Here is chapter 2 of my Real Life/Records Of Lodoss War/BubbleGum Crisis
(way later)
crossover!   C&C at mgiroux@upc.qc.ca

PS- I am NOT on the FFML!  I'm just posting there!

Chapter 2: Elemental Mess
< > means foreign language
* * means thoughts

    Terry felt like his molecules were being taken apart at the seams.  It
was very painful, so he unfortunately wasn't able to enjoy the light
show that was going on inside the portal.
    He stumbled flat on his face in the Crystal room.  He was about to get
up when Donna landed on him rather abruptly.  He managed to roll her
off him and was starting to get up again when this time, both Chang and
Fanny landed on him.  Trying to shake them off, he swallowed a curse
and desperately croaked "Get off me!  I can't breathe!".
    Still dazed and his arms around Fanny's waist, Chang obeyed without
really thinking.  Fanny had been knocked out, but she was already
moaning her way back to consciousness.  *Well, at least she's alive,*
thought Chang with relief.  Gathering his wits, he looked around the
room and saw three crystals on the ground that were emitting
something that looked to him like electricity.  Confident that his boot
would be enough to stop electrical current, he seperated the three
crystals with a small tap of his foot.  Separated, the crystals stopped
glowing.
    Terry and Donna were coming about and were looking all around
them.  "Where are we?" wondered Donna out loud.
    "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto..." said Terry just
before being bonked by Donna.
    "It's not funny!" said Donna, annoyed by the classic quote.
    "Hey, over here!", they heard Chang's voice.  Looking around, they
found him near a seemingly unconscious Fanny while ogling several
weapons the were lying on the floor.  "Look at these weapons!"
    Donna rather wanted to make sure Fanny was all right, so she
immediately rushed to her little sister's side while Terry, seeing
Fanny was in good hands, went to see what Chang had found.  On his way
there, he nearly stepped on the Crystals that were on the ground.
"Stupid rocks..." he mumbled while stepping over them.  "So what'd
you find?" he asked Chang.
   "Look at these things!  This place is an armory!"  They were both
looking at various weapons and pieces of armor lying around.
"Whoooaa! Look at those two!" Chang said, pointing towards the Holy
Sword and Soul Crusher.
    "Yes, big swrds are very nice, but it still doesn't explain where we
are or how the hell we got here" Terry interrupted him.
    "Yeah.  We got to find a way back home, quickly" answered Donna,
who joined them with a now-awake Stephany, who was staring at a
beautiful yellow crystal on a pedestal...
    "Well, count the door out, `cause it's locked." came Chang's reply as
he was shaking the door handle.
    "Maybe we could break it down using the weapons here?" suggested
Terry.
    "Hey, what are those?" asked Donna, pointing to the Crystals on the
floor.
    "Dunno, but they were glowing when we got here." said Chang.
"They stopped when I kicked them apart."
    "They're beautiful!" she said in an awed voice and they each picked
one up.  Chang picked up the transparent one, Donna picked up the red
one and Terry picked up the brown-gray one.  "It's kinda warm" she
said, while stroking the Crystal of Fire.  "Do you think it's a ruby?"
    "Looks like it.  But mine doesn't feel warm: it's cold and it feels like
it's vibrating somehow" Terry said.
    "Mine doesn't vibrate, but it sure is light for a rock: it barely
weighs more than a feather!" Chang countered.
   They were interrupted when a pale-skinned man with a big hawk-
like nose and a circlet on his head staggered through the door.  He
seemed in pain, and angry.  Fanny started to whimper.  <Put those
Crystals down>, he saidin a broken voice.  Of course, Chang was the
only one who understood Karla's rumbling, and even then, he still
didn't know perfect Japanese.
    "What'd he say?", asked Donna.
    "I _think_ he wants us to put the stones down" Chang said in an
unsure voice.
    "How would you know that?" asked Terry.
   "Because I think he just spoke Japanese" Chang answered with a
nervous shrug.
    While Terry and Donna were looking at Chang a little strangely,
Karla turned towards Fanny who was holding the Yellow Crystal.  <You!
Put that back!> he snapped.  Shaken out of her stupor, Fanny dropped
the Crystal on the ground.
    The Crystal broke into little itty bitty pieces.
    In the process of apologizing, she bent down to pick up the pieces
when she tripped and fell flat on her face.  Straight on one of the bigger
Crystal shards.
   Karla's cool exterior broke into itty bitty pieces like said Crystal.
   Donna, seeing what had happened, rushed to Fanny's side to see if she
was all right.  Karla, on the other hand, was _really_ pissed off at
losing one of the Crystals and decided to remove at least one interloper
from the scene by launching a lightning bolt towards Donna.  Donna saw
the bolt coming and tried to parry with the Red Crystal.
    It didn't work.  The Red Crystal of Fire blew up in her face.
   When he saw Donna sprawled on the floor and bleeding from the head,
Terry tossed the Brown Crystal on a table beside him and rushed at
Karla with the nearest weapon available, which happened to be Soul
Crusher.  He didn't care whether the guy spoke Japanese or Zulu, he
just wanted to kill the guy.  "You hurt my sister you bastard!" he
yelled and tried to impale Karla.  She answered by blasting him back to
the table with a force bolt, Terry unable to bring the Demon Sword to
bear in time.
    He started getting up almost immediately, both to Chang and Karla's
surprise.  Karla, not wanting to duel with someone who was wielding
the Demon Sword (which was starting to glow red by now), tried to
blast him again.  Fortunately for Karla, she didn't hit the Brown
Crystal; she hit a jar that was sitting next to the Brown Crystal.
Unfortunately for Karla, the liquid in that jar happened to be very
flammable and explosive, not unlike liquid nitroglycerin.
    Terry barely had time to protect his face with his hands before the
jar and the Brown Crystal of Earth both exploded.  He collapsed besides
the table with bleeding hands and arms.
    The explosion shook the Water Crystal off its pedestal and it fell on
the ground, but miraculously, it didn't break.
    Chang was panicking.  *This wasn't what I had in mind when Ms.
Stratson asked me to babysit tonight!* a small corner of his mind told
itself.
    Karla was going over the edge.  Losing three Crytals in less than five
minutes did not do wonders for her already-fragile sanity.  *Those
worms, destroying 250 years' worth of work!  I'll make them pay!!!*
Recovering a shred of  calmness, she thought: *But I may not have to:
they all seem to be dead, except for this one with strange eyes who's
holding the White Crystal.*
    Chang was looking at the strange man in front of him and quickly
came to two conclusions: he was pissed and he was powerful.  He spared
a glance around him and saw that the shards from the broken Crystals
were slowly dissolving and turning to smoke.  Mentally playing back
the scene and analyzing how the man had acted, a momentarily rational
corner of his mind deduced that whatever these crystals were, they
were important to the man.
    Karla, not wanting to destroy the Crystal of Wind with another spell,
took out a long knife and started advancing towards Chang.  Chang saw
this and stepped backwards.  Karla lunged for Chang, but he deflected
the blow with the Crystal.  The knife left a scratch on the surface and
the Crystal started to glow threatningly.  They were both distracted
when a shout came from just outside the room's door.

* * * * * * * * * *

    Parn, Deedlit, Slayn and Etoh appeared relatively near the cave.
While Slayn directed the party, he explained a few things to Parn:
"While on my trip, I came across interesting rumors about the Gray
Witch, Karla."
    Parn unconsciously grabbed the hilt of his sword and squeezed.  Any
thoughts of Karla immediately made him think of Ghim's death and the
feeling of helplessness he'd felt then.  Combined with that was the fact
that she had managed to capture Woodchuck's body for her own, it was
all Parn could do not to start sprouting curses on the spot.  Deedlit saw
his reaction and put a delicate hand on his arm.  Parn turned around,
saw Deedlit's condescending face and relaxed.  A little.
   Slayn, unaware of Parn's reaction, continued to speak.  "The rumors
said that she was developing new magical artifacts, stones or crystals,
probably.  After further investigation, I found out hints that she'd been
developing these artifacts for a long time now and that these artifacts -
he spared a glance at Deedlit- have something to do with elemental
magic."
   Deedlit gasped: elemental magic was not the kind to be used
carelessly.  She was very careful when she used it herself and if Slayn
was right, Karla had tried to contain elemental energies within
inanimate objects and _that_ was not recommended because said object
would most likely be quite unstable.
    Slayn continued:  "I see Deedlit shares my concerns.  If that insane
witch is tampering with elemental artifacts, there's no telling what
might happen to Lodoss.  That's why I came back to Valis: I had to warn
you as soon as possible.  The problem was, I didn't know where her
hideout was."  A grim smile formed his face: "But I think that question
was answered a few minutes ago."  After a small pause, he added: "I
saw your friends Shiris and Orson on my way to Valis.  They may head
there in the near future."
   "All right" said Parn.  "But we mustn't let Karla escape this time.
We have to free Woodchuck!"
    "We're here" announced Slayn.  They were standing near the
entrance of a cave that seemed to have been dug into the mountainside.
It was very well placed: it was cleverly hidden behind trees and it
wasn't near any major road.
    "Where exactly _is_ here?" asked Etoh.
    Slayn thought about that for a second.  "To my surprise, we may
actually be closer to Valis than I had first thought, which makes sense
in a way..."
    "Build your fortress where the enemy least expects and..." was
saying Deedlit in a dry voice when she was interrupted by a rather loud
explosion.  Both she and Slayn winced, but Deedlit reacted first.  "That
felt like an Earth Elemental!  And an extremely powerful one at that!"
    That was all Parn needed to know.  With a loud yell, he rushed inside
the cave.  "Parn!  Wait!" shouted Deedlit behind him, but he paid her
no heed.  Sighing loudly, she followed Parn into the cave, followed by
Slayn and Etoh.

* * * * * * * * * *

    Inside the cave, Karla and Chang witnessed the sudden (and quite
audible) entrance of Parn.  Even though she was stunned to see this new
sword-swinging arrival, Karla managed to fire a streak of flames
towards Parn.  Chang seeing the man was busy holding the young man at
bay, decided to rush Karla with the first weapon he found: the Holy
Sword.  Turning back in the nick of time, Karla barely managed to
dodge his swing and let his momentum carry him to her right, while
slashing him on the back when he passed near her.  Chang was unable to
stop his momentum and crashed in a wall.  The problem is, he had
desperately tried to cushion the impact with the damaged Crystal, but
to no avail.
    After an impressive show of pyrotechnics, The White Crystal of Air
was no more and Chang had been blasted backwards and collapsed at the
table's feet, near Terry.  The Holy Sword went flying behind the table,
but for some reason, Parn had not noticed the Sword at all.
    Karla lost it.  Not only was she mad, but she was also nearly drained.
She had to get out, and fast.
    In a desperate effort, she tried to grab the Crystal of Water, the only
crystal left intact by the battle inside the cave, but Parn saw her move
and immediately tried to tackle her.  The tackle was only partially
successful: Karla didn't make it to the Crystal, but Parn didn't manage
to get a good hold of her.
   Karla got up was about to incinerate Parn with a fireball when a
moderately sized ball of light nearly hit her in the head.  Turning
around, she saw Slayn, Etoh and Deedlit standing in the doorway,
Slayn's staff glowing menacingly.  Reluctantly deciding she was
outclassed, she used the last of her reserves to teleport out of the cave.
   "NOOOOO!  Woodchuck!" shouted Parn as he saw Karla escape once
more.  *Not again,* he thought, *I can't let her escape again!*
Unfortunately, his prayers went unheeded and Karla escaped silently.
    "Damn!" he said, swinging his sword against the wall.  "She got
away!"
    "We'll get her at an other time." said Deedlit calmly while coming
over to Parn.  "What happened?  While we were coming after you,
Slayn and I were hit by what felt like an explosion of elemental energy.
Wind, it would seem."
    Etoh, who had been surveying the room, saw four people sprawled on
the floor with wounds all over them.  "Slayn, help me!  These people
are hurt!" he said, rushing to Donna's side, who seemed to be bleeding
profusely from the head.  "I can stabilize them here, but we need to get
them back to Valis quickly!  There are more healers there."
    "Who are they?", asked Deedlit, who was looking at them and at the
strange clothes they wore.
    "I don't know," said Parn, "but I do know that this one," he said
while pointing to Chang, "tried to fight Karla as well.  He was holding a
white crystal that blew up in his hands when he tried to stop himself
from hitting the wall with it."
    Slayn and Deedlit exchanged a meaningful glance.  "Fortunately",
said Slayn while turning to Etoh, " there is more than enough residual
elemental energy here to go back to Valis the same way we came.  I only
need to take this to help me" he added, taking the Water Crystal.
    "Good!  Then let's go!" said Etoh.  And so, the group was soon back to
Valis, unknowingly leaving behind the Opposing Swords.

* * * * * * * * * *

    In a forest somewhere, Karla came out of her teleportation spell.
*I'm completely exhausted,* she thought.  *It will take me days to be
able to teleport again.*  Before collapsing unconscious on the ground,
her last thoughts were: *I will have my revenge...*

* * * * * * * * * *

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Another Phoenix
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Louis-Philippe Giroux
mgiroux@upc.qc.ca