He checked and determined that no - he did not have the object in question.
That left him a member of SOLDIER in an area that wasn't really all that close to where he'd started, in an area that wasn't particularly friendly to his boss despite their own contributions to the SOLDIER program, without any support.
First step - determine exactly where he was. He couldn't call back and report status until that had occurred.
The buildings had the general look of a shrine. He'd seen such things before in a movie, something that Aerith had wanted to see and that had been mainly boring as far as he was concerned. Some chick-flick, and it had dealt with shrine maidens set in the pre-Sukebe nation of Japan. What had been the name of it anyway? Something to do with cherry blossoms or something.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" asked Zack as he moved around. He didn't draw his sword though, the Buster Sword was going to need some work after some acidic drizzle had etched part of the blade. Figured that Cocooner would have evolved some defenses over the eras. She WAS supposed to be one of the cunning ones.
A sliding door opened up on one of the buildings and a girl in red-white robes like the movie's girls came out, followed by several others.
Zack blinked, followed by a grin. "Oh WOW. Mineko and the Pussycats?! Can I get an autograph? Aerith is a big fan of you guys!"
"Eh?" asked several of the girls.
Cocooner was satisfied with her "meal" but now working over the information she'd been able to put together. That the amulet had transported her to the world of origin of those girls she'd left behind was logical enough. Or, if not that world, one close to it as such things were measured.
An entire world of pure DNA to sample. Yet carefully, carefully.
While she was tough and powerful, she remembered the terrible weapons that the Old Order had been able to field in the early parts of the War. She was not Typhonna, who could have gone around with complete impunity and devastated this world. Few weapons of the Old Order could have hurt Typhonna, the only thing that could have slowed that Legendary down were multiple warhead nuclear weapons - and using those against Typhonna would have revealed that Typhonna had a particularly odd reproductive cycle.
The two sleeping girls had been taken without disturbing the male who'd been working in the fields. That the two girls had apparently been having sex with each other while the male was laboring was an indication that Cocooner took to mean that she'd found EXACTLY the sort of place she could get enthusiastic about.
So far the day was looking pretty good despite those soldiers.
She'd feasted on two of those soldiers back before the transport, and letting the extrusion of cocoons go on automatic while she'd sifted through the data. Both males had been enhanced with a genesplice technique. A disagreeable taste, but one with some merit. One couldn't subsist on sweets after all.
The two cocoons of these two pokegirls would take some time to properly settle and then release her first minions.
She'd left the male behind, but observed. Since the male had apparently not been alarmed and the disappearance of his companions/captors/supervisors - Cocooner had concluded that this would satisfactorily confuse the issue.
That left the radio facility, which was often left alone. Her observations further placed the total number of villagers as being roughly one hundred and thirty.
There. A bunch of cows. The ancient domesticated animal variety. Nourishment.
Tunnelling below it, then opening the ground under it was easy though it alarmed the rest of the cows. A venom shot kept the prey from making too much noise, then as always the hard part had been 'covering her tracks' so that all investigators would find would be an irregular patch of earth. She was even able to get some of the grassy ends back up.
The cow DNA wasn't particularly tasty, but she had to consume SOMETHING to replenish her energy and the minerals/chemicals in her body. Everything about the cow would be digested, including bones and horn and hooves. Waste would be minimal.
Her antennae twitched. Between radar pulses and monitoring the ground movements, she had determined that several of the dwellings were unoccupied. That one in particular had power feeds within it.
The tricky part was moving slowly and constantly so that she didn't set off any tremors herself, but she was fairly good at this after several centuries. That home would make a good point to explore from.
The Kunoichi was not a particularly valuable or desired being, just a nameless Kunoichi taken off the shelf. She had few skills not duplicated elsewhere. A creche-grown specimen who had never known more than bare minimal affection and that shown only when she had accomplished her mission.
Other than a few oddities that she could conceal with clothing, she looked much like a human woman of just about five feet in height.
Had she had a choice in the matter, being thrown up against Cocooner would NOT have happened. Much less with explosives emplaced in her body.
"A ninja's cause in life is death," whispered the Kunoichi to herself as she skulked about.
She had a number of pieces of valuable equipment on this mission. Some of which gave information she had trouble interpreting. There had been a teleport effect centered on that amulet and expanding out over five hundred meters. Completely inorganic inert material like rocks had not been included, while vehicles and equipment WERE.
Which meant that it was likely magic, and that also explained why some of her instruments were giving her readings that made absolutely no sense. Like why her locator-tracker was displaying blinking garbage characters, her combat display was giving her a recipe for chicken salad, and the communicator was apparently fried.
Either that last or she was outside of the range of the device. In any case she needed to contact Master Giovanni via whatever means were necessary.
Cissnei thought this sucked. The more she saw of it, the more it sucked.
The only good thing in all of this was that she had her weapons and equipment. For whatever good it had done as she had foreseen a very strong possibility she'd end up dead or a pokegirl in very short order.
She'd coated the blades of shuriken with a potent poison against Bug-types and hit Cocooner in an open wound. She hadn't noticed any effect.
Unfortunately, when everything had flashed to white light and they'd gotten that brief bit of freefall, she'd ended up cutting herself.
Which was why she was heaving up the contents of her stomach. She wasn't a Bug-type, nor was she aware of any such ancestry, so it wouldn't kill her. That didn't mean that it couldn't make her sick.
Somewhat worse was the wound she had taken from something like a thorn that the Legendary had shot off at one point. She'd bled the wound, cleaned it, and bandaged it. It was still all puffy and itched. Which really really really made her nervous.
"Angeal to Base, Angeal to Base, do you read?"
There was a brief whine as he adjusted the commlink for the umpteenth time.
"Oh, munchie crunchies are the best,
They look greatest on your chest,
Serve them to unwanted guests,
Stuff a mattress with the rest."
"Well, THAT wasn't base," said Angeal as he considered that result and his immediate surroundings.
Water. Lots and lots of water.
"I'm a good swimmer, but this is ridiculous," said Angeal. He'd already divested himself of most of his equipment and body armor. If he had a direction to travel, he'd start swimming. The problem was the lack of direction.
He tried the commlink again, looking for a direction of a signal this time.
"Four, eight, fifteen, sixteen, twenty-three, forty-two."
No luck, it was gone again as he tried to increase the signal.
Finally he got a voice saying something in a variant of one of the Edo League languages that he could get an indication of direction from.
It was a start at least.
Her first thought had been "Jackpot!" Which was an old word from an old world denoting a piece of good luck.
A few Tamers had met with her and survived over the years. Even one researcher. She COULD be bribed, most obviously with things she couldn't get without laying waste to a village or town. Which generally was NOT on her "to-do list" despite some fictions depicting her. She was also, for unrelated reasons, reluctant to attack or transform those who had a functioning "theta" Bond or Recognition.
Finding a cache of fizzy energy drinks, candies, and other "junk food" was a plus. The various entertainment media was even more appreciated.
When she found out who owned all this wonderful stuff, she'd have to reward them. Maybe by turning them into something fun.
She remembered Sukebe being into this sort of thing, and she'd gotten into it a little herself as a result. The Buzzbreast and other insect types were perfectly adequate soldiers, but why do you suppose she had developed so many Very Near Human sorts?
"Mithra and Viera, eh?" said Cocooner to herself, glancing around to check the sack of Stun Spores she had directed her body to produce. Satisfied things were progressing nicely, she returned to reading the dojinshi. Hot catgirl on bunnygirl action. Woo hoo.
She was always working out new refinements, analyzing data, and had a large palette to practice her artistry with. Otherwise she couldn't develop Psychic or Magic types after all.
There were decisions she had to make though, so she was considering them even as she read and her body produced what should be an adequate amount of the spores.
When she took this village, should she make them all of one type? She'd be able to control them for a few weeks at least, even if they weren't Bug-types. Making them all these battlebunnies, 'Viera' according to the dojinshi, WAS on the table. She'd been considering something along those lines for awhile. Oh sure, she could make them Amazonchan easy enough. Why go with something so common though?
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(Posted Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:19)
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