The front lawn of Tomobiki High School, before dawn…
"So Ataru is clearly Gifted now, right?"
"Yeah, Liz," Rampage responded from the polar continent on Yiziba thanks to a hyperwarp-capable communications unit that was fitted into the younger Wakefield sister's uniform; all the battle suits of the Sweet Valley metas were likewise outfitted. "That Yakuza boss' kid — the one Spiral turned into a bad imitation of Ryūnosuke — came here hoping to kill him." A sigh. "Thanks to Deadpool!"
The Academician blinked. "Wade Wilson?" she asked…and then her eyes widened for a moment before she chuckled. "Ah! So he borrowed one of my teleport pads, right?"
Rampage blinked. "Liz! You actually LET him take one of your inventions?!"
"Naturally."
"May I ask why?"
"You may ask."
"LIZ!"
The woman born Elizabeth Wakefield chuckled. "Jess, it's simple. Regardless of how much of an annoyance he can be, Wade Wilson — makes — me — laugh!"
Rampage fell flat on her face! "He DOES?!" Wolverine then demanded as he leaned into the ethereal camera's viewing range; the communicators were able to deploy on hovering pods with special force-repellent fields around them. This ensured that if a fight-scene was going on, they wouldn't be damaged and signals would be lost in case one of the users crashed into something the wrong way. "WHY?!"
"Because he is touched with a little bit of the Chaos, Mister Logan," the Academician. "And while I'm not a magical like a certain friend of Harry Potter's…" — a snarl entered her voice on saying that — "…studying the Chaos has always been a hobby of mine. Believe me, the amount of data I get from Wade alone is enormous!"
Wolverine moaned. "Why did that damn Crystal make you such an egghead?!"
"HEY!"
He yelped as Rampage leaned right into his face. "GET THIS STRAIGHT, BUDDY!" the younger Wakefield sister snarled. "ONLY I AND I ALONE GET TO CALL HER NAMES! YOU EVER SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO HER AGAIN, I'LL PERSONALLY SKIN YOU ALIVE, PEEL ALL THE ADAMANTIUM OFF YOUR BONES AND FEED YOU TO A NEST OF SCORPIONS! GOT ME, BUSTER?!"
Wolverine shuddered. Unlike some people such as the Hulk and Superman, Rampage had the power — and the PASSION! — to do just that! "S-s-sure th-thing, darlin'…"
"Jess, behave," the Academician stated.
Rampage smirked. "Sorry."
"Never mind," the older Wakefield sister breathed out.
"So what's happening back on Earth, Liz?" Mustang then asked as he leaned into the camera's range. "Lum told us of these creeps that worshipped her like a living god."
"All removed from Tomobiki and its environs. The cobalt bomb was, if you weren't told this by the others, removed; we were barely able to talk Haruhi into NOT dropping it on their capital city," the Academician answered. While she normally didn't care too much for jocks like Saotome Ranma, he was VERY pleasing to the eyes to a born-and-bred California teenager like her. Even more so, the Great Sage of the Circle of Thought and the One Never to Be Tamed had always worked side-by-side in various incarnations. It was only the desire of Ranma's father to see him married to one of the Tendō sisters that deterred the igniting of a new relationship between him and Elizabeth Wakefield; even though it was the breakaway part of Ranma's personality — the being later to become Saotome Kanami — that was first Gifted after that horrid Neko-ken training, the Academician had been quick to realise that Ranma would likely become the latest incarnation of Mustang when opportunity presented itself finally.
"How are you doin'?" he then asked. "You talk to Ginny yet?"
A sigh. "Not yet, Ranma. I suspect — if, it turns out, that her mother had a hand in what happened to all of us — that she'll be busy for a bit before I welcome her into my bed and we both make each other scream to the heavens." The Academician then sighed. "And there is a local complication back home in the Valley."
"Who?"
"Todd Wilkins. He's captain of the school basketball team. After we lost our memories, I got a massive crush on him…and then…"
"He's treating you alright, I hope," he coldly said.
"Ranma!" the Academician snapped. "I already HAVE a big brother, thank you very much! I don't need another one — especially a martial artist like you! — to join in!" As Mustang gave her an impish smile — even before he was Gifted with the power of the Untameable One, Ranma always had thought of Elizabeth Wakefield as his first true "girl friend" in the platonic sense — she then sighed. "He's like you in a way, Ranma. A sweet guy that wouldn't hurt a fly in the long term." She sat back in her chair; the Academician always carried with her a portable (and shrinkable) work-station so that she could have access to everything she needed whenever she was in the field and away from her laboratories, both on Earth and on Yiziba. "I just have to tell him…"
"That bein' a Yizibajohei girl, you're automatically bi and a pretty girl named Ginny Weasley fell in love with you after you helped save her life from a thousand year-old snake and a soul-fragment of Lord Flight-From-Death. Or whatever the jerk's name is," Mustang finished for her. "Yeah, I can understand. Your parents have no problem with it?"
"They grew up in California in the Age of Aquarius, Ranma. What do you think?"
He laughed. "We'll call you back when we find out what Ataru's Gift actually is," he then promised. "We better go make sure he's alright. Talk to you soon."
"'Bye!" She tapped a holographic key. "End call, Nexus One. Connect with Nexus."
"Affirmative, Mistress."
A second later, a holographic screen appeared, revealing the smiling quasi-Oriental face of Cassandra Cain. "Hello, Liz," the Nexus called back. "What's the news?"
"Ataru is Gifted and the Bet will soon be decided, Cass," the Academician replied. "What about our heel friends? Are they taking well to what Professor Essex proposed?"
"Like sharks smelling fresh chum," the assassin-turned-information gatherer stated, her brown eyes sparkling with delight. "Master Rā's has gone to Doomstadt to speak to Lord von Doom and Mister Luthor about this. We should have something ready to launch within a day at the outset. But with the Zentraedi here and the Shi'ar coming…"
"Here," the Academician said as she tapped controls on her holographic keyboard. "You have twenty-four hour access. Normal security precautions, please."
The Nexus blinked, and then nodded. She could have found her own way to get into the Academician's master laboratory on Yiziba on her own…but respected the current incarnation of her as both a friend and intellectual equal to do something like that to her. Unless it was an emergency, of course…but in such a case, Cassandra knew that Elizabeth would fully understand. "Done. How are you personally?"
"Worried about breaking a wonderful would-be boyfriend's heart and incredibly horny for my lover," the meta-genius replied in her normal voice; as the Academician, Elizabeth Wakefield used a voice that was something akin to how Jack Webb had played the character of Joe Friday in Dragnet back in the 1950s and 1960s. "As a matter of fact, since things have calmed down here, I'll go over to Hogwarts and drag Ginny either back to Yiziba or at least into the Room of Requirement for a long period of well-deserved nookie time!" As the mistress of information laughed, the Academician gave her a look. "Anyone for you, Cass? Pretty girl like you should be beating back the would-be lovers with a stick by now!"
A sigh. "I actually played at being Batgirl for a bit," the woman born Cassandra Cain reported. "Of course, after I woke up, I apologised to Barbara Gordon about that right away. I made the offer to her, of course." That was the offer to get a Gift, the other woman knew. "She refused it still. Likes it better being Oracle."
"Whatever floats her boat, then. Talk to you soon, Cass."
"Later, Liz."
The link was severed. The Academician then sighed as she turned to stand up and stretch herself before she looked up at the orbiting Redet Glory. She had been told by Batman that negotiations between Telepath and Tempest's father had gone well. While the Oni warlord was still scared of Yizibajohei, he was grateful now to his would-have-been son-in-law for ensuring his precious baby girl would not be seen as a cripple amongst her own people thanks to the "Arch-Heretic" of Phentax Two. Of course, unlike most other people, the woman who had been born Elizabeth Wakefield KNEW what drove a man like Ganzo dai-Louc. Given the existence of a BIOROID FACTORY on the twelfth world of the three-star Phentax system — one that could produce perfectly healthy women between the equivalent Terran ages of six and twenty-five with SAGUSSAN genes in them, genes ultimately influenced by the Power Jewel that had been buried deep in the core of that planet's lone moon ten million years ago by members of the insect-like humanoids that formed what was later called the "first republic" (today, the descendants of that race were known as "Lannarkites" and were just as dangerous — but more numerous — than the Brood!) — the whole population problem on Yiziba could be resolved in an instant.
For even if she personally found Hermione Jane Granger to be a stuck-up intellectual snob at times — the British-born meta-mage thought of the American-born meta-genius the same way — the woman born Elizabeth Francine Wakefield did share one secret with her. One that — if what was currently hidden in a magically-AND-technologically warded cave under Yiziba's north pole, such a thing having been sealed there by the first incarnation of the Academician and the Thaumaturge near the end of the period known today as the "Dawn of Power," EVER got lose — could unleash a disaster!
"What are you doing?"
The Academician sighed as she keyed a control on her belt to shrink down her portable work-station so she could stow it on her belt. "Mister Wayne, as many of the brothel madams in Gotham figured out years ago, you seriously need to get LAID!" she said as she gazed in amusement at Batman. "How on Earth you allow such beautiful women as Miss Kyle and Miss āl-Ḡwl to get away from you, I'll NEVER comprehend! Now, unlike you, I DO recognise the need to release some sexual tension when I face it! So if you'll kindly excuse me, I'm going to go over to England for a while, find my girl and then drag her someplace private to make her yodel to the heavens. In that state, Ginny is an even better singer than Dana! So kindly leave me be, please!"
And with a flick of her finger on her belt-buckle, she vanished…
Hogwarts, that moment (local time: mid-evening)…
"How long has she been standing there for?"
"About four hours," Colin Creevey stated as he looked at his younger brother Dennis. "You weren't here when we all met Liz Wakefield for the first time."
"Is she the girl that Hermione hates with a passion?" Romilda Vane then asked.
"The same," Fred Weasley — who, with his brother George, had come back to their alma mater to look in on their younger sister after she had regained her memories and control of her Yizibajohei-based powers — then stated. Everyone was now in the Gryffindor common room enjoying a pleasant evening studying and relaxing after one of the most shocking days in their lives. "Turns out that back in their first incarnation, the Thaumaturge and the Academician were twin sisters. But they were polar opposites in their viewpoint on everything, especially when it came to mastering the powers of the Great Crystal after the Dawn of Power. Mione's past-self wanted all to be immersed in traditional magical studies. Liz's past-self wanted fully scientific principles to govern the development of metahuman powers." A sigh. "Ever since, the two lines have butted heads with each other right down to our dear Hermione…"
"And our soon-to-be sister-in-law, the wondrously intelligent Elizabeth Wakefield," George finished for his twin brother. "The elder of the pair, of course."
"Indubitably so, dear brother," Fred declared. "One must indeed admire Elizabeth and Jessica for their being able to be so different in soul…"
"…yet so incredibly sexy in body, my brother," George finished.
Both of them laughed…and then they jerked as a pair of brown eyes that were now GLOWING with power focused on them. "Behave," Ginny snarled.
Both men waved her off. Despite what a lot of people these days believed, Ginny had NOT been targeted by Moroboshi Ataru when he made his rounds of the British Isles over the last decade finding people to bring to Yiziba so they could get Gifts and become metahumans. However, she had gained the chance to obtain her own Gift — on Yiziba, she would be known as Soulfire, the Mistress of the Eternal Flames of Chaos and one of the most powerful of the Cosmic Mage Guild — thanks to the matter with the Chamber of Secrets in her first year. During that time, the senior members of the Guild — Harry Potter and almost ALL of his female year-mates at Hogwarts plus Luna Lovegood — had been engaged in a search for the lost Chamber of Secrets that had been unlocked ultimately by a fragment of the soul of the Dark Lord Voldemort…who had then been possessing a helpless Ginny Weasley and had been unleashing a thousand year-old basilisk on various muggleborns then in attendance at Hogwarts in support of the "staleblood" agenda that had provoked the Blood War over a decade before. When an unsuspecting Hermione had herself been caught by a certain basilisk's stare and frozen stiff before she could raise a magical shield to defend herself, Harry decided to call in help…
Hogwarts, the second-floor girls' lavatory, four years before…
"Well, well, well. Hidden passage. Thought as much."
The gathered wizards and witches — and meta-mages — all were gaping at what Elizabeth Wakefield had just discovered using a little deductive reasoning…and a shoulder-mounted anti-proton cannon she borrowed from one of the Weaponeer's armouries that the Academician had personal access to. "Oh, my heavens…" Albus Dumbledore then moaned out. "All this time…how in Merlin's name did I NOT see…?!"
A sigh. "Professor, that's enough. We found it and we'll put it right soon enough," the Academician said as she slung her weapon, and then pulled something out of one of the pouches on her belt. Allowing the probe to soar down the passage she had just exposed to the depths of the earth, she then tapped the side of her goggles to bring up a holographic projection of what said probe was detecting. "Hmmm…rather filthy. No doubt hasn't been properly maintained for quite some time. Can't have that."
She then tapped a control to summon back her probe as she un-slung her weapon and keyed a control. A second later, after the little probe — which was shaped into an anime-like caricature of Elizabeth Wakefield's head; seeing that had made the Weasley twins fall over laughing with delight as they realised that the no-nonsense reborn meta-genius from California ALSO had a pranking streak within her — had soared out of the tunnel, a blast of deadly flame-like material poured out of the weapon's muzzle to totally burn away all the muck, filth and other gunk that was in the tunnel. As people winced from the blast of Fiendfyre-like heat emitting from the tunnel, the Academician then turned it off. "Now to cool it off a bit," she said. "Hannah?"
"Right," Hannah Abbott — the reincarnation of Icefire, the Mistress of the Polar Winds — said as she reached out with her powers to cool down the very hot tunnel so that people could head on down to gaze into Salazar Slytherin's lost sanctum sanctorum.
The Academician nodded as she scanned the tunnel with her goggles. "Perfect. Thank you, Hannah. Ladies and gentlemen, let's go get Ginny back."
And with that, she whooped as she went sliding down the ice! "Hey, Liz! Wait for me!" Rampage — who REFUSED to let her sister have all the fun helping their meta-mage friends from Britain out; besides, unlike Elizabeth, Jessica LIKED Hermione Granger and wanted to go kill a big snake for actually PETRIFYING the reborn Thaumaturge — called out as she lunged down after her…though she also slid down on her butt; being a southern California girl, the concept of snowboarding was somewhat alien to her and she wanted the chance to play in the snow like any other intelligent twelve year-old.
Others came down after the Wakefield twins, landing in what had once been a pool of slimy ice before the Academician had cleansed it before Icefire had frozen it. "Damn!" Harry Potter — who, like all his friends, was in his battle-suit and enchanted cape — called out as he looked around. "If this is at the scale of the basilisk…"
"It should be a rather big one," the Academician stated…and then she frowned. "I was right. Look at that," she said as she pointed.
People looked…and then gaped. "Mother of Merlin, that's HUGE!" Pansy Parkinson exclaimed on seeing the large shed skin in the antechamber close to a pair of closed doors with serpents on them. "I've heard of basilisks, but this one's…!"
"Gonna make a whole ton of snake-skin purses when I get done with it!" Rampage snarled at Shadow Weaver. "So where the fuck would this thing be, Liz?!"
"The doors, I believe. Harry, would you mind?"
"Certainly," the Warlock stated. "«Open!»" he then hissed out.
The doors then opened, revealling another large chamber lined on both sides by stone serpent heads. At the end of the chamber, there was a stone relief of an elderly man's face. "Lucky thing that when Ataru took you to the Cave of the Future to be Gifted, all the knowledge that was in that soul-fragment Riddle left in your head was allowed to be copied into your mind," the Academician said as people advanced through the doors into the Chamber proper. "Oh, my! There she is," she then said, pointing.
"Ginny!" Fred and George — Ron had refused to come when he heard that two of Harry's muggle friends had been called over from America to help out — cried out as they raced over to the fallen form of their sister near one of the statues.
"She won't be getting up," a voice then declared.
Dumbledore then tensed. "Tom…?"
The Academician looked over…and then her eyebrow arched. "Master Riddle, I presume?" she then said in classic Henry Stanley mode.
The almost-solid image of one Thomas Marvolo Riddle in the uniform of a Slytherin fifth form student from the 1940s turned to gaze on the strangely dressed younger woman with the clearly muggle weapon in her hand. "Hello, Professor," he then said as he glared at Dumbledore. "To believe you would stoop THIS low. To bring MUGGLES here?"
"What the hell gives you, a HALF-BLOOD BASTARD CHILD, the right to judge something like that, Riddle?!" a young man's voice then challenged. "Or should I really say…
"Voldemort?"
"'Flight from Death,'" the Academician stated as she gazed in amusement at Blaise Zabini; he had moved up behind the Warlock, his wand drawn and ready. "Was it some sort of teenage angst that made you ANAGRAMISE your name that way, Master Riddle? A CHILD could figure out that one, especially since you used the diminutive of your first given name 'Thomas' when you attended this school all those years ago. I can see that the remaining letters of your name went into reading 'I,' 'am' and 'Lord.'" A shake of the head. "You deem yourself a Dark Lord? You're a pathetic BULLY! Just like you were at Wool's Orphanage before Professor Dumbledore found you finally!"
A wand snapped up. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A green bolt lashed out at the young American…before it disappeared into a black cloud that appeared before her. As Riddle gaped, a tsking voice then said, "No, no, no, same!" As he glared at Shadow Weaver, the heiress of the Parkinsons of Keerford added, "No sending Killing Curses at pretty girls from California! It's not cricket!"
"You actually like cricket, Pansy?" Rampage asked, gaping in shock.
"Delightfully civilised game, dear Jessica," Shadow Weaver stated before she gazed on her sister Slytherins in the Guild. Atop Daphne Greengrass (Majo), there were Tracey Davis and Millicent Bulstrode; the former was the Mistress of the Eternal Winter, Snowbright…while the latter was a mixed mage and FISS-type calling herself Scylla from ancient Greek legends in reflection to a similar creature from pre-Dawn of Power Yizibajohei myth. "In the meantime, I want a snake-skin purse myself…so would you mind?"
A smirk; Jessica Wakefield — even though she knew Pansy Parkinson had sworn a Life Debt oath to Moroboshi Ataru, which meant that she would gladly become Mrs. Moroboshi Pansy if she got the chance — just liked the other girl for her sass and class. "One dead basilisk, coming right up!" she said…as she floated into the air.
"NO!" Riddle screamed out on realising WHAT Dumbledore had brought into the Chamber, and then he spun around to gaze at the effigy of Salazar Slytherin. "«Speak to me, Slytherin!»" he cried out in parseltongue. "«Greatest of the Hogwarts Four!»"
Instantly, the mouth of the stone effigy of Slytherin's face opened, a hideous hissing noise escaping from it as a dark green creature then surged out…
KK-KRACK!
People then gaped on seeing a now very DEAD basilisk — which had managed to get its head and a good porting of its body clear before Rampage had dive-bombed on it to break its spine right behind the skull! — drop to the Chamber floor. As Riddle gaped in horror at the fact that a thousand year-old beast had been slain by a creature like some of the members of the All-Star Squadron, the Übermenschen and the Invaders from World War Two — to say anything of two of the War Hawks! — the Academician pulled out a small device from her belt. "Sorry about this, Ginny," she whispered.
The device was tossed and landed on Ginny's chest…which then made the youngest Weasley child vanish in a flash of light. As Riddle screamed out in shock — and his body began to fully fade — from the sudden severing of the magical bonds that had formed between his spirit and Ginny's magic, the Academician smiled. "Uh-uh!" she said as she shook her head. "No magical leeching from you anymore, Master Riddle!"
He spun around to glare at the blonde American…before a circle of energy then formed close to the dead basilisk's head, that exploding upward in a funnel of blazing power. Within it was a girl in the same type of uniform with cape that the others of the Cosmic Mage Guild were wearing, though such was coloured in bright reds, oranges and golden yellows in the shape of hurricanes as they were seen from space. As Riddle turned to look, a pair of brown eyes began to glow. "You DARE try to take MY magic from me, same?!" the now-Gifted Ginny Weasley then howled out. "BURN!"
Everyone quickly backed off as a jet of Fiendfyre-like magic lashed out…
"She's here."
People perked on hearing Ginny's words, and then the door leading into the common room opened to reveal a familiar blonde, blue-eyed American. "Ah, Liz!" Fred then called out as the others all rose to greet the Academician. "Fancy seeing you here!"
The woman born Elizabeth Wakefield grinned as she stopped to accept the Weasley twins' kisses on her cheeks; she always got a laugh from these two. Despite their mother's constant ranting and raving when it came to the idea of her only daughter owing a LIFE DEBT of all things to a MUGGLE — to say anything of Ron's constant disapproval…which, both Fred and George knew, ultimately stemmed from the fact that Harry Potter had been so accepting of Draco Malfoy and other Slytherins right from their first year attending Hogwarts! — the twins, not to mention their father Arthur and older brothers, had gladly acknowledged the elder daughter of Ned and Alice Wakefield as their future in-law without hesitation when a formal omiai was held at the Wakefield home in Sweet Valley in the summer after Ginny's quite eventful first year. Since a magical Life Debt had been involved — and one that, even if she was a "muggle," the Academician had acknowledged — there was no way for Molly Weasley to object…
…but the twins had their suspicions now.
"Hi, guys!" she said before she gazed on the Fat Lady. "My thanks, Mistress Spriggs."
The image in the portrait gasped. "How did you know THAT, Miss Wakefield?! And how in Merlin's name do you keep guessing the password every time you come here?!"
"I must confess, Mistress Spriggs…I cheated," the young American answered, which made the Weasley twins gasp in mock-horror and the others in the common room laughed while Ginny concentrated, triggering the transformation of her clothing into her battle uniform with cape. "There is a soul-bond between Ginny and myself — it formed when she declared the Life Debt to me — which allows me to know all the passwords you use here. As for your name, I simply visited your delightful library and read your story."
The Fat Lady — her name in this life was Elizabeth Spriggs — laughed with delight. "Well, at least you're honest enough to be a Gryffindor!" she declared before she winked. "Besides, Elizabeth, we do have to watch out for each other!"
"True, Elizabeth, you're right," the Academician winked back.
More laughter from the others. "Miss Wakefield," the stern voice of the head of Gryffindor and the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts then declared as she came down the stairs from the girls' dorm rooms. "I trust all is well with Mister Moroboshi?"
"The Bet will soon be decided, Professor McGonagall," the Academician stated as she gazed fondly on Minerva McGonagall. "He was just Gifted a couple hours ago. Jessica will call and tell me what the Gift actually was."
"How did you wager on that?" Soulfire then asked. "I bet he'd be Mustang."
"Ranma turned out to be Mustang, Ginny," the American answered.
"You sound as if you expected it, Elizabeth," McGonagall stated.
"Believe it or not, it's not that well known on Yiziba…but whenever Mustang has a sibling, he or she normally becomes Wildflower. When that part of Ranma's soul that became Kanami was Gifted as Wildflower, I predicted a 99.7 percent chance of Ranma becoming Mustang when he was able to finally 'give' her a body — so to speak — thanks to the ponds of Zhòuquán-xiāng that his father learned of on their trip."
"So what's your prediction for Ataru?" Soulfire demanded.
"As Shirayuki is so fond of saying, Ginny," the Academician stated before she slipped into a very good approximation of Osamu Shirayuki's voice. "Himitsu desu no!"
Laughter from the Weasley twins and the others while McGonagall smothered her own grin. "Well, since we are now recovering from the actions of the Ministry and Riddle's people in the wake of what the Special Committee did to young Ataru, I do believe you need a little time off to recover from having your memories restored so suddenly, Ginevra." She handed the youngest Weasley child a folded sheet of parchment. "One week off. Do keep up with your homework; we expect all assignments done when you come back."
A grin. "Thanks, Professor," Soulfire stated as she grabbed her lover's hand and walked her out through the doorway. "See you all later, everyone!"
"Have fun, you two!" Fred called back.
"Don't do anything we wouldn't do!" George added.
More laughter from the people who stayed behind…as teleportation fire then surrounded the elder Wakefield daughter and the youngest Weasley child before they vanished from Hogwarts. Watching them go, McGonagall could only sigh before she gave Fred and George a knowing look, and then she headed back to her office as we…
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