More madness.
have fun!

        Department of energy productions presents
                A self insertion up to no good


                        Youma Blues 5



	School is in session.  Well, maybe.  
	When Beryl said that the generals would be 'training you in our ways'  I
don't think a determined attempt to kill me was quite what she had in mine -
or maybe
it was.
My schedule went something like this: 
Mornings:  Wake up.  Two hour bout of swordplay with Kunzite & the other
Lieutenants (more on them in a moment). Breakfast (mushrooms and unidentifiable
thing pie)
Afternoon:  Magic lessons with Nephrite (I stretched this out as far as
possible. 
Neph is a *great* teacher, if a bit preachy about the stars thing. Besides,
I had an
interest.)
Evening: Freedom! My time to run away. If I had enough energy I tended to
teleport
to Juban. 
Late night: Head back to the dark kingdom, draging Jadeites latest energy
package
with me, and wishing I could stay in Juban.
Reason: You remember those other Lt's I mentioned?  Well, there were about
ten of
them (until last week it was twelve, but two of them didn't dodge Sailor V's
Crescent
beams fast enough), and they called themselves the Dark Circle (this week)  And
they'd decided that they didn't like me.
	Something about my one upping them in Singapore.
	I found out the hard way, to...
	It was after my first 'lesson' with Kunzite (who said very little to me at the
time.  Not a talkative guy when it came to the lower ranks, Kunzite. Damn scary
fighter, though.)  that I noticed the first face I recognized, aside from
those that I
recognized as 'monsters to be avoided' - I was still somewhat naive in those
days.
	It was a rather strikingly shojo - type human-like youma who had been one
of the last of the Shadow cabinet to teleport out.
	The Shadow Cabinet, if you don't remember, was the utterly iane and rather
awful goth band put together by our friends in the Dark Circle, as a two
fold energy
drain/lets get killed by Sailor V operation.
	His name was Sinhalite, and aside from being Zoicite's understudy, he was
a right bastard.
	Anyway, I recognized him as one of the gwakers who came to watch me get
my ass kicked by the best, and after practice he approaches me.
	"You.  Wannabe."  He announces his presence - and the desire to talk -
with the same attitude he does everything with: effiminet, refined, arrogance.
	Pissed me off immediately.  Did I mention my temper had already gone to
beyond frayed?
	"Get lost looser." I had to fight to keep my voice pitched to within 'non-
deadly insult' range, but I managed.
	"Excuse me?"  I'd never heard that phrase turned quite so handily into an
insult.   Sinhalite carried it off with the ease of long standing, and an
implication that I had better not use that tone of voice around him.    Of
course, being a contrary
sort, I used a worse one instead.	
	"Youma who cannot even manage to keep their whole party alive when
confronting a foe *four on one* have no place calling their savior a
'wannabe'.   If it
wasn't for me your ashes would be floating on the breeze courtesy Sailor V.  
Therefore I suggest you put a bit more *respect* into your voice when you
speak to
your betters."  I really enjoyed saying that.  I enjoyed the look on his
face even
more.   In fact I enjoyed it so much I must say that I don't regret the
consequences
one bit.  Besides, it was good propaganda- the unaffilated humaics and
swordweilding monsters watching would carry the story throughout the dark
kingdom.  
	It almost got me backhanded across the room, too.  Sinhalite (henceforth
dubbed 'Sinny') looked rather startled when I managed to get out of the way;  I
found out later that he's supposedly the second fastest of the other
humanics and
hence, used to connecting with what he swings at as a result.
	To bad for Sinny I'm faster than anyone short of Kunzite.  Maybe even a
little faster than Kunzite - I survived swordsmanship practice with
suprising ease
for some one with no experience. 
	In any event, I'm definitely faster than this refuge from the bad taste
club, and the fist he sent towards my face only came close to me.
	"Dear me.  I believe I hit a nerve."  Truth?  I find it really easy to get
wrapped up in my 'bad guy' routine.  I certainly did this time - didn't even
notice the rest of the gang of ten (soon to be the gang of six-the next
week, Sailor V wouldn't be kind to them-though perhaps they were taking more
risks.) sneaking up to me.
	What followed was an extended and highly painful forum on manners,
interrupted only by lord Nephrite coming to test my powers 'for the record'.

	I might as well say a few words at this time, about my fellow youma.
	Now, for obvious reasons, most of these observations don't apply well to me -
I'm a transformed individual like the generals themselves, and not a
descendant of the
original Atlanteans - but in the main there are n types of Youma's .
	The most common type arn't really Youma in the way Beryl and the generals
mean it - really, they're just monsters - but the sailor crowd would
probably mistake them for members of the last Atlantean army, anyhow.
Honestly, I think they are the magic twisted descendants of the native
wildlife - mostly because they're to dumb to be related to humans in any
way.   For they most part they're either: A big, B dumb, and C really
dangerous because they're totally vicious and rabid, or A small, B smart,
for animals, and C really dangerous because they have minor magic powers and
the nature of a stalking predator.  Both types are very bad news.  The
larger ones tend to travel in packs, the smaller ones in pairs, and all of
them eat other youmas.
	Err - people too, I suppose.  Don't try domesticating them.  Bad idea.
	The next step up are the common youma - these are the humanoid monsters. 
They're human-smart, violent, and not (usually) educated, though there is a
suprising
literacy rate - possible because Beryl is as vain as all hell, and wants
them to be able to read about her glories in those godauful books she has
written about her former glory.
        Most have minimal magic powers - things like illusion, minor
shapeshifting or disguise, sensing, and energy leaching that are standard
youma tricks - but some, like that gang of total psychopaths Zoicyte trained
- I believe they called themselves the doom and gloom girls - are real ass
kickers, with theme based powers that can be used for a variety of stuff.
Like the one of them that could actually make plants grow in the dark
kingdom (an impressive talent.  Most of our vegetation tends to be ferns or
fungus because of the lighting problem).
Often they're not really that loyal to Beryl - more like afraid of her.
Most of them arn't even in the army, although the mortality rate amongst the
ones that aren't is astounding.
	This is what the average citizen of the dark kingdom becomes when they grow
up - they're actually born human-like (uniformly so) and begin changing
around six years
old -by the time they hit puberty (around ten) the usually don't look very
human.  I've
never met anyone dissatisfied with their change, so there must be  some
psychological
influences that determine what you become.
	The next level up is the tiny population of humanics, like the dark circle.
They're the exception that proves the rule, because while the other youma
are changing, they usually don't - or at least, don't change much.  Many so
called 'humanics' are actually pretty far from human, on a closer
inspection, but, if you can pass a first glance test without glamor(what
they called illusion-powers), you get a very big advantage - automatic
membership in Beryl's army.
	All the humanics have fairly potent powers - usually three or more, including
basic teleporting, and unlike the lower -class youma, humanic's powers often
aren't
unified by a common theme.
That said, humanics are usually the worst of the lot.  'Evil' comes closest
to describing their usual bent.  I attribute this to the fact that there are
almost no female humanics - strike that.
	There are almost no *surviving* female humanics.  Beryl gets jellous very
easily
- and the punishment for threatening Beryl's position as 'most
beautiful/skilled/whatever' is usually death.   Or at least horrible
disfigurement.   (One lady humanic I met - Cassiterite - escaped this fate
in a rather..unique(and gruesome) way: she was possessed of a regeneration
power, and, as a precaution, tore off the left half of her face
occasionally.  The resultant scarring would last about a week, and kept
Beryl from seeing her as a rival.  Her sisters, however, were not so
lucky-or perhaps, not so ruthless.)
	Actually, humanics tend to be vicious because they are trained from their
identification as such to be the 'nobles' of the dark kingdom. Trained by
Beryl's private staff of tutors, Beryl, and the generals, that is.  Of
course, such 'identification' is tricky - there are quite a few non-humanics
who were 'picked' but simply turned out to be late bloomers.   (As,
reportedly, the doom and gloom girls were.)
	The last type of youma are the transformed.  
	This is a vanishingly small category, and with one exception, consists almost
exclusively of millennia old immortal youma - Some of Beryl's original
troops who, upon
the transformation that struck them when they were imprisoned with Metilla's
insenseate
form, acquired some resistance to age.  It includes the generals, a few
officers and
bureaucrats who haven't tried Beryl's patience yet, the child-like 'Sensi'
who police the lesser youma for Beryl(repudatedly created by Beryl from
children), Beryl herself and me.  All are Humanics - there are immortal
monster-type youmas, but no transformed had ever shown a 'monster form',
until the rainbow crystal incident - and that turned out to be temporary.   
But I'm getting ahead of myself.

	After Nephrite turned my mind inside out testing me for powers, and offered to
teach me a few more tricks of magic, it was time for me to be given my
assignment.
	Everybody had to be busy, we were in a war of sorts, after all.
	Given that I was one of those rare youma who could teleport himself out of the
dark kingdom with no assistance, I was put to permanent Sailor-watch,
helping Jadeite.
	Jadeite immediately told me to be on the lookout for the Senshi, and warn
him of
their approach.  Oh, and I'd be the one delivering energy to Beryl for him.
	It was obvious that he still didn't believe that I knew their identities,
which was fine by me; However, I figured that it would be best if I kept an
eye on them anyhow. 
	That being said my course of action was clear: I was going back to highschool.
	By myself in a school frequented by four of the most powerfull creatures on
the planet, with no possibility of backup and a strong possibility that at
least one of them could sense me.
Oh, this would be fun.
Not.
Gamlain@pop.softhome.net
Gamlain, Transuniversal courier
Wildfire, teleport nonperil
Hero for rent.
"So then I shot a goon and I cut the head man's throat, and after that
things got violent." - Tarnkep Protree
"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."-
Hickeys coralary.