"Lum, are you alright?!"
Infinity perked on hearing that worried voice, and then she spun around and down to see Miyake Shinobu standing some distance from the front gate of Tomobiki High School. Given the fact that the new arrival was panting, it didn't take the mistress of Reality long to realise that Shinobu had ran down to the school from her home as fast as she could move. Before she could stop her friend from doing something that would make this situation all the more worse, Cadaverine laughed as he made a hand gesture towards the front gate. "Mind your own business, norm! This is between Infy and us!"
Shinobu blinked, and then she gasped on feeling cold hands grasp her arms and legs. Before she could break free, she found herself lifted off the ground by a small gang of zombies, they overwhelming her by both numbers and the fact that they were being fuelled by Cadaverine's power, which was quite formidable. As they held her in place, Shinobu screamed out as she tried to break free. "LET ME GO! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, YOU MONSTERS!"
Lum leaned as far towards her formal rival as she could. "Don't fight them, Shinobu…!"
"YA HEARD HER, CREEPS! LET HER GO!" bellowed from inside the school.
Infinity looked the other way. "Ryuu-chan…?"
And sure enough, Fujinami Ryuunosuke charged out the front doors, fists cocked and at the ready as she prepared to beat the snot out of these creatures harming her best friend. She didn't get far, though, before strong hands grabbed her by the arms and yanked her off the ground. "HEY!" she yelped in shock before looking over her shoulder to see who now had her. "NAGISA?!"
And sure enough, it was Shiowatari Nagisa, the once-deceased teashop "waitress" who had been restored to a semblance of life thanks to a mystical creature called the Great Sea Urchin. Ryuunosuke nearly went white on seeing the dazed, blank look on her would-be fiancé's face, and then she tried to kick her way clear of Nagisa's grasp. Her luck was the same as Shinobu's, though.
Seeing that, Infinity took a deep breath, and then she crossed her arms as she glared at Cadaverine. "That's far enough, Cadaverine! If you want me to give you access to the Doll House, you better learn to treat my friends a little better!" she warned. "Turning them into us isn't going to impress me one bit!"
"One way or another, they're gonna become like us, Infy!" the child necromancer stated. "The Chosen One himself's from this planet! You know the prophecy of Destructo as much as I do, what it's going to mean for this planet!" He shrugged. "So let's give it a little boost and give them a taste of what's going to finally happen to them in a few generations!"
Hearing that, Lum gasped, her eyes going wide, and then she hesitantly turned to stare at Infinity. "Darling…is he telling the truth?"
Infinity tried not to groan. The many predictions and prophecies made concerning the emergence of a Destructo from the Great Crystal of Power had been fodder for gossip and speculation on Yiziba for centuries. Given how easily information about Yiziba wound up warped around when it got to sentient races outside the bounds of their solar system — especially with those peoples who looked on the Yizibajohei as "They Who Must Never Be Named" and the like! — who knew WHAT Lum would belive…!
Oh, well.
"Yeah, it's true, Lum," Infinity replied. "It was Destructo who gave Onii-chan the chance to become Rake, got us split in half and turned me into Infinity."
Hearing that, the Oni blanched, and then her face melted into fear-driven rage. "DARLING NO BAKA! Do you realise what you've just DONE?! If Daddy finds out that you actually dealt with DESTRUCTO, he'll come here and DESTROY EARTH! YOU'VE DOOMED YOUR ENTIRE RACE TO EXTINCTION!"
Infinity jolted on hearing Lum's assertion, and then a flash of betrayal flared in her eyes before her face melted into barely-controlled fury. Cadaverine and the other Young Guns were quick to notice. "Oh, boy, same, are YOU stupid or what?!" Hypersonic said with a shake of his head. "Threatening Infinity's home planet like that! Not only are you kicking YOURSELF in the ass, you're gonna make sure your old man's gonna be facing a death scene…HIS OWN!"
Lum balked on hearing the speedster's words, and then her eyes locked on Infinity for a moment before she paled on seeing energy start to crackle all over the latter's body. "You arrogant little BITCH!" she hissed as she drifted closer to the trapped Oni, her eyes flaring with power as she seemed to loom over Lum. "Who the HELL gave you, gave your PEOPLE, the right to decide something like THAT, huh?! Are you people so damned afraid of your own SHADOWS that you'll wreck lives across the UNIVERSE just to feel safe?! Are you people so CHILDISH that you'll destroy everything in your path just to get your damned way?! Well, guess what, same?!" she snarled as her eyes glowed with the luminescence of the Sun itself. "LET'S SEE HOW YOUR RACE LIKES BEING PUT UNDER THE GUN FOR A CHANGE?!"
Energy exploded from her in an Akira-like wave that blanketed Tomobiki, blinding everyone that was looking at her!
"Oh, no…Onee-chan!"
Morphing his clothes into Rake's burgundy-and-black uniform, Ataru raced off towards school. Unseen by him, a certain young woman with dark brown hair braided in side pigtails and dressed in a knit sleeping gown walked out from a side street, her eyes following him as he went.
"Ataru-kun…?"
"Darling…what did…you just…do…?"
As Lum's eyes began to regain their focus, she then screamed out on seeing a VERY ugly face hovering right in front of her own. "Lum! You should not have antagonized Moroboshi like that! Doom is now coming to YOU!"
The Young Guns gasped, they all taking QUITE by surprise on seeing Cherry appearing just like THAT! Seeing the Buddhist monk that had plagued Ataru's life for so long appearing before HER so suddenly, Lum gasped as she tried to shrink away from him. "Tcha! Stop trying to scare people like that, Cherry! You're just as bad as Darling thinks you are!"
An amused chuckle then escaped Infinity. "Well, nice to know the old fool actually can learn to bug other people for a change," she growled. "And believe it or not, Oni, this time, he's right! You HAVE doomed your own people! Let's see how that fat pig you call a father acts when he finds out that Uru ITSELF is now in the sights of the WORLD-BREAKER!"
Hearing that, the other Yizibajohei gasped in shock on hearing Infinity's statement. Dynamo flew out from behind Lum to confront the mistress of Reality face-to-face. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU IDIOT?!" she screamed right into the older woman's face. "THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HOSTAGE SCENE, NOT THE PRELUDE TO A PLANET-WIDE DEATH SCENE!"
Lum screamed out, "WHAT?!"
"It's true."
The Oni looked right to see Cadaverine floating close to her, a disappointed look on the necromancer's face. "What do you mean&hillip;?"
"About two hundred seasons ago, there was this whacko scientist called the Weaponeer," Cadaverine said. "She was definitely a few fight scenes short of an episode, if you know what I mean," he explained. "One day, she was travelling around the outer reaches of our solar system when a pirate ship attacked her. They didn't kill her, but they DID kill her baby! She lost it totally, then she turned around and created this flying gun that could blow apart a planet's very CORE!" He shook his head. "Lucky thing for those pirates that the Infinity that was around back then was able to stop the World-Breaker from turning their home planet into an asteroid field!" He then thumbed the current Infinity. "Ever since then, Infy's kept the World-Breaker in the Doll House, her private sub-dimension. If you pissed her off enough to let her use that on your home planet, same&hillip;?" He tsked, shaking his head.
Lum blinked as her mind tried to absorb that information, and then she turned sheet-white as the implications of this sank in. "Tcha&hillip;!" she gasped before turning to look at Infinity.
The mistress of Reality had turned her back on the Oni, though Lum was quick to see that her shoulders were shaking and her head was slumped down. Dynamo was floating beside her, her hand on the older woman's shoulder as she tried to sooth her. Lum blinked, and then she gulped as her husband's sister turned to gaze at her with eyes brimmed with tears in a face twisted with outrage. The Oni tries to say something, and then she balks as Infinity snapped her head away. Seeing that, the other Young Guns shook their heads in mute sympathy. "You better apologise to her right now, Lum," Tzaraath warned as she stared knowingly at the Oni. "Unless you want to see Uru become a second Krypton."
Lum gargled on hearing the name of the late home planet of Superman, and then she blinked on sensing Cimasa disintegrate the bonds holding her in place. As her flight powers instantly kicked in to prevent her from falling face-first into the dirt ten metres below, Cadaverine pulled out a communicator from under one shirtsleeve. He tapped controls on the touch-screen, and then he handed it to the Oni. "Better call your old man and tell him the news," he warned.
Lum stared at it, and then she took the device in hand…
"Shinobu-san?! Ryuunosuke-san?! Are you two alright?!"
Shinobu and Ryuunosuke turned their heads towards the gate to see someone in burgundy and black race up towards them. "Ataru-kun!" the former gasped on recognising him, and then she grunted as she tried to pull her arms and legs clear of the icy, vise-like grips holding her in place. "Not really…!"
"Minna-san? Please let them go."
Shinobu blinked on hearing that soft request, and then, much to her surprise, she was lowered gently to the ground. At the same time, Ryuunosuke was let go by Nagisa. Both girls blinked in surprise at this sudden show of deference to them, and then they turned to see who had just spoken to him. "Who are you?" Ryuunosuke asked as she moved to place herself protectively close to Shinobu.
Rake himself blinked on hearing that hauntingly familiar voice, and then he turned around to see someone standing not a metre away from him, a light smile on her face. Blinking several times as his mind tried to deny what he was seeing, he then asked, "Nozomi-san…is that you?"
Nozomi nodded. "Hai, Ataru-kun. It's good to see you again."
Shinobu and Ryuunosuke blinked, and then they stared on their transformed classmate. "Um, Moroboshi, you…um, know this girl?"
Rake jolted, and then he chuckled. "Oh, that's right! Neither of you know of an interesting request Sakura-sensei made of me some months ago," he apologised to them. "Ladies, may I present Uneme Nozomi, a young lady who developed quite the infatuation with me while she was bedridden in a hospital in Tomobiki. An infatuation that extended for some period beyond the grave, much like Nagisa-san possessed with you, Ryuunosuke-san." He stared at Nozomi. "Nozomi-san, two of my esteemed classmates, Miyake Shinobu and Fujinami Ryuunosuke. The gentleman beside Ryuunosuke-san is her iinazuke, Shiowatari Nagisa."
"Yoroshiku onegaishimashita, minna-san," Nozomi greeted them with a bow.
"Yoroshiku," Shinobu replied as she and Ryuunosuke bowed, and then the former approached Rake. "Ataru-kun, please! Your sister's gone and done something really awful! She's pulled out something called the 'world-breaker' from this Doll House of hers and she's threatening Lum's home planet with it!"
Rake balked. "THE WORLD-BREAKER?!" he screeched out, and then he moaned. "Oh, delightful! Excuse me, please…!"
He moved past them to get closer to Infinity and Lum. Shinobu, Ryuunosuke and Nozomi remained in place as they watched him go. "Ya think Moroboshi can diffuse this?!" Ryuunosuke hissed to Shinobu. "This is almost as bad, if not worse, than what Lum tried to pull on him last night!"
"Don't worry, Fujinami-san," Nozomi said. "Ataru-kun knows what to do."
Shinobu blinked as she gazed on the resurrected ghost, and then she breathed out as she turned back to gaze on her transformed ex-boyfriend. "I hope so."
"Onee-chan, what are you doing now?"
Infinity balked on hearing her brother's voice, and then she floated down to the ground beside him. "What do you mean, 'what are you doing now?'" she parroted him. "I'm finding out how much Lum's been lying and misinforming us about a lot of things, Onii-chan!"
"But the World-Breaker?" Rake hissed. "Using that is like pouring oil onto a fire, Onee-chan! It's just making the problem worse, not better!"
"Oh, really?!" Infinity snapped. "Did you hear the latest little tidbit Lum chose to keep secret from us?! If that fat doofus of a father of hers learns that Destructo-sensei is alive and came from Earth, he'll turn around and unleash total destruction on Earth itself! Who gave that selfish asshole the right to do that to a planet full of innocent people?!"
Rake took a moment to absorb that, and then he nodded. "Hai! Hai! All right, then! Lum's father is a shortsighted fool! And their government sounds like a pack of incompetent lunatics! We agree on that part! But sticking the World-Breaker at their collective necks won't help matters in the long term!"
Infinity gave him a warning look. "They won't change, Onii-chan."
"Unless we give them the impetus to change, Onee-chan."
She gazed at him for a moment, and then a nod twitched her head before she flew up towards Lum. Rake watched her go, and then he blinked as Dynamo flew down to land beside him. "Rake, don't people know how to do a proper hostage scene?" the young, ultra-cute human energy reactor asked.
"We need to teach them that part, my dear," he said with a wink.
She laughed.
"WHAT?!"
"It's true, Daddy!" Lum said over the communicator. "Destructo is alive! And he's from Earth! He was the one who helped Darling last night!"
On the view screen of the iPhone-sized device Cadaverine just loaned her, the face of one Invader of Uru turned sheet white for a moment before it then melted into steely determination. "I see, then," he flatly declared as a determined nod twitched his head. "The fleet will be over Earth in a very short while, Lum. You know what must happen next."
"Isn't it a pity you won't have a home to return to if you try it, Fatso!"
Invader jolted on hearing that voice. "WHO'S CALLING ME 'FATSO?!'"
Infinity grabbed the communicator from Lum's hand, and then she turned it to face herself. "I did, tubby!" she snarled as she leaned right into the screen, thus making her image aboard the bridge of the Oni warlord's flagship, the Kashin, take up every pixel. "And if you DON'T call off the attack on Earth, dumbass, I'm gonna make the Mother of All Fight Scenes we unleashed on you sames all those seasons ago look TAME in comparison!"
Invader gasped on hearing that term, and then he hesitantly stepped away from the view screen. His bridge crew were almost tempted to leap behind their gregarious leader to hide themselves from this demon's gaze. "Wh-who are y-you…?" the large warlord sputtered as he pointed at her image.
Infinity icily smiled. "If you had even ONCE shown an iota of true civilization, Pig Boy, I could have actually turned out to be your daughter's sister-in-law," she declared. "Moroboshi Tariko, Infinity XVI of Yiziba…AND KNOCK IT OFF WITH THAT!" she then shrieked on seeing the bridge crew panic on hearing her mention that planet's name.
Everyone froze in place as they glared at her. "Better!" Infinity said before she tapped a control on her communicator's panel. "Now, look here, Porky!"
Invader then blinked on seeing the image change to a scene showing Uru floating serenely in space. Now approaching it was a black arrowhead-like shape sparkling with many running lights and view ports, so many in fact, it told the experienced spaceman that the vessel in question had to be as big as a large city on Earth! His eyes for detail — especially when it came to anything of a military nature — then locked in on the cup-like aperture on the bow end of this great craft now approaching his home planet.
An aperture that had to be a weapon of some sort.
"We've all heard the legends of the Solnoids and the Paranoids, haven't we?" Infinity's voice then echoed over the Kashin's bridge, that statement making everyone exchanged stunned looks. The history of that millennia-long conflict fought eons before was taught across most civilised worlds in the cluster. "Three million years ago, they ultimately wiped themselves out using both planet- and system-destroying anti-matter guns on each other's home planets and fleets. Say hello to our version of the System Destroyer: the World-Breaker. A flying gun that discharges a mixed stream of antimatter and hypermatter the width of Tokyo itself on its target." The image then reverted back to a very angry woman's face. "My predecessors and me have held the controls to the World-Breaker for two centuries, Fatsy! Guess what will happen if you race of children don't grow up, finally!" She then leaned up to impale Invader with her angry gaze. "GET IT?!"
The large Oni warlord looked ready to soil himself from THAT threat. "B-b-but…M-m-Mister…er, M-m-Miss Groom…?"
"BOSS!"
"WHAT?!" Invader snapped at his signals officer.
"Boss, the Homeworld's calling us!" he reported. "They've detected an unknown starship the size of Earth's moon approaching Uru! It's starting to energize a planet-destroyer class weapon at its bow! Hypermatter and antimatter at thirtieth power scale!"
"'THIRTIETH POWER?!'" Invader shrieked as his jaw hit the deck. That was enough power to make a star supernova! He then spun back on the image on his main screen. "Miss Groom…?" he then whimpered.
Infinity backed away from the screen, shaking her head. "No, Tubby. Not this time. No more deals! No more compromises! No more fake apologies! And sure as hell no more tag races, either! You and your people leave this solar system alone for the next two centuries! You do NOT come back here, neither your race or any race allied to yours, either! You can visit Neptune if you want, but no place further in than Jupiter's orbit from the Sun! Take it or leave it, Slug-face! You've got to the count of ten before I pull the World-Breaker's trigger!"
Invader cried out, "NO!"
"Ten!"
"But wait…!"
"Nine!"
"Daddy, do it!" Lum screamed from somewhere off-screen.
"Eight!"
"SHE MEANS IT!" Lum cried out.
"Seven!"
"No…!" Invader gasped as he sank to his knees.
"Six!"
"ORDER ALL SHIPS TO TURN BACK!" the Kashin's first officer barked.
"Five!"
"Transmitting orders now!" the signals officer declared.
"Four!"
"Darling, PLEASE…!" Lum pleaded.
"Three!"
"All ships received orders!" the signals officer barked out. "Turning now!"
Silence.
"Good," Infinity said as she snapped her fingers.
Over Uru, the World-Breaker was suddenly caught in a burst of light, and then it vanished like it had never been there in the first place.
The signals officer on the Kashin blinked as he took in the message, and then he turned to look at the first officer. "IT'S GONE!"
Explosive sighs of relief escaped most of the bridge crew. The first officer shakily nodded, and then he turned to the view screen. "We're turning back home, Miss Moroboshi," he declared before glancing at Invader. The large warlord was silent, his eyes staring nowhere in particular. Blinking, the one-eyed man then turned back to Infinity's image. "Your demands are accepted."
Infinity nodded. "Good," she declared, her voice strangely hollow. "Now you know how Onii-chan and I felt the day you people first came into our lives and forced the first Tag Race on our heads. Honour that agreement. We won the race. We don't see your kind on our world again. Break it and you know the cost you'll pay." She then leaned at the screen. "Be warned of this for the future: Other races in the Universe wouldn't be so charitable!"
He jerkily nodded, and then he perked on remembering the main thing that had brought the Urusian fleet back to Earth. "Um, about Miss Lum…?"
"She'll be returned," Infinity said, and then the screen went blank.
Silence fell over the Kashin's bridge&hillip;
Over Tomobiki High School, silence also reigned as people stared at Infinity. Lum floated nearby, her hair a frazzled mess as she gaped in wide-eyed shock and disbelief at this being that, while transformed into a woman and armed with the power of a god, was a man she still loved with her heart and soul. Realising that, her eyes began to tear as she slowly drifted away from Infinity. "Monster…" she whispered as she bowed her head in shame, her body starting to quake. "I turned you into a monster, Darling…"
Infinity perked, and then she stared at the Oni for a moment before she handed the communicator back to Cavaderine. With that, she flew away, soaring off in the direction of the Moroboshi home. Lum jolted as Infinity flew off, and then she screamed out "DARLING!" as she tried to pursue.
"Don't, Lum!"
Turning to gaze on Rake, Lum blinked as she took in his image, and then she blinked again as he held up a closed hand. He then opened his hand, revealing the two horn-buds that had fallen off her head several days before when the prince of the Yaminokuni had kidnapped her in hopes of making her his bride.
Her horns…
"Darling…" she whispered.
Rake lowered his arm, closing his fingers around the severed horn-buds he had retrieved from the street minutes after Lum had been kidnapped by Rupa. Horn-buds that he had left behind in his bedroom when he made his trip to Yiziba the previous night to become one with a different world. "Before I was Gifted by the Crystal, I was galled at your attempts at making me say 'I love you' in public, Lum," he admitted. "And when you threatened to remove our memories of you, I made a special vow to myself to ensure I would never forget you."
Lum blinked, and then she sniffed back fresh tears before she cried out, lunging down to tackle him by the waist, swamping him with a kiss at the same time. Rake remained on his feet as they tenderly explored each other's mouths for a moment, and then, after they pulled apart, they gazed into each other's eyes for a moment before she took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry that I drove you into doing this, Darling," she then apologised.
"I'm sorry things between us got so strained in the first place, Lum," he said in return. "I couldn't stand being parted from you…but at the same time, to just lock myself at my age to you and you alone…"
Both blinked, and then they began to laugh. "Well, that's a relief!" someone then spoke up from Rake's right.
They gazed over to Ryuunosuke. "What do you mean, Ryuunosuke?" Lum asked.
The tomboy smirked. "No offense, you guys, but fights between you two are getting a little bit out of hand," she then said.
"I thought the people in this place actually liked a good fight scene!" Hypersonic then noted.
"Not unless we could defend ourselves, you know," Shinobu said.
Relieved laughter then drifted over the scene. Rake then took a deep breath before staring at Cadaverine. "If you wouldn't mind, could you please restore all those you brought out of their graves back to where they belong?"
"What about what we want?" the leader of the Young Guns demanded.
"Until Onee-chan gets a little better control over herself, I'll speak on her behalf," Rake promised. "Now, please, would you mind…?"
The necromancer took that in, and then he nodded. "Okay, okay…!"
"Wait!"
Eyes locked on Lum. "Not Nozomi-chan and not Nagisa-kun," the Oni asked.
Cadaverine blinked, and then he grinned. "Okay!"
He snapped his fingers.
A minute before…
"Okay, guys!" Megane snarled as he faced the other Stormtroopers, plus other male classmates from Tomobiki High School. All of them were currently wearing borrowed military headgear and webbing — leftovers from when they had participated in the Pseudo-War — and they had baseball bats, hockey sticks and other sports tools in their hands (they couldn't get to Mendou in time enough to get hold of some real weapons). "Are we set?!"
"Yeah!" the other boys chanted as one.
"Are we ready to kick zombie ass?!"
"YEAH!"
"LET'S GO!"
They immediately charged around the corner to form a line of attack across the street in front of the Aisuru home. As they looked towards one of the main streets, they then stopped on seeing a crowd of the reanimated deceased slowly shuffle their way. "There they are!" Megane snapped as he pointed at them, he keeping an eye on his line of volunteers. "Okay, guys! We charge on three! One, two…!"
"Hey, Megane!" Chibi called out.
"Chibi, don't interrupt! Okay, again! One, two…!"
"But, Megane…!" Kakugari interrupted.
"DON'T INTERRUPT ME, YOU IDIOT! Again! One, two…!"
"They're GONE, you fool!" Paama snapped.
Megane jolted, and then he looked down the street.
"Hey!" the leader of the Stormtroopers gasped. "Where'd they go?!"
"Thank you," Rake sighed, and then…
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(Posted Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:15)
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