It was not, in and of itself, deadly, or sentient. But it was a significant enough danger to the world that those lucky or powerful few convened, as they sometimes must, and examined the situation.
First, there was sunset. Then stars emerged in the sky, and as evening's cool began to warm with humanity's newfound ardor, the moon shone near an aligned Venus and Jupiter. A shimmering line of light, slim as a hair, bright as the moon connected the two, touching down to some point in Tokyo. This line twisted, and spun, twirling into a pair of lines that formed spirals, interlocking hexagrams, and eventually, a pattern very like a flowing cascade of silver-white hearts, filled with glowing orange fire.
***
"Quite enough of that," Setsuna said, rapping Minkao atop the head gently with her knuckles.
The blonde had the decency to blush, as the energy from this usually unspectacular planetary alignment touched to the top of the Time Key. Setsuna raised it above her head and then ... turned it. With a resounding shudder, time stopped.
She surveyed the area immediately around her, and nodded. "Thank you, by the way, for helping us like that, Urd," she murmured. "Now. What've we got?"
"Well, from what I can see so far, the virus was very well engineered, initially, but it's going to mutate out of control," Ami said slowly, examining her computer, Skuld peering over her shoulder at it.
"I'm seeing only bad things," the miniscule goddess said, sighing. "No idea how this one jumped up. I didn't even see it coming!"
"Don't feel too bad," Setsuna said levelly. "We're in a tight spot, or I'd never even try and contact people like you to work things out -- the time stream has become severely disrupted, as far as human survival goes. It's taken enough damage from this ... virus ... has the potential to mutate out of control and do so much social damage that we'll all be dead within a handful of decades."
"Well, can we go back and prevent that from happening?" Makoto asked.
"Nope," Urd and Setsuna said together, before exchanging a glance.
Urd shrugged, and gestured for the Senshi of Time to continue, which she did. "The time stream already fractured very badly. Going back now would throw us outside of reality altogether."
Then Usagi spoke, but not before she drew herself up to her full height, eyes briefly blanking before she assumed the guise of Serenity once more. "The virus must be ended, but lives must be spared. It is too late to contain it, and I would not have what was created destroyed. But at the same time.... I should think that it will require your efforts and Hotaru's combined, Belldandy-sama."
"Ah," the middle Norn sighed. "I rather suspected it was my turn to save the universe."
"Can I have next Tuesday?" Washuu asked plaintively.
***
From the heart of Tokyo, as time resumed, an explosion of death emanated outward. It swept towards the horizons with the power to sunder stars and rend the universe, screaming swift death for all it was to seek. For all of the fact that it was only just the size of the virii it was hunting, the tide of death was a ferocious thing, replicating and dividing until it was a sweeping storm which consumed all....
And in its wake, the world came to face what was then considered to be the biggest "Morning after" ever.
***
Setsuna reclined in her seat at the group's favorite cafe -- the Hinata-Sou teahouse. Haruka was usually a friend to them in times of need, though it appeared she hadn't been spared the effects of the virus. "So," she said, enthusiastically, glancing across the assembled Norns and Senshi, "what's the fallout going to be?"
"Well," Ami said slowly, Skuld still peeking over her shoulder at the screen of the Mercury Computer, "it's hard to say. The emotional and mental effects should almost completely vanish within a day or so. People with large amounts of energy in their bodies, or chaos in their lives ... we really must find out why we have so many around here at some point ... may find unusual results from the after-effects. It's possible that people will find themselves ... linked ... to those who they've slept with, in some way. It's also possible it won't happen. It's also possible that more than just bodily fluids could have been transferred by some...."
Setsuna raised an eyebrow at this. "Transferred? Such as?"
"Ah..." Ami trailed off nervously, looking wistfully at the exit before offering, "perhaps martial arts skills. Some memories. Certain types of magical aptitudes or special abilities. Also, generally speaking, the virus ensured something near an 80% chance of conception per encounter. And as far as these children not passing on their heritage ... normally incompatible generic samples will be viable as parents once they reach maturity."
"The one time we don't just need to fight some extra-dimensional horror, it just makes everything here worse," Setsuna sighed.
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(Posted Tue, 12 Jul 2005 18:00)
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