Eimii wrote:
(You see a sparsely appointed living room. Eimii hobbles in, her left arm
in a sling and her right leg in a cast. Her clothing is torn and scorched,
and several bandages adorn various parts of her body. She is using a
peculiar looking long handled hammer as a makeshift crutch.)
Skuldsama & Jim together: "Awwww Poor Eimii!"
<Snip>
I would get down on my knees and kiss your collective feet, but I doubt I'd
be able to get back up again. So, anyway, on with the show.
(Eimii makes a grab for a remote control that's sitting on the coffee table on
her right. She gets the remote, but overbalances badly and pitches forward > onto her face.) Ouch... (Pointing the remote at her stereo, she presses the
button...)
Skuldsama: "She's nervous, isn't she?"
Jim: "Something like that, pass the Pringles"
SUNDAY
JUNE 30th, 1996
9:53 AM
There are many places that are considered "holy" by the human race. The
city of Jerusalem, the Great Pyramid, and the Temple of the Sun to name
just a few. One of the lesser known places of divinity, however, can be
found just a short trip from the campus of NIT in the greater Tokyo Bay
area. A particular temple, with a beautiful cherry tree in the yard and a
small auto shop in the back. Within this domicile resides three Goddesses,
the Norns, and one mortal, otherwise known as Keiichi.
Jim: "Cool opening. Alluding to THAT cherry tree is a good move."
<Snip>
Skuld is hunched over a workbench in her room. She is wearing thick,
darkened goggles and is grinning widely to herself. Sparks fly from the
tortured-looking device that she's working on. Several feet of wire
connect the object to half a dozen test machines on her desk. One of them
looks disturbingly similar to an EKG. This one indicates what would
normally be read as a weak but steady pulse.
The device itself is _very_ roughly oblong in shape. Several dials and
switches dot the unopened side of it's outer surface. It rests
approximately one foot off of the workbench, supported by four
multi-jointed stalks affixed to what could probably be considered it's
"bottom." A gristly crown of "appendages" rings the "top" of the device,
surrounding two eerily glowing slots. Skuld is peering into an access
panel on the side of the device, manipulating something best left
undescribed with a pair of forceps and a phillips head screwdriver.
"This is gonna be great."
Skuldsama: "Hehehehehe! She's writing me GREAT! This is Very VERY ME!"
--RRIING--
"Hello, Morisato residence. Oh, Good morning sir. How are you today? I'm
sorry to hear that. Yes, she is. Just a moment, I'll call her."
Belldandy sets down the phone and walks out of the kitchen into the living
<Snip>
She stops in front of one particular door and, completely ignoring the
numerous signs posted admonishing to knock first and warning of extreme
danger, barges in to the room.
-SLAM-
"SKULD!! PHONE CALL!!!"
Skuld, still hunched over her workbench, flinches violently and emits a
strangled cry. A small explosion echoes through the room and a malevolent
looking, basketball sized mushroom cloud rises from the workbench.
After a few moments of absolute silence Skuld straightens and, back still
to the door, removes the goggles.
"The office needs to speak with you." prodded Urd, poorly concealing the
rising mirth in her voice.
Turning around, Skuld favored her sister with a glare of unmasked fury,
eyes narrowed and face flushed crimson. The latter is evident only by the
rings around her eyes, as the rest of her face is thoroughly blackened.
Skuldsama: "Ooooooh! That's JUST like Urd too! This girl has us down!"
Completely unimpressed, Urd was now clearly struggling to maintain her
composure.
<Snip>
"Early this morning, someone tried to destroy the Yggdrasil system."
"WHAT??! Who would even consider such a thing? It's stupid! They'd never
get past security." Urd's expression changed from shock to irritation.
*No one should be able to do that*
<Snip>
"They couldn't. They had to shut down all external lines to make sure that
the bugs didn't escape. That was a local call. One of the system
administrators came down to earth to make that call, then went right back
to heaven. We all have to go back too."
Skuldsama: "And THIS is an excellent explanation! Look at me, I'M worried!"
Jim: "I'm impressed too. Eimii has got a real sense of verisimilitude (reality)
going on this now."
<Snip>
"Can I help?"
Both goddesses turned to see Keiichi standing on the porch, Belldandy at
his back with a small frown on her face.
Jim: "I like this a lot. Keiichi is standing up to do something, it gives us
something to like him for."
<Snip>
Urd sighed from the tedium. She'd been waiting in line all afternoon for a
terminal to open. That, compounded by the monotony of the questioning,
was quickly souring her opinion of the Yggdrasil Interface System. *Well,
at least with the personnel archive gone, they can't say that I'm
suspended anymore!* Urd thought happily.
-URD-
"Huh?"
-URD, YOU'RE HOLDING UP THE LINE. PROCEED TO BRIEFING ROOM >THREE.-
"But Kami-sama, I'm not finished filling in the form yet."
-I WILL FILL IN YOUR PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND DUTY >STATUS _PERSONALLY_.
NOW GO TO BRIEFING ROOM 3.-
(Sigh) "Yes Lord." *Well, it was worth a try.*
-YOU KNOW THAT IT WASN'T.-
(Groan)
Skuldsama: "Hehehehehe! I love it when Urd gets hers!"
Jim: "Hahahaha! Nice touch having him speak in caps."
<Snip>
"Ahem." The murmurs ceased. "As I was saying, a Ki bomb releases a
blast of highly concentrated spiritual energy. The archives near the
epicenter of the explosion were destroyed, but this was not the real
problem. The problem arose from the archives near the blast that had not
been destroyed. These archives had been charged and corrupted by the
energy of the explosion. It was in this state that the central processors
found them while they were trying to asses the extent of the dammage.
When the CPU tried to access the archives, the energy and corrupted data
was taken into the central processing core. Now, as you know, bugs are
spontaneously created spiritual beings. When the spiritual energy was
taken into the processor core, it was transformed into several new varieties
of bugs. These bugs multiplied rapidly in the processor core, thus
necessitating the shut down of the Yggdrasil system." Skuld stopped and
faced the crowd.
Jim: "Very well explained. I'm quite willing to believe it now. This sounds just like
the kind of domino effect errors that really have brought computer systems down
in my real world experience."
Skuldsama: "And she made me sound so professional! I Love this!"
<Snip>
The goddess leans back. Then, with a grunt of exertion, brings the mallet
up over her head and down onto the bug. Upon impact with the bug there is
a bright flash of green light and a deafening roar. When the light fades
there is a small crater where the bug used to be. The mallet is nowhere in
sight, but the goddess now lays on her back at the opposite end of the
room, scorched and groaning loudly. The image blinks out and Skuld steps
forward.
Skuldsama: "Yikes! Ki Enhanced Bugs!"
Jim: "Cool Idea!"
<Snip>
*Then that psycho with the umbrella shows up and starts bashing the
things left and right. Must've been some sort of war god, though I've never
heard of any war god who 'effortlessly crushes his foes, mightily swinging
his holy transuranic umbrella.'*
Jim: "Hehehe. I like this image a lot too."
<Snip>
*I hope this works better than some of Skuld's inventions.* prayed Keiichi
as he crept up to the alcove. Just as he was about to round the corner, a
loud explosion echoes through the hall and bits of wall and computer fly
out of the alcove. Keiichi ducks for cover as a young man bounds out of
the alcove, followed by a swarm of bugs.
"STOP FOLLOWING ME!!" the man bellows as he turns on his persuers.
The man swings an _umbrella?_ down into the massed crowd of bugs.
Keiichi tackles Belldandy to the ground and shields her with his body just
as one of the bugs explodes. When the flash disapates, they turn to see
the young man, who appears to be completely unfazed, glaring at the
remaining bugs, which are now scattered around the room. He then takes
off down the corridor. The bugs quickly regroup and resume the chase,
leaving behind a stunned Belldandy and Keiichi.
Jim: I think I'd reverse that, and have Belldandy tackle Keiichi. It's not that
Keiichi wouldn't try to protect Belldandy, but he is just a normal person with
skill in repairing and driving motor vehicles. Goddesses are much quicker
than mortals, as well as more powerful, and it wouldn't be the first time
Belldandy threw herself between Keiichi and danger.
<Snip>
Urd, against her better judgement, attempted to sit up so that she could
examine the disk. One hundred million nerves throughout her body decided
to light bonfires of protest.
Jim: Been there, felt that. She describes it well.
<Snip>
[To: Urd
Norn: Goddess of the Past
Class: 2 Category: 2 Limited
It has come to our attention that you are presently unassigned, and
thus are free to assist us in a very important matter. We are presently
unable to locate one:
Hibiki Ryouga
God of Unrequited Love
Class: 2 Category: 2 Limited
We believe him to be somewhere on earth. His name suggests that he is
perhaps based in Japan, although his current assignment is also unknown.
It would be a great help to us if you would endeavor to locate our Mr.
Hibiki at the earliest possible convenience, and direct him back to the
processing office so that we might update our files on him. We thank you
in advance for your cooperation. Have a nice day.
From: Mihrna
System Administrator
Goddess of Messengers
Class: 2 Category: 1 Limited]
*They have _got_ to be kidding.* Urd thought to herself. *They didn't even
include a cursory physical description!*
Jim: "There's the setup, and the pitch! The story is off and running!"
Skuldsama: "Urd's nicely in character too. (Never thought I'd use the word
'Nice' while talking about Urd!)"
<Snip>
"Well, at least I'm in Japan."
"ROUYGA-KUN!!"
Ryouga stops, for a moment not being able to believe his good fortune.
Then he turns in the direction of the voice.
<Snip>
"We were all worried about you Ryouga. We missed you at the wedding."
Akane answered.
Ryouga's reveire shattered as a swirling vortex threatened to pull him
under. "..wedding..?" he said weakly, unable to summon much more than a
whisper.
"Of course!" Akane replied cheerily. "Didn't you get an invitation?"
"But...but you're here. How...?" Ryouga managed, franticly grasping at
anything he could find as his hopes and dreams crumbled around him, each
jagged shard cutting away part of his soul.
"The wedding was eight days ago Ryouga. We're on our honeymoon now!"
Akane's smile widened as she held up her hand for Ryouga to see.
Numbly looking down, Ryouga noticed a gold ring on Akane's finger. Two
interlaced bands of white gold, worked to flow around a single small,
perfect diamond. Tiny leaves and thorns were etched into the surface of
the bands, all seeming to lead towards the diamond in the center.
"Yo! Mr. P! Long time no see buddy."
A hand clapped down on Ryouga's shoulder.
<Snip>
"Because of this!" Ranma suddenly brought his right mand around in a wide
arc, passing it a foot front of Ryouga's face.
Ryouga, still stunned and broken, failed to dodge the ice water that
splashed from the glass in Ranma's hand. The cold shock brought him >back to his senses, and he looked up from his new position as the quickly
changing expression on Akane's face.
"P-..P-chan?" Akane stuttered, confusion and horror warring across her
features.
<Snip>
"I HATE YOU!" Ryouga flinched as if struck, but Akane never move a hair.
"I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU EVER AGAIN!" With that, she spun on her >heel and stormed off.
Ranma favored him with an amused smirk before following. When he caught >up with Akane, he placed an arm around her shoulders. Akane, rather than
hitting him, responded by wrapping her arm around his waist. . Then walked
quickly down the street, neither of them ever looking back.
Ryouga didn't notice. *Akane hates me.* He was too drained to cry. He felt
as though his chest was going to cave in, nothing left inside to support
it any longer. Her words echoed through his mind, reverberating and
redoubling themselves until the words "I HATE YOU" rang out clear and
deafening, blasting away his last vestige of conscious thought.
"AKANE!!!!"
Jim: "Hummmm. I have to be careful here, I've seen some Ranma Anime, but I've never read the wedding story, which I believe is only in the manga. As I recall from discussions here on the FFML it ended in disaster, and Ranma ran off to 'find the cure', so there was no honeymoon. If this was just a dream, that explains why Ranma is more of a jerk than usual, why he breaks his promise to Ryouga not to tell Akane who P-chan is, and why Akane doesn't get mad at Ranma for keeping the secret along with Ryouga. Or it could be that there are some things about Ranma canon I don't know."
Skuldsama: "He turns into a PIG?!?"
Jim: "It's a curse, and an official part of Ranma canon. One other little thing, if
this was 'real', Akane or Ranma should have remarked about the 'God' markings on Ryouga's face now. He won't have a Limiter Earring (one reason he has awesome power), but he will have the God triangle things on his face that let him draw God power through Ygdrassil. I think he got them during the prologue."
An animal cry shattered the windows of the shops up and down the street.
What followed was a sound that would make the denizens of the darkest
pits of hell cringe. A soul chilling wail of pure despair that no beast this or
any other earth should ever have been able to produce. A seven kilometer
high column of white flame lanced towards the heavens from the center of
town. The denizens of the town were thankfully blasted to ash
instantaneously. Not so lucky were those in the outlying countryside.
There, the people watched helpless as a new sun strove to escape the >binds of gravity, and failed. They survived several moments longer as it fell,
brilliant and unstoppable, the wrath of the gods unleashed upon the earth.
Jim: "Nicely done! I especially like the last line about the wrath of the Gods!"
Skuldsama: "That reminds me, Oneesama wants to talk to you about the bodycount in your fanfic, Jim."
Jim Bigsweats
<Snip>
"Some of the guy in records think they've found a match for the energy
pattern in the explosion and in these new bugs." Mihrna took a seat next
to Skuld and handed her a data pad.
Accepting it, Skuld noted that Mihrna's expression was anything but
pleased. While it was not unusual for the Goddess of Messengers to be
depressed, as she tended to be the bearer of bad news, Mihrna was looking
especially uncomfortable just now. "What's wrong? You look like your
mother just died."
"Just look at the file."
Intrigued, Skuld scanned down the information on the data pad. It was a
historical record taken from the Ultimate Force System archives.
[ At precisely 7:17:24 am, earth relative time, on Saturday June 30th,
1908, the Ultimate Force System was engaged without authorization by an
unknown party. The access point was in the Earth realm, 101 E by 62 N, in
the Central Siberian Peninsula. The area is known as the Tunguska region.
A column of spiritual energy was projected to an altitude of 7.6
kilometers, where it stopped and collected for 1.7 seconds. A barrier was
erected around the resultant sphere of force, in the hopes of containing
it. The barrier fell .02 seconds after it was erected, when the sphere
moved into contact with it and destabilized.
The resultant explosion created a wave of superheated plasma which
expanded outward with an estimated explosive force of 40 megatons. A 26
kilometer radius was affected by the blast. Everything in that area was
effectively leveled. A 10 kilometer radius near the epicenter of the blast
immediately flashed into flame due to the intense heat. In total, 1000
sq.km. of forrest was consumed by the fires.
Jim: "Way Cool Idea! This is a great explanation for the Tunguska blast!
It lends the story a nice sense of urgency too. 'We've got to get to Hibiki
before millions of innocent people die!' "
Skuldsama: "I like the Mihrna character."
<Snip>
[ ATTENTION ALL EARTH BOUND DEITIES. A STATE OF EXTREME >EMERGENCY HAS BEEN DECLARED. THE PERPETRATOR OF THE
RECENT ATTACK UPON THE YGGDRASIL COMPUTER SYSTEM IS
BELIEVED TO BE A ROGUE DEITY.]
Urd paled noticably at this, but continued reading.
[ THIS PERSON, WHO HAS ON AT LEAST ONE OCCASION
ACCESSED THE ULTIMATE FORCE SYSTEM WITHOUT
AUTHORIZATION, IS BELIEVED TO SOMEWHERE ON EARTH,
TIME PERIOD JULY 1996. ALL AVAILABLE DEITIES ARE ORDERED TO >CONDUCT A BLANKET SEARCH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GEOGRAPHIC
AREAS. AN ENERGY TRACE SIGNATURE IS INCLUDED WITH THIS
MESSAGE TO ALLOW FOR IDENTIFICATION. ALL DEITIES ARE
ORDERED TO REPORT IN AND WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS
IMMEDIATELY UPON LOCATION. CONTACT IS TO BE USED ONLY AS
A LAST RESORT. CLASS THREE OR LESSER DEITIES ARE
STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO RETREAT SHOULD CONTACT SEEM
IMANENT. THIS PERSON IS TO BE CONSIDERED EXTREMELY
DANGEROUS. (S)HE IS SUSPECTED TO BE CAPABLE OF SPIRITUAL
PROJECTION, TEMPORAL SHIFTING, AND UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS
OF THE ULTIMATE FORCE. WE AGAIN ENCOURAGE THE UTMOST
CAUTION. THIS IS A CRITICAL SITUATION, AND MUST BE
ATTENDED TO IMMEDIATELY. GOOD LUCK TO YOU, AND
GODSPEED.]
Urd slumped into the chair as she finished the message.
*A rogue god...*
<Snip>
Mara clicked off her small laptop computer and leaned back in the park
bench, contemplating.
*Heaven net is being really sloppy with their transmission encoding
lately. I wonder what's going on.*
Jim: "Wow! Awesome first chapter! And Mara will complicate things nicely!"
Skuldsama: "You bet. In fact, I think she introduced me better than you did.'
Jim: "Hey!"
Skuldsama: "It's true. She has me building something when we first see me,
well OK, 'overbuilding', whereas you start me off arguing with Urd."
Jim: "There's a lot of historical precedent for that!"
Skuldsama; "Humph! Well I'm very pleased with Eimii, in fact, I declare her one
of '**Skuld's Own Fanfic Writers**' (tm). I think I'll visit her myself.
*Hey Eimii, set a half full, luke warm glass of water on a shelf near your
computer and don't eat all your Ice Cream.*"
Jim: "Well, I like this a lot, and I'm very much looking forward to the next
chapter." (then grumbles) "Maybe I'll review the next part by myself!"
Skuldsama: "Peeeeeedah!"
Jim Nutley
Ygdrassil Node Site Maintenance
Cretaceous Impact Recovery Team