Well, I�ve finally restarted "Operation: Lightsphere", after taking a bit of
a break from it.  BTW, since Warhammer�s left the list, if there�s anybody
else who wants to MST the story, then please do so.

As usual, any & all C&C NEEDED.

BTW, I will be putting a few cameos in this chapter, so spot them if you can
(hint: Two are from anime series, one is not.)


*************************
OPERATION: LIGHTSPHERE

An Iczer/Teknoman crossover fanfic by Andrew Dynon

PHASE TWO -
CHAPTER 4:  "FIFTY-FIFTY"
*************************

The bleak, icy surroundings of Alaska provided appropriate surroundings for
the base that was located there, almost undetectable among the snow.  If
Ringo hadn�t known what to look for, the Space Knights could have flown
straight over the top of it and never have known.  But he did, and they had
landed at the coordinates Jamison had directed them to come to.  The group
of Blade, Ringo, Star, Mac, Maggie and Tina, all of them wrapped in
cold-weather clothing, walked along the corridor, joining with the Space
Knights from the Asian base part of the way along.  The groups hardly talked
to one another, not due to animosity, but because of a mutual concern over
the reason they had been brought to this place, which seemed to be expressed
better by silence than words.

Soon after the two groups had met each other, Jamison appeared, seeming to
be composed as usual.  He spoke to the Space Knights in his usual composed
manner.

"I presume that you�re wondering why I sent for you, and it will be revealed
shortly.  Come with me, please."

The group followed Jamison to the end of the hallway, where a door slid
open, revealing a very large room with a great deal of complex equipment
inside.  Blade�s eyes shot wide open as he saw the object in the center of
the room� the alien, spherical, organic-looking mass of a Teknopod.

"Commander, what�" Star began, but Jamison glanced at her and she fell
silent.  The Space Knights� commander then spoke.

"Blade, there�s something that you need to know.  We�ve been monitoring you,
and it has been discovered that your transformations are taking a heavy toll
on your cellular structure."

"Commander, what does that mean?" Star asked, with a worried look on her face.

"It means, Star, that Blade�s body is degenerating rapidly.  So long as he
doesn�t transform, he may recover, but if he does, the effect on his body
could be disastrous."  As Jamison made this statement, all eyes shifted
toward Blade.

"Maybe it will, be, commander�" Blade said, with a glint of determination in
his eyes, "Bit I am NOT gonna sit around doing nothing while everyone else
is fighting!  Especially not with Saber able to run wild whenever he feels
like it."

"Which brings me to the other thing that our research has discovered."
Jamison said.  "We�ve been looking into Saber�s recent power increase, and
we believe that we can attempt to use the teknopod we�ve recovered to
replicate it in Blade.  If Blade is willing to go through with the process,
then assuming he survives the initial energy feed, the process should at
least temporarily halt his body�s degeneration.  However�" he briefly
paused, "we�re not sure what the long-term effects will be."

"Hold on�" Ringo said warily, "what do you mean *if* he survives?"

"I can�t guarantee that the process will be successful.  With Blade�s
cellular structure as it currently is, we estimate that the chance of
success will be approximately fifty per cent."

"Fifty-fifty, huh?" Blade asked.  "If there�s a chance I�ll be able to take
on Saber, then I�m willing to take those odds."

Ringo�s gaze shifted to Blade, then back to Jamison, whom he looked at with
anger.

"I can�t believe you!" he shouted.  "You�re not just risking Blade�s life,
you�re playing him like a violin!"  As Ringo yelled at the commander, Tina
begged him to stop, but the blond pilot seemed oblivious. "He may be nothing
but a means to an end for you, but to the rest of us he�s a friend!  Are you
able to understand that?"

Jamison pushed the visor he was wearing up to the bridge of his nose.

"Ringo, I am neither forcing nor attempting to manipulate Blade into making
a decision about this.  I am simply informing him of his options."

Blade thought for a couple of seconds, and then spoke.

"I�ll do it."

"Blade, you can�t�" Star begged, looking pleadingly at him, but Blade didn�t
return her gaze.

"If this works, I�ll be able to take out Saber� and Darkon.  If it doesn�t,
or if I don�t go through with it, then� well, then I suppose it�s just a
matter of time before we�re all gone anyway."

*	*	*	*	*

ISHUA

	Lightning flashed and torrential rain poured in the dead of night near
Karura castle, but the storm seemed a mere shadow of the battle that raged
there.  The Rhadam forces, having been beaten back since Iczer-1�s arrival,
had decided to launch a final, all-out assault on the stronghold of the
Ishuans, who were defending themselves as best they could.  

Ishua�s Iczelions and generals attempted to maintain a defensive perimeter
around the castle, rebuilt only two generations ago after being destroyed in
the Kthulu invasion of the planet - recent enough for them to be desperate
not to allow it to happen again.  For now, they were holding their own
against the Rhadam�s spider-crabs and Teknomen, but there was a sense that
they were hard-pressed, that they were beginning to falter, and eventually
they would fall�

On a cliff-top not far from where the battle was taking place, a figure clad
in dark armor watched.  The figure seemed taller, more imposing, more
menacing than the Teknomen under his command, and carried a massive
double-bladed scythe.  As a Tekno Warlord, he would normally have observed
battles from a base, but he knew that whose hands the planet ended up in
would be determined by this battle� and, specifically, his duel with the
enemy who was now approaching in a streak of blue light. 

"Tekno Warlord Entropos!" Iczer-1 challenged, her beam sword appearing in
her hand.  "Prepare to die!"

"Unfortunately for you, Iczer-1, the one to die here will be you." Entropos
replied.  He hefted his scythe and flew towards the android, who blocked it
with her beam sword and slammed her left fist into her enemy�s torso.
However, he seemed unaffected by the strike, and flew made another swing.
Iczer-1 flew backward, putting some distance between herself and the Tekno
Warlord, before the two closed in on each other and clashed again, neither
clearly having any advantage over the other.

Iczer-1 parried another of Entropos� attacks, and prepared to repeat the
gain-distance/strike-again pattern that the fight between the two had
followed.  Before she had committed herself to this, however, she noticed an
opening in her enemy�s defense.  She struck with her beam sword, piercing
the TeknoWarlord�s abdomen.  At the same time that she struck, she realised
she had erred.  Entropos� scythe slashed down the left side of her back.  It
wasn�t a deep cut, but the pain and shock was sufficient to cause her to
lose concentration on flying.  She fell to the base of the cliff, and as she
opened her eyes she saw Entropos hovering over her.  Panels on the warlord�s
shoulders, arms, and chest swung open, from which dark-colored energy began
to emnate.

{Iczer-1!!!} Raura�s terrified thoughts entered her mind.  Reaching out with
her mind, Iczer-1 pleaded to the princess.

{Raura� give me� strength!}  Iczer-1 felt energy from Raura�s spirit flow
into her, giving her strength, giving her power.  Her body glowed with
bright blue light, and she let out a yell of triumph as she flew toward her
enemy.  Entropos fired his teknobolt at her, but the dark energy did not
seem to penetrate the light surrounding her.

"Nani� masaka!!" Entropos managed to yell� and then his body shattered into
fragments that were vaporised in the blue glow.

*	*	*	*	*

Darkon stared at the liquid-filled globe that he was feeding energy into,
and at the
silhouette inside it� that of a long-haired, lithe female figure.  He was
surprised at how easily Saber had been able to retrieve the object that the
figure had formed around, and he felt that, somehow, there was some sort of
connection between the two of them.  Exactly what it was, he didn�t know.

	He did know that to activate this being was enormously risky.  In fact, if
it had not been for his masters� orders, he never would have considered it.
On top of this, she had proven to be immune to the mind parasites which had
been implanted into his Teknomen�s brains to ensure their loyalty.  He only
hoped that her obedience could be obtained by other methods� and that his
masters had not made a grievous mistake.

*	*	*	*	*

	"Blade� are you sure about this?" Star asked fearfully.

	"Yes, Star.  I�m sure." The dark-haired young man replied.  Placing his
hands on her shoulders, he continued.  "In around twelve hours, I promise
you that this�ll be over, and I�ll be better than ever." Then he turned away
from her, and toward the Teknobot, which had several power conductors
stretching between it and the Rhadam pod.

	"Pegas, open the interlock chamber."

	<Affirmative.>

	Blade stepped inside, and the back section of Pegas closed.  

	"Maggie, begin the energy feed." Jamison ordered.

	"Beginning energy feed, commander.  Level one� level two� level three�"

	Star stood, staring at Pegas, as if she could make out Blade�s image inside.

*	*	*	*	*
	
As Blade felt the energy from the Rhadam pod surround him, seeming to burn
through his body, he battled to remain conscious.  He instinctively knew
that, if he was to lose consciousness, he would die, his body would be
consumed by the energy.  He had to fight against it, he had to defeat it.
For his friends.  For Star.  For Shara.

	Unbeknownst to Blade, every battle fought on his plane, whether physical,
emotional, or otherwise, had a parallel in another realm.  His
apparently-sleeping astral body lay encased in a glowing bubble of force,
generated by a girl whom he would have noticed looked almost identical to
his cousin Nagisa.  She and three other figures were attempting to defend
the force-sphere, and Blade�s body inside it, from the creatures that were
attacking.

	A monster resembling a huge steel vulture with a gold-hued human skull dove
at Nagisa Kano, preparing to slash at her with its razor-tipped wings and
talons.  Just as it was inches away, a bolt of electricity shot toward it,
and it exploded in a cloud of smoke.  Nagisa gave a quick glance of
acknowledgment to a girl with short red hair who wore a blue-and-white
bodysuit with yellow lightning designs on the shoulders.  The girl fired
another blast at one of the attacking creatures, annihilating it, before a
third dove at her.  She dodged, and a girl with dark brown ponytailed hair
landed a roundhouse kick on its head, sending it crashing downward.  An
explosion rang out as another of the creatures was obliterated, this time by
a bespectacled Chinese girl with purple hair in two braids, carrying a BIG gun. 

	"We got �em!" The Chinese girl yelled in triumph as she saw it explode.

	"Looks like it," responded the one who had fired the lightning bolts.  "but
you�d better get ready, �cause there�s more coming."  As she spoke, a mass
of dark shapes appeared ahead of them.

*	*	*	*	*

	Nagisa shivered, trying to block out the freezing wind that was blowing in
her face.  Iczer-3 had not wanted to stay inside the base for the entire
twelve hours that the process with Blade would take, and, feeling obligated
to take responsibility for her, Nagisa had ventured out with her.  She
stood, her body wrapped in heavy clothing in an attempt to ward off the
bitter chill, watching as the young girl played in the ice and snow.

	"Iczer-3, aren�t you cold?" Nagisa asked, wishing that she was inside, away
from the cold and the wind.  The young Iczer giggled.

	"Aw, no way, Nagisa!  This is fun!"  As soon as she had said this, Iczer-3
stopped, dropped to one knee and fell silent, staring intently at something
Nagisa couldn�t quite make out.

	"Iczer-3, what�"
	
	"Ssshhh�"

	At first, Nagisa couldn�t see anything, but then she caught a glimpse of a
small white blur approaching.  By the time she finally made the shape out,
it was only three or four meters away - a small pup, a crossbreed of the
types of dog originally bred for pulling sleds in these parts, its pure
white fur rendering it almost invisible against the snow.  Iczer-3 stretched
her arms out, and as it leaped into them she yelled happily.

	"Wah!  It�s so kawaii!!"

	Nagisa smiled and stroked the puppy�s fur.  Maybe, she thought, it was good
that Iczer-3 had brought her out here� because it had shown her that, even
in these inhospitable wastes, beautiful things could be found.

*	*	*	*	*

	A blaze of green light surrounded Shara as she flew toward the yellow star
which her homeworld orbited around.  As she raced through the eternal void,
her mind reached out to her older brother, Nick.  She didn�t know whether
she would be able to reach him from this distance, but whether she could or
not, she was determined to try.

	"Nick, I�m coming home.  I�m coming home to stay."

*	*	*	*	*

	"Do you think it succeeded, commander?"

	"We�re about to find out, Mac.  One way or another." Jamison replied.
Everyone was now back in the room where the experiment was taking place, and
watched with a mixture of anticipation and dread as Pegas� interlock chamber
swung open.

	Blade�s Teknoman form had become, like Saber�s, more angled, and seeming
larger and more imposing.  Almost as soon as the interlock chamber had
opened, the armor faded, and ha collapsed out of the chamber, exhausted,
naked� but alive.  Star rushed towards him.

	"Blade, are you all right?"

	"Star�"  Blade said, looking into her eyes. "I�m still here."

*	*	*	*	*

	"Saber�" A feminine voice called softly, and Blade�s twin brother
approached Darkon�s chamber, where the liquid-filled globe Darkon had been
channeling energy into was.  The speaker was a woman with long red hair and
pointy ears, clad in a blue bodysuit.  As he entered the chamber, the woman
spoke.

	"Ah, now we finally see each other face to face.  I�m Iczer-2."

	"You were� what Master Darkon ordered me to bring to him?"

	"And I chose to come to you then, Saber� because I sensed that you were
similar, in some ways, to myself."  She put her hand on his shoulder, and
smiled evilly.

	"I have a feeling we�ll get on *very* well."

END PHASE TWO, CHAPTER FOUR

**********

Well, finally, Lightsphere is Back!  ^_^

Okay, did anyone NOT catch the Gendou reference?  BTW, I wasn�t making a
direct comparison, it was just a plot device to heighten the tension.

Okay, cameo spotting.  The Chinese girl was Ri Kohran from _Sakura Wars_,
and the martial artist was Natsuki Kisumi, the star of _Natsuki Crisis_, a
cool martial arts OVA that is not nearly as well-known as it deserves.  It
has been fansubbed, but I don�t know who by.  I may be writing a
Ranma/Natsuki Crisis crossover sometime.  The non-anime character who got a
cameo was Ayla Ranzz, a.k.a. Spark, from Legion of Super Heroes, which in
recent months has become my favourite non-manga comic title.

Ah, yes, the puppy.  For those with low kawaii tolerance levels, you�ll be
happy to know that it won�t be making any more appearances - I simply put
that scene in to give Iczer-3 some airtime (or whatever), and also add a bit
of WAFF and break the tension a little.  Of course, if I get a heap of
E-Mails from people telling me they want more of it�

Finally, a status report:  As well as Operation: Lightsphere, I am also
writing a two-part Ranma fic, the first part of which is approximately
two-thirds complete.  Hopefully, I�ll have it posted by the end of the week
(posting two fics in a week?  I think that�s a record for me ^_^;;).  After
that, I hope to get straight on with Phase 2 Chapter 5.

The Iczer Series, Tekkaman Blade/Teknoman, and all characters therein are
the property of their creators, production companies, and translators.  No
disrespect intended.

NEXT CHAPTER:  "When I Descend�", Part 1 of 2.  The Rhadam�s spore plants
are beginning to bloom, and the Space Knights launch a desperate, all-out
assault on Darkon!  Enough said.    
_______________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Dynon

"You're only young once, but you can be immature any day."
	- The Coodabeen Champions

ALL THE PARANOID PEOPLE ARE OUT TO GET ME.