Eye of Terror Ch2 Escape from Hell…? Tenchi and the others yelled at the horrific racket coming from the portal, as gunfire and screams started to shake the whole place, cracking some of the glass, as well as a possible eardrum. Ayeka screamed at Washu to turn it off, while covering her ears and running behind Tenchi. Sasami did similar, while gripping the side of Ayeka's kimono. Tenchi staggered slightly at the weight and shock of the noise, also yelling vehemently to get Washu to shut it off. Ryoko flew back at first, then up to the machine and began to kick it wildly, somehow hoping that would shut it off. Washu calmly (as calm as one can be in this situation) ran up to the consol and flicked a switch that turned off the audio reception of the portal, which also caused the fuzziness to reduce, the picture now being discernable. There was some kind of… war going on in there. The portal acted almost like a camera, as it zoomed in and out at certain spots, capturing some of the smaller conflicts within the battle. Actually though, Washu controlled the picture with a joystick like device in her palm. Most of the group cringed as they saw a Chaos Marine lanced through the chest by a lascannon, a cloud of thick blood spraying behind him as he fell to the ground in a heap. Ayeka managed to curl down and grip Sasami to hide her eyes from the horrible sight. Tenchi cringed again, holding his hand up to his mouth as if sick. Ryoko, however, didn't react as badly as the others. She flew up to the portal, peering at it like glass, watching men fight and die before her eyes. Washu, now sweating, continued to pan around, probably looking for Kiyone and Mihoshi. "Miss Washu! What have you done here! This scene is gruesome!" Ayeka screamed in disgust, her eyes locked shut. "Tenchi, what is all that?" Sasami managed to say, her eyes still half covered. "I don't know, Sasami, but it's a horrible sight. Those people, if you can even call them that…they just charge at each other like madmen, marching to their deaths… It's like, a war straight from Hell itself, pardon my expression." Tenchi slowly sputtered, his eyes now locked on the struggle displayed before him, as the view now came over Sergeant Doler's men being cut down during their futile attempt to wound the robotic Thousand Sons advanceing towards them. Even Ryoko did a slight double take as one of the Space Wolves was shot in the stomach by the plasma gunner, his blood and guts splattering in a cloud all over his companions. Another of the Space Wolves tried to charge the Tzeentch spawn, but was mercilessly cut down by their seemingly endless hail of deadly bolter fire. The gang watched as the Space Wolves retreated around the rock, the conversation between Doler and his men, and then witnessed Doler's demise as the Thousand Sons plasma gunner blasted his head into oblivion. "If it wasn't already obvious," Washu said with discomfort," I'm trying to find Kiyone and Mihoshi. Maybe if I reset the portal positioning…" Tenchi began to have a worried look on his brow. "I do hope they're ok, but I wouldn't be too confident if they ended up anywhere around…that place." The view now centered on the image of Khaza and Berzerkers massacring the Space Wolf Long Fangs, which caused even more disgusted looks. Even Ryoko was beginning to squeamish at the sight of so much blood and gore. However, the picture temporarily fuzzed out, as Washu sped up the spatial differentiation of time between the 2 universes, the image coming into view of the 4 Berzerkers who commenced to flick off the group, as well as other obscene gestures and laughing. "HEY!! They can't do that to me!" Ryoko yelled in anger as she did the classic Japanese "pull the eyelid and stick out the tongue" maneuver to them. "Look!" Ayeka cried," There they are!" Her finger jabbed in the direction behind the Berzerkers, at the forms of the battered Kiyone and Mihoshi crawling away behind the wall. Fortunately, the Berzerkers mistook this for Ayeka pointing at them again. "Oh my god," Sasami screamed," They look horrible! What happened to them! Oh, we have to help them!" "Yes, Washu, is there any way we can get to them?" Tenchi asked quickly. "Well… yes, there is one way I can think of, but that involves… going through." Washu explained rather grimly. "Hey Washu…" Ryoko began. "Yes, what is it?" Washu responded. "Now, we can go through this thing right? But… can they come through to here?" Ryoko questioned, with a rather puzzled look on her face. Washu's face suddenly changed to a look of horror. "Yes… actually they can." "Well, that's not good" Ryoko said, pointing to the portal. Everyone looked, just before the Berzerkers pointed their pistols at them, and opened fire, the bolts flying through the portal into the lab. Sasami screamed, as Washu ducked behind a consul, and Ryoko flipped back to the side of the portal. Fortunately, Ayeka reacted quickly enough to put up a shield around them, the bolter fire pinging off the shield, although each shot drained her more then she would have expected. The bolts instead ricocheted into glass containers and beakers, pulverizing metal panels and basically ruining the lab in general. The Berzerkers at this point are firing into the portal, and Mihoshi wakes up to the sound of gunfire, Kiyone still unconscious. She looks around in panic, though manages to keep from screaming. She ventures a look over the wall, to see the Berzerkers shooting into the portal. Ryoko, however, wasn't going to take this lightly, as she shot a charged blast through the portal, hitting a Berzerker in the chest and sending him flying over the wall in a cloud of smoke. The other three scattered behind rocks and things, but they stopped firing. "That'll teach you to shoot at my Tenchi!" Ryoko yelled at the portal as she shot another blast through, hitting the wall, but not even denting it to her surprise. "Ryoko, stop! Kiyone and Mihoshi are behind that wall! You might blast them to bits!" Tenchi yelled across the lab. "Oh yeah, that's right." She whispered to herself. At this point the group stands around trying to figure out how to save their friends, totally unaware that one of the Berzerkers has taken a frag grenade from his bandoleer and is about to chuck it through the portal. "Eat this, ya fuckin' shitbags!" The Berzerker screamed at the disc, as he chucked the grenade over his shoulder through the portal. The grenade just happened to hit Ryoko in the back of the head. "Ow, hey! What's this?" Ryoko mumbled as she caught the grenade in her palm. Tenchi took one look at it, and then jumped back. "RYOKO THAT'S A GRENADE!" He yelled, running behind the consul next to Washu. Ayeka panicked and dragged Sasami off to another corner, as Ryoko finally realized what she was holding, and barely through it over the edge of the stairs before it blew up, rocking the laboratory, breaking more glass and such. The Berzerker cursed under his breath, as he and his fellows decided to brain storm their next move behind the rocks. Mihoshi had been watching the whole time, but couldn't work up enough courage to call out to Tenchi and the others, for fear of the Berzerkers hearing her. Suddenly, she felt a nudge in her side, as Kiyone had managed to regain consciousness and was mumbling something, her arm half pointing out into the field. "Oh, Kiyone! I'm so glad you're ok! I was so scared you might have been dead!" Mihoshi choked as she hugged her partner nearly to death. "Mihoshi…get off of me…and look…" She managed to mutter, still jabbing her finger into the field. They both looked out to see the 4th Berserker's corpse being examined by a group of pitch black armored beings with tall, funnel like helmets with locks of wispy black hair protruding from some of them. They looked almost like something from a nightmare, covered in black and maroon spikes and blades, their eyes a pale jade. Their dull gold weapons were adorned with emerald and ruby like gems, as well as more silver blades and spikes. One of them (Dark Eldar Warriors, for those who haven't figured it out yet) spotted Kiyone and Mihoshi and the group slowly began to slink across the field towards them. At this point, you should probably know what's going on in the 40K side of the plot. The battle has ended, as the Space Wolves were driven from the area by a surprise attack from the forces of Chaos. Both sides have more or less left the battlefield, as the Dark Eldar had arrived to scavenge for wounded men as slaves, perhaps to fight in the arenas or for torture. The Warriors were cautious, sneaking close quietly, even though they knew their intended targets had already seen them, in order to elude the Berzerkers occupied at the strange blue disc. The Dark Eldar were within a dozen yards before Mihoshi realized she still had her blaster, but as she fumbled for it, the Dark Eldar were practically on top of them, bayonets to their necks. One of the Warriors motioned them to be silent, or else he would kill them. They nodded, as a second Warrior took the blaster from Mihoshi. The Warriors, 6 in total, then slinked up next to their new prisoners, to look over the wall at whatever was occupying the Berzerkers. If not interfered with, the Warriors would more then likely have successfully ambushed the Berzerkers, taken that GP officers as slaves, and would never be heard from again. However, thanks to Mihoshi's knack for screwing things up, she managed to sneeze, quite loudly, in fact. This startled the Warriors, and one of the Berzerker's looked up, and immediately opened fire with his pistol, nailing a Warrior between the eyes. The Berzerkers leapt up and charged the Warriors, entering a vicious hand- to-hand struggle of 3 vs. 5, however the Berzerkers were easily more skilled then the Warriors. Attempting to take advantage of the opportunity, Kiyone and Mihoshi flopped over the wall and hobbled to the portal, and were almost through before one of the Warriors slammed into them from behind, sending all 3 through the portal with a scream. The Berzerker followed them in, and eventually, most of the brawl ended up through the portal, except for another Warrior, who was sliced open by a chainaxe during the fighting. Tenchi and the others heard the fighting break out, and looked just in time to see Kiyone, Mihoshi, and the 1st Warrior topple through the portal, followed by a Berzerker. They jumped up and immediately came to the aid of their friends, Ryoko blasting the Berzerker into a bulkhead, the Warrior rolling off under the portal, trying to find his gun. Tenchi and Ayeka managed to drag the wounded Kiyone and Mihoshi away from the melee, which seemed to be unaware that they had changed settings. Eventually Washu used some kind of security system to shock all the intruders into unconsciousness, though the Berzerkers took a while longer to subdue then the Warriors. As Sasami and Ayeka helped Washu take Mihoshi and Kiyone to medical units, Tenchi looked over at the smoking bodies of the newest aliens in his household, though defiantly more hostile then any he had come to meet so far. At the suggestion of Washu, he and Ryoko managed to get the aliens into holding cells, separating the 3 Berzerkers from the 4 remaining Warriors. About an half an hour later, we come back to see Kiyone and Mihoshi sitting at the table with everyone else, Kiyone's arm in a sling, Mihoshi's ribs wrapped in bandages, both of them with minor band aids and dressing for other wounds. "I'm just glad we managed to get out of there," Kiyone sighed," I really thought they were going to kill us. Those burly guys in the red and brass are the ones who did most of the damage. The other guys showed up just before we came back, and actually… kinda saved us." "Yeah," Mihoshi chimed in," If it weren't for them, I bet we wouldn't have made it past those scary red guys! I'm just glad Kiyone was with me, or I don't think I would've managed anything without her! I love you, Kiyone!" Mihoshi tries to hug Kiyone, her hands landing on the busted shoulder, and Kiyone's elbow ending up in Mihoshi's ribs, causing both of them to recoil in pain. "I really think you should shut that portal thing off for good, Washu," Tenchi said skeptically," If it causes this much trouble, we can't keep it here. Speaking of which, you DID turn it off, right?" Moment of silence as Washu goes into deep though. "Of course I did!" She cries triumphantly, and everyone does a face fault of relief. Ryoko gave a sigh, and looked back at the door to the lab. " What're we gonna do with those psychos that came through? We can't let them stay here, cause they might hurt my Tenchi!" Ryoko throws her arms protectively around Tenchi, who immediately gets the bead of sweat on the forehead. We'll skip the argument this will cause between Ryoko and Ayeka, cause I'm sure you all know what that's like. "She does have a point though," Tenchi admitted," We can't just leave them here. Why don't we send them back?" "Well, I would if I could…" Washu started. The group glared at her suspiciously. "I mean, the machine can't just do this at will! It has to recharge before I can reopen the portal. Besides, I have to figure out what criteria Ryoko put in before opening the portal. It could take a while, even for a genius of my esteemed stature." "So we're stuck with them…?" Ayeka mumbled. "That's unacceptable! We don't know that they won't go crazy and try to kill us all! We have to get rid of them, as soon as possible!" "But we can't just kill them…" Sasami whimpered. A moment of silence ensues, as Kiyone nods. "She's right though, if we kill them, we'll be no better then they are. Those monsters… just slaughtering each other like cattle. Its disgusting!" Kiyone shudders slightly. " Maybe we can take them in to a GP station." Mihoshi suggested. "Great idea!" Kiyone said, as she jumped up, then yelped in pain from her arm, and flopped down on the couch again. "Maybe when we get better…" "We'll just have to hold them in those cells for now," Washu concludes, in an assertive tone. "I guess I'll go make them some food…" Sasami suggests as she walks into the kitchen. Washu goes back into her lab to work on the machine, and secretly starts running tests on the aliens. Everyone else simply sits around, wondering what they'll do with their newest "house guests". And there you have it, for now. Kiyone and Mihoshi escape the hell of Warhammer 40K, but seem to have brought back a few hitchhikers with them. What will Tenchi and the gang do with such dangerous, unpredictable beings? Find out next chapter!