The little penguin things worshipping him were the really odd thing.
"The devil was in the details," said Shinji. "It didn't make sense to me at first. I KNOW some people wouldn't go along with the whole Instrumentality thing. So how could they not have shown up at the same time as me and Asuka. Then too - why just the two people who were in EVA units at the time?"
"Sometimes," said Rei #41, "a pleasant untruth is easier to accept that an unpleasant truth."
"Oh, right," said Shinji sarcastically. "If someone wanted to be free of that Unity, all it took was deciding to be free of the goo. Except that in order to become an individual you had to be able to make an individual decision. THAT is why everyone else still had their souls in little red pearls orbitting the Earth with their bodies still in goo. You had to be an individual to make the decision to be something other than part of the ocean. It took me weeks to figure out why that kept coming back to me as somehow wrong."
"Of course, you were also busy trying to gather supplies and food in that time, as well as looking for survivors," pointed out Asuka.
"Yeah, you had moments of lucidity but were still slipping in and out," said Shinji, throwing his hands up. "What fun THAT was. I remember looking around and finding all the little empty piles of clothing. There were a few, like Aoba-san, who apparently resisted. Didn't help. It was only us two - and that was because the EVA protected us long enough for us to decide not to join. That SUCKED."
"You think your time sucked?" asked Asuka, "I was the one barely able to say how disgusting the situation was. I could barely move when I was even conscious!"
"I was the angel of death, I killed billions of people and consigned them to hell," said Rei #41.
"Yeah, it pretty much sucked all around. So there's nothing that can be done for those we left behind?" asked Shinji, a little hope showing.
"There are only so many that can be ferried across without unbalancing things here," said Rei #41. "As these are souls of another universe, Ranma's powers are very limited in their application regarding stabilization. Then too, such will only be active for another hour."
"That's the best you can do?" asked Asuka.
"I found a possibility and took it," said Rei #41. "The alternative was remaining where we were."
"Well," admitted Asuka, "this IS better than that."
Shinji got up, his new "Doc Samson" look towering over the two girls. "Yeah, but just in case, let's make sure there's no GEHERN here, shall we?"
He was Prince Herb. He was ruler of the Musk Dynasty. He was...
sitting in a hot spring inside a building where Jusenkyo had stood the day before.
"I was just going to turn a monkey into a girl so I could get used to seeing the female body," said the Prince. His brilliant plan to infiltrate and learn what was going on (especially after seeing some of the Phoenix Mountain attackers turned into winged catgirls - a frontal assault had been ruled less desirable) was reaping unexpected dividends.
Ritsuko Akagi let her towel fall, then bent over to pick it up. The toned young man who'd been staring at her nearly collapsed. She smirked, having ascertained what she wanted to know.
Usagi was just sitting and having lunch with her friends, and was not entirely sure of how to take this new revelation. "Dark General?"
"Dark Technician," said Umino proudly.
"Shouldn't your secret identity be, well, secret?" asked Usagi.
"Oh, we're just letting you know, Usagi-chan," said Naru. "You're not going to tell anyone, right?"
Each floor was a little over ten feet in height. Each floor had massive support pillars. Each floor was over a kilometer in length, though the exact size tapered from the first floor to the thousandth.
The material itself was armored and boasted thick walls that could resist even techniques like the Breaking Point (which HAD been what Ranma had been aiming for).
He was back at the day of Jusenkyo, watching as the timer ran out on his access to the Great Will. He was trying to fix many things and get ready to do something he didn't particularly want to do - take over the world.
"Mecha musume?" asked Ranma.
"It is one possibility," said Rei #12.
"I dunno," said Ranma.
"Perhaps you could set it as one of the reincarnation possibilities with the Dark Assembly?" asked Rei.
"What've we already got?" asked Ranma, keeping an eye on the timer and trying not to panic as time kept slipping away.
"male fighter, female fighter, male mage, female mage, healer, zombie, catgirl, succubus, ninja, kunoichi, dragon, mothman..." began Rei.
"Can we switch skeleton for zombie?" asked Ranma. "I've been around stuff that's been dead awhile and the smell's kinda bad. Then there's that whole 'brains' thing."
Rei pointedly glanced at Ranma's tattoo.
"Oh, okay," said Ranma focussing on this, then looking over the next sheet. "Man, I gotta lot of unused floors, don't I?"
B-67 - B-100 - dungeon
B-66 - Arena Of Death
B-60 - B-66 Monster Storage
B-24 - matter/antimatter engine.
B-23 - generators, transformers, environmental control.
B-12 - water filtration systems and pumps.
B-3 - water tanks
B-2 - hot springs level.
B-1 - Rei barracks and "spriggan" mirror.
1 - ground floor. Receptionist. Ramp to 2nd floor. Meeting Rooms. Gift Shop.
2 - supply. Item Store. Weapon Store. Armor Store. Post Office.
3 - Item Worlder. Auditorium. Videophone to Laharl's Castle.
4 - Trade Overseer. Appraiser. Pokecenter.
5 - Shield generators, fire control.
9 - MAGI supercomputers.
10 - Maintenance. Housekeeping. Supplies.
21 - Audio/Visual Library
22 - Robot Troop Manufactory.
23 - manga library.
28 - private rooms. Misato Katsuragi, Asuka L. Soryuu, Shinji Ikari, Ritsuko Akagi.
29 - private rooms. Makoto Hyuga, Maya Ibuki, Shigeru Aoba.
30-33 - Hospital.
34 - Dark Assembly access point. Gateroom. Dark World access point.
35 - Clothier. Magical Trinkets.
49 - Prison Cells (Diplomat Quarters)
50 - Elevator Mechanics. Maintenance.
51 - Housekeeping. Environmental Services.
100 - Observation. Vending Machines. Trophy Room.
299 - Rest Area. Vending machines.
300-305 - food storage/supply.
306 - sake storage
307 - gameroom.
308 - shrine.
309 - alchemist's lab.
310 - Rune Shop, Materia Specialist, Crest Grapher
311 - Magic Library.
312-313 Garden.
400-430 - aerospace fighter deck.
431-432 - mechanics workshops and materials storage.
500-520 - Doctor Machinegal's labs and factory.
590-595 - Treasure Vaults.
600 - Ranma's Rooms
601 - Library Of Forgotten Martial Arts & Secret Techniques
602 - Martial Arts Dojo
603 - Auxilary Kitchen.
604-606 - Supplementary Food Storage.
992-999 Gundam hangar.
1000 - observation deck & Catgirl Cannon.out buildings - Chocobo Ranch & Kaiju Pen
"Let's see, I need," said Ranma, looking over the list and feeling a certain panic as time continued to run out. Maybe he should add -
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(Posted Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:34)
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