Albert Sze-Wei Wang The characters in this piece of parody fiction are completely fictitious and even though familiar ircnicks of friends were used, the characterizations here are completely fictitious and do not represent who the people behind the nicks actually are in real life. Any similarities that appear are PURELY coincidental. None of this work may be reproduced or duplicated into ANY form, printed or otherwise, without written permission from the author. Ten Muyou: No Need For Heaven was written as a parody of Tenchi Muyou, though the parody as an entirety is not at all limited to only Tenchi Muyou. Ten Muyou is a continuation of Artemis and is continuous in the timeline. Ten Muyou --------- by Higeki-san Copyright 1993 by Higeki-san (Albert Sze-Wei Wang) (The Insane One) (The Dark side of Feddie) Chapter 1 A woman with long slightly curly shoulder length brown-blond hair sat by herself in a quiet bar on Broadway, the main boulevard through Olympus on this clear and chilly night in 2150. She wore a white blouse and blue jeans beneath a black leather jacket. In front of her on the bar were four glasses of various shapes. "Captain, you going to be ok?" a young man asked as he placed his hand on her right shoulder. The black haired, brown eyed man stood about six feet tall, and wore a long sleeve turtleneck shirt with light brown slacks. The woman turned to him and considered him tiredly through her green eyes. "I'll be fine. Go home Lieutenant, it's been a rough day for all of us." "We all did our best," the lieutenant told her. "The casualties we sustained couldn't be helped. There was nothing any of us could do when that bomb went off. It was a miracle you even survived. All of blue squadron was caught in the area of affect of the blast. The only other two survivors had second degree burns over their bodies and they were a mile away. Even their Landmates were declared complete losses." The woman shrugged. "It was either us or ESWAT. Special Operations got slammed this time. We lost a lot of good men. I got damn lucky. The shape of the building could have been all it took to save both me and my Typhon." "Don't overdo it ok?" the man asked. The woman smiled at him and winked. "You know me, would I do something like that?" "Hey, Nick, don't let her overdo it ok?" the man yelled at the bartender. "No problem," the dark haired bartender waved. "Ladylove and I go back quite a ways." "Boo, you're no fun," Ladylove scowled at the lieutenant. "Just looking out for you Captain," the lieutenant grinned. "Can't have my favorite captain losing it completely before her vacation." "Get out of here Kirin, shoo!" Ladylove ushered with her right hand. "Shoo, go home!" Kirin grinned and quickly ascended the few steps to the door and left the bar. Ladylove watched him disappear as the door closed. "You ready to wrap up?" Nick asked. "One more," Ladylove stated. "A shot of your Black Tequila." Ladylove watched as Nick grabbed the small black bottle and poured the clear contents into a shot glass. He place first the glass and then a salt shaker and a piece of cut lemon in front of her. Ladylove licked the back of her hand at the base of her left thumb and sprinkled a bit of salt on it. Shaking off the excess she looked at Nick as she picked up the shot glass with her right hand. "The best for last." Quickly licking the salt from the back of her hand at the base of her left thumb, she then slammed the tequila down her throat in a single gulp and hitting the shot glass down on the bar table, grabbed the lemon and sucked on it, draining every last drop of the sourness from its watery sacks. It was a few seconds before Ladylove looked back up and removed the lemon rind from her mouth. "All done," Ladylove smacked her lips. "I don't know how you do it," Nick told her. "I have a good bartender," Ladylove told him. "As long as I stick with mixed drinks I know I'll never have a hangover in the morning. I don't even feel any pain now or discomfort, just the drunkenness setting in. Still remember this back at the Bayou in San Diego back on the Imperial Americana a few years back. Had my first Oyster Shooters there too." "I do know those things you know," Nick told her. "I am a bartender after all." "Silly me," Ladylove grinned. "Well, I better get going." "Night Ladylove," Nick waved as the Captain climbed the steps to the door and walked out into the cool night. In the background she caught a glimpse of the two massive glistening arches of the Tartarus and Gaia buildings rising in the distance like monuments of the progress of man. Or lack thereof. Walking down the clean narrow street to the parking area she saw the feline anthropomorphic bioroid Artemis waiting for her next to her motorcycle. Artemis had shoulder blade length curly brown hair "Ni2 hau3," Artemis smiled. "Ni2 tai4 zuwei4 le2." "I'm fine Artemis," Ladylove stated as she walked towards the bioroid. "I can drive really." "Bu1 shing3," Artemis stated as she stuck up her index finger and waved it back and forth in front of Ladylove. Ladylove pulled the keys from her pocket and dropped them into Artemis' right hand. "Artemis kai2 shing2," Artemis smiled broadly as she held the key in her hand and stomped her feet briefly. "Just get me home OK?" Ladylove asked. "Sz4," Artemis nodded as she handed Ladylove her helmet. "Artemis bang1 Lucy." "Lucette," Ladylove corrected tiredly. The 2000ccs of power purred as Artemis steered the massive bike onto the main boulevard. Its shiny imposing aerodynamic form streaked down the street as Ladylove hung on behind the bioroid. "Lucette!" a young woman gasped as Artemis helped Ladylove through the door of the spacious unusually round almost mushroom shaped five bedroom and three bathroom cottage. The woman's shoulder length straight cut hair was parted down the middle with bangs. She was dressed in an ornate colored flower patterned silk bathrobe. "Hi Hitomi," Ladylove greeted tiredly. "Don't worry, I had the good drinks. No headache nothing. I won't even have a hangover tomorrow morning. Nick's an artiste." "Ladylove jioh2 zuwei4 le2," Artemis reported. "Mm," Hitomi nodded as she immediately moved to help Ladylove. "Artemis bang1 woa3 dai4 Lucy chi4 ta1 de2 fong3 jen2." "Take me to my room," Ladylove sighed as Hitomi and Artemis helped her along down the corridor, "good idea. I feel SO tired..." Hitomi helped Ladylove out of her clothes into her T-shirt and sighed as the Captain lost consciousness on her bed. "Poor girl," Hitomi sighed deeply. "Most of her squadron was destroyed in a fraction of a second. The last two, excluding her support crew, are fighting for their lives right now." "Sz2 ching3 bu4 hau2," Artemis sighed. "Mm," Hitomi sighed sibilantly in resigned agreement. "Her flight for Japan leaves in the morning. Make sure she gets on the plane OK?" "Sz2," Artemis asserted. "She really needs this vacation," Hitomi sighed quietly. * * * * * "We have located the remains of the wreckage from the battle," a disembodied voice reported. A woman in a pearl-white kimono-like dress stepped out from a cylindrical holding chamber and looked up at the floating wreckage around them. Around her thin waist she wore a red sash. Her waist length long brown hair was arranged in two long strands at her shoulders by two short elaborately carved tubes of ivory with impressions of dragons on each one running across the tube's length. Her amber eyes considered the scene pensively. A blue and white planet hovered majestically off in the background. A data card appeared at the front of the dome roof screen with a picture of Kagato. A second data card appeared beneath the first, this with the picture of the Princess Aeka and Sasami. "Kagato's ship Soujya was recorded destroyed here by the Jyurai Royal Family under the leadership of Princess Aeka. Their ship was believed destroyed in the exchange," the disembodied voice stated again. "The royal house of Jyurai was the most powerful of all the known royal houses from the known populated worlds. Teto, the royal house of Kurotai must recover what Kagato had stolen from us," the woman stated. "We are diminished without it. Scan for its presence." "Yes princess Tori," the voice answered as the two data cards disappeared from the forward section of the screen. "I am reading a total of fourteen pieces," the voice stated as the screen highlighted the locations on the enormous clear dome around them. "Recover them at once," Tori ordered. "Immediately my princess," the voice asserted as the enormous spiked dragon-shaped ship moved through the debris. The domed bridge was itself mounted in the head of the dragon that was the ship. "What should we do with the other five hundred or so pieces of artifacts I have detected?" the voice asked. "Five HUNDRED??" Tori asked in surprise. "Yes," the voice answered. "Kagato had been pillaging for some 5000 years afterall." "Um, leave them," Tori stated thoughtfully. "Inform the Galactic Police where the artifacts are located over the coded priority channel." "Immediately," the voice affirmed. * * * * * "Fools these Galactic Police!" the slightly curly shoulder length reddish blond haired woman exclaimed. "If they couldn't stop Kagato do they think they can stop ME??" The woman looked up at the massive floating screen before her of the twenty or so battlecruisers and equal number of support ships. "I am Andrea you fools, creator of the Kamidai and one of the technologists from the Beginning! I am the mistress of Shikuudan, the greatest destructive force in the galaxy, which I helped rebuild!!" The reddish blond haired woman stood about 5' 10" and wore a black and red silk uniform-like dress. Her red eyes glared defiantly and angrily at the sixty or so ships blocking her way. "... I repeat, this is the Galactic Police, you are ordered to surrender at once!" a female voice in the transmission asserted. "You are under arrest for the destruction of the entire systems of Versis, Airenes in the Sirius cluster..." "Why don't I get ANY respect??" Andrea growled. "They think they can stop me with THOSE??" "This is the largest force they've ever assembled," the anubis-like beast off on the far side of the coliseum-like bridge stated. Its head was decorated with three large back-swept horns lining the lupine skull and two forward projecting horns. "I will teach them Emerson," Andrea's voice quivered. "They will know what it feels to fear Andrea!" Andrea concentrated for a brief moment. "Shields up Shikuudan!" Andrea exclaimed as she raised her hands. "Maintain full speed, and fly straight through them!!" "Commander Mihoshi," the officer reported. "The Shikuudan is accelerating towards us! They are ignoring our communiques!" "Open fire at once!" Mihoshi ordered. "Broadcast on all channels! Shikuudan you are under arrest, the charge of resisting arrest will be added to the list of charges against you if you do not stop!" The Galactic Police ships fired upon the enormous horseshoe crab shaped ship with two gigantic long back swept crescent shaped pectoral and dorsal fin sections. The tiny concentrated beams struck the mammoth ship but did nothing more than create pretty color patterns in the ship's shields as the cyclopean crustacean continued to close rapidly. Within another second, the ship had smashed straight through the center of the ships in a series of explosions and scattered wreckage, leaving only nine of the battlecruisers and seven support ships intact. Of the ships that were intact, all the support ships and two of the battlecruisers were so badly damaged they were still spiralling out of control from the collision. "I would stop and chat if I had time!" Andrea exclaimed. "But I have all of Kagato's work to steal and greater power to attain!" Andrea looked back forward at the screen and laughed. Her expression turned from one of amusement to one of concern. "I hope another pirate hasn't found his stuff and is stealing what is rightfully mine. Oh well, if they are, then I can destroy them and steal it back." Andrea sighed. "How inconvenient." "Damage report!" Mihoshi demanded as she climbed back to her feet. "We have lost most of our fleet," the officer reported. "Our ship has sustained minor damage to all systems. We are receiving emergency distress calls from our ships. What are your instructions?" Mihoshi sighed as she watched the Shikuudan disappear. "Shikuudan has entered the special sanctuary," another officer reported. "Begin rescue procedures," Mihoshi sighed as her worried gaze was directed towards a distant star in the sky. "We're not finished yet." Two of Mihoshi's bridge officers looked at each other worriedly. * * * * * "Teto, what is the nature of the planet in the distance?" Tori asked. "It is an inhabitable world," the disembodied voice replied. "Mostly water. By Galactic Police decree this planet is in a sector declared as a special sanctuary. Combat activity of any sort are prohibited in this zone." Tori nodded silently. "We won't be here long. How much longer for us to retrieve all the artifacts?" "It will be a little while," the voice replied. "Perhaps in a quarter rotation." "Please tell me when it is finished, I will be in the arboretum," Tori stated. "I shall my princess," the voice stated. The domed arboretum sat in the belly of the spiked dragon. From the dome above her, Tori sat against base of the center tree, looking out into space at the wreckage drifting aimlessly about. The tree seemed to sigh quietly as Tori gazed out at the strange blue planet coming into view again. "Such a pretty planet," Tori sighed. "Nothing like the dark world of home." "THIEF!!" Andrea yelled as she directed Shikuudan on a rapidly collision course with the spiny ship in the distance. "You are stealing what is rightfully mine to steal!!" "Andrea..." Emerson started. "I will pulverize you into nothingness and collect what it is that is mine!!" Andrea screamed at the top of her lungs. "Andrea..." Emerson tried to interrupt. "All this time, Kagato had stolen the fame that was rightful mine," Andrea growled. "Now it is time to collect that which was always rightfully mine!! Die you thief!!" "Alert!" the disembodied voice exclaimed as a data card snapped up in the dome of the arboretum. "We have just detected the Shikuudan, super battle platform of Andrea the Renegade from The Beginning." A picture of Andrea appeared on the next data card. "That Andrea??" Tori asked in terror. "The mythological Andrea??" "Emergency!" the disembodied voice alerted. "Collision imminent!" "Evasive...!" Tori started to yell as her ship jolted violently, throwing Tori screaming face down from the tree and sliding across the grass in the arboretum. Andrea watched as the small spiked ship broke away from the collision at a phenomenal rate and spiralled rapidly towards the blue planet. "What??" Andrea exclaimed. "It survived??" "I was trying to tell you," Emerson started, "that ship belongs to the Royal House of Kurotai. It can survive a collision." "Why didn't you tell me??" Andrea rebuked as she then sighed, bowed her head, and raised her right hand bringing the massive Shikuudan to a full stop. Looking back up she saw the massive spiked ship start to spiral into the atmosphere in the distance. "How inconvenient," Andrea sighed. "Princess!" the disembodied voice screamed as the ship shook, consumed in a glowing red hue. Tori screamed again as she was knocked down again from her struggle across the arboretum towards the lift to the bridge. "I'm not going to make it to the bridge in time!" Tori screamed. "Teto, take us down as best you can!" "Yes my princess," the disembodied voice asserted. * * * * * "These steps have always been an annoyance," Ladylove sighed as she ascended the steps up the hill. "I hope the Masaki's don't mind my showing up a bit early." Ladylove wore a pair of denim shorts with a T- shirt and denim jacket. Around her belt on her right side she wore a large sixteen inch Khyber Bowie knife. On her back she carried a large aluminum framed hiker's back pack. Artemis followed the Captain closely, carrying a back pack herself. Around her body the bioroid wore a simple tunic skirt tied at the waist. On Artemis' feet, ankles, and wrists she wore some tough cloth bound in place by string. "It cooler in Okayama Province this time in year," Artemis stated. "Bu2 tai4 re4. Tien1 chi4 hai3 hau3." "At least Kirin was considerate enough to drop us off at the base of the steps," Ladylove stated. "The walk up the hill to the steps would probably make you change your mind. It's a bit warm for making this kind of climb." "Artemis bu2 pa4 re4," Artemis asserted confidently. Ladylove studied the anthropomorphic feline bioroid and smiled wryly. "I would hate to be the one who had to explain you to airport security." "Artemis no like airport," Artemis stated uncomfortably. "Tai4 ke2 pa2. Tai4 dua2 ren2 kan4 de4 wua3." "Don't worry, I don't like them looking at me either," Ladylove sighed. "I wish Hitomi could come with us here. It's nice this time of year. A little warm, but nice." "Hitomi work," Artemis stated. "No time come. Artemis come instead! Artemis happy come instead. Artemis like nature." "Hi Lucette," a voice suddenly announced right next to Ladylove's left ear. Ladylove jumped and quickly turned and fell backwards against the steps. Artemis backed off as well at the sight of the light blue haired female in what looked like a loose green and pink jumpsuit floating a few inches above the step Ladylove had just been standing on. The woman's golden eyes studied Artemis curiously. "Ryouko do you always have to do that??" Ladylove gasped. Artemis growled a little at the woman. "What? Me?" Ryouko asked as she looked back at Ladylove. "Do what?" "Pop up out of nowhere and scare everyone," Ladylove answered as she climbed back on her feet. "But it's so fun," Ryouko answered. "You should have seen the look on your face, it was SO funny." "Ha ha," Ladylove stated unamused as she dusted herself off, "Artemis, this is Ryouko, she's a friend. Ryouko, Artemis." "Why you scare?" Artemis asked indignantly. "Is not nice." Ryouko floated up to Artemis and looked at the bioroid curiously. Ryouko floated around and then behind her, looking at her anthropomorphic feline body. "What you look at?" Artemis asked. "Interesting," Ryouko stated. "She was constructed genetically?" "Yes," Ladylove answered as she started to ascend the steps again. Ryouko poked Artemis in her muscular arms and around her waist. She then picked up Artemis' right hand and looked at it. Artemis looked at the floating Ryouko curiously. "What you doing?" "Hmm?" Ryouko asked distractedly as she looked up at Artemis. "Ai2 ya2!!" Artemis exclaimed as she suddenly realized that Ladylove was ascending the steps without her. Artemis leaped seven steps at a time on all fours and in three bounds caught up to Ladylove. "Hey, wait for me," Ryouko called as she disappeared and then reappeared on Ladylove's left as she reached the top of the climb. "So what brings you back here Lucette?" Ryouko inquired. A small pudgy fuzzy cat-like rabbit creature rubbing itself on Artemis' right leg caught the bioroid's attention and she knelt down to it. "I needed a vacation," Ladylove replied plainly. "I have a lot of thinking to do." The small rabbit leaped into the bioroid's arms and started to lick Artemis' face as she smiled and giggled. "You friendly. Hen3 ke2 ai2." Ryouko nodded. They had just started walking down the dirt road towards the house when there was a loud explosion in the sky above. Ryouko and Ladylove watched as a large glowing sphere fell to the earth and crashed into the lake nearby, sending a brief tremor and a geyser of water and steam skyward. "What was that??" Ladylove asked. Artemis quickly caught up with the two of them with the rabbit hiding behind her hair on her shoulder and looked towards the area of steam. A short cute red long haired girl suddenly appeared in front of them. The appearance of youth was only an illusion Ladylove knew, since she had met the ancient scientist Washu a few other times in the past, though only briefly. Youshou-sensei had always told her to respect her. "Ryouko, go to the lake immediately," Washu ordered. "I will take Lucette and her friend to the house. Aeka, Youshou, and Tenchi are already on their way to investigate. They will meet you there." Ryouko nodded and suddenly vanished. The characters in this piece of parody fiction are completely fictitious and even though familiar ircnicks of friends were used, the characterizations here are completely fictitious and do not represent who the people behind the nicks actually are in real life. Any similarities that appear are PURELY coincidental. None of this work may be reproduced or duplicated into ANY form, printed or otherwise, without written permission from the author. Ten Muyou --------- By Higeki-san Copyright 1993 by Higeki-san Chapter 2 Lucette hurried with the pillows across the house, her bare feet moving as quickly as they would carry her across the wooden floor boards. Ascending the steps she reached the guest room and quickly handed the pillows to a young woman with long body length black hair arranged in two long separate tails behind her and two shorter tails in front of each ear. She wore an unusual decorative blue and white full-length garment over a white silk dress robe. Upon her head she wore a circlet and various colorful hair clips and ornaments on the two forward bundles of hair in front of each ear. Aeka received the pillows and quickly returned her attention to the woman laying unconscious on the bed. "Who is she?" Tenchi inquired quietly from his position on Aeka's right. Aeka considered the unconscious woman carefully and then looked up at Youshou who sat down on the other side of the futon opposite her. "Mmmm...her hair ornaments seem to identify her as possibly a princess of some sort," Youshou stated as he gazed over the woman's sleeping form. "If she was pursued here, then whoever was chasing her will come looking for her." "Sa-sa-mi," a young girl enunciated as she pointed to herself. She wore a light blue, green and white dress in a pattern similar to Aeka's. "Sa-sa-mi," a sitting Artemis repeated slowly as she pointed to the girl. "Yes," Sasami smiled. The pudgy rabbit-cat creature Artemis was carrying earlier was sitting on Artemis' lap snuggling the anthropomorphic feline's fur. Artemis giggled slightly at the creature's antics and smiled. "Ryouki!" Sasami rebuked. "I'm trying to talk, stop distracting Artemis!" The floppy-eared rabbit-cat looked at Sasami and mewed and then curled up on Artemis' lap and looked like it was going to go to sleep. A small yellow and brown striped squirrel suddenly leaped up onto Artemis' left shoulder and settled down. Artemis looked at the little creature and noted its plain green eyes and feline head features. The squirrel simply looked at Artemis, chirped and licked Artemis' nose. Sasami looked at the squirrel curiously and kneeled forward to get a close look at it. The squirrel snuggled up against Artemis' neck and looked towards Sasami through partially closed eyes. Sasami extended a right hand towards the squirrel and gently scratched it on the head. The squirrel closed its eyes as Sasami's fingers scratched it behind the ears and neck. "Your friend, Sa-sa-mi?" Artemis asked. Sasami looked at Artemis curiously. "No, I thought he was your friend." "No, but he friendly," Artemis smiled. Sasami smiled as she looked at Artemis with the squirrel on her left shoulder and Ryouki sleeping on her lap. "Making new friends?" Ryouko suddenly asked from behind Sasami. Sasami jumped startled and turned around quickly to face the voice, but fell down on Artemis' left. Ryouko looked around and saw the old shrine and enormous tree. "Why did you come up here to Funaho?" Ryouki woke up and stood up on its hind legs mewing happily at Ryouko. "Big sister Ryouko," Sasami gasped. "Why do you have to keep doing that?" Ryouko smiled as she dropped the broken empty spherical shell she had been holding in her hand. "It's fun. Plus I'm SO bored right now." Ryouko sighed resignedly as she sat down on the grass on Artemis' right. "All they're talking about at the house is the woman they dragged out of the lake." "That woman they found is important," Washu's voice suddenly asserted next to Ryouko's right ear. Ryouko was startled at the sudden presence and suddenly disappeared and reappeared facing Washu. "Why did you do that?!!" Ryouko growled. "Well, you do it," Washu informed her in an innocent tone as she pointed at Ryouko. Washu then looked at Ryouko and smiled. "Plus, you should have seen the look on your face. It was SO funny." "Hmph!" Ryouko snorted as she folded her arms and sat down cross legged back on the ground. "Mmm?" Washu asked herself quietly as she noted the pieces of the broken shell on the ground. "The ship?" Teto chirped from Artemis' left shoulder. * * * * * "Have we recovered that black box yet?" Andrea inquired. "Yes," Emerson reported. "The box was recovered, but it was badly damaged. The data we extracted from it may be fragmented at best." "Recover the playable parts and organize the data chronologically," Andrea ordered. "Shikuudan, run a complete scan of the planet and this sector of space. I want to know where they are and where any remaining artifacts are." Large screens suddenly appeared, hovering above the coliseum style bridge, displaying images of the various scans commencing over the blue world. * * * * * "Even in the ancient myths," Youshou explained, "Tsunami, the ship of beginning, was credited with the source of our existence. But other later stories make mention of five royal houses which became dominant in the heavens." "Youshou," Aeka started, "how do we know there were five? How do we even know if that story is even true?" "Ahh....we don't," Youshou answered thoughtfully. "That is why they are called myths. There is no proof for it other than the fact the story exists. Only our ancestors from the Beginning would know for certain if any of it is true or who the other four families may be." "Did any of the stories say anything about the five families?" Tenchi asked. "Very little," Youshou stated. "The only thing that was clearly defined of the five families were the symbols associated with each family." "Jyurai, hawk," Washu started to recite as she walked into the room. "Sarusi, panther, Losys, phoenix, Jinsei, oryx, Kurotai, dragon." "Is it true?" Aeka asked the scientist. "How accurate is that?" "It is a story," Washu shrugged. "No real scientific basis or evidence whatsoever. I took classes a long time ago when I was still at the Science Academy. But if it is true, then this woman may be from the House of Kurotai. Ask her when she wakes up." "How did you speculate she's from the House of Kurotai?" Lucette inquired from Aeka's left. Aeka looked to Washu, curious as well. "Her hair tubes are carved with the seal of a house with a dragon most prominently appearing in the seal," Youshou pointed out. "The dragon is a prominent symbol." "That doesn't seem like a very strong indication of much grandfather," Tenchi observed. "It isn't," Washu stated as she walked over to Youshou's left, next to the bed, and looked at the unconscious figure. "But so little is actually known of the Beginning. Speculating wildly is always the natural progression." "My apologies Lucette that you needed to be caught in this," Aeka stated remorsefully. "I know you were hoping to take this time to think and meditate." Lucette shrugged. "This has certainly been more eventful than I had expected, but I don't mind. There are some things that can't be helped." "Perhaps we can make it up to you when things settle down a little bit," Tenchi smiled. "It looks like things will be busy for a while." "I'm afraid I will have to ask Lucette to take leave of us," Youshou stated. "It is much too dangerous for her to be here." "Grandfather!" Tenchi complained. "She is our guest!" "Youshou!" Aeka gasped surprised. "Yes sensei," Lucette nodded. "I can look after her," Washu asserted as she studied the woman from Olympus carefully. "I can use an assistant right now and Tenchi is right, she is our guest. She had come all this way to see us. Plus we have not concealed anything from her. I am sure Lucette understands danger. Certainly her training and experience has taught her that." "Mm..." Youshou thought carefully. "Very well, but watch over her. The last thing we need is Olympus on our doorstep." Washu nodded. The sleeping woman moaned as she slowly regained consciousness. "Teto..." she whispered. As she blinked a few times she looked around. "Wh-where am I?" she asked frantically. "Where's Teto? Where's my ship??" "We found you next to the lake where your ship crashed," Youshou told her. The woman struggled to sit up. Aeka, and Youshou helped her up. "I am Tenchi," Tenchi introduced, "this is Aeka, and this is my grandfather Youshou." "You are in the presence of the royal house of Jyurai," Lucette stated. "I am Lucette, a family friend." "Jyurai?" the woman asked. "THE Jyurai royal family?" "Yes," Washu affirmed. "THE Jyurai. I am Washu." The woman smiled at the name. "I am Tori of the royal house of Kurotai. Have you destroyed Shikuudan yet?" "Shikuudan?" Tenchi asked as he saw a look of dread suddenly wash across his grandfather's face. "Shikuudan's here??" Washu asked surprised. "What does a little girl know of Shikuudan?" Tori asked curiously. "I only look like I have a thirteen year old's body," Washu corrected. "In reality I am older than everyone here. I am Washu, the most brilliant scientist in the universe. I know of Shikuudan from the myths and from a long time ago when I was still at the Science Academy." "If... if Shikuudan's here, then the Kamidai are here too," Youshou thought carefully. "The mythological Scourge of Cerberus," Aeka whispered. "I had only heard about them in the old legends." "I can assure you they're real," Tori stated. "That's how I ended up here. You mean you didn't come here after me?" Tenchi shook his head. "We saw your ship crash nearby." "I have seen the aftermath of areas ravaged by Shikuudan," Youshou stated, "in the form of decimated dead planets, and the shattered debris of entire star systems, some three hundred in all, most killed when the suns in the solar systems were destroyed, launching the debris devastated planets out into deep space. But in all that I have never seen Shikuudan itself." "So Andrea, we meet again," Washu whispered inaudibly to herself. Ryouko stuck her head through a wall into the room and looked around. "Demon!!" Tori screamed when she saw Ryouko. Ryouko looked at Tori confused and then pulled her head back through the wall and disappeared. "That's just Ryouko," Tenchi assured. "She's a friend of ours." "She's my daughter," Washu smiled proudly. Tori looked at Tenchi and then Washu. Ryouko passed through the wall into the room as Artemis and Sasami walked through the door. The squirrel on Artemis' shoulder leaped down onto the floor and ran to Tori. Artemis held the sleeping Ryouki in her arms. "Teto!" Tori exclaimed as she hugged the little squirrel when it leaped onto her chest. "Wait!" Tori suddenly exclaimed as she pointed at Ryouko. "You were Kagato's servant!! It was you who stole the treasures from Kurotai!" "She was enslaved by Kagato," Tenchi quickly defended. "All of her actions then were against her will. She is free now." "Thanks to Tenchi," Ryouko smiled as she floated up behind the heir of the house of Jyurai and wrapped her arms around the front of his torso, resting her head on his left shoulder. "He was so brave." "Uh... R-Ryouko?" Tenchi stammered nervously as he looked around. Ryouko wrapped her arms around Tenchi tightly as she sighed. Aeka fumed as she clenched her teeth angrily. "Tenchi, you shouldn't take advantage of Ryouko like that," Lucette stated. "Ryouko!" Tenchi exclaimed as he struggled to unwind Ryouko's tightly wrapped arms from around him. "We have guests!" "So, that is where members from the Jyurai royal family are located," Andrea sat on her chair noting the vague individual energy patterns. "The Crown Princess Aeka is not happy," Andrea giggled. "Prince Youshou, Princess Sasami, the heir Tenchi who destroyed Kagato and Washu... they're all here. So we meet again my former teacher. It is a pity you are not the full goddess of change." "The salvaged black box information has been recovered and prepared as per your instructions," Emerson reported. "Play it," Andrea ordered as a second screen appeared next to the one already up. Andrea studied the footage carefully, noting Kagato's failure in obtaining the sword of the house of Jyurai and it's lack of significance at the end when Kagato was destroyed by Tenchi. "He synchronized with Tsunami..." Andrea whispered incredulously. "Look at those Radiant Hawk Wings! Such power... of that Jyurai royal family..." Andrea stopped herself and thought for a brief moment. "Kagato's ship was equipped with shielding to completely filter out external energy sources, much like Shikuudan. Tenchi was creating the Hawk Wings himself. Pure energy matter conversion. Tsunami... Shikuudan was originally constructed to be a ship like Tsunami, but was stopped midconstruction and would have been destroyed had I not found it." Andrea chuckled to herself malevolently. "That was certainly clever of me to figure out the location of the star that was suppose to destroy it. Then again it was careless of the creators to leave so many clues where they left the superstructure with its technology. As far as anyone is concerned Shikuudan was destroyed when the star went supernova. I was absolutely brilliant." The second screen suddenly shifted and changed to a map of the local area. "Mmm? Artifacts?" Andrea asked curiously as she studied the screen. "Give me a count Shikuudan." The screen then tallied up some 6500 individual power signals. "Commence collection of them immediately!" Andrea exclaimed eagerly. "I don't know how many of the power gems Kagato stole are still intact but I need every last one of them." A third screen suddenly appeared below the first two high above the coliseum. "Mm?" Andrea asked as she looked at the map of the earth and two pin pointed positions. "Residual energy from the Ancient Sphere?? Shikuudan, give me a report on both sources, the larger source first." The third screen suddenly cleared and brought up an energy signal for the larger source. A energy match commenced and suddenly the name Karumobias appeared on the screen. "Karumobias??" Andrea laughed. "HERE?? They dumped his body HERE?? The single most dreaded entity in the ancient history of the Beginning before the exodus from the Ancient Sphere HERE??" "It would explain the Lucifer Hawk activity," Emerson asserted. "The hawks down on this planet are but residuals of their former selves," Andrea smirked. "Even my Kamidai are more than a match for these hawks." "Karumobias is still imprisoned and severely diminished from his fabled mythological form of the Beginning," Emerson reported as he studied the small screen in front of him. "The Gods of the Beginning certainly knew how to torment a soul," Andrea noted. "Shikuudan, give me a report of Karumobias' prison." A brief display of data from an area beneath the ocean revealed what was a structure large enough to be a city and massive enough to be a continent on its own. "A 'Rilei'," Andrea observed. "Layers upon layers of dimension traps and energy perversions to keep him trapped in eternal sleep..." Andrea suddenly noted a small rift in the energy field displayed on the screen. "What's this? The seal looks like it was broken fairly recently and he was awakened... hmm, within the past couple of hundred years I would guess." "The Lucifer Hawks seemed to have become active again at about that time," Emerson observed as he probed a number of files from the Earth digital libraries. "The Lucifer Hawks made the mistake of binding themselves to that sorcerer mortal on the promise of supreme power," Andrea observed. "They bound their own destinies to his, but in the end they fell when he couldn't adequately control the power he had attained. In that War of the Gods, he was soundly defeated in the end and banished from the Ancient Sphere. The land where his empire once stood was wiped from existence. "Because of their involvement in the revolt against the Gods of the Beginning, the Lucifer Hawks were themselves cast from the Ancient Sphere, their powers severely diminished once they were separated from the energy rich sphere. The remnant Hawks on this planet were the same ones who stood by him in his defeat. They shared his fate and were also imprisoned in the Rilei. But apparently from a small rift which formed in the seal, managed to escape before he did. They were fools, all of them." Andrea then looked back at the third screen. "Shikuudan, show me the source of the weaker signal," Andrea ordered. The signal focused on the same area where the Jyurai household was centered and the screen with the map highlighted a wide area. "Which one of them?" Andrea asked. "We are too far to make any determination," Emerson reported. "The signal is too weak." "It must be Tenchi," Andrea stated. "He is synchronized to the ark that brought the families from the Ancient Sphere. Of course now the question is how is it he synchronized himself to Tsunami?" Energy readings during the moments of Tenchi's synchronization with Tsunami were played back over and over as Andrea studied the data. After a few playbacks Andrea frowned. "He was already synchronized when he fced Kagato... he just didn't figure out how to use it until this point... the power..." Andrea smiled. "Kagato made the mistake of going in without knowing what it was he was really up against. He saw the key to power in an object, when in fact the true power wasn't really there... Shikuudan, give me a run down of all the objects that Kagato had stolen and make a determination by cross-referencing with the data logs which of those items augmented Kagato's power if any." A fourth screen appeared on the far right and started to run down an entire catalog of items, cross checking them with the energy readings logged in the extracted data from the black box. * * * * * Lucette smiled as she sat in the warm waters of the spring baths. "Zei2 ge4 suei3 hen2 su1 fu3," Artemis smiled on Lucette's right as she relaxed with a towel wrapped around her head. "It sure is isn't it?" Lucette grinned as she rested the back of her head on the rock edge behind her. Sasami smiled as she sat down next to Artemis. "How is big sister Lucette?" "I'm fine," Lucette answered. "How has little sister Sasami been?" "Bored," Sasami sighed. Ryouko entered the bath pond with a bucket of several bottles of sake and floating platforms to put the sake cups on. "Where is big sister Aeka?" Sasami asked. "I'm on my way," Aeka called out as she walked around the wall in front of the changing room with Tori. Both were clad in towels and it took little time for them to step into the soothing warm water. "Are you feeling better?" Lucette asked. "Yes thank you," Tori smiled politely. "Considering all that happened I could use a nice relaxing bath." "Big sister Aeka, big sister Ryouko," Sasami inquired, "is it all right that we are taking a bath now? Isn't it a little risky?" "Don't worry," Ryouko responded. "The men and the two pillars are watching out for us." "That's Kamidake and Azaka," Aeka corrected. "And I would appreciate it if you called my guardians by their names." "I think the general idea is that our lives can't be held hostage just because someone may want to hurt you," Lucette explained to Sasami. "But Washu assured us that nothing will happen for a little while at least so we should be ok." "Artemis so comfortable Artemis forget all fear," Artemis sighed. "Artemis feel so good..." "I guess so," Sasami sighed worriedly as she scooted closer to Artemis. "This is nice," Tori sighed. "We don't have anything like it where I come from. Cleaning was always just a sanitary affair, not a pleasurable one as well." "That's true for most of us," Lucette commented. "It's actually quite rare where I come from, for indulgence such as this. At least for me personally." "I've heard so much about the royal house of Jyurai," Tori stated. "It was always mentioned in our stories and myths as the strongest of the five principle royal houses from the Beginning." "What kind of stories?" Aeka asked curiously as she watched Ryouko pour sake into the numerous saucers on the floating tray. "Mostly stories of the Beginning," Tori answered. "Stories of the Exodus from the place of Beginning upon Tsunami. It was the house of Jyurai who directed Tsunami outwards from the Beginning." "Interesting," Aeka reflected. "What was the House of Kurotai's role in the beginning?" "Our ancestors became warriors," Tori answered. "Our role evolved to that of soldiers to protect the lives of the first passengers on Tsunami." "Then cheers to the reunion," Lucette smiled as she picked up the sake saucer in front of her. Ryouko, Tori, and Aeka quickly picked up a saucer as well and looked at Artemis. "Is ok," Artemis stated, "Artemis no drink." "She's my chaperon," Lucette giggled as she motioned to the feline bioroid. "Kampai!" the four of them blurted as they emptied their saucers in quick gulps. "Mmm, that was good," Tori giggled. "Could I have another?" * * * * * "Shikuudan was unable to make a determination," Andrea sighed. "Too many pieces and not enough known about each one. Data incomplete." "Many of them seemed to be powerful objects on their own," Emerson noted, "but all of unknown property. However, most of the items did have power gems so it is possible that was why Kagato stole them." "More than likely," Andrea agreed. "You don't go around destroying relics for the fun of it... though it is somewhat entertaining at times. I'm sure he was after the power gems. Almost all the relics he destroyed did have gems in them." Andrea sighed. "The only other more obviously powerful item Kagato had was the ship Soujya that Washu designed. It was a brilliantly designed vessel for something built outside the Ancient Sphere of the Beginning. If he used the idea he stole from me then it is definite that he was collecting power gems... Washu was a fool for ever trusting Kagato over me!" Andrea quivered in anger, but then relaxed and sighed. "But there's a piece missing... all of the great powers are tuned on different frequencies of energy. Outside the sphere, the family bloodlines with the ability to tap into specific frequencies maintain that ability for as long as the bloodline exists. The techniques for using that energy are passed from generation to generation. But the most powerful family does not use power gems, the power focus which draws from the various frequencies of energy." Andrea studied the enormous floating holographic screens above her and frowned. "Is that where Kagato went wrong? The greatest powers are concealed in the bloodlines and not the objects, like what the legends said about the Great Ones and their subsequent mortal generations? Tenchi was able to create the Radiant Hawk Wings himself despite being cut off from Tsunami and without need for his sword. Full energy matter conversion..." Andrea shook her head. "That conclusion would result in attempting what Karumobias tried which doesn't work." Andrea sighed in frustration. "This is SO complicated!" Andrea exclaimed as she pressed her hands against her temples and shook her head. "Trying to be powerful is such a task." "We could just go in and attack," Emerson suggested. "What would be the point?" Andrea frowned. "I want to understand the power and then attain it, not show off how powerful I am. Attacking an entity with greater power to attain it without research is stupid and reckless. If you don't know for sure where their power comes from, you don't blindly rush into things like that. Otherwise you'll end up like that arrogant idiot Kagato. Things like this take careful planning. Knowledge is the key to success... and right now I don't have enough of either." * * * * * "And then I pulled Aeka's towel away when Tenchi was in the pool," Ryouko laughed. Two floating buckets filled with empty sake bottles drifted between all of them. "No, you really did that??" Tori asked incredulously as Lucette laughed in the background. "I would be so embarrassed for you." "You were so inconsiderate!" Aeka complained drunkenly to Ryouko, her face flushed red from all the sake "I was not!" Ryouko countered, "I care for Tenchi! Plus you were planning to show him your body anyways. At least he could get an accurate comparison." "That's exactly what I mean!" Aeka shot drunkenly. "All you care about is yourself, what you want! Never mind how the rest of us feel or what might be the best thing to do!" "I am NOT that way!" Ryouko screamed with her fists clenched beneath the water. "I've tried hard over the past 60 years to not be like that!!" "I guess for a thousand year old HAG you'll need a few hundred more years to break old habits," Aeka slurred sarcastically. Tori looked at Lucette nervously as the exchange continued. "Artemis!" Lucette called. "You should come back in here, we're having too much fun!" "Is ok Lucy," Artemis called from the changing house. "Sasami and Artemis all done." "Lucette!" Lucette called back as she noticed both Ryouko and Aeka were glaring at each other angrily. Aeka suddenly turned her attention away from Ryouko and to Lucette. "So Lucette," Aeka asked as she studied the Olympus pilot directly across from her, "what's YOUR story?" Ryouko assumed a position on Lucette's right where Artemis had been. "Me??" Lucette grinned uncertainly as she looked at the three pairs of eyes pinned on her. "Mmhmm," Ryouko slurred as she nodded. "Youshou never told me how it was he ever came to know your family," Aeka stated. "So how did it happen hmm?" "Well... I lived with my grandfather up until the time he passed away a few years after we moved to Olympus," Lucette explained. "I don't really know very much about my mother or father. Grandfather never talked about them. I always got the feeling he felt my parents were unfit, but he never said anything directly. It was probably his silence whenever I tried to bring up the topic. I just know my grandfather made me spend a lot of time here with Youshou sensei. It was somewhat unusual for a foreigner I guess, but somehow it worked out. I dunno. Grandfather never talked much about himself either." "We're all foreigners to this place," Ryouko informed her. "Just look around you." Tori smiled. "Ryouko!" Washu's voice boomed out. "Have you been giving them too much sake to drink?? I need Lucette coherent for her to assist me in some of my experiments." The four of them looked towards the small changing room and saw Washu's small form wrapped in a blanket. "We haven't been drinking THAT much," Aeka slurred, "we still have a few bottles left." "Don't you know it's dangerous to be drinking that much in the bath??" Washu rebuked. "You can drown!! Plus I could smell all this before I even stepped into the changing house!" "But it's traditional here," Lucette smiled as she watched Tori catch Aeka as she listed. "Would you like to join us?" "It's a tradition?? Washu asked surprised in a pensive manner. "Well in that case, OK," Washu answered enthusiastically as she bounded into the water and waded next to Ryouko. The characters in this piece of parody fiction are completely fictitious and even though familiar ircnicks of friends were used, the characterizations here are completely fictitious and do not represent who the people behind the nicks actually are in real life. Any similarities that appear are PURELY coincidental. None of this work may be reproduced or duplicated into ANY form, printed or otherwise, without written permission from the author. Ten Muyou --------- By Higeki-san Copyright 1993 by Higeki-san Chapter 3 The massive structure of the Rilei prison was intimidating. Strange walls and partially submerged shallow courtyards decorated the strange asymmetrical path to the center building, but a small section at the apex of the citadel atop the mostly submerged structure. Walking across an elevated walkway through the partially submerged courtyard Andrea saw the open massive door way of the single unsubmerged structure, a structure of strange beauty and repulsiveness in its irregular form. The perverse patterns on the door didn't surprise Andrea at all, but considering the nature of the dimension trap, she was curious how the seal was broken. Behind Andrea walked three of her Kamidai. The first Lucifer Hawk was deflected off of the protective sphere she had already set up. Two others were knocked away from behind. Energy balls which compressed out into energy poles suddenly appeared into the hands of the three Kamidai. Five Lucifer Hawks attacked and the three Kamidai leaped into the sky and confronted them. Three Lucifer Hawks were cut down immediately, exploding into fiery disintegrating parts. Andrea watched as the fourth one collided into her protective sphere and disintegrated. The three Kamidai struck the last Lucifer Hawk and sliced it to pieces with a combined strike from three directions. The Kamidai then landed at varying points along the mostly submerged courtyard, forming a wide triangle with Andrea in the center. Andrea laughed. "Lucifer Hawks hear me!! I am here to speak with your master Karumobias!" A single hideously formed creature that was a Lucifer Hawk appeared a short distance before her. "Who are you? You are not a mortal of this realm." "I am Andrea," Andrea stated. "He and I come from the same place of the Beginning. I have business to discuss with him." "There is no Karumobias here," the Lucifer Hawk replied plainly. "You are invited to leave." Andrea laughed. "And what kind of fool do you take me for??" Andrea threw her right hand forward and an unseen force grabbed the Lucifer Hawk. The creature screamed in pain. Two larger Lucifer Hawks suddenly appeared, but they did nothing more than hover near the protective sphere. "I will ask again nicely only once!!" Andrea snarled. "If I have to ask again I will destroy this place with Shikuudan!!" "Very well," one of the larger Lucifer Hawk stated, "he will see you." "That's more like it," Andrea sighed as she released the creature. Almost immediately it disappeared. "Karumobias, come out here!" Andrea stated. "I'm not stupid enough to go inside Rilei." The enormous doors suddenly swung open completely and a ghastly slimy bloated creature slithered out. Its head was filled with octopus-like feelers and it's scaly body was just barely anthropomorphic. It barely walked on its legs and its enormous bat-like wings were folded behind it. Andrea estimated the form stood about forty feet tall. "Scourge of Cerberus," the gargling voice boomed. "What do you want?" "Believe it or not, I'm here to help you," Andrea told him. "You are trapped here on this desolate prison, and I need someone like you to do something for me." "Why would I want to help a mortal like you?" the voice ask rhetorically. "Ha! You have the gall to complain about me being a mortal??" Andrea laughed. "Just look where your attempts at immortality got you??" "I succeeded!" the form asserted. "They couldn't destroy me, so they imprisoned me!" "Fool!" Andrea spat. "They kept you alive to torment you, to make sure every second of your remaining life would be consumed in misery. They stripped you of almost everything and you are content to sit here in your belief of immortality and gloat??" "You lie!" the form accused. "Think about it you fool!" Andrea shot. "Would a force that could imprison you and all your followers, and strip you of all your power just imprison you because it didn't have power to destroy you?? Think about it! You are an insignificant being now!! You are weaker than you first started! You have nothing near the power you had before!! Yes, on this world you are a relatively powerful entity, but to the rest of the universe you are but dust! You can't even swim to the closest land mass to terrorize the women and children and you consider yourself as a threat?? If it wasn't for your Lucifer Hawks you wouldn't even be as much as a footnote in the history of this planet!!" There was a moment of silence and then the massive form of Karumobias suddenly sat down. "What is your proposal?" he asked. Andrea smiled. "I move you off this prison to a more populated place, only if you promise to terrorize them." "And what do I get out of it?" Karumobias asked. "The people I want you to terrorize are descendants of mortals from the Ancient Sphere," Andrea explained. "They hold the power of the arc that brought the first people from the Beginning. If you can defeat them, it will be but a first step in regaining your power." "And what will you gain out of this?" the creature asked. "That's none of your business," Andrea spat. "I'm offering you an opportunity. What I gain is irrelevant and pales in comparison to what you can possibly gain." "You are the Scourge of Cerberus," Karumobias stated. "Why would you need me?" "Look, take it or leave it," Andrea snapped irritated. "If you don't take it, then I leave you here to rot for the rest of your miserable existence. I'm not going to waste anymore time to ask you again." "First your word that this opportunity is genuine," Karumobias stated. "I can offer you no such guarantee," Andrea stated, "As best as I can tell it is. It, like all of existence, is a gamble. If you want to play it safe, then you can sit here for the next million millennia." "Very well, I accept," Karumobias stated. "Good," Andrea asserted. "I will transport you and keep you in stasis until we arrive at our appointed destination." Karumobias watched as out of nowhere an enormous spiked sphere appeared floating in the sky. "I've been told Aeka and Ryouko have gotten along a lot better from where they started," Washu stated, "but things will probably never be completely smooth between them as long as Tenchi is who they both want. Hand me the analysis capsule. Ryouko cares about him a lot. She's just over affectionate sometimes." "Mm," Lucette sighed in agreement as she picked up the small slender capsule and handed it to Washu. "So does Aeka." "Energy matter conversion," Washu sighed as she tapped a few more keys on her computer. "There was nothing obvious I could detect anywhere about Tenchi." Washu noticed Tenchi tip toe past the open door of Washu's makeshift lab. "Tenchi! You don't suppose I can run a few more tests on you??" There was a gasp of dread from Tenchi as the footsteps suddenly fled down the hallway, quickly disappearing. Washu sighed. "I've already run every conceivable test on him. None of the tests held any promise except the blood test. I am sure that the key is in the blood of the Jyurai royal family." "Perhaps in a protein sequence in the genes?" Lucette asked. "Mm," Washu agreed. "Something unchanging in the DNA of all the members of the Jyurai royal family. It might not even be a sequence but select individual pieces being in specific locations. The sequence may even change with each generation to maintain a harmonic in the final sequence. The possibilities are endless. It could be anything." Washu sighed. "I need a faster computer." Lucette nodded as the last of the light from the setting sun faded from the horizon. * * * * * "All the artifacts have been recovered," Emerson reported as the last spiked sphere returned to the Shikuudan. "They are being placed in the power chamber now." Andrea nodded. "Kagato stole the technique for extracting more energy from the power gems from me... five hundred years of careful formulation stolen and favor lost by Washu because Kagato had presented the idea as his own!! My career at the Science Academy ended that day. Of course I improved the design even further since then, but the disgrace was intolerable. I, an entity older than most of the miserable lives in the outer universe today, disgraced by stupid selfish mortal fools! I will have my revenge against the professor who betrayed me. It is too bad I had so much difficulty tracking Soujya. Otherwise the taste of revenge in my mouth would have been sweet indeed." "Andrea, all the remaining artifacts are in place," Emerson reported. "Total count reveals a total of 3,509 power gems on all the artifacts, 680 were unattached gems. It appears the gems on most of the remaining artifacts were destroyed when Kagato's ship exploded." "Shikuudan, power up!!" Andrea exclaimed. The walls of the Shikuudan crackled with arcing blue bolts and then glowed warmly as energy from all the power gems were tapped by the ship. "Power output has jumped to 140%," Emerson reported. "190%, 280%, 360%, 440%, 510%, 570%, 630% and stabilizing. We are currently at five times the logged maximum output of Soujya." "When do the Shikuudan's ancient weapons of the Beginning come on line?" Andrea asked. "At 532%," Emerson reported. "The ancient weapons are on line." A special fifth octogonally-shaped screen suddenly appeared below the other four screens and pin-pointed the location of the four power centers in the space between the four quadrants marked by the two vertical fins and the horizontal body of the ship. The data it displayed was in a script Andrea couldn't recognize. "Sasami..." a strange voice echoed out to the young princess floating in the blackness of a strange void. Sasami looked around but saw nothing. "Who is it?" Sasami asked. The form of an enormous creature suddenly appeared in the distance before her, and hovering behind it near its head an unknown figure. The creature suddenly took form in its bloated hideousness and its face of feelers. A number of malformed creatures slowly faded into view and hovered around it. "Who is it??" Sasami asked again fearfully. "Who are you?" As the beasts leaped at her, she screamed and there was a bright light. When she opened her eyes, she found herself floating in space high above the earth. There was a nebulous shape of an enormous object with long fins, jagged sides, and a long tail. Behind its haunting form she saw the massive form of the star shaped ship Tsunami. The nebulous form was an object about three-quarters of the size of Tsunami. "Tsunami?" Sasami asked. "Tsunami, what is it?" The form of the object suddenly changed into that of a woman a short distance from her. Sasami found any signs of distinctive features vague at best. "Who are you?" Sasami asked. The figure seemed to smile wryly and then slowly disappear from sight. The malformed creatures suddenly reappeared out of nowhere and leaped at her. Sasami screamed in complete terror. "Sasami!" Aeka exclaimed as she shook her screaming sister. "Wake up! You're having a nightmare!" Sasami opened her eyes and gazed into the face of her sister. The color of her sister's face was warm and expression gentle in the morning light, filled with concern. "Big sister Aeka!" Sasami gasped as she suddenly sat up and hugged the princess tight. "A nightmare?" Aeka asked as she brought her arms around her sister. "I'm afraid big sister Aeka," Sasami whispered. "It's alright," Aeka whispered as she tried to calm her sister down. "Big sister Aeka and Ryouko will always be here to protect you." Aeka looked up and saw that Ryouko was looking at her solemnly with a look of solemn concern on her face. Aeka saw Ryouko nod and she nodded back in recognition. Ryouko hinted a solemn smile and then quickly disappeared. * * * * * "This won't hurt Teto will it?" Tori asked as she watched Washu fit the domed cap over Teto's head. "Not a bit," Washu assured her. Teto chirped. "Don't worry Teto," Tori assured him. "It's safe." Tori turned to Lucette for assurance and saw her nod. "What are we researching?" Tori asked. "The secrets of the power of the Jyurai Royal Family," Washu answered. "Why?" Tori asked. "For curiousity more than anything else," Washu answered. "I'm bored." "Aren't there other things you can do?" Tori asked. "It seems a little bit inappropriate don't you think?" "I've already repaired and improved Ryouki, and repaired, rebuilt entire sections of, and structurally improved Ryuuoh," Washu stated plainly. "Learning has always been an integral part of life. As a scholar I have no problems pursuing research on such things." "Yes, I understand that," Tori stated politely, "but don't you think some things are best left alone? That maybe some things should always be unknown, left undisturbed?" "As a scholar it is my duty to study the wonders of the universe," Washu stated. "It is this curiousity which drives the human species up to the next levels of existence." The conversation attracted Youshou's attention as he walked by and he stopped to listen. "Yes, but don't you think the forces you're researching are dangerous?" Tori asked. "They are powerful forces which can destroy entire star systems without a second thought. It is knowledge that is so dangerous that if it's unearthed, it could plunge the galaxy into war and cause brother to fight brother over what this knowledge could bring them. The dangers of a supremacy brought about by knowledge can be catastrophic. Wars have been fought for lesser things." "Washu, Princess Tori is right," Youshou stated as he stood in the doorway. "There are powers that we are better off not exploring. Powers so destructive that there is no way a human can ever control it without it ultimately destroying himself. It is the pursuit of knowledge such as this that has pitted humans against each other, feeding such things as ambition, envy, jealousy, selfishness and greed. It is humankind at its worst." Washu smiled amused at the crown prince and then the Princess Tori. "Thank you for reminding me of that. After what happened with Kagato I can assure you that thought has not escaped my mind. I have not forgotten what powerful knowledge in the hands of a mad man can do." Tori nodded solemnly. "I heard you were his teacher." "I was a fool," Washu sighed resignedly. "I allowed him to participate in my best works and saw him take them from me. But even now, Shikuudan drifts above us, its pilot another one of my students, Kagato's rival, the one I wronged and an individual a great deal older than any of us could have imagined, a great deal older than I could have ever imagined. With the knowledge I gave her she created the Kamidai, out of spite for me. I couldn't see Kagato's deception and I wronged her. She was my brightest student before Kagato. She had always hated Kagato and I wouldn't believe her when she told me Kagato had stolen her work." Washu sighed and shook her head sadly. "Ultimately we alone are the only people who can be responsible for our own actions. We live with the results of the choices we make, no matter how they turn out, whether we were right or wrong." "Why did she come here?" Tori asked. "Why did YOU come here?" Washu asked rhetorically. Tori nodded solemnly in acknowledgement. "Lucette, proceed with the experiment," Washu ordered. Lucette typed in the name of the executable file and watched the data transfer proceed to Teto. * * * * * "Artemis stay with Sasami," Artemis asserted as the feline bioroid hugged the young princess. Sasami clung to the bioroid tightly. Ryouki mewed from Artemis' shoulder and Sasami looked at the little bundle of fur and smiled. "Something's really frightened Sasami," Aeka whispered to Tenchi as he walked in. Tenchi looked at Aeka and nodded, and, as he walked over to Sasami, Ryouko entered the room looking towards Sasami and then Aeka worriedly. As they looked at each other, both women nodded to each other silently. Tenchi walked up next to the kneeling Artemis and just as he kneeled down, Sasami turned and saw him. "Big brother Tenchi!" she blurted as she leaped into his arms. Tenchi was knocked off balance by Sasami's momentum, but managed to recover without falling over as he held the young princess. Ryouko and Aeka both bowed their heads and sighed at the sight. "Something is coming," Sasami whispered to Tenchi, her voice quivering with fear. "Something horrible." There was a powerful roar of a crash followed by a short tremor. Sasami screamed and clung to Tenchi. Aeka and Ryouko were knocked off their feet by the tremor. Artemis and Ryouki remained where they were but looked around nervously. "Tenchi!" Youshou exclaimed as he ran to the room. "Let's go!" "Aeka, please look after Sasami," Tenchi stated. Aeka nodded. "Be careful Tenchi!" Aeka and Sasami called out simultaneously. "Stay here Ryouko," Tenchi told her as he ran out the door. "Hey!" Ryouko called after him. "I want to go with you! I don't just want to sit around!" "He told you to stay," Aeka stated. "Too bad I don't do what I'm told," Ryouko winked at Aeka slyly as she disappeared. "Ryouko!" Aeka exclaimed. "Ryouko, come back here!" "Artemis stay," Artemis told Aeka. Ryouki mewed in agreement. Aeka nodded at the bioroid feline and then hugged Sasami. Ryouko appeared unnoticed a short distance away in the trees as Youshou and Tenchi arrived at the site. An enormous one hundred foot diameter spiked ball was embedded in the ground at the edge of the forest. A twenty foot opening on the right side of the sphere was clearly visible from their position at the edge of the forest. Tenchi was about to say something but Youshou brought up his hand and motioned him not to. As they quickly circled right towards the front of the opening they saw three unmoving forms in front of the sphere. Youshou noted their lupine forms and drew to the conclusion they were the Kamidai and immediately looked around in the trees. Tenchi clutched the sword in his hand and almost immediately by itself, the sword pulled Tenchi around, activated and cut straight through an entity that had leaped down at him. The creature was hideously malformed and screamed as it bounced off of his Radiant Hawk Wing and exploded into flames. "Tenchi, go back home!" Youshou exclaimed as he ran through the forest back for the house. Tenchi had just barely turned when he saw several dark forms fall upon his grandfather. They bounced off his Radiant Hawk Wing and pursued as he continued to run. A dark figure descended down at Tenchi, but he saw it too late. A bright ball of glowing light suddenly struck the figure and it exploded, throwing burning embers over him. "Tenchi!" Ryouko called out as she appeared next to him with a rod of energy in her hands. "Watch your back!" Several dark forms suddenly appeared and as they attacked, Ryouko grabbed Tenchi and disappeared. "The shield should hold against the Lucifer Hawks," Washu stated confidently as they all watched a number of creatures repulsed by an invisible field around the house grounds marked by the fence. There were a few explosions and then Youshou leaped through the brush, over the fence, and into the courtyard. He watched as his three pursuers bounced off an invisible wall. Youshou blinked in his defensive pose. "Youshou!" Aeka called out from the guest room on the second story. Ryouko and Tenchi suddenly appeared in the room. Youshou relaxed and then turned around back at the house and waved to Aeka with a silly grin. "Tenchi what are you doing up there?!" Youshou exclaimed. "Get down here!" "On my way!" Tenchi exclaimed as he ran out the door down the stairs. Ryouko sighed and then rejoined Aeka, Washu, Tori and Lucette by the large window. Artemis and Sasami sat next to each other with Ryouki and Teto. The sky suddenly filled with dark forms as an enormous monstrous beast suddenly leaped through the trees and charged. All the Lucifer Hawks backed off and retreated when it appeared. "Everybody out of the house!" Washu ordered as she leaped onto Lucette's back. "Now!! The shield won't stop it!" "Where will we go??" Aeka asked. "Everyone go to the shrine!" Youshou exclaimed from the courtyard. "Go!" Washu ordered desperately. Sasami climbed onto Artemis' back and, with Ryouki, Artemis bolted through the door and down the stairs. Lucette followed closely behind with Washu. Aeka, Tori, and Ryouko reached the open front fence in time to hear the back fence collapse in an explosion. "Tenchi!! Youshou!!" Aeka screamed as Ryouko grabbed the princess and placed her on top of Kamidake. Tori leaped on top of Azaka with Teto and nodded. "Get them to the shrine!!" Ryouko ordered. "Yes ma'am," the two large wooden cylinder-shaped guardians acknowledged as they flew through the path in the forest. "Ryouko what are you doing??" Aeka demanded as she was carried through the gate of the front fence. "Paying back a favor," Ryouko whispered as she turned and leaped back towards the house. Tenchi stumbled backwards as Youshou leaped onto the roof of the house. "What IS this thing??" Tenchi exclaimed. "It is Karl of Mobius," Lucette answered behind him, "or what looks like is left of him." Tenchi turned around and saw Lucette and Washu. "What are you doing here??" Tenchi asked and then he saw Ryouko appear in a dark combat outfit. "Ryouko??" "The one I fought in the Ancient Sphere couldn't be destroyed," Lucette stated. "It took more than the combined power of several Gods to subdue it." Kamidake suddenly arrived and Aeka in her combat outfit leaped off the guardian. "Aeka??" Tenchi demanded. "I'm not leaving so don't tell me to," Aeka informed him. "The shield should hold out all the little things until the house is destroyed," Washu stated as she leaped onto the top of the cylinder shaped guardian. "Lucette, what are you still doing here?" Aeka asked. "Get on Kamidake with Washu and get to the shrine!" "What are you all doing down there chatting??" Youshou demanded. "Watch out!" The creature charged for the small group and missed everyone as they either ran or leaped out of the way. Aeka leaped back and then with a burst of powerful speed, charged and plowed straight into the forty foot tall beast with an explosive burst of power. Aeka was surprised she came straight out the other side so easily, and when she turned around she saw the hole she had blown through its torso disappear as the creature reformed. Tenchi struck and cut off its right arm, but no sooner had the limb been cut off did it disappear from the ground and reform back onto its body. From the air, Ryouko's blasts struck the creature on its back and although they caused damage, like all the other wounds, they healed immediately. "Kamidake! Get Washu to the shrine!" Lucette ordered. "Yes ma'am," the guardian acknowledged and then quickly flew through the open front gate of the fence. On its second strike, it was clear to everyone present that the creature was targeting Lucette specifically. Lucette rolled from the strike, but lost her balance and fell to the ground nearby. Youshou swept by and picked up Lucette as the second fist fell and smashed the ground where she was. "Typhon!!" the creature snarled as it followed Youshou's movements. "Come and face me now Typhon!!" Aeka looked up and noticed two larger deformed beasts simply watching what was happening from their position floating in the sky above. "Ryouko!" Aeka called. "The two up there may be controlling that thing!" Ryouko formed her beam staff and charged the two creatures but they disappeared just before she could reach them. The characters in this piece of parody fiction are completely fictitious and even though familiar ircnicks of friends were used, the characterizations here are completely fictitious and do not represent who the people behind the nicks actually are in real life. Any similarities that appear are PURELY coincidental. None of this work may be reproduced or duplicated into ANY form, printed or otherwise, without written permission from the author. Ten Muyou --------- By Higeki-san Copyright 1993 by Higeki-san Chapter 4 Artemis darted through the brush as quickly as she could with Sasami and Ryouki clinging to her, dodging one and then two attacks by Lucifer Hawks. Leaping off of branches of trees and off of boulders, Artemis bolted for the main path to the Masaki shrine, but an explosion from the right knocked her sideways. As Artemis crashed into some bushes, Sasami and Ryouki were thrown forward. Artemis looked up in time to see the Lucifer Hawk descend towards her. Springing backwards and upwards, Artemis reached the sturdy tree branch as the Lucifer Hawk struck and disintegrated the boulder and soil where she once stood. Two more Lucifer Hawks leaped down next to the first one as a powerful yell filled the air. A strange glowing serpent wrapped itself around the first and then the other late arriving Lucifer Hawk. Both screamed as the serpents compressed and shattered them into flaming pieces. The lead creature tried to leap skywards but was caught by a crescent shaped energy arc which wrapped around him in a coil and compressed. The Lucifer Hawk screamed as his body collapsed and exploded into burning fragments. Tori arrived standing atop Azaka as the Lucifer Hawk fell to the ground burning. Her clothes were considerably different than they were earlier, her body even decorated by a form-fitting gilded black breast plate, greaves, and vambraces inscribed with the golden relief of a dragon. Beneath the armor she wore lose-fitting white clothing with wide sleeves and decoratively colorful tails catching the drift of a virtually non- existent wind. Tori quickly leaped down to the ground as Artemis landed on the top of Azaka. Quickly running into the brush, Tori picked up the dazed Sasami holding Ryouki, and, with a few bounds, she landed back on top of Azaka next to Artemis. "Is Sasami ok?" Artemis asked worriedly as Tori handed the young princess to the feline bioroid. Sasami nodded and looked at Tori and then Artemis. "To the shrine Azaka," Tori instructed. "Immediately," Azaka answered and quickly surged forward down the path. * * * * "It's ignoring all of us except Lucette!" Aeka asserted. "What does that thing have against you??!" Ryouko asked as she sent another series of energy bursts at the creature's face and saw them explode in its face with minimal to no damage. "I was one of the people who helped defeat it in the Ancient Sphere," Lucette called back as Youshou pulled her away from the set of trees behind where Karl was aiming for. Karl's fist missed Lucette and shattered one of the trees. "Come back here and fight you coward!" Karl snarled as he tried to pursue the faster Lucette and Youshou. "What are you talking about?" Aeka shouted. Tenchi, Aeka and Ryouko found themselves chasing after the creature as it left the grounds of the Masaki home in pursuit of Lucette and Youshou. "Why won't you pay attention to us??" Ryouko exclaimed as she threw another energy burst at the forty-foot high winged and tentacle faced creature. The burst struck it in the back of the head and, like before, it completely ignored the attack. "What is that Karumobias doing??" Andrea asked incredulously as she monitored its movements from Shikuudan. "It has Tenchi, the Princess Aeka and Ryouko chasing it and all it can do is go after the human??" "Karumobias apparently has a great deal of power he hasn't been letting others know about," Emerson reported. "Since his removal from the vicinity of the Rilei, his power readings have jumped nearly seven fold. It would explain how he overpowered the five Kamidai in the shuttle." "Yes, but why the human??" Andrea gasped incredulous. "And why are they restraining themselves from using their full power? Do they care that much about the things around them?" There was a new signal on the energy spectrum displayed on the fifth rectangular screen. "Ryouki and Ryuuoh are operating together," Andrea noted as she studied the power readings on the now one of six holographic screens floating up above the coliseum bridge. "By the readings it almost looks like the two ships were meant to be operated together. The synchronization is perfect. Such a configuration smells of Washu's handicraft. And then there's the matter of Karumobias' power..." Another signal suddenly caught Andrea's attention. The Shikuudan identified it as the Kurotai ship. "The Kurotai ship is operating as well I see. Shikuudan, give me a visual of the battle, maximum magnification from Shuttle 2 which is in geosynchronous orbit over the island continent." "He is impossible to destroy by hand to hand combat!" Ryouko exclaimed. "I can't hurt him!!" Tenchi exclaimed helplessly. "He just reforms!!" "He's ignoring everything we do to him!"Aeka gasped in frustration. There was a roar as a large ship in the shape of a six pointed star flew over them. "Ryuuoh and Ryouki!" Aeka exclaimed. Tenchi watched as Youshou and Lucette suddenly disappeared. And, as the creature turned around to face them, he, Aeka, and Ryouko looked at each other and suddenly found themselves on the bridge of Ryouki. The larger spiked dragon ship from the Kurotai Royal House flew up next to them and the communications screen showed the Princess Tori in her strange black armor. "Karumobias' output has just increased by another 200%," Emerson reported. "Fascinating," Andrea noted as she studied the energy readings on her screens. "Where is he getting all that power from??" Another screen suddenly popped up above the coliseum bridge and Andrea noted the ship design as that of a Galactic Police Battlecruiser. "Not THEM again," Andrea growled. "How inconvenient." The spiked dragon ship rocketed skyward with the Ryouki/Ryuuoh close behind. And behind them was the enormous spiked sphere Karumobias commandeered. A group of passengers on a domestic flight over Okayama Prefecture noticed the first two ships rocketing skyward, and then the huge spiked ball in pursuit. The turbulence from the air shockwaves of the ships passing at high velocity sent the 737 spiralling out of control. At the enormous tree in the heart of Ryuuoh, Sasami stood in quiet meditation. Next to her, Artemis duplicated her pose and stood unmoving. "Where's Sasami?" Aeka suddenly asked. "She is with Artemis in the Ryuuoh," Washu answered as she did her best to keep Ryouki close to the spiked dragon ship by manipulating the two floating control spheres. The blue diamond-shaped crystals floating throughout the bridge corrected navigation errors continuously. "Kamidake, Azaka!" Aeka commanded as the two guardians flew before her. "We're going onto the Ryuuoh." "I will go with Aeka," Tenchi asserted "No," Youshou countermanded from behind them. "Washu intends to face the Shikuudan, but we still have this monster to worry about. Princess Tori cannot do it alone. You, Aeka, Ryouko, and Lucette must transfer to her ship to help her. "Yes grandfather," Tenchi asserted. "But how will we fight it?" Aeka asked. "At least Ryuuoh has weapons which may be able to fight it." "And how do you know the Kurotai Battlecruiser does not have comparable?" Youshou asked. "In any case you have Tenchi. You won't need Ryuuoh." Aeka looked at Tenchi and then Youshou and nodded. "And in any case I'll take good care of Ryuuoh," Youshou grinned and waved as the four of them disappeared off the bridge and arrived on the bridge of the Kurotai ship. "Welcome," Tori addressed as she looked forwards at the holographic data cards floating before her. The bridge itself was dark and revealed a completely unobstructed view of space in all directions. Tenchi noted that Tori now wore a large white robe over her armored form. Throughout the bridge, translucent spheres floated in varying positions. "As soldiers of the Beginning, we were limited in the power we could muster," Tori explained. "Our physical skills were often not a match for many of the powers we faced. As a result the ships we built were designed to magnify our own power. Each of your own powers will for that instant become part of the ship's when you use it. Everything from this bridge will be magnified outwards as if you were a part of the ship and the ship a part of you." Tori maneuvered the massive battle cruiser into a direct intercept course with the spiked ball. Tenchi nodded and as he placed his hands palm outwards before him, a Radiant Hawk Wing appeared. An identical Radiant Hawk Wing hundreds of magnitudes larger appeared at the front of the ship. As the Hawk Wing pushed through Tenchi from his palms, through his body, the large one did the same, passing over the ship, covering it with a glowing resilience. As the spiked sphere closed distance, they watched as it grew by some 1000 times, soon dwarfing the Kurotai Battlecruiser in sheer size. "Shikuudan, you are under arrest for your crimes," a transmission of a female voice started. "Please surrender at once or I will be forced to destroy you." "Karumobias' power has just exploded off the scale!" Emerson reported. "It seems to grow with increasing distance from the Rilei prison!" "Shikuudan is recommending destruction of the shuttle," Andrea noted as she redirected her attention to the sight of the massive spiked sphere. "How did Karumobias do that???" "Mihoshi??" Washu asked as Mihoshi's image suddenly appeared on a screen. "Washu?" Mihoshi asked. "What's going on?? Fighting is prohibited..." "Mihoshi!" Washu called impatiently. "Yes!" Mihoshi suddenly snapped to attention. "The sphere is the enemy," Washu stated. "Stay clear of this area until we have destroyed the sphere." "I must arrest the Shikuudan," Mihoshi asserted. "As commanding officer of the Galactic Police eternal list criminals apprehension unit I am under directive to apprehend Shikuudan. "You can't arrest Shikuudan until the sphere is destroyed," Washu told her. "Stay clear until I've talked to Shikuudan." "You can count on me to help you destroy the sphere!" Mihoshi asserted confidently as the connection broke. Washu blinked. "Mihoshi!! Why don't you ever listen to me??" Ryouko concentrated and immediately an enormous orange ball of energy formed off the port side of the Battlecruiser. With a motion of Ryouko's left hand the giant ball launched forward and struck the spiked ball, knocking it off balance momentarily. But the bulk of the blast was dissipated by a strange field the giant spiked ball was beginning to generate. "What is this thing??" Ryouko asked incredulously. "Lucette what is it??" "It's a long story," Lucette sighed. "In simple, in the time when the universe was still young, Karl of Mobius was one of the great malevolent powers. He was cast from the Ancient Sphere, the place at the center of the universe where the universe was created. Back then it took the power of several of the Great Gods to subdue him." "How is it that you know this?" Tori asked curious. "Don't ask, you won't believe it," Lucette told her. "You weren't there were you?" Tenchi asked. "I don't know how it happened," Lucette started, "so please don't ask how I got tangled up in all that." "Andrea answer me!!" Washu exclaimed. "Can't you see what you're doing??" Andrea's face suddenly appeared on the main bridge screen of Ryouki. "Since when did you start lecturing me again??" Andrea asked calmly. "I don't remember owing you anything, youngster." "No you don't owe me anything," Washu answered calmly. "You owe the people's whose lives you've interrupted and are in the process of destroying." "Who says I'm destroying anything?" Andrea inquired. "I am merely... experimenting? Yes, that's the word you always used I believe." "And what are you experimenting?" Washu inquired. "Oh, I need some more information about the power of Tsunami," Andrea smiled in feigned innocence. "Things like how it is controlled, why the bloodline of the Jyurai Royal Family is the only blood line that can control it, things like that you understand." "What if I told you it is impossible to possess that power unless you ARE in the direct bloodline of the Jyurai Royal Family?" Washu asked. "What would you say?" "I would say you probably didn't research thoroughly enough," Andrea answered. "No amount of research will solve the puzzle," Washu countered. "It is a puzzle that the gods themselves placed in the life of the Beginning. Any and all experiments you run now will not yield any results worth studying!" "You are playing with powers you don't understand!" Youshou exclaimed. "You will destroy earth and yourself at this rate!" "So?" Andrea gloated. "The Earth is but a single planet among many, it wouldn't be a great loss. And me? I am more powerful than Kagato ever was. He could only dream of the power I have in my hands now. Shikuudan is more than your pitiful Soujya ever was! If I were you, I'd be worried about your OWN survival!!" With those words the communications was cut. "Andrea..." Washu started to address. "Andrea!!" The enormous sphere collided head on into the Battlecruiser. Tenchi strained under the force of the impact, but the Radiant Hawk Wing held. "We're being pushed towards the Shikuudan!" Lucette exclaimed. Aeka leaped towards the front of the bridge and threw her right fist forward. Her fist was damped before she hit the actual wall of the bridge, but the force of her blast was felt externally, shattering all the forward facing spines of the giant sphere against the Radiant Hawk Wing. Maintaining her force, Aeka continued to channel her power and they watched as the forward wall of the giant sphere started to crack. The sphere pulled back immediately at that point and spiralled away. Ryouko gathered another energy burst and an enormous orange ball of energy chased the sphere down, striking it on its back side, but as before, the strange field absorbed it. Aeka's energy fed the forward Radiant Hawk Wing and it expanded in size by almost ten fold. "Prepare to use the Radiant Hawk Wing offensively!!" Aeka screamed. Tenchi nodded and with a charging surge, the Radiant Hawk Wing exploded with power. An enormous blue ball of energy formed at the center of the Radiant Hawk Wing, and, upon Tenchi's command, launched forwards and struck the sphere with full force. They watched as a large potion of the gigantic sphere shattered under the blast. Aeka's arms dropped to her side at the sight and the Radiant Hawk Wing returned to its normal size. Tori surged the dragon ship forward and fired a series of six energy crescents all of which wrapped themselves around the mostly shattered spiny sphere. "Karumobias' power is continuing to increase," Emerson reported. "Despite that hit, his power output has increased by another 25%." "What is going ON in there??" Andrea demanded. "Shikuudan, analyze!" The Shikuudan's displays immediately brought up another screen with the configuration of a black sphere. Again all the data beneath it was in a script Andrea didn't recognize. "Shikuudan analyze weapons and defenses of that ship," Andrea demanded. Almost immediately a pair of subscreens appeared showing the picture of a Solomon's star and numerous pieces of data, again in the same script Andrea couldn't read. "Damn I wish you could talk," Andrea cursed. "I can't read that!" "Shuttle 2 stand by for combat," Andrea ordered. "On my command, attack and destroy shuttle 1. Karumobias has definitely done something to shuttle 1. Those dragon's coils should have crushed it." "Galactic Police warships moving into position against Karumobias," Emerson reported. Andrea smiled in amusement. "So, they want to play ball too. The more the merrier." "Why aren't the dragon's coils doing anything??" Tori asked worriedly. "They should have crushed him by now." There was a powerful explosion as pieces of the remaining damaged spiked sphere exploded outwards, scattering fragments of the external carapace in all directions like shrapnel. Fragments struck the Radiant Hawk Wing of the Kurotai Battlecruiser, evaporating immediately upon impact. What remained of the enormous spiked sphere was a one mile diameter black sphere. At its center was a glowing Solomon's Star. "Get out of the way!" Lucette screamed. "It's preparing to fire!!" "All ships, shields to full and evasive action!" Mihoshi ordered as the debris flew towards her fleet of seven battlecruisers. Her ship shook as its shields were momentarily bombarded by debris. "Damage report," Mihoshi ordered. "No damage reported from any sections," a female voice asserted. "Reports coming in from the rest of the fleet... Battlecruiser six has suffered minor external damage, and Battlecruiser eight has suffered damage to its port shield generator. "All ships, ready weapons to fire on the sphere," Mihoshi ordered. "Shuttle 2 attack!" Andrea ordered as she watched the Kurotai Battlecruiser suddenly pull up and away from the Solomon Star facing them. The considerably smaller spiked sphere of shuttle 2 pulled from around the planet and struck the black sphere with a number of assorted beams as it then rammed the enormous black sphere and exploded. "How...??" Andrea gasped incredulously. "It should have punched straight through that thing!" "Mass readings indicate the sphere is 75% as massive as Shikuudan in a much more compact form," Emerson reported as a whole series of beams from the Galactic Police battlecruisers struck the black sphere sending explosions across the sphere's shimmering shields. "Impossible!" Andrea screamed. "Washu get out of my way!! I'm going to destroy that thing! Damn you Karumobias!!" "So are you ready to admit you've made a mistake?" Washu asked as her image appeared on Andrea's communications screen. "I'm willing to admit I made a mistake back at the Science Academy." "Prepare to fire the Shikuudan's Ancient Weapons!!" Andrea exclaimed. "Get out of the way Washu!!" The Ryouki/Ryuuoh pulled out of the way and quickly rejoined the Kurotai Battlecruiser well clear of the sphere of battle. "Isn't combat prohibited in this sector?" one of Mihoshi's female bridge officers asked. "Yes, but we are apprehending a dangerous criminal," Mihoshi stated. "We must use all resources available to arrest without disturbing the planet." "We are receiving off the scale energy readings from Shikuudan!" another bridge officer exclaimed. Crew members gasped as they saw the glowing balls of energy form around the massive form of Shikuudan. Four glowing globes of energy appeared in each of the four quadrants of Shikuudan as the black sphere turned its Solomon's Star towards the Shikuudan. The globes suddenly glowed as bright as stars and then surged forward to a point a short distance in front of the Shikuudan, combining into a single sphere of powerful glow, virtually blinding anyone of the fact there was even a ship there. The star surged forward and struck the black sphere, knocking it back, but the bulk of its energy seemed to dissipate around a protective shield protecting the black sphere. A powerful concentrated blue beam erupted from the small black sphere, striking the Shikuudan, sending ripples visibly through its shields. The Shikuudan listed to one side as its systems attempted to compensate. The Shikuudan shook heavily as Emerson attempted to give his report. "Damage reported in all sections. Shield generators have survived and are regenerating power. I am throwing all reserve energy into shields." "Washu!" Andrea screamed. "You win Washu!! How do you destroy it??" Washu's image appeared on the Shikuudan's main screen looking somewhere off to the right. "You win Washu!" Andrea told her. "How do I destroy it??" Washu looked pensive as she put her index finger up to her chin. "You admit that you were wrong?" Washu asked casually, her attention directed off towards the corner of the screen. "Yes, I admit I was wrong!" Andrea answered. "How do I destroy it??" Washu looked directly at Andrea and blinked. "I don't know," Washu stated plainly. "What do you mean you don't know??" Andrea demanded. "YOU found him," Washu accused. "He's your pet, you should know, or were you playing with power you didn't understand?" "Yes, I made a mistake!" Andrea screamed. "Just think of a way to stop it!" "What do you think I've been doing??" Washu snapped impatiently. "Its weapon is powering up again," Emerson reported. "Can you think a little faster?" Andrea exclaimed hysterically. "Black Sphere, you are under arrest for causing a disturbance in this sector which is a special sanctuary," Mihoshi asserted. "Please surrender or you will be destroyed." "No response," the communication's officer reported. The sphere suddenly turned towards the Kurotai Battlecruiser and locked on. "Typhon!" the decrepit voice called as the image of the beast appeared on the bridge of the Battlecruiser. "Give me Typhon or I will destroy all of you." Tori turned and looked at Lucette. "No!" Aeka exclaimed. "Very well!" Lucette countered. "You can have me. But you must give me your word as Lord Karl of Mobius that you will leave this sector alone." Aeka detected the strange change in the tone of Lucette's voice and studied the woman carefully. Ryouko noted it as well and looked at Lucette curiously. "And why would I do that??" Karl sneered. "Who wouldstop me?? Certainly not you. " "Either that or you don't get me," Lucette shrugged. Aeka found the smirk on Lucette's face almost alarming. "Very well," Karl stated. "Just out of curiousity," Lucette stated, "how did you know I was here?" "All powerful magicians from the Ancient Sphere emit residual traces of energy from the Ancient Sphere," Karl stated. "You are no exception." "But of course we can use our powers outside of the sphere," Lucette stated. "Of course..." Karl stated and then he stopped himself and broke the link. Lucette was glowing as she concentrated on the black sphere. A look of pure malevolence and hatred formed on Lucette's face as she glared at the sphere. "You want to kill my friends don't you Karl?" Lucette snarled angrily. Tori looked at Lucette's reflection in the floor and saw a glowing waist-length slightly curly blond-haired, grey eyed female. About her body she wore ornamental white robes decorated with gold and red patterns of a dragon and a phoenix. "Tokimi," Tori whispered in acknowledgement. The burst of fire from the sphere leaped forward before Tori could maneuver the ship out of the way. The Radiant Hawk Wing wavered and collapsed as Tenchi was knocked backwards. The ship shook violently from the impact from the hit. A number of the spines shattered as the energy bolt exploded along the dragon ship's surface. As people fell over, Lucette drifted upwards in the air, and then, as if in a trance, brought her hands palm forward before her. Within seconds, the cannon in the mouth of the massive dragon charged and fired, unleashing a ball of pure energy which struck the black sphere. A section of the sphere exploded and shattered. The sphere was immediately struck by fire from eleven Radiant Hawk Wings including the Radiant Hawk Wing that had come up in front of Ryouki/Ryuuoh. Debris from the sphere started to drift from the sphere. Tsunami appeared directly opposite the Kurotai Battlecruiser the same distance the dragon ship was from the sphere. A second ball of energy leaped from the dragon's mouth, curved in trajectory to correct for the ship drifting off aim, and struck the black sphere shattering another section of its superstructure. Tsunami fired again and explosions rippled across the surface of the sphere with each hit. "Eresh komptai idren Karl u Mobias," Lucette uttered. Closing her hands into fists before her, a stream of six smaller balls of energy was discharged from the dragon's mouth. Each of the balls spiralled on its own trajectory before finally slamming into a different side of the black sphere. The explosions ripped all around the sphere's shell, throwing debris outward into space. Bursts of fire from the battlecruisers of the Galactic Police continued as small explosions continued to bubble from the surface of the badly damage sphere with each hit. "Close on the target!" Mihoshi ordered. "We must make sure they surrender." "The Shikuudan is moving into our line of fire!" one of the bridge officers exclaimed. "Cease fire!" Mihoshi ordered as she watched the mastodon ship cross her ships' paths, blocking out all view of the sphere and the earth. Her bridge crew gasped at the sheer size of the Shikuudan. The blue robed form of Tsunami walked across the polished glass floor to where the blond form of Tokimi stood. The floor extended to infinity in all directions, with neither a beginning nor an end. In the reflection beneath Tsunami was Sasami. Tokimi's reflection shimmered momentarily before the reflection of Lucette reappeared. Tokimi turned and looked at her friend, her grey eyes considering her sorrowfully. A strange wind blew across the glassy plane, blowing her long blond hair and white gown robes slightly. "It is done," Tokimi's voice whispered as the reflection beneath her disappeared permanently. Tsunami watched as Tokimi's form disappeared and the surroundings suddenly grow dark and shift back to that of a tree at the center of numerous short rectangular pillars inside the ship Tsunami. Tori watched as Shikuudan jockeyed for position in front of the battlecruisers from the Galactic Police and fired its converging four sphere blast on the significantly smaller sphere the blast shattering and disintegrating large sections of its external superstructure and launching it into the atmosphere of the earth. Ryouki/Ryuuoh followed its entry into the earth's atmosphere at a distance and corrected the sphere's trajectory a few times as it fell by firing on it, protected from damage by the Radiant Hawk Wing. Washu watched in nervous anticipation as the rapidly diminishing flaming sphere descended and finally crashed into the ocean a short distance from Rilei in a massive explosion of water and steam. It wasn't for several minutes before she decided it was over. * * * * * "And what have you concluded?" Washu asked her former student over the communications screens from the bridge of Ryouki. "I have concluded that what I am looking for is not here," Andrea answered plainly. The reddish-blond hair woman then smiled. "It may never be here. The ultimate power that Kagato was looking for may never exist. And if it does, then Prince Youshou may very well be right, it may be something none of us can ever control." "I'm glad you learned something," Washu told her as Sasami, Artemis, and Youshou suddenly appeared on the bridge. "Not at all," Andrea smiled. "I plan to continue looking for it even if doesn't exist. Who knows, I may find something in the end, even if it was never what I was looking for." The wounded Shikuudan suddenly faded from sight in the distance and Andrea studied her former teacher carefully. "Until we meet again." Washu nodded and the transmission broke. Sasami and Artemis looked at each other and sighed. "She will learn," Youshou stated as he walked up next to Washu on her right. "She's a great deal wiser than Kagato." Washu sighed loudly as she looked at the star field where the Shikuudan had just been just seconds ago. "The Shikuudan has disappeared!" the first bridge officer reported. "What??" Mihoshi asked in surprise. "It's gone commander," the officer reported. "No sign it was even here except the residual energy traces. There may be a energy trail." Mihoshi sighed as she looked over towards the Ryouki and the spiked dragon ship. "Set a course to pursue the energy trail," Mihoshi ordered as she took one last solemn look at the two ships and the Earth behind them. Princess Tori's face suddenly appeared on the communications screen. "I'm sending your people back to you," Tori smiled. "Lucette seems ok now. She doesn't remember what happened at all, or what she supposedly did but physically she is ok." "Send them when you're ready," Washu nodded. Princess Aeka, Ryouko, Tenchi, and Lucette appeared towards the back of the bridge on Ryouki. "Shikuudan got away??" Aeka asked surprised. "I can see how now," Youshou sighed. "In any case it is a matter for the Galactic Police to figure out," Washu sighed. "Don't worry," Tori assured from the communications screen. "The Galactic Police will know where they are. In the end they are the only people who can do anything about it." "It's at times like these I wish Mihoshi was still around," Aeka sighed. "We never did find out why she was recalled by the Galactic Police those years ago." "Where did Mihoshi go?" Washu asked as she looked around. "Ryouki, where's the Galactic Police?" "She was here?" Aeka, Tenchi, Sasami and Ryouko asked simultaneously in their own way. "The Galactic Police squadron has departed," Tori told her. There was a simultaneous moan of disappointment. "It looks like Mihoshi may have found her one true calling," Washu observed. "A Galactic Police officer to the end." Tori nodded. "I will be on my way then. I have a long journey back to Kurotai. I wish I could stay a little while. Perhaps I'll visit again some day." "Please do," Aeka smiled. Tori nodded and smiled. "So long." "Bye big sister Tori," Sasami waved. Epilogue "So how was your vacation?" Hitomi asked as Lucette and Artemis walked through the door of the cottage. Hitomi wore a ruffled white silk shirt with baggy black pants and watched as the two of them dropped their luggage onto the floor. "Hen2 hau3 wan3," Artemis smiled. "Dan1 sz4..." "It was fine," Lucette nodded as she looked at Artemis. "Like Artemis said it was fun in some ways." Artemis noted Lucette's gaze. "Uh huh, it fine!" she quickly agreed with a smile. "Mmm," Hitomi sighed as she looked at the two of them. "Well it was two weeks, did you see anything interesting?" "Just the usual meditation," Lucette stated. "Trees, mild temperatures, breezes, and silence." "Find any answers?" Hitomi asked. "Some," Lucette answered. "And a lot of questions as well." Outside in the distance a small bird was chirping from its nest in the tree. "Oh, by the way, did you hear about the passengers on the jet passing over Okayama Prefecture who claimed they saw three UFOs?" Hitomi's voice asked. "I thought it was hilarious. Did you see anything?" "Nothing at all" Lucette's voice answered plainly. "What did they supposedly look like?" "They said the first one looked like a big spiked fish while the second one looked like a spider, and the third one looked like a spiked ball," Hitomi's voice stated eagerly. "Hmm... you were in Okayama Prefecture, I was hoping you might have heard or seen something. I guess it does sound silly." "Yeah that would seem far fetched," Lucette's voice agreed. "It interesting," Artemis' voice stated. "You saw them?" Hitomi's voice asked hopefully. "Uh, no!" Artemis' voice quickly responded. "Artemis saw nothing." "Oh no! I'm late for my appointment!" Hitomi's voice suddenly asserted in realization. "Artemis go back eat frog legs!" Artemis' voice stated enthusiastically. "Eww! No you don't!" Hitomi's voice countered. "Not in here!" "I'm going to start unpacking," Lucette's voice stated. "OK," Hitomi's voice answered. "By the way, the Special Operations Chief called, he wants you to report in at 3pm today. Something about assembling a new squadron or something." "So soon??" Lucette's voice complained. "Well I'm glad I did get to relax for a week at least." "You mean you only relaxed half the time you were there?" Hitomi's voice asked surprised. "Hitomi late," Artemis' voice reminded. "Ack!" Hitomi's voice exclaimed. "I gotta go! I'll be back around five, and Artemis, no frogs in the house OK??" "OK," Artemis' voice answered enthusiastically.