"Dita coming!"
Three women groaned. Just what they did not need was Dita tagging along.
"Maybe we can lose her in this place?" Jura asked hopefully.
"AHHHH! Visitors!"
The three women heard the exclamation and looked around to spot what had made the noise.
"Oh my oh my, it's been ever so long since we had visitors. Yes yes yes."
Barnette pulled out her trusty pistol. "Who said that?"
"That would be me," said the same voice. "Down here."
"A walking animated doll?" Jura asked, pointing her ring laser at the thing.
"Some kind of robot?" Barnette speculated.
"My name is Asuka Langley Soryuu, and you are in terrible terrible danger. Flee now before it's too late," advised the doll.
"Aren't you a little short to be threatening us?" Jura asked.
"Shhhh. Keep your voice down. They'll hear you!" Asuka-doll cautioned.
Slam!
"That was the door slamming shut behind us, wasn't it?" Jura asked in a calm voice.
"Too late," said the doll. "Oh crap. They're coming. Hide!"
The three Majerian fighters, predictably, did not hide.
Meia thumbed her commlink. "Meia here. We've activated some sort of defense system."
"Acknowledged," said BC's voice. "Any sign of those life forms?"
"Not so far..." Meia looked at the sensor then at the doll then at the sensor again. "Apparently the life forms are false readings. There's a doll here that's registering as a life form."
"I AM a life form. This is the enchanted castle of Nerima," said Asuka. "We didn't believe the legends and now look at us!"
BC frowned. "Enchanted castle of Nerima?" Hearing a gasp, she turned to the captain. "Captain?"
Magno punched a button. "Meia, Jura, Barnette, get out of there now! Someone get Dita and Bart back on board!"
"Captain?" BC repeated.
"Of all places to survive the ages, it had to be that one," complained Vivian Magno. "The cursed castle of the sleeping prince."
"Curses, Captain?" BC was openly skeptical.
"Launch a Dread squadron, see if a missile spread can affect the place. Blitz tactics - in and out at full speed. With luck it'll distract the inhabitants enough that someone can escape!" Magno glanced to the staring BC. "DO IT!"
"What's going on up there?" Meia asked. "Missiles?"
"Sssssssssssss-tk-tk-tk-tk. Intruderssss in the missstresss' home. Come to rescue the prince and gain a love for all eternity. Sssssssssss."
Barnette leveled her gun at the approaching woman in geisha formal kimono and pale make up. "Don't come any closer?"
"No, dearie?" The figure stopped. "Then how about if I do thisssss!"
Meia got off two shots with her ring-laser as the serpents shot forth from the sleeves of the kimono, lengthening to close the gap between the geisha and the trio.
"AAHHHH!" Jura yelped as the serpent heads buried fangs in her flesh.
Barnette fired four times before the heads retracted into the sleeves and the figure faltered and hit the ground.
"What IS she?" Barnette asked.
"Kodachi Kuno, one of Akane's slaves, twisted by the uncute dragon's power into a snakewoman," answered the redheaded doll. "Look, your friend is paying the price."
Jura's skin took on a plastic sheen as her arms and legs folded. Her mouth opened wide in an "O" shape with the ends curled up in a painted and somewhat grotesque smile.
Barnette touched the inflatable and felt the vinyl. "What? How?"
"If you are defeated, you will be turned into something that reflects the Mistress' first impression of you. She sees through the eyes of her servants. Kodachi is down, but she'll get better. I managed to slice her in half when I came in here. Look how much good it did me."
Meia picked up the doll. "How can we return Jura to normal?"
"The only way to do that is to awaken the prince, once someone does that we'll all return to normal." The doll looked up into Meia's eyes. "Akane always chooses one from each group to become a guardian servitor. One of the monster slaves like Hotaru or Tatewaki or Kodachi or Ritsuko. The door's opening?"
Meia blinked as the light began rising again and two figures entered the castle.
"Hurry," said Bart, trying to hold the door open. "We've got to get out of here."
"We can't leave Jura like this," exclaimed Barnette as she held up the inflatable doll. "Where's this prince guy?"
"In Akane's lair under the central tower," called out the doll helpfully.
The Nirvana Away Team decides:
(Posted Wed, 11 Dec 2002 00:38)
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