A few weeks after the conclusion of the Jinnai/Bugrom attacks against
the Alliance and Floristica, a large repository of old El-Hazard
technology was discovered in a hidden room inside the palace.  Makoto,
the discoverer, had been idly brooding through the halls over the loss
of Ifurita when he accidentally interacted with one of the larger
murals and found it to be a key to the repository.  The amount of
useful technology that came from that discovery was immeasurable, and
even better for the sanity of those around him, it gave Makoto
something to think about aside from Ifurita.

	Now, as Makoto suited up with some of the technology that he
discovered, he found himself lacking again, as if lost without a
purpose.  The technology had been a nice distraction but it didn't last
very long, and even now, as he prepared for the possibility of battle,
he couldn't get his mind off of it.

	"Come on, Makoto," yelled Fujisawa-sensei from outside in the hall. 
"We're leaving!"

	"I'm coming!" Makoto yelled back as he quickly scanned through the
pile of goods before and pulled out a simple arm brace and affixed it
to his elbow and wrist.  Ura made a sound of approval from his shoulder
and Makoto gave him a hollow smile as he headed out the door.

	"You're all I'll ever need, Ura," Makoto said as he walked.  "There
may be more protective armor in there, but none of it can keep me
company like you can.

	Ura once again made a sound of approval and a disjointed smile. 
Makoto laughed.

	He saw Fujisawa and Shayla-Shayla impatiently waiting aboard the ship
he was going to take to the edge of the Roshtarian Forest.  When they
saw him coming, Shayla stopped in mid step and his former teacher
started jumping up and down.

	"What are you waiting for?!" he almost wined.  "An engraved
invitation? Lets go, already!

	"I'm coming, Mr. Fujisawa!" Makoto answered as he turned to the short
gathering of people to the side of the landing pad.  Rune Venus,
Natsumi, Alielle, and Londs were in a short line and glancing between
the ship and it's crew and Makoto.  He approached Rune Venus first.  "I
suppose we're leaving now, Princess."

	"Take care of yourselves," Rune said kindly.  "If you run into Bugrom,
contact us immediately, same goes for any of the Phantom Tribe, you
don't need to take them on single handily."

	"Well, I think I have more than enough firepower," Makoto admitted
sheepishly.  "But I'll try to keep them safe too.  You'll hear if there
is any trouble."

	"Thank you," Rune smiled and bowed her head towards him.  He returned
the gesture before turning towards the ship and walking up it's
gangplank.

	"Good luck!" Makoto heard Natsumi say as he go on deck.  He turned and
waved as the board automatically retracted itself and sealed the hole
in the railing.

	The ship lurched forward causing him to lose his balance momentarily,
but he managed to grab the railing before falling down.  When the ride
smoothed out, he turned towards the bow and moved to look out in front
of the ship.

	Natsumi could just barely see Makoto's figure moving away from the
railing as the ship sped away.  She sighed and hoped that Shayla-Shayla
would keep to herself but somehow, she expected her not to.  Natsumi
clutched her fist and forced herself to look down from the ship and
into the lowered courtyard beneath.

	As she scanned over the green, she noticed a strange hole in the
greenery hedge along the east side of the yard.  She had to blink a few
times before she convinced herself enough to point it out to everyone
else.  Strangely, they had a harder time seeing it than she did.

                                  -*-

                       Tempest Creations Presents

                     The End of the Full Circle Saga

                             ENDLESS NIGHTS

                        By Adam Christopher Leigh

                           Based On "El-Hazard"
               Created by Hiroki Hayashi and Ryoe Tsukimura

                                PART II

                                  -*-

	Katsuhito Jinnai stood before the large obsidian monolith that was
previously the location of some sort of electrical storm, at least
according to his Bugrom informants.  No matter what the means, he was
positive that the rather large spike in the forest had been there the
last time he'd been through these parts.

	"What is it?" Jinnai asked to the Bugrom standing behind him.  A
couple voiced their speculations.  "I don't think it's an eruption, it
wouldn't have solidified this way if it had, and I don't think it's an
Alliance marker either, Margaret."  The Bugrom named Groucho said
something in Jinnai's ear.  "That's the stupidest thing I've ever
heard!" Jinnai immediately said shaking his head.  "Stop making stupid
suggestions and start searching the area, it could be some alien
spaceship or something I can use as a weapon against the Alliance."

	The Bugrom fanned out as Jinnai took a few steps closer and touched
the smooth black surface.  It felt cold to the touch, but there was
something else, below his hand that he could almost sense.  Sliding his
hand along the surface left a multicolored path behind that faded after
a few seconds.  "What are you?" he whispered to the icy rock.

	The grunt of a Bugrom was heard and broke Jinnai from his spell as he
jerked his head in the direction of the sound.  Running to the other
side of the monolith, he came to a group of Bugrom looking at a spot on
the rock.  "What have you found?" he asked impatiently.  The all
pointed towards the stone.

	Sticking out of the blackness was a black colored sleeve from a blazer
of some sort.  Jinnai rose a curious eyebrow as he leaned forward and
tugged on the piece of cloth.  It gave and pulled out a few inches
before Jinnai let of it and it fell against the rock again.  Squinting
his eyes in skepticism, he motioned for Groucho to pull on it.

	The loyal Bugrom lumbered closer to the stone and took a firm grip on
the black knit, and pulled.  The sleeve gave for about an inch or so
before the rock surrounding the area is was sticking out of began to
change color, randomly skipping through the spectrum eventually
becoming a multicolored wave that rippled through the rock.  Groucho
stepped back from the stone, letting go of the cloth, when a hand
suddenly reached out from sleeve buried in the apparently solid stone
and grabbed the Bugrom.  As the frightened bug panicked and tried to
run away, he pulled the arm, and the body attached to it, out of the
stone landing with a heavy thud when he was completely out.

	The suited body on the ground was male, appearing to be in his mid
twenties, and was currently having dry heaves as he forced air back
into his lungs.  After a minute he settled on a steady cycle of
breathing and looked up at Jinnai with his dark brown eyes past his
sweat drenched brow.  Pulling his mid length brown hair from his face
with a quick gesture of his hand, he opened his mouth and spoke.

	"What happened?" His voice was coarse and he cleared his throat as if
to dislodge something caught in his windpipe.

	Jinnai looked down in silence for a moment before an evil grin
appeared on his face and he reached down to give the man a hand.  "The
name's Katsuhiko Jinnai, the President of Shininome High School."

	The man looked between the uneasy grin on Jinnai's face and his
outstretched hand.  He chose to try to remain on this man's good side
rather than look rude and took the hand.  Pulling himself to his feet,
making little use of Jinnai as a counterbalance, he tugged on the edge
of his tattered blazer to try to appear a bit more professional than he
did.

	"I'm ..." the man trailed off and thought for a few moments.  "Adam,
Adam Leigh."  He looked around at the dense forest about and
double-taked at the large monolith that he assumed he was just
imprisoned in.  "Where the hell am I?"

	"These are the forests outside of Floristica," Jinnai said keeping the
same sadistic looking grin on his face.  "The capital of the Roshtarian
Empire.  From your appearance, I assume you're not from around here so
I'd like to be the first to welcome you to the world of El-Hazard."

	Adam raised a hand to his chin and rubbed his stubble.  "I believe I
asked this before, but I'll do so again for further clarification. 
What happened?"

	Jinnai motioned to the large monolith behind Adam.  "This rock is
rather unusual, I've never come across anything like it on Earth, of
course I haven't been there in a while.  What is it?"

	Adam stared plainly at Jinnai.  "I don't like being fucked around
with, Mister, what happened?"

	"I'm sure you know more than I," Jinnai said walking closer to the
rock.

	"Try me," was the flat reply.

	"You've crossed the interdimensional boundary between Earth and
El-Hazard," Jinnai said pacing around the monolith again.  "A rather
frequent occurrence as of late, I must say.  Now that's all that I
know, what I would like to know from you now, is by what means you got
here."

	"A parallel Earth?" Adam said raising an eyebrow.  "I don't see how
that could have happened, unless Pluto is up to her goddamned tricks
again ... wait, did you say Shininome High School?  I think that's
where I was, but it looked like it had been abandoned years ago. 
Actually, it must have been since it obviously couldn't have passed
2026 building codes after the Kanto Earthquake.  That means I must have
passed through a time influx as well.  Shit, Pluto is going to have a
field day with this one, especially since ..."

	Jinnai looked back towards Adam to see he had stopped in mid sentence
and was currently moving his eyes around like crazy.  Looking towards
his Bugrom, they returned similar confused look about what the man was
doing.  Suddenly the man spun on his foot and leaped into the air only
to land in a pile a few feet away.  Jinnai moved over to the man as he
picked himself off the ground and stared into his now dirty hands.

	He spoke as if in utter disbelief.  "Where the hell am I?  What
happened to Pluto, how could I be cut off from her?  My power, what
happened to my power?!"  Jinnai took a step back as the man leaped to
his feet and started moving around in a panicked rage.  "Damn you
Pluto! What the fuck have you done to me this time?!"  He slammed his
fist into a nearby tree breaking the skin on his knuckles and spilling
blood down his arm and up his sleeve.

	Jinnai hadn't time to even inquire as streak of red flew past his brow
and exploded in the center of a group of observer Bugrom.  Debris and
bugs went flying, as well as tossing Adam into a tree managing to catch
the edge of the blast.  Katsuhiko jumped back and looked for the source
of the excitement just in time to dodge a second fireball being thrown
at him.

	"Stop moving you vile leader of bugs!" a female voice came from the
source of the shot.  Shayla-Shayla ran towards them as Jinnai jumped
behind the monolith and cursed inwardly.

	The third and fourth shots from Shayla almost completely drowned out
his voice but he managed to yell out, "We got what we came for,
retreat!"  Jinnai ducked down low, as if preparing for the start of the
500 meter runs he used to do at Shininome.  Taking a deep breath in he
dashed across the open area between the monolith and the trees barely
running fast enough to dodge Shayla's shots.  Leaping at the last
moment, he landed inside the cover of the forest to find Adam's
unconscious form beside him.  Cursing the incompetent Bugrom, he picked
up the body and began running through the forest as fast as he could.

                                  -*-

	"Shayla-Shayla!" Makoto said finally reaching the battle area. 
"What's going on?"  He quickly looked around to see a very small
clearing around a large black stone, with several score marks on the
ground and in the trees.

	"That viper Jinnai and his Bugrom lackeys were here," Shayla said
dusting some unseen dirt off of herself.

	Fujisawa-sensei looked around as well.  "Hmm.. did you get them?" he
said half jokingly.

	"I got a bunch of them with my first shot," she said placing her hands
on her hips.  "But Jinnai and a couple Bugrom got away, along with some
guy in a black outfit like yours," she pointed to Makoto's suit.

	"Another person from the school?" Fujisawa asked.

	"He was older than Makoto," Shayla supplied.  "Could be around your
age, Fujisawa-sensei."

	"A teacher, perhaps?" said Makoto.

	"Hmm," Mister Fujisawa mused. "Another human could mean another person
with superhuman powers."

	"And that spells trouble if he's working for Jinnai," Makoto added.

	"Which way did they go?" Fujisawa said.

	"I lost them in the Forest, but I assume they're returning to their
side of the Holy River of God.  What brought them out here was probably
the same thing that brought us out here: the storm."

	"Lets head back to the ship," said Makoto.  "We can fly over the
forest and see if we can get them from above."

	"Good idea," Fujisawa-sensei agreed and motioned back through the
forest.  "We'll have to hurry to catch up with them when we get back to
the ship, so come on, double time."  He started jogging back through
the forest as Shayla followed with a bemused look on her face.

	Makoto looked at the large monolith for a second and tilted his head. 
"Strange," he murmured to himself before turning and running back after
Mr. Fujisawa.

	When he was gone, the large stone rippled with a multicolored light
for a second before returning to it's pitch black color.

                                  -*-

	Nanami and Afura Mann stood in the east yard staring at a particularly
uninteresting section of hedging.  It seemed like the rest of the hedge
that surrounded the yard, light green in color due to the millions of
tiny leaves growing off the thick branched bush beneath, but Nanami
insisted that it was different.

	"What are we looking for?" Afura Mann asked, still straining to see
what Nanami claimed was before her.

	"I told you already," Nanami said in an angered tone.  "There's a door
right here in the hedge, and it leads to a downwards staircase."  Afura
looked again and shrugged.  Nanami sighed and placed her hands to her
hips.  "Just look already!" she exclaimed as she strode into the bush
and disappeared.

	The leaves didn't even move as they ate up Nanami's body, and didn't
fluctuate in the slightest when she stuck her head back out again. 
"See?" she said.  "No bush, just door?"

	Afura rolled her eyes and walked over to the hedge and pushed it back
in before following herself.  When she emerged from the paper thin
illusion before the door she was faced with a short hallway leading to
a staircase going down just as Natsumi said.  The whole place was being
lit by some unnatural light however that made Afura's skin crawl.

	"It must be one of the entrances into the Phantom Tribe's underground
habitats," Afura said looking around with a disgusted look.

	"Rune Venus tried to get these places flushed out after the Eye of God
was resealed but she only ever found one.  She assumed that the rest
were destroyed or didn't exist.  Apparently, she was wrong."

	"Well this proves that the Phantom Tribe was in possession of
technology that could create standing illusions and not doing all the
work themselves."  Afura started walking down the tunnel.  "Princess
Rune didn't know that."

	Nanami walked beside Afura down the tunnel and staircase coming to a
moderate sized room furnished like a lounge area.  Oddly shaped benches
and chairs adorned the room along with the occasional large pillow. 
"Well, it looks like they weren't totally militant," Afura commented as
she walked across the room, managing to push aside the creepy feeling
she was getting to walk confidently.

	"They certainly could learn something about style though," Nanami said
examining one of the benches.  She looked back to Afura just as she was
reaching for a door on one of the walls.  Nanami blinked as she looked
ahead of Afura.  "Look out!" she yelled suddenly, running over to a
startled Afrua.

	"What?" she replied in a frozen stance.

	Nanami walked beside her and pointed at the floor just in front of the
door.  "The floor is missing, looks like it goes pretty deep too."

	"They trapped their own living quarters?" Afura said in disbelief. 
"Forget it, they ARE totally militant."

	Natsumi stood to the side and swung the door open and leaped over the
hole under the door.  She landed in a darkened room that seemed pretty
large in size since the light didn't reach as far as the walls ... if
there ever was wall in this black room.  Afura landed beside her and
looked around.

	"An abyss," she commented.  Natsumi started walking into the room, her
head darting around for anything her keen, and magically enabled, eyes
could pick up.  It wasn't long before they descended upon the rather
large metallic device sitting about twenty meters into the room.  It
wasn't covered by an illusion this time, it was sitting there, plain as
day, with a sliver of light accenting it.

	"I've seen this before," Afura Mann said as she saw what Natsumi had
discovered.  "On top of the Stairway, where the Phantom Tribe had been
trying to use Fatora to activate the Eye of God."

	Natsumi stepped closer to the device and skimmed her eyes over the
surface of the device.  To her surprise, it activated itself as if to
acknowledge her presence, and displayed a color holographic text window
asking to place the initial subject in scanning arena.

	Afura stood behind Natsumi and scanned the text window, it's cryptic
message displayed in some language that wasn't normally used on
El-Hazard.  "I wonder what it says," she mused.

	Natsumi looked to Afura suddenly and stared in disbelief.  "You can't
read that?" she asked.

	Raising an eyebrow she replied, "No, can you?"

	"Of course, it looks like all the other writings I've seen around
here."

	"It must be another Phantom Tribe trick," Afura concluded.  "So that
only they can use their equipment."  She paused for a second.  "What
does it say?"

	"It says to put somebody in the machine."

	"Why?"

	"Doesn't say."

	Afura looked at the machine nervously then glanced at the darkness
around them.  "I think this is enough exploring, we should get Doctor
Schtalubaugh or someone with more experience in technology to look at
this."

	"Yeah," Nanami said, studying the complex display that only her
magically enhanced eyes could see.  "You might be right."  She
reluctantly turned and walked with a hastened Afura back into the
darkness.  The machine shut itself down with a soft purr when she was a
few feet away.

                                  -*-

	Adam slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by a textured ceiling lit
by a soft orange light off to his left.  He was laying on something
hard and cold, probably a rock judging by the cave-like ceiling above
him, and covered by a shawl of some sort.  Sent to the dark ages? he
thought.  Pluto must be having trouble with a caveman this time.

	He turned his head to find the source of the orange light, predicting
it to be a dwindling fire.  He was wrong.  The large kiosk of lights
and crystal was far from a fire, and far from what he expected to see
in the primitive surroundings he thought himself to be.

	The man in the suit, his mind recalled.  Jinnai was his name?  Was
that a dream or have I really been transported to another dimension?  

	He reached out with his mind to try to calculate how long he'd been
unconscious for only to discover he couldn't feel Pluto's timestaff. 
Even worse, he couldn't sense the threads of time as they spun
themselves into the present, the power behind Pluto.

	His mind reeled in the sudden lack of awareness. Pluto, his mind
desperately called.  Pluto, show yourself.  Talk to me, show me what's
wrong.  Why am I here?  PLUTO!

	His calls were answered by piercing footsteps approaching him.  His
eyes focused on a young man wearing a blue suit, heavily wrinkled and
dirt stained, walking confidently with a smile on his face.  Adam knew
enough evil individuals to know they always seem to welcome strangers
with a broad smile and firm handshake.  He'd seen the smile, he
wondered about the handshake.

	"Ahh, you're awake," the approaching man said.  "I was worried
something bad might have happened during your transfer."

	"Unprecedented," Adam heard himself responding.  "Every
trans-dimensional being I've encountered has suffered negligible side
effects from the trip."  That wasn't totally a lie.  Quinn and his
Sliders never did contract anything from coming to MegaTokyo, but he
did tell Adam that he'd seen other Sliders that had gotten sick from
other dimensions.

	"Well, things work differently in this dimension," Jinnai said sitting
on a rock beside Adam.  "All travelers from Earth acquire an
extraordinary skill by coming to El-Hazard.  I myself have learned the
ability to talk to Bugrom, the once dominant race on this world.  I
know others which have gained supernatural strength or the ability to
interface with machines just by touching them."

	Native speech, Adam thought, is a 'carryover effect,' a term Quinn and
I created a few years back when we were experimenting with the Sliding
technology.  If they all are suffering from carryover effects, it means
that they are caught between dimensions, keeping a slight tendril of
themselves in Earth while the rest of them are in El-Hazard.  If
everyone arrives this way, it might mean this is an unformed dimension,
which would explain why I can't sense Pluto or the timestream and why
everyone has super powers.  Now I know what's wrong, what the hell do I
do with that information.

	"I'd much like to know what ability YOU have gained," Jinnai
continued.  "You are from Earth, are you not?  And by coming here, you
must have gotten the ability to do something.  So, why don't we figure
it out."

	Adam looked into Jinnai's eyes strangely, as if trying to decide
whether he saw a human or a jackal behind them.  He knew now why he had
been so nice to him, he wanted to know what sort of asset he had
discovered, but he couldn't decide whether he was on the good side or
the evil side of whatever conflict he was facing.

	If there even was a 'good' or 'evil' side.

	If there even was a conflict.

	Adam swallowed.  Something would have to be shown to this man, good or
bad, before he would be content.  Perusing his normal abilities, he
decided that attempting to generate his energy sword would satisfy the
man's curiosity.  He should still be able to create it, even after
crossing dimensions, even after twenty years of not using it, since it
wasn't given to him by Pluto, it was acquired after his little
'accident' in Washuu's Lab.

	Of course, he wouldn't have ever been in Washuu's lab if it wasn't for
Pluto, but that thought didn't occur to him.

	Adam closed his eyes as if concentrating hard, giving Jinnai the whole
nine-yards, pretending he had never done it before.  Raising his hand
in front of him, he gave his body the pulse he had given so many times
before to create the high energy photon blade the masu within his body
gave him the ability to do.  The energy would have exploded from his
hand and formed into a glowing purple blade about a meter long with a
shimmering tip if things were normal.

	Things were not normal.

	As he began he felt the difference in power, the way it coursed to
every end of his body instead of his hands, the way it seemed light and
airy unlike the harsh and painful power the sword fed off of.  When he
opened his eyes after the power expelled itself from his body, he was
standing, along with a startled Jinnai, in blackness.  He looked to his
hands to find them lacking a sword but giving off a soft purple glow.

	"What have I done?"  he asked himself in the blackness.  He stepped
backwards only to have his foot strike an invisible rock.  He toppled
backwards and landed hard on large piece of slate covered with a piece
of cloth.  As he fell, the world cascaded around him and the original
cave-like room they were in returned.  Jinnai looked down at Adam then
around at the room and that evil grin returned to his face.

	Adam's masu abilities had vanished, and in place of them, something
new had been created.  The experience actually made him sick to his
stomach, and he gripped his abdomen as the pain suddenly became
piercing.  His world, in a few hours, had turned upside down.  From
cataclysmic MegaTokyo, to prehistoric El-Hazard, from time traveling
super entity, to ... well, what he was now.

	"And illusionist," Jinnai spoke, not noticing the man writhing in pain
at his feet.  Then be began to laugh.  It echoed in Adam's mind as
darkness returned, this time only for him, as he fell into
unconsciousness again.

                                  -*-

	Makoto, Fujisawa-sensei, and Shayla-Shayla were greeted by their usual
band of admirers as their ship entered the port at Floristica.  Miz
quickly glomped onto Fujisawa as Allele, between searching glances for
Fatora, did the same to Shayla.  Makoto, feeling slightly left out of
the bizarre greeting ceremony, silently lumbered over to Princess Rune
Venus and managed a greeting.

	"Where's Nanami and Afura Mann?" he asked after dismissing a couple
general condition questions.

	"They're with Doctor Schtalubaugh," Rune replied.  "They discovered
some empty Phantom Tribe caves beneath Floristica that were filled with
machines of all sorts and have been busy trying to discover what they
do all day."

	"Machinery?" Makoto repeated.

	"Yes," Rune nodded.  "They actually asked that you would come to see
them when you arrived."

	Makoto, eager to know what's been discovered and against talking about
the mission he was just on, readily agreed to go to the caves.  After
Miz and Allele were finished they were all taken down to the East Yard
and into the caves beneath.  They were relatively quiet during the trip
with the exception of a short conversation as they just started.

	"What did you find at the storm site?" Rune had asked.

	"Jinnai is still alive," Makoto responded.

	"Anything else?"

	"Yup."

	After that, they kept quiet until they came across Doctor
Schtalubaugh, Afura Mann, and Nanami milling over an intricate machine
in a dark room deep in the caves beneath Floristica.  After a casual
greeting, Doctor Schtalubaugh began to explain.

	"It appears to be a machine of Phantom Tribe origin," he began.  "The
interface coincides with what we know to be of common Phantom trickery
and it is a great blessing that we have Nanami here to read it." 
Nanami blushed and turned back to the machine.

	"What does it do?" Shayla asked.

	"From what we can discern from the descriptions Nanami has provided,
it appears to have medicinal purposes."

	"Medicinal?" said Fujisawa.

	"Yes," Schtalubaugh agreed.  "The device is a powerful scanning tool
designed to detect anything down to the merest chromosome in a person's
body.  We believe this is how the Phantom Tribe was able to find a way
to use the Eye of God with only Fatora."

	"Well, how does it help in medicine?" asked Makoto.

	"The device can compare previous scans with current and determine
detrimental effects on a body, and, if it detects a health condition
it's discovered before, can determine the proper measures to return the
patient to help or even perform some care itself."

	"Seems pretty advanced," Makoto mused.  "How does it work?"

	Doctor Schtalubaugh looked sheepishly to Afura Mann then to Nanami.

	"We don't know," Nanami finally said.  "I can interpret the controls
but I'm not a scientist and can't figure out what it's telling me when
we put a person in there."

	"But we're working to figure it out," Doctor Schtalubaugh added, then
motioned to the machine.  "Perhaps you'll have better luck, Makoto."

	Makoto looked at the machine and a sudden chill flew down his spine. 
"I'm only able to interface with the old technology of the people who
lived on El-Hazard.  This isn't even from this dimension."

	"Yes, yes, of course," Schtalubaugh said.  "But perhaps you could give
it a try.  Maybe you'll figure out something we haven't."

	Makoto sighed as he looked to everyone for answers and received none. 
"Oh, alright."

                                  -*-

	Jinnai grinned as he stood atop his creation.  He had been beaten in
the past, but he had learned from it.  Now, he was certain to win.  His
mobile base had the ability to avoid anymore shots from the Eye of God,
and even had admirable offensive capabilities if an army were ever to
attack.  This time he couldn't lose, it was fate.  Fate allowed him to
discover the half built fortress, fate allowed him to complete the
design, and fate dumped Adam into his hands, the unwitting factor that
would insure his success.

	Queen Diva walked up behind him carrying a flask and a couple of
glasses.  "This is a marvelous creation, Jinnai," she said, handing him
a glass.  "Everything you touch seems to turn to gold."

	"Yes," Jinnai said confidently.  "The Midas touch, and it will insure
our victory over the Alliance, Roshtaria, even Makoto.  They all will
be destroyed."

	"Hmm," Diva moaned, walking behind Jinnai and placing her head on his
shoulder to reach around and fill his glass.  "Delicious."

	Jinnai grinned evilly as he held up his glass into the thin stream of
light that was falling into the cave.  The light trickled through his
glass, picking up the purplish hue of his wine, before the thin hole in
the cave wall expanded and collapsed as a whole section of the cave
broke away to let in the fading light of the sunset.  The ground
lurched forward as Jinnai started laughing and the Mobile Fortress
Jinnai launched onto the Holy River of God.

	"This marks the end of the Alliance! Ha HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! AH
HAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

	Jinnai's cold laughter echoed throughout the ship and cave, being lost
in the endless tunnels where his voice would forever ring, long after
whatever fate was to come of him was determined.

                         TO BE CONTINUED ...

Author's Notes:

	The incident involving Adam and Washuu's lab occurs in Full Circle
episode 9 and if it hasn't yet, will someday be written.

	Jinnai takes a sidestep out of character for a while, but it's okay,
I'll try to be better in the future.  I still can't figure out how to
write his laugh, it's so unique it's impossible to describe. :)

	"El-Hazard: The Magnificent World" was created by Hiroki Hayashi and
Ryoe Tsukimura and was released in North America by Pioneer
Entertainment International, in association with AIC.  

	"Sliders" was created by Tracy Torme and was originally released to
North America by FOX Television and is now being released by the Sci-Fi
channel, which is owned by the USA Network.  

	"Tenchi Muyou" was created by Hiroshi Negishi, Ryoe Tsukimura, and
Masaki Kajishima, and was released in North America by Pioneer
Entertainment Int., in association with AIC.  While characters and
settings from this and other motion pictures are used, this work is
copyright 1998 by Adam Leigh.

Adam Christopher Leigh                            Omicron@sprynet.com
"Keep your friends close... your enemies, closer." � Deep Throat (Jerry
Hardin), The X-Files Episode #109 - "Fallen Angel"
Tempest Creations - http://dogbert.simplenet.com