Ok, any C&C for this thing would be appreciated; after all, it's only two years
overdue. ^_^
As always, please use the addr in the `Reply-To:'

Craig

----------

        "Oh God; oh God please not yet! Just a little longer; just a little
more!"
        With a low, agonised gasp he forced his cracked and bleeding hands
beneath him and began to push himself upright yet again. It seemed to take an
eternity while pain racked his ruined body and the world spun giddily around
him, yet at last he rocked backwards and surged to his feet with a convulsive
effort. For a moment he teetered, gasping desperately for air, his heart
hammering wildly in his chest while the relentless pounding beat in savage
counterpoint behind his starting, bloodshot eyes. He had long passed the
limits of his endurance but he would not die, not yet. Knowing it was too soon
but desperate to keep moving, he took another faltering step forwards and
almost collapsed once more as another dry, hacking spasm seized him. For a
moment he doubled over, blood splashing on his parched lips as he hacked and
gasped, his face set and grim against the dreadful agony of the hunger and
thirst beyond all the torments any tale of hell could have told. Yet at last
the fit passed and he raised his head once more to the ruinous, shattered
world that surrounded him.
        `Just a little farther.' His thought murmured to him through the
anguish and the pain. `Just a little more, and you can rest at last, rest with
them.'
        Gritting his teeth, fighting back the nausea, he set his will and
began to move once more, while overhead the bloated, ghastly thing that had
once been the sun climbed huge and horrible in the east, wreathed in a blazing
aurora of fire, rising like some lurid vampire of death feasted and satiated
upon the very life-blood of the Earth, surging and waning as with some inner
mockery of breath and heartbeat as it laboured raging and hell-red into the
eastern sky, bringing yet another dreadful dawn to the ruinous wreck of the
world; the last dying star in a dead reality.
        For a moment despite himself he halted once more, transfixed as though
in horrid fascination, staring aghast and helpless as the livid, putrid hell-
light began to cast the ruinous land about him into stark blacks and blood-
reds, the shadows surging, then fleeing swiftly before it as though the very
night itself turned in loathing for this mocking travesty of day and the
promise it could no longer bring, while the lurid, ghastly face leered down in
twisted, hideous delight upon the wreck and ruin it had wrought.
        Shuddering, forcing back the clawing, panic-terror at the memory of
that last dreadful night, he turned from the terrible visage of the ruined sun
and began to move once more, keeping his already smarting eyes fixed upon the
ground before him lest they fail at last before he reached his last home and
the ending of his journey.
        The dreadful day grew swiftly and the geiger counter began to hiss as
the ambient radiation sawed in minutes to a hundred, then a thousand times
that considered death for man or woman as the huge hell-sun beat down
mercilessly through the last remnants of the failing atmosphere, the scent of
ozone and burning growing heavy about him as the very air hissed and writhed
while ion trails blazed in the wake of the death-dealing light of the dying
star.
        Grimacing with a savage sardonic smile, he reached for the now useless
device and pulling it from his pocket, crushed it in his fist and dashed it
with a sudden momentary fury to the ground. It no longer mattered. There was
no longer any need for him to hide out the day in what little shelter he could
find; he was almost at his goal.
        Stumbling on, he passed the ruins of some long-burned rubble that
might once have been the steel and concrete of the mall he and his family used
to frequent, he could not be certain; the city had been scattered and
shattered to its foundations in the final cataclysm.
        Again, his mind turned back to that final terrible night a mere ten
days before, when they had watched in stark, unimaginable terror as the
nothingness had eaten up the stars with impossible swiftness and the very
fabric of reality had faltered and crashed in ruinous fall. It had rolled
towards them in the dead of night, its passage marked by the impossible
flashes and flares followed by blackness that had marked the swift death of
all before it. Then it had reached them, swallowing the outer planets in a
flicker, devouring Mars and lunging hungrily for the moon. It had flared a
brilliant, livid red before exploding in a titanic flash of reality gone
insane. Then it was upon them and all had been cataclysmic ruin, fire and
blazing, searing pain; and when he had awakened he had found that he was
alone, the last living thing on a burned and shattered Earth, a desert world
of ashes and of death.
        Not far now. Through the haze of growing pain he could see the ruins
of his home, the place marked still by the huge cairn of rubble he had built
upon that first day when such things were still within his power, a monument
to all that he had loved, before he had left in search of survivors so that he
might return when he could, when he had still thought that there might yet be
hope. Now he was coming home to rest, and to
        die.
        With a final effort he crawled and clambered his way to the lip of the
crater he had made. Then he was rolling and tumbling to its bottom and a
moment later he was lurching in a last, stumbling run, staggering and reeling
with his last strength to halt at last by the huge flat stone upon which he
had carved words that could still be seen despite the savage cruelty of the
sun and the snarling winds of the broken world.
        "Diana and Eiko." It read simply. "My life; my happiness. Rest gently
here; and wait for me."
        For one last time he stood in reverence, gazing down upon the grave of
his wife and his only child while his shattered body shook with silent
weeping, for no tears could come to his burning eyes. Then at last Kent
Magami, once the mighty man of steel, laid himself down upon the tombstone of
his family and the gentle darkness reached to claim him at last and take from
him his suffering, and his pain.
                                     ** ** **
Dark Chronicles
An anime-Manga Cross-over
                                     ** ** **
Book 1:
Chapter 6:
                                     ** ** **
        Tap tap tap!
        A-ko started, her head turning this way and that as she tried in vain
to pin-point the sudden sharp sound through the wind and driving, relentless
snow while beside her C-ko shivered and huddled closer to her in the near
blackness of middle-night.
        "I'm cold." She complained yet again. "A-ko when can we get inside and
out of the snow?"
        "As soon as I find B-ko's head C-ko; I told you." Answered A-ko
irritably. "Damn her! She was sure she dropped it here somewhere. Why can't
she be more careful; what's the matter with her?"
        With that, she plunged her hands into the snow once more, feeling
around in the darkness in growing frustration for her rival's carelessness
until suddenly her questing hands found something cold and hard.
        "Of course!" She cried in sudden triumph. "It was frozen; that's why I
couldn't find it. B-ko?" She inquired as she lifted the head free. "Are you
alright?"
        But the mouth only opened and closed silently whilst from it the
chattering `tap, tap, tap' came in endless repetitive rhythm, and then she
began to scream.
        With a stifled shriek, A-ko jerked awake, staring wildly into the
darkness for a moment as the wind whipped rain against her window until at
last her hammering heart slowed and she let out a gasping breath, settling
back once more.
        "Just a dream." She sighed softly as she pulled the covers tighter
around her. "But what a dream!"
        She sighed again and shifted, snuggling down under the blankets as the
storm continued unabated and she prepared to go back to sleep. Then abruptly
the sense of something amiss penetrated and suddenly she realised that she
could still hear the urgent, insistent tapping at her window.
        With a start, A-ko flung the covers back and sat up, reaching for the
bed-side lamp just as a flash lit the night and thunder cracked savagely
almost overhead. Startled, A-ko missed the lamp and tumbled headlong to the
floor, uttering a few choice words under her breath as she pulled herself to
her feet and moved swiftly to the window. With a savage jerk she wrenched back
the curtains and stared in amazed disbelief. Ine clung desperately to the sill
with one hand, held from falling it seemed only by what looked like a small
flight-pack settled high on her back. She was shivering violently, drenched
from head to foot, one hand half raised as though to tap again. Her eyes were
red-rimmed and her face was tight with pain.
        "Thank Kami-sama!" She gasped. "I've been trying to wake you for ages!
I heard you could sleep through anything but..."
        She was trying to be quiet but her voice shrilled and A-ko shhed her
urgently.
        "Ine!" She cried, now both alarmed and angry. "What on Earth are you
doing out in this! And what do you think you're doing here! Kami-sama! Have
you any idea what time it is!"
        At the other girl's blank look she glared at her in growing outrage.
"It's nearly one in the morning for Kami's sake!" She all but snarled. "Just
what did you think you were doing?"
        "B-ko and C-ko!" Ine gasped, not seeming to have heard the question.
"They're gone!"
        It was the wrong thing to say. A-ko's eyes blazed with sudden fury and
Ine shrank back, certain for one terrifying moment that the girl would send
her hurtling to the ground.
        "Nonono!" She shrilled, abandoning any pretence at decorum as A-ko's
eyes burned and her face turned the colour of her hair. "It'snotwhatyouthink!
YesB-kodidtrytotakeC-kotothemansionbutohkamisomethinghappened!
Ohpleasesomethingcameandtheyjustdisappearedandwe'vebeenlookingeverywhere!
Ohpleaseyougottahelpus!"
        Abruptly and to A-ko's stupefaction, Ine's composure vanished
altogether and she began to cry, great racking sobs that shook her from head
to foot while she shivered desperately with cold.
"I've been trying to wake you for ten minutes" She choked out at last. "and
the pack's nearly dead and I can't hold on much longer and I'm so cold and it
hurts!"
        For a moment, caught between amazement and towering rage A-ko could
only stare stupidly at her. Then the last part of Ine's statement penetrated
and she reached out, catching the girl easily and pulling her none too gently
over the sill and into the room.
        With a gasp, Ine collapsed limply in her arms, shuddering wildly as
she fought desperately for control.
        "Didn't have time to find something warm!" She gasped faintly as A-ko
closed the window and carried her to a chair.
        She was still furious but it was obvious that Ine was in no fit state
to answer any of the innumerable questions she was tempted to scream at her.
Quickly A-ko slipped the harness from her and dumping the pack, she settled
her in the chair, turning to wrench the blankets from her bed and drop them
around Ine's wildly trembling form.
        "Thanks." The other girl gasped, hugging them fiercely to her while an
unfamiliar gratitude fought with her natural caution and growing alarm.
        A-ko would *not* be pleased when she heard the full tale; still, there
was no point in delaying the inevitable and she needed any help she could
find.
        Fighting her shivering, Ine began: "B-ko only told us tonight. She'd
decided to bring C-ko to the mansion for a few days to...to keep her away from
you I suppose." She faltered as A-ko's face darkened still more, but A-ko said
nothing and after a moment she continued. "Asa and I were to keep watch. She
had called C-ko to her window and had just come out with her when..." Ine
broke off, staring helplessly at her clenched hands as she clutched the
blankets.
        "When?" A-ko demanded, her expression more fiery by the second.
        "Something...something *appeared*!" Ine said helplessly. "I can't
think of any other way to describe it. One moment B-ko was hovering while she
tucked the blanket she'd brought tighter around C-ko; in the next a black hole
seemed to open almost beside them and she...I think it was a she...came out.
We couldn't see much, but it looked like the head of a woman although the body
was..." She shook her head once more. "It screamed and seemed to burst into
flame; then it was clutching for B-ko's throat and pulling them both to the
ground even as it burned. B-ko was fighting and screaming for us to shoot the
thing and then it exploded and she just...disappeared. We thought for a moment
that she might have teleported but she wouldn't have left C-ko. C-ko fell and
Asa and I tried to reach her but we were too far away. Then A-ko I swear C-ko
just fell right through the ground as though it wasn't there. We've searched
everywhere but the Akagiyama sub-system isn't signalling and we can't find any
trace of either of them and... Oh God" She cried suddenly. "I think B-ko might
be dead and C-ko..." She turned suddenly desperate eyes to A-ko, trying
unsuccessfully to dash away the tears. "We didn't know where else to go." She
ended faintly at last. "The starship hotel was out of the question; God knows
the mess they'd make of a search. A-ko, you've got to help us find them!"
        For several seconds A-ko stared at her in numb disbelief, her face
alternating between rage and panic. Rage won at last and she whirled on Ine,
gripping her savagely by the shoulders while she began to shake her furiously
back and forth in time to her words. "When will you ever learn to leave us
alone?" She blazed, glaring balefully into the girl's suddenly terrified face
while her grip grew tighter and the shaking still more savage. "I've warned B-
ko again and again. Well this time she's gone too far! If anything's happened
to C-ko because of her stupid quest for revenge on me...!"
        Abruptly she seemed to realise what she had been doing and released
her hold.
        Dazed, Ine slumped limply in the chair, the room spinning wildly as
she stared up at her through starting terrified eyes. She had never seen A-ko
more angry and did not want to repeat the experience.
        For several seconds A-ko remained frozen, her eyes seeming to flash
fire in the light of the lamp as she glared at her in silence. Then abruptly
she whirled away and stood, staring out into the storm. The thunder had abated
somewhat but the hammering downpour had grown still more in ferocity and it
was obvious that they would achieve nothing without help.
        "Damn you!" She said feelingly, her voice tightly controlled as she
turned at last to face Ine once more. "Alright. How much power is left in that
thing?"
        She gestured towards the pack.
        "Not enough to be of any use." Ine answered, her shivering at last
beginning to subside. "It's experimental and B-ko hasn't--"
        "Alright, never mind about that." A-ko interrupted. "Have you any
other way of getting back to C-ko's? We'll have to start the search from
there."
        She wanted desperately to get the girl out of the house and as soon as
possible so that she could talk to her father. She did not like the sound of
Ine's tale; she did not like the sound of it at all.
        Ine made as though to answer, but at that moment A-ko's keen hearing
caught the faint sounds of stirring from her parents' room, sounds lost to the
other girl beneath the furious hammering of the rain.
        With sudden urgency, A-ko lunged, clamping her hand tightly over Ine's
mouth as she gestured furiously at her to be quiet while she listened.
                                     * * *
        As always, the memories were fragmented, almost all save the stark,
mind-numbing horror vanishing even as he started wildly from the nightmare to
the quiet warmth of his wife's closeness and the gentle pressure of her arms
tight around him.
        "The same?" She said softly, dark hair framing her anxious face in the
soft light of the lamp.
        "A week." He sighed, drawing her closer with a sudden intensely
protective gesture against the terror that was still more real to him than the
warm familiarity of the room about him. "Every night for a week and still I
can't remember! Absurd! For me of all people to suffer a sudden attack of bad
dreams!"
        He sighed again, his own hold tightening gently, his heart having
already resumed its slow, barely perceptible rhythm. Even the horror of such a
dream could not stir it for long. His body knew his adopted world too well and
saw no need to pretend exertion.
        "I could try again." She murmured gently, slender fingers moving to
knead steel-tight neck-muscles with a strength far beyond human but which
could not so much as stir them.
        For several seconds he remained tense and unmoving, then with another
sigh he relaxed, the tension seeping from him as he let her fingers do their
work.
        "What would be the point." He answered, his tone gentle to take the
sting from the failure he knew she felt. "If the lasso could recover nothing--
"
        "It was intended to seek out the truth against the will of an
adversary, not to draw out hidden memories." She reminded him gently. "I think
we were mistaken to try it. If I could--"
        "No." His tone was still gentle but with a sudden finality that
silenced her and stilled her fingers for a moment. "I won't have you
endangered should my body react to your trying to probe for something so
trivial as a nightmare."
        "Do you really trust yourself so little after all this time?" She said
softly, her eyes warm and intense in the lamp-light as her fingers stilled
once more, her mind reaching to touch lightly at his own, the gentle, tingling
warmth easing the last of the tension from him as he tightened his hold a
little and closed his eyes.
        "I'm sorry Diana." He said gently. "I know it's absurd after so long;
but it's frustrating, not to mention unsettling. I don't forget, not like
that."
        "Shh." She murmured, her own eyes closing as sleep crept to claim her
in the gentle darkness. "We'll try in the morning. Zeus knows we'll have
enough time before A-ko's awake."
        She laughed softly, a sound echoed by his own low chuckle at their
daughter's seeming inability to stir in the morning. "The Gods alone know
where she gets it from." She continued almost in a whisper as the world around
her began to fade into the gentle quiet of sleep.
        He made as though to answer, but at that moment a sudden urgent
beeping brought both of them awake in an instant.
        Sighing in resignation, he stirred as though to reach for the watch-
like bracelet communicator on the table by the lamp, only to smile as his
wife's left its place and dropped to her reaching hand.
        "Show-off." He chided her with a smile.
        "If that's that Daitokuji brat trying to tap the alliance net again
I'll certainly show off." She growled, easing quickly into a sitting position
and deactivating the communicator's tiny camera before accepting the call.
        "Hal!"
        Her face lost its thunderous look the instant his own appeared.
        He looked unusually harried and she glanced quickly to her husband in
time to see him twist upright and catch up his own communicator in a blur of
motion.
        "Hmm, did I call at an inopportune time?" Hal inquired tactfully, his
expression a little chagrined as Kent activated his own communicator and Diana
touched the tiny stud that gave Hal a visual of her suddenly attentive face.
        "Nono." She said with a smile. "I thought it might have been that
Daitokuji girl trying to tap the net again."
        Hal grimaced, nodding quickly before his expression tightened still
more as he fixed anxious eyes on the two Magamis. "We've got a problem." He
said simply. "About thirty-five minutes ago, approximately twenty to one your
time, the Alliance GDSS detected some kind of dimensional ripple centred in
Graviton, to be exact almost on the Kotobuki doorstep. Just what's going on I
don't know; we can't detect any further anomalies, but the readings were like
nothing we've ever seen. I've dumped the data to the cave in case they don't
see it but I doubt they're going to come up with anything the Alliance AI has
missed."
        "Another attempt to retrieve C-ko?" Diana suggested. "Some independent
faction outside Hipolipolita's influence?"
        "It's possible but unlikely given their official status and the overt
nature of their activities here." He answered. "Certainly there's been no
covert communication with anyone at the Hotel so far as we can ascertain. If
it is a Lepton faction then they're being surprisingly cautious given their
past record. And in any case, why the subterfuge? After all, they have a
perfect right to their future queen and I doubt the palace council would
consider the Daitokuji corporation a serious impediment should they become
determined."
        "Mm." Kent agreed. "Still, why take chances if they can manage a
retrieval without B-ko's possible interference? It's academic in any case at
the moment; we can't speculate without more information. Can you--"
        "Coming over." Hal interrupted.
        Quickly, Diana slipped to the floor, moving to retrieve the modified
note-book and settling it on her lap even as Kent slid to join her on the edge
of the bed. It's larger screen soon showed a graphic of the ripple together
with a tabulated representation of the information the GDSS had gathered.
        "You're right; it's like nothing I've ever seen." Kent agreed after a
moment. "A portal or gate of some kind but... Did anything enter, or exit for
that matter?"
        "It's impossible to say." Hal answered. "The final burst whited
everything out for a few seconds; we've no visual at all for that period and
we've no base for a reference."
        "So it's up to us to take a look." Kent sighed. "I think you're right
though; I doubt Lepton has anything to do with this. Alright, we'll gather
what we can and call as soon as we've anything to report. Check the Daitokuji
intranet for possible covert activity; we can't afford to take chances with
them. Have you contacted any of the others?"
        "Not yet." Said Hal, his fingers already at work on the keyboard
before him. "I thought it best to be cautious. Do you want me to come over?"
        For a moment Kent hesitated, then at a quick glance from Diana he
nodded.
        "It might be best." He said. "You're probably best equipped to track
any incursion or to close the rift should it prove necessary. How long?"
        "Give me ten minutes." He answered. "I'll transfer the watch and be
there as soon as I can. Where?"
        "Here, directly into the study. We'll be waiting."
        "Right." He nodded, and with that the two tiny screens went dark.
        "What do you think." Kent continued as his wife studied the note-book
intently.
        "I don't know what to think." She answered uneasily. "But I agree; it
would pay to be careful. Hal was right; these readings don't make sense and
that in itself is unsettling. There was definitely a tear of some kind, yet
the GDSS shows no build-up consistent with a quantum jump, in fact no energy
signature at all until *after* the ripple ceased to exist."
        "Which seems to indicate either a passive jump into our universe
powered entirely from its origin, which is of course impossible, or--"
        "Or we're seeing an effect rather than the cause, interpreted by our
systems as a jump because we've no other point of reference." She ended. "In
either case we should exercise extreme care."
        With that, she set the note-book aside and rising, moved quickly to
dress while Kent remained for almost a minute, staring intently at the data as
though he might penetrate its mystery by sheer will alone before he moved at
last to follow her example.
        "What will we need do you think?" Diana inquired as she moved passed
him to the door.
        "Just--" He began, then abruptly he broke off, turning to lay a hand
suddenly on her arm even as she was moving from the room.
        "We're not alone." He said softly, hushing her before she could speak
and moving quickly into the passage ahead of her. "A-ko has company."
                                     * * *
        "What's going on!"
        Ine's voice was tight as she stood, the blankets still clutched
fiercely to her as she watched A-ko uneasily from her place almost by the
window.
        "shh!" A-ko hissed. "I'm trying to listen."
        For a moment she was silent, then with a sudden gasp she sprang from
her position by the door.
        "Chikusho!" Was all she could manage before the door was pushed
swiftly but smoothly aside to reveal her father's deceptively unassuming
profile. "Oh Kami-sama!" She ended in a murmur.
        "Well," He commented mildly as he stepped into the room, taking in the
situation at a glance. "not exactly the company I would have expected. Perhaps
A-ko you'd care to explain just why Konoe-san is wrapped in your blankets and
why there are several pools of water on carpet I obviously made a grave
mistake in replacing less than two months ago?"
        His tone was stern but a smile played almost mischievously at the
corners of his mouth and A-ko thought she caught a faint, suppressed chuckle
from her mother who had appeared almost at his shoulder.
        "It's not what..." She began automatically, then seemed to realise
what she was saying and gasped, turning an interesting shade of scarlet. "No,
I mean we were...that is she was just...I mean I..."
        A-ko broke off, her face flaming and her eyes flashing furiously as
she turned to glare balefully at Ine.
        "This is all you're fault!" She flared dangerously. "Why can't you be
like anyone else and use the door?"
        Abruptly she realised just how ridiculous that sounded given the
circumstances and fell silent, staring stupidly at the floor as she turned to
face her parents' expected rebuke at the state of her room and her foolishness
in not calling them immediately.
        Astoundingly, it was Ine herself who came to her rescue.
        "It wasn't her fault Magami-san." She said, wondering why she felt no
joy at A-ko's discomfort and further why she was defending her. "C-ko's gone
missing and I thought..."
        Abruptly she too fell silent, realising that she could not possibly
tell A-ko's parents just what had happened.
        A-ko opened her mouth as though to say something more, then she caught
the quick meaning glances both her parents shot in her direction and choked
off, realising suddenly that they knew far more about this than was
immediately apparent.
        "Well, first thing's first." Said Diana, taking quick command of the
situation and moving quickly into the room. "Konoe-san, you can't stay in
those wet things. You're obviously still frozen and it's still pouring with
rain outside. Why don't you take a hot bath while I set them to wash and dry;
it shouldn't take long."
        Suddenly uncertain and self-conscious, Ine mumbled her thanks as Diana
steered her quickly from the room and hurried her towards the bathroom.
        "Dad?" A-ko inquired as soon as they were alone.
        Kent sighed and moved quickly to close the door, turning to play his
eyes back and forth for a moment across the puddles, steam beginning to rise
before he gave up on the pooling water and turned again to A-ko.
        "Hal signalled less than five minutes ago." He said simply. "The GDSS
detected a rift of some kind centred more or less on the Kotobuki home.
Whatever it was, the readings were like nothing we have ever seen."
        "Then..."
        A-ko paled, taking an involuntary step towards him as panic at last
fully overwhelmed the mingled anger and confusion of the past few minutes.
        "A-ko?"
        Her father's voice broke through her growing terror and a moment later
he had laid a reassuring arm gently about her shoulders, drawing her close as
she began to tremble.
        "Ine woke me." Her voice sounded flat and empty to her own ears. "She
told me that both B-ko and C-ko are missing."
        And while her father listened, A-ko related all that the other girl
had told her.
        "Do you...do you think..." She broke off, huddling unconsciously
closer to him.
        "There's no reason to think any harm has come to them." He answered
gently. "I know it's small comfort A-ko but if nothing else, B-ko will see
that C-ko comes to no harm if she can. I think all we can do immediately is
begin our search at the scene and see what we can find."
        "And I can't come, can I."
        It was a statement rather than a question.
        She expected a gentle refusal but to her astonishment her father
smiled.
        "It would look rather suspicious were you to remain behind don't you
think?" He said, catching her suddenly to him and hugging her with a ferocity
that would have crushed a human skeleton but only made A-ko wince and return
the gesture.
        It was something special between them, something she could share with
him that was impossible for him even with her mother and for her with any
ordinary human being.
        "I'm sorry about the mess." She said softly when at last they stepped
apart and she moved to tidy the bed as best she could before hurrying to fetch
some clothes. "I couldn't...I mean..."
        A gentle hand on her arm silenced her.
        "I don't think Hal will mind gathering up a little water." He said,
returning her quick smile as she turned before releasing her and stepping
swiftly to the door. "Try not to be long. Remember you'll have to leave with
Ine ahead of us."
        His daughter laughed, a warm full laugh to match her sudden almost
overwhelming sense of relief. With her parents' and uncle Hal's help she did
not doubt suddenly that things would quickly be cleared up; indeed this might
even be fun after all.
        "Ok, and thanks, *really*." She said quickly, flashing him a last
intense smile before the door closed and she moved swiftly to dress.
        It was going to be a long and busy night.
                                     * * *
        "Damn it Mari, keep still; what's the matter with you!"
        Asa shifted uncomfortably in the concealing shrubbery, turning to
glare angrily at the much taller girl at her side before resuming her watch on
the Kotobuki home.
        Why Ine had insisted on calling the other girl Asa could not begin to
guess. She was one of a kind in a fight or a sticky situation but stealth was
not exactly her strong suit and unless A-ko decided to take them all apart...
At that thought Asa shivered. Perhaps it was not such a bad idea after all.
        "They're on their way."
        At the hissed words Asa nearly shrieked.
        "Don't do that!" She flared, turning to glare at Ume as the other girl
dropped down beside her. "How do you know?"
        "What do you think this is, an ornament!"
        Ume waved the cellular phone at her as though she were demonstrating a
much-laboured point to a very small child before tucking it away and settling
back to wait.
        Asa did not see the point in starting another argument; there had been
enough of those already in the past half-hour. They were all on edge and she
did not really blame the other girl for her ill-temper given the
circumstances.
        "How long?"
        The usually taciturn Mari's question brought her out of her own
momentary introspection to glance quickly at Ume in her own inquiry.
        "I'm not sure; a few minutes." She answered. "Apparently A-ko's
parents heard them talking and of course wanted to know what on Earth one of
us was doing there and at that time of night. They were insisting on calling
the police but A-ko convinced them to wait."
        "Probably so that she'd have time to see how many pieces she could
turn us into before they got in her way." Asa muttered.
        Mari glared, half rising to her feet.
        "Forget it." Asa warned her, laying a hand on her arm and trying to
pull her back down. "We're not going to get into a fight with her if we can
help it."
        The other girl settled back sullenly and a gloomy silence settled over
the trio as they waited while beyond their limited shelter the rain at last
began to abate as the sky began to clear.
        "At least we're not going to get soaked again by the look of it." Ume
muttered, glancing up at the dissipating clouds as the last of the rain
vanished and stars began to appear once more. "Where are they!"
        "There...oh Kami I don't believe it!"
        At Asa's sudden almost giggled exclamation the others turned in time
to see a red blur resolve itself into a racing A-ko, a terrified Ine pulled
helplessly behind her in the same position C-ko usually claimed. Even as they
stared, A-ko made a final bound and pulled to a halt, Ine slumping panting and
gasping against her.
        "You are certifiably crazy!" They heard her gasp as she staggered
drunkenly, held from falling only by A-ko's suddenly supporting hand. "Oh Kami
I think I'm gonna be sick!"
        "Stop complaining; I got you here didn't I?"
        A-ko's tone was short yet with just a hint of underlying mirth utterly
unexpected by the other three. For a moment they hesitated, then at Ine's
glance in their direction they moved from concealment and hurried to join
them.
        "You don't wanna travel like that, believe me you don't." She groaned
in greeting, still swaying on her feet as Ume took A-ko's place in supporting
her for a few moments until the giddiness passed and she stood on her own.
        A-ko's expression had tightened upon seeing the others and watching
her, Ine felt a sudden unreasoning sense of loss, a fleeting wish that the
momentary warmth and camaraderie she had felt for the other girl could have
been something less transient. Then the other three were looking at her and
she sighed, knowing already that with B-ko missing it was up to her to
determine what should be done.
        "Alright, let's start at the place at which what remained of
the...thing hit the ground." She said. "Ume did you get everything?"
        "Collected everything as soon as you called." She answered, drawing a
small slim case from the pack she carried and handing it to Ine before
beginning to pass out torches from the same pack.
        "What is it?" A-ko demanded, glancing at the thing Ine held as the
others switched on the torches, keeping the beams as low as they could.
        "Bio-scanner." Ine answered, gesturing to the torch still unlit in A-
ko's hand. "Hopefully it'll give us some information on the thing that
attacked B-ko. Come on, and try to be quiet and keep the beams away from the
windows. The last thing we want to do is have C-ko's foster-parents out here."
        "They're going to know soon enough." A-ko pointed out as she too
switched on her torch.
        "Better we tell them after we've gathered what data we can." Ine
countered. "They'd only get in the way."
        Unhappy but resigned, A-ko nodded and moved to walk at the other
girl's side, the others following close behind them.
        To A-ko's surprise they seemed quite adept at keeping silent; even
Mari made little sound as she moved from shadow to shadow as a rear-guard.
Watching as Ine halted and activated the small device, A-ko felt the surreal
nature of the situation take possession of her with unnerving intensity.
        "Anything?"
        Ume's low question almost made her jump.
        "Give me a moment!" Ine hissed softly in answer.
        For what seemed an eternity as they waited the scanner was silent as
she swept it back and forth. Then suddenly a faint but insistent beeping
pealed from the device and Ine lifted it, touching a series of tiny keys until
at last the little screen filled with text and symbols.
        "Kami-sama!"
        At her exclamation four sets of anxious eyes fixed intently on her
face. Of all of them, only she knew how to interpret the data.
        "What!"
        A-ko's voice was tight and fierce in the sudden silence.
        "Whatever this thing was, it wasn't completely human." Ine said
softly. "Damn it; keep the light steady! What DNA was left is already
beginning to break down which shouldn't happen, but the scanner was able to
get enough information to show the percentage of conformity and there's too
much error, probably enough to consider it a different species although
originally human. This thing was either some kind of aberration or--"
        "Or from a dimension other than our own, the most likely possibility
given the circumstances surrounding its appearance."
        At the sudden strange voice all five came whipping about, lights
playing frantically for a moment before settling on the intruder. A moment
later the four of B-ko's group stared in stunned stupefaction, A-ko following
their example to keep up appearances.
        "Kuso!" Was all Ine could think to gasp.
        Casting a mildly disapproving look in her direction, Green Lantern
stepped fully into the light cast by their torches and gestured at the scanner
Ine held limply before her. "May I?"
        Numbly, she handed it to him, watching as he manifested a cable and
connector which soon had the device linked to the little palm-top he carried.
        "I assume this is sending continually to the Daitokuji mansion?" He
inquired, his tone still mild.
        "How..." Ine began, then sighed. "It sends directly to B-ko's own
system." She answered. "After the fiasco with Marguerita she doesn't trust her
father with any information she's gathering. Her link into the Daitokuji
intranet is firewalled."
        "Mm." He murmured, his attention now fixed on the palm-top's small
screen, only pausing in his analysis to hand the scanner absently back to Ume
at Ine's gesture before returning to the small machine.
        It was some time before he at last tucked it away and turned once more
to the others.
        "I assume none of you have encountered something like this before?" He
inquired.
        "No." Ine responded as the others shook their heads.
        "Nor we." He told them. "Still, let's see at least whether there's a
residual reading from the jump. There should be something obvious enough to
track after so short a time."
        "Just what we were about to do." Said Ine, pride stealing into her
voice as she gestured to Ume who had been staring at the cloaked figure with
hearts in her eyes.
        Recovering, Ume passed another device to her while Green Lantern began
his own scans.
        "Impossible!"
        His quiet exclamation brought their attention to him once more.
"There's always an after-ripple left by a quantum jump." He continued quietly
in explanation. "It's something that, so far as we know, can't be concealed;
yet there's no indication that a jump took place. You're absolutely certain
this is *exactly* where it happened?"
        "Right here." Asa assured him.
        "Hmm; alright, can you go over events precisely as they occurred?
Perhaps we've missed something, although I can't imagine what."
        Nodding, her own readings also negative, Ine passed the second scanner
back to Ume and while the others watched, she and Asa did their best to re-
enact what had taken place earlier that night, Ine also keeping an
increasingly uneasy eye on A-ko's ever tighter expression.
        "You know" Said the red-haired girl softly when at last she had fallen
silent. "I'm going to take B-ko apart piece by piece when I find her."
        It was the unusually mild, almost conversational way in which she said
it that sent a sudden shiver rippling down Ine's spine as she and Asa moved
once more to the others.
        "So what do we do." A-ko continued, her tone a good deal less mild as
she turned to regard the cloaked form who stood, arms folded as though deep in
thought.
        For a long moment he made no answer, then at last he sighed.
        "To be perfectly honest I'm not sure." He answered. "We detected the
rift and I was picked to make the initial assessment, whoever was needed to
follow at my signal; but..." He broke off, shifting uneasily and glancing
about him as though for inspiration. "There's no residue, no reading, nothing
by which we can even begin to guess at what might have happened." He ended
quietly as though to himself, a sudden helpless note in his tone that unnerved
A-ko far more than his tension of a moment before. "Our only leads are the
genetic samples Konoe-san gathered and our own readings during the event. I
could perhaps return to the moment of the attack, but it would be an extremely
dangerous thing to do without knowing more concerning the nature of the event
itself. I'll only try that as a last resort. For the moment, we can only wait
to see whether the Alliance AI can find something we've missed and whether we
can find a match in our database to the DNA of the enemy, although I think
that at least will prove a forlorn hope; if there's no match by now I doubt an
additional search will find anything. In the meantime, you should try to get
what rest you can. I'll keep you all informed as to any developments and--"
        "No."
        Ine's tone was quiet and final. "We're not going to be pushed into the
background while some gaijin organisation waits for something else to happen."
        "Ine!" Ume gasped.
        "Shut up!" She flared. "If you want to sit back and do nothing that's
up to you but I'm damned if I'm going to do the same."
        To her astonishment, A-ko nodded in agreement, casting a quick,
apologetic look in her adopted uncle's direction missed by the others but
carrying a steel-willed determination that reminded him just whose daughter
she was.
        Returning her glance for a moment, he turned once more to Ine.
        "I'm sorry." He said simply. "Believe me I had no intension of
suggesting you're incapable of help. But you can't do anything more tonight."
        "We can keep watch on the house in case something else appears." She
said simply. "You obviously didn't get much from the Alliance GDSS; oh yes, we
know about that." She said at the startled jerk of his head. "I bet the
initial flare overloaded the detectors, probably you have no visual of the
appearance whatsoever."
        "Touche." He acknowledged good-naturedly. "But my point still stands.
There's no point in you exhausting yourselves here."
        "I'll keep watch with her."
        The words startled A-ko, the more so when she realised it was her own
voice that had spoken them. "I'm not going to get back to sleep now in any
case so I might as well be here as at home."

----------To be continued.----------