Hokay! Finally me and Bert are getting going on this. ^_^
We'd love C+C and there'll be more coming soon... ^_^
Enjoy! :)
| Twister (also known as Darren Steffler ;)
| e-mail at twister@tendo-dojo.ranma.net
| Home Page at http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~fmw675/
| Big Heapum Fan of: Ranma 1/2, Bubblegum Crisis, Dirty Pair, Gundam, and
| the rest of the known anime universe.
PART 1 - What Knight be this?
-----------------------------
It was quiet inside the simple room that was used by guests.
The futon on the floor was made and, strangely, a chair split into
two halves was set aside in one corner of the room.
Suddenly, flames burst into existence in the empty center.
This was no ordinary fire, for it blazed a purple color and left
the floorboards untouched. The flickering flames rose to new
heights, then died out as quietly as they'd erupted.
Two beings now stood revealed in the room.
The Chinese village of the Amazons might not be home, but for
Darlene, the name Twister had gotten used to calling her female
form, it was a sight for sore eyes. It had been a long time for her
and while she had left some dear friends, coming back was an
achievement that she was now pretty certain she could repeat. Given
enough practice.
"Are we...back?" the other person she had brought with her
asked hopefully.
"Yeah, I think so, Ryouga," she replied, sighing and smiling
with relief as she looked back at her trans-universal companion.
Somehow, he'd wound up in the universe that she had been thrown
into the last time she had been in the village. Exactly how that
had happened was a mystery, and Darlene idly pondered whether it
had anything to do with wormhole theory; after a moment, she
dismissed that speculation, and just wrote it down as part of
Ryouga's strange ability to wander anywhere.
"I'll change and send you to the Tendo dojo." Seeing the
bandanna-wearing young man drift off into love-lorn visions of
Akane, she shook her head and shrugged off the backpack she wore,
dropping it to the floor for a moment, and taking an invisible
pendant from it.
One mental command later, and the red-headed girl was shrouded
in darkness; split seconds after that, and the diminutive
red-headed figure was replaced by a tall, armour-clad form. The
armour was crystalline in appearance, and was apparently modeled
after ancient knight armour. Black plate etched with silvery
designs was interconnected by a fine shimmering mesh. It was an
impressive sight in the mostly empty room. The sudden appearance of
the armour suit immediately jarred Ryouga out of his wistful
trance.
Inside the armour, Darlene had become Twister, the male side
of his forms. He had originally started out as male, but some major
events in his life had blessed, or cursed depending on your point
of view, him into switching back and forth between the two sexes.
He had mostly gotten used to his female side during his stay in the
Bubblegum Crisis universe.
"Okay, Ryouga, I'm going to send you to the dojo," Twister's
distorted voice told his companion; it was the Crystal Knight's
voice when he wore the magical armour. "Please don't mention our
little...trip, okay?"
Ryouga stiffened indignantly. "Do you doubt my hon..." His
voice ended abruptly as he had vanished due to Twister's
teleportation power. It was rude, but the psionist had no desire to
delay his own agenda. He wanted very much to see Nabiki again, and
there were a few minor matters to attend to first before he could
do that.
"Minor?" the Crystal Knight muttered, shaking his head
disbelievingly as he went over that last thought. "I wish...."
SOMEWHERE ELSE.....IN A UNIVERSE NOT-SO-FAR AWAY....
A loud, droning whine carried over the muted grumble of the
late afternoon traffic choking the streets of downtown MegaTokyo.
A few pedestrians noted the noise as they shoved their way through
the milling throngs of people on the sidewalks, and looked around
for the source. The noise grew louder, and began to override
everything. A few car drivers even leaned out through their
windows, thinking perhaps that a jet plane was coming down
overhead. The drivers immediately in front of the rubbernecking
motorists were not happy, as loud bangs announced the fact that a
few collisions had just occurred because of it.
With the roar of powerful jet turbines, a silver-bedecked
figure shot down the length of the street, flying at about fifty
feet above street level. The brightly shining figure was humanoid
in shape, and looked vaguely like a robot of some kind: heavy
armour plating covered it entirely, coloured mostly silver, with
some blue plating on the shoulders and torso. Its head had a
v-shaped slot where its eyes should be, and the slot was glowing a
bright red colour, seeming to glower ominously at everything. Blue
`wings' jutted out from the sides of the head, approximately where
the ears on a human would be. Short wings stuck out from its back,
and people with really sharp eyesight were able to discern jets of
some kind on the figure's back.
After a casual glance, it became obvious to even the most
callow observer that the flying object was a powered armour suit,
a hardsuit. It appeared to be completely oblivious to everything on
the ground below it, concerned only with its flight. When it
reached the end of the street, the gleaming hardsuit shot into the
high skies, vanishing within moments into the low-level clouds and
towering peaks of the city skyscrapers, leaving the commuters below
to ponder the strange sight they'd briefly witnessed.
SkyKnight cast a last glance over his armoured shoulder at the
rapidly receding traffic below, grinning to himself. While he
wasn't supposed to be buzzing the everyday traffic when out for a
`leisure flight', at times it was just too much of a temptation.
The looks on the faces of some of the civilians when he flew by was
priceless. He chuckled again to himself, remembering some of the
more shocked expressions he'd seen.
The silver-clad Knight Saber banked sideways as a radio
transmission antenna whipped past him, and he weaved a tortuous
path at breakneck speeds through some of the nearby rooftop
structures, just for the hell of it. Bert grinned to himself; God,
he loved flying!! It had been so long since he'd just gone flying
for fun, he couldn't remember any of the details. All he knew now
was that it felt fantastic, and nothing was going to ruin his
enjoyment of the moment.
There was a loud, crashing explosion of some kind that rocked
the air behind him, the noise fading out into a sullen rumble.
"Aw hell," SkyKnight muttered to himself, casting a glance at
the gloomy-looking sky overhead. "Bloody thunderstorms. Great." It
was funny, though; he'd checked the weather forecasts before
becoming airborne, and there hadn't been any mention of rain. Oh
well, time to head home then, and....
The world suddenly seemed to blow up. A loud, almost
electrical crackle filled the air around him, and SkyKnight
suddenly found himself bathed in coruscating purple light.
The air seemed to become uncomfortably hot; energy sizzled and
spat around him, and every warning light his hardsuit possessed
flashed into life on his viewscreen. Shutdown warnings, overload
warnings, collision warnings...what the hell was going on?! Had he
been caught in a lightning strike?! Impossible, his mind answered
a moment later; if it had been lightning, he'd have been dead.
Besides, who'd ever heard of purple lightning before?
SkyKnight threw full power to his jets, trying to outrun
whatever had overtaken him. For a moment, it seemed as if he'd been
successful, as the radiance filling his sight seemed to diminish a
bit. Then it was back, along with something else.
Something started dragging him backwards through the air.
"What the hell is going ON here?!?!" the silver hardsuit
roared, thrashing around in midair. He was very definitely being
dragged backwards now, when according to his readouts, he should
have been hurtling forwards at better than 500 Km/h airspeed.
SkyKnight looked behind him to see what, if anything, had a hold on
him.
When he saw what it was, he immediately wished he hadn't
looked: a huge, pitch black rift was apparently floating in midair
about twenty feet behind him, and long tongues of purple-white
energy were streaming from the rift. The energy streamers were
licking like hungry flames on a piece of wood on his hardsuit
exterior, although there didn't appear to be any effects incurred
as a result. Air howled into the void with the roar of a speeding
freight train, and it appeared to be the suction that was slowly
drawing him in.
"Oh my God, this isn't happening! PLEASE tell me this isn't
happening!!" Bert prayed fervently; no divine entities appeared to
be listening to him, however. Instead of an answer appearing, or
the phenomenon disappearing, a bright pinpoint of purple light
began to grow in the center of the gaping hole in the fabric of
reality. He stared numbly at it, dry-mouthed with fear as it
swelled and grew; part of his mind was screaming in anguished
protest at what was happening. It just wasn't possible; it defied
all earthly logic! It was insane!! It....
"AAAAAAAAARRRGH!!!" The agonized yell was torn from the silver
hardsuit as, with an echoing boom, a violently flaring burst of
purple-lit energy shot from the void in front of him, and slammed
square into his chest. Knives of pain seemed to slice through him
instantly as the energy wave washed through him, searing every
fibre of his being with a fiery-feeling shock. The wave passed
through him like he hadn't been there, continuing on to loop around
behind him in midair, almost like a snake curling around on its
prey.
SkyKnight fought desperately to escape the impossibility that
was happening to him. Jets screamed tormentedly, trying to wrench
him loose from the inexorable pull that now had him less than ten
feet from the rift. His mind shuddered away from the brief glimpse
he'd had of ...of ... his mind refused to put a definition to the
whirling images he'd seen inside of it, instead opting for
gibbering in fear. He had to get away!!!
The curling energy bolt behind him seemed to pause briefly,
then it pounced on the struggling Knight Saber mercilessly,
enveloping him completely...and shoving him forwards into the
blackness of the rift with its impact. There was another rolling
detonation, and the rift collapsed, leaving no indication that it
had ever existed at all.
Below, the sprawling metropolis continued to hum with its
normal activities, unaffected and uncaring.
RANMA UNIVERSE...
Several minutes had passed since the disaster occurred, and
Prof. Miyabi still couldn't believe what had happened.
She had asked Twister to come with her to the village of the
Amazons to help in the creation of a new sealing crystal. The
crystal kept a powerful and evil spirit bound into black stone,
stone that she currently stood upon. It was the duty of the chief
magic-user of the Amazons to renew the crystal when it became too
corrupted by the evil of the spirit.
Perfume, who was the current Master and an old friend, had
asked her for help, a great honour for Miyabi who knew the Elder
magess' standards. An female apprentice of some power had also been
requested, a role Twister fit perfectly despite being male half of
the time. They had come and, after a few minor mishaps, completed
the crystal. Miyabi bitterly remembered her sense of accomplishment
and pride when they had finally finished that task.
Unfortunately, the older crystal had been left for too long,
and it was only with Twister's warning that they had been
half-prepared when the crystal imploded. The spirit had taken over
and tried to destroy the new lock to its prison. Miyabi, Perfume,
and Lotion had succeeded in driving back the evil, but not before
it had done one last bit of revenge: Twister had been sucked into
a rift and, with all the free power in the room fouling her mystic
senses, there was no possible way to track her.
"<She CAN'T be gone!>" Lotion cried out in Chinese, wrapped in
Perfume's arms as she feebly tried to get to the place where
Twister had disappeared.
Perfume knew Miyabi did not know Chinese, so her response was
in Japanese. "I'm afraid she is, child. And without some kind of
link, it will be nearly impossible to track her...if she survived.
Inter-dimensional travel is very hard for magic-users in any case
without some help."
Miyabi rebelled at this appraisal of the situation. "But it
HAS been done!"
"Yes," Perfume agreed. "And do you know any beings that would
help you, willingly? I do not; It is no light task." Lotion looked
up hopefully at Miyabi.
The Professor slumped in defeat. "None, right now," she
admitted reluctantly. Lotion's face fell at her admission, and she
buried her face against Perfume in despair, weeping.
"MAY I LEND ASSISTANCE?" boomed a voice. All whirled towards
the source, and eyes widened with surprise.
"Who are you?" Perfume demanded of the powerful looking form.
"I BE THE CRYSTAL KNIGHT," Twister responded. "I WILL HELP
THEE."
IN AN UNKNOWN PLACE, SOMEWHERE OUT THERE....
Endless tracks of light blurred past, whipping streamers of
illumination that were nearly impossible to see. Whirling nebulae
of brightly glowing mists peppered the stark blackness of the void,
flashing by at speeds that defied the imagination, and description.
There were invisible zones of blast-furnace heat, followed by
regions of cold that made the Arctic seem temperate by comparison.
It was impossible to tell if time was passing or not, since there
was nothing, no solid, fixed, familiar point of reference he could
use to judge by. All that there was was a vast blackness,
terrifying in its immensity.
SkyKnight tumbled through the blackness of the void, a
flickering silver speck caught by forces beyond his comprehension.
A pulsing purple glow surrounded him, and extended out behind him
like a comet's tail, marking his trajectory for any beings that
were watching.
"Come on, Bert," he muttered to himself. "Wake up, dammit!
This isn't happening!! You're dreaming! For God's sake, WAKE UP!!!"
His last statement had more the sound of a desperate plea for help,
and he shut himself up before he could completely panic. It was
only through sheer willpower right now that he was staying
calm...well, mostly calm, anyway.
The void surrounding him was so featureless, he couldn't
really tell if he was upright or upside-down, although he had a
vague impression of being spun around every so often. There was
also the feeling of fantastic speed; even though he had nothing to
base it on, he had a hunch he was flying faster than normally
possible. He again experienced a surge of angry frustration over
his predicament, the feelings of complete helplessness not
improving his frame of mind in the slightest.
He tried again to see if he could break free of whatever had
a grip on him, but it was a futile effort; his suit refused to
move, or even respond to him. It wasn't a malfunction, he was sure
of that much at least. It was just like...like technology didn't
work here, or something. His viewscreen was working, allowing him
glimpses of the rare sights that there were to see out here...
wherever `here' was.... but his suit was frozen solid; he couldn't
move a finger now if his life depended on it. The only other thing
he could see was the pulsating purple glow that was all around him.
The silver-and-blue battlesuit sped onwards into the darkness
of the strange, somehow dimensionless void, like a piece of paper
caught in a tidal wave, trailing purple streaks of light.
RANMAVERSE...
Perfume warily looked at the armoured form in front of her.
Even with the fog of leftover power from the incident, she could
sense the power of the being's armour. However, what was
disconcerting was the fact that she could not sense the being
himself, or Itself; it was as if the being WAS the armour. Stranger
things had been birthed by magic, however, so it was entirely
possible. In any case, she felt no evil in the creature, so she did
not attack.
"You wish to help find our missing apprentice?" Perfume asked
cautiously.
"YES, I DO. HOWEVER, TWILL TAKE MUCH TIME."
"In your terms or ours?" Prof. Miyabi queried.
"MINE; UNKNOWN FOR THY HUMAN SCALE." The stranger shrugged.
"TWILL BE FASTER USING PERSONAL EFFECTS, AND WITH THY," he pointed
at a startled Miyabi, "HELP. YE BE HER MENTOR?"
The Professor nodded. "I am."
"THEN I WILL START; I WILL NEED THY HELP IN THE FIRST. NONE
OTHER WILL LOOK, OR LONGER IT WILL BE. WE GO NOW." Surprised,
Miyabi began to protest, but both she and the stranger vanished
before she could say a word.
"<Why do most non-human powers do that?>" Perfume said sourly.
Having someone just pop into and out of rooms without so much as a
greeting or farewell was extremely annoying..
Surprisingly, the black and silver form reappeared, and spoke
to an amazed Lotion, whose tears were still flowing. "DO NOT WEEP,
LASS. I BE SURE THE...LOST ONE IS UNHARMED."
"R-really?" the young woman sniffled. The helmet nodded,
although it seemed hesitant to Perfume. "Then I thank you." Lotion
sniffed once and smiled.
There was a pause, then the armour vanished again.
"<Strange...>" Perfume muttered, brows furrowing. She shook
her head after a moment, and decided to dwell upon it later. "<Come
you two; We have much to do.>" She left the room and her two
apprentices followed.
Lotion turned back once for a long moment, before reluctantly
turning away.
*****
Miyabi raised an eyebrow when she realized that it was her own
house that she now stood in. The strange being hadn't followed, but
her own pack, and Twister's, had. Another, larger backpack that she
didn't recognize also sat with the bundled belongings.
The armoured being appeared then, and she was willing to swear
that she heard it sigh. Nonsense. "All right, where do we start
then? I don't want to waste another minute," she said impatiently.
"WE BEGIN," the being loudly began, then its voice went down
to a normal volume, "with confession."
"What?!"
A dense black cloud shrouded the armour briefly, startling
Miyabi, and then disappeared, leaving behind something that
startled her even more. Her jaw dropped, almost to the ground.
"TWISTER?!?!?" Darlene's shoulders slumped.
"Yes. I..." She didn't get a chance to say more, for Prof.
Miyabi rushed up and hugged her tightly, cutting off what she was
going to say. Darlene smiled and hugged the relieved Professor
back. "It's good to be back."
Miyabi released the young woman and held her arm's length away
from her, as if she was disbelieving her own eyes. "How...how did
you get back? And why like THAT?" The fact that she meant the
'powerful being' act was obvious.
"Took two years," the red head muttered, eyes downcast. "I
finally got around to it from the place where I ended up."
"Two..." Miyabi began, then frowned as she looked at Darlene
carefully. "That's far too short a time to come up with something
like trans-universal travel, especially at your age. Age... You
don't... You haven't changed at all!" she accused.
"Well, that's two things to blame on the Event: An easier time
casting spells, and a lot longer lifespan," Darlene said bitterly.
At the Professor's questioning frown, she wryly added, "I found out
a few things about what had happened to myself when I was away."
Prof. Miyabi could tell this was a touchy subject so she
changed the topic...for the time being, anyway . "Why didn't you
tell us who you were at the village?" Seeing Darlene's sudden
hesitation and slight blush gave her the answer.
"Twister!" she scolded Darlene, who looked down at the floor,
shamefaced. "It's because of Lotion, isn't it? That was NOT a nice
thing to do, AND," she stressed, as Darlene was about to say
something but closed her mouth with a snap, "you're only avoiding
the issue."
"Can you bloody well blame me?!" Darlene protested
indignantly, temper rising. "Sure she's a lovely girl and, from
what I could tell in the brief time we met, she's a very nice
person! I guess I SHOULD be flattered that she's also attracted to
me! BUT WHEN I'M FEMALE?! AND THAT," Darlene was shouting now,
making Miyabi recoil in surprise at the outburst, "IS WHY I'M SO
BLOODY AFRAID OF HER!!!" She stood there, panting when she was
finished, glaring at Miyabi.
"You don't need to shout to answer me," the Professor said in
a deceptively mild tone, rebuking the angry young woman. The
red-head visibly deflated at her words.
"Sorry." Darlene blushed in embarrassment as Miyabi continued
to look at her silently. "My personality in this form changed a
little while I was away. I'm...a little more emotional now."
"So I see."
"I just... I just need more time to think about what I'm going
to do about Lotion."
Miyabi raised her eyebrows. "And what about Natsumi and
Nabiki?"
"I love Nabiki, not Natsumi," Darlene said without thinking,
then her eyes widened as she realized what she had said in front of
her magic professor.
"At least you can make up your mind on one thing, and shows
why you don't want to face Lotion if it's another you love. I mean,
besides the other reason. Can't you just tell her no?"
Darlene gaped at her incredulously. "You've never tried
dissuading an amorous Amazon whose attracted to someone, have you?
Trust me, if she's ANYTHING like Shampoo, no will not work.
DEFINITELY not work," she said glumly, depressed.
Miyabi shook her head. "Well, at least you're back safely,
even if the others don't know yet. After being gone so long I'd
better, tell you to go home, unpack, and try to get ready for
classes tomorrow." Miyabi smiled, with a familiar gleam appearing
in her eye. "You can tell me what happened to you after classes.
It's not every day I get to talk to someone who has been to another
universe and I'm very curious as to how and why you made that
armour." Seeing Darlene's hesitation, she smiled again with more
humour and waved at the red-head to move. "Go on, get out of here."
Darlene smiled back, more reassured. "Okay. It's great to be
back, but I think I'll run. I've done enough non-leg transportation
for today." She hefted her bag, and the larger backpack that she
had brought to carry mementos back from the Bubblegum Crisis
universe.
Before she left, Miyabi keeping the door open, Darlene
hesitated and said, "Professor?"
"Yes?"
"Um, could you please call me Darlene when I'm female?" she
asked quietly. Seeing Miyabi's startled look, she explained
further. "I used that name for my female half in the other
universe, and....I've gotten used to it."
"Very well...Darlene."
Darlene smiled her thanks, and rushed off, eager to return to
her apartment.
Miyabi shook her head and had to agree that...Darlene did seem
different in personality.
At least her story promised to be interesting.
SOMEWHERE, SOMEPLACE....
Time becomes meaningless after a certain point in a journey,
moreso when the traveller has no idea where he is, how he got
there, or where he is going. SkyKnight was discovering that first
hand; with nothing to use as a frame of reference, not even his
suit chronometer, he felt like he'd been hurtling through space
indefinitely. In fact, he was beginning to think he'd died, and had
been sentenced to fly uncontrollably forever through the hereafter,
alone. The long journey was starting to wear on his mind, driving
it close to the breaking point as the lack of scenery began to
border on sensory deprivation. He was morbidly sure that, if
something didn't happen soon, he was going to lose his mind and go
crazy...if he wasn't already insane and hallucinating all of this.
The minute he realized he'd spoken that aloud, he wished he'd
kept his mouth shut: He was now hurtling towards some kind of a
swirling, multicolored cloud, one that seemed to crackle
occasionally with energy. He began to sweat as he saw blue
lightning bolts play over its surface periodically, and he went
dry-mouthed with fear. He was never going to be completely easy
around electricity again; Hollister and his torture device had seen
to that. Whatever that cloud was, he had no desire to see it up
close.
With frantic desperation, SkyKnight tried to move...and yelled
in surprise as his sudden, violent motion turned his trajectory
into an end-over-end, high-speed cartwheel, as if he was spinning
around his center of gravity. Overcoming his surprise at being able
to move again, the silver-clad hardsuit fired his jets, trying to
halt his forward motion.
Nothing happened; his jets didn't respond.
"Aw goddamn it! NOW what?!" he snarled to himself. SkyKnight
tried some of his other systems as a check: scanners, lasers, beam
sabers, emergency thrusters, railgun launcher ... all of them
refused to function. Damn it, everything should have been working;
all his status readouts indicated normalcy, and apparently
everything was functioning....except the chronometer, he suddenly
realized. Time was definitely NOT on his side, but had appeared to
have taken a holiday: the clock LED readout was very firmly stuck
on 12:00 AM, like a VCR after a power outage.
Floundering around, Bert was able to stop his tumbling motion
after a lot of trial and error, and resume what he thought was an
upright position. The cloud loomed larger and larger on the
`horizon' the entire time, and he was sure he could almost feel an
atmosphere of .... expectant waiting?
With terrifying swiftness, SkyKnight shot into the cloud. As
he hit the fringes of the phenomenon, he thought he glimpsed
something off to the side of his current position. He had the brief
impression of a huge maelstrom of energy that was emitting a raging
torrent of purple and blue light. That was all he had time to see
as the cloud swallowed him completely.
There was the instant feeling that he'd stopped, somehow,
almost as if he'd hit a spongy wall. Everything was bathed in a
diffuse white glow, with other speckles of colour occasionally
flashing into brief view. Bert looked down at himself, and noted
that his suit was still outlined by a purplish glow. That was all
there was to see; the rest was a vast expanse of whiteness.
"YOU ARE NOT YET READY." The voice, if it was a voice,
throbbed with power and authority, almost rattling his teeth. It
seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?! Who are you? Where am
I?!" he shouted back, feeling suddenly very lost and alone. His
amplified voice sounded in his ears like a very poor imitation of
the voice that had spoken.
"YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE."
"Well then send me home, dammit!!" he yelled. "I didn't ask
for this!! Just get me out of here!!" SkyKnight looked around
again, and still couldn't see anything.
"IT IS TOO LATE, THE DIE IS CAST." SkyKnight was almost
willing to swear he heard the voice sigh before it continued. "YOU
HAVE THE POTENTIAL, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE."
"Now wait just a minute," SkyKnight countered. Sweat began to
drip down his face inside his helmet; he didn't like the
implications of `it is too late'. "What are you talking about?!" He
wished his suit systems were working; it would be so reassuring to
have workable particle lasers right now.
"PREPARE YOURSELF, KNIGHT. FROM THIS ROAD, THERE IS NO TURNING
BACK."
"HOLD IT!!!" SkyKnight bellowed. "What the hell do you mean?!
What are you going to ...do...to...me?" his voice trailed off, as
he noticed the purple radiance surrounding him began to get
brighter and brighter. Nameless terror suddenly gripped him.
"NO!!!" he shouted to the presence that was out there.
"Whatever it is, I want no part of it!! Leave me out of it!!"
"YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. THERE IS NO ONE ELSE." As if the words
had been a signal, it began.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!" SkyKnight screamed helplessly, as the
purple light flared to a white-hot intensity, and began burrowing
into him. He could feel it as it tunnelled, feeling like it was
slowly stripping away his molecules one at a time.
He held a hand up in front of his visor, and watched as his
gauntlet and arm became translucent with glowing energy. When he
looked down at himself, he could see the same thing happening to
the rest of his body; it was almost like he was looking at a purple
and white x-ray photograph of himself, with the white representing
his bones. The remorseless energy continued to sink into him,
driving towards the core of his being.
"NOOO!! P-P-Please, s-s-stop!!!" he pleaded, shaking as waves
of pain raced through him. "Don't want.....can't handle......" He
clutched at his helmeted head as it suddenly seemed to be filled
with a welter of strange, incomprehensible knowledge about all
kinds of subjects. Somewhere in the whirling mix of images, he
recognized some of his hardsuit ideas, circuit diagrams and
schematics from past upgrades, and ideas for future upgrades. All
the data churned through his mind at dizzying speed, almost like
someone had thrown his mind into a blender and hit the high-speed
switch.
The ordeal had yet another phase; as he felt the energy still
seeping into him, he suddenly realized that he could
somehow...sense...his hardsuit, almost like he was becoming part of
his suit. It was an utterly alien feeling, cold and frightening: in
place of nerves, it felt like he had wires; in place of his skin,
he could feel hard armour plating. In place of his mind....
"NOOOOO!!!!!!" He howled, fury and stark terror igniting
within him. "LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!" He was not going to just sit there
while some...some....some THING decided to alter his very being. He
was never, ever going to be forced to do something he didn't want
to do, or to become something else he didn't want to be. In the
depths of his mind, SkyKnight grabbed onto that spar of stubborn,
angry defiance, and began using it like a crowbar to force back,
somehow, the energy affecting him.
"MORTAL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" the voice asked suddenly,
sounding worried.
"I. Will. Not. Be. Controlled. By. ANYONE!!" Bert snarled back
through clenched teeth. He didn't really understand how he was
doing it, but it felt like he was succeeding in reversing what was
being done to him. The pain was incredible, though; he felt like he
was being flayed alive.
"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE DOING. THE CONSEQUENCES OF
YOUR ACTIONS WILL BE DIRE INDEED IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT YOUR FATE."
"Fate?!" the silver Knight Saber howled. "FATE?! This isn't
fate!! I'm being railroaded, you bastard!! I don't want whatever it
is you're trying to foist off on me!!" There was a moment of
silence in which everything seemed to freeze for an instant. When
the reply finally came, it was utterly final.
"IT WILL NOT BE ALLOWED. YOU *MUST* ACCEPT THE CHARGE THAT HAS
BEEN GIVEN TO YOU."
The energy enveloping SkyKnight suddenly squeezed agonizingly,
gouging into him again and destroying the foothold he'd gained
against it. As he thrashed helplessly, barely hanging on to
consciousness from the pain, he heard the voice again.
"I AM SORRY, BUT YOU NO LONGER HAVE A CHOICE IN THE MATTER."
RANMAVERSE...
Twister's roommate Yasuro looked up from his computer when he
heard the door open, and raised his eyebrows when he saw who stood
in the door. "That's dangerous, Twister. You shouldn't come in like
that," he advised, waving at Darlene's female state as she quickly
walked inside and closed the door.
Darlene sighed as she dropped her stuff on the floor. "Well,
I was going to change at Nabiki's but nobody was home there and I
wanted to get back in a hurry to relax."
"How was the trip?"
"Oh, eventful," Darlene said, grinning tiredly at the massive
understatement. "I got chucked into another universe for a few
years and I just got back." Yasuro had been turning back to his
computer, but he did a double-take when he heard that.
"Another...universe?" he said hesitantly.
"Yup!" She smiled impishly at her roommate before picking up
her stuff again. "It's happened to me before, as you well know,
only this time I managed to make a spell to get back to this one."
"I....I see." Yasuro rubbed the back of his neck as he
digested this. "In that case, will you be going back to your home
universe?"
"I..." Darlene paused at the question, then walked into her
room to drop off her stuff before coming back to drop down on the
couch with a heavy, heartfelt sigh. "I'm not sure. I guess I
should." She threw up her arms. "But I just got back to THIS one!"
she said, finishing with a yawn. "And it wasn't easy, so I'll be
around for a while."
"Never mind the fact that Nabiki's in this universe. Right?"
Blushing, startling Yasuro, Darlene ducked her head. "That's
also true," she said in a low voice.
"Aren't you going to change back?" he said, changing the
topic. "Not that I mind having my roommate looking like a cute
girl." Darlene blushed again as she scowled at him.
She stood up, yawning again. "Yeah, I'd better. I got used to
being female most of the time in the other universe. I'll tell you
about it later. Right now, I need sleep."
"I guess I can wait." Yasuro grinned as the suddenly weary
Darlene stumbled for the bathroom for hot water, thinking that his
roommate certainly wasn't dull. Not by a long shot.
The rest of the week was blissfully ordinary. The only problem
was that Nabiki seemed to have her hands full until the weekend,
and even that message was given by Yuriko, Nabiki's roommate, who
also happened to share the same magic class with Darlene and also
a good friend with both. Natsumi, a magic-user and Nabiki's rival
for Twister, tried to take advantage of this, but she seemed to
sense that Twister had realized some time ago whom he really loved.
She tried to hide her disappointment, staying friends with him, but
she never asked him for a date anytime that week.
Finally, Saturday arrived and Twister teleported to Nabiki's
place to pick her up so they could both go to the Tendo Dojo. The
first thing they did upon seeing each other was kiss deeply, Yuriko
sighing when she saw this.
"Well," Nabiki said with a warm smile when they separated,
still in each other's arms, "you're certainly enthusiastic today."
"It's been some time since I saw you last," he replied
truthfully enough.
"How was that trip you went on with your professor?"
"Long," he sighed.
"Hmm. You'll have to tell me about it some time." She smiled.
"Uh, yeah. We'd better get going though. See you later,
Yuriko." Their blue-haired friend waved at them and they
disappeared.
After they arrived at the Tendo Dojo, they were happily
welcomed by everyone, although Twister had to dodge Happousai's
welcoming pail of water. The old hentai was promptly blasted away
by his newly-developed pure-TK energy blasts, the only thing he had
cause to thank Madagan for showing him during his stay in the
Bubblegum Crisis universe.
Twister soon found himself in his old room, thinking. It
hadn't been meant to be a guest room, originally, but with all the
people arriving in and out of the dojo since Ranma's arrival, it
had been deemed necessary. He had been placed in it when he had
first started living at the dojo, so there were quite a few
pleasant memories associated with the now-empty room.
He had come here to try to figure out when the best time to
tell Nabiki what had happened would be. Some things were best left
unmentioned, like the time he had been nearly killed and had an arm
and a leg blown off; he wasn't sure how she would react to that. He
wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"Argh. When should I tell her? I can't keep it a secret
forever," he said aloud, quietly talking to himself. He shuddered
at the thought of telling her about Lotion; maybe that was one
thing best left unsaid. He sighed, and stretched a bit.
"Well, at least nothing else could happen...."
SOMEWHERE....CLOSE....
"IT IS DONE."
"No," SkyKnight croaked weakly. "Damn it, no...." He felt
absolutely horrible, almost like he'd been torn apart and glued
back together with five-minute epoxy. Every muscle was stiff and
sore, and he desperately needed a drink of water. He tried moving,
but found he still couldn't; he'd been immobilized at some time
during the `process' that had been inflicted on him. He had the
impression of floating, but couldn't really say why.
"I CANNOT DETERMINE IF YOU HAVE INJURED YOURSELF BY YOUR
STRUGGLE," the voice boomed. "HOWEVER, THERE IS NO MORE TIME IN
WHICH TO DO SO. YOU MUST GO, NOW. FAREWELL."
"Wait a minute," SkyKnight rasped, trying to look around. "Go
where?! Damn it, what is going on here?!" A loud roar began to
sound in his ears, and he suddenly felt like he was being sucked
into a vortex of some kind. The multicolored cloud around him began
to recede.
"Goddamn it!" SkyKnight yelled at the retreating cloud. "What
is happening?!"
The silver-garbed Knight Saber never received an answer.
RANMAVERSE...
The moment Twister uttered the words, he regretted them.
Somebody, somewhere seemed to have heard the words that were a Very
Bad Thing To Come From One's Mouth.
He was abruptly glad he had been standing close to the door,
for in the middle of the room, a...a rip, for lack of a better
term, in the fabric of space/time opened wide, jagged waves of
purple light lining the disturbing sight. A purple light that
suddenly seemed very, very familiar to the psionist. He felt his
stomach sink with a premonition of impending disaster.
Then he heard a voice beginning to come from the hole.
"........aaaaaAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMNNNNNNN IIIIITTTTTT!!!!!"
Something large, metallic, and glowing purple was spat upwards
from the gap-in-space near the floor; the portal closed instantly
with an echoing rumble, almost like thunder.
The object the rift had spat out almost hit the ceiling before
gravity finally stopped its ascent, pulling it into the floor in a
heavy-sounding crash. The humanoid shape hit face down with a
metallic clang, and also an audible grunt of pain. Purple radiance
limned the shape for a moment, then disappeared, the energy seeming
to soak into it as it vanished. During the entire time, the shape
twitched as if connected to an electrical current.
Looking at it closely, Twister recognized it as some kind of
hardsuit, or its equivalent, wherever it came from. The wings built
into the shoulder blades, and the jet pack assembly, similar in
configuration to a Boomer's, suggested flight capabilities,
although short or long range he didn't know. Its coloring was dark
blue and silver, the blue mostly on the shoulderpads, and silver
for the rest of the body.
If it weren't for the fact that the contours of the hardsuit
suggested a man, and that he'd never heard of anything remotely
resembling this strange design that looked similar to old-fashioned
knight's armour, Twister would've thought this stranger was a
Knight Saber. A little belatedly, he visually checked for weapons,
and saw twin muzzles on either arm, apparently apertures for some
kind of energy weapon. There were twin objects, some kind of
weapons likely, mounted on its shoulders that were likely weapons
as well, but he was disinclined to scan the suit with TK. That
would be rude.
"Ohhhhh," the hardsuit groaned, in Japanese, as it struggled
to get up. The silver-garbed form unsteadily weaved to its hands
and knees, "DAMN but was that a rough ride!" The armoured shape
slowly straightened up. "I've got to get those stabilizers
checked." There were some cracks and pops from the silver figure as
it stretched cautiously.
"If you're okay, do you mind telling me who you are and how
the heck you got here?" Twister asked mildly, speaking for the
first time since the new arrival's entrance.
The helmet jerked around to look at him, and he was instantly
reminded of an old television show, Battlestar Galactica, with the
evil Cylons and their glowing red visor eyeslots: his visitor
sported a glowing crimson, V-shaped slot in his visor. While the
strange traveller didn't feel evil, he prepared himself for a
fight, just in case.
"How I got HERE? Where the hell IS here?!" the figure
demanded, a hint of panic in his voice as he waved powerful-looking
arms around to indicate the general area. The helmet on the suit
swivelled around, as if trying to find something familiar-looking.
"This is the Tendo Dojo. Nermia, Japan," Twister said,
answering him before repeating his own question. "Who are you?"
"Uh? Oh, I'm....SkyKnight," Bert answered distractedly, still
a little dazed from the express trip, and the sudden stop he'd
taken. "Tendo...Tendo... Now why the hell does that sound so damn
familiar?"
On a hunch, Twister started giving names. "Nabiki Tendo, Akane
Tendo, Ranma Saotome, Genma..." When he saw SkyKnight slap hands on
his helmet, he stopped the recitation.
"R-R-Ranma?! RANMA 1/2????" Bert gaped inside his helmet. No
way!! It was impossible!!
"I take it you've seen the show," Twister said wryly,
beginning to become curious, as the stranger had used the anime and
manga's more popular title. That meant he came from a place that
had the show.
"Me? What about you?? Who are you?!" This was getting crazier
by the minute; first that rift with its purple energy bolt, then
the ride to end all rides, now THIS! Bert tried futilely to wring
some kind of sense from everything that was going on.
"My name's Twister. I got dragged into this universe by a
miscast spell," the young psionist replied. Immediately, he could
almost feel the disbelief from the silver figure when he mentioned
that word. "Yes, it was magic, and along the way I got altered by
something so that I don't need to worry too much about the fights
that usually happen around here." He demonstrated by snapping off
a few punches and kicks that Bert had trouble seeing at all.
"What's your story?"
"Oh, what the Hell." Bert shrugged mentally; he'd have to tell
someone so he could get home, and this guy seemed to be friendly
enough. "My real name is Bert, and I was...not dragged really, even
though I don't know how it happened, taken from my universe and
landed in another."
"Wait a second," Twister frowned. "You make it sound like this
isn't your first time."
"It isn't. My first experience with inter-dimensional travel
was a helluva lot nicer than this one. Just poof, and there I was.
This last one though..." He rubbed the side of his helmet, trying
to remember what had recently happened.
Unfortunately, there were some large gaps in his memory, holes
where...nothing seemed to exist. He could remember some parts of
his journey, like the really hair-raising near-collisions with what
had looked like large asteroids, but the rest was...hazy,
indefinite. He... he just couldn't remember much between his
disappearance from MegaTokyo, and his reappearance here.
There was also the fact that he felt...odd. He absolutely
ached all over, almost like every muscle in his body had been
cramped up for a long time. At the same time, however, he felt...
felt.... he couldn't quite pin down what he was feeling, but it was
definitely different. He noted that Twister was waiting
semi-patiently, tapping his foot, and pulled his mind off of
considering his condition, and continued explaining.
"I was just flying along, minding my own business, and then
this crazy bolt of purple lightning, or something, hits me from out
of this rift that appeared out of NOWHERE. The next thing I know
I'm on the rollercoaster ride from Hell," he fumed. "I mean, I LIKE
speed, but that ride was...hey, you okay?" he said, a little
concerned when he saw Twister's face develop a sickly, ashen
pallor.
"Did you say PURPLE lightning?" the psionist said, dreading
the answer.
"Yeah, purple. It was bloody weird." Seeing Twister groan and
cover his face with his hands, Bert started getting suspicious.
"Hey....you didn't have anything to do with that, did you?"
"I'm afraid I think I did," the young, brown-haired man
replied. He detected an almost instant rise in SkyKnight's
emotional temperature, and raised his hands to forestall an angry
reaction, trying to explain what he'd meant to the displaced silver
hardsuit.
"The same thing that changed my body and made it tougher, also
gave me powers, psionic and magical powers," the young man
explained, sighing. "Up until a little while ago, I was in the
Bubblegum Crisis universe and I....accidentally drew more magical
power, Wild Magic, than I could handle safely. I released all that
I had in order to get rid of it, and it vanished into a rift of
some kind. Wild Magic is what magical energy in its raw form is
called, I've found out." Twister sighed again, and looked directly
at Bert.
"And it looks like that bolt wound up hitting you, I'm
afraid."
"Oh, that's just perfect," SkyKnight retorted. "You always
fling trans-dimensional, reality-distorting bolts of magic through
the Void or something?!?"
"Hey, it wasn't exactly _planned_ at the time."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?!"
"I can try sending you back," Twister offered.
"No thanks," SkyKnight snorted. "I'll walk. I don't need a
grand tour of the cosmos, all expenses paid."
"Hey, I'm not that bad at handling magic!"
"From where I stand, you're not that good, either."
"Okay, okay! Time out!" Twister shook his head. "We're not
getting anywhere with this."
"Gee, you mean you noticed?!" Bert blinked as Twister narrowed
his eyes at him. "Geez, you remind me of Sylia when you do that,"
he muttered.
Twister stared. "Wait a minute... You know Sylia?? As in the
Knight Sabers?!"
Bert pointed to the lettering on the side of his helmet
antenna wings. "Where else did you think I got a hardsuit? K-Mart?
Been with them since 2032."
"I thought so but... I don't remember you. Wait..." Twister
slapped his forehead. "Oh, right. Infinite possibilities. Must be
two completely different BGC universes."
"You've been to Mega-Tokyo too?"
Twister nodded and smiled. "And friends with the KS. That's
where I...er...lost it and released that energy."
"Why?"
"Madagan."
"Yeah, that would do it." SkyKnight suddenly chuckled, adding
"I think Priss would make a good second reason at times." They both
snickered for a moment. Bert sighed, glancing around at the room.
The floorboards creaked ominously under his armoured weight, and he
briefly hoped he wasn't going to wreck the place accidentally; the
Tendo family had enough repair bills as it was.
"The main question," he noted, "is what do I do now? I can't
exactly walk around here in my armour all the time. Besides the
fact that it's obviously technology years beyond what they have
here, it's more than a little noticeable."
"No!" Twister exclaimed dryly. "And here I thought everyone
had silver-and-blue hardsuits in their closets!"
"I need some helpful ideas," Bert growled irritably, "not
smart remarks. I get enough of that from Priss or Linna, thanks."
Twister grinned briefly, then turned thoughtful.
"Well, I think...." he started, when a loud yell from the
hallway drowned out all other sound in the house.
"Ranma!! You JEERRRRRKKK!!"
"Uh-oh," SkyKnight started to turn around, when a running
young man with black hair, blue eyes, and Chinese clothing darted
into the room, moving almost inhumanly fast. He was evidently
fleeing someone's wrath, because he didn't even notice the
hardsuited figure standing next to Twister. Instead he ducked
behind SkyKnight's armoured form.
Unfortunately, this left Bert standing in the direct line of
fire for what happened next.
"COME BACK HERE YOU JERK!!!" Akane's voice hollered from
outside the room. In the next instant, she came through the door
with a flying kick that was evidently intended for Ranma, but
instead connected with the displaced silver Knight Saber. There was
a loud clang, and a brief "Oh shiiiit!", as SkyKnight flew
backwards, smashing through the wall into the back yard beyond.
"Oh Lord!" Twister sighed, covering his eyes with a hand as a
loud clang followed by a splash sounded from the yard. Deathly
silence fell for a moment.
"What the heck was that thing?" Akane asked, puzzled, having
regained her composure for a moment. Ranma didn't say anything; he
was nervously watching Akane to make sure she wasn't going to belt
him.
Twister started to answer, when there was a surging blast that
resolved into a howling drone of some kind from the backyard. A
moment later, a dripping and dented silver-clad form loomed in the
hole in the wall. Akane and Ranma backed away a step as SkyKnight
clambered back into the room through the hole. The
balefully-glowing eyeslot on his helmet swung over to regard
Twister.
"I've changed my mind," the armour-clad figure told him. "I'm
leaving the suit on. It's MUCH safer, for me, I mean." The helmet
swivelled to pin Ranma with a red-lit glance.
"You're Ranma, I presume," Bert inquired. Ranma nodded.
"Good," SkyKnight said. "I have some advice for you: don't get
me involved in your fights. I don't need the hassle. As it stands
now, I think I owe you at least...this!"
The silver Knight Saber's hand flashed forwards, grabbing
Ranma by the tunic front. Before anyone else in the room could
react, SkyKnight casually pitched the young man out the hole in the
wall, headfirst. A loud splash sounded again.
"Now we're even!" SkyKnight called out the hole. Akane stared
at him incredulously.
"You're not going to have problems fitting in," Twister
assured him, shaking his head with a wry grin. "The only problem
you may have is staying in one piece."
"You asked for it, you creep!!!" Ranma-chan's angry voice
sounded from below as running footsteps pounded up the stairs.
As SkyKnight readied himself for an attack, Twister stepped in
front of him and started to shout to Ranma. "Ranma! Forget about
it! The guy's just a little mad right now."
"A little?" murmured Bert.
"So come on and..."
Drenched from the pond, Ranma-chan hadn't listened and came
tearing into the room, starting to leap at the target of her anger.
However, Twister had began to walk closer to the door and both were
unprepared to prevent a collision. They collided with a wet smack
and Ranma-chan, being somewhat airborne at the time, hit high
enough so that Twister's face was in the middle of her chest as
they both toppled over.
SkyKnight winced inside his armour. If he had been hit by
someone going as fast as Ranma-chan without his armour, he would
have expected _something_ to be hurt on his person. Fortunately, he
had been told by Twister that changes had been done to the
psionist's body that allowed him to be able to survive things that
happened routinely here. Indeed, he chuckled a bit when he noticed
one of Twister's hands, fingers drumming the floor impatiently
after a second when Ranma-chan didn't move. This was because of the
argument that she and Akane had started up when Ranma-chan, who
hadn't bothered lifting herself off of Twister, continued unabated.
"Baka! Look what you did!"
"Hey! It's not _my_ fault Twister got in the way!"
"Stupid! You're the one who wasn't looking!"
"Hey, you uncute tomboy, look who's talking!"
"You ducked behind that guy!"
"Hah! I..."
"Ahem," SkyKnight interrupted, and when both angrily looked at
him, he mutely pointed to the drumming fingers. Ranma-chan now
remembered her position on top of Twister. Red-faced, she hurriedly
scrambled to get off of him. However, he wasn't a he anymore as a
result of Ranma-chan's wet clothes soaking Twister enough to
trigger the change.
Darlene sucked in a huge breath and sat up panting. "Finally!
I breathe once more."
Still red, Ranma-chan said, "Gomen. Why didn't you say or do
something??"
"I was afraid of being punched through the floor considering
where my face was, that's why." Darlene stood up.
Needless to say, Bert was just a tad bit surprised when he saw
Twister had become a look-alike of Ranma-chan. He was ready for
Ranma's change but not this one. "What the...? You too? Hey,
shouldn't you look like a female version of yourself?"
Darlene sighed. "Complications. Something else affected the
curse and I'm not sure myself what all the ramifications are."
SkyKnight affected a thoughtful pose. "Well, at least now I
know."
"Know what?"
"How they manage to get shots of both Ranma and his female
side in the same picture." He had to laugh at the look on Darlene's
face. Ranma-chan stared in confusion from the silver-armoured
stranger doubled over in howling laughter, to Darlene, who had an
expression wavering between irritation and grudging amusement.
"What's he talking about?" she inquired. Behind her, Akane had
a similar puzzled look.
"It's a long story," Darlene sighed, covering her eyes with a
hand. "I can explain later. Will you knock it off?!" she snapped to
the still-laughing SkyKnight. "It wasn't that funny!"
"You didn't see the look on your face," he replied,
snickering. At length he regained control of himself, looking over
at Darlene. "Seriously, though, I'm going to have to take the suit
off soon and power down. I'll have to risk getting knocked through
the wall again, I guess." The helmet cocked in a sideways glance at
Akane, who flushed guiltily.
"Well, if Akane can hold onto her temper for once, it
shouldn't be a problem," Ranma-chan assured him. Darlene smacked a
hand over her face, looking imploringly at the ceiling.
"What do you mean, 'if I can hold onto my temper'?" Akane
asked, eyes narrowing angrily. "I wouldn't have to worry about
losing it if you'd stop being such a jerk all the time!" Ranma-chan
stalked over to stand nose-to-nose with her.
"Well if you wouldn't overreact all the time to everything I
say..."
"QUIIIIEEEEETTTT!!!!!!!" SkyKnight thundered, cranking his
helmet amplifiers to maximum, almost blasting everyone out the door
with the sound shockwaves. Stunned silence filled the room for a
moment. "Thank you! Could we PLEASE shelve the bickering?! You two
sound worse than chickens on a manure pile!!" Darlene burst out
laughing at his comparison; Ranma-chan and Akane glanced at each
other quizzically, and then nodded. With blinding speed, they both
kicked the silver hardsuit back out the wall in a perfectly
synchronized set of double kicks. There was another clang and
splash. Ranma-chan stuck her head out the hole.
"Who asked you to butt in, you tin-plated creep?!" she yelled.
"I...YEEEE-IPE!!!" She ducked as a blindingly bright red energy
blast slammed through the hole, barely missing her, opening a new
skylight in the roof. There was the angry roar of jet turbines from
outside, like someone had just landed an F-16 on the lawn. Scant
seconds later, the hole in the wall became slightly larger as
SkyKnight bashed through the suffering masonry.
"I don't normally fight women," he snarled at Ranma-chan,
"especially wet-behind-the-ears twerps like you, but in this case,
I think I can make an exception." Ranma-chan's blue eyes flared
angrily, and she got set in a ready stance.
"I'm a guy, you oversized, chrome-plated, bolt-bucket!!" she
shot back. The two began circling each other warily, and Darlene
realized she was going to have to intervene, and fast, as the two
combatants flicked punches at each other, ducking and weaving at
flashing speeds. Akane had backed against the wall, out of the way
of the rampaging pair.
Darlene's mind raced, trying to come up with some kind of
spell to stop them, but she couldn't think of any made to stop
fights peacefully. Oh well, she was going to have to wing it. She
squared her shoulders and took a deep breath, as SkyKnight and
Ranma-chan stepped apart for a moment. As they got ready to go at
it again, she chanted:
"Before this spat gets out of hand,
Fighters now freeze where all you stand!"
Instantly, SkyKnight and the red-pigtailed girl froze into
statues, like a sculpture. Frost appeared on SkyKnight's armour
plating, and Ranma-chan's clothing as they stood there. Oops, she'd
thought of just making them immobile but an image of ice statues
had crept in. They couldn't move, which was good, but their
temperatures seemed to be dropping rapidly.
"Now then," Darlene said, dividing her glare between Bert,
Akane, and Ranma-chan. "Can we all behave like adults now?" She
mentally cancelled the spell before the two immobile forms got too
cold, and both stumbled when released.
"D-d-d-id y-y-you have t-to s-stop us t-that way?" Ranma-chan
chattered through her teeth, hugging herself for warmth. Darlene
didn't say the spell hadn't exactly done what she had wanted.
"It worked didn't it? You seem to not be wanting to fight
anymore."
"I n-need to s-soak in the b-bathroom." Forgetting all about
SkyKnight and Akane, Ranma-chan rushed out of the room.
"Interesting way of stopping a fight," SkyKnight commented.
"Err...yeah. Normally I don't do that, but you're new here."
Darlene's brow furrowed. "You don't sound like you're cold."
"I was," SkyKnight said smugly. "but my suit's environmental
sensors re-activated after you unfroze us and thawed me out a
little with my heating systems."
Darlene blinked. "I didn't realize I did that. Still...I guess
I realized your suit needed to be frozen too."
"Um..." Akane wasn't sure what to make of the silver armoured
figure. "Who are you anyway?"
"I'm called...SkyKnight," Bert boomed dramatically through his
speakers with his modulated voice.
"I can see you don't like the name, but we can call you
something else if you want..." Darlene offered, grinning.
"A-HEM!" SkyKnight cleared his throat, glaring a little at the
two whose lips were twitching with amusement. "But you can call me
Bert." He flipped up the helmet visor, revealing snarled red hair
and greenish-brown eyes. He smiled at Akane, making her feel more
relaxed now that she could see his face. He looked at Darlene.
"Until I can return back to the universe from where I was _yanked_
from, that is. Hint, hint."
"I get the point," Darlene sourly said. "I _said_ it was an
accident. And I _have_ successfully travelled from one universe to
another, on my own for once. It shouldn't be too hard sending you
back to the right BGC universe. It'll just take me a little time
figuring out how to send you to a universe that I've never been
to."
"And in the meantime...?" inquired Bert.
"Well...me and Nabiki are living by the University now so I'd
imagine...Umm... Akane...?"
She nodded. "Sure. He can stay with us until you can send him
back." Akane smiled at Darlene. "We survived having you here so he
shouldn't be any problem."
"Thanks...I think." Darlene looked up at Bert's face. "Well?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Not really, no."
"Then I accept your kind offer to grant refuge to this errant
Knight, M'Lady." Bert bowed deeply to Akane, who blushed from his
thanks.
"Gmph," Darlene struggled not to laugh.
Akane whirled on her. "What's so funny?!"
"Just imagining what would happen if Kunou or Ranma saw Bert
doing that to you. Probably over-react, as usual."
"Over-react?" Bert queried, looking from Darlene to a now
concerned-looking Akane, who nodded.
"Ranma tends to act without thinking..."
"I DO NOT!!!!" blared from the bathroom down the hallway.
"...and he might misinterpret your actions, meaning a fight."
she finished, ignoring the interruption. "Kunou, well... Kunou
challenges everyone who even speaks to me to a fight. He's the
fencing champion of my high school."
"Fencing, huh?" Bert grinned evilly, as his right arm came up.
"Wonder what he'd think of...this!" A crackling snap-hiss split the
air, and a humming, blue-white blade of energy sizzled into
existence. Akane shied backwards in shock. After a moment the blade
disappeared with another snap-hiss. Darlene stared, jaw hanging.
"Was that a ...?"
"Yup. An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age," Bert
stated airily, grinning fiendishly. He sighed a moment later.
"Don't worry though, I'd never use it on a person, even if they do
chop through concrete walls with a wooden sword." Something
suddenly beeped audibly in his suit.
"Damn," he muttered, then looked at Akane. "I think you'd
better show me that room, quick. I'm five minutes from total
shutdown."
"Okay," she agreed. "Follow me." She left the room. Before he
followed, Bert looked over at Darlene.
"Since you're the resident magic whiz around here, could you
magic up a few clothes for me?" he asked. "I'm not exactly packed
for the occasion."
"No problem," Darlene nodded. "Any preferences?"
"Jeans and a sweater, with running shoes. That should about
cover it," Bert replied, before squeezing through the door to
follow Akane, armour clanking.
*****
"Well whaddaya know?" Darlene quipped from where she was
leaning against the corridor wall as Bert re-emerged from the guest
room. He was now clad in blue jeans, a dark blue long-sleeved
sweater and white sneakers. "There was actually a human being under
all that iron!" Akane had a faintly appraising look in her eyes as
she looked him over; he was tall and broad across the shoulders,
and not exactly unhandsome-looking, either.
"Ceramel."
"Huh?!" Akane and Darlene glanced at each other, confused.
"I don't use iron," Bert explained. "It's too heavy. My armour
uses high-impact plastics, polymers and ceramic-metal alloys."
Darlene gaped for a moment, then slapped a hand over her face.
"I was joking!" she sighed. "Don't tell me you couldn't
tell?!"
"I knew," he replied blandly, amusement flickering briefly in
his eyes. "However watching your jaw drop when I got technical was
much more fun."
"You're sure you want to put up with this guy?" Darlene asked
Akane again, as they turned to go downstairs. The black-haired girl
nodded, grinning.
"He couldn't possibly create more problems than you and Ranma
combined," she deadpanned. Bert burst out laughing as Darlene
flushed bright red.
"Of course," he noted a moment later with a wicked grin, "I
haven't been here that long yet!" They passed the bathroom door,
and Darlene ducked inside, and Twister re-emerged a moment later.
Strangely, he wasn't wet. Bert put it down to magic, even though
thinking about 'magic' per se was enough to give him the creeps.
"Hey! Long time no see!" Bert cracked with a grin. "What kept
you?"
"Just give it a rest, will you?" Twister asked plaintively.
Bert chuckled.
"I'll try," he promised. "But don't expect miracles."
"Well, you're going to have to watch it with the smart remarks
around here," Twister informed him. "My sense of humour got me into
all kinds of problems the first time I got here, and from what I
can see, your sense of humour is as bad, if not worse, than mine."
"What a horrible thought," Akane commented impishly. "Another
person just like Twister." They both started a retort, when
Kasumi's voice floated up from the dining room, calling out
'Dinner!'.
"Aha!" Bert exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. "Methinks
I dost hear a summons worthy of being answered!"
"Oh Good God!" Twister groaned, looking towards heaven for
some kind of guidance as Akane burst out laughing.
"_You're_ one to talk, Twister," said Nabiki as the three
entered the dining area and sat down at the table. "I've heard
similar things coming from you." She just smiled as a raised
eyebrow turned in her direction.
"Do you want me to stop?" Twister said as he leaned a little
closer to Nabiki, a slightly mischievous smile on his face. She
leaned forward as well.
"Oh, I didn't say _that_. Merely stating my observations from
our close contact." A lazy smile grew as they leaned further.
"Should we get closer? For...more accurate conclusions?" A
sigh interrupted the two and they were suddenly reminded where they
were. Both straightened, Twister slightly red and Nabiki merely
smiling.
"Who's your friend?" she inquired curiously.
"His name's Bert and he...ah...just dropped in," Twister
replied.
Bert sighed again, staring off into space with a gloomy
expression. "I hope I get back soon. I miss Nene already."
"Nene?!?" Twister cried disbelievingly. "You mean....?" Bert
seemed to come back from somewhere infinitely far away as he looked
over at him.
"Yes, we're going out. Does that sound so strange?"
"Well...I guess not." Twister shook his head. "It's just that
I've been her friend for such a long time...uh..." He cast a
suddenly nervous glance at Nabiki who seemed to have lost her
amusement; the others were just wondering what he and Bert were
talking about.
"I'm dating a different Nene but I guess they should be pretty
similar. Um..." Bert looked at Twister, then Nabiki, then Twister
again. "Am I missing something?"
"Ah..."
"Yes, I think we are," Nabiki said in a slightly chill and
threatening tone of voice. Bert's eyes widened as the light dawned;
he'd heard that tone of voice from Nene occasionally. "Just _when_
exactly did you meet this 'Nene', Twister?"
The focus of Nabiki's frosty gaze squirmed a bit. "Ah...that
weekend I helped Prof. Miyabi. Sorta."
Inquisitor Nabiki turned to Bert. "And you're from another
universe? Like Twister?" He nodded uncertainly and wondered where
this was leading.
She faced Twister again, food forgotten. "I remember you once
telling me that one could leave a universe for a very long time and
come back at almost the same time they left." Bert brightened at
that: he wouldn't be worrying the Knight Sabers with a protracted
absence.
"Yes...that's true..." This was dragged out reluctantly from
Twister.
Nabiki narrowed her eyes. "How long?"
"Nabiki, I was going to tell you..."
"How..._long_...?" There was steel in her voice now.
"A few...um...years." Everyone gaped at this admission, except
Nabiki.
"Why?" She seemed only to be able to speak in one syllable
words. Everyone around the table was surprised at her behaviour, as
this wasn't usual Nabiki style. She seemed quite mad though she
kept it well in control.
Twister sighed in resignation. "An accident happened and I was
thrown into another universe. I found out my magic was a little
off-kilter from what threw me out of this universe so I didn't
attempt to return until some time after Sylia gave me advice to
correct it. Nene and Linna found me when I appeared without my
memory, which I got back quickly. I had to stay female most of the
time there and making a spell to return on my own wasn't easy in
any case." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I felt a little
embarrassed when I got back so I didn't say anything."
"How long after you got the advice from this `Sylia' person
did you wait?"
"Several months," Twister admitted slowly, not meeting her
eyes. "I just couldn't pack up and leave at the time."
"Why not?"
"Because by then he felt responsible for a lot of what was
happening," Bert interrupted quietly as Twister opened his mouth.
He cocked his head sideways, regarding Twister with a searching
gaze, an expression of complete understanding on his face. "If you
were there for a few years," he continued, "long enough to become
friends with all of the Knight Sabers, then it follows that you
also built yourself a hardsuit and were helping them out from time
to time. If I'm not completely out in left field, I'd say your suit
was probably patterned after a medieval armour suit, and you were
playing the chivalric knight type."
"Is he right?" Nabiki demanded. Twister sighed again.
"Mostly," he conceded. "It's a long story, but I was helping
out the Knight Sabers, quite a bit actually." His gaze narrowed as
he half-glared at Bert. "Just how did you know that?"
"I guessed," Bert admitted calmly. "However, you're looking at
another `noble knight' type; Priss's favourite joke is calling me
`The Knight-in-shining-armour', because that's the way I conduct
myself, most of the time. My chivalric ideals were the basis for my
SkyKnight designs. I recognized some of your quirks as being
similar to mine, and figured that you'd done exactly, more or less,
what I did."
"Uh, excuse me?" Ranma interrupted, a slightly stunned
expression on his face, an expression mirrored by almost everyone
else in the room. "What are you talking about? Who are these
`Knight Sabers' you keep mentioning?" Bert and Twister exchanged a
glance; Bert shrugged, and Twister decided to start from his end
first. Before he started his tale, Kasumi interrupted.
"You'd better eat before it gets cold," she reminded everyone.
Servings were quickly dished out, and Twister got ready to start
over again. This time, Bert interrupted.
"Uhh, sorry," he said, red-faced, holding up a pair of
chopsticks. "Anybody got a fork?"
*****
Happousai listened carefully from behind the door. He hated
not eating one of Kasumi's meals, but since Twister was here that
would be a bad idea as the two did not get along for several
reasons.
None of them Happousai's fault of course.
It was so frustrating to fight the young whippersnapper. While
he seemed to be reluctant to use those mind powers in fights, he
made Happousai the exception. That he didn't need to come close to
the old hentai to beat him senseless or punt him into the sky was
a source of endless frustration, and thus his caution.
He could wait for his revenge. Sooner or later, everyone
became vulnerable sometime.
He could wait.
But now it was time to collect more PANTIES!
*****
"Between the two of you, you've had quite a time," Akane
remarked as Bert concluded his story with getting yanked out of a
leisurely flight over MegaTokyo by some strange energy field.
Twister shook his head disbelievingly, but didn't comment. The rest
of the Tendo family was pretty much speechless, and Ranma's father
looked like he was in the same state. The two different Knight
Saber sagas that Twister and Bert had revealed had some basic
similarities in the two universes, but diverged sharply at certain
key events.
Bert hadn't told them everything however; he'd left out a few
key events that had happened to himself, and the results they'd had
on him. At the moment, he didn't trust anyone enough to reveal the
fact that he still had a few....problems. Sure, he trusted Twister,
at least, he thought he did, but there were some things he just was
not going to discuss openly. Bert concealed the brief flash of fury
that flashed through him, and he tried hard not to think about
Hollister; he'd been doing that way too much lately, even before
his current predicament had happened. The last thing he needed
right now was to lose control...
"What I can't believe," Ranma spoke up, unknowingly
interrupting his line of thought, "is just how much alike you two
are. That's scary." SkyKnight's gloomy thoughts receded, and his
lurking sense of humour briefly appeared again.
"Be afraid! Be very afraid! You are about to enter a region
where time and space as we know it does not exist," Bert intoned
sonorously.
"You are about to enter.." Twister continued, glancing at Bert
with a crooked grin, as they both chorused, "The Twilight Zone!" A
chorus of groans answered them.
Kasumi began clearing the table, and Genma and Soun vanished
to somewhere else in the house. Probably so they didn't have to sit
looking at the new extra-dimensional traveller, Bert figured
glumly, his momentary cheer disappearing.. Twister evidently had
picked up on his mood shift.
"Hey!" he suddenly exclaimed. "It's a Saturday night, so why
don't we go downtown for a while? Maybe see a movie or something."
"I'm broke," Bert replied absently, chin propped on his hand.
"Unless they take credit cards from 2034."
"Don't worry," Twister assured him. "Money's no problem. Come
on, you can't sit here and brood all night."
"I suppose you're right," he sighed, stiffly unfolding himself
from his cushion, and standing up. Several pops sounded from his
knee joints and back as he stretched, briefly towering over
everything. Everyone else also stood, minus the sound effects.
"You're a walking noisemaker," Twister grinned.
"_You_ get injured so many times that your doctor now lives in
a four-car garage, and then we'll see what you sound like," Bert
complained.
"I think I'll stay home," Nabiki said with a cool tone, and
left the group. Twister didn't move but sadly watched her leave.
"Twister," Akane started to say, "why didn't you..."
"I'd better leave her alone right now," he sighed. "I
should've told her about my little trip sooner."
"What movie didya want to go to?" Ranma interrupted, making
Akane give him a quick glare.
"I'm not sure," Twister admitted.
"Any Star Wars films playing?" Bert said half-heartedly.
Twister eyed him strangely. "Actually, there's going to be a
showing of the Star Wars trilogy at my university in one of the
bigger classrooms. Subtitled, of course."
"Really??" An odd, almost insane, light grew in Bert's eyes as
he smiled. "Let's go!! Hey..." He frowned. "How far is it? How do
we get there?" The other three smiled.
"It's called...the Twister method," grinned the brown-haired
young man.
"Huh? What..."
They vanished.
*****
"...do you mea...erk!"
The room had changed from the Tendo residence dining room to
a smaller one that had a computer on a desk by one wall. Bert
slowly felt a couch that was by another wall, confirmed it was
real, and sat on it.
"You can tel...teleport that fast, and _other_ people too?" He
said faintly.
"I didn't mention that did I?" Twister grinned as he looked
around. "My roommate isn't around. Hm. Too bad. He's a nice guy.
You'd like him. Actually," he commented, "it's good we came here.
Otherwise, we would've either been attacked, or have Ranma
shanghaied."
"Shanghaied?" Bert repeated, glancing over at the
black-haired, blue-eyed young man. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Never mind," Ranma told him, flushing and glaring briefly at
Twister. "It's a long story, and one I'd rather not hear repeated
right now."
"Come on," Akane said. "If we want to get to these shows on
time, we'd better get going."
"True," Twister grinned. He swept open the room door, grandly
proclaiming "Ladies first." Akane swept primly out of the room,
stifling a grin. Ranma looked sceptically at the grinning
brown-haired young man by the door, but he wisely didn't comment,
and followed Akane out. Twister glanced over at Bert, who was still
trying to wrap his mind around the `teleportation' concept. From
the look on his face, he wasn't having much luck; he looked like he
had acute indigestion.
"Coming?" Twister inquired pointedly. Bert started, then
grinned ruefully and ducked out the door. Twister followed, closing
and locking the door behind him.
*****
"Hito?"
"Hmm?" Hito looked at his friend who sat beside him. "What is
it, Morio?"
"Why are we sitting here watching Star Wars?"
The hentai duo were sitting in the auditorium that was
doubling as a theatre for the viewing of the trilogy. Having
brought their own refreshments they had plenty of food with them.
However, they weren't getting into the spirit of things, unlike
someone else in the room who was quoting many of lines in very good
English.
Hito shrugged. "Because we weren't doing anything else?"
"Exactly!" Morio said triumphantly. "We've lost our energy,
our purpose of life! Of late we've been getting less and less
enthusiastic about school and our normal social lives."
"Normal?" Hito wondered at that coming from Morio.
"And I know the reason!" Morio stated. "It's because we've not
been following our true hentai natures! We haven't done anything
worthy of hentai vision in so long we are losing our energy, the
blood that flows through our bodies." Abruptly he stood up. "Come
on!" he commanded his partner.
"Where are we going?" Hito inquired.
"First, we'll walk into the women's changerooms for the gym;
the female volleyball team should be in there tonight and it'll
give us a jump-start to fuel our hentai energies."
Hito's heart raced at the thought of it and he realized that
Morio was right. It HAD been too long. "And then?"
"Then we get to work!"
Sitting by Bert, Twister saw two figures leave the room. They
looked familiar...
"Once I was the student, now I am the Master," Bert said in a
low voice beside him and Darth Vader echoed him a half-second
later.
Twister rolled his eyes and forgot about the two.
*****
"We didn't need to see the movies," Twister wryly commented as
they left the auditorium. "You're a walking dialogue library by
yourself." Bert grinned sheepishly as Akane and Ranma snickered.
"Sorry," he apologized. "I've seen them several dozen times,
and I love a lot of the quotes."
"We'd noticed," Akane remarked dryly. Bert flushed again, but
didn't reply. They walked through the doors to the outside, Bert
and Twister unconsciously sweeping the doors open for Akane.
"Would you two quit that?!" Ranma demanded in exasperation.
"It's only Akane!"
"Hey!! A few manners wouldn't hurt YOU any!" she flared,
glaring at him.
"Hold! Cease fire!" Bert intoned, stepping (perhaps unwisely)
between them. "Wouldn't you much rather argue in private?" he
inquired. They both flushed, and looked away, refusing to look at
each other. Twister sighed, looking heavenward. They never learned.
The small group started moving across the campus. It was a
fairly scenic locale, with trees and shrubs tastefully arranged in
small planters along the paths, and some small park areas
interspersed between the buildings. As they walked, Bert looked
around, admiring some of the scenery. He wasn't really watching
where he was walking, though, and he crashed into someone a moment
after Twister, Akane and Ranma all yelled "Look out!"
"Damn it!" he swore under his breath, reeling backwards and
gingerly feeling his nose, which had preceded him in the collision.
At the same time, he heard a VERY pompous voice saying, "What
stumbling, uncoordinated, benighted knave dares to step on Tatewaki
Kunou?" Oh shit, part of his mind noted, as he blinked, clearing
his watering eyes. Akane stepped between him and the irate, dark
brown-haired kendo champion.
"It was an accident, Kunou," she told him. "He's new around,
and he didn't..."
"Akane Tendo!" Kunou exclaimed, sweeping her a deep bow. Ranma
looked half resigned and half angry at Kunou's predictable
behaviour; Twister just shook his head. "Truly, this day has
brought me unlooked-for pleasures! I had not thought to behold your
radiant countenance so soon!"
"Give it a rest, Kunou," she said impatiently. "I've heard it
all before."
"Ah, but it bears repeating! I shall trumpet your praises to
the heavens," Kunou declared. Striking an impressive pose, he
cleared his throat:
"Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note;
So is mine eye enthraled to thy shape..."
"Good God, it's a Shakespeare library on legs," Bert muttered
to himself. He suddenly found the business end of a wooden sword
under his nose. His eyes crossed as he tried to focus on it.
"And who are you, insolent knave?" Kunou snarled. "I would
have your name before I run you through!"
"His name is Bert," Akane cut in, trying to defuse a suddenly
tense situation; Kunou ignored her.
"Know then, knave, that I am Tatewaki Kunou, the ...."
"The Blue Blunderer of Furinkan High," Bert finished flatly
for him. The pompous twit standing in front of him, threatening him
with a stick had finally ticked him off.. A part of his mind noted
that he was still out-of-sorts from being very far from home, and
that he really should back off and apologize, but he ignored it. At
the moment, the very ugly urge for a fight was prodding him
onwards, and his temper was snarling in the back of his mind,
driving that urge forwards with implacable intensity.
Ranma and Akane were staring at him like he'd gone insane,
wide-eyed, and Twister was only slightly less incredulous. He
grabbed Bert's arm, dragging him backwards a step. As he grabbed
the red-head's arm, something else flashed across Bert's face, and
for a second Twister had a flash of something...a...a feeling of
some kind; it wasn't quite prescience, but he'd had the very brief
impression that Bert had been about to lash out at him for an
instant.
"Are you bloody nuts?!" he hissed, brown-green eyes staring
into the similar colored, but defiant, ones of Bert. "You haven't
got your suit for one thing, and from what you said, that's your
main advantage in a fight! He'll kill you if he connects with that
sword; you're not as damage resistant as everyone else here is!"
"If he be too cowardly to accept my challenge," Kunou's voice
declared from behind them, "I will accept a sincere apology for his
boorishness." Oh Lord, Twister groaned, as he watched Bert's gaze
turn as hard as flint chips at Kunou's words; Kunou apparently
couldn't have found a worse word to use on Bert than `cowardly',
even if he'd searched for years. Spinning towards the brown-haired
young man in the kendo outfit, Bert jerked his arm free of
Twister's grip, and stepped past Akane, coming almost nose-to-nose
with the irate swordsman. Kunou had to look up slightly to meet the
red-haired young man's fiery gaze.
"Okay, Mr. Pompous Ass," Bert replied tightly, clenching his
fists. "You're on; I accept your challenge."
"Excellent! Prepare to defend yourself!" Kunou leaped
backwards, his sword coming to the `en guarde' position. Bert
shifted his feet, hands open, and arms down slightly. Ranma sighed
and turned away, shaking his head; in his opinion, the fight was
already over. Akane stood watching, wide-eyed, and trying to decide
if she should step in. Twister was in a similar bind; he couldn't
use magic in his current form, and he didn't want to openly flash
his psionics in public; some passers-by were stopping to watch. He
could possibly slip Bert some unnoticed TK `assistance', but he
hadn't tried that too often.
Kunou leaped forward, the air in front of him becoming a blur
of flickering wooden sword blades. Bert ducked a few, but not all
of the strikes; several sharp cracks echoed along the sidewalk, and
a pained look flashed across his face briefly. Kunou retreated for
a moment, looking surprised that his foe was still standing. Bert's
gaze was now very angry, and the air around him suddenly seemed to
smolder.
Twister blinked, shaking his head; as he looked closer, the
air around Bert WAS shifting. He took a quick glance at Ranma and
Akane, but they hadn't seemed to notice anything amiss. He looked
back at the embattled young man, trying to figure out what was
going on.
*****
Somewhere across the city, a futuristic armour suit with
silver-and-blue armour plating stood quietly in the corner of a
room, as if on sentry duty. Kasumi finished dusting off the
now-gleaming suit, shaking her head at the strange things Twister
occasionally brought inside. She gathered up her cleaning stuff,
and left the room, missing completely the strange, faint purple
glow that began to outline the suit.
*****
CRACK!
Twister winced again as Kunou's sword slapped Bert's ribs. He
couldn't possibly see how the red-head could stand getting hit so
many times, and not have collapsed yet. He also hadn't figured out
just what was wrong with him; he was still seeing some kind of
disturbance around Bert. As Twister stared harder, it suddenly
seemed to him that he could discern purple flashes in the
disturbance. Purple....magic flashes?! How in the...?!
Kunou leaped forwards again, sword blurring mercilessly
through the air, but this time he was in for a surprise.
Moving with a swiftness born out of pure, white-hot fury, his
red-haired opponent ducked inside the swing and clocked Kunou
square in the bottom of the jaw with an uppercut. Kunou's head
snapped back, and his attack faltered. Bert seized his wrist with
his left hand, and hoisted the kendo champ off of his feet by the
shirtfront with his other hand. With some kind of a spinning throw,
he jerked Kunou into the air and slam-dunked him into the mouth of
a nearby garbage can. Kunou lost his grip on his sword, and it
clattered to the pavement. Two skinny legs were all that could be
seen of the offended kendo practitioner, sticking ludicrously out
of the garbage bin.
"Screwball in the corner pocket," Bert declared, putting his
hands on his knees, gasping, with his head hanging. His face became
slightly more relaxed, the boiling rage that had been fuelling him
apparently gone. "I think that counts as a win." In Twister's
sight, the disturbance around the tall red-head vanished. Maybe
he'd been hallucinating. The only problem was that he didn't GET
that sick as a rule. He walked over to the doubled-over young man,
Akane following. Ranma was standing, staring slack-jawed and
speechless at Kunou, or what could be seen of him anyway.
"Hey, are you all right?" Akane asked concernedly. "Didn't
those hits hurt?"
"They do now," he assured her from between clenched teeth,
sweating. "They didn't at the time; adrenaline is a marvellous
thing." A pained smile flickered across his face.
"Very. Hold still," Twister sighed, reaching out and grasping
Bert's shoulder. "They shouldn't hurt for much longer." He closed
his eyes, concentrating on Healing his new friend. A moment later,
his eyes flew open in shock.
"It's not working!" he exclaimed. "I can't seem to get it to
affect you!!"
"Huh?!?" chorused Akane and Ranma.
"Then, perhaps could you get me to a doctor?" Bert asked, his
tone a little too calm, as he wrapped his arms over his much-abused
chest, wincing as he accidentally hit one of the many sore spots.
"Where's the nearest doctor, Twister?" Akane asked as she
worriedly looked at the occasionally gasping Bert.
Still very surprised over his inability to Heal Bert, Twister
muttered to himself. "Why would I not be able to... Oh! Right!
Doctor! Hm. The only one I know of is Doctor Tofu. I passed by his
clinic once so I guess I should teleport us near there."
"Please do," Bert groaned out, not concerned about teleporting
at the moment as his body screaming its displeasure had captured
most of his immediate attention.
"Let's get to a place where I can take us without being seen."
Being the next tallest after Bert, Ranma and Twister supported Bert
as Akane scouted ahead for a suitable place to teleport.
"One positive note," Twister suddenly chuckled.
Bert looked over at him with pain-filled eyes. "_What_ could
be positive about this??"
"Oh, not your duel with Kunou. No, I was referring to the fact
that Akane hasn't punted Ranma across town yet. It's a miracle!"
"Hey!" Ranma glared at Twister, who gazed back with amusement.
Bert was shaking...with painful laughter. "Please...don't. My
ribs hurt too much now. Please. Not now."
"Did you hear the one...." Twister stopped with a grin when he
saw Bert glaring at him with a look that promised dire consequences
if he continued.
"Just kidding," Twister grinned, shrugging in mock innocence.
*****
From his inverted vantage point, the once-again conscious
Kunou watched them walk away.
"We shall meet again, vile ally of Ranma Saotome. Did you
truly think I would miss the foul stench of your sorcery that
enabled you to defeat I, Tatewaki Kunou, he who was the Blue
Thunder of Furinkan High? The next time I see your evil face both
you and the evil captor of the pig-tailed one shall fall before me.
Ahhahahahahahahaha!!!!"
Suddenly, a group of students came by and, ignoring him
completely, filled the rest of the can with garbage, concealing
Kunou's face and most of his body.
*****
That evening had Twister and Bert sitting in Twister's
apartment near the university. They were here because of Nabiki's
still rather frigid demeanor, and Twister felt it was safer here.
Despite his new friend's nervous protests, they teleported into the
living room area. Bert's upper torso was now wrapped in bandages
but he seemed rather cheerful after getting over his reaction to
the teleport, considering. He rotated a shoulder.
"That Dr. Tofu is something else. I felt like he was killing
me there for a second, but now I feel great! Aside from the ribs
that is."
"Be very, very thankful Kasumi didn't show up," Twister
advised. At Bert's inquiring glance, he shuddered a bit. "Trust me,
you don't want to know."
Dubious, Bert let it go. "Ooookay. What was that you tried to
do for me after the fight? Heal me, you said?"
Twister frowned. "Yes. I can Heal myself fairly easily for
broken bones or skin and doing it for someone else is harder. But,"
he emphasized the word, "I couldn't, for the life of me, Heal you.
My power just...couldn't affect you. I could see what was wrong but
I couldn't do a thing about it."
Bert had a sceptical expression on his face. "How do you
explain being able to teleport me then?"
"I think I don't affect you, really, but I'm just bending
space/time so that..."
"STOP!! I don't think I wanna hear it!!" Bert ordered, holding
up a hand, his face abruptly looking like he was holding back
panic. "Do you think this might present a problem in getting me
back?"
"I'd like to know how _this_ happened first, even though I
have this sinking feeling I do. Unless you know of anything else
psionic or magical that might account for this."
"Oh, sure, I deal with that kind of stuff every day....NOT!"
Bert took a deep breath and exhaled it. "Let me guess: that mighty
bolt-o-purple-power of yours that dragged me here?"
"I _did_ seem to see flashes of purple around you when you
fought Kunou," Twister admitted, reluctantly.
Bert was wide-eyed at that information. "Flashes...? What
_else_ do you think happened to me?!?"
Twister sighed. "Not a clue. It was Wild Magic that hit you.
Which, by definition..."
"Translation: You don't know," Bert interrupted.
"Correct."
"Swell," Bert sighed, rubbing a hand over his face tiredly.
"Marvellous, even."
"Come on," Twister retorted defensively. "You don't know
everything about hardsuits and boomers, do you?"
"No," Bert admitted. "Sylia's still the resident genius in
that department. I've got a boatload of innovative ideas that I use
for the suits, but any real scientific advances in some of the tech
areas belong strictly to her."
"Well then?"
"All right, I'm sorry. I'm just...I just feel disjointed, I
guess. Universe-hopping must have its own form of jet-lag." Silence
fell for a few moments. Bert leaned back on the couch, folding his
arms behind his head.
"Something I meant to ask you about," Twister said hesitantly.
At Bert's nod, he continued. "When Dr. Tofu was examining you, I
noticed you've got some pretty good scars there. How did you get
those?" The scars in question had been four diagonal lines across
his chest, slanting downwards from right to left.
"Ambush," Bert replied shortly, swallowing as a pained,
far-away look of remembrance flashed across his face. "My SkyKnight
escapades had attracted the attention of some rather unscrupulous
people with access to Doberman boomers. I got attacked before I
even knew what the hell was going on." His hand scrubbed at his
ribs in a vaguely-remembered gesture. "I only survived because the
rest of the Knight Sabers were able to show up and pull my bacon
out of the fire." He shook his head suddenly. "God, seems like
decades ago now. I still get nightmares occasionally about that
sort of stuff. Anyhow, it brought home a few realities about the
heroing business, and I've tried to be reasonably careful since
then."
"Could've fooled me," Twister noted. "Challenging Kunou wasn't
exactly what I'd call being careful."
"Occasionally I backslide a bit," Bert conceded blandly.
"Besides, I don't think it hurt Kunou any to learn a little
humility, or manners for that matter."
"He may have gotten the message," Twister grinned, "but I
wouldn't bet on it."
"I'll worry about that later, after my ribs have quit
complaining that is."
"I guess fighting Kunou wasn't all it cracked up to be, was
it?"
"Don't," Bert warned with a glare. "No jokes, please. I'd hate
to have to strangle someone who's trying to help me out." Twister
grinned, then looked at the clock.
"Well, I guess you can bunk on the couch tonight," he said.
"I'm a little low on energy to teleport us back to the dojo right
now so I'll phone Kasumi not to expect us. I can give you a tour of
the university tomorrow. It's the weekend so we have plenty of
time."
"Sounds okay," Bert replied. "I just hope nothing eventful
happens tomorrow; I've had enough excitement for now."
*****
Professor Miyabi Kitamura sat back in her desk chair,
frowning. She'd earlier sensed some kind of a magic flare nearby,
and had unsuccessfully tried to track down the source. It had been
highly unstable, and she wanted to find what the source was in the
eventuality that it presented a danger to the campus. At the same
time, the magic had briefly seemed familiar somehow. Shrugging
mentally, she turned her attention back to trying to locate the
source of the erratic emissions again.
*****
"Hey! Who're you?" a surprised voice asked.
Bert stopped his preparations upon the couch and turned around
to look at a rather confused, black-haired young man who was
staring at him.
"Oh, hi there. Well, uh, I...."
Twister stepped out of his room at the sound of the voice and
smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Yasuro, my friend here needs to use
the couch tonight and you weren't here so..."
Yasuro shrugged. "I don't mind."
Bert stepped up to the new arrival and stuck out a hand.
"Name's Bert, and you're Yasuro?"
The hand was accepted. "Yes. Nice to meet you." Yasuro's
expression was one of curiosity. "When did you meet Twister?"
"I..." Bert started.
"After he came to this universe," Twister interrupted. At
Bert's surprised glare, he shrugged. "He knows about me already and
it'll make things easier."
With new interest Yasuro looked at Bert. "So you're like
Twister?"
"NO!!!" Bert shouted, then grinned a little at the other's
slightly hurt expression. "Sorry there. I don't change into a cute
red-head and I don't do psionics or magic." Under his breath he
muttered, "Not yet, at least, the way things are going."
"No, he's just someone who usually flies around in high-tech
armour battling cyberdroids," Twister retorted.
"You did a variation of the same theme for a few years too,"
Bert shot back, "_and_ doing exactly the same thing _and_ brought
me here."
"Peace!" Yasuro held up a hand before the two could argue
further. Interested from the mentioning of the word 'high-tech' he
looked at Twister. "You mentioned something about going to and
coming back from another universe last weekend, but you never said
it was a high-tech world and," he peered closely at Twister, "for
a few _years_? You haven't changed at all from what I can tell."
Bert blinked. "He hasn't?" Having just met Twister he wouldn't
have been able to tell, but it would explain how he had gotten away
with not having to tell anyone about the long trip he had made.
Bert himself was certainly feeling the effects of Father Time from
all his injuries, although they hadn't been bothering him quite as
much lately.
"You know I have a funny metabolism," Twister uncomfortably
said.
"But to not age, Twister??"
"I am aging. Just...very, very slowly."
"How slow?" Bert curiously asked.
Twister sighed. "About a day for a period of one to two
years."
Yasuro and Bert gaped. Stuttering, Bert got out, "That's
almost a lifespan of forty thousand years!!"
"About right." Then, muttering below his breath, "I wish."
"Considering all the universe hopping you seem to go through
that almost seems reasonable," Yasuro commented. Bert just
continued to stare at the now grinning Twister.
"With all the things I've faced I'm surprised I've lived this
long." He shrugged. "Oh, well. Win some, you lose some."
Bert shook his head. "I suppose I really should have expected
this. Somehow." He looked at the calm Yasuro. "You seem pretty
blas‚
about this."
"With all he's told me, that's the _least_ startling thing."
Yasuro started ticking off fingers. "An arch-demon of Hell, iron
golem of an angry magess, spirit dragon wanting to take over
everything..." He shrugged. "The longer lifespan is tame in
comparison."
Twister grinned at Bert's blank look. "Gee, Brain, what do
you wanna do tonight?"
Bert shook his head, appeared to try to figure something
out, shook his head again, and then flung his hands over his head
in a 'I give up already' gesture, saying, "The same thing we do
every night, Pinky, try to get some sleep." So saying, he dropped
onto the couch and closed his eyes, trying to block out the world
around him.
"I don't think that's quite right, Bert," Twister grinned.
"Tonight, it is. Good _night_, Twister."
"Okay." chuckling for some reason, Twister walked to his
room, saying, "Don't stay up too late, Yasuro. Good night."
Bert wondered what Twister had meant by that until the rapid
tapping of someone using a keyboard began echoing throughout the
room. Apparently, Yasuro used the computer in the room often and
late at night.
"When do you plan on quitting?" Bert mumbled.
"Oh, maybe three or four. I don't need much sleep."
It was midnight right now. Three to four hours of constant
tapping. *Oh God!! Japanese keyboard torture!!* Bert mentally
wailed, but did his best to try to fall asleep.
"Try? There is no try. Only do; or do not," Yoda's voice
prodded him from the depths of his imagination. Bert sighed. The
Dark Side was winning at the moment.
THE NEXT DAY ....
"Good morning!" Twister grinned cheerily. A bleary-eyed,
smoldering glare from across the table was aimed at him.
"And just what is supposed to be good about it?" Bert
growled. "My ribs feel like they've been used as tackling
targets, and I got maybe four hours of sleep, tops, thanks to
your Doom-crazed friend. I managed to restrain myself from
killing him, though." He poured another cup of tea from the pot
sitting in front of him, plopping a generous spoonful of sugar
and dollop of milk into it. He quickly stirred it together, and
proceeded to drain the mug at one draught. He repeated the
process a couple of more times as Twister watched incredulously.
Bert's mood began to visibly lighten and smooth out as the
booster shots of caffeine began to take effect.
"Uh, yeah," Twister said, shaking his head at the pace with
which the tea was disappearing. "Bodies in the apartment would be
a little hard to explain. You like tea, don't you?"
"Coffee gives me heartburn," Bert replied obliquely, slowly
inhaling another mugful. "I usually need a gallon or so of tea in
the mornings to at least look civil."
"You sound like some of the people here at the university;
some of them think caffeine is one of the essential nutrients for
a healthy life."
"I know what that's like; I was in university for five
years, and some of the habits, or addictions, you never lose."
Silence fell for a moment. Finally Bert straightened up, sighing.
"So what's on the tour itinerary for today, O wise and
enlightened one?"
"Breakfast first," Twister replied. His stomach suddenly
snarled loudly in agreement, and he grinned sheepishly, flushing.
"A large one."
"Lay on MacDuff," Bert grinned back. "Let's chow down before
we fall down."
*****
Yasuro was in Hito and Morio's room, mostly because Bert had
seemed to not enjoy being kept awake most of the night. The
restrained but murderous look the tall red-head had given him
that morning could have sizzled steel armour plating. Twister
might be able to handle it, but himself...
It was a good thing he had come over, though. After being
fairly inactive for the past month or so, his hentai friends now
seemed eager to make up for wasted time. All sorts of test tubes
belonging to Morio were set up around the room and Hito had
created several circuit diagrams, some remarkably complex, which
were located both on the floor and taped to the walls.
"You know," Yasuro bemusedly observed, "if you guys put as
much effort into school as you do with your...hobby you would
both have A+ averages."
From where he was writing chemical equations, Morio waved
away the comment. "No challenge. And the rewards aren't nearly as
fun."
"Getting slapped by women?"
"That's failure," Morio corrected him.
Looking around, Yasuro noted the absence of his other
friend. "Where's Hito anyhow?"
Morio smiled. "He needed some parts so he went out to visit
his parent's company."
"Oh." Yasuro shook his head. "I still can't believe they
don't do anything about his hobby. Yours either," he said to
Morio.
"Well, they ARE busy most of the time, and the fact that we
occasionally make something either chemically or in electronics
that's valuable enough that they can use it in their companies
and make money off of it could have something to do with it,"
Morio noted with a grin.
"That could be it," Yasuro said with a resigned sigh.
*****
"This is a fairly nice place," Bert remarked as he and
Twister strolled across one of the playing fields near the
Athletics Complex. Twister nodded.
"Yeah, it's a good place," he agreed. "It's kinda quiet
right now, but during the week it really hums at times."
"Yeah? Major or Minor scale?" Bert asked interestedly.
Twister winced, and decided not to dignify the joke with a reply.
They walked along for a few more minutes, Twister
occasionally pointing out other things of interest. A small group
of young men suddenly appeared in the distance, heading towards
them. Bert hadn't really noticed, and Twister himself only gave
them a cursory look. It was when one of them shouted "Hey, there
he is!!" and started charging towards the pair of young men,
being followed by the rest of the pack, that Twister realized he
did know them: it was the Phys Ed team, evidently still seeking
to avenge the loss of the eating contest a while back. They'd
evidently recovered from their earlier defeat, and had worked up
the courage to try him again.
"Friends of yours?" Bert calmly asked, surveying the howling
mob.
"Distant acquaintances," Twister corrected him,
"unfortunately, not nearly distant enough to suit me."
"We're gonna get you!!!" the lead athlete howled. "You and
your friend!!"
"Hey wait a minute!!" Bert yelled, stepping back and
pointing at Twister. "Attack him, not me!! I'm innocent, whatever
it was!!"
"Oh, thanks a lot...OOOOFF!" Twister's breath whooshed out
as one of the charging group tackled him, bowling him over,
surprised. Idiot, he briefly berated himself, keep your mind on
your opponents! He worked at prying himself loose and getting
room to manoeuvre for some martial arts as he watched Bert dodge
around some of the other young men trying to grab him.
"Now look here, guys," Bert panted, ducking sideways. "I'm
new here!! I don't know what your beef is, but I'm not involved!!
Let's just call it quits, okay? AAAARGH!!!" A large person with a
linebacker build suddenly slammed into the tall red-head, just as
Twister succeeded in belting his current opponent into the middle
of the next week.
Twister quickly ducked, back-flipped and swept the legs out
from under another boy as he watched a second wave of irate
athletes swarm over Bert. He tried to go to the assistance of his
friend, but was prevented by a couple more of the
athletically-inclined leaping at him. Twister helped one continue
on his journey, introducing him to the nearby fencepost, while
ducking the other one's wild karate-chop. As he prepared to give
the creep an express trip to the twilight zone, something flashed
at the edges of his sight, a purple something that began to get
brighter.
BOOOOOM!!!!!!
*****
Professor Miyabi jerked back from her desk, reeling in pain
at the thunderclap that had just assaulted her magical senses.
Scraping together her scattered wits, she began trying to
concentrate on teleporting herself to the general area where the
erratic magical emission she'd earlier detected had apparently
turned critical and blown up. She hoped that no one had been
nearby; in a blast of that scale, someone was bound to get hurt.
*****
Twister shook his head, trying to clear the dancing spots
from his eyes, and the ringing from his ears. Around him on the
field, some of the Phys Ed team was laying unconscious from his
attacks; the rest were scattered widely outwards in a circular
pattern from where the explosive blast had come from. He still
couldn't quite see what was going on.
"They shouldn't have pissed me off," a deep, electronically
modulated voice stated from off to his left. Vision clearing,
Twister looked over to see a towering, silver-and-blue armour
suit standing, flexing its gauntleted hands. A burning red
eyeslot surveyed the prone and unmoving forms. Twister's jaw hit
the ground in disbelief, although dawning comprehension of what
had just happened began to flicker.
"Uh, Bert?" he queried cautiously. "Are you sure you're all
right?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" SkyKnight retorted, waving a hand
irritably. "I.....oh sheeee-it," he said, finally noticing his
armour-clad state as he stared first at his hands, and then down
at the rest of himself.. "What the hell is going on, for God's
sake?!?! How the hell did this get here?!? My hardsuit can't
teleport!! What...why..?" SkyKnight's voice trailed off in utter
confusion. Twister was about to reply, when an authoritative
woman's voice cut across the field of scattered bodies.
"All right, hold it right there!" Twister and SkyKnight
swung around to see an older woman come charging across the
playing field nearby, a very angry expression on her face.
"Hi, Prof. Miyabi!" Twister grinned weakly, trying
unsuccessfully to look innocent. "What brings you here?"
She was furious at seeing him. "Twister! What in all magic's
incantations are you doing?! Is _this_ yours?" Miyabi jabbed a
finger at SkyKnight.
"Well, in a way..."
"Hey!" shouted SkyKnight, still a little angry from the
attack. "I am NOT a thing!!"
His objection startled her. "Is it human?"
"I think many people are still trying to determine that,
Professor," Twister replied with a straight face, losing a brief
skirmish with his sense of humour yet again.
"HEY!!" the armoured battlesuit involuntarily let loose a
laser bolt near one of Twister's feet at the remark as its
gauntlets clenched into fists. It took a step towards Twister as
the debris from the resultant ground explosion bounced of an
invisible shield; the young psionist had been expecting a of
reaction of some kind. "I object to that slander!!"
"I was just kidding, Bert," Twister tried soothing him. When
he didn't get a response, he curiously said, "Bert?" Still
nothing. Now he was getting concerned. "Hey, are you all right?"
"Twister," Miyabi ominously said, reminding him of her
presence. "I'm holding your ... acquaintance with a spell to keep
him from doing any more damage."
"That's not going to improve his temper."
"Too bad. He can wait. Now, I hope I do not have to repeat
myself a third time so ... _what_ is going on here?" She flicked
back her long, black hair and gazed narrowly at her student with
her dark green eyes.
Twister looked around at the now-groaning students.
"Uh...maybe we'd better do this somewhere less...conspicuous?"
Miyabi had to concede that point, and nodded. "Very well.
Teleport all three of us to the classroom. It will be empty
there."
Sighing, Twister complied and they vanished without a sound.
*****
Wide-eyed, Hito watched them vanish. He had happened by when
the fight had started but had wisely kept out of sight, knowing
his fighting skill was next to nonexistent. Evading, yes.
Fighting, no. Anyhow, he knew Twister had beaten the group before
and seemed quite capable of doing it again from the looks of
things. The tall fellow wasn't familiar, but appeared to be with
Twister.
Then the SUIT came.
Hito's eyes almost bugged from their sockets once he saw
that powerful exoskeleton. It was a thing of beauty to his
engineering eyes! True, he was mostly into electronics, but he
had forayed into mechanical systems with great success. But the
SUIT was lightyears ahead from anything Hito had ever seen.
He saw it had weapons, but nothing like he had ever seen
before save in sci-fi flicks. Energy weapons maybe? Miyabi's
arrival didn't even impinge on his awareness.
Until they all disappeared.
He almost leapt to where the SUIT had been but stopped
himself. Thinking clearly again, he realized Twister must have
teleported them away. Hito knew his friend had psi-powers but
didn't often see him use them. Did HE make the SUIT?
He sighed; he didn't know enough to make any guesses. But he
did know one thing; he would be watching for an opportunity to
see that SUIT again.
Right now he had to get back to Morio.
They had lots of hentai stuff to do yet.
*****
"You did _WHAT_?!?"
Bert winced at the volume Miyabi put into the last word of
the shout. His helmet was off and laying nearby on the floor
where he had awkwardly managed to sit down. It had taken Twister
a few minutes to convince Miyabi to release him and another few
to calm the furious Knight Saber-errant down. Now Twister was
explaining Bert's presence to his magic Professor.
Twister's face had an uncomfortable, pained expression on
it. "I had gone insane after becoming enraged in female form and
taking in an enormous amount of magical energy from the Event.
Got rid of it to become sane again but somehow it homed in on
SkyKnight and brought him here."
"You...you..." Miyabi put her hands on her forehead in
frustration. "The sheer joy of having such a powerful magic-user
as one of _my_ students." She then placed her hands on the
classroom desk and looked at him in a way that made him want to
plead innocent. "What else, besides producing a magical
disturbance equivalent to a sonic boom when teleporting his
armour to himself, has he done?"
Twister shrugged. "The only other thing is that I can't seem
to affect him with my telekinesis...unless swallowing enough tea
to wake up Rip Van Winkle counts, which," seeing Bert's glare on
him, he concluded, "I guess doesn't."
"I very much doubt those will be the _only_ effects that
massive blast of wild magic will produce." Now she directed her
attention totally on Bert, who felt that there was some uncanny
resemblance in her manner to Sylia's. "Being as powerful as he is
when female, the amount of energy to drive him temporarily
insane, even unprepared," she cast a glare on Twister before
turning back, "is enormous. I'm not sure how much of it was
expended in crossing the Void and bringing you here, but I am
fairly certain that it would have affected both you _and_ that
futuristic piece of armour you now wear." She rubbed her forehead
in memory. "That was definitely proven when you called for your
armour and it came."
"But I didn't call it," protested Bert.
"If you've worn it for a long time, then you likely desired
it unconsciously, especially when you were angry and being
attacked."
While Bert pondered that, Twister nodded. "Yes, it almost
happened when you were fighting Kunou."
The hardsuited red-head looked up with a grin. "That
certainly would have surprised the pompous bastard," he chuckled,
Twister agreeing with a wide smile. Looking down at himself, Bert
sighed. "I guess I'd better get this off."
"I suggest leaving it at my house," Miyabi interjected. When
Bert and Twister looked at her in surprise, she explained.
"Studying the armour may give me an idea of whether or not the
effects are permanent and what other properties it may have. The
results of such an uncontrolled enchantment..." She shook her
head. "In any case, I _highly_ recommend you, Bert, staying near
the University when not in Twister's vicinity in case
something...unpleasant begins to manifest so as I can help you,
if I can."
"You know, that makes me feel _so_ much better," Bert said
sarcastically and not without a little uneasiness.
"I'm sorry, Bert." Twister looked kinda low as he was
responsible for Bert's predicament in the first place.
Trying to cheer them both up, Bert shrugged. "Shit happens.
Besides, when I get back I'll certainly have a story to tell the
others. Whether or not they'll believe me is the question."
Something occurred to him then. "Hey, I wonder where my clothes
went?! I'm just wearing my softsuit under the hardware, and that
isn't exactly presentable dinner attire."
"They're probably back at the dojo; that's where your suit
was." Twister's eyes suddenly widened. "Uh, oh. There was quite
an explosion when it arrived but when it left..."
"Oh, boy. You might be right."
Miyabi spoke up. "I suggest you two make sure everything is
all right before dropping off the armour at my house."
"Want a lift?" Twister inquired. The professor merely smiled
as a corkscrew of bright light suddenly swirled up from her feet,
enveloped her completely, and then vanished, along with the magic
teacher.
"That's even more disturbing than the psionic method,"
commented a wide-eyed Bert.
Twister grinned. "We'd better be certain though." He waited
until Bert's suddenly panic-filled eyes saw his grin before he
teleported them away to the dojo.
*****
They arrived at a scene reminiscent of 'Gone with the Wind';
everything in the room that hadn't been tied down had been blown
around as if by a small tornado, all of it finally landing in a
heap in the far corner.
"Oy vey," SkyKnight observed, looking around; he'd slapped
his helmet back on after arriving from force of habit. "It does
look a little messy now, doesn't it?"
"You can say that again," Twister agreed, staring at the
mess.
"Okay. It does look a little messy now, doesn't it?" he
repeated, chuckling when Twister's elbow smacked into his armour
plating.
"Ow! Geez, that tin suit's hard!" he briefly complained,
rubbing his elbow.
"Wouldn't be much good if it was soft, now would it? Well, I
guess we'd better clean this up."
"Hold on; I've got a faster way," Twister instructed. He
frowned in concentration, and all the dislodged items like
strangely unbroken vases, towels, spare clothes and such lifted
into the air and floated over to their proper locations, settling
down without a bump.
"Neat trick," SkyKnight observed. With a sigh, he clanked
over to the pile of now folded clothes, and dug out a clean set,
tucking them under an arm.
"Got a duffle bag?" he inquired. Twister nodded, puzzled for
a moment.
"Sure, but what for?"
"Something to carry my clothes in while I fly back to that
professor's house."
"You don't have to do that," Twister said. "I can teleport
it there and...."
"Sorry, but not this time. I've got something I've got to
check out first on the suit, and doing it myself is the only way.
I'll come back here after dropping it off, and then we can decide
just what to do next."
"Okay," Twister conceded reluctantly. "You sure you know how
to get back here?"
"Trust me," SkyKnight assured him. "I know what I'm doing."
A few minutes later, they stood in the backyard of the Tendo
house. Incredibly enough, no one was around or seemed to have
noticed the disturbance in the bedroom from earlier. Probably
because the household was almost always going nuts, Bert figured
sardonically, slinging the nylon rucksack securely over an
armoured shoulder. He looked over at the young brown haired man
standing next to him. Twister looked vaguely unhappy about
something, but wasn't saying much.
"I guess I'll see you later," he said. With that, flight
wings snapped out into extension on his suit's shoulders, and
SkyKnight shot airborne with a screaming roar of jet turbines.
Twister watched the silver-clad figure vanish into the blue sky
overhead.
*****
"I am not going to panic. I am not going to panic,"
SkyKnight snarled to himself over and over again as he hurtled
through the air on defiantly howling jet turbines. He felt like
he was just barely keeping from dropping off of the thin edge of
what he considered his sanity at the moment. The initial
disorientation of being transported to another dimension had been
bad, but was nothing compared to what he'd been through lately.
For someone who put complete faith in science and logic, having
to suddenly confront magic, something he'd never really put much
stock into, and something not quantifiable by scientific
thinking, was bordering on terrifying. That he'd somehow been
altered by the aforementioned magic was not helping to ease his
mind any. He felt completely powerless, vulnerable to anything
and everything, and he didn't like it.
What was worse was that the stress was eroding his
self-control on the rest of his actions. Several times he'd had
to throttle down the reflex retaliation that had plagued him
almost constantly a few weeks ago; he hoped Twister hadn't
noticed, but he'd very nearly struck out with lethal force when
he'd been swarmed. It was a miracle that he hadn't injured
someone when his suit had arrived.
For several minutes, the silver-and-blue garbed hardsuit
zipped across the skyline of the city, trying to lose himself in
his usual high-speed flying thrills, but it didn't work as well
as it had in the past. He stifled the sulphurous swear words that
came to mind, and began tracking through the skies towards the
sprawling university campus, following the directions Twister had
given him.
*****
Professor Miyabi almost fell out of her chair in shock as
SkyKnight rocketed through the open bay window of her study,
slamming to an abrupt halt in mid-air and dropping heavily to the
floor in front of her desk with a blast from snarling jet
thrusters, with perfectly timed precision. She recovered her
composure, and her suddenly scattered paperwork, giving the
armour-clad young man a withering glare. She couldn't tell
whether or not he'd been affected by it, because his helmet visor
was down.
"I don't suppose you've heard of using the front door?" she
asked acidly.
"I have," his electronically modulated voice replied. "But
that's also just a little too conspicuous, especially given my
current state of dress."
"Oh, I see," she returned sarcastically. "And blasting
through someone's front window isn't?!"
"I was moving too fast for visual ID," he replied calmly.
"Trust me. Now where did you want me to put my suit?"
"In the next room, over by the lamp." She sat back, green
eyes suddenly thoughtful, and curious. "What will you be doing
during the week?"
"I haven't got the faintest idea," SkyKnight replied,
shrugging. "Alternating between frustration and boredom
probably."
"Hmmm. I have a partial solution to the boredom problem. In
order for me to fully ascertain what has happened to you, I'll
need to have you present for some of the testing of your suit. I
can get word to you which days I'll be testing it, and then you
can drop by."
"Joy," SkyKnight replied in a flat tone; Miyabi frowned.
"You don't sound overly happy," she observed.
"If it gets me home, then I'm happy. Excuse me for a
moment." Miyabi watched the silver suit disappear into the next
room. Some metallic clacks and pneumatic hisses sounded, then a
few minutes of silence. After a few more minutes a long-faced,
red-haired young man re-appeared, and she regarded him
thoughtfully. He was taller than Twister, a little heavier across
the shoulders, and had similar coloured eyes. There was an air of
barely-concealed nervous agitation and tension about him. She
stood up as he came back into her study, sighing and looking over
at him.
"Okay," she said. "I'll transport you back to...."
"NO!!" he almost shouted, a sudden, absolutely
panic-stricken look flashing across his face. "I'll walk!! It's
not a problem!!" With that, he dove past her, down the stairs,
and out the front door. She caught a glimpse of him running hard
up the street as she heard the front door bang closed.
"Now what was that all about?!" she wondered aloud. "Was it
something I said?!"
Part 2 - Sky's the Limit!
-----------------------------
Twister absently looked around the room where SkyKnight's
armour once stood to make sure he had put everything back the way
it should be. Still...Bert's dilemma bothered him. It didn't seem
like the person from another universe of Knight Sabers was
handling the concept of magic and teleportation very well.
"Why should it?" he sighed out loud. "Both, in a way,
dragged him away from home and friends and affected him in ways
unknown. Not as severe as my own changes, but still..."
"Talking to yourself, Twister?"
Whirling around, Twister saw Nabiki standing in the doorway
of the room and seemingly calm as well.
"As long as I don't answer myself I should be okay." Not yet
willing to talk about his 'little' trip in detail to her, Twister
tried to change the subject. "Where is everyone? The house was
empty."
"Kasumi and Akane went shopping together since Akane wants
to cook tonight. The rest...well, you know what their reaction
would be after Akane told them she would be cooking," she said
with a half-smirk.
"Run for the hills!" Twister jokingly said.
"Right. And if you think trying to get me to think of
something else other than your little 'jaunt' will work you are
sorely mistaken." Seeing Twister's face fall a little, her humour
vanished as she walked up to him and stared up into his face with
a mixture of anger and disappointment. Nabiki rarely let her
emotions show often so it was a measure of how much he had
distressed her that she now did so. "_Why_ didn't you tell me?!"
Twister looked away from her face. "I just got back last
weekend, Nabiki! Finally getting back was mixed with half relief
and half...sadness. I'd gotten to know a few good friends there,
but I missed being here and...you." That last brought a smile
from Nabiki that lifted Twister's heart. "There were a few
complications..." He stopped when Nabiki dragged his unresisting
head down for a long kiss.
Disengaging, they looked at each other for a while before
Nabiki nodded with a mischievous smile. "Seeing as you're not
hurt, I'll forgive you..."
"My Lady is gracious."
"...and you can also tell me about all that advanced
technology you and that Bert guy told us about."
"My Lady is greedy."
"Comes with the package," she said with a smirk.
"I wouldn't change you a bit."
"Who said you had a choice?"
Twister gave up; he was losing the battle to Nabiki's
superior comebacks. Instead he just smiled down at her while she
waited for his next remark. She started melting as his calm,
smiling, brown-green eyes looked into her own. They seemed more
experienced to her as Nabiki gazed longer into them, definitely a
positive result of his trip. She shook her head; this was making
it too easy for him.
She stepped back out of his arms. "Oh no, buster. You don't
win that easily."
Twister grinned. "It was worth a try."
*A little more bold too,* Nabiki thought. *Definite
improvement.*
A shouting from downstairs surprised them. "Hey! Where is
everyone?! Is this because _I'm_ cooking lunch?!? Raaaanma! You
better be here!"
"Now, Akane, I'm sure they just stepped out for some fresh
air," Kasumi's ever-innocent voice said.
Nabiki rolled her eyes while Twister grinned at her
expression. "Sometimes, Akane..." she said with some
exasperation.
He wagged a finger in front of her. "Practice makes
perfect."
"Yes, but a perfect what?" Nabiki shrugged. "Oh, well. I
guess we should...attempt to try whatever it is she makes. IF it
looks edible, that is."
*At least it'll take my mind off Bert's problem for a little
while anyhow,* Twister thought before waving Nabiki forward.
"After you," he chuckled, bowing with a flourish.
Nabiki's look was somewhat sour as they left the room.
"Somehow, I fail to see the chivalry now..."
*****
Akane anxiously looked on at the dinner table where Nabiki
and Twister sat. Why weren't they eating? They just stared at
what she had made.
"Is...is there something wrong?" she nervously asked. She'd
worked so hard on it and had insisted that she do it all by
herself.
Nabiki just continued to stare as Twister cleared his throat
and calmly began addressing the worried, would-be chef.
"Akane, there are many ingredients one can use to make up a
dish. Some are hot, some tangy, some to add color." He paused,
then shook his head in disbelief. "But _how_ in the _world_ did
you get _this_," he waved at what lay before him, "to _glow_?!?!"
Indeed it was. The dish sprouted recognizable bits of fish,
rice, and noodles. Those were the parts he knew. The rest....were
strange bits of what may have been part of a food group at one
point in time. It was all contained as one mass by some unknown
green substance that had caused he and Nabiki to stare, for it
pulsed an evil-looking, sickly-green light from within. This was
_not_ normal behaviour for lunch. Maybe at a nuclear waste plant,
but not here.
"You didn't happen to find some glowing green rock in a
crater outside and decided it might taste good, did you?" he
inquired, not really conscious of what he was saying as he stared
at the blob.
***WHAM!!***
"I expect that of Ranma, not you!!" Akane angrily said, as
she lifted her Ranma-smashing-mallet off of Twister's head, he
seemed a little dazed from the blow.
"Owwwww....."
Nabiki stood up and crossed her arms looking at Akane. "Can
you tell me your source at the nuclear power plant? There's money
in radioactive substances."
"Not you too!" Akane's angry face looked ready to burst into
tears. "I worked so _hard_ on it too. What are you doing??" Akane
demanded, seeing Twister poking at the glowing green disaster.
"What _did_ you use, Akane?" He didn't feel like joking
around now, not when he had this sneaking suspicion...
Nabiki caught his strange expression. "What's up?"
Twister stood up, dubiously looking at the table's contents.
"I won't know until Akane shows me what she used and I examine
the kitchen. This might and might not be Akane's fault. You might
be used to Akane's strange dishes..." Seeing Nabiki's grimace, he
amended, "Well, seeing them that is, but this kinda stretches my
belief." He waved Akane into the kitchen. "Now, what did you use
again?"
Not knowing what was going on, Akane, with noticeable
confusion, complied.
"Well, I stared with the flour..."
Akane was even more confused now.
"I put everything that I used on the countertop, Twister.
Now can you please tell me what...?" he silenced her with a
raised hand as he carefully examined each item.
The countertop was littered with dozens of ingredients and
cooking utensils, leaving no room left for anything else. Nabiki
and Kasumi curiously looked on, wondering what Twister was up to.
Finally he straightened, nodded to himself, and went over to the
kitchen sink to fill a glass of water.
"What are you..." Akane stopped as she saw Twister pour the
cool water over his own head. "_Why_ did you do that for?" She
was rapidly losing her patience with his behaviour.
"Testing two theories in one shot," Darlene mysteriously
explained, making Akane even more frustrated, and piquing
Nabiki's curiosity further.
Nabiki was quick to figure out what the now red-headed
magic-user had planned. "You think one of these things is
magical?" Akane's eyes widened at that, maybe it wasn't her fault
after all that her dish had failed.
"That's one theory," Darlene agreed. Before a puzzled Nabiki
could inquire as to the second theory, she began the spell.
"Magic, magic, where do you lie?
Invisible to the untrained eye,
I seek you now, don't pass me by,
Brightly glow, to make me sigh."
Everyone in the room breathlessly waited for something to
happen.
Nothing.
Nabiki tilted her head in puzzlement, then said, "Either
your spell's a bust or this stuff isn't magical."
Smirking, Darlene turned to her. "It's the second. And
that's because the other theory is the winner." She pointed
beyond the kitchen door and the three sisters followed the
direction and could now see a purple glow.
Surrounding the dish Akane had made.
"Waitaminute!" Nabiki blurted in obvious confusion as Akane
stared, incomprehension plain on her face, at what she had made.
"If none of the things Akane used was magical, but that green
thing she made _is_ then...then..." Her eyes widened as she came
to the same conclusion Darlene had made a few minutes ago.
"Yup," Darlene nodded as Akane whirled to face her, a little
crazy-eyed. "Then Akane is a cooking magic-user like I'm a
rhyming one."
Akane stared at the smiling Darlene. She stuttered out,
"But... I... That's..." Her eyes rolled up and she fainted.
"She took the news well," Nabiki noted dryly, helping
Darlene catch the falling girl before she could collapse onto the
kitchen floor.
"I guess she wasn't expecting something like that," Darlene
said as they carried her out to the dining room, propping her up
in a chair. "I certainly wasn't, at first. We're going to have to
look into this a bit further later on; I've never heard of
anything like this before." The red-haired girl looked down
thoughtfully at the comatose Akane. "We'd better take it slow for
a while first, and not rush her. Maybe Prof. Miyabi can help
figure this out." Darlene grinned suddenly. "She's going to hate
seeing me. First SkyKnight, and now this!"
As if uttering the name of his alter-ego had been a spell,
Bert lurched through the door to the room. He was walking
stiffly, with a very deliberate and careful step. His hair was
absolutely plastered to his brow with sweat, and his sweater was
also damp with perspiration. His breathing was laboured to say
the least, and his gaze was very firmly fixed dead ahead. He
walked blindly past a wide-eyed Darlene, and puzzled Nabiki into
the kitchen. They heard the taps run briefly, then the sounds of
someone gulping back a glass of water. The sounds repeated a few
more times as Darlene and Nabiki swapped a puzzled glance.
"What's with him?" Nabiki asked. "He looked like he was on
autopilot, or something."
"I'm not sure," Darlene said slowly. "But I've got an
idea...." She cut off as Bert came back into the dining room,
looking a little more normal. He finally noticed the scene in the
dining room, and his expression became slightly concerned.
"Hey, what happened to Akane?!" he queried. "Is she sick?"
"No," Darlene cut in before Nabiki could reply. "She just
got some shocking news, and she didn't handle it too well. I can
tell you later what it was. What happened to you? You looked like
you'd just staggered in from the desert, or something."
"You alternately run and walk the ten miles from the
university to here, and we'll see just how good your condition is
afterwards." Darlene and Nabiki gaped incredulously at him.
"You walked?!" Darlene asked disbelievingly. "Couldn't Prof.
Miyabi teleport you back here instead?" It was the wrong thing to
say; Bert's expression froze instantly, like he'd been dipped in
liquid nitrogen.
"She offered to, but I refused," he replied shortly. "I
needed the exercise anyway."
"You could have taken the bus, instead," Nabiki pointed out.
"Like I said I needed......the.......exercise...." Bert's
voice trailed off as he finally noticed the glowing plate of food
sitting on the dinner table. He turned green himself, almost the
colour of Akane's magical preparation. "Excuse me," he said
weakly. "I think I need to lie down." He walked jerkily past
them, vanishing up the stairs.
"Oh great," Darlene groaned, covering her eyes with a hand.
"Just great."
"Hmm..." Nabiki considered this new development. "Twister,
you better go help your new friend. Me and Kasumi will stay with
Akane and talk to her when she wakes up."
"Think you can calm her down?" When Nabiki nodded Darlene
grinned. "Teamwork, gotta love it." After giving her a peck on
the cheek, startling the brown-haired middle sister, Darlene
rushed over to the stairs and bounded up them in a flash.
Nabiki placed a hand on the cheek as she watched her
'boyfriend' go. *What else is there that happened to him?* she
wondered.
*****
Sprawled across the bed, Bert miserably stared up at the
ceiling in the room Kasumi had prepared for him. Apparently, it
had been Twister's before he had moved to the university area
along with Nabiki. Something else was on his mind at the moment,
however...
*Magic, magic, magic, magic! Everywhere I turn there's
something magical staring me in the face,* he mentally snarled.
Even his armour had become a part of this craziness. Talk about
adding insult to injury!
There was a knock on the door; Bert just wanted to ignore
everything at the moment, and didn't reply. Maybe whoever it was
would think he was asleep; he was certainly tired enough for it.
Then there was a second, more insistent knocking, and he sighed
disgustedly; they weren't giving up, whoever it was.
"Come in," he called out reluctantly, sitting up.
The door opened and a bright-eyed Darlene stepped in. "Hi!
How are you?"
"Oh, everything's just perfect. Fine. Lovely," he
sarcastically said.
"Not," she countered, losing the bounce in her step,
correctly interpreting his mood. Closing the door behind her,
Darlene walked over to the opposite side of the room and leaned
on the wall to face him. "How did leaving your suit at Miyabi's
go?"
Bert chuckled, his foul mood briefly lightening. "She took
it fairly well, considering I flew in through her roof opening at
a pretty high speed."
Darlene gasped. "You didn't!"
"I'm an expert on flying my suit, don't worry." Seeing her
dubious look, he added, "Trust me." The cute red-haired girl
shook her head.
"She should be more pleased when I bring Akane as a
potential student. I hope," Darlene sighed, then frowned as she
saw Bert stiffen. "Coming back to the reason I came up here in
the first place; what's up with you? You ran rather than saving a
lot of time and teleporting here and you blanched when you saw
Akane's...er...creation. I can understand you being a little
afraid of mag..."
"A little afraid?!" Bert mildly said, interrupting her. His
voice began to rise, sounding like he was on the thin edge of
blowing up. "A _LITTLE_ afraid?!?! Something that defies all
logic, drags me across dimensions like a goddamn leaf in a
hurricane, has somehow affected my suit, and mostly likely _me_
as well, in ways unknown and you think I'm a _LITTLE_ afraid of
it?!?! It wraps sane, logical reality into bloody pretzels where
ever I go! Of _course_ I'm afraid of it! It's totally irrational!
It's...It's..." Bert gave up talking as he was starting to ramble
incoherently, and panted for breath.
Darlene was completely still, looking very calm, and said,
"Get over it." in a slightly tight voice. Her blue eyes seemed to
suddenly glitter icily.
He glared back at her. "_You_ get over it."
"I have...mostly," she said, still apparently calm, and Bert
blinked. "Haven't you wondered how _I_ got this way?" She lazily
waved a hand at herself. "You've never asked."
Bert blinked again, and looked over her, admittedly
attractive, body. "I thought you'd somehow got dumped into the
same pond Ranma had."
"But the exact same body? And the psionics? And the magic?"
Darlene prompted.
Bert nodded slowly. "Well, that _has_ gotten me wonder..."
"BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE EITHER!!" Darlene screamed
at him, shocking Bert backwards as she quickly stepped over to
the bed, standing over him and clenching her fists. It almost
looked like her eyes were glowing, which Bert nervously realized
they might actually be doing. In a marginally quieter voice, she
furiously went on, "_You're_ not the only one who was dragged
from their home by a miscast spell! In _fact_, my chances of
_surviving_ that which changed me and gave me first my psionic
and then magical powers were probably _orders_ of magnitude
_less_ than yours! You _probably_ weren't in any danger at all
since _I_ was the one that channelled the power and likely
affected it some ways!" She was literally shaking with rage as
Bert frantically looked around for an avenue of escape in case
Darlene did something he wouldn't want to stay around for.
She went on. "And illogical?! Hah! Do you think psionics is
logical? Do you?!?" Darlene demanded of Bert, fury still her
voice.
"Ah, um, err, well..." he stammered. Darlene narrowed her
eyes and he scrambled frantically to answer her. "Yes! Yes, it
is! It at least obeys the laws of physics from what I
understand."
"Well, I've got news for _you_, bucko! At some point magic
and psionics can merge! I've done it _myself_ once! Just because
it may _seem_ chaotic doesn't mean it _has_ to be. Sure it can be
irrational! Like," Darlene faltered, "when I went...insane
and...almost hurt a...lot of people because," she lifted
trembling hands in front of her face, "I got angry...when
female..." Her face crumpled, anger vanished like the wind.
Darlene sank down to her knees and started sobbing.
Bert stared for a moment, taken by surprise by the radical
change in Darlene's mood. He started to move forwards hesitantly,
instinct prompting him to comfort the sobbing girl somehow. He
froze solid a moment later, remembering that she wasn't really a
girl all the time. How was he..she going to react to a stranger
suddenly putting his arm around him...her?! What the hell was he
supposed to do now?!
As he stood there, floundering in a mental quandary, the
door flew open, and Nabiki stood in the doorway. Her brown eyes
flared in anger as she gazed at the crying girl on the floor, and
the red-haired young man with a confused expression standing
awkwardly nearby. She immediately hit the wrong conclusion.
"What did you do to her?!" she snapped, quickly going over
to Darlene, kneeling, and wrapping her up in a hug. Darlene
sobbed uncontrollably onto her shoulder as she glared up at Bert.
"Get out," she told him glacially. "I don't want to hear whatever
the excuse is; she was trying to help you, and this is the thanks
she gets?! Get out before I really get mad at you."
"But I didn't...." Bert's voice trailed off as Nabiki's
furious glare lanced into him. A trace of confusion and hurt
flickered across his face, quickly becoming walled-off as his
face settled into a stony mask. "Fine," he replied flatly. "I'm
leaving. Don't worry; I won't darken your doorstep again." Nabiki
didn't watch him leave, being too pre-occupied with trying to
soothe the still-crying Darlene.
*****
Bert stalked down the front steps of the dojo, ignoring
Kasumi's startled inquiry as to where he was going at suppertime,
and stormed down the front walkway, out into the street. Fuming,
he started striding like a runaway thunderstorm down the
sidewalk.
He had to go somewhere, anywhere, just as long as it was
away from the dojo. Some of the pedestrians who saw the
grim-faced young man coming immediately crossed the street,
getting out of his way; there was an almost visible cloud of
anger and frustration hanging over his head.
Well, he asked himself, now what, genius? You've managed to
alienate most of the people who were trying to help you.
Congratulations! Keep it up, and maybe they'll kill you before
you get homesick. It was the thought of home more than anything
else that cleared his mind somewhat, allowing him to examine
himself and the causes for his vile mood.
Partly, it was indeed homesickness; he was missing everyone,
Nene especially, with an intensity that was almost palpable. He
didn't really know a soul here, with the possible exception of
Twister, and he felt isolated and alone; he didn't fit in here,
even slightly. It was made worse by the fact that, for the moment
at least, it didn't appear that he was going to be going home
anytime soon. As a result, he'd lashed out at anyone trying to
get through his emotional barriers.
A portion of his disquiet was because he still wasn't fully
recovered mentally, at least, not enough to be able to handle the
strangeness he was all too often confronting now.
The last factor contributing to his upset state was, being
brutally honest about it, fear. He'd been uprooted by something
that defied all logical explanation: magic. Every time he thought
about it, he wanted to run screaming away from the idea. Because
of his unease, he supposed he'd been unconsciously blaming
Twister for his current problems. It wasn't entirely fair, but he
hadn't been in a frame of mind suited for fairness.
Twister's....no, Darlene's, outburst had brought to light a
couple of points that he hadn't been aware of before, namely that
she hadn't had a choice about what had happened to her... him...
whomever!!! At any rate, she'd mostly accepted what had been done
to her, although he wasn't really sure why she'd suddenly
collapsed, crying. If he got the chance, he'd have to find out
what that was all about.
Like it or not, however, he was going to have to just grit
his teeth and bear with the current situation; whining and
carrying on about how much life sucked and was being unfair to
him wasn't about to solve his problems. Bert sighed again,
straightening up and squaring his shoulders, feeling a little
better that he'd managed to clear his mind somewhat. The question
was now, what did he do in the meantime?
The first thing he was going to have to do was try and get
at least a basic understanding of magic, even though his mind
wanted to shut down at the concept. If he could figure out how it
worked, then maybe he might be able to help find a way to solve
his predicament. All right, he told himself as he walked along,
start from first principles.
Now then, magic appeared to be a form of energy; energy
behaved according to certain rules, or should, at least. Somehow,
magical energy was manipulated by the spellcaster to produce the
desired effects. Now how was it shaped? Spells, of course.
Spells were rhymes, at least it was in Darlene's case, that
focused the caster's will, meaning that the caster had to have
the correct mental image firmly in place in order to produce the
desired effect. It was the combination of the structure of the
poetry, such as rhyme and meter and so forth, that forced the
mind into the proper state to be able to channel magic.
That being the case, it followed that magical energy was
directed by thought patterns. Thought patterns in the brain were
electromagnetic in nature, although perhaps electrochemical might
be a better term. At any rate, since different people had
different mindsets, and, apparently, different magical aptitudes,
it made sense that the magical energy was controlled by their
thought patterns. Ergo, magical energy might be able to be
manipulated by electromagnetic forces.
Bert grinned to himself suddenly, feeling better for having
come up with at least a partial theory on what magic was. There
was still a large unknown operating in his equation, but at least
he had a basis to start from. All he had to do was conduct a few
experiments somehow. Well, since Prof. Miyabi had said that some
testing of his suit was necessary, he supposed he could start
there. She could conduct her tests, and he could use his suit
sensors to conduct a few of his own at the same time. That wasn't
going to happen until tomorrow at the very earliest, though.
He slowed his pace, thoughtfully gazing around at the small
park he'd wandered into; it appeared to be deserted. He sighed
suddenly, and slumped into a nearby bench. Might as well get
comfortable, he told himself, you're going to be here for a
while.
He sat there, mind wandering aimlessly, as darkness began to
fall.
*****
"Feeling better?" Nabiki asked, handing another Kleenex to
Darlene. The red-haired, blue-eyed girl nodded wordlessly, taking
the proffered tissue and blowing her nose. She added the sodden
wad to the steadily growing pile in the wastebasket.
"A lot better now, thanks," she sniffled. "You're a great
comfort," she added, a faint smile appearing. Nabiki smiled back,
relieved that the crying storm was over, and hoping some kind of
explanation was forthcoming. Darlene's next question wiped the
smile off her face again.
"Where'd Bert go?" Darlene asked. Nabiki's expression turned
stony.
"I don't know, and I don't really care," she replied coldly.
"If all he can do is say things that are going to upset you that
badly, then I don't think we need him around." Darlene became
wide-eyed and worried at the same time.
"Oh no!! What did you say to him?! It wasn't his fault!
Well, maybe in part, then again maybe not, but still..."
"Stop!" Nabiki shouted. Startled, Darlene stopped her
babbling, mouth still open. "Was it, or was it not his fault?"
she asked.
Darlene slowly shook her head. "No, it wasn't."
"Oh, boy," Nabiki sighed. "I practically tossed him out
after I saw you." When a panicky Darlene tried passing by her to
try to catch Bert, Nabiki grabbed an arm in a firm grip and
whirled Darlene around to face her. "If it's not _his_ fault,
then _why_ were you crying like you had lost your dearest friend
in the world?? I've _never_ seen you act this emotionally
before," a stray recollection came to her mind, "and you were
perfectly fine when you were your old self..." She frowned at the
red-head, who looked away. "It's something to do with your female
half, isn't it? Why you, when Ranma isn't..." Nabiki turned
Darlene's head around with her, surprisingly gentle, hand. There
was a slightly concerned expression on her face. "Come on,
Twister, please answer me."
Darlene looked down at the floor, a little ashamed that she
had worried Nabiki. "I think it might be a combination of the
change...and the Event. Makes me more emotional. It slowly crept
up on me before I realized what was happening. I...also went a
little berserk in the universe that I was in and perhaps very,
very lucky that I didn't hurt anyone...badly when my rage
exploded. I...," Darlene looked on the point of tears again,
"somehow tapped into the Event when it happened and went
temporarily insane...until I got rid of it all, creating the bolt
of magical energy that brought Bert here. He was just
complaining, justifiably, about magic and his troubles, which got
me angry till I remembered about...the incident."
Nabiki stared at the red-headed girl who was also the man
she loved before shaking her head. "You never have it easy, do
you?"
Darlene sighed. "I guess not. Speaking of which, how's Akane
doing?"
"Once she got used to the idea, pretty well actually.
Cheerful, in fact," Nabiki replied, grinning slightly.
Darlene blinked. "How so?"
"She feels that this will give her something to compete with
Ranma's other 'fiancees'. Akane's always felt that she had
nothing to offer Ranma personally, now she has."
"Not unless she can cook something else other than
Superman's funeral cake." Darlene grimaced. "You'd better tell
her to keep quiet about it until she can. I have to find Bert."
She hesitated, glancing at Nabiki.
It was seen. "I'll apologize if that is what's bothering
you."
"It's not that..."
"What then?"
"I...um...mentioned that I had picked the name Darlene
Stefenson during my...ah...confession for my female form."
Darlene shyly said.
"So? You said you were amnesiac when you picked it," Nabiki
curiously said. "Oh...you prefer it now? I guess it's better than
Itazuka."
"Yes...but there was a reason I picked that one even so. My
_name_ is Darren Steffler, Nabiki," she finished in a rush.
Blankly looking down at the expectant Darlene for a second,
Nabiki slowly began to smile. "And...am I the first you've told
your real name to after your change?"
Darlene simply said "Yes." with a smile.
Nabiki's smile grew very happy, but with a hint of a grin.
"Seeing your current status, I'll kiss you later. But for now..."
She hugged Darlene tightly, and said, "I love you."
"And I love you too," Darlene replied, deciding that the
feelings of warm comfort and being sheltered she felt while being
hugged by the currently taller Nabiki could be accepted without
confusion for the moment.
She could certainly reverse positions easily enough.
Then her eyes widened as she remembered something. Or rather
some_one_.
*Oh, no! I still have to find Bert!*
*****
Bert started awake; he had dozed off but something had
awakened him. It was still a little light out, but the park
lights had come on already. He wondered why he was on the park
bench before he remembered Nabiki's icy departure notice and
mentally groaned. Then something else caught his attention. He
thought he was alone in the park, but he could swear he could
hear...faint, but definitely insane...laughter?!
What the hell?!
*****
Kodachi tried to stifle her laughter; stealth was essential
to her plan, but merely thinking about her latest plan to bring
her darling Ranma into her loving arms increased her joy.
*Soon, my darling! Soon we will be together forever!*
Carefully, Kodachi patted down the earth where she had
transplanted the plants she had grown from seeds from their
birthing pots. She had selected an unused section of the park to
plant her little pets as she did not want unwanted bodies
littering up her trap.
*The man I bought those wonderful seeds from told me that
this is the highest the plants will grow, but that they will more
than make up for it with their magic! He didn't specify how but
one set of plants will ensnare anyone within range and the other
will put the victim into a hypnotic trance. Anyone save the one
who grew them.
*Hohohohohohohoho,* she mentally laughed. *I will bring all
those hussies that are after my dear Ranma here and then they
will be at my mercy! And if my love doesn't see the wisdom of my
actions, well, maybe I will bring him here too...*
"Hey, who are you and what the _hell_ are you doing??" a
voice rudely demanded behind her.
Startled, Kodachi stood and turned around to see a strange,
red-headed young man. She stood rooted to the spot in shock for a
moment, speechless.
"Well?" the young man asked again. "Who are you, lady? Do
you usually sneak around public parks at night, cackling like
brooding chickens?" He cast a greenish-brown-eyed gaze at the
strange-looking plants. "And I don't think that the Public Works
department, assuming there is one here, will appreciate your
planting thistles, or whatever the hell they are, in the parks,
either."
"Who...who are you?!" Kodachi finally found her voice. She
hadn't noticed anyone in the park earlier. In her glee at having
a foolproof plan to get Ranma, she'd evidently missed seeing him
around. Drat the luck! Her mind raced as she tried to think of a
way out of her current dilemma.
"My name's Bert. Now who are YOU?" he replied impatiently.
"I'd kinda like to know who is nutty enough to sneak around
planting noxious weeds for the hell of it."
Kodachi managed to throttle down her anger at his
unflattering description of her lovingly tended beauties.
"My name is Kodachi," she replied, trying to appear
charming, primping her hair a bit. "I'm not harming anyone,
really, and they're not weeds. They blossom into beautiful
flowers whenever someone approaches them. Why don't you look
closer, and see for yourself?"
"Proximity-sensitive flowers?" Bert said sceptically. "Yeah,
sure, tell me another one!" Nonetheless, he did start to bend
closer to have a look at the strange, dark-green plants with the
peculiar-looking pods on the ends of the stalks; his curiosity
had been piqued, even though he was a lousy botanist. Kodachi
stepped back slightly, a triumphant grin spreading across her
features.
"They don't appear to be......what the?! Ackpphhhtfhthtp!"
Bert surged upright, snorting and sneezing in surprise as the
twin plants suddenly swivelled like gun turrets, and the two pods
spat a cloud of strange, faintly-glowing pollen into his face. He
doubled over again, wheezing and gasping; whatever the stuff was,
it was stinging his lungs like fire, and spots were beginning to
dance in front of his eyes.
"Don't you feel much better now?" Kodachi cooed. "You're
going to forget all about this now, aren't you?"
"That's what you think, lady," Bert wheezed, anger beginning
to kindle as he dropped to his knees, unable to breathe. He'd
never had an allergic reaction to pollen of any kind before, but
he was pretty sure that was what was happening now; it couldn't
be anything else. Great, his hazy mind noted sardonically, just
great. Here he was, dragged thousands of miles from home by
goddamn magical forces that he didn't understand, homesick and
alone, and he was suffocating because he'd been poisoned by some
deranged, cackling girl who'd planted killer weeds. "I'm not
feeling better, and I'm sure as hell not going to forget it!" He
gritted his teeth, trying to force himself back to his feet.
Purple sparks began to flare in his vision; he figured his air
was running short.
Kodachi frowned in sudden doubt; the effects of the plants
were supposed to have been immediate, but the stranger who'd
confronted her didn't appear to be affected, not in the manner
she wanted, anyway. That meant she'd have to take care of him the
old-fashioned way, then. As she stepped forwards, a massive flare
of purple-white light accompanied by a concussive blast of air
split the night sky, throwing her hurtling backwards into the
bushes, and briefly etching sharp shadows through the small park.
BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
*****
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!!" Darlene screamed, throwing her hands
over her ears, doubling over in pain, almost falling to her
knees. A very surprised Nabiki caught her arm, and hauled her
back to her feet.
"Twister?! I mean Darlene?! What's wrong?!" She looked
around, mystified, at the empty street they had been walking
down; there was nothing within sight that could have caused that
kind of reaction.
"You didn't hear it?!" Darlene asked dazedly, shaking her
head. There was a deafening ringing going on inside, and she
wished someone would answer the phone so that she could at least
hear again. After a moment it died down a little and she could
hear again, sort of.
"Hear what?" the brown-haired girl replied concernedly.
"There was nothing to hear! You just folded up, screaming!"
"But it was deafening!" Darlene protested. "How could you
not.....uh-oh." Her face suddenly blanched.
"What?! What is it?!"
"If only I heard it, in this form," Darlene said slowly,
"then it was inside my head, and so the sound was magically
produced, which means..." Her head snapped up, a worried light
igniting in her blue eyes. "It's Bert; something must have
triggered his change to SkyKnight."
"What?!" Nabiki said confusedly. "You mean he can instant
change like you and Ranma?"
"Not quite," Darlene sighed. "I'll explain later; we've got
to go find him, quick. Something that loud on the magic spectrum
will probably bring a few people running." The two women began
running down the street as Darlene continued to steer them in the
direction her little tracking spell that she'd whipped up was
pointing. No one else could see it as she didn't want people
staring.
"Is ... is... it .... much.... further?!" Nabiki panted
after several blocks. How far away had he gone, anyway?!
"Just up ahead," Darlene replied, running easily and
ignoring any physical discomforts that manifested themselves.
"He's showing up like a beacon right now."
They pounded down the empty street, and rounded a corner in
time to hear a loud, sizzling and crackling boom, as if someone
had temporarily unleashed lightning in the neighbourhood. A
blinding crimson aura sprang into being briefly in the air around
a small public park up ahead.
Darlene tried to run faster, praying that everything was
okay. They ran through the gates of the park, heading for
approximately where they'd heard the explosions emanate from.
Darlene and Nabiki skidded to a halt as they reached the
approximate center of the park, and stared around in stunned
amazement at the swirling chaos that now occupied the normally
tranquil area.
Leaves swirled everywhere, being lofted around by lingering
vortices of air. A dusty, smoky haze drifted through the air in
some places, and there was the smell of charred vegetation. As
the two girls stared around, it became evident that some of the
devastation originated from a central location; the way some of
the bushes and small trees had been levelled indicated an
outward-moving blast. They moved forward cautiously, nervous
about what they might find.
As they passed a drunkenly leaning tree, a staggering,
silver-garbed armour suit became visible. Tortured hacking and
coughing could be heard coming from SkyKnight, but they couldn't
see an apparent cause. It was evident that he was at ground zero
of the disaster; all the plants in the area were laying flat in
an outwardly radiating spiral from him.
"Bert!" Darlene called, relief surging up. "Are you okay?!
What happened?" She ran over to him. Nabiki followed more slowly,
looking around at the surrounding havoc, suddenly unsure of
herself.
"Just.... a .... second....can't ....breathe," SkyKnight
rasped. He reached up, and yanked off his helmet. Spinning
around, the red-haired Knight Saber was suddenly violently sick
on a nearby patch of scorched earth. Coughing weakly, he managed
to get himself under control as Darlene stared, wide-eyed.
Concerned, she started to move forwards to give him a steadying
hand, but he waved her off, staggering back up to his feet.
"Better," Bert said hoarsely, wiping his mouth on the back
of a gauntlet. He cleared his throat a few times, and sneezed a
couple more times before he seemed to recover from what had been
bothering him. His bloodshot, greenish-brown eyes blinked a few
times, and he took a deep, grateful breath.
"Aaaaah!" he sighed in relief, slapping his helmet back on,
but leaving the visor up. "Much better. You never realize how
much you miss breathing until it's not there."
"Would you PLEASE tell me what happened?!?!" Darlene
demanded, fuming in exasperation. Bert looked at her in surprise,
finally realizing who had come charging into the park. His gaze
flicked over towards Nabiki. Darlene had the sudden impression of
shields snapping into place, but Bert still answered her, not
quite meeting her gaze.
"Some bloody witch suckered me into looking at some stupid
plants, and the goddamn things tried to poison me, that's what
happened. Whatever those plants shot at me damn near suffocated
me; I guess my suit reacted to my state of mind, which was
alternately scared and furious over the trick. Anyhow, whatever
those plants were, they won't be bothering anyone ever again." He
pointed, and Darlene finally noticed a large, smoking crater
nearby. It was the crater that the smell of charred plants was
coming from.
"So who was this 'witch'?" she asked curiously. SkyKnight
shrugged irritably.
"I don't know," he answered. "Some black-haired nutbar who
cackles insanely and talks to herself. She's back there
somewhere," he added, gesturing vaguely in the direction he'd
seen her go flying in the blast that had accompanied the arrival
of his suit.
"Uh-oh," Nabiki said. "That almost sounded like Kodachi."
"Who?"
"Kodachi. She's Kunou's sister, and she's mad about Ranma."
"Another one?!" SkyKnight shook his head. "I could almost
feel sorry for the guy. I..." He stiffened suddenly. "Kunou's
SISTER?! Oh bloody great! Now I've probably got the whole family
mad at me!!"
"That is the least of your worries, mister," a woman's voice
with barely controlled anger put in from behind him. SkyKnight
turned around as Darlene stepped around him to see who it was. A
furious older woman with green eyes and raven-black hair was
standing at the edge of the disaster zone, glaring at them.
"Hello, Professor," SkyKnight sighed. "Something I can help
you with?"
"Well, one thing you could do is...STOP CALLING YOUR
ARMOUR!!" Miyabi yelled furiously, glaring at the slightly
cringing Bert in his SkyKnight hardsuit.
Bert rallied his own anger. "I didn't have a flying choice
in the matter! I was att...att...achoooo!!!" he sneezed
explosively, almost falling down. "Damn. What _was_ that pollen??
I've never been allergic before."
"Pardon me, Professor," Darlene interjected, saving Bert
from a blistering retort from Miyabi, "but if whoever attacked
Bert was Kodachi, and given her fixation on flowers and poisons
it likely was, then it's not really his fault."
Miyabi glared at Darlene and Bert for a moment, then visibly
tried to relax. "I'm sorry, Bert. When you do that it gives me an
awful headache and when it happens so unexpectedly...I get
irritable. If something gets you mad enough to summon your armour
then there must be a reason."
"Thank you," Bert nodded at the apology.
Darlene rubbed her forehead. "But next time, Bert, try to do
it when I'm male please? God, that hurt."
Bert was surprised, then concerned. "You too? Sorry about
that."
"Screamed and almost collapsed when it happened," Nabiki
remarked, making Bert even more worried.
Miyabi nodded. "She would've. Considering how _I_ feel and
how much more sensitive Twister is, I would suspect it hit twice
as hard."
"It's okay," Darlene reassured Bert, who had been about to
apologize again. She turned to Nabiki, who seemed to sense what
Darlene planned to say next and was looking this way and that.
"Nabiki...? You wanted to say something?"
Nabiki's shoulders went up and down as she sighed deeply and
walked over to the armoured Bert, who stiffened a bit at her
close proximity. She looked somewhat hesitant as she started.
"I'm...not used to this as I'm usually good at...assessing a
situation, but..." she frowned suddenly and accusingly pointed at
a startled Bert's hardsuit. "It would help a _lot_ if you weren't
wearing that tailor-made tank," she complained.
"Nabiki..." Darlene reminded her. Bert had to grin a little;
the armour could intimidate people at times.
"Oh, all right! I _am_ sorry for thinking you were
responsible for what happened and for throwing you out." Nabiki
looked away, embarrassed. "I guess I wasn't thinking very calmly
then."
Bert thought about what his own reactions would be if he had
seen someone standing over a crying Nene. Not very good ones, he
admitted to himself. Actually, Nabiki probably handled it much
more calmly than he would have in her position. You never do
think very rationally when it comes to the ones you love, he
mused, glancing at Darlene, even if they are a little strange.
He smiled at Nabiki, who appeared relieved at his reaction.
"Apology accepted."
"I'm sure someone will explain what you are talking about?!"
Miyabi demanded. "It's getting late so let's conclude this
quickly. You two," she pointed at Nabiki and Darlene, "have
classes tomorrow, remember?"
Darlene sighed. "My emotions in female form intensified
during my...ah...trip, Professor, and I'm still trying to get
used to them. Sometimes...they get a little out of control." She
looked embarrassed. Bert rolled his eyes at the understatement,
but didn't add any extra comments.
"You didn't mention that when you got back, but then,"
Miyabi looked very amused, "you _were_ rather in a hurry to leave
the..."
"Yes, yes!" Darlene, in a panic, interrupted her
frantically. "Well, like you said, it's late. Me and Nabiki gotta
go back for some hot water, so I'll teleport to your place and
pick up Bert. Okay, Bert? Great! See you in a bit. Come on,
Nabiki!" Darlene practically threw Nabiki over her shoulder as
she dragged the startled young woman behind her in her mad rush
back to the dojo.
Very surprised, Bert watched them leave. Why does she remind
me of A-Ko right now?, he mused. Shrugging, he turned to the
still smiling Professor. "Now what was _that_ all about?"
"It seems my young pupil hasn't told Nabiki about what
happened in the village of the Amazons yet," Miyabi chuckled.
"Amazons..." Memory tickled Bert's mind until it hit him
like a sledge hammer. "Wait... Don't tell me she got into a
fight...and won?"
Miyabi arched her eyebrows in surprise. "You know their
customs?"
"Just that one about male-marry, female-kill. Hoo, boy.
There's trouble brewing I would imagine."
"Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it, but it will come out
soon enough. Like all in their village, Lotion is a very
determined young woman. Fortunately she's nicer than most. _Very_
fortunate, since she's also studying magic."
"Oh, boy." Bert said worriedly. "That _is_ trouble. I hope
Nabiki isn't in danger."
"Perhaps," Miyabi's lips twitched in amusement, "but not the
type of danger you mean." Before Bert could inquire further, she
briskly said, "Now, returning your armour: How shall we do this?"
Bert grinned. "I can suggest one method..." he started,
slapping his helmet visor closed. Instantly, the red helmet
eyeslot flared into eerily-glowing life, and a low thrum began to
pulse through the air. His wings snapped out behind him as Miyabi
looked at him dubiously.
*****
Darlene screeched to a halt when they reached the dojo,
panting heavily and not just from exertion.
Nabiki's hair had seen better days as it stuck out in random
intervals. "I think we could've _slowed down_ a little," she
complained, straightening out her clothes and checking out her
normally flat hair.
"Sorry, but Bert can move _fast_ in that suit of his. Didn't
want them to wait too long," Darlene explained, thinking fast.
"You still have to walk back," Nabiki pointed out. "He seems
rather...reluctant about your teleports."
Darlene's face fell, then grinned. "_That_ is easily taken
care of."
Nabiki held her hands up. "I don't want to know."
"Chicken."
"Practical," Nabiki countered as they finally stepped into
the house.
Everyone seemed to be back; Soun and Genma were playing Go,
as usual; Kasumi cleaning up the table with the remnants of
supper; faint sounds from the training hall indicating Akane was
smashing bricks; and Ranma...
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" came a feminine scream from upstairs.
WHAM! BANG! "Come _back_ here you old pervert!!" CRASH!
"Ranma's playing with Happousai again," Nabiki commented,
redundantly.
"Hmm... I need to tell them not to get Bert mad," Darlene
said. "Better change first." She headed towards to kitchen.
"I'll check up on Akane," Nabiki called out, and started
towards the training hall.
*****
"But this bra would look so good on you!" Happousai
petulantly cried out as he dodged Ranma-chan's furious kick, said
bra in hand.
"Forget it, you old lech!!" the furious red-head shouted.
Twister watched them for a moment as the two bounced around
in the upstairs hallway. They didn't notice him because he was
using his 'unnotice me' trick. He sighed. There was only one
thing he could do to make them listen, but he really didn't like
to do it.
Oh, well.
Ranma-chan stopped in mid air during her next assault on the
old hentai, startling her considerably. "What?!?!"
"Sweetums!" Happousai leaped in joy as Ranma-chan tried to
frantically backpedal in mid-air. Then Happousai was caught in
mid-air also, a few scant feet away from a now relieved
Ranma-chan. "Noooooo!!!!" he cried in anguish.
"Oh, come on. It's not _that_ bad," Twister griped.
Both suspended martial artists whirled to look at the calm
face of the brown-haired psionist.
"I don't need your help, Twister..." Ranma-chan started.
"I needed to get your attention somehow." Twister shrugged.
"This seemed best as I'm in a hurry."
Ranma-chan folded into a cross-legged, sitting position. "So
what did you want to say?"
"The guy who's going to be staying here..._don't_ get him
mad. Please. For his sake _and_ yours."
"Even if he beat Kunou, what's all the fuss?" Ranma-chan
wanted to know.
"His armour was affected when he was brought here and
whenever he gets really angry it's summoned to him. Explosively.
Think of two of Happousai's bombs going off point-blank in your
face. He ran into Kodachi and she tried something on him that
Bert found hyper-allergenic. His suit came, Kodachi went flying,
and Bert nuked the plants she used with his on-board weapons.
You'd have a _very_ tough time avoiding damage from laser and
particle-beam weapons," he added for Happousai's benefit.
Suddenly, Happousai pulled out a bucket and splashed a
surprised Twister with water. Ranma-chan dropped to the floor,
hard, but the old hentai was ready and bounced to Darlene, or,
more accurately, her breasts.
"AAHHH!!" she screamed in shock, then more angrily, "FREEZE,
PLEASE!!"
Happousai went stiff as a board, still clinging to the angry
mage until she pulled him off. His eyes still moved back and
forth frantically.
She dropped him, not caring about the floor, and he landed
with a thunk. "Argh! He just can't give up, can he?" Darlene spat
furiously.
"Happousai?? Yeah, right." Ranma-chan cheerfully strolled
over and poked at the living statue. "Is this the same thing you
did to me?"
"Yes, except he won't freeze; he just can't move." Darlene
grimaced. "I've got to get going. See you later." She turned and
left for the kitchen.
Ranma-chan kneeled down to look directly into Happousai's
still moving eyes. Grinning, she dangled the bra in front of him
and the eyes filled with tears.
"Guess we're gonna have some fun, don'tcha think, Gramps?"
Somehow, the eyes conveyed a great sense of panic.
*****
When Twister arrived in Miyabi's workshop, Bert was pacing
the floor. Seeing Twister's face he sighed. "Finally!" Then he
frowned. "What's with the getup? And why does it seem so
familiar?" Twister was dressed in a dark blue riding outfit and
holding a motorcycle helmet in one arm.
"Well, seeing you don't seem to like teleportation..."
Twister started.
"I'm getting more used to the concept," Bert interjected,
even though he still looked queasy at the prospect.
"...I brought other transportation." Twister finished, and
held up what appeared to be a small model of a motorcycle, much
to Bert's disbelief.
"Surely you don't plan on shrinking _us_?!" When Twister
rolled his eyes, Bert sighed with relief.
"I shrunk my bike I built in MegaTokyo and brought it with
me. All you need to do is speak a word and it'll grow back to
normal. Don't worry about a helmet for now; if you're not safe
with a telekinetic biker, who is?" Twister grinned slyly, adding,
"And don't call me Shirley." Bert grimaced at the joke, and
returned to examining Twister's clothing.
"That getup you've got still looks damn familiar....." Bert
snapped his fingers when it came to him. "That's Priss' getup
and..." He peered at the mini-bike. "..her bike too!"
Twister shrugged. "I copied it. And...had some fun with
her." He grimaced. "Even though she got me back many times
because of it."
"Oho!" Bert grinned evilly. "This I've got to hear! Come on,
spill it! And don't leave anything out now!"
"Me and my big mouth," Twister muttered to himself. He
glanced at the grinning red-head, sighed, and began his narrative
as he led the way out of the room. Bert listened attentively as
he followed.
"Well, one night I was driving down the Bayshore Highway of
the city, when..."