heard that i haven't sent this. several people, so...
otherwise sorry if this is a repeat.

not written for more than amusement. some ideas (such as the
Choose Your Own FanFic idea i'd come up with for my webpage)
that i thought i'd monkey around with that were left over
from Reluctant Bet. If you want Social Commentary and
Meaningful Insight Into The Human Condition, well, good
luck. It sure ain't here. This is a fanfic, any resemblence
to a professional job is purely coincidental (and possibly a
sign of the Apocalypse).

THIRD LABOR: Time for Revolution chapter 1 (Prologue) by
Gregg...

Note that this builds on events in "Skysaber's Choice" and
directly follows the events in "Reluctant Bet", is part of
an SI (i'd been accused of it in some other works, so might
as well be hanged as a goat than as a sheep, ne?) As with
RB, there are attempts to come up with new twists on old
stuff.

----------

Grey sat at the edge of Mimir's Well and observed as the
chosen timeline continued now without Divine OR Infernal
Intervention. Some parts were funny, some were sad. All of
which was perfectly normal for such things.

There were the Sailor Scouts, each orbitting their love
interest. There was the perky Ranko, the Reluctant
Hero-Student known as Scarlet, and the hentai disciple of
Happosai - Akane Tendo. The Tendo twins, Nabiki and Kasumi.
A seventeen year old Cologne chatting amiably with her
mother-in-law Nodoka in the Saotome kitchen. Various sundry
other girls all drawn to the eldest child - Jared Saotome.
Queen Serenity and her daughter (multiply removed - sort of)
Serena and granddaughter Rini.

Though they were fated to fight dire foes and have to deal
with numerous problems, it was obvious that the vast
majority of them were content if not happy. Far more were
happy than not. It was a time of exploration and invention,
political turmoil and social upheaval. Just little projects
like terraforming Mars was bringing censure from various
sources around the world. Not to mention all the horrors of
rumor and innuendo that were turned against them.
Nonetheless, they were *mainly* happy.

He saw no indication of any of the not-Senshi from this last
timeline in the Scouts of that timeline. It looked as if the
merger had gone seamlessly.

A sound brought his attention to the arch that marked the
entryway to the Well's area. How long she had been there and
watching him, he had no idea.

"This is unexpected," understated Grey. He indicated a place
nearby. "Have a seat?"

She nodded and moved forward to sit in the indicated area,
remaining silent for her own reasons.

Grey glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, catching
her own look and slight smile. Maybe, just maybe, they could
be friends at least?

That wasn't too much to hope for, was it?

She looked at him speculatively. He somewhat reminded her of
her Ranko-chan. She would miss her, but this was far better
than merging with a pervert.

"Ak-a-ne," was all she said as she curled up beside him, her
tail twitching at the sight of the poke-ball that had just
appeared on his belt. Well, perhaps it would work out.

Grey pondered this and suddenly saw why. Toltiir had said
that they would all understand. In the world they were to
merge with, Akane would have either merged with Scarlet -
the *very* reluctant geased student of the Pheonix Mage, or
the perverted disciple of Happosai - Akane Tendo. As it was
the disciple of Happosai who was native to that plane, Akane
had seen that she would merge with... a most unpleasant
version of herself.

How she had ended up reverting to the pokemon form, Grey
wasn't sure but suspected it was because Amaterasu's
influence had been temporarily suppressed by the shifting
timelines.
Taking out his laptop, Grey put in a request for a
human/pokemon translator. "Okay, I understand why you didn't
want to merge. How did you get re-merged with your pyrolion
aspect?"

Akane growled under her breath. Having a limited vocabulary
sucked. She was tired, she was upset about losing her home,
and this guy wasn't Ranko (but Ranko was a part of him as
she understood it) and she wanted to go off and sulk.

Grey looked over the pokemon. "Beautiful..."

Akane startled at that, before turning a wary gaze towards
him.

"No, not like that," assured Grey. "Have you seen yourself?"

Akane shook her head. No, she hadn't merged with this
previous aspect for long.

"Look then," Grey used the properties of the Well to make it
reflective. Simple stuff he could handle.

Akane gasped as she got a good look at herself. Roughly the
size of a mountain lion, and with a similar build. A long
tail ended in a plume of flame that didn't seem to burn
anything. Red fur covered her, except for a pattern of
orange flame-shaped stripes, those luminous golden eyes, and
a slightly darker flattened nose. Her ears went from flat to
extend out to tufted points as she examined her image.

She'd known at the moment of transformation that she was
powerful, with strong jaws and teeth, powerful claws, and a
tight musculature under that short thick fur. She
instinctively knew that she was now an elemental creature of
fire. She agreed now with Grey's assessment. She *was*
beautiful and deadly, a form that was powerful and graceful
and strong. She grinned experimentally and was rewarded with
the sight of some impressively sharp white teeth though the
back group looked as if they were flattened much like human
teeth. She wasn't exactly human, but then she kind of wished
she could run into Kuno-sempai while looking like this.

Grey took out his pokedex, and let Akane see her entry.
Pyrolion (Akane)
Element: Fire
Type:Unique
Length: 6'3"
Weight: 250 lbs
Techniques: Scratch, Ember
Other Techniques: Roar, Bite, Fire Spin, Flamethrower,
Takedown
Good Against: Grass, Bug, Ice
Bad Against: Water, Rock, Dragon, Psychic
Evolution: Fire Stone
"Pyrolion - fire elemental lion. This pokemon is best
avoided by beginning trainers."

Akane snorted at that. Let ANY trainers avoid HER, thank you
very much. "Aka NE!" Her ears flicked as she heard others
approach. Well, she was tired anyway, so she nosed the
white/red sphere on Grey's belt.

SHOOM!

Grey watched Akane enter the pokeball and was curious. Why
had she done that, anyway? It wasn't often he could have a
conversation with Akane without a fight starting out.

A wood nymph stepped within the arches. "Pardon me,
Candidate Grey, but you're wanted over at Freja's Field."

-----------

Toltiir's tail twitched. As he had reverted to cat-form (it
wasn't his *true* form, but it was familiar and comfortable)
this was not a good sign.

While it *had* been his idea, the arguing girls were not
very amusing at present. Each of those who had made this
choice had excellent reasons (at least in their own
opinions) for being the one to marry Grey, or at least
accompany him on his next Labor.

Then, despite warnings, Son Usagi and Usagi Tsukino were
sufficiently curious that they made physical contact. And
had merged as having both of them bleep out of existence
would not have been funny. Toltiir had some regrets about
influencing things so that they had merged, especially after
the new Son Usagi Tsukino had unleashed an experimental
denki ball attack.

Now everyone was arguing. Not amusing. Toltiir was bored and
beginning to get annoyed.

Edema saw this and walked over to the currently-feline Elder
god before all Chaos broke loose. "Well now, Puck. Hardly
what you had planned, eh?"

"Hardly," agreed Toltiir.

"Grant me three wishes and I'll cut through all this
nonsense," Edema indicated the fight about to break out.

"Fine, fine. Just don't make it boring will you?"

Edema shrugged, nearly popping out of her top in the
process. She was a dark elf and had spent many years as a
talented sorceress in the evil city of Mezonobarren. No
matter that she had learned other methods or had left that
city to pursue another path, the culture one is raised in
constantly colored one's perceptions.

The drow was a friend of Grey's, or so she considered
herself. They were both outsiders in Asgard, and though he
was often a pale-skinned human and she a darkskinned elf,
there was a certain pleasure in each other's company. They
had dated a couple of times, but the loveplay of her
homeland included things that would make a Klingon warrior
squeamish. She liked it rough while Grey was the gentle
nurturing type. So they remained friends but would never get
past that hurdle.

Edema considered. Being a drow mage and running an ice cream
parlor were both occupations where careful thought was a
handy trait. It was not uncommon in her land of origin for a
woman, particularly of the priestesses, to have many male
slaves whose purpose was to entertain her on her couch.
Marriages were less common, as sacrificing a particularly
loved one was a common practice. Still, the common people
had marriages, though it was usually for safety or
advancement, not love. And Grey was more self-sacrificing
than other-sacrificing.

She was listening to the arguments around her. Minako
claimed that as she had known Grey the longest, and he had
once been her pet cat, that SHE should be the first to marry
him. Rei was arguing that as the psychic girl, she was the
best candidate. Setsuna argued that she had seen her
counterparts and knew them to be nearly the personification
of loneliness, that SHE should be first.

Edema was listening, and didn't hear love mentioned once.
She knew this was important to Grey, though she wasn't quite
sure she knew what love was. Affection, yes, she had her
favorite cloak, her favorite magic wand, her favorite
daggers.

"First wish. I wish that all these girls deeply loved Grey
and were comfortable with the concept of a group marriage."

Toltiir, already having manifested a rather large ball of
energy, was a little surprised but let it go. The shimmering
field shot out. Judging from Edema's surprised look, she'd
apparently forgotten that she was a girl and present. As
were a few *other* observers present.

Sasami innocently supplied the next wish due to her dislike
of the continuing conflict. "I wish they'd all kiss and make
up... oh my!"

-------------

Grey climbed the stairs to the small park, wondering why the
mysterious summons and why *him* in particular. He finally
reached the top and saw...

"Hades' pointy beard, why me? Well none of THEM need me,
that's for sure." Grey continued to grumble, walking past
the wood nymph messenger. "Tell whoever wanted me that I got
the message. Oh boy, did I get the message. If anybody wants
me i'll be getting the info from Hades about my next
mission. Yeeeeshhh."

"Oh dear," said the wood nymph as she looked out over the
field, wondering exactly how *this* had happened.

---------------

"This Labor is a bit tricky," explained Koenma as he leaned
against a building, "in keeping with the first two Labors,
it is a task that needs doing in a different timeline. Your
first mission, reconciling Queen Serenity and the Pheonix
Mage, was successful even if..."
Aphrodite snorted and waggled a finger. "Even if she's
convinced that he's actually Serena's father from their
Silver Millenium incarnation."

"Not my fault. Most *definitely* not my fault." Grey was
quite certain of this, he certainly couldn't think of
anything that he'd done to encourage that illusion. And he
knew darn well he'd never been some Silver Millenium
consort.

"The second mission, though simple, was accomplished as
well," Joe pointed out. "Though the chaos level was a bit
high."

"So there will be no resets, no divine interventions or
assistance," Koenma glared directly at Aphrodite on this
last point, "except for behind the scenes in case of a major
demonic intervention. Due to the difficulty of this task,
you will be allowed to take your apprentice and one other
non-divine assistant as well as your usual bag of tricks."

"Apprentice?!"

"Apprentice." Aphrodite gestured and a picture appeared.

"Sasami? Isn't she back in her homeverse?"

"No. Ryoko and Aeka got into a fight in her kitchen. She
left and is now resuming with the RRO. Per her request."
Koenma shrugged. Juraians, who could figure them?

"Continuing your briefing on the Third Labor," said Celeste
with a wince. "The problem is in timeline AK-RN 204171, we
have two seperate problems. There was an Infernal
Intervention where some Chinese guy named Dong Zhao was
posssessed and unifed China, setting up an infernally
influenced empire that lasted nine hundred years and had
serious repercussions throughout the East.

"The second intervention was the result of the Continuum
Knights."

"Wait a minute, i thought they were just interested in
returning errant timelines to mainlines." Grey couldn't help
but interject a comment here.

"That's originally what we thought. Unfortunately, many of
the actions so far don't fit the sort of pattern you'd
expect from that." Celeste rolled her eyes and shook her
head. "Anyway, you're to go to March 13, 1774 where the
problem occurred."

"What did they do and what was the effect?"

"Unclear, other than the deaths of George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, Samuel Payne, and a half dozen other pivotal
American revolutionaries within the period of, " Celeste
consulted a display, "March 13 1774 to May 12 1774.
Resulting in the American Revolution failing, and the
'uppity colonists' are pretty well suppressed by the British
until WWI. AmeMichie ends up actually being three seperate
nations that are continually having border disputes. We've
noted that while there were indications of these 'Continuum
Knights' entering this timeframe, they may have stayed in
there for awhile. They're apparently using a 'Boom Tube'
like device for interdimensional transport."

"Hmmm. So basically," Grey interpreted, "my mission is to
keep the assassinations from taking place."

"Essentially," agreed the huge Koenma, eyeing the clock but
he still had an hour before his poker game with Hades. "What
matters is who you'll be taking with you on the trip.
Remember that many of the girls will revert to an asian
appearance in a non-anime timeline, and if you rely on a
translation spell or device then either failing will mean a
major language barrier for the girl you take with you. Also
that as this is Colonial AmeMichie, noncaucasians are
frequently viewed as being less than a white counterpart."

"Though frankly with Franklin, Jefferson, and a number of
others, they won't care a whit." Celeste pointed out. "Not
to mention that the attitude is less hostile in 1774 than it
becomes later. These are the current list of volunteers..."
A holographic display showed nine girls who had gotten the
rules ahead of time and had put in for the duty.

"However, you should note that the 'Senshi' lost the powers
gained in the past timeline." Koenma grumbled. "As dominant
timelines have them as Senshi they've reverted to similar
core abilities. As this universe doesn't have a Silver Moon
Kingdom to draw power from, they're not able to do some of
their Senshi tricks if they accompany you. Something close
might be possible, I hear Sif's gotten 'inspired.'"

"i see. Therefore, i should choose..."

---------------------

There were six water fountains in Freja's Field. Each was
being used. Each had a line waiting to use it.

"Bleh! Bleagh! Shampoo no can believe she did that!" Shampoo
carefully spat the water out to the side and rinsed her
mouth out again. "Pah!"

Ukyo tapped her on the shoulder. "Come on, Sham-chan, my
turn."

"At least she used the last wish to wish we were cured of
the effects of the second wish, it *could* have been worse."
Ed wasn't *that* unhappy with the way things had turned out.
He'd just been curious, so he and Kiyone had come by to see
what was going on. Serious liplock had commenced as
*everyone* in the area of the field had started kissing
everyone else. What a pity he'd been in his Pikachu form at
the time.

"I noticed Minako just turned herself into her dragonform
and flew off, suppose that the 'Soldier of Love' and the
'Cupid of Love' are planning something?" Kiyone looked over
at her partner, wondering why Ed was still grinning like
that. How odd.

"Oh look! A karaoke bar!" Ed decided to deflect a few
suspicions. Just in case.

"Don't go there."

Edema shook her head, amused for the most part. She hadn't
been bothered by kissing a woman, though humans did it a bit
different. And at least having this guy around had gotten
people to stop calling *her* Ed.

--------------------

Makoto Kino spat water out and regarded her fellow victim of
Sasami's well-intentioned but not terribly thought out wish.
"That was disgusting."

"I've always suspected Usagi of swinging both ways," Rei
growled. "Not only does she have to pursue almost any guy in
sight, but her reaction when she's meeting cute girls..."

Makoto winced. "I think she's still hitting on Cutey-san."

Rei grumbled at that.

"Guys, here's the ones who passed the review board," Ami
said, accessing a data terminal set into a tree. ~At least
my computer skills haven't faded upon leaving my home
timeline.~

"WHAT?!" Makoto was quick to determine that there was a name
conspicuous by absence. "Why aren't I on the list?!"

"Hang on, I'm scrolling down. 'Lack of English skills,
inability to look American.'"

"I'm *half* American! Where do you think my height and
'talent' came from? And, well, I kind of..."

"You spent most of your life fighting or defending that you
were Japanese so taking English courses didn't seem too
cool, eh?" Rei had pieced the story together over the past
few years.
"Until recently..."

Makoto blushed. "Hey, we've been hitting it off lately. And
when he was an angel..."

"When he was an angel he was cute," Ami said, then almost
fainted from the force of her blush when she realized she
had said that out loud.

"Sif took Setsuna to merge with one of her Senshi aspects,"
Rei looked up. "She's still playing matchmaker, I guess."

"Why are *your* names on here?! Ami speaks English but she
and you are pure Japanese!" Makoto looked at the two
nominees. "You couldn't pass for American in... 1774?! Time
AND space travel?"

"Admittedly the American Colonies at that time were
primarily of Anglo-Saxon derivation," agreed Ami, "mainly of
English descent but a few others as well. Most likely we'd
be mistaken for some odd tribe of American ainu there or
Chinese from descriptions passed on by traders. You'll
notice that the main reason is listed here in the sidebar
for our inclusion."

"Well," said Makoto, a determined gleam in her eyes, "I'm
going to find a way to get in on this mission one way or
another!"

----------------------

Timeline SM-301417:

Sailor Pluto took a deep breath. The future ended in fifteen
minutes. Beyond that she could not see and the Gate Of Time
would be forever closed. The timelines would merge and she
would cease to exist. She would become part of another her
that was so close that there were no differences at all.
Which was why they were merging, of course. It happened all
the time and was nothing to be worried about.

Except that when the timelines merged she would go
irrevocably, stark raving, insane from the memories of TWO
lifetimes of isolation. She'd only have to deal with it for
thirty seconds while the merger built up around her place of
guardianship. By the time the wave crested, she'd be
giggling and imagining herself back at the Silver Moon
Palace with her Queen and flirting with that handsome young
Nebula Knight.

"Excuse me?"

Sailor Pluto, the dignified guardian of the time gate,
nearly wet herself. Nobody sneaked up on her. She had been
alone a very, very, long time.

"Who dares....?!" Sailor Pluto looked at a version of
herself who was not a Senshi, who was dressed in a fairly
cute green turtleneck and a pair of tight jeans. Her skin
was more tanned too, and she had a healthy look about her.
"Me?!"

"So, in this timeline, my Queen failed to send anyone
forward in time, and so you have been guarding this timeline
alone since then?" Setsuna looked around at the place,
noting hundreds of sweaters, quilts, blankets, stacks of
trashy romance novels, a few sculptures, a Navajo flute, and
a guitar.

Sailor Pluto leaned on her staff and stared. "It's finally
happened. I've gone mad." She knew she had come close on
several occasions. She'd learned hundreds of skills such as
knitting and playing every variant of solitaire that she
could conceive. If you could do it while you were alone, and
get the supplies by fishing in the timestream, she'd done
it. A million years was a VERY long time. But loneliness was
a poison and boredom a constant companion.

Setsuna shook her head. "I'm one of your Analogues, the
other you from a timeline where I was one of those sent
forward by the Queen, though I am not a Sailor Scout." She
held a slender hand out. "I offer... an alternative."

"An alternative?" Sailor Pluto wasn't born yesterday.
"What's the catch?"

"Your aspect merges with me." Setsuna blushed a little.
"There is a good chance, if we play our cards right, of
ending up with someone special. Of loving and being loved in
turn. There are jobs to be done, important ones as well as
those not so important. But you needn't go mad, and you
needn't go lonely."

There was a blur as the two aspects met, and Sailor Pluto
blinked as the memories of this other life flowed through
her. He made her feel... special. Appreciated. She had sworn
an oath and would serve him as a samurai served her daimyo,
as a knight did her lord, and if she could manage it - as a
lover served the one they loved.

Sailor Pluto blushed and vanished from the room.

--------

Eyecatch #1:

A framed picture of Rei Hino in her priestess hakima. With a
click, it flips over, revealing a picture of Rei in a
plugsuit. Click/flip: Rei in Jedi Knight robes. Click/flip:
Sailor Mars. Click/flip: Rei as a Rifts SAMAS Samurai pilot.
Click/flip: Rae Hino in a yellow gi, leaping towards a Dojo
Destroyer. Rei as an angel.

Eyecatch #2:

A framed picture of Sasami in her Juraian princess clothes.
With a click, the picture turns over to reveal Tsunami
wearing Dragonball Z style fighting clothes. Click/flip:
Magical Princess Pretty Sammy. Click/flip: wearing jeans and
a "Nuku Nuku" t-shirt. Click/flip: Tsunami with the forehead
and cheek markings of an OMG style goddess. Click/flip:
Sasami as an angel with Tsunami standing right behind her.

--------

Everyone copes with events beyond their control in different
ways. Setsuna Meiou moved to secure her position and
increase her usefulness, and even if she still failed to
capture someone's heart, then she'd have a job waiting for
her guarding a gate.

Ami Mizuno gathered information. Makoto Kino aggressively
sought action. Rei Hino tried to analyze the data and get a
feel for the situation. Usagi found a buffet and was not
heard from for several hours. Michiru and Haruka weren't
particularly bothered by kissing other women and wondered
what all the fuss was about. Likewise, Cutey Honey didn't
see the problem, though she'd have much preferred to have
kissed a guy. Edema wasn't bothered about kissing a woman,
but human women were slightly different.

Minako Aino had flown around until she spotted a Karaoke Bar
near the valkyries. Shortly thereafter, the underage girl
was being escorted *back* to the Park, but not (alas) in
time. She'd watched too many Westerns, had gone up to the
bar, and asked for the strongest thing they had. Then,
perfectly in keeping with the source material, had knocked
it back in a single swallow.

"I've got it! Yeah baby I've got it! I'm his Venus, I'm his
fire, I'm pure desire!" Then, as she had done the past three
times she had broken into song, Minako Aino passed out.

"She can still move after drinking that stuff," the valkyrie
holding Minako's right arm noted aloud, "that's fairly
impressive."

"Y'know, Tendo-chan, you've got something there. Though
she's got a dragonseed, so maybe she's not the frail little
girl she appears." The valkyrie holding Minako's left arm
looked over the girl whose heels were dragging in the dirt.

"Call me Kimiko, Helga-chan, we're off-duty. I would *count*
on them being more than they appear, otherwise they wouldn't
be heroes."

Minako's eyes opened, though still crossed, "Yeah baby...."

-------------------

Grey looked over the candidates again.

"Ami, i suppose i could use the 'world explorer' guise and
her English skills are going to be pretty good. She's
physically quite Japanese, being all of 5'3" or so, but
probably knows a lot about world and US history. Probably
knows more than *i* remember, that's for sure."

"Ami Mizuno it is," noted Celeste, scribbling it down. Not
who *she* would have chosen, but then she had access to
information Grey did not.

---------------------

"Oh my," said a currently-normal-if-genius Japanese
schoolgirl, turning red and sweating profusely as she stared
at the display. "It looks like..."

"Ami won?!" Makoto blinked. "*I* look more American than she
does!"

"Minako's really going to be upset about this," Rei noted.

"Oh my," repeated Ami. "I've got to get some supplies and
equipment. And review American History..."

"That's the one subject in the world you're *not* conversant
on, isn't it?" Makoto smirked, sensing a weakness.

Ami acknowledged the hit, cocking her head to the side and
wincing. "Well... it's not like that is a subject that is
normally taught in Japanese schools. I think I ought to get
some supplies."

-----------------

Makoto knew just who to contact. What surprised her was some
of the others accompanying her. "Why are *you guys* all
here?"

"I could ask you the same question, but it's kind of
obvious." Rei straightened the white top of her hakima.
"This mission could take several years, right? Ami having
all that time alone with him gives her an unfair advantage!
So we need a way to stake our claim now or else accompany
the 'happy couple', don't we?"

Makoto frowned. "So you figured it out too."

Rei rolled her eyes. "EVERYONE figured it out. The people
who aren't here are over at Urd's getting potions, or
Hephaestus' place, or laying traps."

"Except for Minako-chan, who's currently passed out," noted
Setsuna as she leaned against the wall.

Rei blinked. She had been *sure* that Setsuna hadn't been
there a moment ago. "So, uhm, how did it go?"

"Well enough," said Setsuna, looking off into the distance.

"What's it like, errr, merging with your other self..."
Makoto wasn't sure how to put this.

"It's like becoming slightly more complete. It's confusing
and odd and...." Setsuna shook her head, sending her long
green hair swaying. "If it were normal, though fusion of
timelines, there wouldn't have been any knowledge of things
being different. In this case, though, the differences
between were quite high. As it is: I remember being alive
and knowing most of you in an ancient Silver Millenium. I
remember my rivalry with Sailor Jupiter over the Knight Of
Duty. I... remember watching you all die, and the Queen
trying to send you forward in time to reincarnate when she
died of her wounds. I remember a million years of watching
humanity struggle back, only to capture only a tiny portion
of the glory of the Silver Millenium. I remember learning
all sorts of skills as I guarded the Gate Of Time, the last
duty given me by the Queen.

"I also remember being reborn as Setsuna Meiou and growing
up in Juuban in the '70s. My graduation from Crossroads in
1989 and then meeting all of you and your 'pet cat' Orion. I
remember learning that Orion was also Minako's 'boyfriend'
Grey and accompanying you all to China. I remember all the
things that happened, including that time we were all turned
into babies and Grey had to take care of us. When the cure
was found and we grew up, a year a day, I remember that as
well. He certainly had his hands full with you, didn't he,
Makoto-chan?"

Makoto looked extremely embarassed at Setsuna's reminder.

"WHAT?!" Edema practically screeched, which was enough to
get everyone's attention. "What do you mean 'the Binding is
with *Ranko* now?!'"

"I mean the Binding got confused. There are currently three
of him after all. Ginseng, Grey, and Ranko." Hephaestus
shrugged and tapped his cane on the ground. "Why are you so
upset, Edema?"

"Errr.." Edema started fidgeting. This had the effect of
drawing further attention towards the pair walking by the
crowd. "Well... I sort of gave him selfalis root."

"WHAT?!" Hephaestus now looked shocked. "Bridal Root! Edema,
how could you do something so foolish! You know he won't do
any of that until after a marriage..."

"I know but those girls are *so* damn shy! I figured it
would get them moving!"

Rei turned to the proprietor of Rajin's Potion Emporium as
Edema and Hephaestus turned the corner. "What is 'selfalis
root' anyway?"

"Ahhh, young one, that is a drow poison, difficult to
prepare. If the husband does not manage to fulfill his
husbandly duties within 24 hours..." Rajin drew his finger
across his throat.

Much blinking. "Why the..." "How..." "That's INSANE!"
Everyone naturally started talking at once. Setsuna put two
fingers in her mouth and gave a piercing whistle that caused
silence to follow.

"Anyone who knows him, knows DARN well that he won't do
anything until he's married," Setsuna said calmly after
everyone had silenced. "Otherwise, when that Lust daimon had
possessed Ami and she spread it out... frankly Makoto would
have children by now."

Makoto blushed and fidgeted at further embarassing memories.

"Not that she would have minded," added Setsuna, "nor would
have any of the rest of us that Ami managed to tag with that
particular enchantment."

"He was twitching quite a bit by the time it wore off, I
think another day and he'd have flown off and never come
back. Or he'd have saved us all a lot of problems." Rei
frowned prettily.

"We never *did* finish that little contest, did we?" Cutey
realized.

Rajin rubbed his hands together. This sounded... profitable.

------------

Grey looked up from his packing, something felt wrong. Kind
of like that time that Ami...

"Something wrong?" Ami finished putting her purchases away.
The RRO "Bag O Tricks" stored all of them away fairly
nicely. She had all the books and other supplies that she
could afford the time to get. Now she had other things that
needed done, such as planning the mission.

"Pssst! Ami-chan, can I see you a moment?" Makoto's voice
came from the other side of the door.

"It's REALLY important."

"Hai, Mako-chan," Ami smiled at her fiance, then let herself
out. Hmmm. Maybe she ought to get some sex manuals, after
all they *were* engaged and they *were* going to be camping,
and they *were* going to be alone together a lot of the
time.

Grey frowned, the odd feeling of danger intensifying as the
door closed behind Ami.

A face appeared at the window, slender fingers sliding the
glass open quietly.

Outside, in the hallway, Ami stared at her friend. "You're
kidding!"

Makoto Kino held her hand up. "I swear, that Rajin guy
confirmed it. A horrible death if he doesn't consummate the
marriage within 24 hours. That's why I got *this*!"

Ami looked skeptically at the little bottle, noticing that
it resembled one of those "energy drinks" that were popular
around exam time. "What is *that*?"

"Rajin sold a bunch of these." Makoto held up a similar
vial. "Some sort of extreme courage potion, guaranteed to
make you a 'warrior of love' or your money back."

Ami blushed, fidgeted, then got a peculiar determined look
in her eyes. "All right then!" She popped the top, swigged
it down, and hit the floor as stiff as if she'd just turned
to wood. Makoto hit with a similar thunk at the same time,
having mimicked her friend's actions.

Inside the room, Grey had tried to fit this into his
worldview. He wasn't that attractive to women, except as a
target for practical jokes. Therefore, Setsuna Meiou had
dressed as Sailor Pluto and appeared from under his bed
because of some jest she was playing on him. Cutey Honey
slipping in the window and attempting to rip his clothes off
was obviously some other weird sort of joke, but as he
didn't think Cutey was this mean or vindictive (the two
often conversing about loneliness and trying to do the right
thing in a society that rarely rewarded such conduct) this
meant that Urd or some OTHER mischievous being was trying to
hit him in an admittedly sore area.

Dodging, ducking and otherwise avoiding the various attacks,
Grey made his way towards the door, especially noting with
alarm that Rei and Minako had joined the crowd. (Though
Minako looked puzzled and Rei looked tired from the strain
of teleporting with someone.) Having lately gotten practice
at this sort of thing, Grey opened the door in midleap,
closing it behind him as he landed in the hallway.

"Ouch!" Ami said, having had someone land on her.

"Ami, we've got to get out of here! One of the love
goddesses is playing kick me again, and I don't know how..."
Grey's voice ran out as he realized that Ami and Makoto were
both on the floor. Which meant... "Uh oh."

Ami and Makoto both looked up at Grey simultaneously, and
there was a moment of near silence. Then came several things
at once: Ami and Makoto pouncing, the door opening, and
Grey... well, he screamed. He knew darn well that this would
end in disaster. How else could it end?

---------------

Edema smirked at the girls confronting her. "Of *course* it
was all a joke. Did you honestly think I would pull such a
crude trick on a friend of mine? No, it might be a perfectly
normal prank among the drow, but Grey is the 'gentle
cuddlesome' type and would never go along with such a thing.
Not prior to a marriage, at least. Having the vows and such,
he might well relax enough to begin trusting again. Not that
such a thing..."

Edema's discourse was interrupted by a small group of girls
in wedding dresses jogging by, carrying a figure so tied up
that he resembled a mummy, while singing "Going to a chapel,
and we're...gonna get marriiiied, going to the Chapel Of
Lovvvvve..."

Haruka and Michiru looked at each other, then at Hotaru,
then Belle, at the odd procession now down the street, and
finally at Edema.

Edema stared down the street with a puzzled expression. "I
think they're heading for the wedding chapel a block over,
the one run by Hestia. My word. Was I too subtle in my
humor?"

"AAAAAaaaa!" Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru, Belle, Usagi, Nabiki,
Sash, Fumika, Queen Serenity, Shampoo, and Ucchan all summed
up their assessment of the situation. Kasumi merely looked
moderately alarmed. Then, of course, they took off in
pursuit.

----------------------

"Mmmmfff! Mmmmmffff!"

Minako bid her time (and also waited for the ground to
stabilize under her feet) while watching the others. She had
no idea what was going on, but only one thing made sense!
Ami had had a relapse of that Lust demon seed!

Her stomach hurt, she felt unsteady, it felt as if someone
had stuffed a whole box of cotton balls in between her ears,
and her vision kept going blurry among other things, but at
heart Minako Aino was a hero and knew what she had to do!

Rescue Ran... Orion... Grey... oh whatever her pet
cat/boyfriend was calling himself lately.

She'd been his Owner, then his confidante, then his friend,
then his girlfriend, then his comrade-in-arms, then his
fiancee. She'd been informed since Rei's psychic powers
awoke that Ranma/Orion's "real" name was actually Grey. And,
after years of associating with him, even if she knew that
most of the memories were just a computer backtracking, she
knew him about as well as it was humanly possible to know
another person. The only person who *really* came as close
was Makoto- the two being kindred spirits of a sort.

He'd slept on her bed (as a cat) for over a year. He was
safe and protective and many other things that she valued.
So, while still under the effects of a rather potent
alcoholic beverage, the hero saw that the fair dragon was in
danger. In danger of what, Minako couldn't quite be sure of,
but in danger of *something.* Therefore she had to save him!

She wasn't really in shape for figuring out what was going
on, and she was quite unsteady on both a physical and mental
basis. As a woman of action, she decided to do what came
natural, and *act*.

Finally she saw her chance as a crowd of other fiancees
confronted the group around her. Shifting Grey's weight
fully onto her, Minako shifted to Angelform and quickly
became airborne, though carrying his weight she wouldn't be
able to maintain it for long.

Especially as she was going from Drunk to Hangover stage,
though she didn't know it. Yet.
Minako faltered, her wings fading as she glided to a roof.
"Ohhhh. I don't feel so good."

The mummified Grey started struggling to be free, especially
on seeing the far edge of the roof approaching. Especially
as Minako seemed to be getting rather ill.

Finally, as Grey struggled to get free, it looked as if he
hadn't escaped after all.

--------------

Minako clutched her head as a million dwarves with icepicks
started in on it. Nausea, weakness, and a whole lot of pain
seemed to have reduced her ability to notice anything
outside herself. "Nnnngggg!"

When she began to feel herself again, there was a cool cloth
lying across her brow and she was lying in bed. "Huh?
Wha..." Who'd put all this cotton in her mouth anyway? And
lying next to her was...

Grey. From the look of it, he had been there for awhile.
Minako's blue eyes blinked in confusion. The last *clear*
memory she had was of going into that bar and asking for the
strongest thing they had. She got the distinct impression it
hadn't gone well after that.

"Mmmmph," came a sound from the figure near her, and Minako
felt some of the haze recede as she noticed the injuries.
Not hers. His. Something had ripped him up in straight
little lines. *She* wasn't hurt, but he'd apparently been
taking care of her while *he* had bloodied and torn clothes
and the skin inside didn't look that good. Knowing him as
well as she did, that meant only one thing.

"Idiot," pronounced Minako, tears forming. "You always pull
this stuff!"She traced a line down the boy's cheek with a
finger. "What did you do that..." A detail was noticed. A
slender ring gracing her hand, on THAT finger.

"Shhhh!" Rei let herself quietly in. "He was tied up in his
own clothes when he transformed to dragon to save you. The
clothes eventually broke but they didn't give as quickly as
skin and bone."

"EEh?" Minako held her hand in front of her mouth,
regretting the outburst immediately.

"Urd used a healing sleep spell, as long as you don't yell
or hit him or something, he'll keep sleeping." Rei sat down
on the edge of the bed. "Not much chance of that, is there?"

"Then why..."

"We bought potions from 'Rajin's Potion Emporium' which
turned out to be not terribly wise." Rei shrugged. "Unless
you know what you're buying, that is."

"Oh." Minako considered that, yes, she had heard stories
about drinking the *wrong* magic potion. "but what
about...?!"

"What about? Oh. The ring. Congratulations." Rei had the
grace to look embarassed.

Hair was toinging. "Congratulations?!" Grey stirred but
Minako wasn't noticing at the moment.

"Well..." Rei hemmed and hawwed but finally got to the
point. "When we caught up to him, he agreed to our terms
providing we got you to a healer. I guess he didn't know
what was wrong with you. He was holding you, or trying to,
you were curled up in lap moaning and looking just
absolutely horrible..."

"Thank you," mumbled Minako, staring now at the matching
ring on Grey's finger.

"So, right now, he's married to you, me, Setsuna, Cutey,
Ami, and Makoto. And no, he hasn't been in any condition to
consummate anything." Rei shook her head. "You were
apparently together enough to say 'I do' in all the right
places, though you kept throwing up and complaining about
pain."

Minako found herself picturing the scene and was
appropriately mortified. What had happened?! She still felt
nauseous and there was the twinge of a headache... but...
her wedding had apparently gone from a dream to a nightmare
and that moment was now past her.

Minako clutched her sleeping husband and cried as her "most
special moment" had apparently been interrupted by some
really horrible incidents.

Rei considered mentioning that anyone who wanted out of it
could do so, apparently it wasn't binding when done under
the influence of potions. Acceptance of the marriage,
however, would mean that one essentially accepted the whole
thing as binding. As Minako was apparently asleep again, she
decided not to bring this up yet.

----------------

Some time had gone by and the explanations made. Son Usagi
and a few others had *insisted* on getting their own
inclusion in the wedding but had been put off as now he had
to get to the Labor.

Ami sat down on the bench of the wagon next to Grey and
Sasami. "Our cover identity is that we're spice merchants.
The wagon in back is our stock. There's also some silk and
other trade goods appropriate to the cover. I've also got
some synthetic gems to use as funds should something happen
where we lose the wagon. I'm the expert on the spices, a
girl you married overseas, Sasami is my younger sister.
We're married, and have been so just under a year."
Grey nodded and handed two weapons out. "In 1774, the main
weapons are flintlocks, knives, swords. There are still a
number of people who practice the Code Duello, and arguments
are settled usually in fisticuffs. Small weapons are usually
all right in these cultures, as long as you don't make a
habit of using them or threatening people with them. Sasami,
yours is a simple Swiss Army knife. It also contains a
distress beacon hidden in the panel, leave the corkscrew out
for five seconds to activate. It's made of high grade steel,
a bit better than what the locals will have but not
outrageously so. Ami, as a merchant you're expected to carry
a weapon. The design is of a simple Amerind knife, buckskin
for the handle, watered steel for the blade. At least that's
what it looks like. It was copied off a prize knife given by
a Chesapeake tribe to an Outsider."

Ami looked at the knife, simple but elegant. "Cerametal?"

"Yeah, next best thing to diamond. Also this..." Grey held
up a fairly plain looking ring with a single ornamental
stone. "The gemstone is *your* beacon. If you break the
stone the alarm goes off. If either of you finds yourself in
trouble, set off your alarm and you'll be yanked back to
Asgard."

Sasami looked behind them into the wagon's interior, wishing
that she could contribute something. "Oh my! There's a lot
of books there."

"Well, uhm," Ami blushed and fidgeted a little. "I wouldn't
want to get behind in my studies..."

Sasami picked a book off the stack. "Huh? 'Dragontaming for
Beginners.' Are we going to run into any dragons?"

"i don't think so," said Grey, puzzled.

The gate swirled with mists. Grey directed the two horses
pulling the wagon forward.

"Warning," the computer said in a feminine voice. "Expected
values exceeded."

"Oh heck," said Celeste as the adventurers rode forward into
the mists. "Someone must have stowed away."

"Gate's malfunctioned." Amaterasu noted. "Wagon's intact but
the people are getting seperated from the vehicle. Expect
they'll be scattered when they land. Looks like they'll
crash in..."

=========================

The Choose Your Own Fanfic idea, as the voting/feedback has
gone so far:
Who does Grey end up married to?
1. Usagi Son, the Sailorjin princess, unsteadily stepped out
of the shadows.
2. Queen Serenity (from Skysaber's Choice) regally glided
forward, her silver hair shining in the odd light.
3. One of the non-Senshi from the last timeline: Ami ,
Haruka & Michiru, Hotaru, Makoto, Minako, Rei, Setsuna,
Usagi
4. One of the Chinese Amazons from the last timeline
(further choices) stepped forward warily, wearing a Western
style wedding gown?! Azure, Fumika, Sash, Shampoo, Sugar and
Spice,Wing
5. A number of girls egged each other on, gawking at their
surroundings, a black cat seeming to herd them forward.
6. Three elite marionettes built by Sakyo stepped forward,
looking around for threats before joining Grey near the
Well.
7. As a small army of assorted girls started wending their
way forward, Grey distinctly heard a feline laugh and
reminder of his promise.
8. Edema stepped out, holding up the scroll that was to be
his next assignment. (Alone Again, naturally...)
9. Sasami steps forward and Grey thinks someone must REALLY
hate him. Well, at least it isn't Pretty Sammy.
10. Kasumi the djinn and Nabiki the dao, with a glance
towards the Armlet still on Grey's forearm.
11. Akane Tendo stepped out, causing Grey to develop a
sudden migraine.
12. Ukyo is still pursuing 'Ranma', sort of.
13.All four of the elementally inclined girls are still
linked to the Armlet. (Shampoo, Ukyo, Kasumi, Nabiki)

Usagi Son - 7, Ukyo - 1, Small Group - 5, The 3 Elite
Marionettes - 3, Setsuna - 5, Sasami - 7, Rei Hino - 2,
Queen Serenity - 2, All the Senshi - 2, Minako- 3, Large
Group -8, Kasumi and Nabiki -4, Haruka & Michiru - 1, Four
Genies - 7, Alone Again -2, Ami - 6, Akane -3, All the
Amazons -1. Rei & Minako -1

Cao Cao's China, or 1774 AmeMichie?

China - 7, AmeMichie-14

who goes with him on the Labor?
1. Minako Aino, after all she's blonde and speaks English.
2. Nobody, it's dangerous and i should go alone.
3. Setsuna Meiou, she can pass for European most likely.
4. Usagi Son is blonde, she might not speak English but i
could pass her off as some Nordic country.
5. Why's Nabiki up there? Doh! i didn't mean! (On the other
hand, Nabiki having an effect on the Constitution...)
6. i thought i'd gotten away from Queen Serenity... no, i
didn't mean to choose her! (This is the mother of Princess
Serenity from Skysaber's Choice)
7. Ami Mizuno, she can speak English and likely knows more
about American history than i do...
8. Shampoo ought to be able to handle the HTH stuff for me,
and primitive conditions wouldn't be a problem for her.
9. Ukyo selling okonomiyaki to the Founding Fathers?
10. You specify.

Shampoo -2, Setsuna Meiou/Sailor Pluto - 8, Queen Serenity -
3, Ami Mizuno- 9, Edema - 2, Nabiki - 5, by himself -1,
Minako Aino - 2, Son Usagi -2, Cutey Honey -1.

What would Ami (a non-Senshi Japanese cram student) be
likely to shop for when going back to 1774 for a prolonged
stay with her fiancee?

1. Camping supplies, it's fairly primitive in 1774
2. Weapons, it's fairly dangerous in 1774
3. Ami follows Sailor Pluto's lead to gain a Senshi merger
4. See what sort of odds & ends she can get at the Rival
Relief Office

Camping Gear- 3, Odds & Ends - 8, Senshi ID -8, Ami gets
weapons -3

Where does Grey end up?
1. That Sailor Marionette World... (a Sailor Moon + Sabre
Marionette fusion world)
2. That world of the Knight Senshi fighting the Dark
Corporation and their Boomers (Sailor Moon + Bubblegum
Crisis fusion)
3. oh heck, Grey's Shinji Ikari?! (In a Sailor Moon +
Evangelion fusion world)
4. Right timeline, wrong time- they're in feudal Japan!
5. Right timeline, wrong time- they're somewhere in the Age
Of Dinosaurs
6. Tropical Island, hmmm. This is where Jared wanted them to
go anyay... let's leave 'em there for awhile
7. That world where the pokemon and human roles are reversed
and even further polarized...
8. It's the right place and time? It's a miracle!
9. They're seperating! Looks like the stress was too much
for the wagon. They'll all be thrown into different
timelines!
10. Into Jared Saotome's timeline
11. A dimensional Nexus point, identity: Aramar.
12. RIFTS Earth
13. That world where Senshi and Yoma are all types of
Pokemon. (SM+Pokemon fusion)
14. A timeline where Serena didn't survive her battle with
Metal'la. (SM Darkline)
12. Grey's world of origin
13. An Eva+SM Fusion, as #3 but Grey is Usagi Ikari?

Real World - 5, World where Serena died -4, Aramar -3,
Gilligan's Island -5, PokeSlave world -2, Sailor
Marionettes -4, Jared's world -1, Right World -3, SM+EVA
fusion -15, Senshi as Knight Sabers -4


THIRD LABOR: A paler shade of Grey (Chapter One)

     Note that this builds on events in "Skysaber's Choice"
and directly follows the events in "Reluctant Bet"

---------

     Grey felt things fall apart, the Worldgate coming
apart, and did what little he could, gathering Ami and
Sasami close with his arms as he used a leg to hook around a
support and try to anchor himself. The horses screamed, and
there were other screams as well that indicated other people
were caught unawares by the vortex.

     Something slammed into the back of his head, and Grey
loosened from the impact and it felt as if Ami and Sasami
vanished in that moment as well as the comforting solidity
of the wagon.

---------

     "Shinji? Shinji!"

     Grey groaned, not wanting this to be confirmed. He
opened his eyes to see Misato Katsuragi looking down on him.
~Oh, crap!~

     "Shinji! You *are* Shinji Ikari, aren't you?" Misato
stood up.

     "Certainly looks that way," Grey held up a skinny arm,
without any of the callouses or scars he'd had at Shinji's
age. Certainly without the muscle he'd developed later,
particularly after going through battle training by some
particularly sadistic Valkyries. ~Okay, dimensional vortex,
and now i've 'leapt' into Shinji Ikari. Best to go along
with this until i figure out what to do next.~ "Uhm, you're
my contact, right?"

     "Captain Misato Katsuragi! C'mon, we've got to get out
of here!" Misato jerked a thumb at a 60ft+ tall figure
walking away from their position. At that point a shot from
a UN Combat chopper struck Misato's car, instantly
transforming it from "sports car" to "flaming wreck".

     Misato rose up from where she'd ducked behind a bench
and whimpered.

     "You *did* have Giant Monster Battle insurance on that,
didn't you?" Shinji (best to go with the flow) asked as he
scratched his head.

     Misato whimpered again in reply, staring at the ruin.
"...I've still got payments..."

     Shinji nodded and took stock: no equipment, no backup,
and he was in the physical body of an anemic spineless wimp.
This sucked. "Okay, how about calling for alternate
transportation?"

     "My phone was..."

     Shinji winced. "In the car. Right. And the phone lines
here are down. Well, that leaves us with only one option,
doesn't it?"

     Misato kept staring at her car and mumbling about the
damage to her bank account.

     Realizing he wasn't getting anywhere, Shinji paused. He
could *feel* someone's presence. One of the benefits of
having your wedding ceremony performed in Asgard by an
actual goddess. Even if it *had* been rather crowded and a
shotgun affair. Telepathy wasn't possible, not here at
least, but he could feel the presence of a wife in THAT
direction.

     Shinji opened his eyes. "C'mon, Captain, this way."

     "But..." Misato eyed the boy as he went walking off
with determination. Certainly he carried himself differently
than she expected. "...but..."

     Shinji smiled as he heard Misato following him. It
didn't take long before he found someone sprawled
unconscious on the street and ran towards her. Shaking her
gently, the girl finally stirred.

     "Who's she? Why isn't she evacuated?" Misato was a
little surprised but still in shock and going over her
monthly payments on a car that had attained the past tense.

     Ami blinked, not recognizing the face, but something
told her..."Grey?"

     Shinji smiled and nodded at Ami's hesitant response, he
whispered just loud enough for her to hear: "We'll talk
later. Check your purse for identification while I keep
Misato there occupied. Then introduce yourself, please
follow my lead."

     Ami nodded, so Shinji walked back to where Misato was
finally coming out of her "I'm financially doomed" trance.

     "Well, Captain, what's with the Giant Monster? You
obviously know what's going on around here!" Shinji went on
the attack, knowing that keeping Misato off guard would buy
them some valuable time.

     "Hey, I wanted to know who's this girl! And... oh man,
how am I going to explain this to the Commander?" Misato
winced at the thought of the report she'd end up filing.

     "She's with me. We go everywhere together. Now, what's
with the Giant Monster? You're not getting either of us
until we hear some answers more than that irresponsible
deadbeat poor excuse for a father -Gendo Ikari wants to see
me. After seeing a Giant Monster from way too close, *i* am
supposed to just swallow my questions and go gallivanting
off after him. Next thing you know there'll be Giant Robots
in a Hidden Base and Secret Plans of World Destruction."

      "I don't..." Misato bit off the rest of her reply and
went thoughtful. "Actually we're the Last Best Hope For
Mankind's Survival."

      "That's what they *all* say in the old cartoons."
Shinji cocked his head to the side and regarded her. "So
you're not denying the Secret Base and Giant Robot stuff?
You didn't hit your head when you dove behind the bench, did
you?"

      "No!" Misato yelled, briefly losing her temper.

      "Excuse me," Ami said, easing up to Shinji's side and
taking his hand. "I'm Ami Mizuno, you know Grey-chan?"

      "'Grey-chan?'" Misato repeated.

      "A nickname i got after my horrid excuse-for-a-father,
Gendo Ikari, dumped me after he turned my mother into a
puddle of goo during an experiment. As you might expect, it
was a bit of a traumatic event." Grey smiled at Ami and
squeezed her hand. "You ought to call me Shinji just to
avoid confusing people."

      Ami blushed but smiled herself. "Uhm. Well, I, ah,
anyway I'm... Shinji-kun's girlfriend. Here's my ID. When
the request for his school records came through, I took the
liberty of having my own transferred as well."

      Misato's hair was toinging again. "I think I've heard
of you... Rits mentioned something about some girl genius
transferring to Tokyo-3. That's you?"

      "H-hai..." Ami's shyness was returning with a
vengeance and she felt the need to lean on something.
Naturally, she chose the boy who's hand she was holding.

      "But why aren't you in a shelter? It's dangerous out
here." Misato winced as the rumble of autocannon in the
background punctuated her sentence.

      In answer, Ami lifted a keyring out of her purse and
punched a button on the side of a 'pillbox' hanging from it.
A rental truck flashed its lights in response.

      "You're fourteen, and driving?! No no no no NO."
Misato held her hand out. "Kids nowadays. Geez! I'M driving.
How'd you..."

      Ami just shrugged and smiled happily as she leaned
against her boyfriend. Using the action to whisper to him.
"There's a little diary in my purse. I need more time to
read it."

      Shinji nodded and whispered back. "It may have to
wait. i'll see if we can't drop you off outside of NERV,
otherwise they'll probably search your stuff."

      Misato found herself wincing. The two were whispering
to each other, and she'd seen enough to extrapolate. A
couple THAT close and unchaperoned... If they hadn't been
sleeping together she'd be *very* surprised and they
probably couldn't bear to be apart very long at THAT stage
of their relationship. The 'girl genius' showed every sign
of having been transformed into a giggly schoolgirl, while
the 'pilot' probably wasn't able to think of anything beyond
his girlfriend for long periods of time. She wondered what
other details were going to pop up and start slapping her in
the face.

---------

       To Misato's considerable relief, the rental truck had
a working phoneline and a call to NERV HQ did manage to go
through. The relief was only temporary, however.

       Ritsuko's annoyance was quite obvious despite the
line static. "What do you mean you're driving a rental
truck?! What happened to your car?"

       "Uhm, well, it looked like a small missile managed to
hit it," Misato tried to laugh about it.

       "Did you get the insurance package that covered
military actions?"

       Misato winced. "Well..."

       "Translation: no. Well, did you at least manage to
get the pilot?"

       Misato's wince was joined by a sweatdrop. "Errr.
Yes... he's here with me."

       "I hear a 'but' in there."

       Misato's sweatdrop was joined by several cousins.
"Well... there's kind of a complication..."

       Ritsuko's voice dropped slightly. "What *kind* of
complication?"

       "He brought his girlfriend... or she brought him, or
something like that..."

       "WHAT?!" Ritsuko's voice was loud enough that it drew
curious looks from Shinji (who was otherwise just watching
the scenery) and Ami (who had had her nose in a book since
Misato had started driving). "What do you mean
'girlfriend'?!"

       "Her name's Ami Mizuno, you remember mentioning some
girl transferring to Tokyo 3 High School?"

       "Mizuno-san?!" Ritsuko's voice lost the edge that had
appeared in it. "That's... interesting. I read her term
paper on the longrange climatic effects of the Second
Impact, and her theories about the dwindling number of
children being born- particularly male children. With the
scanty data she was able to access, it was quite impressive.
Completely wrong, but impressive nonetheless..."

        "Something occur to you?" Misato was glad the
streets were so deserted, it made driving this ornery thing
much easier than it otherwise would have been.

        "This is not a secure line," Ritsuko reminded.

        "Talk to you when I'm there, then." Misato hung up
the phone as they approached a tunnel.

        "WHAT THE?!" Shinji yelped. "Ami-chan, does your
compact have a mirror?"

        "What's the problem?" Misato looked over the boy but
couldn't see anything different. His girlfriend, on the
other hand, was definitely blushing *again* as she handed
him the requested article.

         Shinji fumbled it open and stared long enough for
Misato to notice.

         "Shinji, is something wrong? You didn't get too
much sun, did you? With that fair skin, I've bet you've got
to be careful." Misato wasn't sure why Shinji had that
"punched in the gut" look to him.

         "Oh yeah," Shinji nodded. "Albinos like me tend to
burn pretty quickly out in the sun..."

---------

       Fuyutsuki looked at the report. "So it's happening
much as you've planned. Chairman Keele has his hopes pinned
on this Human Instrumentality Project (HIP), but SEELE's
backup plan..."

       Gendo nodded, his gaze never wavering from the
geofront view outside his window. "The Genetic Upgrade Test
Series (GUTS) is progressing ahead of schedule. So Shinji
has been seeing the Alpha unit..."

       Fuyutsuki glanced at his superior, not bothering to
mention that the Alpha unit had a name. Gendo would use it
when he wanted to. Not before.

----------

       "Estimate fifteen minutes until the yoma arrives," a
female voice announced over the intercom.

       Another female voice spoke immediately thereafter.
"N2 Mine has successfully destroyed 90% of 'troop' yoma, the
General *is* regenerating."

       Ritsuko watched the monitor. "Look at that, the boy's
being quite protective of his little girlfriend. How...
useful."

       "Useful?" Maya wasn't quite sure what to make of that
comment.

       "It gives us a tether by which we can manipulate
him," answered Ritsuko absently. "Look at how he's ready to
start a fight with that one security guard for copping a
feel while frisking Mizuno-san. Despite the guard being
quite a bit larger. With territorial instincts like that,
we'll be able to get him jumping through any rings we want."

       "A guard did what?!"

       "Actually he was planting a chempatch onto her skin,
the grab was just to distract attention." Ritsuko Akagi
pursed her lips and considered the display briefly. "Now we
just have to seperate the two of them and we'll be able to
get Alpha ready."

       Maya blinked. "She's the Alpha unit? What about..."

       "Shinji will pilot Unit One. Asuka will pilot Unit
Two. Ayanami will pilot Unit Zero. The others all have their
own places."

       Maya winced. Yes, she had a crush on Ritsuko Akagi,
she admired the woman's fierce intellect and ability to pull
solutions out of nowhere. That didn't mean that Ritsuko
didn't scare the piss out of Maya every so often.

---------

      "Mizuno-san will have to stay here, it's too late to
get her to a shelter." Misato didn't mention that the
security teams were likely going through the packed
belongings on the truck with a fine tooth comb right now.

      "I don't trust Secret Government Organizations running
out of Hidden Bases," noted Shinji with a calm voice,
fingering an odd little marble in his pocket. "The
prediliction for secretive behavior often copies over into
other areas, like hidden agendas and secret plans.
Therefore, Ami-chan should stay with me."

      "I'll be okay," Ami reassured her boyfriend (that
thought sending a fresh blush across her cheeks). "I'm
feeling a bit tired, anyway."

      Shinji frowned some more but finally nodded. "Okay, if
you insist."

      "I insist. Go out and save the world or whatever." Ami
sat down in one of the plastic "bus station" sort of chairs,
ending the argument.

      Ami watched the two go off and tried (unsuccessfully)
to find a magazine of interest. She finally settled on an
old issue of Cosmopolitan and started reading THAT with a
fair heaping of guilty pleasure. Especially when the first
article she turned to was on how to rate your relationship
using the Kinsey-Matsumoto System.

      Acting out fantasies was the first question. Maybe if
she played Doctor...

      She was sound asleep with an odd little grin when the
men in dark suits came for her.

---------

Eyecatch:

Minako Aino in a framed picture, wearing a skirt and blouse.
With a click, the picture turns over and she's wearing a
plugsuit. Click/turn. Minako's wearing a Sailor Venus
seifuku. Click/turn. Minako's wearing a cheerleader outfit.
Click/turn. Minako as a Lodoss style elf. Click/turn, Minako
the cute lil' angel.

Eyecatch 2:

Ami Mizuno in a framed picture, wearing a labcoat and
stethoscope. The picture turns over with a click, revealing
a picture of Amy Anderson as a Vulcan in a Star Fleet
science uniform. Click/flip: Sailor Mercury. Click/flip: Ami
as a RIFTS Rogue Scientist in a suit of Urban Warrior
megadamage armor. Click/flip: Ami as a cute little angel.

---------

     Ritsuko, Misato, Gendo, and half the crew from NERV HQ
noted the difference between the sulking albino led into the
storage bay to the fierce boy ready to do his level best to
defend his girlfriend at the security checkpoint.

     "Are you sure about this? Isn't there someone better?
What about the effect on the environment? Has anyone even
*tried* to talk with these yoma?"

     "Commander," mumbled Fuyutsuki as he stood behind
Gendo, "maybe we *need* Alpha after all."

     Gendo smirked (smirk#7) and didn't respond verbally.

     Misato, in the bay, pointed towards Unit One. "Get in
there, you're a boy you know!"

     Shinji blinked at Misato for a moment, then very
deliberately, looked down the front of his pants. "Oh my
lord! You're right! Well, no sense sending a boy in to do a
woman's job. Good luck, Misato, go kill that
yoma-thingie..."

     Misato blinked as she realized that Shinji was halfway
towards the door. "HEY!"

     Shinji got to the door, found it wouldn't open, and
sighed. Not that easy to get out of this Reality...

     "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Misato screamed, having
absolutely no idea what to do about a suddenly *very*
reluctant pilot.

     "Shinji. You will pilot Unit One."

     Shinji dropped the pretense. "What are you doing to
Ami-chan?"

     Gendo frowned and it showed in his voice. "The girl is
safe. For now. This will not be the case if the Yoma
accesses this Geofront."

     "Let Ami-chan go and i will pilot Unit One."

     "You are not in a position to negotiate," replied
Gendo. "Bring the First Child. The spare is proving
difficult."

     Shinji blinked. ~Waitaminute. If Rei Ayanami is *also*
here, then why am *i* a half-angel clone... and of *who*? i
certainly don't look like Yui Ikari, Gendo Rokubungi/Ikari,
or anyone else in the series i remember.~

     The answer was swift in coming, with identical wounds
to what he had seen in Evangelion, the figure of Rei was
moved through the door by several large officious types.
However, her hair and eyes were dark, her skin several
shades darker than his own bleached-looking albino skin. Rei
was quite obviously a relatively normal human.

     The wounds, the bloodstains, the gurney, were all the
same from the Evangelion series he'd seen.

     "Rei, you must do it again," Gendo's voice echoed over
the "waters" of hangar bay.

     Rei winced and tried to get up.

     Shinji turned his attention towards the observation
booth. "I'll pilot it. But I swear on my mother's grave,"
here he pointed at the Eva unit, "if you do *anything* to
Ami I will find a way to hunt you down and kill your sorry
ass. And don't forget I *always* keep my promises."

     The cold, heartfelt, sincerity in that statement
reached a few of the people there. Misato and Ritsuko had
absolutely no doubt that the albino was serious. Gendo made
plans for finding another pilot immediately, this one
appeared to have some will.

     Nobody saw him pull a marble out of his pocket, inflate
it to the size of a baseball, then release a mountain lion
as Shinji got into the entry plug. They just noted his
presence in the entry plug and accepted his brief absence
from camera view as continued jitters.

---------

     In an odd place that combined aspects of a late 70s MIS
Department, a garden, and the Starfleet Administration
Computer Research Center (she'd worked there once, and
discovered that Klingon Warriors could be repelled quite
easily with Hello Kitty merchandise) a young-looking goddess
frowned and checked her readings. "Oh, fubar!" This was both
an assessment and a term of lack of endearment.

      "Ama-chan!" Celeste held the button on the intercom
down briefly. "Amaterasu! I've done traces on the explosion.
Looks like Grey's little red wagon and the horses ended up
in Staging Area 3. I've sent Joe to recover them. The
problem was caused by Son Usagi's battle aura interfering
with the gate process. I *know* she wasn't supposed to go!
Yeah. Sixteen. No, I'm not sure."

       Celeste listened a little longer. "Because those were
just the obvious trails. Look I think the best thing to do
is get Grey to accept the marriages as valid. Because THEN
he can use the connection there for Similarity & Contagion,
and use the bond to trace them to wherever they ended up. Uh
huh. Looks like Ami and Sasami are there in the timeline
where he landed. Depends on your definition of danger."

       Celeste nodded. "Actually they're all genetically
engineered beings. SEELE is planning on having them mate
with 'Shinji' so as to produce a next stage in human
evolution. They call their plan GUTS. Genetic Upgrade Test
Series or something like that. No, Makoto is in another
timeline, so are Usagi, Minako, Cutey, Belle's here merged
with her local aspect, Haruka and Michiru ended up in Sky's
homeplane merging with their aspects there, Hotaru's in
another plane, so is Setsuna. Actually she's not that
manipulative in this variant.

    "Well, of course they're in trouble. Ayanami and Misato
didn't sneak aboard. The four bracer-genies are in the
wagon. He's got his weapon-bracers, but what use he can get
out of them... No, there *are* local versions of Ami's
friends, they're just not the ones who tried to sneak on his
Labor."

------

    On the monitor, the bridge crew could see Shinji
settling back as the LCL rose around him, finally taking a
deep breath of the fluid and making a face. "It tastes like
blood, it smells like blood."

    "Cut it out, you're a boy you know!" Misato fussed at
the albino, momentarily forgetting his last reaction to that
statement.

     "i'd really like to hear Ami's comment on that."

    Maya looked up from her board. "General has released
soldier-yoma. Actions?"

    "Release our soldiers," ordered Gendo, "tell them shoot
to kill. They only have to hold them off long enough for
Shinji to defeat the General anyway."

--------

     Shinji looked at the interior of the Entry Plug with a
certain degree of surprise. It more resembled the cockpit of
a Gundam unit (later series) than a Evangelion plug that he
was familiar with. "Ami-chan..."

    "Cut it out, you're..."

    "OH SHUT UP!"

     Everyone in the bridge stared at the monitor briefly as
Shinji lost his temper.

      "i DON'T need some criticism from some drunkard washed
out military dupe who can't even fix INSTANT RAMEN! Someone
whose failed relationship with her high school sweetheart
continued to set the pattern of dangerous rebel and
self-destructive behavior all her life."

    Ritsuko blinked, making a little squeegee noise.
"Misato, how does he know you that well?"

    Misato turned to her friend with a startled expression.
"What?"

    "Man, he really nailed you," Makoto Hyuga said
thoughtfully.

     "Hey!"

    "Fuyutsuki. Check our security files and find out how
Shinji could have such accurate intelligence on Katsuragi."

    "HEY!!!" Several hairs had toinged by this point.

    Shinji hadn't stopped talking. "AND you're not getting
any younger, you know! What do you think that 'drink till
you puke' lifestyle is gonna do?"

    "STOP THAT!" Misato yelled at the screen, thoroughly
rattled.

    "Well *excuse me* Captain Mushroom!" Shinji fussed as he
checked the controls. "i'd be a lot less stressed out if
you'd let Ami go!"

     "Mushroom?" Misato pondered that.

     Hyoga volunteered some information. "Means everyone
keeps you in the dark and feeds you..."

     Maya decided to interrupt. "Registering a synch rate of
52%. 64%. 72%... stabilizing at 74%."

    Everyone sweatdropped except Gendo, who merely smirked.

     Ritsuko finally gave a low whistle. "Rei's best synch
rate so far is 14%, and that was just before her Eva went
wild."

     "Mushroom?" Misato repeated. There weren't things going
on around her she wasn't aware of, were there? She was in
the loop, wasn't she?

     "Launch Eva Unit One," commanded Gendo.

     "Unit One, Launch!"

    "I am *not* 'washed out'," muttered Misato.

     Aoba looked up at her and temporarily disabled the mike
to the Eva. "He's just stressed out about his friend being
in detention. Maybe if we put her on voicelink he'll settle
down."

    "We can't do that in her present condition," Ritsuko
said ominously.

    "What?! Why wasn't I informed?" Misato looked to her
friend for answers.

     "Need To Know, Captain, and you don't." Gendo
interrupted as the EVA unit sped up the shaft to the streets
above.

---------

      From a catwalk above the LCL to the bay, from the bay
that had contained Unit One to a hallway, something walked.

      "A-ka-ne!"

      Another security camera became molten metal and
cracked plastic as a mountain lion stalked the top secret
corridors of NERV.

      "WHAT THE?!" A NERV Security agent saw a large
carnivore, decided that one of the soldier-yoma had
penetrated the security perimeter, and drew his weapon. That
was as far as he got before said large carnivore did a head
butt attack that sent the agent into dreamland.

      Akane considered, lashing her tail about as she
pondered. Wandering around aimlessly was no good. Grey
(she'd recognized his scent even if the face had changed)
had told her that Ami was in trouble and he was counting on
her to effect a rescue.

      Akane *liked* that. None of this smarmy superior male
crap she'd had to put up with from Kuno or the Hentai Horde.
No condescending at all. He'd taken her seriously, and asked
her to do something really important. Save his girlfriend,
that weak little bookworm, if she remembered the briefing
right. Oh, and there'd been that video party while they got
ready for this mission. She remembered Ami, and Ami smelled
like...

      Akane sniffed the air. There it was, faint, but it was
there. Akane grinned, revealing sharp teeth. Her senses were
so acute now, she felt so vital, it was like this form was a
drug and she was thoroughly enjoying it. Eventually she'd
return to being human, but she was enjoying the enhanced
senses, the power and strength of this form.

      "Aka." Another burst of flame caused a suite of
sensors to curl up into a blackened molten nub.

      She didn't have any camouflage abilities, but she
could move pretty quietly, and she was quite capable of
shredding some of the walls and doors she ran across. And if
anyone happened to see her, well, she'd cross that bridge
when she came to it.

--------


     "Where..." Shinji immediately started looking around
for the villain, only to notice all the little
robot-thingies running around in the street. "What the
hey?!"

     "Ignore the soldier-yoma, destroying the General will
end their threat as well," Hyuga's voice advised in the
cockpit.

     Shinji blinked as he saw the big guy step out.
"Jadeite?! Errr. Where are my weapon systems?"

    "You have a progressive knife in the right shoulder. Can
you walk?"

     Shinji thought about walking. The EVA responded. Shinji
thought about giving Jadeite the finger. The EVA responded,
then Jadeite responded.

    Black lightning shot from Jadeite to Eva, knocking the
big purple robot on its butt.

---------

    There was silence in the control room for a few moments.

    Aoba broke the silence first. "He must *really* be
distracted by his girlfriend being held incommunicado."

    Hyuga nodded. "Yes, that does appear to be the case."

    "That's pathetic," Misato watched as the fallen Eva was
being pounded on by the Yoma General.

     "Chest plate has just been cracked. Cracks occurring in
the faceplate. Right arm broken," Maya kept up a running
commentary about the amount of damage being done.
"Structural integrity of abdominal wall compromised."

     Gendo watched as the broken arm of the Eva unit was
ripped out of its socket and the General turned his
attention to ripping the chest plate off.

    Fuyutsuki sidled a little closer. "Commander. If this
keeps up, the Unit and the pilot will be destroyed."

    "Eject the entry plug, get that pilot out of there!"
Misato commanded.

    "The signal's being rejected," Hyuga noted.

     "Nerve connections are failing across the board,"
continued Maya, "synch ratio is plummetting, 45% and
dropping. Power cord severed. Pilot's synchrograph is nearly
flatline, if I didn't know better I'd think he was in a
depressive fugue, but that's not possible in these
conditions. Is it?"

     Gendo scowled.

     "Commander!" Fuyutsuki looked down on the seated Gendo.

     "Feed the video of Alpha to the cockpit of Unit One,"
Gendo reluctantly allowed, "and if anyone asks, I've just
left for our Kansai base."

    "Do it!" Fuyutsuki waited until the appropriate orders
had been given. "Commander?"

    "If he chases this misdirection to Kansai, his power
will run out," explained Gendo. "We'll have to find a
substitute for Shinji after this..."

---------

   In the Unit One cockpit, a little videobox opened,
revealing Ami. Revealing Ami drugged out of her mind.
Revealing the same Security agent as earlier...

---------

   "What is that person doing?!" Misato was more than a
little upset.

    Maya eeked and turned her eyes from the display.

    "That's not going to look good in his personnel record,"
remarked Ritsuko. She glanced up at Gendo. "Isn't that a bit
much?"

    "If it motivates the pilot, then it is sufficient."
Gendo frowned at his subordinate. Was he not the Commander?
Dr Akagi publicly questioning his authority was not
something he was prepared to tolerate.

    Misato twitched as she heard enough to indicate that
Gendo had ordered the guard to do this during the
transmission.

    A bleep returned Maya Ibuki's attention to the console.
"Synch rate rising, but..."

    "That's odd, it looks like higher brain functions have
shut down." Ritsuko began to run an analysis of the
readings. "Fascinating."

    "He's...." Maya's voice trailed off as the Eva unit
braced one finger with another and drove it deep within the
eye of the General.

    The Eva roared animalistically, and started kicking and
punching at the General. When the General's head snapped
back, the Eva bit deeply into the neck of the General,
causing a fountain of blood to spew.

   "Berserker," said Ritsuko.

   Maya pulled her wastebasket out and began to spew
herself.

   "The right arm's regenerated! But that's impossible!"
Ritsuko glanced at the synchrograph. "110%! How is this
possible?! This can't be!"

   "Less than two minutes remaining of power," noted Hyuga.

   Disdaining tools, the beast ripped open Jadeite's chest
and lifted the still beating heart of the General to its
mouth and fed. Maya looked up in time to see this, and was
quickly excused to the Ladies room. She was joined by Misato
a moment later. She was joined by Hyuga as well, but they
quickly ejected him from the Ladies room a moment later.

   "That's... pretty gross," indicated Aoba, looking a
little green himself.

   "Eva is taking in the S2 unit!" Fuyutsuki stared at the
screen. "It's too early."

    With another roar, Eva slashed Jadeite's head off,
snapped his back over one knee, and then threw the Dark
General's body down the street where it imploded. Then the
Eva turned its attention to the elevator shaft that had
delivered it.

    "Uhm. If THAT is coming back here..." Aoba's green was
rapidly turning pale. The Eva's eyes were glowing, blood
spattered its hands and mouth, and its stance definitely
indicated that whoever was home wasn't exactly running on
all cylinders. "Then, may I ask permission to evacuate?"

    "Permission denied. Activate all barriers in elevator
shaft nine. DO IT!" Gendo raised his voice slightly for the
last.

     On the screen, the first barrier came apart like
aluminum foil.

     "Shinji? Shinji? You can calm down now," Hyuga had
returned to his post in time to see the barrier get wadded
up and the Eva begin climbing down the shaft. "The General's
dead and the minor yoma have vanished. You can stop any time
now!"

      Eva roared in reply, leapt down the shaft, and began
pounding away at the next layer of armor. It immediately
started to crack.

     "Well, on the good side, he's really got over that
indecisiveness problem..." Aoba offered as a quick joke.
Nobody laughed.

   "How quickly can you get his girlfriend coherent? That
might snap him out of it." Fuyutsuki's voice was slightly
louder than he intended, he was a little paler than normal
himself.

    "Barrier three is at 50%," noted Aoba. "Maybe you
overdid it a little, Commander."

    Unit One ripped another section up and threw it to the
side, growling all the while.

    "Timer's at zero," noted Hyuga quietly. "Isn't the Eva
supposed to stop?"

    "It hasn't fully absorbed the S2 unit into itself,"
Fuyutsuki noted with rising hope, "it's slowing down."

    The Eva on the screen held it's hands together as if
cupping an invisible ball.

    "AT Field is folding in upon itself!" Ritsuko stared at
the displays. "The Eva is concentrating its entire AT Field
into a single point, feeding the field into a closed loop!"

    "Um, I must have missed that class. What does that mean,
exactly?" Aoba wasn't too proud to ask for directions, and
he certainly felt lost.

    "RRRRRRRAAGGGHHHHH!" The Eva on the display roared and
the "ball" began flickering into visibility and then up
through the spectrum.

    "The AT field is increasing in density and power
output," Ritsuko noted. "Fascinating."

    "Uhm, is this dangerous?" Misato made her way back into
the room, followed by Maya.

    Eva Unit One released the AT Field missile, which cut
through four more layers of armor plate.

    "I'd say so," supplied Aoba.

    The Eva slowed and gradually came to a stop.

    "Get teams up there immediately," Gendo ordered. "Get
the pilot out, arrest him, throw him in the brig, and put
Unit One in cryostasis before the S2 unit is completely
absorbed!"

--------

The Security Guard glanced up, bored out of his skull, when
the door to the cell suddenly came apart in neat little
one-inch slices.

Akane entered the room, took in the girl mindlessly babbling
into some recorder, the guard trying to draw a gun from his
holster even as some magazine he was reading fell from his
lap, and the presence of recording equipment.

The recording equipment ended up in little slices, a flame
burst sent the guard screaming to the floor, and the
recorder was left for the moment. Akane's eyes glowed as she
regarded the man in front of her.

"It was under orders!" The man backed away. "It wasn't my
idea!"

Akane wondered what he was talking about briefly, then
looked at Ami's state of undress and the camera. ~Chemical
interrogation? And recording all aspects of it? How *dare*
they take advantage of such a nice (if overly bookish and
terribly naive) girl as Ami? They. Must. Be. Punished!~

-------

       The discussion between Ritsuko and Misato (regarding
Rei's ability to cover) was cut short as the entry plug of
Unit One ejected itself and then burst open.

       "Aaaaaa!" Aoba managed. "What the hell is *that*?!"

       "A yoma!" Ritsuko gasped and stepped back. "During
the attack the General must have infected Unit One!"

        Gendo frowned. That was as good an explanation as
any, he'd use it.

        "Looks more like a dragon to me," opined Hyuga,
having played AD&D years ago.

        The dragon flickered and vanished from Elevator
Shaft Nine.

        Ritsuko had had too many shocks lately, and was
freaking out. "Where'd he go?"

        A roar from directly outside their building
answered.

---------

        Akane looked up as the lamp began swaying and a
shudder racked the building. "Aka?!"

        The security guard reached for his weapon, Akane
swatted him with a paw, claws retracted. The security guard
ceased to be conscious.

        Now the pyrolion examined the chair that the girl
was tied into. She could cut through the straps without
problem, but how to...

        "Believe in a sign of Zeta, yappa pai, yappa pai,
Miracle Romance..." Ami's babbling abruptly cut off,
catching Akane's attention. Ami had gone all stiff.

        "Aka? Ne? Ne?" Akane frowned but delicately bit
through the steel restraints holding the girl in place.
Actually, Ami reminded her of herself. Physically at least.
If a bit anemic.

        "He's angry. He's been submerged in anger, the
nature of the Evangelion units..." Ami's voice was weak.

        Akane heard something that sounded like part of the
building collapsing and wondered what was going on out
there.

---------

        Guns blazed as the two security guards began
sweeping the dragon before it could get in. Gendo fled,
going to an elevator and vanishing as his bridge crew tried
to find cover.

        Scales began flying off under the barrage, and the
dragon reared its head back to blast again with a cone of
frost that stopped everything in the bridge. After another
moment the dragon shredded three supercomputers and tried to
claw its way through the bridge until it shuddered and
collapsed.

        "Damn," summarized Aoba as he crawled out from under
his console.

        Fuyutsuki stared at the huge head lying a few feet
away from him.

        Shinji suddenly realized where he was, what he was,
and that he was dying.

        "Hold it right there!" Misato held her pistol and
pointed it at the dragon's head. "Don't move! You..." Her
aim didn't seem too steady.

        "Not a yoma. There was no AT Field." Ritsuko pulled
herself up and tried to look unshaken. She wasn't
successful.

        The dragon raised his head and regarded Misato
directly. "Beware Gendo. He's planning on starting the Third
Impact by... dummy plugs... I..."

        The dragon's form slowly shifted, becoming an albino
boy whose eyes stared at the floor.

---------

        At the moment that Shinji died, Ami shook her head.
What had been going on? Where was she? She was a genetic
experiment?

     Of Akane there was no sign.

---------

     "Man, did *i* blow it. Remind me not to try piloting an
Eva unit again."

     "Uhm, where are we? And why are you a dragon?"

     Grey checked himself. "Silver dragon again. Can't seem
to shift back. Likely because of the injury level in the
last timeline. That and if you're altered significantly in
one timeline, you need to fix it before you travel or it'll
still be altered in the next."

      Akane sniffed the ground. "Aka. Ne."

     "Sure, go ahead Akane. We'll stick around here for
awhile. Just don't go too far off."

     Akane and Ami both stared at Grey.

     "Huh?" The dragon considered them. "Oh. My breed of
dragon is able to understand most intelligent species. If
i'm a dragon, i can understand her."

     "Are you okay?" Ami considered the large vaguely
reptillian creature before her.

     "The wounds aren't bleeding, though the translation to
this universe has the injuries as being a day or two old.
They ain't pretty though."

     Akane snorted at typical male-foolishness and trotted
off, she needed to stretch her legs and maybe get some
water.

     Ami considered the dragon again. "So any idea where we
are?"

     "It feels familiar, but I don't immediately place it,"
Grey announced. "Hmmm. I seem to have downshifted in age
categories."

     "Age categories?" Ami decided she was going to examine
his wounds while talking to keep the dragon distracted.

     "Yeah. Just like humans go through age categories like
baby, infant, adolescent, etc, so do dragons. Ours is a bit
different than yours though. If i'm guessing right from your
relative size, you're normally just over five feet in
height, right?"

     Ami winced at the chewed scales and flesh that marked a
line from Grey's "collarbone" down to the abdomen. "Five
feet, four inches." She paused as something about his speech
patterns penetrated.

     "Well, i'm looking, and i think i'm about ten or twelve
Ami-lengths. Add another four Ami-lengths for the tail. That
means i'm a 'adolescent' in dragon terms." Grey winced as
Ami probed the wound. "Do you mind? That's rather sensitive.
This is a problem in that i wouldn't have the full range of
clerical spells i'm used to."

     "Is that a big problem?"

     "Yeah, it looks like i can only access third level
spells and below. Which is a problem if those dragons over
there keep coming closer."

      Ami looked. "Those birds?"

      "Dragons who normally hunt in the air have greater
visual acuity than a land-dragon or a human." Grey made a
grumbling noise. "If this is where i think we are, remain
really close to me."

      Ami watched the "birds" get closer and resolve into
dragons, though different in shape and color than Grey. They
landed a short distance away and seemed to regard Grey with
suspicion.

      "What do you here, silver?"

      "i rest from battle most strenuous, and given rest
will fly on without harm to your lands. i am but a
travelling priest."

      "Battle, silver?" The lead red said in a questioning
tone. "With what?"

      "Humans who would be dragonslayers. i escaped, and did
their castle grievous harm."

      "Humans? Where? I see no humans, silver."

      "They don't like humans?" Ami realized she'd blurted
that out, and the way the other side was looking at her, she
didn't think that drawing attention to herself had been
wise.

      "A human? HERE?!" The lead red dragon snarled at Grey.
"What do you think you're doing, bringing HUMANS into our
territory!"

      "The human is my bonded Kindred," Grey replied. "She
accompanies me."

      The lead red was prepared to argue when one of the
other dragons nudged him and whispered something to him. The
leader blinked, stared at Ami, then back to Grey and slowly
began to smile.

      "Well, well," he chuckled a moment later. "I'd always
heard you Silvers were into some kinky stuff. Bet you
couldn't do anything like THIS in your own aeyrie, eh?"

      "Hmmm?" Grey was momentarily lost but was willing to
go with the flow if that meant Ami wasn't eaten.

      "Playing a little game with your mate using polymorph,
eh?" The red leader started laughing out loud now. "The (hee
hee) terrible Dragonslayer (bwah hah) and the (snicker) poor
dragon victim (snort)! No doubt using her (snicker snort)
'special attacks' to (hits the ground laughing
uncontrollably) 'dominate' the dragon and (starts crying
from laughing so hard) have her way with him..." At this
point the red leader wasn't the only one laughing and many
of the other dragons were at least openly snickering.

      "Well, that's not quite it," said Grey, managing an
embarassed look, "she's not a dragon, at least at the
moment.

      This, of course, convinced the rest of the dragons
that their leader was right and they all began laughing
themselves silly about it. Especially when the mage among
them remembered something about how some of the metallic
dragons used their transforming ability only to get "stuck"
in their other shape and not be able to transform back. Many
suggestions and speculations followed.

      The leader recovered enough to notice a tiny little
creature come running up to where the "human" stood, then
vanish into a gem or something in the female's hand. "What's
your name, O Perverted Silver?"

      "Grey," said Grey.

      "Well, Grey, you're on Bloodtide Isle about six
hundred wyrmlengths from the city of Malice. If you go that
way, you can keep your perversions away from decent red
dragons. Though wait'll I tell the boys in the barracks
about this...(hee hee hee)."

      Taking as much of his dignity as he could, Grey lifted
Ami to a point just behind his skull and advised her to hold
onto the spikes back there. Then he lifted off, hearing
another roar of laughter as further jokes were made at his
expense.

      "Uhm, do you know where we are now?" Ami gripped as
tightly as she could, her face quite red from some of the
suggestions that had been made about their relationship.

      "This is the land known as Io's Blood, where dragons
are relatively civilized and rule over the lesser races.
Humans are all but unknown, as humans have the ability to
become a feared thing called a DragonSlayer." Grey took the
flight as easy as he could, knowing that Ami had no saddle
or experience. "We're currently flying over Bloodtide Isle,
which is red dragon territory. Reds are not nice people, by
the way. We're heading over towards the lands ruled by
silver dragonkind, if i'm right."

      Ami spent a lot of time in silence, considering
carefully. The rocky ground below them turned to swamp,
which turned to ocean, which eventually became a beach
again. Finally, she thought she had the right idea. Why had
they been so convinced that she was a dragon? Because of
that 'dragonseed' she'd heard mentioned, no doubt. Which
meant that...

       Grey felt a moment of panic as the tiny weight of Ami
vanished from his head. He immediately wheeled and looped
around, his eyes scanning for the tiny form that should be
falling to her doom.

       And collided with another form in midair that was
only slightly smaller than he was. The two fell in a tangle,
crashing to the sand dunes below them.

       Grey's nostrils twitched at a bewitching scent and he
opened his eyes to behold a picture of loveliness. Her
scales were a waterfall of gleaming silver, her head-spines
delicate and refined, her limbs and tail the very picture of
delicacy. That she was sprawled rather inelegantly in a heap
was beside the point.

       "Ouch," said the strange dragon in a voice that was
nonetheless familiar.

       "Ami?" Grey stared. Her wings were so delicately
tapered, with a hint of deep blue along the vanes, while her
claw webbing had that iridiscent feminine sheen.

       "Grey?" Ami stared herself. He made quite a handsome
dragon now that she was looking with draconic eyes herself.
She found herself taking off and looping in the air, Grey
following as instincts took over.

       Some nearby silvers noted two others were initiating
a mating flight and sat back to watch until their superior
told them to give the lovebirds some privacy.

       The two were just realizing what they had done when a
blaze of light appeared before them, solidifying as a 3x
lifesize hologram of a human-looking woman.

       "Ahem, now that you two are done!"

       Even though Ami was a dragon, she still managed to
look embarassed.

       "Celeste? What the heck happened?" Grey looked at the
sort of landscape damage that had occurred from a 54 foot
long and a 45 foot long pair of dragons playing around.
"Wait a minute, we didn't... did we?"

       "Dragons have their seasons and instincts too, and
Grey you should know that your default form is a dragon at
present. Though, no, you didn't actually mate. Just all the
normal things leading up to it. Back to the shapes: the
angelform, humanform, and cyborg shell are all dependent on
which universe you're in, and they're overrides. Right now
in any universe where there is a close match to your type of
dragon, that's what you'll be. Ami is your mate, and got a
dragonseed, so if she's in a universe where you're a
dragon - she will be too. Same type too, and it oddly fits
her: scholarly type with a frost breath weapon. Thor wants
to know if you two are available for parties." Celeste shook
her head. "Kids nowadays, I tell you."

       "So we both basically went into something like the
Vulcan *pon farr*? Geez. And how come i lost age
categories?"

       "They were swiped from you to form the dragonseeds."
Celeste shrugged. "So you're a teenager again. Deal with it.
You're still a silver dragonpriest, and since you're of
Etragar, that means you've got to deal with his weapons
restrictions. Better learn an unarmed style of combat."

       "i'm not *too* bad with a staff, but you're right,"
grumbled Grey. Dragons could grumble particularly well.
"Most of what i know is *armed* combat."

       "Now are you ready for the rest of the bad news?"
Celeste paused until both dragons craned their heads closer.
She had to admire them, they really were quite attractive -
regal looking in fact. "The other brides tried to tag along.
The gate might have handled it anyway, but Son Usagi's power
level was quite enough to destabilize that." Celeste
listened to something going on outside the holocam's range.
"Thor wants to know if Usagi would like to wrestle sometime.
Sif's objecting to the entire concept."

      Both dragons nodded at the sounds of off-camera
violence.

      "So i need to go pull them out of where they are?"
Grey guessed.

       "We," corrected Ami, craning her long neck closer,
not entirely sure what to make of this newest development.

       "Got it in one," agreed Celeste.

================

the Eva timeline was cut short to avoid any
comparisons/parallels with Skysaber's Otaku Rising chapter
2.

The votes were:

1. The usual Senshi-candidates are the <i>dummy plugs</i> in
this timeline.
2. The usual Senshi-candidates are part of an attempt to
genetically engineer a next stage in human evolution. Ami
has an enhanced intellect, etc. The GUTS plan by Seele has
them mating to produce a superior human race whose
development they can guide.
3. The usual Senshi-candidates are actually <i>fatima</i>
and are necessary processing units to run an Evangelion.
4. Since the Second Impact in that world, 80% of the world's
male population and 40% of the women died. Ami is Shinji's
first girlfriend, but he has others as you might expect.
5. The usual Senshi-candidates are power-armor pilots who
take care of the smaller yoma while the big
General/Angel/Yoma is fought by the Eva unit.
6.  I haven't been able to make <b>any</b> sense out of this
Timeline. It looks like Ami's his girlfriend, but I don't
see any sign of the rest of the usual Senshi-candidates.
7.  The usual Senshi-candidates are actually the yoma, and
Ami is filling Kaoru's role.
8.  The usual Senshi-candidates are actually unawakened
Senshi in this timeline.

Senshi are Dummy Plug Inserts - 1, Senshi are genetically
engineered New Types - 7, Senshi are fatima - 2, Senshi are
girlfriends in a man-poor environment - 4, Senshi in Power
Armor -1, Senshi are missing - 1, Senshi are Yoma - 1,
Senshi are Senshi - 4


Go for next:
1. Usagi, at the Tenkaichibudokai in a Dragonball setting...
2. Makoto Kino, who ended up in a Sabre Marionette timeline.
3. Minako Aino, who is either in Lodoss
4. Minako Aino, currently a freighter pilot/gunner in the
Rebellion against the Empire.
5. Rei Hino, who is currently in RIFTS - Kyoto in the New
Empire.
6. Setsuna Meiou is a Vulcan science officer who is assigned
to researching the Guardian Of Forever.
7. The bleak human vs robot future of the Terminator movies,
where a young warrior named Haruka Ten'nou tries to survive
each day.
8. Something else that you can think of.
9. Usagi is in a SM/Cutey Honey fusion timeline, as Cutey
Moon
10. MM Xover This could only happen with Sky's permission,
but one or more of the worlds he's written of and then
abandoned is where one or more of the tagalongs end up. Such
as the world where Moongirl is a Batman-esque defender of
Justice.

Usagi at the Tenkai -3, Makoto in SMJ -4, Minako as a Lodoss
elf -2, Minako in Star Wars -4, Rei in RIFTS -0, Setsuna in
Star Fleet -1, Haruka in the Terminator future -1, Cutey
Moon -2, Mirrors Multiplied Xover -1, the Senshi as
dragons -1, All the Senshi as being Cutey Honey style
androids -1



while i think the experiment was largely a success, the
"Choose Your Fanfic" feedback system is on hold until i get
this monster more under control.



-------------------------------
"Don't forget that for the acorn to
become the mighty oak, it starts with a
little nut that decides to stand its ground."
-Anonymous
metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/




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