In the skies over Tomobiki…
"Hey, Lum-chan. You okay?"
Tempest — who had transformed her fighting clothes into a simple thigh-length nightshirt with her personal spinning lightning ball symbol — blinked before she turned to look at Infinity, who had also transformed her clothes into a nightshirt with the white lemniscate symbol on a grey field. "Hai, I'm fine, Ayumu-san," Lum then answered before she sighed as she leaned back to gaze on the stars overhead. She had moved to place herself on the outside hull of her scout ship, putting herself in the recessed rampart around the central control platform, so she could spend a little time alone while all of the other girls who had come to her ship from her father's cruiser took the chance to get reacquainted and catch up with their lives. Ayumu had come out to join her a few minutes later. "I just needed a little time alone."
"You're feeling a little overwhelmed, aren'tcha?" the Kansai native asked.
A nod. "Tcha! I mean…" A sigh. "I can never be angry at Darling for what he did. He knew from the bond between us — as it existed back then — what people who can't fly are treated like on Uru. He saw the Crystal as the way to give me the ability to fly again." She held up her hand as bio-electricity danced over the digits. "And zakk, too!" As both girls laughed, Lum then sighed. "But now that I remember what life was like on Yiziba right from the Dawn of Power…"
"Kinda stupid, huh?"
Lum nodded. "If Daddy ever found out that Professor Wyszynski is the so-called 'Chaos Bringer' that people have prophesised when it comes to the Yizibajohei…"
"He'll probably do what Lilandra-chan almost did when the Phoenix went out of control on the Blue Side of the Moon three years ago," Ayumu finished. "When it looked like 'Dark Phoenix' was about to go on a rampage, she threatened to burn the whole local cluster to cinders to get rid of her." A shake of the head. "Stupid sames…"
"Are they same?"
"Yeah, somewhat," the Goddess Who Walked Amongst Men stated. "Once you get to be as big as the Shi'ar actually are, you suffer from the sickness of bigness. Especially since their ancient legends demanded they conquer everything that they encounter. That's why D'Ken's coming here. The M'Kraan Crystal was a holy object to them."
"You stole it."
"Yep&hellipin their eyes. Don't matter that I was using the neutron galaxy inside it to give planets to Galactus-kun so he can have something to eat!" Ayumu sighed. "Boy, was he really hungry that day! Tried to consume Galador, got tricked by Rom-kun and the Spaceknights to try to consume the Dire Wraith homeworld, nearly got eaten alive by the Darkwings and the Wraith Sun…and this was just after that creep Terrax rebels and hides himself in a freakin' BLACK HOLE of all things! And then Terrax rebels AGAIN and tries to hold all of NEW YORK CITY hostage to make Richards-hakase and his friends fight Galactus-kun! That kinda drains a guy, you know! Even HIM!"
Thus speaks Infinity.
Lum gasped on hearing that echoing voice in her head. "Who…?!"
"Hey, Galan-kun!" Ayumu called out. "How're you doin'?"
I am doing well…if you will cease to speak of me so passionately!
The Kansai native giggled. "Made'cha sneeze, huh?! Sorry!"
I wonder sometimes…
Silence.
"That was…HIM?!" a wide-eyed Lum gasped.
"Yeah, it was him," Ayumu answered.
The Oni-turned-Yizibajohei blinked, and then she breathed out. "Tcha…"
Inside…
"Do you think she knows?"
Pansy Parkinson perked before she gazed over. "Who, Tomo?"
"ļsaka, of course!" Takino Tomo stated. The other girls who had come aboard Lum's scout ship were now in the master bedroom, having switched into the nightshirt version of their fighting costumes so they could relax. "She's gotta know!"
"Know what, Tomo-chan?" Suzumiya Haruhi asked.
"What Ataru-kun's Gift is gonna be!"
Silence.
"You have any ideas?" Tara Markova wondered as she gazed on Haruhi.
"Actually, I've got a very good idea what he'll become when he becomes it."
Everyone gaped. "Who?!" Saotome Kanami demanded.
Haruhi shook her head. "Uh-uh, Kanami-chan! You gotta wait!"
"WHY?!" Jessica Wakefield snapped.
A shrug. "You want the surprised ruined?"
Everyone blinked, and then Pansy giggled. "Well, at least THAT'S normal!"
"What do you mean?" Molly Hecht asked.
"Don't you know the difference between the normal metas and the mega-metas, Molly?"
The woman known also as the Dominatrix blinked, and then she sighed. "Right. The cosmic know-it-alls." Ignoring Haruhi's squawk of protest, Molly then rattled off on her fingers. "Ayumu, Haruhi here, Luna Lovegood…and even both Harry Potter and Ataru's half-sister Chikage, too. Perhaps whoever could be Stone Mountain as well."
"Did Stoney come back?" Jessica asked.
Haruhi snickered. "He did. Don't tell any of the Young Guns, but he's Urashima Keitarō. He's the manager of the old hotel where Kaolla, Shinobu and Sarah are now living." As the others stared at her, she added, "His adopted sister Kanako got her gift thanks to Wyszynski-hakase. She arranged to bring him to the Crystal."
The others blinked. "Hey, wait a minute! Naru-chan, Motoko-chan and Kitsune stay at the same place the girls stay at! Do they know about this?!" Tomo asked.
"I doubt it, but it will become obvious to Mitsune and Motoko pretty soon enough," Tara noted. "Mitsune's an empath and Motoko's a freaking martial artist like Ranma and Kanami here are! They'll sense something WAY off about this Keitarô guy soon enough."
"Won't be able to do anything about it, though," Jessica noted. "I mean, I may be able to wrestle Ranma down now when we're going full-out, but I'm not strong enough to take down Stone Mountain." She then sighed. "I hope Ataru gets something like that."
"You ain't just whistlin' Dixie there, Jess," Tara mused. "The Crystal will give what it gives to Ataru. It was like that to all of us, remember?"
"Yeah! Especially Margo Black!" Tomo noted.
Jessica jerked. "Do you HAVE to talk about HER, Takino?!"
The others laughed…
Aboard the Redet Glory…
Well, well, well…isn't THAT interesting?
Standing in the officer's lounge — where a VERY happy Narusegawa Naru was now chatting avidly with Shigaten Benten; both Konno Mitsune and Aoyama Motoko were seated with them — the woman born Mizuhara Koyomi could only smirk as she relaxed her mind's powers before she turned to gaze on Maria Kennison's twin sister Lynn — known more commonly by the battle-name Psimold; she was the empathic counterpart to Telepath — continued to work on a still-dazed Banchō Pepper. Also present was Aruka Ran, who had not moved from her chair by the bar after she had come to realise what had happened to two of her former middle school classmates. A quick glance to the rose-haired Seishin teenager — who was, in her way, as deranged as the current incarnation of Doctor Death! — made Soul Searcher inwardly groan. Idiot! If she actually hopes to try to take down either the Weaponeer or Tempest just because of the idiot things they did as children…?
"There we go," Psimold then breathed out as Pepper blinked before she shook her head. "How do you feel, Pepper?" the naval lieutenant — Lynn Kennison was a fully-trained nurse — then asked as the raven-haired Seishin teenager looked around.
"I…" the younger girl began before she blinked as the memories slowly came back to her, and then she moaned. "Oh, man! I actually flew close to YIZIBA of all places?!" Ignoring Ran's horrified croak on hearing that word, she breathed out. "Damn!" She then gazed over at Benten…who was now tenderly kissing Naru; like the girls now on Lum's ship, the girls now in the officer's lounge of the Redet Glory had dressed down to nightshirts. "I can't believe I did that to her…"
"She doesn't seem to be complaining," Psimold stated as she grinned, adjusting the lime-green jumpsuit she wore. Atop the navy lieutenant's rank in charcoal green on her wrists — with Elliot's Eye, of course — she wore a dark green turtleneck sweater under her top, had dark green slip-on shoes and a dark green "Ψ" with a "ε" embossed over it was on her left breast to indicate her powers. Around her waist was a dark green belt with a golden maple leaf as the buckle. "Pepper, you were the victim of something that actually occurred about three hundred years ago. You had no idea it could have happened to you…but fortunately, Benten's past-self was actually quite sympathetic to non-Yizibajohei." She smirked on hearing Ran cry out again.
"Yeah, she was, wasn't she?" Pepper mused. "Knowin' this 'Show' was just leading nowhere, right to the extinction of their whole race if something wasn't done quick about it. Actually trying to get non-Yizibajohei…" — she smiled as Ran moaned out again — "…to migrate to Yiziba…" — another moan from Ran — "…so they could hook up with the natives and have hybrid kids." She gazed once more on the three women from the Hinata-sō with Benten. "Is that why those girls and her…" — she nodded to Yomi — "…all became Yizibajohei?"
Psimold tried not to grin as Ran cried out yet again. "There's about fifty-five thousand people on Earth who received Gifts from the Great Crystal of Power thanks to Lum's would-be husband, Moroboshi Ataru." She was quick to sense the burst of shock from Ran on her saying THAT. "Several more thousand thanks to the man who helped Ataru go there in the first place to free a separate soul that was in his head when he was six. That man — when he worked for the unit that I'm a part of these days before he was Gifted — experimented with something that is similar to the process that presents a Gift to a would-be meta from that world. That gave me my powers." She gazed down at her fighting uniform. "The uniform is quite similar, but it was actually designed by the woman who helped train me in the use of my powers. Our planet's Jewel Warrior."
Pepper perked. "Really?! Damn! I never knew if Uru had one; I know those little things got all over the damned place!" She then sighed as she seemed to deflate on herself for a moment. "So you want us all gone, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"You want us off the planet, right? My people and everyone else. That's why you're all here now, right? All the Yizibajohei and all the locals, too?"
A sigh. "Personally, we would prefer that if you DID visit Earth, you'd behave a little better than you have in the past," the nursing officer answered. "You have to admit, coming in and trying to launch a shoot-up with your middle school seniors in a civilian residential zone could have got quite ugly if it got out of hand."
Pepper blinked, and then she sighed. "Yeah…"
"But other than that — given that we've had to deal with far more powerful races who wanted to do things here on Earth that people wouldn't like — you were actually quite tame," Psimold stated. "Atop that, you were also restricted to just Tomobiki; local magicals under the command of the Imperial Palace here in Japan made sure anyone who did come here didn't do anything that would have affected people beyond Tomobiki's borders." As she sensed a flood of horror from Ran on saying that, she added, "It wasn't because we were trying to hurt you, Pepper. Put yourself in our position. An advanced race comes here and threatens invasion. Whatever the true reasons behind it didn't matter. It was a threatened invasion. If we — all the metas on Earth — did that to Uru, what would you do to prevent us from hurting you?"
A nod. "Ya gotta point." Pepper then sighed before she got up and walked over to where Benten and the girls from the Hinata-sō were sitting. "Hey, Benten?"
Benten perked. "Yeah?"
Pepper blinked before she took a deep breath. "So what the hell's a girl gotta do to get a Gift around here, anyway?!" she then demanded.
Ran croaked before she passed out as everyone else gaped at her…
"WHAT?!"
"It's true!" Ayumu called out. "Pepper-chan wants a Gift!"
Stunned silence fell over the bedroom of Lum's scout ship as the others gaped in shock at her. "Damn! You mean Benten's past-self did THAT to her?!" Kanami demanded.
"Understandable," Pansy noted. "The past Weaponeer came to fully understand that Destructo was sooner or later going to come to try to rebuild the population. Never mind all the silly prophecy nonsense about the 'Chaos Bringer' unleashing a galaxy-sized Mother of All Fight Scenes on all the other inhabited worlds in the Milky Way; we know Professor Wyszynski wouldn't force something like that! Especially not after what happened to Commander Kennison and her friends when they were experimented on while still in their mothers' wombs!" As Lum gaped in horror at the shadow-mage, the lone heiress of the Clan Parkinson of Keerford added, "No doubt, Pepper must have come to realise what is really going on with us. But because she was the vehicle by which Benten became Gifted, she probably feels very guilty over what happened."
A nod. "That's true," Lum stated. "Pepper, Ginger and Sugar might be pains-in-the-butt because they want to prove how tough they are…but in the Federation, there are lines one NEVER crosses. And dealing with ANYTHING from Yiziba…"
"Is the final line," Tomo finished for the Oni.
"So what do we do?" Kanami asked. "If Pepper-chan gets Gifted, she'll lose her friends. Probably be disowned from her family, too. We can't do that to her."
"I wouldn't predict such a gloom-and-doom scenario, Kanami."
Heads snapped around…
"Luna!" Pansy gasped.
"Hello, everyone," Luna Lovegood — dressed now in a nightshirt with bunny slippers on her feet, the insignia over both her breasts a perfect replica of the all-seeing eyes of the woman now calling herself "Yogen" — stated as she came up from teleporting herself aboard from Grimmauld Place in London. "Shall we be off to Yiziba?"
Silence.
"Why do we have to go now?" Jessica wondered.
Luna smirked. "Wouldn't you like to be there when Ataru gets his Gift, Jessica?"
"PILLOW-SCENE!"
Everyone jolted on hearing Tomo cry out…and then laughter filled the room from everyone else save Ayumu and Luna, who exchanged a knowing look…
The Redet Glory…
"You're goin' to Yiziba? Why?"
"Because Yogen — that's the battle-name Prophecy took in respect to Darling being Japanese — senses that he'll do it," Lum replied over the holoscreen that Benten had summoned up from her battle-suit/nightshirt when Yomi warned her that her childhood best friend wanted to talk to her. "After all, if Naru-san hasn't told you…"
"Moroboshi's probably feelin' like he's been stabbed in the back because of what the MIBs and those wizard pals of the two old men that came aboard here earlier tonight did to him to make him 'tame' when you came here," Benten finished for her, and then she sighed. "Well, I gotta get to my weapons locker anyway. Yo, Kasuga!"
"Relax, Benten-chan! I got your key!" Ayumu called over.
Laughter filled the officer's lounge. Psimold had gone off to return to the main lounge to join her sister, who was still in the midst of discussing issues with Lum's father alongside several others such as Albus Dumbledore and Konoe Konoemon. Ran had also left the room; Yomi had sensed she was thinking about what she had just learned…and was hovering between either trying to find some way around the "advantages" her friends/rivals possessed or just giving in to her fears and forgetting they ever existed. Unfortunately for the sometimes spiteful Seishin teen, Yomi had sensed it all and had passed on warnings to the others after Ran left. "Thanks!" Benten said.
"Pepper, are you SURE you want to get a Gift?" Pansy then asked as she gazed on Pepper. "Once you touch the Crystal, there's no going back. You know that, don't you?"
Pepper smirked. "It's kinda too late for me. After all, I touched a crystal when I found the one holdin' the Weaponeer's soul inside it near the Home System." She then smirked. "Maybe in a way, I'm like Lum's hubby. Yizibajohei, but not Gifted."
"And your friends?" Luna wondered.
Sensing the airy blonde's concern, the younger Seishin girl shrugged. "I used to think all the stupid things about Yiziba myself before this happened. But now that I've 'seen' it in my mind and heart…" A shrug. "I wanna see it all! If Gin and Shu can't understand that, I can't help them anymore. I've been made to grow past that."
Luna gave her a sympathetic look. "The Gift for you will match your personality quite well, Banchō Pepper. Don't worry." She then impishly smiled. "Maybe after you do get a Gift, you'll become a true 'pretty girl' for Ataru to take interest in!"
Pepper blinked, and then she laughed. "How the hell did he pick you all?!"
"Ataru-san is empathic, Pepper-chan," Motoko answered. "He focused on many qualities when it came to seeking out prospective Gift recipients. I doubt we'll have time to list them all, but he was quite egalitarian when it came to selecting people."
Benten breathed out. "Damn…"
"So how do we get there anyway?" Mitsune asked.
"Come aboard here and I'll teleport'cha over," Ayumu bade. "Yomi-chan, you coming?"
"No thanks, Ōsaka…but if I were you, I'd go look in on Shinobu."
Ayumu perked. "Which Shinobu-chan?"
"Miyake. You know who Maehara wants to bed!"
The girls from the Hinata-sō all gaped at the telepath from Azuma High…
Minutes later, Tomobiki High School…
"So you think Ataru's gonna do it, huh?"
"Yeah, it's gonna happen," Ayumu — now in full Infinity uniform — said as she stood by Wolverine, Phoenix, Carcajou, Windtalker, Aisaka Sayo and Miyake Shinobu on the front lawn of the school. Also there were several male classmates, including the core members of Lum's Stormtroopers…and Mendō Shūtarō, who had finally recovered from what the Dominatrix had done to him. "You know how much he really didn't mean to make people upset when he took us all to Yiziba, Ryū-chan. Then those dorks…"
"Blindsided him…and got you all AND US at the same time," Wolverine finished as he took in the last of the tobacco from his cigar. "Yeah, he'll be hurting."
"You're lucky, Wolverine-san."
He looked down at Shinobu. "You're worried about him, aren't you?"
Shinobu nodded. "Do you blame me?"
"Shinobu-san! You mustn't…URK!"
THAT was Mendō being stopped by the ki-claws of Carcajou's left hand, said hand formed into something akin to the splayed-finger Vulcan salute from Star Trek to create two deadly spikes now burning close to the sides of his neck. "Shut the fuck up, rich boy!" the transformed Fujinami Ryūnosuke snarled. "You don't know SHIT about Moroboshi Ataru! And even AFTER you broke Shinobu's heart when you got engaged to that fuckin' airheaded man-phone Mizunokōji, you STILL acted like you're the damned king of the hill here! Lum ain't yours and she ain't never BEEN yours! Neither is Shinobu! Back off!"
He gargled before tensing on sensing two pairs of eyes — one pair ice blue, the other pair glowing green — lock on him. "Move it, kid!" Wolverine snarled as a familiar snickt! sound echoed from one of his fists as his claws deployed. "Or LOSE it!"
Mendō quickly withdrew in disorder. "Idiot," Megane snarled out as the other men present all shook their heads. "What the hell is his problem?"
"He wasn't part of our class when Ataru was made to come back, 'Toshi," Perm answered. "All he knows of Ataru is what he experienced ever since he parachuted in one day."
"True," Kakugari then breathed out. "Um…Infinity-sama…?"
Infinity jerked. "'Infinity-sama?!' Hey, that's not right!" She then leaned up to him. "Call me…'Infinity-chan!'" she then dramatically bade.
All the Tomobiki natives fell flat on their faces! As all the other metas laughed, Infinity reached over to help Shinobu back up. "Do you want to come along, Shinobu-chan?" she asked her. "I bet you're really worried about him, aren'tcha?"
Shinobu blinked…and then she nodded. "Hai, Infinity-san," she said. "I mean…all I really know of Ataru-kun now are just lies. I need the truth."
"You'll need a tracker," Carcajou said. "I'm coming." She then gazed on the two X-Men. "You two want to come along? You always liked it there."
"Yeah, I'll tag along," Wolverine stated. "I'll help keep an eye on her," he said as he smiled at Shinobu, who nodded in turn. "You comin'?" he then asked Phoenix.
"Thanks, but no," the most powerful of the X-Men stated before she glanced up. "But I'm sure she'll be willing to go along with you guys!"
People glanced up…
"Holy! It's Excalibur!" Mifune Hideyuki gasped.
"Not all of us, young man," the proud voice of Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) stated as he, his beloved Gloriana (Meggan Puceanu), two of their teammates, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers) and Shadowcat (Kitty Pride), and another of the X-Men, Rogue (Anna Marie Raven). "Apologises for being late, my friends, but we had a problem dealing with a friend's son back in Britain when you had your meeting at the Watchtower," he then said as he took Phoenix's hand in his own before he turned to shake Wolverine's hand. "Given what Ataru did for Marvel Girl and Rogue here…"
"What did he do?!" Chibi asked.
"He was one of the few fellas who could touch my skin without my powers suckin' his soul into my body," Rogue explained. "I ain't Gifted like these folks are…" — she thumbed Carcajou and Infinity — "…but Ataru's family martial arts school has got this really neat ki-blocking manoeuvre called the Stone-Body Shield Defence. It actually makes Ataru's skin as tough as Superman's if he pushes it enough."
"Is he going to get his Gift?" Marvel Girl asked.
"Pretty much so," Wolverine stated.
A sigh as the former tracker-mutant from a very dark future — who was genetically the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey; the timeline that created Rachel Summers had been sealed off from influencing the "main" reality by Suzumiya Haruhi after an ugly incident with the Sentinels had demonstrated to the world a fraction of the true power Kasuga Ayumu welded — gazed on the Goddess Who Walks Amongst Men. "We teleporting them?"
"Sure!" Infinity said. "Let's go, everyone!"
And with a flash of energy, all the travellers vanished…
The Redet Glory, minutes later…
"BOSS!"
"WHAT?!" Invader snapped.
"Your daughter's ship vanished!"
"WHAT?!"
"They've gone to Yiziba to see Ataru-kun."
On hearing that from a smiling Soul Searcher, Invader howled as we…
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(Posted Sun, 25 Mar 2012 06:14)
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