The Laughter of the Gods, Goddamn Them
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Part 5


        Tenchi and I left the house cautiously. The magnitude of the
explosions was worse than anything we'd felt prevoiously, and were
likely to get worse. "Can you see them?"

         I shook my head. "No. Just follow the explosions." With that, I
saw Ryo-Ohki take to the air. A hail of energy bolts flew from the
starship, which was yowling in an extremely pissed-off manner. "Tenchi?"

         "Hmmm?"

         "What do you do when Aeka and Ryoko fight?"

         "Run for cover."

         "I don't think that there's going to be much cover left soon.
We've got to stop them."

         Tenchi and I sprinted on to the centre of the explosions,
swords drawn. It was a terrible sight. Katenu and Washu were locked in
an appalling fight in two battlesuits; They were throwing energy weapons
and missiles at each other as if there was no tomorrow.

          From the way they were going, I didn't think there would be.

          "Tenchi?"

          "Still with you."

          "I think that those great thick cables on the back are the
main power conduits. You take the one on the left, and I'll take the one
on the right."

          "Gotcha."

          We ran forwards, and leapt up. The blades passed through the
cabl;es, and trhe suits gradually powered down. There was a faint
*glingleingle* from a bush, which broke off into a scream as a stray
missile locked onto P.DeVice.

          "Right! Both of you! Out!"

          A very annoyed looking Katenu and Washuu climbed out of the
cockpits of their battlemechs. 
 
          "HEY! We were just sorting out an old argument!"

          "Can't you do that without destroying the landscape?"

          "Hey, violence is all she understands!" This was from Washuu.
I never realised quite how angry she could get. Katenu  was less
restrained.

          "You die NOW!" Katenu was having a very good attempt at
throttling her sister. Tenchi and I just managed to stop her. 

          "Washuu, what happened? She claims you stole the original
designs for Ryoko/ Reioko/ androids."

          Washuu looked a bit embarassed. "Well, I had the original
idea, but then she drew up some designs. I asked to borrow them, and
then she ... had to go away for a while."

           "You organised that!"

           "SHUT UP!" A faint blue beam suddenly knocked Katenu out.
"That's better. You may not have noticed, but Katenu is a few protons
short of a hydrogen nucleus. She had a nervous breakdown whn she was
young, and had to be... committed. It was a great shame- and she's never
really completely recovered. She's had every treatment that they can
devise. She can be extremely violent."

           "I know." I told her about Katenu's intended arrival. "I
wonder- could Tsunami heal her?"

           "Possible... it's worth a try. Now. That Daughter of mine.
Time to deal with her trouble..."

            *Glingleingleingle*

            A pair of bodies in shredded clothing, both with cyan hair,
flew between us, frantically fencing. 

           "MIYAA!" Ryo-ohki hopped up, looking as confused as was
possible for a cabbit. 

           "It's all right, Ryo-ohki," Said Tenchi."We'll stop them."

           "I'm buggered if I know how, but we'll stop them."

End part 5