Supercharged Tenchi Muyo!
                    Part 2                                     

	Disclaimer: All characters from Tenchi Muyo are 
copyright of AIC and Pioneer.  Charger and the Mystics
are copyright of me because I created them.  If you use 
this story on your webpage, please give me the proper 
credit.  

	Warning: There are religious references in this series.  
If such offends you, read no further.  However, these 
references are important for the background of this 
story.  And I'm not trying to shove any beliefs down 
anyone's throat.  Also, I'm not very familiar with 
every aspect of Japanese culture so don't diss me if I 
misinterperet certain things.

	Three days came and went.  Charger was uncertain
of what to do in this situation.

	Here he was, stuck doing a mission that he 
failed on the first attempt.  He sure as hell didn't 
want to try it again.  Ryoko might not be so peaceable 
next time.  He couldn't return to the Holy Crucible 
until the mission was finished either.  Eventually Syris
would come to check on him.  He would ask him why it was
taking so long.

	Charger had no idea how he was going to answer 
him.

	Yosho and Nobiyuki had agreed to let him stay.  
No one seriously objected to that decision.  But they 
still didn't trust him all that much.  Who could blame 
them?  He was sent here to kill Ryoko, after all.

	The space pirate was generous.  She even offered 
to train him.  She believed that he really had an amazing 
power locked up inside.  He had yet to tap this ultimate
energy.  The only way he could was to keep training.  

	It was difficult to practice with Ryoko.  
Charger kept looking at her instead of blocking her 
attacks.  Needless to say he came away with a few 
injuries.

	He found himself alone quite often.  Either 
tinkering with a new weapon of some sort or wondering 
how he would get back to the Holy Crucible.  Charger 
seemed to be drawn to the same hill in which Achika's 
shrine stood.  It was like a loyal stone sentinel 
watching over all it surveyed.  And Charger enjoyed the 
shade of the abundant trees.  He enjoyed the wind 
blowing through his spiky blue hair.

	A faint noise came up the long stairway.  
Footsteps.

	Charger turned to the direction of the sound.  
It was the one called Tenchi. 

	"Nice day, huh?" Tenchi asked.

	"Yes, I agree." The young Mystic replied.  "Much nicer 
than the awful heat we've been experiencing lately."  

           Charger stood up.  "You probably want your 
solitude.  I can respect that.  Remember that your 
grandfather wants to meet you for sword practice today."

	"Yeah, thanks Charger."  Tenchi said.

	"Let me ask you something, Tenchi." Charger said 
before he was about to leave.  "You talk a lot about 
your mother but I've never seen her.  Where is she?  
I want to meet her one day."  

	"She died when I was really young." Tenchi 
answered.  Solemn remorse was present in his voice.

	"Oh..." Charger said.  "I'm sorry."

	"Don't worry about it." Tenchi said.  
"Sometimes I can hardly believe it myself. But I 
remember when we went back in time to rescue her from 
Kain.  She was so brave...I was so proud of her."  The 
young man looked at Charger.  "Yes, I think you would 
have liked to meet her."

	"I would." Charger agreed.  "Well, I'll see you around."

	An energy field surrounded the mage of lightning.  He 
rocketed into the sky.

	In no time at all, Charger was back at the house.  
Ryo-ohki pounced around his boots.  He laughed and 
thought "Well, at least I have ONE friend on this planet" 
He knelt and scratched the creature's chin.

	The cabbit 'meowed' in delight and scampered away.

	Charger entered the house.  Ayeka was drinking tea and 
reading a novel.  

	"Hello Charger." she greeted.  "Do you know where 
Tenchi is?" 

	"He's at Achika's shrine.  Best not disturb him." The 
Mystic replied.

	Ayeka sighed.  "I was hoping to go for a walk with 
him.  But I suppose that can wait." She chuckled to 
herself.  "I doubt Ryoko would ever have such self 
control."  

	Charger materialized a glass of lemonade in his hand 
and floated in midair.  He didn't need a chair at all.  
"Princess, I am curious.  You and the other girls seem 
to behave strangely when his name is mentioned or when 
he's around.  I can sense strong emotion from you as 
well.  I am not familiar with the concept of emotion 
but is that...um...love?"

   	Ayeka's cheeks turned crimson and she smiled.

	"Well it's nothing to be ashamed of." Ayeka 
replied.  "After all I AM going to marry him one day 
so I shouldn't be embarrassed.  And like you said, you 
don't know very much about life in this dimension."  
She paused briefly.  "Yes I am in love with him.  As 
are the other girls." She admitted.

	Charger sipped his lemonade and thought a little.  
"Tenchi is a lucky young man to have so many who care 
about him."  

	"I have met beings across the galaxy that would 
give anything to have a family that cared for them." he 
thought.

	The Mystic finished his lemonade and the glass 
dissapeared.  "Ryoko should show up any minute.  She 
didn't tell me when practice would begin, but she also 
said that your enemy often would sneak up on you in 
battle.  I guess that's logical in a twisted, sadistic 
way."

    	"I think she's just trying to scare you." 
Ayeka said.

	"I'm going to find her first..." Charger declared as 
he left.

	Right as he got outside, something flew at him.  A 
flash of orange singed his arm.

	She was here...

	Charger summoned his swordarm, the "Chaos Blade" 
as fast as he could but barely parried Ryoko's next 
attack.  She flew at him again but this time he was 
ready.  Charger ducked the attack and quickly thrusted 
his blade into the air, hoping to hit something.  There 
was a sickening "KEEE-RUNCH" and Ryoko was impaled on 
the sword.

	"Oh...oh SHIT!!" Charger yelped.  "I KILLED her!  But 
she...she taught me so much and I killed her!" he looked 
like he was going to break down and cry.

	Unexpectedly, the space pirate grabbed the hilt 
of the sword and pulled it out of her ribs.  She sat 
down and clutched her injury.  "No, I'm not dead.  
The wound hurts like CRAZY but I'm not dead."

	She stood up easily, the gaping hole in her chest was 
gone.  "Okay, let's try again shall we?  This time no 
crying."  She said as she wiped a single tear from his 
cheek.

	"I wasn't crying!!!" he lied.

	Elsewhere, Washu dashed out of her lab.  She 
held some sort of device that looked like a portable 
game console.  Everyone was gone but there was some 
commotion outside.  Didn't Ryoko say that she was going 
to practice with Charger this afternoon?  This was a 
perfect opportunity to get a reading on the newcomer.  
She could almost FEEL power radiating from the Mystic 
when he first appeared.

	With this information she would be able to have a 
clearer picture of who he was and about the power that 
he had possessed.  If she were to perform experiments 
on him they would be more accurate.   Washu doubted 
that he would cooperate.  Was it just her, or were males 
the biggest babies when it came to little things?  She 
always treated her guinea pigs nice. 

	She dashed out of the house and into the field.  She was 
just in time, Charger held his blade at the ready.  As 
far as she could tell, it was forged completely of light.
It had gems of different colors on the hilt.  She didn't 
quite know what they were for, but guessed they were 
important components to the sword.

	Charger was trying his best to look fierce, but 
didn't have much luck.  He had a smallish, muscular 
figure but wasn't all that intimidating.  Those charming 
blue eyes were not the eyes of a fighter, but a dreamer.

	"Okay!  Here I go!" he shouted.

	Washu checked her readout.  His Power Rating was 
at 7,000...a class B energy level.  But it began to 
skyrocket as he fought.

	Charger slashed at Ryoko.  She easily dodged the 
attack and tripped him.  "I could see that coming from a mile 
away.  Try not to be so predictable during a battle." 
Ryoko said as Charger careened headfirst onto the ground.

	The Mystic stood and dusted himself off.

	"Are you hurt, Charger?" Ryoko asked.  

	"Just my pride." He answered.

	Charger attacked again.  Ryoko barely parried the 
blow and cuffed him in the stomach.  Recoiling, Charger's 
fist radiated with a white glow as he shot a giant beam 
of energy at his opponent.  When the smoke cleared, Ryoko 
tried to fix her hair.  She was a little singed but 
otherwise fine.

	Washu's jaw dropped.  "WOW!! His Power Rating is at 
18,000!  I've never seen energy levels increase so 
fast!"  She checked another chart on her datapad.  
"And it's still going up like crazy!!!" 

	 Elsewhere, Tenchi descended the long stairway to the 
top of the hill.  He found Ayeka waiting for him at 
the bottom.

	"Hello Tenchi!  So nice to see you." She greeted.

	"Thanks Ayeka.  Have you been waiting here long?" 
he asked.

	"Oh no, I just got here in fact.  Would you like 
to take a walk with me?"

	"Of course!" Tenchi replied.

	She took his arm and the two strolled down the 
path.  

	After a pleasant stroll, they sat together under 
a tree for a few minutes when a sound caught their 
attention.  It sounded like an explosion.  The 
earth-shattering KABLAM pierced the sunny sky like a 
blade.

	"What was that?" Tenchi asked.  He was a little 
startled.

	"I don't know.  Do you think we should go check?" 
Ayeka said.

	"Probably.  If it's who I think it is, then we'd 
better go calm Washu down." He answered.

	They arrived at the house and discovered that it
wasn't Mihoshi raising hell in Washu's subspace 
laboratory after all.  Charger and Ryoko were practicing,
and by the look of the two combatants, had been at it 
a while.

	Washu held a device in her hands with an uplink 
to a visor on her face.  She seemed to be thrilled to 
watch the battle unfold.

	"Washu!  What's going on??" Tenchi shouted over 
the clashing of energy blades and power blasts.

	"What?  Oh, Ryoko and Charger are in training 
right now." She answered.  The mad scientist seemed to 
be paying more attention to the readouts.  "Fantastic!  
His Power Rating is exceeding 100,000!  I never thought 
that was possible!"

	Ryoko still held the upper hand.  She parried 
almost every attack thrown by the now power-drunken Mystic. 
It was getting more and more difficult as he got stronger
but she had centuries of real combat experience on her 
side.  

	The two were fighting in midair.  The space 
pirate noticed two new people on the ground.  She 
descended and wore an angry look on her face.  The Mystic 
de-ignited his blade and descended as well.

	"Well, well princess.  Up to your old tricks 
again, hmmm?" she sneered.

	"I don't know what you're talking about." Ayeka
shot back.

	"Trying to steal Tenchi from me?  That's so low, 
even for you.  Putting the moves on him when I'm trying 
to teach Charger how to use his powers."

	"First of all, Tenchi is not one of your possessions 
so don't treat him like one.  Second, I simply asked 
him to go for a walk.  I have no intention of making 
Tenchi do anything he doesn't want to do. " Ayeka 
stated.

	Charger raised an eyebrow.

	"Ha!  I thought princesses never lied, guess I 
was wrong!"

	"Are you questioning my integrity???" 

	"Wow, that's one for you.  Maybe you do have a 
brain cell left in that large head of yours."

	"Who are you to speak of integrity, DEMON!!!!" 

	"Stop it you two!" Tenchi interrupted pushing 
them apart.  "You two have to stop fighting over trivial 
things all the time."

	"But you're not 'trivial', Tenchi.  You're the 
SWEETEST guy I know and I love you!  Of course I'm going 
to protect you from scavengers!" Ryoko declared.  

	"Don't start with me Ryoko, you will regret 
every word..." Ayeka threatened.

	"HEY!  CUT IT OUT!" Tenchi shouted.

	Dead silence followed.

	Tenchi shook his head.  "Listen, I need to go 
work the fields anyway.  I'm not asking you two to be 
best friends, I just want you guys to get along.  I'll 
see you later."

	The young man left without waiting for an answer.

	Charger rubbed his spiky head.  They DID love 
him.  It wasn't just a little thing where all the girls 
would do is compete to see who could seduce a male the 
fastest, this was a deep sincere love that was uncommon 
in sub-dimensional beings.  It was as beautiful and 
interesting as it was completely perplexing.  

	Ayeka went back into the house.
  
	Ryoko sighed as they left.  "Oh well, he'll 
understand someday."  She rolled her shoulders and 
stretched a bit, working the kinks out of her battered 
form.

	"I'm gonna go take a bath.  Wanna scrub my back, 
Charger?"

	The Mystic's eyes grew into the size of dinner 
pans and his nose began to bleed.
 
	"Wha...? Really?" 

	Ryoko almost fell over laughing at his expression.  
"No, I was just kidding.  See you later!"  She said as 
she vanished.

	Across from him, Washu held what remained of her 
datapad.  It had exploded when Charger's Power Rating 
had experienced such a dramatic increase.  She scowled 
at it, but she was thankful that she at least had time 
to transmit it to her main computer interface before it 
blew up.

	Charger noticed her.  "Some daughter you have 
there, Miss Washu."

	Washu beamed with pride.  "She's amazing isn't 
she!?  She should be because I created her."


	"Yes, she is quite amazing.  Along with a few 
OTHER nice qualities." The lightning mage thought.

	"Well, I'd better get back to my lab to check 
the readouts.  I'll see you around." She said as the 
smashed machine in her hand dissapeared.  She turned 
and left.

	The mad scientist remained in her lab throughout 
the afternoon and into the evening.  One might forget 
she even existed if it wasn't for Yosho bringing her 
dinner.

	Upon entering the lab, Yosho found Washu sitting 
in her hoverchair looking at some arcane readout.  Right 
as he stepped in she said, "Thanks for bringing me 
dinner Lord Katsuhito.  Take a look at this."  She 
pointed at her holographic display.

	She quickly wolfed down her dinner and set the tray 
aside.  

	Yosho said, "I remember some experiences with beings 
claming to be Mystics when I lived on Jurai.  The true 
ones that I have seen are incredibly powerful, but none 
of them have a Power Rating that rises so fast.  It's 
literally impossible."  
	
	"And yet it happens anyway.  Very odd, to say 
the least.  I've pretty much exhausted every possible 
explanation and have developed a hypothesis.  It has 
something to do with that blade of his.  Apparently he 
is the only being capable of wielding it.  It possesses 
holy magic and even enables him to access the other 
elements.  I'm uncertain of how he came to possess it 
at all.  It must take great inner strength." She 
reasoned.

	"No doubt someone has a special purpose in mind 
for him." Yosho said. 

	Washu worked long into the night, long after 
Yosho and the others went to sleep.

	Somewhere in time, a warrior clad in white 
grows tense.  He wonders why the lightning mage is 
taking so long to do his task.

	In their bunks, the other Mystics share a brief 
moment of socialization before preparing for the next 
day.  Syris sits at his bunk and thinks deeply about 
his absent comrade.  The galactic mage called Cosmo 
notices his troubled friend and looks down over his 
bunk to Syris.  Hanging upside down makes his wild black 
hair look even stranger. 

	"You're worried about Charger, aren't you?" he 
asks.

	"Indeed.  Ryoko is a fierce opponent and won't 
hesitate to kill him on sight.  I fear the worst." Syris 
answers.

	"I think he can take care of himself.  You 
shouldn't get all worried about him.  We all had to do 
a difficult mission at one point in our lives." Cosmo 
insists.

	"I doubt that.  That is why I'm going to check 
on him.  Nebulon has agreed with this, so I may leave 
as soon as I finish packing."

	Cosmo looks somber for a while, and then says, 
"What if Charger was killed?"

	"Then I can assure you..." Syris says as he 
clenches his fist, "Ryoko will face certain death at 
my hands."

	Across the room, Siela looks at a holo-photo 
of herself and Charger when they traveled to the 
Alpha-Centuri star system.  She sighs deeply as the 
memories of the fun times they had shared come back to
her.  She would never openly admit it...but she felt a 
strong feeling for Charger, perhaps it was something 
more than friendship.

	Sub-dimensionals called it love.  Could it be 
possible that was what she felt for him?  

	She didn't sleep.  Siela remained awake long 
into the night trying to sort out her conflicting 
feelings...