OPERATION: LIGHTSPHERE
An Iczelion/Teknoman crossover by Andrew Dynon
The series and all characters... ah, you know the drill.

This chapter will be a drama one rather than an action one, and
chapter five will be an action chapter.  

Any & all C&C needed.  MSTs especially welcome.

PHASE ONE
CHAPTER FOUR

     Nagisa lay in her bed, her body curled so that her knees
were in front of her chest, blankets covering her so that only a
few curls of her dark green hair could have been seen had anyone
been in the room with her.  The pervious day had been likely the
hardest day of her life.  The Rhadam's attack on the base ...
being in the /Sunlight/ as it crashed ... Kawai's beating at the
hands of Lance ... and she'd come through all that!  She'd
managed to beat Lance, she'd saved the lives of Kawai and Yajin
and likely a many other people!  And she'd finally realised that
she wasn't just some weak little schoolgirl any more - she was
someone capable of defending the Earth.  And as there were so few
capable of doing so, she was someone who had a RESPONSIBILITY to
defend the Earth.

     But none of that mattered to her for the moment.  Although
the day had been both inspirational and terrifying for her, at
the end of it the sensation she felt most was exhaustion, both
physical and mental.  Her physical exhaustion was due to the toll
the Iczelion transformation had taken on her body's nervous
system, whilst her mental exhaustion was due to her mind being
overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the sensations - fear,
desperation, anger, thrill, and finally confidence, she had felt.

     So she slept.  But even in sleep, her mind refused to keep
still.  Its focus shifted from the present, and her newfound
powers, to the future, the paths that she might take, and where
they might lead.  And then to the past, to memories long buried
in the sands of time...

     The boy, older and bigger than she was, pushed her
five-year-old body over, and she fell backwards into the sand. 
He and his friend stood over her and laughed.

     "Go away, little girl, we don't want you round here!"

     "Give my shells back!  You can't take them!"  Nagisa
screamed.

     "Oh, they're stupid things anyway.  We don't want them." 
The boy held her shells up in front of her, and, one by one,
broke them into pieces, dropping the fragments into the sand. 
Nagisa stared in shock for a few seconds, and then...

     "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  She sat up in
the sand, tears streaming from her eyes.  One of her tormentors
picked up a handful of sand, and walked toward her, preparing to
shove it into her mouth...

     ...and was suddenly pushed over backward.  The
eight-year-old looked up, and standing over him was a dark-haired
boy a couple of years older than him.

     "There are huge, man-eating crabs in the ocean, and if you
don't stop hurting Nagisa, I'll feed you to them!"  Cain
threatened, and the two boys immediately fled.

     "Cain!  Look what they did to my shells!" Nagisa whined, and
immediately began another fit of crying.

     "Nagisa, it's all right."  The voice came from a girl of her
own age - a girl with the same green hair as Nagisa.  "Look, I'll
share mine with you."  she held out a handful of multicolored
sea-shells.

     "Shara!  Thank you! Thank you so much!"  Nagisa began
sobbing again, this time with joy at Shara's kindness.

     The images faded, and Nagisa awoke.  Struggling free from
her blankets, she looked at the clock on her desk.  

     "Nine o'clock in the morning?  I thought we were meant to be
up by six thirty."

     Still not fully awake, she began to think about her dream.

     {Why did I dream about my cousins?  I haven't seen too much
of them.  There  was the time that I dreamed about, and then our
grandmother's funeral, and ... is there any other time I've seen
them?  Oh, wait, I talked to Shara and Uncle Ulysses a year ago,
when they were about to go into space ... I never heard about how
that went,} she realised, {I hope everyone's all right.}

     Nagisa stretched and dressed herself in one of the jumpsuits
she had borrowed from Kawai.  She pulled on a pair of soft-soled
boots, and headed to the control room.

     "Commander... I'm sorry, I overslept."

     Candy smiled.  "Considering all you've been through, not to
mention you're saving Kawai and Yajin's lives, I think the least
we can do for you is to let you sleep in a little.  Have you even
had breakfast?"

     "No, I saw the clock and didn't think I had time."

     "Well, go and get yourself some.  That is, unless Iczelions
don't need to eat."

     "Thank you, commander."  Nagisa turned and left the room.

*    *    *    *    *

     "All right, that's it!  We've finally got our long-range
communications back up!" came Mac's shout.  "We can finally find
out what's happening with our other bases!"

     "It's about time!" responded Tina.  "I thought we were
*never* going to get those back up!"

     "Tina, contact our other bases immediately.  I'll inform
them of the recent events here." Jamison ordered.
     
     "Right away, sir."

*    *    *    *    *

     "Commander, there's a transmission coming through." Sara
said.

     "All right, put it on screen, Sara."  responded Candy.  Sara
pressed a button, and the image of Jamison appeared on the
screen.

     "Greetings, sir,"  Candy said.  "We haven't been able to
contact you for some time."

     "Our base was attacked by enemy Teknomen, and we've only
just managed to restore our long-range communications.  I've
called to update you on events since then."

     "In the meantime, we have managed to gain some...
significant assistance in the ongoing war that you should know
about."  replied Candy.  "Yajin, go and fetch Nagisa and bring
her here".  She turned back to Jamison.  "You may want to bring
Blade in for this."

*

     "Commander?" Nagisa asked as she entered the communications
room.

     "Nagisa, I trust Yajin's told you that we've re-established
communications with our American base?" Candy asked.  "This is
Commander Jamison, and with him..."

     "NICK?"  Nagisa exclaimed.  "You're a member of the Space
Knights too?"

     "Nagisa!"  For a moment, the young man's face became almost
bright.  "You're all right!"

     "Nick, I haven't heard from any of your family since before
they went on that space trip!  You made it back okay!  Oh, Nick,
I kept having these horrible nightmares about being swallowed up
by some kind of alien spore-pods, and I was too scared to join
all of you on the ship!  Is Cain all right?  And Shara?"

     Blade's face returned to its usual anguished expression, and
he once again told the story of the events that began with the
Carter family's encounter with the alien vessel...

*

     "NO!!!"  Nagisa yelled.  "Nick, you're talking about your
own twin brother!  He *can't* be evil!"

     "I'm sorry, Nagisa, but Cain... my whole family are either
dead or serving Darkon now.  You and me are the only ones left. 
They're evil, and not wanting to believe it won't change that."

     "That's because they're under the Rhadam's control!  None of
them would ever serve him of their own free will!  Can't you see
that?"

     "None of that makes a difference, now.  They serve Darkon,
and we have to fight them, kill them, or everyone on this planet
is doomed."

     Nagisa looked on in stunned silence.  Destroying Lance had
been easy when he was simply a faceless monster bent on the
deaths of her friends.  But the Rhadam's slaves were now her
family.

     How could she justify to herself the murder of her family,
even if it was to save the Earth? 

*    *    *    *    *
END PHASE 1 CHAPTER 4

NEXT:  Blade, Nagisa, and Nami work together for the first time,
teaming up with Sergeant O'Rourke in a raid on the Spider-Crab
birthing chamber on the space ring.  But it's far from plain
sailing for our heroes, with Nagisa reluctant to fight her
family, and Blade in danger of once again exceeding his time
limit.  Also, Earth's not the only planet the war's being fought
on, and guess who's leading the fight against the Rhadam?  (If
you guessed a certain female android with pointy ears and spiky
blonde hair, you'd be right!)  She'll get some screentime next
chapter.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Dynon
- Eternal champion of the Iczer series
- Fan of Sailor Moon, Devil Hunter Yohko, 
     Teknoman, and many other anime series 
- RPG Player of Mekton-Z, Fuzion, AD&D and more
- Writer of fanfiction and original Sci-Fi/Fantasy
- Loyal supporter of the mighty Essendon Bombers (Australian Football League)

"I can't tell you how thrilling it is to be admired by a deranged maniac."
	- Blade to Axe, Teknoman (ep. 36)

HE WHO FLAMES BURNS HIMSELF THE MOST