[Spamfic] "Ah, Hazard!"
By Henry J. Cobb
$Id: ah_hazard.txt,v 1.2 1997/09/12 03:19:47 hcobb Exp $
The alarm sounds throughout the city, the soldiers rush to their posts as
an enormous cloud of man-sized bugs attack.
The defenders fight valiantly, but their weapons have little effect
against the monsters.
The bugs are individually fearless, but their attacks have little
coordination and so almost of the population manages to escape in a hasty
evacuation.
As the victors chitter through the streets of the deserted city, they pause
to poke at the few bodies of the fallen soldiers.
A small group of the bugs search a long neglected basement for any
stragglers. They are surrounded by ancient artifacts. One of the bugs
picks up a device clearly shaped for a human hand and the device speaks:
"Hello, you have reached the Goddess Helper Office. I'll be right by for
a consultation."
The bug drops the device and backs off a pace.
Suddenly, the silvery surface of an ancient display glows with an inner
light.
All of the bugs in the room turn and drop into defensive positions and
then drop to their many knees and bow to the slender woman with long
sandy-blonde hair, who emerges from the display.
She walks up to the bug that had triggered the phone. "Hello K'kit'chi,
what do you wish?"
Time in the heavens has little meaning, but the next day, a short goddess
with long dark hair walks up to a door, knocks, then barges in. "Urd,
have you seen Oneesama?"
Her dark skinned sister alt-tabs the game she was playing into the
background and turns to the door. "No, not today Skuld. Here, let me
check." She pounds away at the keyboard and brings up the results of her
query. "Belldandy's off granting a wish."
Skuld leans over her sister's shoulder and reads the monitor. "Those
dimensional coordinates are weird, are you sure you did that right?"
"Of course I did! But they do look a little odd."
"It's strange. Maybe she's in trouble."
"Now Skuld, you know Belldandy can handle herself."
"Can we go and check, just to be sure?"
"Sure, I guess, not much happening around here."
"And anyway, you're not making much progress in that game."
Urd notices that the title-bar of her game is just barely visible. "Well,
naturally I don't play it during business hours!" She clicks on the
minimise button.
"Urd, how do we get there?"
"Well..." Urd looks at the coordinates again. "I don't know."
"I know! I'll build a device to punch through to those coordinates.
Hmmm... This is tricky. I'll have to get some more ice cream."
Several hours later, Urd looks over the machine Skuld has constructed.
"Are you this is going to work?"
"Yes! Am I a genius or what?"
"Whatever. How do you activate it?"
"I just push this button here!"
The two goddesses tumble through the dimensions and wind up in a heap,
with Skuld on the bottom.
"Ouch!"
"Nice ride you've got there Skuld. Now where is this place?"
"Uh..." Skuld checks her pocket computer. "Yes, this is the right
place."
"Then where's Belldandy?" Urd looks at the forest around them.
The two goddesses turn at a woman's scream and rush to a clearing where a
group of man-sized bugs are chasing a woman.
The bugs turn to the pair as Skuld's bomb gets their attention but
scatter when Urd begins to use her lightning.
Urd looks at the fleeing monsters with satisfaction. "I guess I thought
them a lesson!"
"Fatora!" The woman runs to embrace Skuld. "Fatora, you're safe!"
..
Skuld collapses into the princess's bed. The many events of the day just
catching up to her. The ethical conflict of the deception, even it is
needed to keep up the hopes of the people in the face of the coming
onslaught has worn on her. She soon falls asleep, unaware of the lump
crawling towards her under the covers.
Henry J. Cobb hcobb@slip.net http://www.io.com/~hcobb
Since Chiba Mamoru is a friend of the Earth, does he get a wish?