Matsuro looked at the three girls in front of him. They were dressed in sailor fuku, and the one dressed in the blindingly white fuku and covered with angry red welts had just referred to him as Grand Duke Midnight. This, combined with what Keiko had said about there being hostile DarkVerse Sailors running about, suggested that these three *were* the hostile DarkVerse Sailors he had to be wary of. He stepped backwards out of the apartment into the hallway again, and those who knew Matsuro well would have noticed that there was a wary cast to his face. To everyone else, however, he just looked like the usual disinterested bishounen he was. The three girls followed him into the hallway, almost crowding him in the confined space, and Matsuro started to feel very nervous. If he didn't know that they were hostile already, he could have easily guessed it from their actions. He stood defiantly and glared in his best cool bishounen fashion. "You captured and hurt Keiko," he said flatly. "But," started the one with the extremely multicoloured fuku. "We just need the Banner to-OW!" "Hatred, I seem to have slipped and stepped on your foot. How clumsy of me," said the one dressed in dull earthy colours. The white-clothed one gave a sigh that Matsuro easily identified as an "I'm surrounded by idiots" sigh. She turned her attention back to Matsuro. "Now, Grand Duke Midnight-sempai," she said, "you must know that we are the DarkVerse's Sailor team. You must awaken to your true self and help us. You must help us find the Banner of the DarkVerse!" Pretty, jingoistic, and inspiring as it was, her speech was wasted on Matsuro. He didn't really know what the Banner of the DarkVerse was and didn't really care. These three were known hostiles, and probably lying to him. Also, the three girls had captured and hurt Keiko. Admittedly, she'd hurt them back and escaped on her own, but he still felt angry about it... "No," he said. "You hurt Keiko. Give me one good reason why I should forget that and help you." "We'll just have to... persuade you, then," giggled the multicoloured one. "Hatred, for gods' sake..." complained the drably dressed one. Enough was enough. Matsuro drew his sword from his stomach and went into a defensive stance, ready for their slightest movement. "Ewww," said Multicoloured Fuku and Drab Fuku. In contrast, the almost blinding white one looked like she was eating a lemon genetically engineered to be as sour as possible. He didn't know if it was because of the nauseating way he drew his sword, or the fact that things weren't going well for her, and he didn't really care. "Hey, thisss isss new..." This new voice came from somewhere behind him. Matsuro dodged to the side and turned, attempting to get everybody in his field of view. On the edge of vision, he could see a small multicoloured shape behind the space he had been in. He took another step to get them all in view, there was a SNIKT noise, and suddenly there was a lop-eared rabbit in front of his face, holding a switchblade to his nose. "I've got a good reason for you, pretty boy," said the rabbit. "I let you keep your nose. How about that?" Matsuro stared for a moment, and then, almost instinctively, his hands thrust outwards. ------------------------------------------------------ DO GOODERS The Proactive Teen Superhero Team With An Uncertain Subtitle That Might Involve An "X" Chapter #55 More revelations! Wait, who is the real enemy? Created by Stefan Gagne This part by Steven Scougall ------------------------------------------------------ Master Chiang, Great Advisor to the Court of the Crystal City of Delight Beyond the Age of Time, fount of wisdom and dispenser of sage advice, peeked out of the garbage can he was currently hiding in. The coast appeared to be clear. He probed out with his limited Wise Advisor Mystical Senses, and couldn't detect anything malignant in the immediate vicinity. He carefully and noiselessly lowered the lid again and went back to watching Stagner in the depths of his scrying crystal. Stagner was a master of scrying magic and could cast it on all sorts of liquids. But not only that, he could also detect when he was the subject of scrying magic himself. Chiang had discovered this the hard way over the past week or so as he tried to spy on the secretive Baron. He would cast the spell, the Baron would look surprised for a moment, and then the spell would dissipate. Why, just yesterday Chiang had cast the spell, and Stagner had looked up at him *through* the crystal, chuckled and said "I don't think so, Chiang", and dispelled the spell. Chiang performed extensive research into scrying magic as it applied to the Baron, and had discovered that by enclosing himself in a small metal space the magic somehow wasn't detectable. Chiang had then discovered that the Baron's life appeared to be quite boring and consisted of staring into soup and other liquids a lot of the time. Occasionally he would rant about being Baron Stagner von Carrlson of the Kingdom of Obscurity, but he rarely gave any clues as to what he was doing and planning, or mumbled too quietly for the crystal to pick up anything. It was much like the rest of his investigations into the Baron - it took him ages to find out how to look for clues, and when he finally worked it out, usually by accident, he found almost nothing anyway. The only concrete Clue he'd worked out so far was that the Baron made semi regular trips to the Kingdom of Obscurity. If there was anything to be found, it would be there, not here on Earth. Which had eventually led to him hiding out in this trashcan in a narrow disused alley. He checked the crystal one last time and assured himself that the Baron had set in for a good evening's spying. He then dispelled the magic, pocketed the crystal and clambered out of the trashcan. He stood there, smelling slightly of fish and attracting cats, and made sure there was nobody human around. There was a small yet impressive lightshow as the sage gathered power to himself, and the cats fell back and stared. Then the alleyway had a Chiang-shaped hole in it as he teleported himself to the Kingdom of Obscurity. * * * Fortunately, Matsuro was facing away from the building and this particular stretch of the hallway didn't have any windows, so the resultant energy blast didn't smash through anything. This was good - he really didn't want to aggravate his landlord anymore than absolutely necessary. The old man was already annoyed enough by the changes the dwarfs had made to his apartment and all the weird noises that kept coming from it. * * * Chiang looked around. The Kingdom of Obscurity was an incredibly drab place, with almost no distinguishing features whatsoever. The closest it had to a landmark was the castle, and even that conspired to look uninteresting, squatting low to the ground and coloured a dull brown. The people wore drab colours, and looked incredibly dull as well, but it was hard to tell, as they didn't stick around; they took one look at him and hurried away, mumbling excuses. He didn't have a lot of time. Stagner would be busy spying on things for a few hours, if Chiang's guess was correct, but after that anything could happen. Chiang's view dragged itself back to the castle. Somehow, he *knew* that if there were any Clues in this godforsaken place at all, they would be in the castle. * * * Unfortunately for the DarkVerse Sailors and their advisors, Matsuro lived almost twenty floors above ground. They were magical girls and magic advisor animals, and there were a few roofs and tree branches and even a tent to slow them down, so the fall didn't kill them. They did, however, end up significantly bruised and battered. "That sssword wasss definitely new," said Kahi, righting himself. "Yeah," said Cecil. "The Duke ain't supposed to be able to do *that*." "That's a lot of help, you useless rabbit! He just did!" shouted Sailor Hatred, as she picked herself up from the wreckage of the tent. Cecil growled, but resisted the urge to slice her thumbs off. Sailor Hatred would find it harder to concentrate and do stuff and humans tended to not trust you as much when you did that sort of thing to them, after all. "I'm going to kill him," said Sailor Light, slowly and deliberately. "He made my fuku dirty." "Not before we get the Banner from him," admonished Kahi. "Of course, Kahi!" Sailor Light said petulantly. "I'm not that stupid! Really!" The other three sweatdropped. * * * The Quake Camper lay quietly amongst the wreckage of his tent. Normally, if people knocked his tent over like this, he would have struggled free and yelled at them, possibly accentuating his argument with a laser-guided rocket or two. However, these three girls and two talking animals were somehow the most terrifying things he'd encountered in his entire life. So he lay there and hoped that they'd just wander away by themselves. After what felt like an age, they did. The Quake Camper slowly breathed out, and then climbed out of his enormous backpack. * * * The Cthulhu cult, local #39924-91, was in an uproar. Their god had come back, and had a Bride (or perhaps she would be more accurately called a Fiancee), and all seemed ready for their wedding - and then the two had gone missing. Most of the cultists had been sent searching but their efforts had proved fruitless. Halfway through the search, his Eminence's eyes had snapped open (well, the lidless one didn't, as it was now open all the time) in surprise, and he had proclaimed "The Great Cthulhu is now fully here on this planet." There had been much cheering, and the wedding party had turned into a our-alien-god-beyond-time-and- space-has-finally-fully-arrived party. Then, about half an hour after that, His Eminence's eyes widened and he reported that Cthulhu had disappeared again. The party turned into a tentative we-aren't-all-going-to-get-killed-just-yet party. Then Brother Maynard and His Eminence yelled at them for not entering into the spirit of the cult and sent them to their rooms without dinner, and there was much grumbling. The question remained, though, what were they going to do? Their god was missing somewhere, presumably locked away within his host, and nobody knew where the host was. Maynard sat beside the bathtub that His Eminence resided in, and mused. "hE Is Of thE mUsIc bAnd dO-gOOdERs, Is hE nOt? whY cAn't wE wAIt fOr thEm tO plAY At A cOncERt And cAptUrE hIm AgAIn thErE?" "yes, maynard, i'm sure they haven't seen that before." "bUt thEY hAvE, I'vE dOnE It At lEAst OncE bEfOrE - OW!!" "don't be a moron, maynard, that was sarcasm. besides, we have lost all of our armies except for one of the Hello Cthulhu. what would you attack with?" "It Is OnlY OnE, sO bEcAUsE Of thE nAtUrE Of hEllO CthUlhU, It's rEAllY pOwERfUl." "it's still just one Hello Cthulhu. you cannot do much with just one soldier." "vErY wEll, jUst As wE fOUnd jOdI fOstER, wE shAll sEnd brOthERs tArO And knOll tO fInd thE GrEAt CthUlhU's cUrrEnt hOst! thEy shAll fInd hIm fOR sUrE!" "maynard, they forgot your detailed plans, racked up a huge phone bill, and found her only by luck after an inordinate amount of time. we must think of something new." Maynard grumbled under his breath. * * * Wataru was not a happy Shubby-chan Happy Happy Joy Joy Fun Club (local #39924-99) cultist. In the recent battle with the Cthulhu cult, local #39924-91, there had been many losses. This normally wouldn't be much of a concern, as more cultists could be easily obtained by placing an ad in the newspaper. However, thanks to Aika, the last of the Embryonic Devil Goats had been lost as well. The Devil Goats were much much harder, if not impossible, to replace. He'd shouted a lot at Aika, of course, and used his limited administration power to take away as many of her privileges as possible, including bearing weapons. She'd whined like a ditzy teenager, but it still felt woefully inadequate. But that paled in comparison to the loss of the Light of the World. And there was nobody more responsible for that than himself. He'd even yelled at her to run away, to save herself... And there was a witness - *Maeda*, of all people. Sure, he'd meant for her to be preserved until she was actually needed for the End Times, but he just *knew* that it would be used against him. Especially if Maeda was on his case... Aki had told him that Maeda had attempted to overthrow something called the DarkVerse. Was Maeda trying something similar here? Should Wataru watch his back? Wataru thought about that last question, and snorted. Being a higher-up within the Shubby-chan cult meant he had to watch his back all the time anyway. But maybe he'd have to be more careful than normal. He was about to find out for sure - he'd been summoned to Shubby- chan's presence. He quickly changed into his best T-shirt (the one that read "SHUBBY-CHAN 3:16 SAYS YOU SHALL BE SQUISHED LIKE A PATHETIC WORM, INFERNAL MORTAL" and had an eyewatering picture of Shubby-chan squishing an infernal mortal on the back) and hurried to the main chamber. He stood outside the entrance for a few minutes, quickly making sure that he was well presented. He took a deep breath, stepped inside, and quickly took stock of his surroundings. Natsuki was in the central area, her eyes an unearthly glow, and floating a foot or two off the floor - quite clearly she was in the throes of channeling Shubby-chan. Wataru's gaze swept down from her to the only other figure in the chamber and saw the impeccably dressed figure of Yoi Maeda, and started to swear under his breath. Something nefarious was going on. "AH, WATARU. I'VE HEARD THE MOST INTERESTING STORIES ABOUT YOU AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD." Wataru started sweat as well as swear more violently, but still quietly. No need to show that he was worried just yet... "YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH CHANCES." An alien smirk crossed the human vessel's face as she raised a suddenly glowing finger at him. "THAT'S QUITE AN APPROPRIATE SHIRT FOR YOU TODAY." Time slowed to a crawl as Wataru's mind went into overdrive. Shub-Niggurath, who he had devoted most of his adult life to, was about to kill him. He really shouldn't have been worried about it. He'd always known, ever since the beginning, that when the End Times came Shubby-chan would be destroying all of humanity. As he was human this necessarily included him, but it was okay, as it was all in the name of the great Shubby-chan. A vision of Aki in a pure white gown swam into his mind. Her eyes were filled with sadness, and she was stretching out to him. He really should have just stood there and let himself be turned in a greasy smear on the floor, like the lowly mortal he was. But somehow, he couldn't. With a speed he thought he was no longer capable of, he gathered all his power and applied it to teleportation - a form of magic he'd never used before - and hoped like hell that he could pull this off. He fancied he could feel the heat of the approaching blast and the floor under his feet starting to erupt in a titanic explosion, and then the teleportation took full hold and whisked him away to a tree somewhere in the middle of Hokkaido. Once his heart stopped beating quite so hard and he had assured himself that he was relatively safe, he started cursing mightily, at pretty much everybody. He cursed Maeda for being a slimy little toad. He cursed Shubby-chan for trying to kill her loyal servant and deciding to listen to a smarmy new recruit instead of him. He cursed Aki for interfering with his perfectly logical thought processes. And most of all, he cursed himself. He cursed himself for letting his feelings get in the way of his good judgement. He cursed himself for running away from the cult that he'd devoted most of his life to. He cursed his human inability to completely devote himself to something inhuman. He also cursed himself for teleporting to a very cold location while he was wearing just a T-shirt and jeans. * * * "CURSES! HE ESCAPED!" screamed Shubby-chan. But with her tone of voice, it was hard to tell. "Never fear, O Great Shubby-Chan," said Maeda smoothly. "Wataru may have escaped for now, but I have extensive contacts all over Japan through my connections with the Legitimate Businessmen's Club. I can have most of Japan's underworld attempting to kill him by the end of tomorrow." "GOOD. SEE THAT IT IS DONE, MAEDA. I THANK YOU FOR BRINGING HIS TREACHERY TO MY ATTENTION." "I could do nothing less, O Great Shubby-Chan." "FLATTERY WILL GET YOU NOWHERE, MAEDA." "No, O Great Shubby-Chan." * * * Baron Stagner von Carrlson of the Kingdom of Obscurity that would hopefully soon be the Kingdom of Prominence sat and watched the progress of his various pawns (or to be more precise, the lack of progress of his various pawns) through his pea and potato soup and felt annoyed. There had been the slight chance that the two cults would get their acts back together and recapture Kireiko and Aki and proceed on to an apocalyptic battle between their gods. But Wataru was gone from the Shub-Niggurath cult now. Without his passion and competency, the cult was lost - the only other competent person they had was Maeda, and Stagner severely doubted that the man really wanted to bring Shub-Niggurath to Earth. The rest of the cultists were basically grunts, unsuited to strategy and tactics. And then there was the Cthulhu cult. They still had His Eminence and Brother Maynard - the brains of the operation - and thus still stood a chance, but Kireiko was hardly likely to allow the power of Cthulhu to manifest after what had just happened. No, the cults were no longer reliable. As he had told Arisu, Stagner was going to have to grab the Light of the World and tap her energy directly, he didn't trust the cults to do that right anymore. He could perhaps still engineer things so that the two gods ended up fighting each other, and at least get a full blown Apocalypse that way. It would certainly be a lot easier than instigating a full blown Apocalypse by himself. And *then* there were the DarkVerse Sailors. Their attempt to have vengeance against the DarkVerse could have been useful - at least it could have reduced the amount of effort Stagner had to spend on bringing ruin to the DarkVerse himself. But so far their progress had been virtually nil - they didn't turn Sailor Darkness to their side, didn't win over Matsuro, and they didn't have the Banner. The Baron shook his head and sighed. He'd had so much hope in them, but their lack of progress was extremely disappointing. He'd probably have to give up on them, too. - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - C O M M E R C I A L B R E A K The scene is a beach. The day is sunny with not a cloud in the blue blue sky. There are many people, playing in the surf and sun to the strains of happy music. There is a shout of "Blinding Light of Eternity" and a blinding flash of light and when it dies away everybody is gone and the beach seems a lot starker and barren than it was before, and the music has come to a complete stop. A girl dressed in a blazingly white sailor fuku walks into the scene as the music starts up again, as a hard rock imperial march, and she looks imperiously at the audience. "I am Sailor Light. I know the value of keeping my skin protected, and keeping it light." She holds up a jar of skin cream and the music segues into a weird combination of Sensitive New Age music and hard rock. On the side of the jar is a label inscribed with "Eternal Light." "So if you want to be as cool as me - and who doesn't? - then use 'Eternal Light', the skin cream I use." - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - It was the forest again, the sky overcast. Kireiko was confused. Hadn't he just been in a forest? He'd been there with Hanaki and they'd come across the Seals and he'd been an idiot and run away alone and left her behind to be captured. He'd heard her scream, and everything after that was kinda fuzzy. But... why was he so surprised to be in the forest? Why did it feel like he'd come back to it? He stumbled through the forest in a daze, wondering why things felt so *wrong*... There was a long drawn out creak as the tree in front of him slowly fell over, and then a huge crash that raised dirt and rocks and leaves and even a few nuts. He blinked at it in confusion, and then at his hand. He'd just pushed the huge tree over. With one hand and almost no effort at all. Even in his half-oni state he wouldn't be able to do it without both hands and breaking a sweat. He looked down at himself and saw that he wasn't even in his half-oni state, but fully human. As he stared, his form grew bigger and more muscular and greener. Tentacles sprouted from the unlikeliest of places and writhed madly, dripping slime everywhere. That's right, he was possessed by that weirdo Cthulhu! But only some of the time because the ceremony didn't properly finish. If he concentrated hard enough then he stayed human. He concentrated on changing back and if anything, he turned greener and slimier. What the hell? A writhing tentacle barely grazed an enormous oak tree and it was ripped from the ground and hurled about thirty metres away, over a dirt path. Then it clicked, this was the dream forest that he'd met his oni father in a few times already. But something was wrong, the dirt path was wild and unkempt, whereas it had always been tidy and well-kept before. And the forest hadn't been this overgrown, either. The sky was darkening. That was another thing, in the dreams it had always been light, as if in the middle of the day. "I guEss thE Old mAn wAnts tO tAlk tO mE AgAIn..." said Kireiko, and then stopped, shocked at his voice. "I'm not gonna speak to some brat that's a partial incarnation of Cthulhu," came the old demon's voice, distantly. "I'm NOT!" shouted Kireiko. "I'm ME! Kireiko Morizaki!" "Son, I'm not going to see you face to face this time. It's too dangerous. I just want to tell you that -" The old oni suddenly appeared in front of Kireiko. "Huh?" "dAd? Didn't yOU say thAt -" The sky was now very dark indeed. With the inexplicable logic of dreams, Kireiko knew that he had to suddenly look behind him. He did and saw an enormous shadowy figure, with writhing tentacles sprouting from it everywhere. "Dread Cthulhu!" shouted Kireiko's oni father. "Let my son go NOW!" "I THINK NOT, ONI," came the alien god's voice. Quicker than Kireiko could see, tentacles whipped out past Kireiko and latched onto the old demon. The demon struck at them, both with his claws and magic, and the tentacles fell away, but were quickly replaced. It was clear after only a few seconds that he was grossly overmatched. Kireiko snarled and leapt to free his oni father from the approaching tentacles - and then shouted in confusion as his own tentacles joined in with the others, and snaked towards the demon. Kireiko tried to move away, but his tentacles just kept lengthening, and lengthening... ...and latched onto the old demon, and hoisted him into the air. Kireiko yelled at his own body, his own tentacles, to respond to him, but they didn't, and started pulling... "Kireiko!" shouted the old demon desperately, fighting against the pull. "Whatever you do, fight Cthulhu... whenever... you..." There was a horrible tearing noise, mixed with the agonised screams of the oni, and Kireiko's own screams of anguish. He fell to his knees and howled his grief to the sky as his tentacles continued tearing until there was nothing left, and weaving in and out of his screams was the booming laughter of Cthulhu. "YOU SEE NOW THAT I AM YOUR COMPLETE AND UTTER MASTER, BOY. AND ALL SHALL FALL TO CTHULHU. NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY FIGHT." That meAnt hIs friEnds, tOO... mAtsUrO... tEjinA... And hAnAkI... hE wAs evEn THINKiNG in a wArBle, now... "NO MATTER HOW MUCH *YOU* FIGHT," laughed Cthulhu. He dEsperAtely tried to control his thoughts, and prepared to fight in the most difficult arena he'd ever fought in - mental combat, in his own head. * * * Somewhere, an oni's eyes snapped open and he sprang from the magic circle and pulled the headset from his face and threw it against the wall and stomped on it until it was in pieces, and scuffed the markings of the circle until nothing was recognisable as an interface to the world of dreams and then fell to his hands and knees and panted until he felt whole again. This was it, he wouldn't be able to communicate with Kireiko again. Not until he got his equipment repaired. And with Kireiko the way he was, he wouldn't be able to do much, anyway... Oni don't pray, as a rule. It's entirely Out Of Character for them, and they prefer a good cursing instead. However, the oni now understood why people prayed for other people. * * * Wishing they knew exactly what was going on inside his head, Kireiko's parents looked down at their son's writhing body. One moment it was human, the next it was his half-oni form, the next it was his human form, then the Cthulhu-ised form of his half-oni state... "It's happening like before," said his mother nervously. "When we fought Cthulhu all that time ago..." "Yes," his father said grimly. "He's fighting Cthulhu in his own mind, right at this moment." They thought about this a moment, and grew nervous. Even considering the blind parental love they had for their son, they had to admit he had only a tenuous grip on his own mind at best. "And this time we can't kill the host," said his mother. "We might have to," said his father. "The alternative is letting Cthulhu rampage through the world. We can't let that happen." "Choji, he's our SON!" "Don't you think I KNOW?!" They looked at Kireiko again. He was definitely spending more time in his Cthulhu-ised body now. A few tentacles lashed out at them. "And this is happening even with the Strongest Ofuda In The World on his back," murmured Atsuko. "All the magic and ofuda in the world can only hold Cthulhu back for a brief time," exposited Choji. "We need more... we need the legendary defenders of Earth again." "Just like we did last time?" "Yes." Choji looked determined. "Once more, we need those of Center and Earth." A tentacle flicked dangerously close to him, almost dislodging his glasses. "As soon as we've covered this room with ofuda and preventative magic and cast at least ten spells on it," he hastily amended. * * * The call went all over Japan. It delved into the depths of the snowy forests in the northeast of Honshuu, the main island of Japan, and sped through the trees until it found an old man and his young protege. Their eyes snapped open and they stood up from their meditation, and a moment later they disappeared... ...it weaved through the streets in the center of the city, where it caught up with a woman somewhere between youth and middle age, striding through the city's nightlife. Her eyes widened as she felt it, and she turned and looked back at where the call came from... ...it found an apartment and woke up a young bishounen teenager with spiky black hair. He looked puzzled, wondering what it was, and then realisation flitted across his face... ...it found a house and woke up a teenaged girl. Divested of her usual pale makeup and dark clothes, she looked almost normal. The call pounded insistently against her mind, and she clutched at her head, trying to make it stop... ...it found the Nakao household and screamed into Tejina's mind, and with a muffled shriek she sat bolt upright, jarred into wakefulness, the strange insistent feeling still pounding in her head. Her door opened and a worried-looking Hanaki and Ayame stumbled into her room. "Tej? What's going on?" Gradually, the pounding resolved itself into something more recognisable. It wasn't words, exactly, but an understanding of what was going on and where she was needed. She hurried out of bed and started pulling clothes on. "It's Harbringer business..." She looked at Hanaki and bit her lip, nervously. "About Cthulhu." "What?" Hanaki almost shouted. "Cthulhu? You mean Kireiko? I have to come!" "But... it's Harbringer only..." "Sis, this is my *boyfriend*. I have to go." Tejina did up the last button on her shirt, and made up her mind. "Alright. Quickly put something on and get your pager and I'll take you along." "Good luck with whatever it is," said Ayame, quietly. Tejina nodded grimly and then teleported herself and Hanaki away, only noticing a few minutes later that Ayame had been so worried she hadn't exposited. * * * The first thing Tejina noticed was Kireiko's father saying, "I don't remember there being THIS many of Center and Earth." "Tejina-chan? Hanaki-chan?" asked Kireiko's mother. "You're Harbringers as well?" The leader of the Harbringers turned a chilling gaze upon Hanaki. "This one isn't. Tell me who you are and I just might not kill you." "That is my son's girlfriend, Ganno-san," said Kireiko's father. "She has a right to be here." "What's happening with Kireiko?" asked Tejina. Kireiko's father looked grim. "The situation is grim. We have his room covered with ofuda and protective magics, and Cthulhu is still managing to overcome him. There's not much more time before Cthulhu arises again, perhaps overcoming Kireiko's mind completely." Hanaki choked out a sob and clutched Tejina's arm tightly. Tejina, for her part, also felt nervous and in need of reassurance, but there wasn't anybody else to cling to. What about Sakyou? She shook her head. She mustn't have had enough sleep. Sakyou was a friend, nothing more. ...right? Then why didn't she feel reassured? Her confusion about her fellow Harbringer dissipated when Ganno, their leader, took them upstairs to Kireiko's room. Tejina always wondered what Kireiko's room was like. She always thought there'd be motorcycle pictures on the wall along with pictures of women having problems with their clothes, and several tons of leather polish. It might ordinarily be like that, but she couldn't tell, as the room was literally covered with ofuda. Some of them reeked so much of magic that Tejina could easily feel them. Others, closer to Kireiko, were fraying and smoking, and there was ash all around his bed. Kireiko himself looked terrible - he was thrashing about, moaning and groaning, his accent and body shifting between Japanese and Chthonic, and tentacles were growing and shrinking as they watched, but mostly growing. There was a faint sheen of slime all round him. Hanaki once again buried her face in Tejina's shoulder with a muffled sob. Ganno-sensei looked down on Kireiko disapprovingly. "He is a champion of Byakko - one of my god Ryokuryuu's enemies." Kireiko's father looked grim. "You would prefer him to be possessed by Cthulhu?" "Just kill him and be done with it, I'll have no part in saving him. It is not the way the Game works." "HEY!" yelled Hanaki, beating Tejina to it. Kireiko's father looked ominously at Ganno, light glinting dangerously off his glasses, and the impression of leaping flames behind his back. "Ganno-san, my son's life is not a game to me. And you still owe me for that accountancy advice..." "Oh all right," grumbled the old man, cowed. He turned to face Kireiko again, who promptly let out an unearthly scream. "What are supposed to do, Ganno-sensei?" asked the old man's protege, nervously. "Listen and learn, Amanamuro-kun." Ganno cleared his throat, catching everybody's attention. "Harbringers, since time immemorial we have been the legendary defenders of the Earth. Tonight we shall do so again, by driving off the alien entity Cthulhu, as Ms. Hirata and I once did, a long time ago." "Sure, tell them how old I am," grumbled Tomoe. "Enough, Hirata." The leader adjusted his glasses. "Now, we'll stand around the bed in a roughly circular shape. As Hirata and I are the only ones who have had experience in driving Cthulhu off, we'll do the main work and stand opposite each other, for maximum distribution. The rest of you, just lend your power to ours, to make our work easier. Analyse what we do as an exercise, as you might have to do this sort of thing again in the future." He turned to Hanaki and ahemmed pointedly. "I must ask you to leave, this is Harbringer business only." With many a nervous look backwards, Hanaki left the room, no doubt to stand right outside the door with Kireiko's parents. "Should we draw our weapons or something?" asked Tejina. The older Tomoe snorted. "Our enemy is not physical. I seriously doubt our weapons would have any effect." "Succinctly put, Hirata," said the leader. "If a little rudely." "She asked a stupid question," said Tomoe, as if that explained everything. "But-" Tejina started. "Whatever," said Ganno, cutting her and Tomoe off. "Hirata, go ahead." Tejina grumbled and looked over at the older woman, and almost had a heart attack when she saw Tomoe produce what looked for all the world like the Emblem of Delightful Rapture from thin air. She glanced wildly at Ganno-san and saw that he was pulling the Icon of Rapturous Delight from his pocket, and almost died from shock. "Is there something wrong, Miss Nakao?" asked the old man. "The Emblem of Delightful Rapture! And the Icon of Rapturous Delight! We've been looking for them for weeks! Where on earth did you get them?" "Icon? Emblem?" Tomoe hmmphed. "These are the Harbringer's holy items, kept within our ranks for centuries. You're just seeing things." "No I'm not! Let me see!" The leader looked nervously at Kireiko. "We don't have time for this, Miss Nakao. The longer we delay the less time we have to repel Cthulhu. Maybe after that you can see them. Now, hold hands." Tejina grudgingly accepted and extended her hands to take those of Sakyou and Tomoe. She noticed that Tomoe shifted the Emblem to her other hand, to keep it away from her. Tejina muttered a curse; Tomoe Hirata truly was a difficult woman to get along with... Everybody touched hands, there was a bright flash of light, and Tejina and the two artifacts disappeared. * * * Chiang walked quietly through the halls of the Castle of the Kingdom of Obscurity. The people tried to avoid him, but it was still best to be sure, and not attract attention needlessly. The Castle itself was odd. Security was lax - almost nonexistent. What guards there were didn't pay attention, and sometimes even shuffled out of sight as Chiang approached. The one automated security measure he had seen had been in pieces and rusting as if it were more than hundred years old. Navigating the Castle was difficult, as quite a number of doorways were jammed and no amount of magical forcing would make them open. Chiang wondered how many years they had been disused for them to become so immovable, and estimated at least a hundred years, maybe two hundred. After an hour of wandering around and backtracking, he entered a hall. Like most of the halls he'd encountered, it was old and in disrepair. Banners hung in tatters and the carpet was moldy and patchy, and there was a huge crack along one wall. But there was one difference - one of the doorways was clean and gleaming as if it had just been cleaned. This was new. He had to check it out. He hurried over and opened the door and stepped through - And stopped dead. This new hall was clean and tidy with not a hint of age, but the main thing was that the walls were covered with framed pictures, as if it was a gallery. Chiang took a closer look at one of the pictures, and his heart fluttered. It was a picture of Queen Amore from the time of the Crystal Kingdom. As was usual for a lot of pictures of Queen Amore, she wasn't wearing very much - despite her wisdom, and kind and just rule, she'd been... rather... Chiang felt nervous, adjusted his collar, and turned his attention to the other pictures. There were quite a number of the Queen that Chiang decided to leave alone. There were also quite a number of the Sailor Team - Sailors Delight, Rapture, and Joy featured prominently, he noticed. This was interesting, but not really all that useful, he decided. He was about to continue on and explore the rest of the castle, when he saw a much more interesting picture. It was different in that it actually had prominent male subjects. There was an old man with a wise look to his eyes and a gentle smile on his face. Beside him was a younger man, and from his expression Chiang guessed that he idolised the old man. Chiang instantly recognised the other male figure in the painting - he was the spitting image of Sakyou Sagare, the modern day Harbringer. On one side of the man was the image of that other modern-day Harbringer he'd seen around - Yoruko, he thought her name was - and on the man's other side was none other than Princess Amore. All wore clothes from the era of the Crystal Kingdom and wielded swords with runes of Duality on them. And most surprising was that the old man had both the Icon of Rapturous Delight and Emblem of Delightful Rapture hanging from his belt. The Harbringers must have been alive at the time of the Crystal City as well. He'd never *once* heard a whisper about them back then, so they must have been very very secret. And somehow they were responsible for the Icon and the Emblem. He deciphered the ancient script: "The Harbringers: Legendary guardians of the Earth, champions of the Green Dragon of Center and Earth, and distributors of Har." Once he got back to Earth he had to find the Harbringers - perhaps they knew where to find the Icon and the Emblem. Maybe they even had the two artifacts. He didn't have much more time. He quickly scanned the rest of the pictures, but couldn't find any more important revelations. He slipped out of the gallery and headed for the last part of the castle - the center. * * * There was brightness, silence, and all the colours of the rainbow and more besides, swirling around her. Two presences hanging in space before her. The feeling of huge emptiness surrounding her. "What's happening?" shouted Tejina. -Why is it not Joy that comes?- -Yes, it is Joy who is to control the Icon and Emblem- -Why is it that you come, Sailor Delight?- The voices echoed strangely and twisted around each other and were almost indistinguishable from each other and listening to them gave Tejina the glimmerings of a headache. She tried to concentrate through the dizziness - they'd referred to her as Sailor Delight and asked her why she'd come, hadn't they? "I, ah, I didn't even touch the Icon or the Emblem," she said. "I was in a circle with the Harbringers and-" -Those of Center and Earth?- -Yes, she is one also- -It is to be expected, Amore was of Center and Earth- -This can be dealt with- -True, as was done before- It was getting easier to listen to the voices - the headache stopped nagging her quite so much and all but disappeared. Things were still confusing, though. "Excuse me? What's going on?" -Only Joy can use the Icon or the Emblem- "You mean Aki?" There was a pause, during which she felt something that almost felt like a scrabbling noise in her own mind. With a start, she realised what it was. "Stop reading my mind!" -Yes, we do mean this Aki Villyn- -Only she can use the Icon and the Emblem to produce the One- "What?" -You must go now- "No, wait, we - that is, the Harbringers, need your help! Cthulhu is rising!" -Cthulhu?- -That old pusbag again?- Again the scrabbling in her head. -We shall help you with Cthulhu- -Be warned that we can not destroy him, only banish him for a time- There was another flash of light. * * * Several things happened in rapid succession. With another flash of light Tejina appeared in Kireiko's room, the Icon and the Emblem held in her hands. The other five Harbringers leveled their weapons at her, clearly ready to cut her down, though Sakyou and Yoruko didn't look happy about it. The Icon and Emblem started glowing brightly, and then shot two beams at Kireiko, who reverted to human form and started screaming and smoking slightly. Hanaki burst in through the door, saw what was happening, and started screaming Kireiko's name and at Tejina, asking her what she was doing. Tejina screamed back that she wasn't doing anything, it was just happening by itself. The Harbringers lowered their swords, confused about what was going on. Kireiko gave a final scream and fell to the bed with a thump. Hanaki rushed to the bed and checked Kireiko's pulse and pronounced him alive. Kireiko's parents burst into his room and thoroughly checked Kireiko and pronounced him free of Cthulhu possession. And there was much rejoicing. This entire sequence took less than ten seconds. Tejina didn't join in the celebrations, at first. She just smiled at the two artifacts clutched in her hands, amazed at the power they had displayed and that she at last had the Icon of Rapturous Delight and the Emblem of Delightful Rapture. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back, and saw Sakyou grinning at her. "Another battle won by the Harbringers," he said. "Yeah," she said, smiling back. "Even though we didn't do much," he complained, in mock indignation. "I'll tell you later, during lunch," she said, and then saw what time it was. "If I can stay awake, that is." "Now, Miss Nakao," said Ganno, "please tell me about your connection to the Harbringer's Holies." "The *what?*" "Well, we had to call them *something*," explained the old man, having the grace to look embarrassed. Seeing her blank face, he indicated the Icon and the Emblem. "You know, those. You called them 'the Icon and the Emblem.'" "Oh, these." Tejina sighed. This was going to be a long explanation. * * * Deep in his house in R'lyeh, The Not Quite Dead Yet Cthulhu raged. His host, a most promising body, had been cut from him! He'd been banished, by mere humans! But not completely... he still had a glimmer of a link to their world. Before it vanished, before he fell into sleep and dreams once more, he desperately cast about, searching for anything that could be a vessel. He found one. * * * In the midst of concocting a complicated plan involving devil hunters, motorcycles, a concert, Metallica, and five assorted leather goods shops, His Eminence's eyes widened (usual disclaimer about the lidless eye goes here) in shocked surprise. "he's... gone..." he breathed. "yOUr EmInEncE?" "our master The Great Cthulhu is completely gone! i can no longer sense his presence anywhere upon this world! something drastic has happened!" "WHaT!?" screamed Maynard. "gOnE!? hOW?!" "i do not know - wait..." "hUh? whAt dO yOU mEAn, wAI- whA?" Maynard then emitted an unearthly howl, and doubled over to the floor. "maynard? maynard!? what's happening to y-" His Eminence broke off as he sensed something familiar and incredibly close. "The Great Cthulhu??" What had once been Brother Maynard got back to its feet, its body even more loathsome and tentacular than before. "o Great Cthulhu!" enthused His Eminence. "you have finally come! how can we help?" "THIS BODY SHALL SUFFICE, 'YOUR EMINENCE'," said Cthulhu. "I ADVISE A NAME CHANGE - FOR NONE ARE MORE EMINENT THAN I." "yes, Great Cthulhu." "NOW, I MUST REST. I HAVE EXPENDED MUCH EFFORT IN THE PAST FEW MINUTES. ONCE I RECOVER I CAN SEE ABOUT DESTROYING THIS WORLD." Cthulhu looked puzzled. "WHY DO I FEEL LIKE EATING CORN AND PEA SOUP?" "excuse me, Great Cthulhu?" * * * Her eyes snapped open, and Shub-Niggurath proclaimed, "HE IS BACK." "Tell me where he is and I shall dispose of Wataru for you, O Great Shubby-chan," said Maeda. "NOT WATARU, YOU FOOL, CTHULHU. I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT YOU, EVEN AS ACCOMPLISHED AS YOU CLAIM YOU ARE, COULD DISPOSE OF THAT BLOATED PUSBAG ON YOUR OWN." "Um, yes," said Maeda, nervous about admitting any sort of incompetence in front of Shub-Niggurath, but even more nervous about going up against an Elder God by himself. "HE IS STILL WEAKER THAN USUAL - THERE IS STILL A CHANCE TO DOUSE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD AND BRING THE END TIMES BEFORE HE IS READY." "I shall see about killing her immediately," said Maeda smoothly. "YES, DO THAT." * * * Stagner gazed thoughtfully at his corn and pea soup. So... Cthulhu was back. A titanic and apocalyptic battle between an Elder God and an Outer God, that just so happened to rampage through and destroy a lot of worlds, was still possible. He'd have to keep Arisu notified of the timing, the two could not be allowed to rampage through the Kingdom of Obscurity as well. He still didn't trust either of the cults with the Light of the World anymore, not after their previous failures. He was going to have to deal with her himself. He closed his eyes and thought of his darling Yalena, trapped back in the Kingdom of Obscurity. Anything for her... * * * After half an hour of frustrating travel, during which he had to backtrack many MANY times, Chiang saw something odd ahead - sunlight. But he was definitely still in the castle - roughly in the middle, he judged. The conclusion was that there was an open air part of the castle - why? A section of the castle open to the air as unguarded as this would be drastically vulnerable to air attack. Just what kind of man was Stagner? His castle's security was a joke, it was in incredible disrepair, and he had a huge well kept gallery of pictures from the Crystal Kingdom, the DarkVerse, and a few more besides. And while his castle rotted and his subjects ran away from harmless old men, he himself was back on Earth spying on everybody and impersonating Darkwing Duck. Chiang thought, not for the first time, that Stagner wasn't quite sane. He stepped through the archway and into the courtyard - He was looking up at the muted sunlight, so the first thing he noticed was that the opening to the sky wasn't regular, but almost gouged out of the roof. His gaze traveled straight down, so the second thing he noticed were the faint smoothed-over depressions in the ground beneath the edges of the hole that suggested that once, perhaps, a roof had been there and had been smashed in, and many many years had passed and the roof had never been replaced. He saw a flash of gray on the edge of vision, with a strange multicoloured twinkle to it. He turned his head, and looked - It was a statue of a stunningly, almost ethereally beautiful woman, a sad expression on her face, and her arms held imploringly outwards, almost as if begging for something. And there was multicoloured gemstone set into its sculptured necklace. As he stared at it, it glittered strangely, and he could sense incredible power deep within it, but somehow locked away. Time seemed to slow and stop... In a heartbeat, he *knew* what the gem was and what had happened, and it chilled him to the bone. He could easily picture the scene in his mind... An angry army storming through the castle. The woman running in fear, clutching the gem to her chest. Her running out of breath and coming to a stop in this very spot. The mages in the army stepping forward, demanding she turn the gem over. Her shrinking back in fear. The mages casting a spell. The woman stretching her arms out, imploring them to spare her. The huge explosion as the magic reacted with the multicoloured gem and the woman was turned to stone, and all the colour draining from the world as its Prominence was stripped away. She looked somehow familiar. Chiang studied her a bit more - the sign at her feet suggested her name was Yalena - and realised what it was. She looked like a combination of Sailors Delight, Rapture, and Joy. Chiang wondered what several thousand years of a trapped love and a crippled Kingdom would do to you. It was amazing that Stagner wasn't a complete raving lunatic and was only mildly insane. He became aware of time passing. His didn't know how long he had been there, with his mouth open in shock and his mind running in overdrive - it could have been a second or it could have been a week, though he really hoped it was no longer than a few minutes, because he had to get back to Tokyo and tell Queen Amore about this as soon as possible. This could... no, it *would* change everything. He gathered power, muttered the teleportation spell and a moment later the courtyard was empty again, except for the statue. * * * It was lunchtime the next day, at school. In keeping with the usual tradition, the 'gang' had gathered underneath the large tree in the school grounds, to chat, to share lunches, to have a good time, and to keep the others up to date on what was happening. The main news was, of course, that Kireiko was now no longer possessed by Cthulhu. The explanation took the better part of fifteen minutes, with most of the talking by Kireiko and Tejina, but with Sakyou and Yoruko chipping in for the more Harbringer- centric stuff. "And if Cthulhu ever comes back," finished Kireiko, "I'm going kick his ass into next week." "That's remarkably confident of you, guitar-boy," said Matsuro. "I could do it easy, now that I know what I'm up against." "Or you could just be suicidally stupid." "Guys!" admonished Tejina. "It doesn't matter, Cthulhu's gone now, and that's the main thing." "And good riddance," summarised Hanaki. "Indeed so," said Ayame, "you were becoming quite decidedly odd and creepy for a while, Kireiko." "Hey, you guys were worried about me?" asked Kireiko, with a sly grin. "Of course!" said Hanaki, in mock indignation. "Lug," said Tejina, but was happy that Kireiko was now back to normal. Well, as normal as a half-oni bad-boy could be, at any rate. "And not a moment too soon," said Becky. "I was sure that we were going to end up in a titanic apocalyptic battle between Kireiko and Matsuro, with lots of really cool moves being used and them yelling 'KIREEEEEEIKO!' and 'MaTSUuUuURo!' at each other." Everybody gave her their best "You're Weird" looks. Matsuro did also, though he hadn't practiced his for quite some time, and so his was more a "You're A Slightly Strange Anime Otaku" look. "That's... an interesting idea..." said Tejina. "It would have been really cool," sighed the anime otaku. "You wanted us to fight each other," said Matsuro, with a slight edge to his voice that suggested outraged accusation. "Oh no, Matsuro! I'm just saying it would make a really cool fight scene. And besides, all the rest of us would end up dead. It's the way that sort of thing happens." They practiced their "You're Weird" looks again. Matsuro's was better, this time around. "A good thing it won't actually happen, right?" finished Becky. "I should hope it doesn't," said Aki. "I'd rather stay alive, if it's all the same to you." "Speaking of life and death, stop sniffing at my leg, Koohii," said Kireiko. "Only Hanaki is allowed to do that." "But it smells so *good!*" proclaimed the yellow-haired dragon in human form. "The rushing blood... the tang..." Her eyes lit up, and she sighed dreamily. "Keiko, aren't you working on a cure?" asked Hanaki. The black-clad girl sighed. "Yes. It's maddeningly elusive, though. Do you mind if I find that vampire from before and dust him again? It would really help. Otherwise I need all sorts of weird spell ingredients." "Like what?" asked an interested Scotch. "Phoenix floss, for one." "Phoenix floss?" asked Koohii. "That'd be just our luck," muttered Mermaid. All three Dragon Childe slumped with a sigh. "Phoenix... floss?" asked a bemused Aki. "Phoenix don't have teeth, you see," explained Ayame. "So they have almost no use for floss and Phoenix floss is thus very very rare." "What on earth does rare dental equipment have to do with turning vampiric dragons back into full dragons?" yelled Aki. "Damned if I know," said Keiko. "This is why I want to find and dust that vampire again." She shrugged. "But you didn't like the slight possibility of me getting some blood in the wrong place and him coming back, so..." "What happened to the Icon and the Emblem in the end?" asked Becky in an attempt to change the subject. "Hmph," hmphed Tejina. "Ganno-sensei wanted to keep them, of course." "They have been Harbringer artifacts for thousands of years," said Sakyou. "You can understand why he wanted to keep them." "Well... yes..." said Tejina, "but they're also Crystal City items and we need them too. Maybe we could work out some rotation system." "I still find it weird that you're a magical girl as well," said Yoruko. "Ganno-san was most surprised, wasn't he?" giggled Tejina, thinking back to the previous night's explanations, and Ganno and Tomoe's priceless looks of complete and utter surprise after she transformed. "So was Hirata," said Sakyou with a grin. "First time I've seen her freak out since I've known her. That's a good talent you have there." "Turning into a magical girl with a silly costume, or freaking out Hirata-san?" Sakyou blushed slightly, and mumbled something. "What was that?" "He said 'both'," grinned Hanaki. Sakyou blushed furiously in response. He wanted to see her in the silly Sailor Delight costume? Did that mean that he... oh gods... She could just call him a hentai jerk and slap him six ways from tomorrow. But for some reason she didn't want to. She looked up at Sakyou, suddenly nervous, and blushing somewhat herself, caught his eyes, and very quickly looked away. "A-hem," Aki said pointedly. "If you could stop being embarrassed around each other, please?" "A-ki!" hissed Tejina. "The Icon and the Emblem?" prompted Aki. "They *are* kinda important, you know. Did you get to keep them, Tejina?" asked Aki. "For a little while," said Tejina, and pulled them from her bag, for everyone to see. Everyone immediately crowded around, and pushed at each other to get the best view. They'd spent a long time looking for these two items, and could hardly remember why they needed them in the first place. All they could remember at the moment was that they were important, somehow. So they of course attracted much attention - Becky spent the most time examining them, pulling out some of her secret agent equipment to scan the two artifacts. "I dunno," said Becky, after a while. "They look sort of boring." There was a massive crash as almost everybody else facefaulted. "Those three DarkVerse Sailors showed up at my apartment yesterday," said Matsuro. "WHAT?" shouted everybody else. "What did they want?" asked Hanaki. "They were looking for some 'Banner of the DarkVerse.' You heard anything about that, Keiko?" he asked. Keiko rubbed her chin thoughtfully, looking into space. "No... no, I haven't heard anything about that. Maybe Yoru knows. I can ask him later, after school." Matsuro looked faintly puzzled. "About that - they had a lizard and a rabbit with them, but no third animal." "Maybe it was sick and couldn't go threaten you." "Maybe," Matsuro said noncommitantly. "Not that important I guess." There was a poof. "Zathras detect great Crystal City magic! As if Icon and Emblem dramatically revealed, the magic so powerful!" The furry man looked down and saw he was standing almost on top of the aforementioned objects, and would have sweatdropped if he hadn't screamed in joy instead. "Is Icon and Emblem! They found! They found! Wait for Chiang hear this! Face too too fun to see!" Sakyou and Yoruko stared at the sight of a weird hairy thing leaping about shouting "BANZAI!" at the top of its lungs. "Tejina," started Yoruko. "Yes?" "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" yelled the pale girl, pointing. "Oh, that's just Zathras. He's from the Crystal City and babbles about someone called 'The One' all the time. It's not Matsuro, by the way, he means a different One." "Yes, is different. But with Icon and Emblem, we can finally find! Is their job. As well as heat source for steam generators. But main job is find and bring forth the One." "That's all very well," said Aki, "but how?" "Zathras not sure," the furry man said sheepishly. Everybody sweatdropped. "Master Chiang know!" "But Master Chiang isn't here," said Tejina. "Tell us what you do know. Please?" Zathras collected his thoughts for a moment, trying to remember the stories and legends about what the two artifacts were for. "Zathras think, from old weird stories, is something about three people in same space, and becoming One." "Eew," said everybody. "Sounds gross." "A threesome? Who knew that the old Crystal City guys were such perverts?" Zathras sweatdropped, and cursed his inability to speak coherently enough to explain complex concepts. He really should have taken those Speaking Clearly courses instead of Advanced Non-Euclidean Geometry Applied To Dimensional Spaces. There was another poof, and the arrival of another Crystal City figure - Chiang. He hadn't even fully appeared before he started speaking. "Sailor Delight," he said, even before he had fully appeared, "it is imperative that you obtain the Icon and the Emblem." "You mean these?" asked Tejina, holding up the aforementioned items. "Yes, those," said Chiang. "Now, my recent research leads me to believe that they are being held by - " and then his brain caught up with his ears, he looked at what Tejina was holding, and his eyes went so wide they became momentarily visible underneath his massive eyebrows. "Wait a second... you have them?!" "Um, yes..." said Tejina. "I'm more sort of borrowing them from the Harbringers, though..." "Let me see!" The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period. "Got to go to class," Tejina said, handing him the Icon and Emblem. "We'll explain more, later, okay?" "But wait! I have important news that - " Chiang realised that he was in the center of a widening circle of Do-Gooders and their assorted hangers-on. "This sucks," he said. "Leaving in middle of important speech, they do often," said Zathras. "Too much," agreed Chiang. "Come on, we have things to do." There were twin poofs of air, and the spot under the tree was now empty. * * * And later... A spiky haired bishounen teenager walked to the edge of the school's sports field, and glanced around, as if looking for someone, but trying not to be too obvious about it. He was just about to give up and go home, when a blue haired female figure stepped out from behind a tree, and smiled sheepishly at the boy. "I didn't think you'd come," said Tejina, looking into his eyes. "I wasn't sure that you-" "I wanted to," said Sakyou, returning her gaze. He grinned slightly. "When a cute girl asks to meet you alone, well, there's not much of a choice, is there?" "So I'm cute, am I?" she asked him archly. "Even without my really short Sailor Delight costume on?" "Of course you are! Do you I think I'm that shallow?" he asked in mock indignation. "I wouldn't know," she said softly. "We talk to each other mostly at lunchtime, when lots of other people are around." "Yeah, it's annoying like that," said Sakyou. "Do you want us to see each other more often?" "Sometimes I think I do," she said softly. "Me too," said Sakyou. She looked up at him and he looked down at her, their eyes mirroring the hope that each held. "Shall we make it official?" "I'd love to." She squealed in joy and glomped onto him. "Thank you, Sakyou!" He grinned back at her as he shyly returned the hug. "Anything for you, Tejina." EPILOGUE: "My Queen!" shouted Malaise. "I have a much better idea!" "Excuse me?" "Instead of attaching generators to the exercise equipment, we put in infernal DarkVerse machines that collect the energy that the people in the gyms generate!" "Interesting. And it means that the people in the gyms, instead of wondering where their energy is going, will simply exercise harder, giving us more energy to collect! OOOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" Malaise blinked. "I hadn't thought of that." Charity didn't hear, she was too busy laughing. Ayesse had been about to tell her about his Pokemon-inspired scheme to gather the energy of the world's children. Upon reflection, however, it was much more complex and harder and probably less effective than the androgynous general's plan, so he didn't mention it. And thus the world was spared another card game fad it could rightly blame all its evils on. IT *IS* FORTUNATE, ISN'T IT? *AHEM* OKAY, ON TO MORE SENSIBLE QUESTIONS... WHAT SHALL STAGNER DO NEXT? WHAT SHALL THE DARKVERSE SAILORS DO NEXT? WHAT WILL CTHULHU THINK ABOUT BEING IN A SEVENTEEN-TOED BODY? WILL KIREIKO LOSE PROMINENCE IN THE STORY NOW THAT HE'S NO LONGER POSSESSED BY CTHULHU? WILL KEIKO GET TO DUST SPIKE AND KEEP THE VAMPIRE ASH NEXT TIME? WHAT WILL THE DO GOODERS THINK ONCE THEY HAVE THE FULL STORY ON STAGNER FROM CHIANG? WILL MATSURO AWAKEN TO HIS ROLE AS GRAND DUKE MIDNIGHT, MAKING ALL THIS EVEN MORE COMPLICATED? WILL CECIL EVER GET TO CAUSE MASS DESTRUCTION? AND DO WE REALLY WANT HIM TO? Tune in next time, when some or maybe all of these questions, are answered by Jonatan Streith. AUTHOR'S NOTES Once again I started off with no idea of what to write, and ended up with a bit over 60 kb. The ideas just flow when you're in a panic and thinking desperately. ^_^ Thanks must go to Philip Barkow and Jonatan Streith for prereading. Also, Jonatan suggested some dialogue here and there, Philip suggested the idea behind the commercial break, and David Menendez suggested Ayesse’s Pokemon plan. Not much else to say, really. I was thinking of explaining my thinking behind some of what I did in this chapter. I then decided to not bother and stick by what I wrote, and let the chapter speak for itself. That's much less aggravating. For me, at least. ^_^ ...except for the title. I suck at coming up with good titles, that's all I can say about it. Thank you for reading. Steven Scougall 4th Feb 2000 http://www.crosswinds.net/~sscougall/