"Did...did I just ask 'what do I do when I pop my psychic hymen?'" she asked weakly.
"Uhhh...talk to Belldandy," Mara said before puffing into smoke.
"Oh My God," Kaname whimpered.
***********
"Miss Satomi, is something wrong?" Dr Hasuke asked the teenager who looked suddenly embarrassed and flustered.
***********
"Hmmm," Sousuke said.
"What is it Urzu 7?" Mao asked as they sat around a table in a motel catching their breath.
"Any answer on what that whole seizure thing was?" Kurz asked irritably.
"Zeus made a psychic attack on Silmaril," Melissa said. "At least the part of it that was involved in the invasion. We know that. It got to us because Sousuke went to help Eija out."
"And I'm wondering how he knew to do that," Kurz said.
"Apparently my addition to their link is related to their spirit merger interacting with what may be a normal facet of certain activities," he said dryly.
"You know," Kurz said. "Three months ago, I would have killed to hear more about certain activities from you Sergeant, but maybe we should change topics and get to work."
"I'm certain I have no idea what you're talking about," Sousuke said calmly. "How can you be certain what sort of activities I am meaning?"
Mao slapped a hand to her face.
"At this point, Sagara, I think the only thing saving you from early death by Director Satomi is that he has her own things to say to the kids," the promoted lieutenant said.
"'He'?" Kurz repeated.
"Work," Mao snapped.
"He was here," Kurz said, coming out of the office. "Or at least they saw him sitting in the car while the room was ordered."
"This is where he was when he met this Koyla guy Socrates Group is so worked up over," Melissa said.
She looked down toward the rooms to see Sousuke walking back with a blonde woman also in civilian clothes and fitting in them better than the young man did. Two more people came from another direction, other individuals who'd been involved in the Helmjastad fiasco that had been supposed to take care of this problem months ago.
"Well?" she asked.
"Nothing, Lieutenant," the Texan said irritably. "This long after he was actually here? Don't know what we were expecting."
"I doubt we were expecting anything," Mao said. "Sousuke, got any inspiration?"
"Not at the moment," the young man answered. "As I already noted, I expected a trap at this point."
"So we're stuck playing cop while friends and comrades are fighting and dying in Japan," another of the men said. "Don't they have Intel for this crap?"
"I wouldn't call it 'crap'," the woman said quietly. "Remember Helmjastad, this is not someone to be simply discounted. And given the life of a civilian and person of interest is involved..."
A butterfly fluttered out of the air into their midst and down into Kurz's hand where it unfolded.
"Nimu says we had company," he said, nodding up toward a stone building converted into offices behind them.
The six mercenaries crossed the street quietly and moved into the old, empty building and moved upstairs, two hanging back on a stairwell to watch the entrance as the rest moved through the offices with no renters to a room were a slender, black-haired young woman had a pair of men handcuffed to opposing walls.
A third lay in a broken pile in the corner, filled with blades.
"These are Amalgam," she said simply. "They're looking for Gauron as well. At least, that's what they were saying when I found them. Would have tried to keep out of sight, but that one came down the hall and saw me."
She pointed to the dead man.
"And I wasn't quiet enough," she said apologetically.
"Don't worry about it," Kurz said, patting her on the arm. "Things happen, and at least we see the competition now."
Melissa nodded and walked over to look at one of the two men.
"Is it just me, or am I getting the vibe of a fellow American here?" she asked as she took in his style of dress and haircut.
"What of it," the man across the room from her said in a clearly American accent. "Do you think it matters what country you're from these days?"
"I'd think it damn well does at least matter if you act like you gave a damn about home," the Texan noted angrily.
"Did they have anything on them?" Kurz asked.
"A piece of nonsense," Nimu said, removing a paper from her pocket. "Perhaps it will make sense to someone else. To the son of Bdakshon's Tiger..."
And Sousuke immediately turned to look at her.
"I suppose that means you might know what this refers to," Nimu noted.
"Continue please," Sousuke said tightly.
"To the son of Bdakshon's Tiger," Nimu continued. "Meet Hamidra in Berlin."
"It's nonsense," one of the two prisoners said. "Like the akira..."
Kurz's foot snapped out into the man's face.
"Be polite," he said.
"Fine," the man repeated. "It's like the bitc..."
And Kurz kicked him again.
"Try not to be so insulted this time," Kurz said.
"Sergeant Weber," Nimu said. "I don't need..."
"Are you going to let me answer or just keep hitting me?" the man shouted. "What sort of interro..."
The blades tore out of the body behind Nimu and darted across the room, slashing lines across the prisoner's face on either side of him, with two blades stopping just short of his eyes.
"Do not interrupt me," Nimu noted with narrowed eyes.
Melissa smirked and then looked back toward the prisoner.
"Now, you were saying something?" Melissa asked.
"It's like the...." his eyes flickered to the knife point hovering inches in front of him, "...girl said. The thing is nonsense, we interrupted one of Gauron's errand boys trying to get that in the newspaper around here."
"So did you look for Hamidra in Berlin?" Kurz asked.
"If it had panned out, they'd already have left here," Andy said. "Which means..."
"Let's go," Sousuke said eyes moving to the windows and pressing against the wall. "These men were supposed to be captured."
"You two down there," Mao shouted as she moved to cover herself. "Get up here, we're moving on!"
The silent phut of suppressed gunfire rose up from below just as Grey and Batiste pushed their way into the room with the others.
"Trouble," Batiste said. Outside, the multiple taps and clinks of silenced but automatic fire covered the hallway outside.
"Signs of enemy support outside," Sousuke said. "Avoid the windows."
Kurz was moving for the door to see if he could take any shots on the people coming up the hallway. As he did so, his foot struck a patch of rotten wood and pushed down through, opening a wide hole in the floor that threatened to swallow him out.
At least until he was bodily pushed out of the way to fall, bruised but well a few feet away.
"Thanks, Nimu," he said, glancing toward the hole. "That was..."
He stopped and jaw dropped as he pointed.
Eyes drifted to the rotten hole and the substance stuffed into the framework of the buidling in between floors.
Brick after brick of C-4
"I'm really hating Europe," the German said grimly.
"We're going, now!" Mao shouted. "Everybody get close!"
And the group pulled together into a small group as Mao ran through a long sequence of numbers at high speed.
The Amalgam capture squad was coming into the room as the group vanished into the air. They cursed their slowness for the handful of seconds it took for the building to explode.
"This teleporting thing is going to make things a bit more difficult," a young Arabian man as he watched the building fall apart through a pair of binoculars.
"This is where he was when he met this Koyla guy Socrates Group is so worked up over," Melissa said.
She looked down toward the rooms to see Sousuke walking back with a blonde woman also in civilian clothes and fitting in them better than the young man did. Two more people came from another direction, other individuals who'd been involved in the Helmjastad fiasco that had been supposed to take care of this problem months ago.
"Well?" she asked.
"Nothing, Lieutenant," the Texan said irritably. "This long after he was actually here? Don't know what we were expecting."
"I doubt we were expecting anything," Mao said. "Sousuke, got any inspiration?"
"Not at the moment," the young man answered. "As I already noted, I expected a trap at this point."
"So we're stuck playing cop while friends and comrades are fighting and dying in Japan," another of the men said. "Don't they have Intel for this crap?"
"I wouldn't call it 'crap'," the woman said quietly. "Remember Helmjastad, this is not someone to be simply discounted. And given the life of a civilian and person of interest is involved..."
A butterfly fluttered out of the air into their midst and down into Kurz's hand where it unfolded.
"Nimu says we had company," he said, nodding up toward a stone building converted into offices behind them.
The six mercenaries crossed the street quietly and moved into the old, empty building and moved upstairs, two hanging back on a stairwell to watch the entrance as the rest moved through the offices with no renters to a room were a slender, black-haired young woman had a pair of men handcuffed to opposing walls.
A third lay in a broken pile in the corner, filled with blades.
"These are Amalgam," she said simply. "They're looking for Gauron as well. At least, that's what they were saying when I found them. Would have tried to keep out of sight, but that one came down the hall and saw me."
She pointed to the dead man.
"And I wasn't quiet enough," she said apologetically.
"Don't worry about it," Kurz said, patting her on the arm. "Things happen, and at least we see the competition now."
Melissa nodded and walked over to look at one of the two men.
"Is it just me, or am I getting the vibe of a fellow American here?" she asked as she took in his style of dress and haircut.
"What of it," the man across the room from her said in a clearly American accent. "Do you think it matters what country you're from these days?"
"I'd think it damn well does at least matter if you act like you gave a damn about home," the Texan noted angrily.
"Did they have anything on them?" Kurz asked.
"A piece of nonsense," Nimu said, removing a paper from her pocket. "Perhaps it will make sense to someone else. To the son of Bdakshon's Tiger..."
And Sousuke immediately turned to look at her.
"I suppose that means you might know what this refers to," Nimu noted.
"Continue please," Sousuke said tightly.
"To the son of Bdakshon's Tiger," Nimu continued. "Meet Hamidra in Berlin."
"It's nonsense," one of the two prisoners said. "Like the akira..."
Kurz's foot snapped out into the man's face.
"Be polite," he said.
"Fine," the man repeated. "It's like the bitc..."
And Kurz kicked him again.
"Try not to be so insulted this time," Kurz said.
"Sergeant Weber," Nimu said. "I don't need..."
"Are you going to let me answer or just keep hitting me?" the man shouted. "What sort of interro..."
The blades tore out of the body behind Nimu and darted across the room, slashing lines across the prisoner's face on either side of him, with two blades stopping just short of his eyes.
"Do not interrupt me," Nimu noted with narrowed eyes.
Melissa smirked and then looked back toward the prisoner.
"Now, you were saying something?" Melissa asked.
"It's like the...." his eyes flickered to the knife point hovering inches in front of him, "...girl said. The thing is nonsense, we interrupted one of Gauron's errand boys trying to get that in the newspaper around here."
"So did you look for Hamidra in Berlin?" Kurz asked.
"If it had panned out, they'd already have left here," Andy said. "Which means..."
"Let's go," Sousuke said eyes moving to the windows and pressing against the wall. "These men were supposed to be captured."
"You two down there," Mao shouted as she moved to cover herself. "Get up here, we're moving on!"
The silent phut of suppressed gunfire rose up from below just as Grey and Batiste pushed their way into the room with the others.
"Trouble," Batiste said. Outside, the multiple taps and clinks of silenced but automatic fire covered the hallway outside.
"Signs of enemy support outside," Sousuke said. "Avoid the windows."
Kurz was moving for the door to see if he could take any shots on the people coming up the hallway. As he did so, his foot struck a patch of rotten wood and pushed down through, opening a wide hole in the floor that threatened to swallow him out.
At least until he was bodily pushed out of the way to fall, bruised but well a few feet away.
"Thanks, Nimu," he said, glancing toward the hole. "That was..."
He stopped and jaw dropped as he pointed.
Eyes drifted to the rotten hole and the substance stuffed into the framework of the buidling in between floors.
Brick after brick of C-4
"I'm really hating Europe," the German said grimly.
"We're going, now!" Mao shouted. "Everybody get close!"
And the group pulled together into a small group as Mao ran through a long sequence of numbers at high speed.
The Amalgam capture squad was coming into the room as the group vanished into the air. They cursed their slowness for the handful of seconds it took for the building to explode.
"This teleporting thing is going to make things a bit more difficult," a young Arabian man as he watched the building fall apart through a pair of binoculars.
episode 246107
This is worded bad... 'outside them' should be expanded, maybe 'other side of the attack zone' or some such.
Just noting it is funny how everyone constantly underestimates Ranma in this story.
Obviously not one of the more well informed of individuals. As an old GIJoe saying comes to mind... 'knowing is half the battle'
Cut off... even if intentional, might want to break it nicer than that.
episode 246110
Heh... I was going to comment on this one being a slightly different style... then i realized it is not your episode.
episode 246299
So... she owes another favor?
Nice... she is insulting while fighting like Ranma did in some of his fights.
Kind of creepy he carries something like that into battle. Surprising she did not know, but whatever.
episode 246375
It occurs to me, Ranma is awfully friendly with the secretary, whom also knows Ranma has two bodies.
Harsh... probably would have only sealed the guy if he had not made it personal with her son.
episode 246518
Ranma likely should have handled this conversation a bit better, Ranma has after all stated that she should speak to him more, and that she feared he no longer looked at Ranma as someont to follow, but as someone to protect.
On a minor note, might want to find some synonyms for casual and casually... might be using it a bit much in last couple episodes fairly close together in occurrence.
I'm a bit confused as to what exactly he is referring to here.
episode 246552
Well... sucks to be those terrorists/cult devotees.
I wonder if she goes by the rules of Toon Town?
Heh... good question... she really does not seem to overly mind it...
Bwahahaha...
episode 246577
I think that should have been mana, not chi.
I should note, overall I thought this battle pretty well written, you had a lot of individuals to keep track of in it.
While it worked out well... it was a bit too well times and out of the blue.
One problem... I note that they lierated *keys* form the guard... yet they only opened one cell... were there other cells of prisoners they left behind?
episode 246616
I was expecting them to cower behind Athena... would have been funny since she would be so much smaller than them.
episode 246627
Nice... the bantering between McKay and Bekket seemed pretty in character. Funny too.
Word should probably be added at end of that sentance.
spelling.
Heh... this could be interpreted a couple ways... while I got what you actually meant... it amused me to think she could also have been calling Sousuke a creep.
Bwahahaha...
Oops. I can think of a whole slew of things Kurtz could have made out of that supposed slip, after all, he thought Mao called a female 'he'.
episode 246658
Is Mao really Texan? I never knew that.
Heh...
This is worded bad... 'outside them' should be expanded, maybe 'other side of the attack zone' or some such.
Just noting it is funny how everyone constantly underestimates Ranma in this story.
Obviously not one of the more well informed of individuals. As an old GIJoe saying comes to mind... 'knowing is half the battle'
Cut off... even if intentional, might want to break it nicer than that.
episode 246110
Heh... I was going to comment on this one being a slightly different style... then i realized it is not your episode.
episode 246299
So... she owes another favor?
Nice... she is insulting while fighting like Ranma did in some of his fights.
Kind of creepy he carries something like that into battle. Surprising she did not know, but whatever.
episode 246375
It occurs to me, Ranma is awfully friendly with the secretary, whom also knows Ranma has two bodies.
Harsh... probably would have only sealed the guy if he had not made it personal with her son.
episode 246518
Ranma likely should have handled this conversation a bit better, Ranma has after all stated that she should speak to him more, and that she feared he no longer looked at Ranma as someont to follow, but as someone to protect.
On a minor note, might want to find some synonyms for casual and casually... might be using it a bit much in last couple episodes fairly close together in occurrence.
I'm a bit confused as to what exactly he is referring to here.
episode 246552
Well... sucks to be those terrorists/cult devotees.
I wonder if she goes by the rules of Toon Town?
Heh... good question... she really does not seem to overly mind it...
Bwahahaha...
episode 246577
I think that should have been mana, not chi.
I should note, overall I thought this battle pretty well written, you had a lot of individuals to keep track of in it.
While it worked out well... it was a bit too well times and out of the blue.
One problem... I note that they lierated *keys* form the guard... yet they only opened one cell... were there other cells of prisoners they left behind?
episode 246616
I was expecting them to cower behind Athena... would have been funny since she would be so much smaller than them.
episode 246627
Nice... the bantering between McKay and Bekket seemed pretty in character. Funny too.
Word should probably be added at end of that sentance.
spelling.
Heh... this could be interpreted a couple ways... while I got what you actually meant... it amused me to think she could also have been calling Sousuke a creep.
Bwahahaha...
Oops. I can think of a whole slew of things Kurtz could have made out of that supposed slip, after all, he thought Mao called a female 'he'.
episode 246658
Is Mao really Texan? I never knew that.
Heh...
the ending of the Cu Cuchlain fight has been altered it's just taking a while for AA to do it
the Texan was referring to Andy...from the Indian group...the other group that has Gauron-hours logged...I tend to resist using names if they haven't been used in dialogue yet....will just drop that...
some of those typos I missed...will have to get them...thankfully you post them in order
and glad you're as amused by the psychic hymen as I was writing it
^_^
the Texan was referring to Andy...from the Indian group...the other group that has Gauron-hours logged...I tend to resist using names if they haven't been used in dialogue yet....will just drop that...
some of those typos I missed...will have to get them...thankfully you post them in order
and glad you're as amused by the psychic hymen as I was writing it
^_^