I'm sending this out before it gets too large to comment. ;)
Remember this is rough. C+C welcome ;)
And I'm wondering if I should finish part 3(and thus TP3) first before
sending TP3.2 to MegaZone. :) Hmm.
| Twister (also known as Darren Steffler ;)
| e-mail at twister@tendo-dojo.ranma.net
| Big Heapum Fan of: Ranma 1/2, Bubblegum Crisis, Dirty Pair, Gundam, and
| the rest of the known anime universe.
Twisted Path 3 - Another Bubble Started.
Part 3
A Story Inspired by Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/2
and the Bubblegum Crisis
by Darren Steffler
Chapter Thirty-One
==================
A laboratory, secretly prepared and set up with some of the most
advanced equipment on the planet, started the next upheaval in the lives of
the Knight Sabers and Twister. And it began with a familiar voice, one they
knew well, even if they had only heard it for one night.
"Our preparations are complete. Let the first move be made."
The two in front of him nodded, then walked away.
"Soon..."
"AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!"
Linna and Ryouga stopped practicing at the scream of frustration that
came from the red-headed, cross-legged figure a short distance away from
their mat. Linna was the one practicing really, Ryouga was teaching her as a
means to pass the time and out of a growing friendship between the two. That
friendship was a constant source of amazement for Linna's closest friends who
knew her boyfriends never lasted more than two weeks. Of course, Ryouga never
really fell into that category, even after two weeks of Linna helping him
around Mega-Tokyo, she keeping close tabs on the eternal lost boy after
losing him one day in a shopping mall and taking three hours to track him
down. Linna had tried, but Ryouga's heart was set on another so she withdrew
and instead asked him to teach her some of his moves. Darlene was puzzled and
a little hurt that her friend hadn't asked her until Linna confessed that she
had thought their long friendship might affect training.
So now Ryouga had settled into being Linna's sensei while Darlene worked
on getting a trans-universal spell, well, working.
The mage's scream didn't exactly indicate positive progress.
"Trouble?" Linna asked, a slight grin hovering on her lips.
The red-head didn't turn around. "No! I always yell out at the top of my
lungs just for the hell of it!" she shouted angrily.
Nene walked in from the entrance to the large cavern, annoyed. "Darlene
again?"
"Who else?" Linna sighed.
Nene pursed her lips in a firm line and a determined look appeared on
her face as she strode towards the muttering mage. Walking around the seated
figure and glaring down at her friend, said, "Hey!"
Startled, Darlene jerked her head up to stare at her strangely resolute
friend. "Nene? What..." The ADPolice officer interrupted her.
"Darlene, for the last WEEK you've been getting more and more moody ever
since you started running into problems with that stupid spell of yours." The
other tried to speak up, but Nene pointed an accusing finger at the red-head,
making Darlene's eyes cross as she tried to focus on the digit. "Oh, no! No
excuses! Everybody's had enough of your bad temper! YOU are going to forget
about that spell until you get back to normal and WE will make sure you do
so! Am I getting through that hard head?"
"Hard head?" Darlene protested, but Nene was unwavering in her stare and
she soon gave in. "Okay, okay! I'll stop. Enough with the laser look
already."
"Good." Nene grinned impishly as she watcher her friend stiffly stand
up. "Come on, let's get going."
"Going? Going where?"
"A party, silly."
"Party?" Linna thought she remembered something mentioned a long time
ago, and then it hit her. "Nene, you don't mean THAT..."
"...party? Of course!" Nene quickly finished. "Priss got the invitations
ready a long time ago and today's the date it's on."
"I see I'm outnumbered again," Darlene sighed, giving the two of them a
small glower. "Just a moment, I have to do something before we leave." She
left normally.
Linna came up to Nene and whispered, "You not going to get her drunk
like we had planned, are you?"
"Of course not!" Nene indignantly protested. "Not now. Well, maybe a
little bit if she won't loosen up," she mused.
"How about not at all, idiot," Linna whispered firmly. To Nene's
startled look she replied, "Do you WANT a drunk mage who isn't experienced at
being bombed?"
That reminder made the red-head pale a little. "Oh, yeah. I guess not
then."
Ryouga, who had stayed in the background, hesitantly said, "Ah... Should
we continue, Linna?"
"Sure, no problem," she said brightly, turning away from Nene. "Did you
want to start with that shishi houkoudan you mentioned?" Ryouga hesitated a
bit but reluctantly nodded. "Great!" she said, and meant it.
But Ryouga had to add one important point, forgetting his nervousness as
his shifted into full-sensei more again. "However, the shishi houkoudan uses
heavy emotions like depression to fuel it. You're not that type of person,
but Ranma found a different way that uses confidence and that would be more
your style." He shrugged. "I suppose there's only a very small difference so
if you know one you can figure out the other."
"Confidence?" Linna mused, then smiled. "I like the sound of that."
Figures, Nene amusedly thought to herself.
Darlene stared up at the club's entrance. "YOU know this guy, Priss?"
Behind her, Ryouga, who was nervously escorting Linna, silently agreed.
"Hey, I know the guy's friend." She grinned down at the slightly stunned
red-head. "Close enough."
"How close would that be?" Darlene innocently asked the singer, smiling
impishly. Beside Priss, Nene giggled at the incoherent growl her brown-haired
friend made in reply. Sadly, Sylvie and Anri had declined to come fearing
that their sexaroid bodies might attract undue attention.
"Come on," the singer said irritably, striding ahead. Nene and Darlene
followed, Ryouga and Linna behind them. The two Boomers who were acting as
bouncers stopped Priss' momentum momentarily until she identified herself and
the others. There was a bit of trouble with getting Ryouga in, which might
have turned bad(for him or the Boomers was debateable), but Linna proclaimed
that he was her escort and they grudgingly let the group inside.
It was almost wall-to-wall people and the five made slow progress inside
the rented nightclub. Suddenly, a tall, white-haired male about Priss' age
with a blue streak of color in his mane appeared in front of Priss and smiled
energetically when he recognized the brown-haired singer.
"Hey, Priss! Long time no see!" he cried out slapping a hand on one of
her shoulders. "Nice set-up my buddy got together, hey?"
"Hey, White." Priss smiled back and looked around at the crowd. "Yeah,
it sure is. Thanks for getting us in."
"No sweat." Then White saw who had come in with her and whistled. "I
should've figured your friends would be nice but I didn't think they'd be
THIS nice." The three females reddened while Ryouga frowned. "And TWO red-
heads yet! I'd better check to make sure all the fire extingwishers are
working." Nene and Darlene blushed even harder. "You've got to introduce me,
Priss, I'm dying here."
Priss grinned. "That's no surprise. Everybody, this is White-N-Blue,
call him White, and if he has another name I haven't heard it. White, these
are my friends Linna, Nene, Darlene, and, Linna's date for the night,
Ryouga."
White opened his arms wide with a grin. "Welcome to the party. Hey, cool
headband and getup," he commented to Ryouga. "Unfortunately, I gotta go. I'll
be back later but have a real time till I get back, then we'll really get
swinging!" With a sly look at the two red-heads, he added, "Try out the punch
it's great!" That said, he disappeared into the crowd.
"Hentai," Priss muttered softly.
"Where's the food, I'm hungry," Nene whined.
Darlene hopped slightly and spied the refreshments along one wall.
"Found it. It's on the far side of the room."
"Well, c'mon then! I'm starved!" Nene almost dragged Darlene as they set
out for their objective and quickly vanished into the throng.
Priss sighed. "That's Nene for you. Where's the dance floor?"
Linna craned her neck. "Over there, I think." Smiling she tugged on
Ryouga's arm. "Shall we?"
"Bu-bu-but I don't know how to dance!" he protested.
"Who dances?" said Priss with a grin. "You just rock. Let's go!" And
together with Linna brought the nervous martial artist along with them.
"Oh, wow!" Wide-eyed, Nene scanned the deserts and daintites that
covered most of a table. "This is great! What should I get? It all looks so
good." She glanced at Darlene inquiringly, then did a double take.
"Mmm... Try a little of each?" Darlene said with a grin as she casually
held a plate that almost overflowed with cake and sweets.
Nene was stunned. "When did you...?" She gathered herself and glared at
Darlene who stepped beside her, popping a round sweet into her mouth. "You
did that just to annoy me," she accused.
"Hey, you're the one who complains about her waist. Just reminding you,
that's all."
"I have control!" Nene protested, then weakened a bit as Darlene
knowingly looked at the table then her. "I do," she said more feebily.
Darlene sighed. "Losing battle," she said, then stiffened. Nene's eyes
widened in shock as she too felt something grip her behind.
"Hey, girls," a male, confident sounding voice came from behind them.
"Do you want to party with me for a while?"
Darlene's reply was in a normal volume, but with a tone of you-are-
about-to-become-charcoal-and-I-don't-mean-my-dragon very much present, "Lose
the hand, asshole, or else."
The voice grew amused, "Or else what? My hands feel VERY comfortable
where they are." He squeezed making Nene squeek indignantly.
Darlene's eyes narrowed.
Ryouga paused in the middle of a step.
Exhilerated from the dancing, Linna panted, "What is it?"
"I thought I heard something."
"In THIS?" she said incredulously.
He listened, then shook his head. "Must be imagining it."
"Do some more of those martial arts flips!" she demanded with a smile.
Ryouga blushed, embarrassed, as the crowd around him echoed her loudly.
The area around the refreshments was stunned into silence as people
stared at the overturned table and the pair of feet that protuded from behind
it. Slowly, Nene turned her wide-eyed stare from the display to Darlene, who
was straightening from the position her throw had placed her in.
Miraculously, she still held her undisturbed plate in one hand.
"I did warn him," she said angrily.
"But did you have to toss him into the FOOD?!" Nene demanded, recovering
from the shock. Darlene shrugged her shoulders sheepishly. "Honestly!" she
huffed.
"Um... Well, I still have this," Darlene said, displaying the plate she
still held. "Let's go get something to drink."
Eyeing the tempting plate, Nene decided. "Oh, all right." She made a
face at the destroyed table "Bleah!" before they both walked away.
There was a groan from behind the table in reply, and one foot twitched.
The table with all the non-alcoholic beverages was only a little ways
off and had two attendants giving people what they requested. The pair, one
male and one female, welcomed the red-heads. The blonde female attendant was
grinning after another look at where the other table had been overturned.
"Couldn't have happened to anyone better. Nice job," she congratulated
Darlene who reddened. "Oh, don't be embarrassed. He's been doing that all
night, and with this assorted crowd it was bound to happen sooner or later."
The black-haired male chuckled. "Yeah, but what a waste of good food."
After giving her partner a grin, the blonde said, "What would you like
to drink? Punch? Tossing perverts around is thirsty work."
Knowing that the punch was spiked, Nene began, "Um... we'd..."
"Sure," Darlene said, not seeing Nene's suddenly panicked expression.
Before Nene could say nay, the smiling blonde held out two glasses
filled with liquid from the extremely large punch bowl on the table. "Here
you go!" Darlene accepted one with a smile, Nene with a sickly expression.
Darlene sipped from the cup, and her eyes widened a few seconds later.
"Whoa."
The two attendants exchanged nervous looks, and the woman inquired,
"Anything wrong?"
The red-head shook her head. "No, no. I... This punch just has a wicked
aftertaste, that's all." Darlene considered the flavor. "Not bad actually."
"Aftertaste?" Nene said curiously and took a large sip from her own
glass. She blinked in confusion. "I don't taste anything odd."
Darlene took a drank a larger amount to better judge the taste. "It's
sort of an intense pepperminty-cherry flavor. You sure you can't taste it?"
Nene shook her head. The two behind the table withdrew a little.
"That's what the alcohol taste-nullifier is supposed to be like," the
blonde whispered.
"But only in concentrated form! How can she taste it diluted as much as
it is?" her compainion in mischief objected.
"I guess she has really good taste buds." She shrugged. "It happens."
Meanwhile, Darlene had emptied her glass trying to isolate the elusive
tang. She held out her glass with a smile. "Strange taste but I like it.
Kinda grows on you."
The blonde blinked, but accepted the glass automatically. Strange, she
thought, this punch is so spiked she should be feeling it by now. Must have
a high tolerance for alcohol. She smiled back as she filled the glass again.
I wonder how high?
Slightly behind Darlene, Nene's face was flushed having finished her own
glass. Her own tolerance wasn't nearly as high as her friend's.
Good punch, she thought a little blurrily, I guess one more shouldn't
hurt.
"I'll have one too," she said firmly, holding out her own glass.
Seeing her state, the black-haired male merely smiled and re-filled it
without a word.
Quite the gathering," Daley shouted to his partner as they weaved their
way through the crowd.
Leon grinned back at him, then sighed. "Yeah, too bad we're on duty." He
stopped and looked around as his red-haired partner caught up to him. "Where
do you think they have it? Nevermind, I see it. Come on." The pair started
pushing through the crowd again. But as they neared their goal, Leon saw the
two standing by the table the officers were heading for and immediately
stopped. Daley looked back, startled.
"What's up?" he asked. Leon stared at two red-headed figures by the
table.
"Isn't that Nene and Darlene?" the brown-haired ADPoliceman said, a
feeling of dread beginning to make itself known in his stomache as Daley
whipped his head around to check.
"Looks like them alright. They seem to be leaving though," he commented.
With some concern in his voice, he said, "You think they drank a lot?"
"Darlene's the one to worry about, but fortunately she has a high
tolerance to alcohol," Leon replied, more to reassure himself than Daley.
"We'd better make sure. Let's go."
When the two officers reached the table, they flipped out their ID's to
the surprised punch servers. Leon said, "ADPolice. I'm sorry, but the
substance you're using is not on the approved list of safe chemical additives
yet so I'm afraid you'll have to stop serving your spiked punch."
"Oh, damn," the blonde said disgustedly. "I had a feeling this would
happen."
"Say," Daley asked the attendants, "how much punch did the two red-
haired girls who left have? It's important."
"Really? Well, the green-eyed one had two glasses and was starting to
look pretty tipsy."
Leon leaned forward. "And the other?"
The blonde shook her head in remembered disbelief. "TEN, if you can
believe that! I was wondering WHEN she would start acting drunk and that was
at number five. She's a head shorter than me and I would've been on the floor
by then," she said admiringly. "The punch is pretty heavily spiked to test
the secret ingredient you know." She took a look at their slightly-panicked
expressions. "What's wrong with that?" she asked.
Leon laughed a little, hiding his concern. "Nothing! Nothing at all. We
just thought we knew those two, that's all. Just stop serving punch; we'll
come back for it later. Come on, Daley," he said, leaving the slightly
confused attendant behind.
"This is Not Good, Leon," Daley said, rapidly scanning the crowd for the
two girls. "We'd better find them fast before anything happens."
"No shit. The last thing I want is another Elf-like incident." Suddenly,
Leon smacked a fist into a palm in realization. "Wait a minute! Why would
those two be here alone; this party is more Priss' style. She HAS to have
come with them. AND I have a better idea of where to find HER, then she can
help us find THEM. Let's go!" Leon started ahead once more.
"Go where, Leon?"
"Just follow the music!"
Chapter Thirty-Two
==================
Darlene heaved a sigh.
"Are you dooonne yet, Nene?" she asked for what seemed the quintillionth
time.
"Almost," was the reply from the stall.
The red-head sighed again, even being in female form and her current
drunken state, she was still uncomfortable in the ladies room. But Nene had
had to go, and, not able to walk very straight at the time, had needed the
mage's support.
Who wasn't feeling very steady herself, and not just a little giddy. The
closest thing to what she felt like now was drunk, but that was impossible;
she hadn't even had one alcoholic beverage tonight. She giggled a little for
no reason.
Finally, Nene's stall opened and the silly grin the ADPolice officer
wore did nothing to alleviate the giggle fit. "Sorry, had trouble with my
skirt," she apologized, giggling.
"What trouble?"
Nene broke out laughing. "It was on the floor!"
Darlene joined in when she heard the joke. Two women who were checking
their make-up looked at each other and struggled not to break out laughing
themselves, not because of the drunken joke but rather the sight of the two
diminutive red-heads laughing over something only drunks could find funny.
Both of the cute-looking girls seemed at a point somewhere in the middle of
being buzzed or unconscious. They were hilarious.
"Aren't you gonna go in?" Nene asked Darlene, but the other shook her
head.
"Nope!" she said proudly. "Don't need to. Takes a looong while for me
now." She snickered at the dirty look her friend gave her. Then Darlene
lowered her voice, and whispered to Nene conspiratorially, "Tell you
something else though."
The red-head leaned forward, eyes bright with curiosity. "What's that?"
Darlene didn't say anything, but smiled mysteriously and unbuttoned her
blouse a little to open it up.
Nene gasped in surprise. "A BRA?!" The two women who were leaving rolled
their eyes, exasperated by the ongoing clothing humour, not knowing the real
reason for Nene's shock. The owner of the fantasy store never wore a bra, her
breasts were pretty firm and didn't show it much unless the red-head moved
too quickly, but the real reason was because of her transformations between
sexes. "Why?" Nene asked curiously, fascinated by this oddity.
"Well heck, if you go to a party you dance, and dancing would bounce
these things around too much," Darlene complained. "Sometimes I wish Ranma's
female form hadn't been so well-endowed."
Me too, Nene thought enviously.
"If I do change, it becomes a muscle shirt, and vice-versa. Neat, huh?"
She hopped and considered. "The support IS nice," she mused, if a little
guiltily.
Nene ignored it completely, caught up as she was in a sudden vision of
being a princess in a magical land. She sighed sorrowfully. "I wish I was a
princess," she said wistfully. If their friends had been in the washroom they
would have felt a sudden sinking sensation at those words as Darlene perked
up hearing them.
"Let's pretend!" the mage exclaimed, and Nene blinked in surprise at her
friend.
"What?"
"You be the princess, and I'll be your faithful court wizard," Darlene
bubbled in her excitement. "It'll be easy!"
"Really?" Nene said, getting excited as well, then frowned. "But what
about a court?" To that, Darlene smiled impishly.
"Let's work on us first, then we go to the party, I mean court,
OUTSIDE."
Nene's eyes widened in realization at all the people outside the
washroom and her excitement welled up once more. "Do we do it?" she said,
bouncing on her toes in front of a grinning Darlene.
"YES!!" they chorused, then broke up giggling.
Leon and Daley had found Priss shouting criticisms at the band, and
after explaining their appearance and concerned looks, went off to find
Linna. They found her and Ryouga on the dance floor. Ryouga having lost his
embarrassment at last, though it surfaced from time to time.
Linna was surprised at the three's arrival, her bandanna-wearing escort
stopped as well and came up beside her. "Priss, what's wrong?" she asked.
"Nene goofed up, that's what," the singer replied, agitated. Leon spoke
up.
"Daley and I saw them leaving the table with the spiked punch. We asked
and apparently Darlene had drank TEN glasses of the stuff." Linna paled.
"Oh no! Do you know where they went?" she asked, but the question soon
became irrelevant for gasps and intermittent shrieks from one side of the
crowded room advertised the fact that something was up.
Then what seemed to be a visual shiver passed over the five on the dance
floor, leaving them, and everyone else in the club, with an apparently
radically altered set of clothing, the reason for the previous startlement of
the far side of the crowd as they had been the first to be hit.
Linna looked down and saw a beautiful green dress, cut in a medival
style and a slightly below average neckline. If she had possessed a mirror
she would have seen her hair was longer and held by an ornate tiara embedded
with emeralds. Beside her, Ryouga stared at the changes made and looked down
at himself and found to his relief that his normal clothes hadn't been
altered.
Priss stared at her fellow Knight Saber before jerking her eyes down to
herself, and didn't like what she saw one bit. Feet to fingertips, the singer
was dressed in deep red leather. Hugging skin close to her body, the leather
pants she saw appeared laced up the sides while her 'shirt' was something
that covered her back completely but laced up the front, showing a bit too
much clevage even for her tastes. Leather gloves protected her hands and arms
up to beyond her elbows, tall boots on her feet did the same for her legs. As
with Linna, Priss' hair had changed but into a short ponytail. Normally,
Priss LIKED leather, her biking outfit was made of leather, but not THIS way.
For God's sake, there was even belt with a friggin SWORD to complete the
damn outfit.
The two detectives saw the two women, then looked at themselves. Daley
had on a loose, silk shirt with billowy sleeves along with a pair of matching
pants that fit rather close. Along with delicate-seeming shoes, white gloves,
and a circular purple cloth hat, the red-haired officer was dressed like the
classic court fop, with rapier buckled casually around the waist.
Leon was dressed in similar style to Priss, but in a masculine way and
a little more armoured. Black leather, along with thicker bucklers of the
same material reenforced by metal, was what his outfit was made of. His sword
was more massive in its sheath and his gloves were gauntlets.
Their clothing hadn't actually changed, Darlene hadn't had enough
concentration to alter a room's worth of clothing, but the mass visual
illusion she HAD done was impressive in its results and extended to the
entire party, creating a excited murmur that covered the stunned five's
conversation.
"Wha-What's this?!" Linna stammered as she finally spoke up from her
stunned state. "How come I can still feel my old clothes when I'm wearing
THIS?!" Priss checked patted her arms and legs and sighed in relief when she
felt her clothes were still the same.
"A hallucination?" Daley queried Leon as he admired the getup he found
himself apparently wearing.
"More like illusion if Darlene's involved," Leon said absently. Daley
wondered why until he saw his partner hungrily examining Priss' revealing
getup.
So did she. "Leoooon...." she started threateningly, holding up a fist
and advancing. The officer backed away quickly, holding up his gauntleted
hands in surrender, and feeling very glad that the sword at her side was an
illusion.
"Ha ha ha! Right! We've got to find those two before they do anything
else." Priss eyed him sceptically, but reluctantly turned away to look for
the missing duo.
"THERE you guys are!" exclaimed Nene's excited voice. "Finally found
you!" she said as she glided through the crowd into view. Literally; she was
floating an inch above the floor. The ADPolice red-head wore an outrageously
fanciful, fairy-tale princess style dress. The wide bell-shape of her gown
was so white it hurt the eyes making detail was impossible to see. Luminous
white silk gloves covered her hands and an extravagantly expensive necklace
was around her graceful neck. "Told you, Darlene. Ah! I mean, court wizard,
we have found them!"
"Certainly, your highness," Darlene said with a giggle as she stepped
around the grinning Nene. Her outfit was the most disturbing of all; she
appeared to be wearing a dress of some kind, purple of course, but everything
was obscured by a long cloak that concealed a lot underneath and had a high
collar that framed the mage's face and hair. The disturbing part was the
color of the cloak: there was none. That is, the cloak kept shifting into an
eye-wrenching pattern before moving on to another just as wrenching. She held
two glasses of punch in her hand and was sipping out of one of them.
Ever so subtle, Priss spoke up. "What the hell are you two doing?!?! Get
rid of this stupid spell! For crying out loud, do you WANT to get caught??"
"Aw, Priss, don't be a spoilsport," Darlene said, pouting. Then she
brightened and held out the glass she hadn't touched yet. "Here, have some
punch." Frowning, the singer took the offered drink as she tried to frame a
reply but the magic-user had already turned to Nene. "What else do we need,
your Highness?" Nene furrowed her brow in concentration, then smiled.
"We need a prince!" she exclaimed.
"One in an enchanted sleep?"
Nene looked dubious. "I dunno. Isn't that a princess' duty?"
"Eh, equal rights," Darlene said, waving her hand dismissively. "Let the
prince do it for a change."
"Okay!"
"Soooo...." Darlene drawled then whirled around to smile merrily at Leon
and Daley, startling them. "I guess we've got two volunteers right HERE!"
Leon backed up a step at the look in her eyes. "Ah... hey now, Darlene,
don't do anything hasty now. Just..."
"DEEP SLEEP!" Darlene cried gleefully, pointing at the two ADPolice
officers. The two word rhyme was sufficient to cast the sleep spell which
washed over the two hapless officers.
"Don't...." Daley began but lost the battle with his eyes and fell
asleep, Leon a moment later. Priss, fumbling with her drink, caught the
brown-haired officer while Ryouga grabbed Daley. They laid the luckless
officers gently on the ground while Nene clapped heartily.
"Neat!"
"Nene!" Linna protested, and the red-head became downcast at the angry
look on her friend's face. "This isn't funny! Stop it! You too, Darlene!" she
said, turning to the grinning mage who then mirrored Nene's crestfallen look
seeing Linna's anger. "You're both drunk and behaving like children. Darlene,
get rid of all these spells, now," she demanded but the red-haired mage
scowled.
"Am NOT drunk! Only had punch! See?" she said and drank the rest of her
glass in a gulp. "I'm just..." Darlene started weaving unsteadily,
"...finnnnneeee...." Her eyes rolled up and Linna had to catch her before she
hit the floor.
"Too much, too fast, and it finally caught up to her," Priss said with
a resigned sigh, looking over the three unconscious bodies. "Now what do we
do?"
"I..." Linna began to say, but stopped, startled, when Nene's princess
illusion vanished and her regular clothes revealed themselves. The red-head
was disappointed, but the others were relieved."Looks like the illusions
won't last long, thank goodness." She plucked at her own illusionary dress.
"Though I may ask her for a real one sometime." Priss snorted.
"Thanks, but I'll pass." She looked around at the excited crowd around
her, the court getup was being greeted as a harmless prank and most people
were taking the whole thing in stride, enjoying the masquerade while it
lasted. Figures. "We'd better leave. And take the 'sleeping beauties' along."
"What will we do? We all came in my van. They won't fit."
"They must've brought their car. I'll drop Darlene off, then dump them
at their place and take a bus home."
"Awww...." Nene whined. "Can't we stay longer?" She hiccuped.
"No," Linna said firmly, grabbing her friend's hand. "Come on. Ryouga,
could you pick up Leon and Daley? Thanks. Priss should be able to manage
Darlene." She sighed as they started to leave.
What a night.
Priss parked the police car by Darlene's place, she had just gotten the
unconscious Darlene in by the first story door when she realized a flaw in
her plan.
"Oh, man!" she said out loud to no one. "How am I going to get the other
two into their place? It's hard enough with Darlene." She sighed, tired, as
she managed the door for the staircase to Darlene's second story home. "Guess
I'll manage," she grunted.
When she reached the top, still holding the out of it red-head, she was
rewarded with a shock.
Outstretched on the floor were Daley and Leon.
"HUH?!?!?!?"
A chirp to the side attracted her attention, and she nearly cried aloud
again. It was Darlene's dragon Charcoal in it's miniature from, sitting on
one of the couches, wings outstretched. It chirped again before vanishing in
a small puff of flame.
"The damn dragon heard me," Priss said incredulously. "But it got the
WRONG place! Argh! Now what do I do?!" Holding Darlene wasn't easy so she
took the unconscious mage to her bedroom and put her on the bed. The singer
stretched her arms, grateful to be rid of the weight. Putting a hand on her
head, Priss wondered what to do. There was no way she was going to drag the
two officers back down the stairs, so she supposed they might as well stay
here. She started to turn away, but then an idea struck.
A good idea.
No.
This was an EVIL idea.
A full-blown grin grew on Priss' face as she looked at Darlene's still
form. Oh, this was just too good, she thought. Should she do it? A chuckle
escaped her. You BET! But first... Priss quickly left the room and headed
down the hall again.
She needed one little thing which she knew the red-head had.
Chapter Thirty-Three
====================
The first thing Leon discovered upon slowly gaining awareness of his
surroundings was that most of his clothes were off and that he was in a bed.
Unfortunately, by the feel of the silky-soft covers on his skin, it was not
HIS bed. This was not necessarily a bad thing, but nevertheless he carefully
opened his eyes, wondering where he was as his last memory ended at the party
last night.
And saw Darlene's peacefully sleeping face right beside him.
His immediate first thought was: Did we?? Considering who slept beside
him, in what was most likely her bed, his next was: How is SHE going to
react? The answer to both was to leave and find out LATER.
Leon tried ease himself out of the bed, but saw that it would be
difficult as he was positioned on the side of the bed against the wall and
would have to crawl over the dozing mage to escape. Shifting his legs under
the covers he brushed Darlene with one of his knees and discovered with a bit
of nervousness that she was wearing less than he was.
Wait...
Something...sticky?...was on his leg from the brush with Darlene? He
slid his hand under the covers to feel what was on his leg. Yes, something
sticky all right...no, impossible. Cautiously, he lifted his hand and
examined the clear substance in the morning light. It didn't look quite like
what he hoped it wasn't. He sniffed cautiously, and blinked in surprise.
HONEY????
What the Hell...? he thought in astonishment. Then he began to get
suspicious; he and Darlene in bed together, which was probably impossible for
them to have done by themselves considering what happened last night, Darlene
having a sticky substance in an embarrassing position, and Priss had been
present last night at the party. NOW things were beginning to make sense; all
TOO much sense as he knew something about Priss and Darlene's jokes on each
other. Now more than ever he had better get out of...
Darlene's eyes twitched.
Leon's stomach sank as he watched her eyes slowly open, then snap all
the way up in shock when she focused on the now-sickly smiling Leon.
"AH!!! WHAT?!?!" she screamed aloud, recoiling from him, then blinked
again in shock when she noticed that she wasn't wearing anything underneath
the covers, and covered herself more fully with the bedsheets. Before Leon
could say anything she discovered the third and greatest shock, and turned
pale. She shifted her legs underneath the covers a little, confirmed it, and
went from pale to sheet white. Leon tried to reassure her.
"Ah... Darlene... It's not what you think..."
His voice died as she focused on him once more, after a moment her face
started to return to a normal color and her eyes relaxed. So did he.
"Leon..." she began conversationally, considering the ADPoliceman in her
bed. He, in turn, was getting nervous again; she was taking this too well, he
realized.
"Ah, yes?" She smiled at him.
"PREPARE TO DIE!!!!!" she roared furiously, eyes blazing, and a fist,
glowing brightly with ki, rocketed towards his head. Leon missed being hit by
half a centimetre as his reflexes threw him out of the bed, years of dodging
Boomers paying off. The wall where the fist landed wasn't so lucky and with
an explosion a new hole was created in it. From the floor, he stared at where
the fist had struck until Darlene slowly turned her enraged gaze in his
direction again. He leaped up, adrenaline flowing, and sprinted for the
doorway, mentally cursing Priss for trying to kill him; the only time he'd
seen the red-headed mage madder was the Elf episode, and not by much.
Somehow, he didn't think staying and talking was a wise idea.
Priss, who had stayed, and Daley, whom she had placed on the couch, woke
up because of Darlene's enraged shout. Daley was still clothed, Leon's stuff
in a pile formed his pillow. Priss was in a reclining chair, and stretched
when she stood up. She almost fell back into it laughing when Leon, looking
like demons were hounding his heels from his expression, rushed into the
living room area, wearing only his boxers. His panic roused his partner
fully.
"What's up, Leon?" he inquired curiously, ruffling his hair tiredly as
he got off the couch. The brown-haired ADPoliceman saw his clothes
immediately and rushed over to grab them in a bundle.
"We've gotta go! NOW!" he shouted, running for the door out of the
apartment, not bothering to try and dress.
"Why?" Daley asked. The sound of a door exploding off its hinges
answered him. "Oh."
Priss stared in shock at her friend when the red-head come out from her
room. A bedcover was wrapped around her body, concealing it, but the flaming
sword she held in her hand and the murderous expression on her face told the
singer that the mage was definitely NOT happy. Seeing this, Leon and Daley
immediately opened the door and ran out of the apartment in a panic. Darlene
stepped forward to grimly follow the two but Priss, feeling very stupid for
doing so, intercepted the furious girl.
"Wait!" the singer cried.
"HE DIES A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH!!!" Darlene furiously shouted at her,
punctuating the remark by waving the flaming sword and started advancing
again.
"It was a joke! A JOKE, Darlene!" Priss cried out. It took a second, but
Darlene finally heard what her friend said and blankly looked at her. "You
two didn't do anything! I put you both in bed together and used some honey to
make it look like you had done something."
"Honey?" Darlene blinked several times in confusion, then realization.
"A...joke?" She lowered the sword, flames vanishing from the blade.
Priss sighed in relief, seeing that the mage wasn't going to chop Leon
up into little pieces anymore. She nodded affirmatively. "Yeah, just a joke."
A minute later, the singer got painfully off the floor, desperately
sucking in air that had been knocked out by Darlene's lightning-fast fist.
"Fuck, I really did it this time," she groaned, holding a hand to her sore
midsection. "Damn, she hits hard. At least she didn't go for the face."
Wincing a little, Priss headed for the mage's bedroom. She gave a hesitant
glance at the blasted door on the floor before stepping through the doorway.
"Any OTHER surprises today?" Darlene said bitterly. She sat on the edge
of her bed, still holding her sword and hugging herself as if needing
comfort, not bothering to look up at Priss, who sighed.
"No."
"Great. Then here's one for YOU!" And to the singer's utter horror,
threw the sword straight at her! The blade slid through clothes and flesh
effortlessly, shock had prevented her from moving out of the way. The hilt
impacted her already sore midsection severely and she staggered backwards in
pain and shock. She'd just been impaled with a frigging sword! Priss thought,
terrified. She was dead! Headless of the consequences, she frantically
gripped the hilt and pulled. The sword came out like nothing held it at all
and for a brief moment she held the weapon high, staring at it. What the?!?
She'd felt nothing?! Quickly looking down she saw a hole in her shirt, but no
blood from a wound. With her free hand, Priss hesitantly checked and
confirmed it. Nothing.
"My sword doesn't harm human flesh. Now you know how I felt, and still
feel," Darlene said softly, having watched Priss' reaction and then turned
her gaze back to the floor.
Heart still hammering, Priss couldn't say anything in response for the
moment. Instead she walked over and sat on the bed beside Darlene, carefully
putting the sword on the bed as soon as she could. "Guess it wasn't such a
good idea, huh?" she finally said.
"You KNOW my past!" Darlene angrily retorted. "AND that I still don't
know things about myself! Like when I lost control of my anger, and you know
what happened THEN! It almost happened again when I thought I had..." She
shivered. "In my male form I'm in control, almost to a fault at times, but in
my female form I'm NOT, I don't have the experience! Who knows what might
happen if I did...that?"
"You're gonna have to find out some day," Priss said, realizing that the
red-head still hadn't come to terms with some of the more exotic alterations
to herself. It was easy to think otherwise as her friend tended to bury
worries and show a more pleasant face.
"Maybe, but I'm scared to death of the possibilities," Darlene
whispered, and didn't object when Priss put a reassuring arm around her
shoulders, deriving a little comfort from it. Finally, she sighed and looked
up at Priss with something akin to amusement on her face. "You realize we're
both going to have to apologize to Leon, don't you?" The singer looked less
than pleased with that, but couldn't argue the point.
"I suppose so..."
"And let's not do any more practical jokes for a while, please? This one
frazzled my nerves a little too much."
"What about impaling me with that fucking sword?!?" Priss protested
indignantly. Darlene looked at her with a fake expression of innocent
confusion.
"But I thought would be appropriate for a vamp."
"VAMP?!?!? Why you!!!" Priss' friendly hug turned into something more
appropriate for pro-wresting as she attacked. Darlene screeched in protest as
it was unexpected.
"HEY!! No fair!! I've just got a cover on!!"
"I'll take any advantage I can get!" Priss pressed her advantage, and
started tickling her friend mercilessly.
"No, no, not there! Ah! Ah-haha! Hahahahahahaha!"
It degenerated from there.
Nene's awakening was much less of a surprise, Linna hadn't bothered to
take off the red-head's clothes and simply laid her friend on her bed.
However, the hangover she had was a painful reminder of what had happened
last night. She was still blurry on certain details and so she decided to
give Darlene a call.
She had showered as she had felt dirty and the pounding in her head was
a little less intense but otherwise she thought she was presentable enough
for the vid-phone. It took quite a few rings before Darlene answered.
"H-hello? Oh, Nene! Hi!"
Nene stared. Darlene's face was flushed, her hair was in disarray, and
there was a bedsheet wrapped around her, loosely. Her response to Nene's call
had been a breathless response as well. It looked like... No. Not Darlene,
Nene thought disbelievingly. Then Priss, with a smirk on her face, appeared
behind the mage and waved casually at the ADPolicewoman.
"Hey, Nene. Recovered from last night yet?" the singer asked with a
grin, reminding the red-head about her headache and making her wince.
"No, I'm not," she replied petulantly.
"Good!" And before Nene could frame an indignant reply to that, Priss
continued, "That's what you SHOULD get for getting drunk when you KNEW that
punch was spiked. What happened is all YOUR fault!"
"Okay, okay! Owwww...." Nene had to cover her ears to stop the pounding.
Meanwhile, Darlene naturally heard all this. "SPIKED punch??" she
growled the question out, looking alternately at the friend with her and the
friend beside her. Both looked a little nervous. "No wonder I can't remember
parts of last night's party...yet," she amended. "I won't bother to ask how,
just tell me I didn't do anything bad."
"Not really," Priss conceded, Nene just continued to look guilty.
"Nothing people will think actually happened." Darlene sighed with relief.
"Why are you at Darlene's anyway, Priss? I thought...." Nene trailed off
with a blush. "Nevermind." Darlene blinked.
"Thought what?"
Priss fought back a laugh. "And I thought I had the dirty mind." When
Darlene turned to her with a frown, she said, "Well, you DO look like you had
some male...company over." She ducked the angry swing Darlene aimed at her.
"You were tickling me! And you certainly have a mind filled with it
after doing what you did this morning!"
"So I'm sorry already. It's not like anything really happened with you
and Leon."
"Could we not mention THAT again?"
Nene blinked in astonishment. "LEON?!?!" she gasped. Darlene looked
pained while Priss grinned.
"Just...forget it," the red-headed mage groaned. "Nothing happened.
Priss was being funny and I STILL fail to see the humour," she directed at
the singer. "Look, I'll phone you later, Nene. I have to clean up, and maybe
practice some spells on a HANDY volunteer." She smiled at Priss with a glint
in her eye. "Bye." The image vanished with a last vision of a worried Priss
inching away from Darlene.
Now I wonder what THAT was all about, Nene wondered.
"Get outta here, ya bum!"
A humanoid figure flew through the air into a pile of trash bags, the
door it had come from slamming shut behind it. There was a groan from the
form as it rose from the trash, then a snarl as a metallic arm shredded the
bags it had landed in.
"My, my. Rough night?"
The form whirled around when he heard the female voice, stopping in
momentary amazement to the beauty standing in the alley with him. Then anger
rose up. "Who the Hell are you, bitch?" he snarled. The female smiled.
"My name is Yanda and yours is Steelfist. Or at least...it used to be?"
she commented, looking pointedly at his false arm.
Steelfist grit his teeth at the painful memories that remark triggered.
He was a far cry from the leader of the Steelriders he had used to be, and it
had all started with an encounter with a trio of girls. Two were trying to
wake up their red-haired companion when his pack had found them. Easy lays.
The three would've been a lot of fun, or so they had thought. Even when the
black-haired one had shown some martial arts knowledge he had her beat with
his expensive bio-metallic arms.
Then that red-haired BITCH decided to wake up.
Apparently not drunk at all, she had fought him. Incredibly, impossibly,
he had lost when she had SEVERED his false arm in fucking HALF. After that
defeat, things had slowly gone downhill for him since. He didn't have enough
money to fix his old limb and had to get a cheap, plain metal one that wasn't
nearly as powerful. His pack, his FORMER pack, drove him off because of the
weaker limb and his defeat. He had had nowhere to go save visit old friends
who, one-by-one, threw him out every time.
Bastards.
Now he had been thrown out of a bar into trash and run into this weird
bitch who somehow knows his name. "So what the fuck you want? I got better
things to do."
"So I see," she said, looking at him standing in garbage. "Very well, I
offer you something simple."
"What's that? A freebie?" he sneered lewdly.
"Power." And she held up a glass cylinder that glowed a faint crimson
the color of blood.
"You crazy, bitch?"
"Who isn't? Catch!"
Startled, Steelfist grabbed for the vial. Unfortunately, it was with his
cheapshit fake arm and his indelicate grip crushed the glass, releasing the
liquid inside and splashing it all over his arm and himself. "Fuck!" he
shouted, franticly trying to wipe the glowing stuff off and failing. "This
better not be some poisonous crap or something."
"I would say 'or something.' You might even say it'll make you a
new...man."
Steelfist's eyes suddenly widened in panic; the stuff on his clothes
began to MOVE. He looked at his metal arm and saw it start to melt. "What the
Hell?" he whimpered, unable to comprehend what was happening. Then the places
on his skin where the liquid had hit felt like they were starting to burn. He
tried to say something in his panic but Steelfist had swallowed some of the
strange stuff and his larynx no longer worked.
The pain came quickly, immobilizing him.
Yanda smiled like an expectant mother.
Another piece to play.